Title: Vacation-- Part 2
Rating: PG
Author: Lilac Summers
salaices@leland.stanford.edu

  Hi all!  Here's part two.  Enjoy!

  BTW, thank you guys for the feedback!  I truly appreciate it.  If you
didn't get a response, I'm so sorry!  I'm a bit behind on e-mail, but I
promise to catch up.  I LOVE E-MAIL!!

  SPOILER:  I make a reference to Seiya, from the Stars series.  In one
episode, the Senshi and the Stars go on a camping trip together.  Seiya
happens to "fall" ontop of Usagi, and everyone sees.  That's it.

Disclaimer:  (sing to "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the
Lord"; no disrespect intended)
  Mine Eyes have seen the glory of the cartoon Sailor Moon,
  It is not at all my fault that addiction has been my boon,
  Miss Naoko Takeuchi, please don't sue me's all I ask,
  And then make me go broke!

  Glory, glory to Mamoru!
  Glory, glory to Mamoru!
  Glory, glory to Mamoru!
  He has a real cute butt!

  (Okay, I'll stop before the poetry police comes after me with moon
wands.  Ja!  ;)

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Vacation
by Lilac Summers

   Part 2

  Neo-Queen Serenity was just finishing informing the Senshi of her
vacation plans when the doors to the private conference room burst open to
display a disheveled King Endymion, who looked royally pissed off.

  "We are NOT going camping!!"

  The eight Senshi, finally reunited, stopped in their respective tracks
on their way out.  Rei stifled a giggle at the Outer's scandalized
expressions.  She leaned over slightly and tugged on Haruka's bow.  "Don't
worry, you'll get used to the minor royal altercations.  It's like having
your very own soap opera!"

  Haruka eyed the fuming King as he stalked over to his Queen.  "I'll
bet," she said.

  Endymion passed by with not so much as a glance at the Senshi whom he
had not seen in over six months.  Serenity blushed at his rudeness.
"Endy, honey, *there* you are!  Where have you been hiding?  Aren't you
going to greet the Senshi from the outer planets, honey?"

  Endymion almost growled when she asked him where he was.  "You know very
well where I was!  I was stuck to that damn floor for three hours.  THREE
HOURS, Serenity!!!  If Small Lady hadn't come along . . ."

  Michiru raised a brow.  "My my, I see you two are just as, err, playful
as always," she paused delicately, and decided she simply had to ask.
"The floor, my King?"

  Endymion, so angry that he was completely unaware of his manners, spun
around and pointed an imperious finger at his wife.  "SHE put me there!!!
I was all for it, at first, but when I learned what she had planned . . .
Well, needless to say, I had forgotten the spell for bindings."

  Somewhere behind him he heard Ami and Minako burst into giggles.  "He
forgot the binding spell!" gasped Ami, doubled over with mirth, "one of
the simplest spells there are!  Chibi-Usa had to let him up! I can't . . .
I can't . . .Oh my gosh, wait till they hear about this on the--"
Endymion whirled to glare at her and she sobered instantly.  "Err, I mean,
of course no one will hear of this, sir."

  Minako snorted behind her and Makoto covered up by coughing.

  "Endy . . . you are making quite a scene," ground out Serenity through
clenched teeth.  "Now, be nice and greet the Outer Senshi, Endy."

  As if realizing for the first time that he had an audience, and guests
nonetheless, Endymion paled and turned slowly to meet the bemused
expressions of four extra Senshi. Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, the
diminutive Sailor Saturn, and the visiting Sailor Pluto stood clustered by
the door, all gaping at them, with the exception of Pluto.

  Endymion cleared his throat roughly, trying in vain to smooth out his
ruffled hair.  "Ladies," he began, nodding slowly, "forgive my behavior.
I was somewhat," and here he shot a deadly look at Serenity, who had the
audacity to grin cheekily, "preoccupied with other matters."

  The Outer Senshi bowed gracefully, slipping easily into the perfect
picture of propriety . . . but not for long.  "So, good to see things
haven't changed much in the ol' hearth and home, huh?" announced Haruka,
or Sailor Uranus.

  Saturn immediately stepped up and tugged on the edge of Endymion's
shirt, looking up at him through deceptively young eyes.  Endymion
couldn't help but wonder at the immense power of destruction that this
tiny girl hid so well.

  "Is Small Lady around here?  Can I go talk to her now?" she asked
simply.

  Both King and Queen smiled at her, charmed, as always.  "Of course."
answered Serenity. "She's probably in the gardens."

  Hotaru spun on her heel and ran for the grand doors with the exuberance
of youth.  After she stepped out, the stately Sailor Pluto announced
quietly, "I think we should all follow young Hotaru's example and give our
Majesties some privacy."

