Toketsu and Yori: Part 3

Talyse

Toketsu found his mind captured by the presence of his best friend next to him. While he remained facing forward, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to thinking about the feelings that he had for this boy. What had caused him to move his hand like that? Why had he wanted to hold his best friends hand in the first place? It wasn't like they were little kids anymore...Yori was 18, an adult, and even though Toketsu himself was only 16, his maturity level was far beyond that of anyone his age. So why had he- 

His train of thought was cut off as he also heard Kiko's voice, his eyes refocusing on the space in front of him as the doors opened. Joining his own voice in to the mix of yelling, he refrained from bringing his hands up to clap, realizing there was the possibility that he would have to brush his hand along Yori's. It was a simple action that normally would have no meaning to it, but for Toketsu, right now, it was promising to provide a meaning that would only confuse him and make him overthink such a simple thing. Anyway, there was plenty of other hands to do the clapping for him. 

As the duo walked in and the sisters embraced, the grin on Aleks' face was obvious that he was enjoying Kiko's pathetic attempt at being frustrated with him, gladly returning her kiss before whispering a happy birthday to her. Toketsu made his way over with his parents out of habit as hugs were passed around, a small happiness springing up inside the boy as he watched Kesiom give the red head a hug, one she returned without incident. Part of Toketsu wanted to believe that the two had simply started to put their differences aside as time passed, but he was also sure that if he asked Kiko, she'd say she was doing it simply out of interplanetary relations. Both were the primary rulers of their planets after all, and often had to speak to each other about various topics and issues. Keiko and Aleks were there for said meetings also, but in the end, it was nice to see the two getting along no matter what was causing it. 

Once his turn was up, Toketsu quickly walked forward, giving Kiko a quick hug and one of his rare big smiles. "Happy birthday Aunt Kiko," he said, just as something hit him. Obviously Yori's mother was the source for the young man's fire, why he was always so warm and why his energy was so...lively. Yet, as he hugged his aunt, someone he also genuinely cared about, the feelings that sprang up in him weren't anywhere near the level of what he felt just standing near Yori. 

"Something wrong Toketsu?" 

The boy just then realized he had stood still after his hug with Kiko, his attention only coming back to the present as Aleks spoke to him. Looking over to the blonde haired man, he shook his head quickly. "Oh no, nothing. Just thinking," he responded, and Aleks kept his gaze questioning before a smile broke out over his face. Sno walked up behind him in the next moment, placing a hand on Toketsu's shoulder lightly. "I was surprised you managed to keep Kiko out for that long," the woman said behind him, and Aleks just smirked, laying his hand across his wife's shoulders. "Well, we didn't only check on the patrols," he said, his voice overemphasized just as Kiko smacked him again. 

Sno just chuckled for a moment, her hand squeezing Toketsu's shoulder briefly. "Why don't you go find something to eat Toketsu?" she said, and Toketsu just huffed, figuring out exactly why his mother wanted him to go away from the conversation. Turning back to look his mother in the eye, to argue something along the lines of him not being a child, he instead caught his father's gaze once more, his mouth remaining shut. "Fine, I guess I am hungry."
With a small bow of his head, the boy turned to start making his way over toward the buffet, his eyes landing on the boy standing near the end of the tables. Immediately, Toketsu felt his lips quirk up into a small half smile, just as the same feelings from earlier began to do somersaults in his stomach. For some reason, an oddly nervous feeling started to grow in the boy, and he almost didn't hear it as his name was called to his right. Stopping his current path, he turned to see Aphrodite walking toward him, his eyebrows raising ever so slightly as she approached him and began to talk. 

He simply nodded when complimented about the decorations, feeling that the other was probably trying to make him feel better about the whole spurring Yori into setting the curtains alight incident. When she touched him though, his brow creased ever so slightly. The boy knew why Aphrodite tended to make physical contact with people, to read what was on their mind through what their heart was experiencing. The nervous feelings inside Toketsu only managed to grow even further at that thought, hoping that the woman wouldn't feel out the confusion he was feeling over Yori that day. As she spoke about his strength, his powers though, he almost physically sighed, allowing a small smile to cover his lips. "Thank you, I've been doing well. Father has been practicing with me a lot lately, when him and mother aren't training. After all, there's only one Blizare to use," he said. Immediately the boy realized he sounded strained, the last sentence not being something he would usually say. Toketsu didn't point out the obvious unless it was necessary, and obviously Aphrodite knew there was only one water based legendary elemental sword. 

