Heavenly Kings

Author's Note: For some reason, this chapter was either erased or deleted. Not sure why, though. Thank you for alerting me of that!

Chapter 4 -- Where Did Heaven Go?

The morning was indeed to come far too early, and we were awakened by a knock to our door by Jadeite, who had hardly gotten any sleep at all. Zoicite escaped into the bathroom to begin getting ready, and I ushered Jadeite inside before going over to my wardrobe to ensure my suit was ready.

“Are you ready for this, Kunzite?” he said.

“I don’t WANT to be ready for this, Jade,” I snapped. “I would much rather this NOT be happening, and you know it.”

“That’s not what I asked you,” Jadeite snorted. “You should know that there’s no escaping this as well as I do!”

“STOP FIGHTING!” Zoicite yelled through the bathroom door, making both of us blink in surprise, then looking at each other again.

“I think this is going to be harder on him than on any of the rest of us,” I said quietly. “It seems much easier for us to put up a brave front than it is for Zoicite to do.” Jadeite looked at me, noticing that I had a trace amount of tears in my eyes again.

“You’re really concerned about him, aren’t you?” Jadeite said.

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” I said, wiping my eyes. “You want to know what he asked me for last night? He made me promise him not to leave him when this thing happens. He did it before I could ask him the same thing. Do you know how something like that feels, Jade?”

“I doubt it,” he said softly, placing his hand on my shoulder. “You’re the strongest among us, in spirit and physical strength, I’ll gladly admit that. It makes sense that he would choose you to look to for comfort and reassurance. If I wasn’t so admittedly arrogant, I may have done the same thing. Zoicite is not a weak man by any means, as I’ve been slapped down by him on a number of occasions.”

“That’s because you’re an asshole,” Zoicite chuckled as he walked out of the bathroom. He seemed happier than he had been the night before, albeit still extremely nervous. “Do you need to get in for a bath, Kunzite?”

“Yes, actually,” I said, giving him a reassuring smile. I resisted the urge to kiss his forehead, as Jadeite had no idea what had transpired between us the night before, and I didn’t want to chance arousing suspicion, let alone anything else. “Excuse me.” I grabbed by suit and walked into the bathroom, using my sensitive hearing to listen in on the conversation that Zoicite and Jadeite were having.

“How did Princess Reina take it when you told her?” Zoicite asked.

“She was obviously not happy,” Jadeite said. “But I stopped by to check on her on my way here, and she seemed to be holding up. What about Princess Amiya?”

“I had to leave her before she started crying,” he said. “She was doing her best last night, poor girl. After I returned with her to her room, I held her in my arms as she cried her eyes out, and then we made lo…”

“I DON’T need to hear about that part, Zocite,” the blonde said, stopping the smaller man from spilling his guts. I stopped listening to their conversation at that point, thinking about the previous night’s occurrences, and the fact that I had spilled my own guts about it to Jadeite, of all people. I thought about the kiss that Zoicite and I had shared, the feel of his lips on my skin, drying my tears and igniting what felt like an uncontrollable fire. I knew that I had started to fall in love with him, but my head was screaming at me to stop, to remain true to Maena. However, I had promised Zoicite that I would not leave him in any case, and that was a promise I had no intention of breaking.

We arrived at the appointed place an hour later, but we found that there was no one there. However, we were warned not to leave until we met with either Diamond, Sapphire, Emerald, or Rubius, or we would be captured, along with our beloved princesses, and we would all be killed. After nearly half an hour, Sapphire finally appeared and we followed him to the Dark Kingdom palace of Queen Beryl, where we were immediately immersed in briefing and training sessions with others from other kingdoms, none of which we knew. Zoicite was assigned as my pupil within hours of the beginning to training, as I seemed to be much more skilled in the advanced battle techniques. And so began our time as master and student in the Dark Kingdom.

As expected, our time in the Dark Kingdom palace included infusion of dark energy into our very souls, and by the end of the day, I had grown a bitter hatred for the Moon Kingdom and all things in it, but with one great exception -- I still seemed to recall a beauty in a golden dress. I knew that somewhere, I knew who she was, but if she was part of the Moon Kingdom, I SHOULD hate her. In speaking with the others, they seemed to have one part of the Moon Kingdom that they couldn’t wrap their minds around hating, and that was a woman that they’d had a relationship with, though with their souls now darkened they couldn’t remember exactly who it had been. We had all somehow forgotten how to love, except for my new-grown love for my student, although I had yet to find out how he felt about me. The funny thing, in retrospect, is that at that point my faint memory of Princess Maena and my budding relationship with Zoicite were the only parts of the Moon Kingdom that I remembered not hating.

