After finally being freed from the judging gazes of the people, Manea slunk to the background while her parents commanded the attention of their subjects, greeting them and listening to their stories. No one seemed to notice that the princess had walked away from them, no one really cared. They had finally seen her, and like a child’s toy, her novelty had soon worn off.
“Where is she?” the whisper caught Manea’s attention, and she recognized the voice as Rhea’s. Glancing around she spotted her planet’s senshi grouped together, mumbled amongst themselves about something that seemed to have worried them.
Mimas shrugged. “I dunno, she was with me earlier,” she commented, fixing her gloves so that they were no longer wrinkled. She had always been the most of a perfectionist compared to her friends.
“You were supposed to be watching her,” Janus sighed, her eyebrows pulling together in frustration. “You know the second we look away she runs off. We’re just lucky the king and queen didn’t say anything about it.”
“Maybe they just forgot about her,” Tethys commented, lightly biting her bottom lip.
Dione rolled her eyes, her hands balling into fists as she raised her hands in to the air in disagreement. “No way! They couldn’t just forget! The king is perfect!” she huffed.
“Not the queen?” Enceladus smirked.
The pinkette’s face flushed and she nodded her head vigorously. “I-I was just about to mention her!” she mumbled, twiddling her fingers.
Curious, Manea approached them, and spotting the young princess, they all stood to attention and stopped their conversation immediately. Manea puffed her cheeks in annoyance, and crossed her arms. “Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing princess,” Iapetus smiled, trying to reassure her, but she could tell something was worrying the group.
Looking at them closely, Manea noticed something that hadn’t been brought to her attention when she had been in awe of the beautifully decorated altar. “Where is Phoebe?” she questioned, taking another look at the group and deciding that her hunch had been correct. Someone was missing.
“Phe-Pheobe?” the girl who had introduced herself as Sailor Epimentheus chucked nervously. “Why, she’s around here somewhere... just taking a break is all,” she grinned, her lip twitching lightly, a sign that she was lying.
“Why are you trying to hide it from me?” the princess responded blankly, not made that they were lying to her, but mad that they didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth. They probably thought she would get them in trouble.
She waited for a few moments, hoping that they would confess to her, but when she got no response she turned away. “Fine, if you don’t wish to tell me...” she murmured, before walking away in the opposite direction.
“Princess...” Rhea sighed as she watched her walk away. They hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings.
“Hey Rhea?” Hyperion nudged her companion, though her eyes did not move from the retreating princess. “She has no idea where she’s going does she?” she commented, a moment before the realisation hit the eldest senshi.
Barely a second later she had taken off running after the girl, her hair flying around her as a sudden breeze rushed past. “Princess wait! We don’t want you getting lost!” she called after her, looking the part of a doting mother completely.
The other senshi chuckled amongst themselves as they watched her. “I can’t wait to see her with her own kids,” Janus laughed.
“Maybe we should have a kid,” Hyperion whispered flirtingly, wrapping her arms around Janus’ neck and pulling her down to touch their lips lightly.
Janus laughed. “And how do you propose we go about doing that?”
“Ugh, get a room,” Epimentheus fake gagged as she stuck out her tongue, cutting off the rest of the conversation. “Maybe we should, I don’t know... focus on finding our missing member?” she huffed.
“Oh fine, fine,” Hyperion pouted. “You’re such a killjoy you know. You’re only 15, act it!”
Manea could still hear them, not having hidden that far away. When she stalked off she had simply gone and sat behind one of the nearby bushes. A flower she couldn’t name was booming throughout the bush, but she knew it was beautiful with its three purple petals that got lighter the closer they got to the centre of the flower, until they had become white.
She had watched Rhea run past her, and even if the senshi did look worried for her, she hadn’t spoken up to draw her attention. She didn’t know why she had done it, hid, or even walked away in the first place. She just wasn’t too used to interacting with other people.
“Watcha doin’?” a voice beside Manea shocked her, and she jumped neatly aside to get away from the culprit.
“Who?” she took a deep breath, trying to calm her heart rate, before recognising the girl beside her. “Snow?”
“At your service,” Sailor Phoebe mock bowed, her short white hair falling into her face. Her fuku was completely white in colour, and it had been what had inspired her nickname, Snow. “How are ya princess?”
Manea smiled and shook her head. “Where where you? You missed the orientation,” she scolded. If Rhea was like her mother, than Phoebe took the place of her sister.
Phoebe grinned. “Yeah... but I got these, wanna share?” she held her arms out, revealing a whole bunch of sweets and treats.
The princess sighed and bowed her head in defeat, but her smile didn’t leave her lips. “You’re going to get in trouble you know?”
“Ehh, I can take whatever they dish out,” the other shrugged, about to hand a box of sweets to Manea when a shout interrupted her.
“PHOEBE!” an angry Sailor Enceladus stood there, her hands on her hips. “You know you were supposed to come and get one of these from me before we even got here!” she huffed, holding up a small badge in the shape of a white wing.
Tethys sighed. “And?”
“And...?” Enceladus thought for a moment, not sure what her companion was talking about, she was just mad that the other had promised to be there on time, and then made her carry around the stinking badge all day. She already had her own.
“Uhmm...” Phoebe placed a finger over her lips, trying to think of an excuse. “I couldn’t see where I was going and got lost?” she tried, putting on her best ‘ditz’ face as she cocked her head to the side.
Enceladus clenched her fist, shaking it in the air in Phoebe’s direction. “Aw, hell no! Don’t even try to use that blind excuse! We know better than anyone you can see better than the rest of us can!” she growled.
“Worth a shot?” the blind senshi shrugged. Though even if she was blind, it had never been a hindrance to her, she was able to ‘see’ just as clearly as the rest of them.
Enceladus looked about ready to pounce on her friend, so Manea quickly stood and blocked her way. “I asked Sno- Sailor Phoebe to run an errand for me, so please don’t be mad at her,” she shook her head, trying to calm the other down. “The reason why I asked where she was before, was because I was wondering if she had returned.”
“Is that so princess?” she felt a light hand on her shoulder, and glanced up to meet the warm eyes of Sailor Rhea. “I guess she has an excuse for not attending the orientation then,” she smiled. Manea knew that she could tell she was lying, but Rhea had never really been the type to betray another’s story unless it would cause harm to someone else.
“Thank you Rhea!” the princess smiled, but her good mood was cut short when she saw a familiar pair coming towards them.
The king and queen stood not far from her, holding their arms out for her to join them. “Manea darling, come, greet your subjects,” her mother smiled, crossing the few steps between them to place her arms around her daughter’s shoulder. “You can’t stay hidden forever,” she chuckled, kissing the girl’s cheek, before leading her back towards the crowd.
Manea knew this was all an act, but she allowed herself to be led away from her friends anyway. “Tonight,” her father spoke, and Manea noticed that Sailor Dione stood at his side as if she were pulled toward him by some invisible force. “Tonight it will be your turn to perform the blessing,” he lightly placed a hand on his daughter’s head, ruffling her short black hair.
“But I don’t...” Manea began to argue. She had never even seen the blessing before, how was she supposed to know what to do?
“It will come to you,” Rhea whispered in her ear, though she did little to calm her worry.
Instead of pulling the other’s into her worrying state however, she just simply nodded and watched as they begun to light the candles around the altar.