Nicholai had been standing with Aphrodite off on one side of the room. The two had been one of the first to greet the two as they came in after Keiko, but as soon as the hello's had been done, Nicholai's attention had snapped back to the younger boys once more. Only after a few more whispered words to Aphrodite, the woman had left to intercept Toketsu, and the man himself made his way over toward Yori at the buffet table. Watching the young man's aura, he couldn't help but smirk as the boy watched his best friend talk with his own adviser. When he watched an aura, there was four layers he looked at. The outermost was a person's powers, elements, energy level, things like that. Next came the person's personality traits, something that almost always remained the same no matter what and often let Nicholai identify someone even in a pitch black room. Light didn't effect someone's aura after all. 

The next two layers were what intrigued him most though, being the general mood that person was in for the day, and then emotions that stemmed from that mood closest to the person's body. As he approached the younger boy, he could easily tell his mood was of being happy, a golden yellow color, tinged slightly with dark violet, a color that Nicholai had found meant a person was nervous. Closer to the red head was more of that golden yellow, and the more interesting color, a pinkish-red, the one color Nicholai knew better than any other: Love. From the moment the man had landed on the surface of Mars and had watched his Nephew interacting with Toketsu, that color had sprung up repeatedly. 

When the man reached Yori and caught the younger one's attention, the pink-red color became tinged with a bold yellow, signifying a more friendly, family type of love. The Venus man had his theories, and that simple change in colors as the boy in front of him changed the person he was looking at confirmed it whole heartedly. "Hey you little punk, what'd you do with my nephew? Last time I remember, he was a lot shorter," the man commented, stopping a second before pulling the red head into a hug. 

As he pulled back, a smile came across his face. "It's good to see you Yori. It must be nice to see everyone in one place like this, especially Toketsu. You haven't seen him for a while, have you?" As the man spoke the Mercury son's name, he kept his eyes trained to take in any color changes around the boy. None the less, if there was one thing the Venus King had never found himself to be proficient in, it was being subtle about what he said. He figured any situation that others deemed was appropriate to approach it that way, they only deemed it that way because they were too sensitive. Taking his brother's throne those many years ago had taught him that if you were too sensitive, you often got trampled or left behind, something Nicholai wasn't up for having happen to him or any of his family, those he held closest to his heart.

Shigatsusan

Kiko actually embracing Kesiom had become almost second nature by now, Yori had a hard time seeing the action as something rare or forced. It had been a long time since his mother snapped at his Uncle for anything other than stepping on her foot, or something. Back when Yori was still just a child, he could vaguely remember the two arguing over nothing here and there, but the more his mother warmed up to the man and noticed his ability to be a father and a husband and a ruler all at once, she slowly but surely let go of whatever grudge she had. Kesiom had always been a great Uncle, though maybe a little lost sometimes with earth-ish customs (he still had to ask one of his children which remote turned on the tv), and Yori wondered just what the man could have done to have his mother be so stand-offish in the first place. When he’d tried to ask, Aleks waved off the question and told him it was in the past.

His heart beat just a little faster when Toketsu embraced his mother, seeing the woman hug him in return. Despite knowing they all grew up together and were all practically family, it still made Yori happy to know his mother genuinely cared for Toketsu, as he did. Well, maybe not the same sort of care, but still…he shook the thought away with a single move of his head and took a large sip of his soda just to give his body something else to do. Hearing Nicholai, Yori glanced over at him with a smirk, thankful for the distraction of conversation. He hugged the man back on instinct, excited to see his Uncle,”He had a growth spurt about a year ago, remember?” Yori joked with a sly grin.

He got to see Nicholai more often than the Mercury family, but still not as often as he would have liked. They were the closest in age aside from the other children, and Nicholai’s free spirit matched very well with Yori’s goofy personality. He was always encouraging and helpful, and Yori would often opt for talking with Nicholai rather than his father about slightly awkward or embarrassing topics. Like, the birds and the bees speech, or the differences between boys and girls…for some reason, his Uncle managed to make awkward conversations a lot easier to have. Some would consider his bluntness just the opposite, but Yori took comfort in it; Nicholai would never lied to him or told him what he wanted to hear, and would always tell you exactly what he was thinking.

For once in his life though, Yori wished his Uncle suddenly became proficient in beating around the bush, because as soon as he heard Toketsu’s name from the others mouth, the mars child had a feeling where the conversation was heading. Nicholai’s ability to read aura’s could not be matched, and he could probably see all the weird colors around him associated with thinking about your best friend in a…confusing light. He understood what he was thinking and why he was thinking it, but was denying it adamantly since the feelings had begun to arise over the last year. Not being around Toketsu helped him ignore the longing he had to be closer with the other boy, but actually seeing him now made it almost impossible to ignore. Something he was certain Nicholai would have noticed. He swallowed thickly and nodded once, ”Yea. Haven’t seen him in a couple months.” not since the last time they all gathered to celebrate a birthday; it had been Jirou’s if he remembered correctly. He couldn't think of anything else to say, fidgeting slightly there as he rocked back on his heels.

