A Beautiful Morning
Story by *melissa-chan* March 3, 2000
All characters from the anime bishoujo senshi sailormoon, are property of naoko-san and are in no way or form of my creation.

Basically, in my story line, Makoto and Nephrite are in their old age and have children. One day, on a beautiful morning in a small, secluded park, they meet again.


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It was a beautiful morning in a secluded corner of a park in Tokyo. It was autumn and the leaves were a spectrum of oranges, reds, and browns. In this corner of the park, there were benches spotted sparatically around the footpath, providing a welcome relief. An older woman, accompanied by a much younger woman, enter this haven and start to sit at a bench.
"I love this place. It's such a beautiful morning, I thought for sure my bench would be taken."
"It is peaceful here." The younger woman replied.
"Go, that young man is waiting for you."
"Okaa-sama!"
"I only speak the truth dear. Go now."
"As you wish."
The older woman smiled at her only daughter. 'She needs a break.' Makoto thought. 'All this senshi business is still new to her after so many years.'
"Oy! Hikaru-chan! Matte! The bread crumbs, give them to me."
"Gomen gomen okaa-sama. I don't know where my mind is these days."
"Your head is where your heart is- with Isamu."
Hikaru blushed at her mother's blunt comment and handed her the bread crumbs. When Makoto looked up the next time, Hikaru had already left.
"Ja, my Hikaru." Makoto looked to her left, and as always, spotted her pigeon friends. "Here they come! They always know when to expect me." Makoto rose from her seat and proceeded to throw handfuls of breadcrumbs to the small park-residing birds. Makoto watched as the birds started pecking at each other for the last few crumbs left on the gravel path. "Don't quarrel. There is enough for all. I'll bring more tomorrow."