  The rest complied with few grumbles, filing out the door in an array of
sailor-suited colors.  Before Pluto could retreat with the rest, Endymion
stopped her, asking with a slightly confused tone:

  "Pluto, you usually don't leave your post.  Is there a particular reason
why you are here this time?"

  Pluto gazed back at the royal couple through magenta eyes, sharing a
brief, secretive smile with her queen.  "I felt I would be helpful for the
next few days," was all she said.

  Endymion calculated quickly and smiled smugly at his wife.  "Excellent,
then maybe you can put this little matter to rest right here and now.
Will you please inform our Queen here that we are *not* going camping?"

  Pluto coughed delicately into her hand, shifting her time staff idly.
"You know I cannot tell you the future, my liege, but I think that by now
you would have learned to bow to powers greater than yourself."  She
hightailed it out the door before she could hear his outraged denial,
shutting the door firmly in her wake.  She chuckled softly to herself.
God, sometimes her job was so great!

  Rapidly she walked down the hall and rounded a corner, coming upon, as
she knew she would, six Senshi huddled around Michiru's mirror.

  "Move over and let me see."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Serenity began to back up the second the door closed, Endymion stalking
her around the room.

  "Now, now, Endy . . . I'm sure you'll see that this is all your fault."

  "Oh, Sere, just exactly how do you figure that one?" mused Endymion
darkly as he backed her inexorably into a corner.

  "I'm not quite sure yet, but it's sure to come to me," she muttered,
eyes widening as her husband trapped her against the wall and locked her
in with an arm on each side of her head.  Epiphany came in an instant:

  "If you had remember a simple binding spell, you would have never been
caught on the floor!"

  Endymion growled and nipped her ear, not entirely gently.  "You aren't
making matters better, my dear."

  She slipped lithely underneath an arm, quickly putting the large oaken
table between her husband and herself as she tugged on her tingling ear.
He knew very well that she couldn't think straight when he did that!

  "Can you just explain to me why you are so against camping?  I always
thought men were all for wrestling with nature and building fires with
sticks and all that.  Yet YOU have never wanted to go camping in the
thousand plus years we've been together!"  She folded her arms and looked
at him expectantly.

  He stopped trying to get around the table without her noticing, blushing
as he considered his motive for hating camping.  "There are bugs," he said
succinctly, "I hate bugs."

  Serenity froze, never expecting that answer.  "Bugs?" she echoed, "you
are afraid of bugs?"

  Endymion nodded mutely, blushing to extremes he'd never blushed before.

  "Bugs," repeated Serenity, sinking into a convenient chair.  "Who knew?"

  "Yeah, well, it's not something I'm proud of.  People don't want to know
that their King's afraid of bugs, of all things," he kicked the edge of a
chair, thankful at least for his wife's seriousness.  "You know, you're
taking this better than I thought you would.  I thought you'd be laugh--"
he turned to look at her.

  She was doubled over in her chair, her shoulders shaking as she laughed
soundlessly.  "Bugs," she gasped, "spiders, and beetles, and ants, oh my!"

  "Okay, that's it!!  Enough making fun of me for one day!" snarled
Endymion, cleanly leaping over the table that barred his way.  In one
sweeping motion he picked up his still-laughing wife and deposited her on
the table, looming over her as she hugged her sides in glee.  He frowned
down at her thunderously until her laughter had calmed to wheezing
giggles.

  Brushing away a few stray tears, Serenity reached up and playfully
grabbed onto his ears, tugging him down gently till they were face to
face.  "Don't be mad, baby.  I think it's cute."

  "Cute," grouched Endymion.  "Gee, thanks."

  Serenity tugged a little harder on his ears until he winced slightly.
"Yuppers.  Cute.  And you know how I get when you do something cute," she
smirked, relinquishing his ears and twining her arms around his neck.

  Endymion cheered up instantly and grinned down at his wife.  "Yeah, I
guess I do.  Lucky me."  He leaned down the tiny bit more he needed to
touch her lips with his.  "So now you understand why we can't go camping,
right?"

  "Uh-huh," murmured Serenity, entering that highly enjoyable state where
her mind was becoming fuzzy and warm.

  He nipped her bottom lip.  "And I guess we are gonna go to the private
island instead?"

  "Uh-uh."  She tugged on his earlobe with her teeth, the same as he had
done before.

  He reared back unexpectedly, and Serenity had to hastily let go of his
ear.  "What do you mean, "uh-uh"?"

  Serenity felt her nice daze dissipate into reality once more.  She
sighed.  "Well, "uh-uh" usually only has one meaning, love.  We are STILL
going camping."

  Endymion could not believe it.  Here he had just confessed his one
phobia, and she was completely ignoring it!  "The HELL we are!"

  She frowned fiercely.  "You listen to me, King Endymion.  Remember last
time we went on vacation?  We went to the private island, right?"

  "And it was a perfectly lovely time!"