Aphrodite’s small touch had two purposes, as they usually did, the main being a simple show of affection for the Mercury child. It had been a long time since they were all gathered together like this, and it was nice to see him. Of course, there was the part of her that had reached out to touch him to gain a better understanding of his heart, but Aphrodite already had an inkling as to what was written on it even before she placed a hand on his shoulder. She gave nod, smiling proudly as Toketsu explained training with his father, ”It is invaluable, your training time together. I imagine he was been teaching you better sword-play. Maybe soon you can finally beat Yori in a duel?" she smiled warmly. Yori and Toketsu were practical equals when it came to raw power, but there was no doubt Yori was a better swordsman, and Toketsu the better mage. While he wasn’t awful at wielding the Blizare, and Yori could handle a few spells here and there, it was obvious one was more proficient than the other.

She caught the nervousness in the boy, as if he was already aware of what Aphrodite was going to begin talking about with him. Her smile remained, calm and sweet while she placed a hand gently between his shoulder blades, ”Lets take a walk, hmm? I want to see the lilies in bloom." she waited for Toketsu to oblige before following the boy outside. Maybe it would make him more comfortable, having their conversation become strictly one on one.

Once outside, she wandered over to one of the decorative hedges set up along the walkway, a fire lily perched atop it, open and fully bloomed. She sniffed the beautiful flower once before glancing over at Toketsu, ”Your heart has opened like these lilies since seeing Yori today, did you know?" of course he realized something was different, but Aphrodite still wanted to make the boy feel as if he controlled the conversation, or at least had a say in it. It tended to make people more comfortable when their hearts were being read to them like an open book. ”I have watched you two grow into strong young men your entire lives, and you two have become very close.” she paused here, watching the boy’s eyes before continuing, “Your heart’s desire to be even closer to his is only natural. That’s what happens when you love someone.”

Toketsu and Yori: Part 2

Talyse

In all honesty, Toketsu would have to be stupid to try and lie to himself, and as it was obvious to everyone who knew him, he was far from stupid. Yet, as his best friend came over and pulled him into an embrace as his way of saying hello, and as the few words floated across the very short distance from the others mouth to his ear, a subtle shiver ran down the Mercury son's back. Toketsu never got cold, it was practically impossible. Half of the techniques he used during battle consisted of him being encased in ice, sometimes for short periods of time, others for longer when used defensively. Hell, his body temperature dropped so dramatically when he transformed that his skin turned almost white and his lips blue. But now, as the warm, almost hot energy of his best friend was pressed against his own body, and as he heard the few words coming from the other, it was undeniable that it was causing a subtle but unstoppable reaction in Toketsu's body.

Reaching his own arms out, he wrapped them tightly around the other boys waist, putting light pressure into the hug. "Good to see you too Yori," he responded, his voice just barely above a whisper. It was true, he missed his best friend. Just how much he missed him though, and the feelings that were surfacing, were two things the ice based boy wasn't willing to dissect or think about at the present time. When the embrace ended, Toketsu kept his face as flat as possible, channeling his father's restraint on emotions as usual in an attempt to regain normalcy in his reactions. Turning his attention instead to the two new arrivals, Toketsu simply nodded his head as a greeting before following the group out toward the main hall.

Once there, a hint of a smile crept up on the boys lips. Between seeing the rest of the Saturn group conversing with his own parents, Youta, and the beautiful decor that was already up, the boy couldn't help but realize how he had really missed everyone, how he had even just missed Mars. Maybe that was it...his longing to see everyone had just been focused into seeing his best friend, and that was the cause for his reaction. It was a logical explanation after all, Yori was his best friend, and in result, his 'rival' as the red headed boy so fondly put it.

Toketsu's train of thought was quickly interrupted as Youta's cheery face came into his line of sight, pushing two boxes of eating utensils into his arms. Instructions were given quickly, and the boy kept his face straight once more as Yori looked over to him. As soon as the duo reached the first table though, the smallest hint of a smirk pulled on Toketsu's lips. "Race ya," he said quickly, and it was all the encouragement that the other boy needed. The two both sprung into action, racing to see who could get their items placed faster. As Toketsu placed another set of utensils, his strategics kicked into action. Maneuvering about the tables in a certain way and a few chairs pulled out in strategic locations, the white haired boy placed his last set down milliseconds before Yori had the last plate down. This caused a small smile to come over his features as he walked over and set down the extra items down next to the other decorations.

