Beauty Isn?t Everything Chapter 1 By Cosmic_Star Rated G Hi, sorry I couldn?t get this chapter out last week, I just didn?t have time to write. And thanks to all the people who e-mailed me with comments on my story-I love mail! Sailor Moon belongs (unfortunately) not to me, but to Naoko Takeuchi, and a whole bunch of corporate people. Please e-mail me at cosmic_star@hotmail.com. ************* (Note: This Chapter takes place five years after the prologue) Endymion was in a VERY bad mood. For the last three years, he was forced to put up with baby Serenity coming to the cottage at Kishumi Lake. And if that were not bad enough, his parents had forced him to play with that?..icky GIRL! It was so embarrassing. And now, it was July 4, and the Tsukino?s were due in on their private plane by the end of the day. And, once again he would be forced to play with Serenity again. It was insulting; he was a nine-year old boy being forced to play with some juvenile five-year old. The only thing making it bearable was the fact that his mother had allowed him to bring along his friend for once-Motoki Furjawhata (Note: I haven?t a clue how to spell his name-sorry). Probably, those years of his incessant complaining about the female intruder had forced Gaea to make some kind of compromise for fear of the deadly whining of her son. ************* ?Well,? Endymion thought evilly to his self, ?With Motoki here, little Serenity is gonna be in for a big surprise!? For months, Endymion had been planning how he could get back at Serenity for the little stunts she had pulled the last year-like ratting on him for leaving her alone in a raft in the middle of the lake. How was he supposed to know the brat couldn?t swim, or was afraid from being left alone in the middle of a huge lake on a flimsy raft? Or the time she had accidentally broken a (very expensive) crystal vase belonging to his mother, cut her finger and knees trying to clean it up, then said he pushed her into it, and blamed it all on him. Well, this time, the tables would be turned. He and Motoki had saved up their money, and conned Motoki?s elder brother into purchasing a bunch of gag toys-like whoopy cushions, and spider-in-the-ice-cubes. Serenity would pay. ************* As expected, the Tsukino plane arrived right on time (they were impeccably punctual people). As it taxied in on the cottages private runway, Endymion poked Motoki, who was lined up next to him, with all of the staff and employees of Kishumi Cottage, like it was the royal family coming to a state party, and not just the Tsukino?s. "Get ready Motoki," Endymion snickered. "Tonight, she?s gonna get it, and?.." His devious thoughts were interrupted by his mother and father walking over to stand beside their son, as the door to the plane opened, and stairs were rolled out in order for the three some to come aground. The Tsukino?s looked good, the boy observed. Selene was dressed in a tailored, white three-piece silk suit, and white high heeled strappy sandals. Around the cuffs, collar and hem lines of the suit, silver embroidery in a curving leaf motif was repeated, giving the beautiful woman a modern, yet elegant look. Apollo was wearing, in contrast to his wife, a black tailored suit, with a deep gold tie around his neck. As the attractive couple walked off the plane, Endymion cranned his neck in order to see if Serenity would make the fuss she had made last year, about coming to the cottage, or more specifically, to see him. In fact, the only thing they agreed on was their mutual loathing for each other. Anyway, his somewhat canny suspicions were confirmed. Serenity was carried out of the plane by her plump nanny, who?s name Endymion could not recall at the moment, kicking, and screaming. From what he could tell of her nearly unintelligible gribble, she was screaming something like: "Whahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!IIIIIIIIIIII dddddddooooonnnnnn?ttttt waaaaaaaannnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!Takkkeeeeeeeee mmmmmeeeeeeeeee hhhooooooommmmmmmmeeeeee!!!!!! Whhhhhaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!" He sighed, that girl was en embarrassment, and could it be possible-Serenity actually looked worse than she did last year! Her hair was in the two-bun-odango style her mother wore, and her face was dotted with unsightly freckles. Her eyes were squeezed shut in rage, and her face was the colour of a ripe tomato. He could also see her parents, red faced and nearby, hanging their heads in shame at their daughters antics. He guessed that they probably knew by now how useless it was to attempt to argue with her when she was like this. It was going to be a long week. ************* The following day, Endymion was out with Motoki in the spacious tree house, built the year earlier. It had everything-electrical outlets for a TV, CD player and even a tiny mini fridge. It was furnished with a pullout couch for sleepovers, two easy chairs, a large thick rug on the floor, and a large, wooden coffee table. In short, it was a dream house. The two boys were hiding from Serenity. The previous evening, they had placed a whoppy cushion on her chair at dinner, a spider-in-cube ice cube in her drink, and they had replaced the salt shaker with sugar. It was amazing that they didn?t get caught (well, in fact, the only reason the didn?t, was because her parents thought she was just acting up, as she was