Summary: In the mighty Terran Kingdom, where corruption and tradition reign supreme, there is an ancient law in which any feudal lord may lay first claim to a lady upon her wedding night, but only if the groom is of lesser stature. Prince Helios is betrothed to the beautiful young princess of the neighboring Moon Kingdom, but his older brother Endymion is interested in her as well...

An AU take on the Silver Millennium story, obviously ;) Teaching old dogs new tricks here!

PRIMA NOCTA

It was ridiculous.

Positively ridiculous.

The Crown Prince Endymion, heir to the entire Solar System, and here he was lurking about in the rose bushes like some petty gardener. If any member of his royal guard caught him, he would be laughed all the way to the border gates. Jedite perhaps loudest of all; his chief of war always did have a slightly sadistic side, or maybe it was just since that one time Endymion finally managed to trounce him in chess.

He shifted, trying to remain inconspicuous, but she still caught the movement.

He could never seem to hide anything from her.

Across the courtyard of the palace gardens, their eyes met. She smiled, and his heart skipped a beat. But then she bowed her head, all demureness and grace, to continue listening to her betrothed as he droned on and on, waxing poetry from the deep tomes of his book. It was a careful ruse; a far cry from the wild abandon he had seen her show when she thought no one was looking.

But he was always looking.

Endymion first laid eyes on Princess Serenity when she arrived at the Terran Kingdom a fortnight ago, walking in through the doors of the throne room in the shadow of her indomitable mother, the Queen Regent of the Moon Kingdom. It had taken every ounce of his willpower not to lose his jaw to the floor. In all his eighteen years, he had never seen a maiden so beautiful. She had the body of a sprite, gown white and flowy as a fairy's with hair like freshly captured starlight. Golden and glimmering under the light of the chandeliers, it was done up in a coiffure he had never seen here before on earth, but he figured it must be all the rage on the moon because her mother sported a similar style. When she glanced his way, he was startled to find the purest blue peering back at him. Her eyes were like the fathomless depths of the ocean and yet he saw too a refreshing openness within them... she felt much but she did not try to hide what she was feeling, either. And lurking within the shallows of her gaze was a piercing intrigue and lascivious wantonness that had set his stomach fluttering, and other parts of his body reacting in solidarity.

He was suddenly very glad to be sitting.

He had watched while she was introduced, this young flower of a princess, and when it was decided by his father and the elder Serenity that an alliance would be beneficial to their two kingdoms - like all the planets, the moon was under the purview of earth, but relations had grown acrimonious of late. He watched when it was decided that his brother, Helios, would take the princess' hand in marriage, to cement their peoples as one; foster a greater sense of unity.

Some unnameable emotion had coursed through him then; something that tasted bitter and foul, left a lingering chill within his chest, and Endymion cast a look at his younger sibling. The boy was staring at Serenity, eyes wide.

He had no idea how to appreciate a free-spirit such as she, and he still didn't, as evidenced by the way he so frequently set her beside him and forced her into discourse that too soon had her eyes glazing over with boredom. Helios was studious, intellectual, and dull. Endymion loved him, but even he could admit that. They were yin and yang; light and dark, and even their appearances had been testament to that - he with his flyaway locks of ebony, Helios with his pale hair always perfectly primped. Growing up, Helios was the good little boy who listened to the governesses and spoke with a soft, measured tone... Endymion was burlish, moody, and suave; his favorite pastimes had included sneaking out and giving his tutors as much hell as he possibly could. But he wasn't all 'bad boy', despite the rumors spread by maidens who threw themselves at him left and right. He had stood his ground against them, just as he stood up for his brother when the teasing happened. They practically raised each other - their mother, the cold, aloof Queen Beryl always having cared more for the fancy trappings of power than the foibles of parenthood - and as such loyalty, duty, and honor were important to him. Particularly when Helios was involved. It was why he was struggling so mightily with this intense hunger he had for his brother's future wife. He had never felt this way over a woman. Never been so consumed with need that he felt all his ideals slipping away from him.

It was terrifying, in a strangely scintillating sort of way.

She was light, like his brother, and she should have been a good match for him. But Helios' personality was more suited to the mousy princess of Mercury, while Serenity's personality held an underlying edge... a streak of rebelliousness that Endymion related to all too well. Like she, too, wished with all her being to be free from the constraints of royal life. When she peeked up at him again, spying on him in his pathetic hiding place spying on her, another smile graced her pink-rouged lips, this time morphing into more of a smirk. Playfulness danced in her eyes, and she threw him a wink.

A book suddenly snapped shut, startling both Endymion and Serenity.

"What, pray tell, are you doing over there, lurking behind the bushes, brother!?" Helios' voice demanded, unnaturally sharp as a whip. Serenity had the courtesy to look chagrined, but Endymion, even though his heart was beating a mile a minute from having been found out, managed to retain a demeanor of cool as he snapped off a rose and began twirling it between his fingers when he wandered out. He kept up the bored affect as he drawled in reply,

"Who said anything about lurking? Can't a man pick a flower for a lady without being accosted unfairly as to his intentions?"

"I see no lady here besides the one at my side," Helios deadpanned, his eyes never leaving Endymion's.

"Agh!" Endymion exclaimed, making a grand, exaggerated show of looking to either side and behind. "Lost another one I guess! I don't know why that keeps happening." He sighed dramatically and tossed his rose to the cobblestones. "Do tell Lady Metallia where she can find her gift."