"I beat you fair and square, that's all there is to it," he chirped, much to the other boys annoyance. There wasn't ever much fighting Toketsu in the ways of logics and such, and the other had learned it long ago. Didn't mean that the red head was about to throw the towel in though. Moments later, both boys had rolls of streamers in hand and began to run to opposite sides of the hall. Toketsu quickly began to attach the silken rolls of cloth in an orderly but quick fashion to various spots on the wall, only to turn around and see that Yori was thoroughly beating him and he was using his powers to give him a boost up every once in a while. Toketsu couldn't help but feel a momentary rush of pride run through him, considering a few years ago had Yori tried doing what he was, he'd have burnt the floor and just about anything flammable in a 5 foot radius of himself. Now, his control allowed him to give just the right boost without setting anything alight.

Narrowing his eyes, Toketsu turned back to his wall and forced himself to move faster, stopping only for a moment to summon up his own element to assist. 5 seconds later, his well learned technique of ice wings sprouted from his back, and with a couple of flapping motions, he was off the ground, hovering in a few places to continue his work. Then, someone yelling stopped his work as he turned in mid-air to look at the commotion, something that caused a snicker to rise from his throat. Obviously, competition threw the others control off a little.

"Yori Holt Hino, watch what you're doing! You shouldn't be using your powers inside!" Sno suddenly said, rushing over toward the curtain that had burst into flames. Summoning up her powers, water rushed from the Mercury Queen's palm and doused the flames. Toketsu watched from up in the air until he caught his father's gaze, one that was obviously reprimanding him for his own power usage, a sheepish look overtaking his face as he came down to the ground, his wings disappearing. Once the commotion died down, Keiko ended up separating the two boys, sending Toketsu to decorate outside with Hikara while Yori remained inside with Hiruko. Valerick and Kesiom then took over the streamer decor, the older Saturn brother using his telekinesis to levitate the items to where they needed to be as the younger gathering what was needed when asked of him.

Toketsu ended up giving Yori a small shrug before Hikara practically dragged him from the hall by his wrist. "You two are never going to stop, are you?" she asked, her hands reaching out to touch one of the fire lilies that dotted the pathway and arches that led to the main doors. The girl had explained how there really wasn't to be decor outside, but Youta had asked her to make sure the lilies, her aunt's favorite flower, were lively and vibrant with her powers. Toketsu was mostly just to tag along as to make sure there was no more competition between him and Yori. "You have to admit that you and Hiruko feel competitive toward each other," the white haired boy managed up, trying to make an excuse for the way he acted around Yori.

Hikara just ended up laughing. "It's hard to be competitive with someone who practically shares my mind. We think too alike to really compete with each other in any way, it always ends in a stalemate." Toketsu just nodded as he watched the other bring buds to life, to revive downtrodden petals. He often forgot how close the twins were, and the thought only brought back memories of how close he had felt to the red headed boy just a little while ago.

"Toketsu? Hellooooo?"

Toketsu's attention snapped back up to Hikara's face in front of him, and he shook his head gently. "Sorry, thinking," he said, and Hikara just giggled a little. "Fancy that!" she said with a devious grin on her face, and Toketsu simply raised an eyebrow ever so slightly, his way of showing he was a little irked by the statement.

"Time to come inside!"

Turning, Toketsu saw Kesiom standing in the doorway with Keiko standing next to him. Simply nodding his understanding, he waited until Hikara was finished with the flower she was working on, walking up to the doors next to her. "Apparently the birthday girl is getting antsy about being away from her duties," Kesiom explained as they walked back in through the halls. "But the birthday girl is already here," Toketsu responded in one of his rare jokes as he peered at the Saturn Queen, and Keiko simply rolled her eyes, rustling his hair much to the teen's annoyance. Once they were all in the hall, Toketsu found himself naturally gravitating to stand near Yori, not realizing his arm was comfortably behind Yori's until Sno announced the energies were coming into the castle. Had the boy moved his arm forward, his hand easily could have grasped Yori's, but instead he moved it backward, clasping his hands together behind his back. Not seeing it out of the corner of his eye, Nicholai standing on the other side of the group peered at the two boys like he had in the hall before leaning over and whispering something to Aphrodite.

Shigatsusan

Yori’s mind was lingering on how it felt to hug Toketsu a few moments before, rather than on the task at hand on decorating the main hall. The boy was his exact polar opposite, and every time they got within a foot of each other, Yori could feel a change in temperature because of the other’s naturally cool demeanor. He enjoyed it, for it wasn’t a feeling he got often, and Toketsu was the only person he knew who could make him feel that way. Not even Sno, who obviously had the same elements as her son. For some reason, it was much more pronounced with his best friend.