At this same moment, an older man is entering the same serene park in Tokyo, also with a younger man. The old man impatiently looks around the park and finds that the bench he usually frequents has been occupied by three young people.
"Such idleness! When I was their age I worked for a living, and it wasn't easy. Oy! Akira, did I ever tell you the time..."
"Yes otou-sama. You did. Many times." The younger man replied.
"I did? Don't recall telling of the time it snowed almost ten feet. It was the biggest blizzard I ever sa..."
"Otou-sama! You told me this story yesterday!"
"Well. Akira, find me a bench. Those idle fools over there took my bench."
"You can sit here otou-sama, there is only a lady." Akira offered. Makoto's head turned to listen after Akira had told this old man he could sit on her bench.
"I won't Akira. I want a bench to myself."
"But there is none otou-sama."
"That one over there is mine."
"It's already occupied otou-sama."
"Damn them. Have they gone?" Nephrite asked hopefully.
"No. They are just talking."
"Just as if they were glued to their seats. No hope of them ever leaving. Come Akira." Nephrite and Akira walk past the bench Makoto was sitting on. In doing so, they disturbed the pigeons that were still trying to find some more morsels of bread.
"Oy! Look what you have done!" Makoto shouted out indignantly.
"Are you addressing me ma'am?
"No, I was addressing the pigeons." Makoto answered sarcastically. "Yes, to you."
"Then what, may I ask, have I done?"
"You have scared away the birds that were feeding on my breadcrumbs."
"What do I care about the birds?"
"You may not care about them, but I do."
"This is a public park."
"Then why do you complain that those young people have taken your bench? Is that bench not also in a public park?"
"Ma'am, we have not met. I cannot imagine why you take the liberty of addressing me. Come Akira." With that said, Nephrite and Akira leave down the path, finally going around the curve and out of site.
"What an ill-natured man! Why must people get so fussy and cross when they reach a certain age?" Makoto peered through the bushes at the two men. "I'm glad. He lost that bench too. Serves him right for scaring the birds. Yes, yes! Find a seat if you can!" Makoto saw they were returning to where they had been previously and turned back to coaxing her started birds back with her remaining breadcrumbs.
"Are those young people gone yet Akira?"
"No, indeed, otou-sama."
"They should place more benches in this park for beautiful mornings such as these. Well, I suppose I must resign myself and sit on the bench with obaba-san." Nephrite mutters as he sits at the extreme end of the bench. He looks at Makoto indignantly and greets her; "Good morning."
"What, you here again?"
" "Good morning" should be answered by "good morning", and that is all you should have said."
"You should have asked permission to sit on this bench. It is mine."
"The benches in this park are public property." Nephrite retorted.
"So you finally acknowledge that. You said the one the young people have was yours."
"Very well." Nephrite said through gritted teeth. "I have nothing more to say. Senile old lady! She ought to be home knitting and washing dishes." Nephrite mumbled under his breath.
"Don't mumble anymore. I'm not going to leave just to please you."
"Akira! My book! I don't care to listen to such nonsense!"
"You're polite."
"Pardon me, ma'am, but never interfere with what does not concern you."
"I generally say what I think."
"And I to the same effect. Give me the book Akira."
Akira hands a small, worn book to Nephrite and proceeds to take his leave. Nephrite then puts on an enormous pair of glasses, and then takes from his pocket a reading glass, adjusts both to suit him, and opens his book.
Makoto starts to giggle.
"What do you find so amusing ma'am?" Nephrite asks indignantly.
"I thought you were taking out a telescope."
"What was that?!"
"Your site must be keen." Makoto replied as she tried to supress her laughter.
"Keener than yours." Nephrite replied.
"Yes, evidently."
"Ask the stars and moon."
"Ah! Were you an astronomer?"
"Oh, yes, and even now..."
"That would explain the telescope..."
Nephrite glared at the taunt, but continued. "Yes. Every Sunday evening I go to the observatory and look at the stars through a mighty telescope."
"Yes, through a telescope. That's all you can see through."
"Do you think so? I could show you the many new planets I have discovered..."
"And I could show you the new Mars colony without looking through my telescope at home. What does that prove?"
"Very well. Please allow me to read. Enough conversation." After ten minutes of silence, Nephrite to his book and Makoto watching her birds, Nephrite spoke once more.
"Would you mind if I read aloud?"
"Read as loud as you like. You will not disturb me."
Nephrite starts to recite a line from a poem in his book. " "All love is sad, but sad as it is, it is the best thing we know." That is from Campoamor you know."
"Ah!"
"There are beautiful poems in this book. Here. "Twenty years pass. He returns.""
Makoto once again started to giggle. "You cannot imagine how it affects me to see you reading with all those glasses."
"Can you read without any?"
"Certainly."
"At your age? You jest."
"Pass me the book then." Makoto takes the book and begins to read aloud. 
" "Twenty years pass. He returns.
And each, beholding the other, exclaims-
Can it be that this is he?
Heavens, is it she?"
After reading the short poem, Makoto returned the book the Nephrite.
"Indeed I envy your wonderful eyesight. I am also very fond of good verses, very fond. I even composed some in my youth."
"Good ones?"
