Venus arrived back at her chambers in a tailspin. With her hair in disarray from where his fingers had become lost within and her dress not quite fastened correctly in her haste in disarray, she looked as if she had come out on the other side of the Constant Jovan Storm. She wished it had been that painless.
The nerve of Kunzite, saying that to her when he knew how impossible it was. When he knew that she could not feel anything for him anymore than he for her. It was forbidden. Being in his bed was bad enough, but being in his heart? That was unforgivable and she would not cross that line.
She paced around the room, trying to fix herself in case anyone came to call. It was early, before most people on the moon rose, but there was always a chance Artemis would come by to check on her or the queen had another sleepless night. But it was hard to make herself look better when her hands were shaking and her eyes were burning with the threat of tears she had not shed since the day she found out her fate – to lose her name and be a soldier for a distant satellite.
But she did not cry of course. Not after her father had slapped her across the face and said that the future leader of Serenity’s guard could not cry.
Eventually, Venus managed to get the garment looking somewhat normal. That done, she had to try and get her hair in working order. She went over to her vanity, but did not look up to see the extent of the damage his hands had done. She picked up her brush and began pulling it through her hair, flinching each time it encountered a tangle. A few moments in, the brush became hopelessly stuck in what felt like a knot. With a cry, Venus ripped it out of her hair, taking a fair amount of the strands with it, and flung it to the ground, burying her face in her hands.
“You’ll get nothing done behaving like a child.”
Venus sat up straight and whirled around, surprised to find Mars sitting comfortably in a chair hidden in the shadows. She was not yet transformed, wearing a red dress befitting a princess and virgin priestess – expensive but boring. Her eyes were narrowed, and as always Venus couldn’t help but stiffen at the heat coming forth from her eyes, one red and one violet.
“How long have you been there?” Venus asked suspiciously, her fingers curling.
“Long enough,” Mars answered, expertly evading the question. She stood up and crossed over to Venus, surprising the blonde when she picked up the brush from the ground. She didn’t say a word, merely raising an eyebrow in question.
Venus nodded wearily, knowing she should turn her out, but willing to accept the help when it had been offered. She turned back around in her seat, still keeping her eyes out of the mirror.
“You have to push through the pain,” Mars said quietly as she pulled the brush down through Venus’s thick mane. “That’s the only way to get it done. Running away from it will not fix your problem.”
Venus bit her lip as Mars began to work on the knot. Venus was grateful she wasn’t yanking the brush through the tangles. She was moving at a steady pace, never slowing or speeding up no matter what she encountered. Typical.
“Why are you here?” Venus asked after a moment, choosing another tactic. With Mars, she could rarely ever use the initial plan of attack.
“I need to talk to you about something,” Mars said simply.
“Does it have anything to do with your attitude as of late?” Venus asked coolly. She saw a gold shimmer from her eyes dance across her skin.
That made Mars hesitate, but only for a moment. “Yes.”
Venus would have smiled in triumph had she not still felt so ill. “I don’t suppose you want to apologize.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Mars said quickly, like a whip cracking in the air.
“So you’ve come to be cruel again?” Venus asked with just as much snap and with a great deal more venom.
“I came to figure out what you’re doing,” Mars answered in a hiss. “Or perhaps I should say who.”
Venus did look up then, making eye contact with Mars in the glass. Her own eyes were shining with a soft gold light, and she could feel heat emanating from Mars’s skin. A sure sign that they were angry, and anyone else would have had the good sense to back down. Unfortunately, in terms of verbal sparring, the women could be equals if they choose.
“I strongly suggest that you watch your words, Mars,” Venus said in a whisper that sounded like steel.
“I am not a fool,” Mars snapped, as if that was what Venus were suggesting. “The others may not see it, but I do. You’re distracted.”
Venus scoffed. “According to you, that isn’t at all out of the ordinary.”
“It is when you have to be alerted to the fact that a suitor has asked for a dance at a masque,” Mars reminded her.
Venus stopped her flinch before it could be read on her face. She hadn’t forgotten the incident, and it was what made her suspect that Mars had found out about Kunzite. Normally, Venus spent the whole of balls flitting about the room and accepting dance invitations from any handsome man in the room. It was not uncommon that she had pulled waiters and servants from their duties if they looked good enough. But at the last, Venus had to be told when someone had come round to ask. She had felt Mars’s eyes burning against her back then, and she felt them again now.
“The queen is not sleeping and tensions with the Earth are worse now after the visit,” Venus reminded her. “Of course I’m distracted.”
“That isn’t it,” Mars countered.
“How do you know?” Venus asked, shutting her eyes before the light flared against the glass and blinded them.
“Because I know you.”
Venus could have continued the argument had Mars’s statement been the least bit combative. But it was not. It was a quiet confession laced with familiar sadness.
Mars leaned closer to Venus’s ear. She did not open her eyes. “I know you, and I know you that much more when you’re in love, Venus. These are times when even Serenity is troubled and bad moon’s drift on the horizon. It is dangerous for you to feel so much for one at all, but now is the worst moment. With such affection comes destruction. You know this. So don’t try to deny it. Just tell me who. Who is it strong enough to capture Aphrodite’s heart?”
There was no temptation to reveal it, and yet the answer was still on her lips. They had once been close friends to spite their fathers and end centuries of tension between their planets. But now every conversation was preparation for their own private war, and they both knew that neither one of them could win. By confessing such a secret, it was nice to believe it would fix everything. But then a child’s fantasies were always nice to believe in.
“I am not a fool either, Mars,” Venus said simply.
And with that, it was over.
Venus heard the brush slam down against the vanity, the swishing of Mars’s skirts as she turned away, and the slam of the door that sounded like the blade against the chopping block. Only after she felt the heat of the fire soldier fade from the room did she open her eyes and see that her hair looked perfect.