Hearing the other spark a competition got Yori from his thoughts, and he glanced sidelong at his best friend with a small smirk as he nodded in agreement. For as long as the boy could remember, he and Toketsu had been competing in healthy competition with one another, able to turn practically any task into a race or contest. Like setting plates and forks. Most would have thought it odd (in fact, his mother liked to tell him so as often as it came up) but it was something Yori had grown to count on. Toketsu pulled the best out of him, and vice versa. They would never have gotten as strong as they were now if it weren’t for the other’s constant encouragement and pushing. When Toketsu placed his last utensil down just a second before Yori finished, he adopted a very Kiko-esque pout and crossed his arms, demanding it was a tie instead though he knew it wasn’t. Instead of lingering on the loss, they turned to yet another decoration and turned that into a race; Yori had managed to get a better grip on his control, so using his fire to propel him higher in the air to get the streamers at just the right height was easy enough, though he knew he could have been doing a bit better job at spacing and making things look neat. He was more concerned now about beating Toketsu rather than evenly spaced streamers.

He noticed Toketsu catching on to his tactic and could feel the boy manipulating his energy to sprout his characteristic ice wings, which made him switch to high gear. This, of course, didn’t bode well for the flammable curtains just below him, and within the second they caught fire. He dropped to the ground, landing expertly on his feet, but before he could try and put out the fire he’d started, Sno was on the scene. She reminded Yori a lot of his mother at times, especially when he was being reprimanded. He gave a sheepish nod and an apology before glancing over at Toketsu. Jirou, who had been preoccupied listening to Youta go on about the last party they’d had in this hall, was watching his son now, a look he knew pretty well on his face. Jirou never had to say anything if he didn’t want to, his face was expressive enough. At the moment, it was scolding. His son would not get away with using powers indoors either.

Being split up from Toketsu had Yori pouting briefly before Hiruko nudged his shoulder, ”I’m not that bad.” he joked. Yori opened his mouth to apologize and demand he hadn’t meant it like that, but his cousin just shook his head with a gentle laugh. Hiruko had his oddities, sure, but Yori truly enjoyed his positive attitude. He went about putting down place mats, setting up more chairs, and making sure the food set out was hot and ready before they noted Kiko was fast approaching. His father had convinced the woman to take a longer route around her normal patrol spots, but even he couldn’t stall her for too long. Once they were all back into the main hall, Yori found himself gravitating toward Toketsu yet again, who had chosen to stand directly beside him. He glanced down at their hands, close enough they could have touched had he shifted an inch, but the boy brought them behind his back before Yori’s mind could trail off with the idea.

”I don’t understand, why did we come this way again?” his mother’s voice on the other side of the large double doors caused him to look up just in time for them to open. In unison, the group shouted the typical, ”Surprise!" before falling into a fit of applause. Keiko bounded over to her twin, securing her arms around the woman’s shoulders in a firm hug. Kiko just stared in moderate shock for the first few seconds before she furrowed her brows, shaking a finger at her sister like a mother would scold a child, ”I had a feeling you would do something like this…" though she tried to seem upset about the party, her tone gave away her surprise and excitement. She playfully smacked Aleks in the stomach, reprimanding him for being so sneaky, before giving him a well deserved kiss.

After singing happy birthday to the Mars sisters, the party goers mingled on their own, leaving Yori standing by the buffet as he watched the people around the hall. Aphrodite was standing with Toketsu by the double doors, and his mother and father were sipping drinks and laughing about something with Sno and Jirou. He wished he had super enhanced hearing or could read lips, because he was rather curious as to what Aphrodite was speaking to his best friend about…

”You did a great job with decorations, Toketsu.” the woman smiled, placing a hand over his shoulder for a moment before dropping it back down to her side. ”How have you been since the last time I saw you? I can sense you’ve gotten stronger, you should be proud.”

Toketsu and Yori: Part 1

Pretty much, I'm probably going to be posting one 'go-between', or one post from me and one post from my friend, in the side story we had for our young men in the Sailor Moon universe I mentioned in a previous post, about once a week.  Unless it gets really popular or something, which I doubt, which my massive total of 9 followers and all.

Talyse

For the first time in a while, Toketsu actually found himself being a bit antsy. His mother was taking forever to get things set up with her and his father's adviser, ensuring that the throne was well taken care of while they were away on Mars, but did it really take that long? Toketsu knew it did, and he knew why, though knowing didn't help his agitation. If he was in his mother's place, he knew he would be going over every detail possible, over any scenario that could happen while they were gone. Still, they were going to be late to making it over to Mars, and Aleks could only distract Kiko for so long before she got suspicious.