"Of all kinds." Nephrite replied, ignoring the jibe. "I was a great friend to many of the more famous writers in America."
"Oh, have you been to America?"
"Several times. The first time was when I was only six years old."
"Oh, you must have traveled with Columbus in one of his great ships!"
Nephrite glared at Makoto for the remark, but continued. "Not quite as bad as that. I am old, I admit, but I did not know Ferdinand and Isabella. I was, however, a great friend to Remarque. I met him at an observatory while he was observing Jupiter."
Makoto's head perked up. "Jupiter?"
"Oh yes. After that, most of my verses where about Jupiter, such fascinating planet."
"That it is. I often point my telescope to its coordinates to admire the cloud formations."
"Yes, I always tried to imagine what it would be like to be on the planet itself and look into the universe from behind those clouds."
"I would have thought the sky to be a pinkish orange and stars hard to make out, except for when the clouds part."
"You talk as if you have been there."
"Perhaps I have."
Nephrite raised his eyebrow at the comment. "I once had a dream that I visited the planet. While I was there, I met a beautiful girl with long auburn brown hair and sparkling, clear green eyes. She was called otemba-chan by her friends, and I couldn't help but feel that I loved her in some way." Nephrite watched as Makoto's eyes became as big as saucers, but she quickly masked her previous reaction with a ghost of a smile. "Are you alright ma'am? You looked a bit pale a moment ago."
"I'm quite alright. I was just thinking about an old legend about a princess who lived on Jupiter, but was murdered by a being out to destroy the universe."
"Ah! You have heard that legend as well? That is one of the lesser known legends. I myself can't help but believe the legend, maybe I am too much of a romantic, but I noticed you left out some of the story."
"You are very perceptive sir. The other part of the legend states that the princess was betrayed by her love. His mind had been taken over by the being that wanted to destroy the universe, so, the next time he came to visit her on Jupiter, he ran her through with his sword."
Nephrite inwardly winced as Makoto finished the summary of the legend. Blocking those awful memories were becoming more difficult as the years went by. "Yes, a tragedy indeed. And do you remember what happened to her lover?"
"Of course. The part of his mind that had not been taken over by the evil being was appalled at what he had done. He broke free of the spell and killed himself so he could always be with his love."
"A truly tragic tale. How did you come to know the story so well?"
"I've always known of that legend. I could ask you the same question. You knew what I was going to say before I said it."
"I also have always known of that tale." Nephrite replied.
'How?! Only people of the Moon Kingdom know of the legends behind the princesses of the planets! And how in the world did he know my nickname from the Silver Millenium?! How could he know, unless... can it be that this is he?' Makoto thought, confused by this man's knowledge of something only she and the other senshi should know about.
'This woman reminds me of her. How can this be? After so long. Heavens, is it she?'
'Nephrite! I wonder if he knows who I am?' Makoto's heart fluttered like a little bird at this thought, but her face remained neutral. Maybe Usagi had blabbed the legend to this man unknowingly? 'That's ridiculous! Even Usagi isn't that stupid.'
'Makoto! Has she discovered my secret yet? What a twist of fate!'
"Fate is curious. Here are you and I, complete strangers, met by chance, discussing the romance in an old forgotten legend of long ago! We have been conversing as if we were old friends." Makoto finally said after and interval.
"Yes, it is curious, considering the ill-natured prelude to our conversation."
"You scared away the birds." Makoto teased half-heartedly.
"I was unreasonable, perhaps."
"Yes, that was evident." Makoto looked him in the eye and asked sweetly, "Are you coming again tomorrow?"
"Most certainly, if it is a beautiful morning. And I won't scare away the birds this time, I'll bring the crumbs as you did."
"Thank you very much. Hikaru-chan! Come! We're leaving!"
"Oy! Akira! We're going home!"
Hikaru and Akira come over to where their parents were sitting and watch with interest as the two formal rivals cordially say their farewells.
"My dear lady, this has been a great honor and a great pleasure."
"It has also been a pleasure for me."
"Ja! Until tomorrow."
"Until tomorrow. Will you go to "your" bench?" Makoto teased.
"No, I will come to this one- if you do not object?"
"I do not."
"And I will surely bring crumbs. Tomorrow then?"
"Tomorrow, if it's a beautiful morning."
Makoto and Nephrite walk in their separate directions, star-crossed lovers, reunited again in the small, secluded corner of the park they both loved so much.


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Well... that's it. I got the idea for this after reading a comedy by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero. I'll leave what happens next to you. And i *do* realize that middle of this was incredibly stupid. C&C to melissa_chan@cephiro.com. Don't worry, I won't bite! If you have time, drop by my page! http://www.geocities.com/hoshinopiasu/
*-I slipped a few Japanese terms in there, so I figured a translation would nice, ne?
otemba-chan- tomboy
otou-sama- father
okaa-sama- mother
obaba-san- technically "granny"
matte- wait
oy!- hey!
gomen- sorry
I think that's it. If you find anything you need clarified, don't hesitate to e-mail me!


© 2000 by *melissa-chan*