Come Away With Me

The palace's library had no place within the Moon Kingdom. Warmth from the fireplace spread throughout the extensive room, casting a comforting glow onto the covers of thousands upon thousands of books. Dark, charcoal tiles, sourced from the deepest craters of the Moon, made up the floor, and proudly stood on that was furniture gifted from Earth's royalty; chairs and tables crafted from strong, dark wood and coated in rich varnish to give them their life-long shine. Even the books, whether they be new, dusty, musty, or whatever variety of muted colours, gave depth to the room, resulting in a special place for a couple of the Kingdom's Knights.

Just outside, in the crystalized corridor, stood a man dressed all in white. From a distance, he could have easily been mistaken for a tall, abnormally broad-shouldered bride, silver hair cascading down his back like a wedding veil. Well, that would be the case at least if he didn't blend in with the entirety of the palace. Every wall was white, every pillar was white and every slab was white. Every window was made of chalky-white glass, every table was laden with pure white plates and every plant within the grounds was coated in glimmering, white frost. The only break from the endless repetition that made up the Moon Kingdom was the rainbow of guardian uniforms, the golden picture frames that lined the dining hall and, of course, the man outside the library.

Unlike majority of the Kingdom's inner circle, his skin was darker yet his eyes were light. Some would glance as he passed by, others would stare in confusion, though the few that found him endearing were often too shy to look at all. One of those few were just a couple of metres away, on the other side of the large, white library door. He was ready to teleport across the room at the drop of a hat—scramble under the table and fall as gracefully as he could into his usual chair. If he looked out of place at all, Kunzite would notice in an instant. It just wouldn't do. He had to make sure their meeting went perfectly. Normally, Kunzite was the one in control, to lay out the rules, almost as if he had pre-selected routes and conversation points so one could never stray too far from what was safe.

Zoisite, however, had other ideas. Yes, his conversations were planned out and had been so for weeks, and every movement, every touch, would be on purpose. But they were daring. He was taking great risks to be in the library on this evening.

The handle turned. The latch bolt clunked as it was retracted into the door. Barely a gasp later, Zoisite was seated at the far-left table, near the fireplace, his back to the door and body as rigid as a wooden board. After the door had closed behind him, Kunzite coughed to announce his arrival, settling Zoisite's concerns that he could have just been imaging things. The winds of Winter were starting to blow in already, after all.

"Kunzaito-sama," Zoisite greeted in a tight voice.

"Zoisaito."

Kunzite bowed his head politely, a nod to acknowledge the younger Knight's efforts to notice him. In the further silence, he took his usual seat diagonal to Zoisite and proceeded to lay out his quill, ink, parchment and current book on the assumed rules and regulations of the Dark Kingdom, then removed his gloves. Both were lucky that the lids had remained on their bottles of ink, as Zoisite's hand shot across the table at such speed that they clattered noisily on the tabletop. Kunzite blinked in surprise, then grasped the hand offered out to him in a firm handshake, before settling down to resume his note-taking from the previous evening.

Zoisite finally sat back down and reset his bottle of ink on the table. That was such a stupid thing to do, he silently berated himself. Most evenings, they'd meet in the library to quietly study Earth's history or their greatest enemy, the Dark Kingdom. Although the attacks and defences were supposed to be constructed with the assistance of Jadeite, Nephrite and Prince Darien as well, Kunzite often had brilliant thoughts in the silent company of Zoisite instead. Even without words, they made an unbeatable team, not that anyone would have ever guessed; Kunzite was strict, calculating and near-emotionless. Contrarily, Zoisite was a devil on the battlefield, cunning and ruthless, though was more gentle and outspoken at other times. This side of him only seemed to magnify when around Kunzite, so the brash handshake, the strange urge to make some form of contact, had been very out of the ordinary.