Today was the twin Queen's birthdays, and since Keiko expected something to happen, she had gone through the trouble to contact both Aleks and Sno and offered her help to spring a surprise on Kiko instead. Plans had been made, and now it was set for Aleks to distract Kiko away from the castle while the Mercury and Saturn families made their way there and helped Yori and Youta full on decorate the complex. It had been far too long since everyone had had the chance to be in one place at the same time, and just thinking of seeing everyone was causing the boy's antsy fidgeting to get worse. He was mostly just glad that his mother hadn't insisted on his dressing up, allowing him to go in a light blue t-shirt to match his eyes, darkwash jeans, and white converse shoes. Sno, wanting to wear something formal and queen like without dying of heat exhaustion on the warmer planet, was wearing a knee length silk sundress comprised of various blue shades, her hair done up with the tiara that represented her status gracefully lodged on top her hair.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, the young man turned his face to look up at Jirou, who had a typically stern look on his own face on. Toketsu just sighed. "Sorry dad," he murmured, crossing his arms across his chest to hopefully help contain some of the antsy energy in him at the moment. Only a few minutes later and Sno had finished talking to the adviser, making her way back over to her men. "Ready to go?" she asked, and Toketsu nodded quickly. 'An hour ago' ran through the 16 year old's mind, something he obviously didn't voice out of respect. As both of his parents offered a hand to him, he gladly uncrossed his arms, letting him palms rest against theirs as he felt the energy start to flow between them. In the next moment, the three were gone in a massive whirl of water and ice.

As soon as the three touched down on the planet's surface, Toketsu brought his hands out in front of him, focusing on the soul of water and ice inside of him. Only a moment passed before the ground beneath the three began to pulse a vibrant blue, signaling that the young man's magic was working to keep the atmosphere from effecting them like it normally would. Sno looked down with a vibrant smile on her face. "Seems you've got that perfected Toketsu," she chimed, and the boy just shrugged.

Just then, the doorway to the hall they had landed in opened, revealing the twins standing there along with Yori. Immediately Hikara came bounding over, picking up Toketsu in a massive hug. She had taken a liking to the colors of her home, and today was dressed in a short purple sundress, splashes of white along the trim here and there, her long white hair tied back with a black headband that matched her black heels. It apparently didn't matter that he had outshot her in height, even with the heels, since his last birthday as her hug still manage to pull his feet off the ground and push the air from his lungs. "Hikara.....can't..breath..." he choked out, and the girl quickly set him down. "Sorry sorry sorry!" she said, a sheepish smile on her face. Sno was laughing by now, shaking her head before speaking. "Where are Kesiom and Keiko at?" Hikara looked over to Sno before pointing at the door she had come through with the boys. "Youta's got them cornered in the meeting room, might want to go save them. Though I think uncle Valerick is driving Youta nuts with his conversations with Dad that he can't hear..." she replied. Valerick and Kesiom had been conversing together ever since they had arrived, so when a new topic came up in the conversation randomly with Youta, the smaller man began to get frustrated.

Sno just nodded with another smile, taking Jirou's hand as they walked toward the door the other children had come in through. With Sno stopping a moment to offer up Yori a hug, the Mercury rulers were gone to leave the children on their own. Toketsu's attention had turned to other two, his smile growing as he met Yori's gaze, his arm raising up to wave at both of them. As the other two began making their way over, another energy began to fill the room, a blinding light flashing for a second before revealing two figures standing there. Hikara smiled then as she turned, bounding over to give Aphrodite a much gentler hug than the one she had given Toketsu. "It's good to see you too dear," Aphrodite cooed, offering up one of her typically gentle smiles. She was dressed in her usual golden and white gown, her long hair up in a intricate formal style that framed her still youthful face. The woman had reached into her thirties now in looks, even though she was really 116 years old.

Nicholai, on the other hand, looked as though he was pondering something, his head cocked ever so slightly to the side as he watched the younger men in the room. His hair was the same golden blonde color as Aleks', except the man wasn't as tame as his older brother, streaks of black sticking up amongst the choppy blonde hair here and there. Just above his jawline on his left cheek was the symbol of Venus, a tattoo he had gotten in his teens after Kiko had managed to sneak him out from Minako's watchful eye to get them to a tattoo parlor. While the Venus man was dressed in the traditional attire of a King, sometimes Toketsu had a hard time believing a man who looked so wild was the residing King on Venus. As usual though, looks weren't everything. The man turned out to be just as brilliant of a ruler as his brother, and paired with his ability to view auras, he was a force to be reckoned with. Add Aphrodite as his adviser, and there was no stopping the duo it seemed.