That night, I walked to my dormitory where the four of us had been assigned, and found Jadeite and Nephrite already asleep. Zoicite was sitting at his desk, reading, and either didn’t hear me come in or tried to make it seem that way. I came up behind him and threw my arms around his shoulders, nearly making him throw his book in the air.

“Kunzite-sama!” he squealed, and I placed my hand over his mouth to keep him from waking the others.

“Hush up,” I ordered. “We don’t need to wake them up.” Using my materialization powers, I decided to do something somewhat romantic and conjure up a perfect pink rose, placing it in front of him.

“So you do remember,” he whispered with a smile. I kissed his cheek and brushed the edge of his ear with my teeth.

“I do remember,” I said. “I never would have thought that, in this place of darkness and loveless abyss, two of Queen Beryl’s elite warriors would find love.” Setting down the book and the rose, Zoicite turned around and embraced me tightly, and my hand found its way to cup the back of his head. “Oh, Zoi-chan… I will keep my promise to you, to not leave you in this battle, if it is in my power.” So as to not wake the others, we quickly exited the room and walked out to the gardens of black roses and red lilies which only grew in the Dark Kingdom. As soon as we knew we were alone, we sat on one of the benches and I held his hand.

“Kunzite-sama…” he said, but I placed my finger to his lips.

“Call me -kun when we are alone, please,” I said. He nodded, and I took the opportunity to remove my hand and kiss him. I ran my hand through his gorgeous silver hair, and moaned against the kiss as he placed his hands on my chest. “You taste like mint chocolate.”

“I brought some with me, as a reminder of home,” he said. “I had a piece in my mouth when you first snuck up on me in the room.” I chuckled, my eyes gazing down at him with an intensity that I had only ever looked at one person before. “Kunzite-kun, I… I, um…”

“I love you too, Zoi-chan,” I said with a smile, knowing exactly what he was trying to say. “You don’t have to be nervous about saying it.”

“I’m not nervous about saying it,” he said bluntly. “But I’m still somewhat concerned what people will think when they find out that I’m queer.”

“Does it matter what anyone thinks except me?” I said. He smiled and melted into my arms. “This is such a dark place, compared to what the Moon Kingdom is, but the stars are just as bright as they are in the universe of light. They sparkle in your hair, and it makes the night even more beautiful, but the stars are not what make it beautiful. It’s you who makes it that way.”

“Thank you, my love,” Zoicite said as I drew him closer. For nearly an hour, we sat there in that garden, kissing nearly turning to passion. There were several times when I found myself rubbing my hand between his legs, and that only heightened the intensity of the situation. “Kunzite-kun…” he whispered. “I want you… Make love to me… Please…”

“I would love nothing more right now,” I said, smiling as I felt myself harden. My hand went down to his crotch and I felt the need he was expressing in his pants. He moaned, and I squeezed lightly, playfully, grazing my nails lightly along his erection. Instinctively, he reached down and took hold of me as well, causing me to match his moans. I wanted to teleport back to the privacy of our old room on the Moon, but I knew we would be detected if we attempted to leave, even if it wasn’t to desert the cause.

**Zoicite’s POV**

After moaning, begging Kunzite to make love to me, I knew that there was no turning back. I would never return to loving Princess Amiya, and I would always be enamored to Kunzite, even in death. Perhaps in the back of my mind, I still wanted to remember the love I had for the blue-haired angel in the baby blue gown that I still to this day see at times in my sleep. But it was the here and now that I wanted to be focused on.

“Zoi-chan,” Kunzite whispered as he unbuttoned the top of my shirt. His eyes were merely black slits, half-closed and full of passion and lust. As he rid me of my shirt, I began to undo his shirt as well. Those hard muscles stared out at me, and as soon as one of his taut nipples was exposed to me, I surprised him by moving in and beginning to nibble on it, drawing a gasp from his lips. “Ah!” At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and looked up to his eyes in question. “Don’t stop, my love. It felt excellent.”

