It was the end of the world as she knew it, but no, she did not feel fine.
Well, she was exaggerating. The reporters and government officials were calling it the Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the Second Coming, and a variety of other names including something utterly unpronounceable that had something to do with the mother ship beaming up the faithful just before the world self-destructed. Minako found this perfectly hilarious of course. If for no other reason because she had fought aliens in her time and she had never known them to be so benevolent.
She closed her eyes and amended that thought. Venus found that perfectly hilarious. Aino Minako couldn’t find very much funny at all. According to every reputable news source in existence, Aino Minako had died three weeks prior. Hers had been among the first of fourteen mysterious deaths attributed to the collapsing universe. There were a number of theories of course, but none of them came even close to the truth.
The world was not ending – at least it wasn’t ending like everyone thought it was going to. All Earth was really doing was taking a nap that would last a few centuries. The Great Disaster was upon them. By Setsuna – no, Pluto’s estimates, it would be happening within the next few hours. All the Sailor Senshi, the Shitennou, and the future monarchs could do is hurry up and wait.
In any incarnation, she absolutely detested waiting.
“If you wake up in a thousand years with frown lines, you are not allowed to complain to me,” a voice teased softly in her ear, rumbling deep within the chest and making her shiver on the inside.
She smiled and looked over her shoulder (and up) at the leader of King Endymion’s guard. He would be called Kunzite in the future, but no one had tried to do that yet. There were shadows on that name and innocent blood. In that man’s mind, Kunzite was a monster at worse, a foolish man at best. He was everything Kunzite had not been, and Mi—Venus did not know if she or anyone else would have the heart to ever call him by that name.
“Artemis will always be there to listen to my mindless complaints,” she said lightly, smiling and hoping she was covering up the strain she was feeling. As soon as she tried, she knew it had been in vain. It was impossible for her to hide anything from him, and it had made his birthday party some months before a very frustrating affair.
He walked around in front of her to make it easier for them to speak. He frowned at her and cupped her cheek, smoothing her skin with the pad of his thumb. She had to keep herself from flinching away. He might have been warm, but his skin was always cold to the touch.
“It’s all right to be afraid,” he told her softly, conscious of her need to conceal this from the others. They both had their secrets, and they both knew when and when not to keep them.
She nodded. “I know that, I just…” she sighed, closing her eyes and leaning into his palm. She hoped he would warm up. “I didn’t think this would happen so soon.”
He chuckled. She opened one eye to see a smile spreading over his lips. She saw his own strain, but she knew she wouldn’t comment on it. “Did you expect to be an old woman when the world ended?”
“I am an old woman,” she lamented, not entirely in jest. “I feel like one anyway.”
“The consequences of living twice,” he said. He raised an eyebrow, questioning her before he spoke. “But still not living enough?”
She sighed heavily, her eyes downcast. “I was planning on doing so much more before all of this… You know, get famous, get rich, tell my mother where she could shove it and exactly how hard.” She looked up at him very seriously. “There was going to be a speech you know. And it was going to be perfectly phrased and completely destroy her emotionally.”
“It’s good to know you’re not bitter,” he drawled, earning him a quick jab with her fingernail.
She laughed for a moment, not entirely whole-heartedly, and then fell into wistfulness again. “I just put everything off for too long. Or if I did try and do something, there would be a monster trying to destroy Tokyo or someone trying to kidnap Mamoru for icky sexual purposes or a certain group of soldiers from a past life had to go and get reborn and practically start a war between the Senshi--"
“May I just point out once again that I’m not the one who forgot to lock the door?” he said, smiling wryly at an event that still made Rei’s ears turn red when any mention of it was made. They had been caught, he had been accused of hypnotizing her, and there had been very few group outings for several months.
She glared and said, “Well, it’s your fault that I didn’t lock the door. I was planning on being very sensible about things and then you had to go and… well, be you, and I couldn’t help myself.” She tossed her hair haughtily, fully convinced that the incident was entirely his fault. She didn’t go around speaking in a sexy deep voice and seducing pure, innocent girls, now did she?
He shook his head at her, folding his arms in front of his chest. “I should have resigned myself to a life of being blamed for things completely beyond my control the minute I realized I couldn’t help but want you.”
It was a perfectly innocuous statement up until the last few words, and he had certainly said other things that were far worse, but she still couldn’t help but blush. He seemed satisfied with that and with the fact that he had gotten her mind off of her regret.
“There’s one another thing I’m annoyed about,” she admitted, trying to control her lips from giving her away.
He looked at her strangely. “Oh? What’s that?”
“A thousand years is a long time not to have sex.”
He laughed, fully and from the pit of his stomach, making her smile. He leaned down so that their faces were on level with one another after, grinning at her in that way that made it very difficult for her to remain upright and fully clothed. “I promise I’ll make it worth the wait.”
She smiled back at him, forgetting her troublesome past in favor of a promising future and said, “You better, soldier.”
With that, the two leaders kissed perhaps for the last time that millennium. And for that moment anyway, both of them felt quite fine.