The man's attention only snapped back to the present when Aphrodite touched his arm. "Lets go help out the others, we can talk along the way," she said, an obvious message in her words that only the two would understand. "Sounds good," he replied, offering up a snarky little salute to the boys standing behind Hikara as the two turned and walked toward the door, leaving the room.

Shigatsusan

After about his mother’s 30th birthday, the woman had all but given up on celebrating the event. Despite Yori and Aleks’ insisting, Kiko swore there wasn’t a need for cake and candles and presents. It was just an excuse to break out the good bottle of wine and take a day off. Her sister always thought differently and visited, forcing her twin into a party. This year, when Keiko explained she wanted to throw a surprise party of sorts for her, Yori couldn’t hide his excitement. His mother deserved a party every now and then; she had been ruling over Mars wonderfully since taking over the throne years ago. Sometimes, the boy swore his mother worked too hard. She was so intent on making sure everything was in top shape, that her people were safe and secure and fed and housed. There was a lot to be done as Queen, and Kiko never once let anything slip through the cracks.

After weeks of planning, the day was finally upon them. Considering his father was out keeping Kiko busy, Yori skipped over the formal attire one usually wore for a birthday event and went with black slacks and a comfortable orange t-shirt. He shared his mother’s distaste for dressing up in anything more than jeans. He was excited to say the least, knowing everyone he loved would be in the same place, at the same time. This was a rare occurrence for their group since everyone had taken on their respected roles. He saw Hikara and Hiruko at least once a month, what with Keiko not being able to go too long without checking in with her sister. But Toketsu and his parents, he didn’t get to see as often as he’d like. He was with Youta in the Great Hall, making preparations for the party ahead, when the reality of seeing his best friend after so long set in. He found himself lingering on the thought, noting how his palms started to sweat and his throat went dry. Being a child of fire, he never usually sweat at all. It was hard to get him hot enough. And yet his palms were wet the more he thought about being reunited with Toketsu.

He let the thought slip away when Hiruko noted an arrival. They all filed toward the main door, swinging it open to reveal the Mercury family. He was smiling as he watched his cousin embrace them, practically crushing Toketsu in a hug. It had been a long time since any of them had seen him, he realized. Hiruko smiled cheerfully much like his mother, bowing at the others, ”It’s wonderful to see you all after so long.”

He accepted Sno’s hug with one of his own, feeling happy at seeing the woman. She was his mother’s best friend, after all. Sno was family, as was Jirou. Though the taller man didn’t usually hug, he did make sure to give Yori a firm handshake before filing into the hall after Sno. His eyes settled on Toketsu then, returning his wave before reaching out to hug him, ”S'good to see you.” he lingered a moment, though would have sworn he did no such thing. He released the other boy as if nothing had happened and glanced over his shoulder to see Aphrodite and Nicholai approaching their group. He noted the almost inquisitive look in his Uncle’s face, making a mental note to ask about it later. He had gotten very close with the man over the years, and knew he didn’t usually give looks like that unless he was thinking, or saw something interesting.

He’d been spending the last hour or so setting up for a party, and despite wanting to take a break and maybe have a spar with Toketsu now that he was here, he knew they couldn’t. There was no telling how long Aleks could keep Kiko occupied, and if they came back seeing the two boys sparring, his mother would have figured something was up. He rolled his shoulders, feeling a crack in his neck before turning back to the others, ”Alright, time to start decorating." by the tone of his voice, it was obvious the Mars child could have thought of better things to do, and yet he still made his way into the main hall not long after Aphrodite and Nicholai.

The set-up was simple enough, but effective. Immediately in front of them in the large room were round tables set up, with three to four chairs each, though a few were still missing a few chairs. The center of the hall was kept clear, a dance floor of sorts, that led to a slightly raised stage toward the front of the room. Off to the side was long table, what was to be the bar (his mother would not have considered it a party without one.) The tables had dark red tablecloths and shining silverware, but there was still a bit of work to be done. Youta smiled as the children entered, handing Yori a stack of plates, and Toketsu a few boxes of utensils, ”One for every place, please!” he instructed before turning to the twins and insisting they needed more chairs. Yori glanced to his friend briefly before rolling his eyes and heading back toward the tables.

Sailor Moon - Sno Mizuno

Sno Mizuno is my Sailor Moon Original Character that I have been using for over 10 years now.  She's a second generation character, being the daughter of Amy Mizuno, or Sailor Mercury.