“Yes, Kunzite-kun,” I said softly. Nibbling softly on his nipple, I placed my hand on the other and began tweaking it. He moaned softly, smiling down at me. I felt myself being turned around in his arms, felt the buttons on my pants being undone, and a strong hand reaching down inside to take hold of me once again. My eyes saw only white for a few seconds, and I closed them briefly as my lover continued to stroke my cock to absolute solidity.

“If you were able to, Zoicite, would you bear children with me?” I suddenly heard him whisper in my ear. To raise children with him would be like heaven, but even if it were possible for me to bear children, we were in such a dark place, and a child would most certainly not be happy here. I moaned in response, feeling incredibly close to coming. I was released by Kunzite’s arms, and I then felt my cock being engulfed by a hot, wet mouth with a slithering tongue working its magic on me. I felt like I was going to lose my balance, even though I was sitting down, so I lay down on the bench and gave in to pleasure.

“Oh, Kunzite-kun,” I groaned. “I’ve never felt this good, with anyone!” With his mouth full, it was difficult for Kunzite to do more than moan in response, but just the hum of his mouth was enough to send me over the edge. “AH! Kunzite, I’m coming!!” I felt my seed shoot out of me, and he swallowed every last drop, sucking me hard to dry me off. He moved up to look me in the face and smiled, licking his lips.

“You smell and taste like mint, little one,” he chuckled. “And I don’t think it’s from the chocolate you brought from home. It would be too soon for it to permeate your skin. Do you… ‘oil’ yourself?”

“Oh, like you don’t?” I said with a weak smile. “But I also use a wrap on most of my skin when I’m washing up that is pretty strong, and the scent tends to stay on the skin until the next time I bathe. I had no idea that it also left a taste as well.”

“Do you have some sort of obsession with mint?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” I said. “Because there was one time while we were training, a few months ago, that you had some sort of mint-scented cologne or shampoo residue, and I could smell it really strong on you. I’ve obsessed over the smell and taste of it ever since.”

“How long have you had feelings for me, Zoicite?” he said.

“For about a year,” I whispered. “I tried to ignore them because we were both involved, but after a while I found myself thinking of you all the time, except when I was with Amiya. I was still absolutely consumed with her while she was around me, so I didn’t feel guilty about my feelings for you. To tell the truth, as much as I hate the Moon Kingdom, she is the one thing that is back there that I wish wasn’t going to be destroyed. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I believe I do,” Kunzite said, moving away from me slightly, clasping his hands together, his elbows on his knees, head bowed, and leaning forward. I sat up, leaning on my hands. “I don’t want to fight Maena either, but I don’t have a choice. I don’t want her to die, but I’d rather not even see her tomorrow, because if I do while she’s alive, it means that I’ll either have to fight her or watch her be mowed down by one of my soldiers.”

“Oh, Kunzite-sama,” I said, not being able to help calling him that. I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his shoulder. “We may not be able to be with them anymore, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still love them.”

“I don’t want to love her anymore,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I want to love only you, and not have to face the pain of destroying something that has brought me so much happiness. I don’t want to love HER anymore!”

“Then I think we have a choice to make,” I said, turning him to look me straight in the eye. “Either we love them and return to them, keeping our love a complete secret, or we make our love known to the world and…” I knew that the dark magic was getting to me, but I couldn’t help it. “And kill them.”

“I think we both know the answer to that one, my pet,” he said. I could sense the change in him too as he placed his hand on my shoulder and looked at me with an absolutely piercing look in his eyes. He was forgetting again, and at the time, I couldn’t have been happier at his words. “I cannot kill Maena, and I know you cannot kill Amiya, but perhaps we can do each other a favor, and kill our rivals. We both know the way to their rooms, and we can make that one of our first stops on the way to mowing down the Moon Kingdom!” He laughed that hearty, meaty, mean laugh that he would become known for. I loved it, and I loved him, but my mind drew back to when his laugh was kind, gentle, and sweet. We had both changed so much over the course of only two days, but I was torn between my loyalty to him as a student and my loyalty to him as a lover. Could they possibly be one and the same?

And so I end here.

*Kunzite’s POV*

We returned to the room a little while later, and were quite relieved to find that both Jadeite and Nephrite were sound asleep. We did not need them knowing that we were in a relationship together, at least not until all of this was said and done. I was by no means ashamed of ‘us’, but what would this do to the trust the two younger kings had in us if they found out beforehand? They would think we were losing our objectivity and would only be focused on each other. Of course, as Zoicite had mentioned before, I could in no way stop thinking about him.

