First Truths

Love

Most people do not frequent dark, deserted alleys when the sky is darkening. Most teenage girls avoid such places at all cost. Thus, finding four fourteen-year-old girls in such an alley is close to impossible. However, that evening any lucky passerby would have been treated to the sight of said fourteen year-old girls wearing verrrrry short sailor suits and dancing what looked to be an Irish jig.

Well, two were dancing, anyway.

"This is soooo cool! Oh yeah. Go girl, go girl, go girl!" Makoto chanted this refrain as she grabbed Minako and whirled her around in a dizzy circle before linking arms and indulging in a short round of dozy-do.

Minako's laugh rang out, girlishly high. "Isn't it? All this time we've been searching and searching, and she's been in front of us all along! As a wise man once said, ask and thou shall conceive."

Ami managed to drop the silly grin that covered her face long enough to correct Minako's mistake. "That's 'ask and thou shall receive,' Minako. The other sounds like a...well, it's a completely different proposition." She slid down the wall to plunk down dreamily next to a nearly comatose Rei. "Wow, who would have ever expected?"

Rei blinked out of her stupor for an instant. "I've been calling the Princess a lazy meatball brains," she wailed. "I'll be the first to be beheaded when she comes into power!"

Ami patted her back consolingly as she watched Minako and Makoto sweep out of their version of a tango and try to dance a jitterbug. "Try" being the operative word.

"Now now, Rei-chan. Usagi wouldn't do that. At the most, she'll just sentence you to fifty lashes or something of that manner," she assured her friend.

Rei sniffled hopefully. "You think?"

Ami nodded, and Rei went back into shock.

A few minutes later, Makoto and Minako concluded their crazy little dance and collapsed in a fit of giggles to sit next to Ami and Rei.

"This is wild," breathed Makoto, pushing sweaty strands of hair off her forehead. "Usagi, of all people, a princess! Can you imagine her all royal and graceful? Minako-chan, if you weren't so sure about this, I'd claim you were high off something."

"High off looooove, my friends!" Minako grinned. "You guys shoulda seen it! It was amazing." She sighed dreamily, wrapping her arms around herself and wriggling giddily. "Lucky lucky lucky Usagi-chan. I hope I find a guy as gone on me as Mamoru is on her."

Rei's shock had worn off to a bearable level, and she nodded her agreement. "Amazing. Just incredible." Her own sigh seemed a mixture of joy, hope, and envy. "Finding out she's a princess and that she has a soul-mate, all in one fell swoop. Boy, are we ever gonna make her day." She smiled winsomely. "Think that we'll ever find our soul-mates?"

Minako jumped to her feet to pose in her trademark Sailor V stance. "Of course! Just you wait! We'll find them one day. And, until then, well...we're gonna have to go out with lots and lots of hot guys; leave no stone unturned!"

Ami blushed prettily as the others cheered Minako's inspirational speech. When the cheering died down, she decided to steer the conversation to slightly more important matters. "Okay, guys, what do we do now?"

Makoto seemed confused at this question. "What do you mean, 'what do we do now'? Simple: we tell Usagi she's the Princess, and that Mamoru's totally stupid-in-love with her. She tells Mamoru she's the Princess, he grovels nicely and buys her a big diamond. Presto! Instant happy ending with lots of little Usagis and Mamorus running around. We all live happily ever after, and die very old, rich, and lazy with a harem of gorgeous younger men at our feet!"