Currently, I have been using her for a few years actively in a roleplay with a good friend located here on Gaia Online.  Do excuse my early posts, considering with the amount of time my friend and I have been roleplaying in that thread, our writing skills have grown exponentially, leaving our early bits of thread a bit sad.

Here's a quick biography of my lovely lady:

Art Gallery

Name: Sno Eliza Mizuno

Age in the RP: 22

Birthday: January 13th

Parents: Amy Mizuno (Sailor Mercury), Donovan

Sailor Scout Name: Sailor Frost

Gadgetry: A visor and computer similar to her mothers, except a bit more advanced over-all

Weapon: Blizare, one of the four legendary elemental blades, the one of water, a rapier that is covered in a razor sharp coating of  ice.  In Sno's possession, the ice is shiny, as though it is melting, although it never drips water.

Favorite Color: Royal Blue

Favorite Place: Pretty much near any body of water, whether it's a lake, ocean, or even a water fountain.

Favorite Food: Blue Raspberry Popsicles

Least Favorite Food: Anything alcoholic, found it dilutes her ability to transform and she's afraid of being defenseless if she drinks.

Significant Other: Jirou Katashi Tsuyu

Children: Toketsu Tsuyu Mizuno, Raeyn Mizuno

Best Friend: Kiko Hino (Daughter of Rei Hino/Sailor Mars)

Of course, there's a few other topics I would like to further touch on, things that my friend and I injected into our own Sailor Moon world we created together.

• Sailor Moon, or Usagi, does not exist in our world

Why not?  Because she was incredibly annoying in the original series.  Always whining, always complaining, rarely being the true leader she should have been and just annoying the crap out of everyone.  The rest of the original scouts do, however, exist, and many of our large pool of characters are direct daughters and sons of the original senshi.  We just couldn't stand Usagi, that's all.

• We have a large span of characters we actively use in the RP

Here's a list of the characters, their planetary affiliations, and their relationships:

[ Sno Mizuno - Mercury ] is with [ Jirou Tsuyu - Mercury ] and eventually gives birth to [ Toketsu Mizuno - Mercury ] and later [ Raeyn Mizuno - Mercury ]

[ Kiko Hino - Mars ] is twins with [ Keiko Hino - Mars ] and is with [ Aleksander Holt - Venus ] and eventually gives birth to [ Yori Hino - Mars/Venus ]

[ Keiko Hino - Mars ] is twins with [ Kiko Hino - Mars ] and is with [ Keisom Tomoe - Saturn ] and eventually gives birth to twins [ Hikara Hino - Mars/Saturn ] & [ Hiruko Hino - Mars/Saturn]

• There are 4 Legendary Elemental Blades we created

The 4 blades were made for a slight variation on the scouts and their powers, plus they provide a terrific grounds for much of the battling our characters participate in, considering evil forces would love for nothing more than to get their hands on one, if not more, of the blades.

The main difficulty the evil forces run into is that the weilder of the blade, and eventually the wielder's children, are the only ones that can touch the blade without dying.  For example, if someone were to pick up the Blizare, Sno's blade, they would instantly die from a mixture of drowning and freezing at the same time.

The four blades are:

Blizare: Blade of water, most often appearing to descendents of Mercury.  A Rapier constantly covered in razor sharp ice that can change from shiny wet (when Sno is using it) to dry with fog rolling off it (when Toketsu is using it) depending on who is wielding it. Currently wielded by Sno Mizuno.

Pyrotiem: Blade of fire, most often appearing to descendents of Mars. A Katana that is ever on fire, changing from a fiery red (when Kiko is using it) to a blazing white hot (when Yori, Kiko's son, is using it) depending on who is wielding it.  Currently wielded by Kiko Hino.

Cyclones: Blades of wind, the only legendary blade comprising of two twin blades, and is never attached to any one planet in who it chooses to wield it.  A Scimitar that is always encircled by small tornadic looking winds, only one blade will generally come to the wielder unless the second one is summoned by some special means.  To be wielded in the future by Hikara Hino and Hiruko Hino, twins, which allow them to summon both blades.  Both children are half Saturn, half Mars based, proving the blades are wild in who they chose to wield them.

Keravnos: Blade of lightning, most often appearing to descendants of Jupiter.  A massive Greatsword, easily the size of a small male child, that has a constant electricity crackling across its surface.  Due to the fact that it's entirely huge, it is the blade least often seen choosing a wielder, centuries often passing between wielders.  Currently has no wielder, though is planned to appear in the RP wielded by a baddie trying to take down the other wielders.