  "Yeah, until we came back and saw those "perfectly lovely" pictures of
ourselves, wearing close-to-nothing, on that tabloid magazine from
Europe."  She lay back down with a thump, glaring at the ceiling.

  "So we'll go to Venus, or maybe Mars."

  "To be hounded by extra-terrestrial paparazzi!  I think not!!  The only
way to have a completely private and *new* experience is to go camping in
the wilderness.  What's more, we are going to go disguised as a totally
normal couple!  No King and Queen!!"

  Endymion looked down at her, truly scandalized.  "Sere, that's
impossible!  You know how dangerous that would be?!  We can't go around
masquerading as a regular couple!"

  Serenity set her lips stubbornly.  "Oh, yeah, like we can't take care of
anything that would be stupid enough to attack us.  If we managed living
just fine before we became royalty, I fail to see why we can't go camping
like regular folk."

  "That's because nobody KNEW we were royalty!  Imagine the scandal if
anybody found out!"

  "The last place anybody would think to look for us is out there
"roughing it" someplace."  Serenity gazed up at his stern expression.
"Come on Endy, please.  I want to be regular Usagi again, just for a
little while."

  Endymion's face immediately softened.  He ran his fingers gently over
her brow.  "Do you hate being Queen so much, love?  Can you not enjoy
ruling by my side?"

  He watched her expression become horrified at his misunderstanding.
"No, no, Endy!  That's not what I meant at all!"  She drew him down once
more, hugging him tightly.  "I LOVE my life.  I love being able to make
people's lives happier, peaceful.  I love raising a family with you and I
love every second of every day.  I just meant that all the fame can get
tedious once in a while.  Sometimes I just want to remember what it's like
to be old Usagi Chiba."

  Relief coursed through his body at her words.  Still, though . . .
"Bugs, Sere.  I CAN'T go camping."

  One hurdle passed, Serenity could only think to do one thing . . .
"Seiya took me camping once."

  One millisecond was all it took for Endymion to sit up, aghast.
"WHAT?!?  WHEN!?!" and then, quietly but deadly serious, "I'll kill him."

  Serenity chuckled and placed a placating hand on his arm.  "It wasn't
like that, Endy.  Still, though . . . he never was afraid of bugs . . ."

  Endymion moved quickly and pinned her arms to the table, peering
severely into her wide blue eyes.  "You didn't actually *like* that
leather-clad pretty-boy, did you?"

  Serenity blinked, honestly surprised.  "Like, like *like* him?  Like
you?  OF COURSE NOT!  Don't be silly, baby. My heart's been yours forever.
He was just a good friend, like any one of the girls."

  Endymion sat back on his haunches, studying his wife as she lay on the
table in a flurry of violet skirts.  She looked pretty comfortable on
there, actually.  "But he took you camping, anyway."  Some territorial
male instinct felt deeply insulted thinking that some other man had taken
his wife camping.  "And I've never taken you camping."

  "Uh-uh," she replied, hiding her grin.

  He sighed once.  Sighed again.  Well, there was no help for it then.  He
collapsed comfortably beside his wife, gathering her close and mumbling
into her hair.  God, he couldn't believe he was about to say it . . .
"Then I guess we can go camping."

  Serenity shrieked with glee and hugged him fiercely, snuggling and
laughing into his shirt.

  Endymion stared up at the ceiling, arms tight around his wife, and
smiled.  Well, it was almost worth it right then . . . Almost.

  "So I guess I better go clean up some last-minute business," he
muttered, disentangling himself and stepping off the huge, circular table.

  "Yeah, me too.  I have to--" Serenity made to sit up, only to find that
she could not lift her back off the wooden surface.  "HEY!!"

  Endymion turned, all the joy of a small boy, thoroughly enjoying a
prank, shining through his eyes.  "Why, whatever is the matter, dear?"

  Serenity leveled a tight smile at him.  "Har har har.  You forget, dear
husband, that, unlike you, I *do* remember my basic binding spell."  She
raised her voice and said a few simple words in some long-forgotten
language, then moved to find herself . . . still stuck to the table.
"What?!"

  Endymion moved to stand by the table and enjoy the look of confused fury
on Serenity's lovely face.  "By the way, sweetling, this happens to be a
binding spell I figured out all on my own that pertains only to wooden
surfaces.  See, I had plenty of time to think it up as I lay there for
three hours."

  He moved to kiss her as she had, infuriatingly, kissed him on the nose,
then thought better of it and kissed her mouth quite thoroughly.

  By the time Serenity could think again, he was halfway out the door and
shutting it behind him, yet not before she was able to shout a few
choice words after him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Around the corner, still clustered around Michiru's mirror, Haruka turned
to Rei.

  Haruka:  "God, this *is* better than General Hospital!"

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to be continued . . .

What did you all think!?  I'd love to hear from you!  Hooray for e-mail!!
salaices@leland.stanford.edu