before). So now, they were hiding from hurricane-odango-atama (the nickname Endymion made up)-luckily, she didn?t know where their hideout was situated, otherwise they would be in BIG trouble. He was amazed how well that girl fought; she was only five, yet, in the sparring match held in the morning (under the watchful eyes of their guardians of course) she nearly beat him! She was half his size, and able to do something Motoki had barely been able to do! They had just managed to evade her by running to the sanctuary of the tree house. The other thing they were doing was planning on what tricks to play next on her. Endymion knew it would only be a matter of time before she found them, so they had played the ULTIMATE trick. Endymion had found his supply of old Halloween props, including a supply of knife-in-the-heads, and a full tin of fake blood. The two boys had covered themselves in it, and put the knives into place, making it look like they had indeed, been attacked and mauled. If they were lucky, Serenity just might be gullible enough to fall for it. They had also messed up the place, turning over the table, and a chair, as well as pulling out all the cushions from the couch, and throwing them around to make it look like a fight had gone on. Now, their plan was quite illogical, for why would someone come into a heavily guarded and secluded are, just to kill two boys? It was ludicrous. Yet, luckily for Motoki and Endymion, Serenity had absolutely no sense of logic, so there was quite a good chance that their plan would work. Today, luck was on their side. As they heard Serenity?s foot steps outside, and her triumphant shout of "Ah HA! I?ve got you know, ya sleazy little worms!" They quickly scrambled into place, as she ran up the steps, from her gasp of "Kami-sama" they knew she had taken the bait. Having no thought for fear, she cautiously threaded her way through the area, until she reached the two prone boys. At her restricted gasp of horror, Endymion cracked open an eye, and saw her standing a few feet away, white as a sheet, and breathing heavily. The rest of the situation passed very quickly. Serenity took two steps, tripped over the TV cord left out into the open, screamed loud enough for all, far and wide for all to hear, sent the two pairs of parents running, fell onto Endymion, who responded with a pain-tinged "OWWW!" as she snapped his wrist bone, knocked a heavy paperweight onto Motoki?s unprotected leg, fell on his accidentally knocking him unconscious with her knee connecting with his head, rolled out the back door, down a short flight of stairs, into the rest of the can of fake blood, and landed finally, with a nasty bump to her head, knocking her out cold, with one of her arms, and one of her legs bent into two very unnatural angle?s. As their respective parents arrived, and saw two blood covered children, one knocked out cold (seemingly dead), and another rolling around in agony. Through the door, they saw a little girl, covered in blood, and also knocked out. All that could be hear were four, very loud successive thumps. ************* In due course, a very sensible maidservant came running up to see what all the commotion was about. As she saw the four unconscious adults, and three (Endymion had passed out from shock) unconscious children, covered in what she identified as fake blood (for she was 18, and working to pay her way through med school, and knew what REAL blood looked like), she called the paramedics on her cell phone, and got to work on making sure every one was breathing. Five ambulances arrived some forty minutes later, and loaded the still unconscious people into there midst, and rushed to the hospital. Luckily the parents woke up on the ride, there. Unfortunately, believing their children to be dead, they burst into hysterics. It took the entire half-hour ride for the same maid to calm them down, explain that the pools of blood they saw were fake, and that the children would be fine, but for a few, non-life-threatening injuries. After a long wait, it was determined that Serenity had a concussion, broken leg and arm, five places in which she needed stitches, and a number of shallow cuts and scrapes. Motoki had a broken leg and a concussion as well. As for Endymion, he had a broken wrist. All were being kept in the hospital over night for observation (it was unnecessary, but urged by their very influential, and wealthy parents). ************* The next day, when the injured children arrived home, Endymion?s parents had seven words for him. "You?re grounded. For a long time. Got it?" Then he, and the other two were carted off to their separate rooms, for the remainder of the trip. Luckily, nothing else happened for the remainder of the trip, except for one last prank on Endymion?s part. He figured, that since he was already in trouble, he couldn?t get any punishment worse, so he chucked a hug, over ripe tomato at Serenity?s head as she was carried up into the plane. Well, needless to say, his thoughts were wrong. After his wrist was fully healed, he was sentenced to cleaning out all the toilets of their 20 bathroom house, once a week, for the next year. It was going to be a long day. ************* So, what did you think? The next chapter will be out sometime in the next two weeks. Comments, criticisms and suggestions are most welcome to cosmic_star@hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com