“Goodnight, my love,” I said, kissing Zoicite as he got into bed. After climbing into bed myself, we reached for each other’s hand across the aisle. After a few minutes, we let go and I settled down to go to sleep. It would be a long, trying day tomorrow. But before long, I felt the covers move around me, and Zoicite’s long, slender arm snake its way around my waist as he lay down. “Zoicite, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“No,” he said bluntly but quietly. “But all I care about right now is being close to you.” I left it at that, content to feel my lover’s body snuggled up next to me.

The next morning, I was awakened by a LOUD yell from the bunk above me. Wondering where Zoicite was since he was not sleeping in his bed, Jadeite had looked down at my bed to see if I was awake and ask me where Zoicite was, when he not only got the answer to his un-spoken question, he got the surprise of his young life. Opening my eyes enough to see both him and Nephrite staring down at us in shock, I realized that Zoicite was still sleeping in my arms.

“Oh my God!” Nephrite yelped. “You’re not doing what I think you’re doing, are you, Kunzite-sama?”

“Why are you yelling, Nephlite?” Zoicite said groggily. “It’s not like we’re having sex in front of you or anything.” At that, even my mouth dropped open. The man had absolutely no inhibitions about ‘us.’ Of course, I wasn’t complaining, but it spoke volumes on his devotion to me, and it surprised me. What really surprised me was when he kissed my lips in front of them. The chaste good-morning kiss was very sweet, and once again, he tasted and smelled like mint and chocolate, and I smiled against it.

“Good morning, Little One,” I said. I then turned back to the others and gave them a mean look. “Not a word of this, you two, to anyone. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Jadeite said, obviously not wanting to piss me off. I looked directly at Nephrite, and he froze in the middle of a soft chuckle when he saw that my eyes were flashing a light green color, which only seemed to happen when I was upset.

“I hear you loud and clear, Kunzite-sama,” he said. It was then that a rift started to form between Nephrite and Zoicite, and one of the reasons that I lost friendship with Nephrite was this secret. They now detested the idea of love, and resented us because we were able to still feel it.

Later that morning, we all met at the armory with the other soldiers. After nearly an hour of final practicing of sparring with one another, I pulled Zoicite aside and spoke to him.

“Are you ready for this, Little One?” I asked, finding it difficult not to pull him into my arms. “Are you sure you will not hate me for killing your princess?” His silvery white eyes looked up at me and he looked like he was going to burst into tears at any moment.

“If I don’t have to kill her myself, I will be fine,” he said. “Of course, I must ask you the same thing, Kunzite-sama. Will you hate me for killing your princess?”

“I could never hate you,” I said, touching his chin. “The question is if they are brought into the fight before we can strike them in their rooms, and you and I must fight side by side as they do the same, will we be able to watch each other kill them?”

“We must do what we must, My Lord,” he said. “All I know is that I l…” I knew what he wanted to say, but I cut him off because I also knew that the wrong ears could be listening to his words, including Queen Beryl, and she was the one person we did NOT need finding out about this. I put my finger to his lips and smiled.

“I know,” I said. “And I share your thoughts. However, I need to give you something that you will probably be forced to use today.” Using materialization, I formed a large, ornate sword and handed it to Zoicite. “Prince Diamond gave this to me shortly before you came into the armory, and told me to give it to the one of my students who had proven himself to be worthy of such a great sword, and who could wield it properly. I know that you are, and can.”

“Thank you, Kunzite-sama,” Zoicite said, kneeling in front of me.

“Please do not kneel before me, Little One,” I said, pulling him to his feet. “You, I, Nephrite, and Jadeite are to be known as the Shittenou, The Heavenly Kings, the four highest rulers in the Dark Kingdom, second only in rank to Prince Diamond and Prince Sapphire when they are around. We are equals.”

“Where did Heaven go, Kunzite?” he said, his gaze locked on me. “We’re supposed to be the Kings of Heaven, but where did Heaven go?”

“It’s right here,” I said, touching his chest, then drawing his hand to my chest. “And you are right here, in my heart.” Ensuring that no one was around who cared, I leaned down and kissed him. The next chapter of our lives would be very difficult, and very short, but I knew that we could make it through as long as we knew that we loved one another.

End Chapter 4