Serenity sniggered, but Helios was less than amused. His eyes narrowed. "You seem to be lurking nearby rather more often these past couple weeks, Endymion."

"It's called 'living here too'. As always, you read too much into things, brother."

Helios ignored the pointed look to his hefty tome that probably would have put the holy priest's to shame, instead grabbing up Serenity's hand. He sent a final glare over his shoulder as he began dragging Serenity off. "Come, Serenity, to the library. Let us leave Endymion to his imaginary women and find solace in a place he shall never set foot."

When Helios turned back, Serenity used his inattention to catch Endymion's, plying him with such a passionate roll of the eyes that he nearly laughed aloud, all commiseration at her plight. Helios was right, if there was ever a place he loathed to be, it was buried in the dusty shelves of Terran history. That place was almost suffocatingly dull. Something told him Serenity was of similar mind.

He watched her leave, sunlight glinting off her golden halo, and inwardly cursed himself.

He was stupid, careless moth to her intoxicating flame.

He was going to get burnt... and he didn't care.

oOo

It was later that day, or rather that night, when Endymion next encountered the recondite Princess Serenity.

He was passing through the hall of the open-aired section of castle when a sound caught his attention. He paused... there it was again. Through the thin, thready slants of moonlight slipping through the cloud covering, he spied a glow of white on the grounds, near the magnificent Fountain of the Goddess. But this was another kind of goddess, and currently, she was... de-robing.

He stood rooted, jaw slack, unable to clearly make out the definition to her body but enough to appreciate the shapeliness of its contours, before suddenly -

She dove.

He was aghast. Swimming, nude, at midnight, in the fountain? Why, it was practically blasphemous, especially in that particular fountain, and it was with the full intention of... rebuking her? Warning her? Well, he didn't really know... but Endymion leapt right over the wall and marched directly to confront her, in flagrante delicto. He eased up as he approached, observing as she drifted, on her back, a few feet away. Two pert nipples poked from out of the water. He stared at them, rather entranced, as he leaned against a statue with arms crossed.

"Dedicated to the gods but made for the birds. Tell me, are you a bird, Princess Serenity?"

To her credit, Serenity didn't start at the unexpected sound of his voice. In fact, she didn't even look guilty, or embarrassed. She just laid there, continuing to float, unashamed at her state of undress as she tilted her head just enough to lock eyes with him. Her hair fanned out around her in the water, soaking in every inch of the moonlight, and she once again reminded him of his initial impression of a water sprite... a siren, like the tales of old. A danger, created solely to lure him in. To bring about his demise.

Why were the harbingers of destruction always so damned beautiful?

She splayed her arms out and gave a push off, bringing her closer to him. She closed her eyes, the lashes bedizened in sparkling droplets. "Would that I could have the wings of a bird," she sighed, most achingly. She swished her arms out again, almost in mimicry. "They drink a freedom we shall never taste."

Anything Endymion might have said to that got stuck in his throat, as he was granted glimpse of the swelling breasts that attached to those hypnotizing nipples. But then she righted herself, and turned to face him, her wet spools of endless hair coming to rest over the area he had been so fascinated with. He swallowed down his disappointment, eyes sliding back up to bore into hers. The knowing expression she wore was not lost on him. She knew exactly the effect she had.

Damn her.

"Your fiancé would not take kindly to a transgression such as this," he murmured, not sure to what he was referring anymore.

"Do you know, despite my initial misgivings, there are a great many things of interest in the library," Serenity mused, so entirely off the topic that he got mental whiplash. But her eyes were shining in a way that suggested... maybe not as off topic as he thought. "Particularly in the governmental history section, third row, on ancient laws and mandates."

He blinked, still feeling woefully off-kilter and it was not a sensation he was used to, nor liked. In fact it irked him. But the ornery spark was fleeting, because she straightened then, wading to collect her discarded dress. He tried not to gape too obviously as she exited the water and revealed a soft belly, hourglass thighs and a small thicket of curls matching the color of her hair tucked comfortably between the two. It took every effort not to groan aloud at the sight, clenching his legs together as if that would stem the resulting admiration that rose within him.

He wanted so badly to touch her... to bury himself deep within that pocket of curls... but he didn't. He couldn't.

She wasn't his. She was promised to another... his brother, which made his desires all the worse. No matter how wrong for Helios she was, and how right for him.

He tore his eyes up and away soon as she was clothed again. Her smile was a little wistful, but still mischievous around the edges.

"Good night, Prince Endymion."

oOo

He barely slept that night. He kept mulling what she had said around in his brain, the words haunting him as surely as the image of her swimming so unabashedly within the waters of that fountain. Governmental history... third row... laws and mandates?

At last he could bear it no more and threw the silken bedsheets off himself, padding over to collect a candle. The light was not yet dawning over the eastern mountains, and he figured it was only a few hours past when he first discovered Serenity stripping beside the pool. The library was the last place he ever wanted to be at this godforsaken time, but he just had to know what she meant, before that voice in his mind literally drove him crazy.

The soldier guarding his door cocked a brow when Endymion slipped out. He pinned the man with his most princely look, one that smarted of both unquestionable authority and inherent entitlement.

"If anyone inquires, I am still within."

"Yes, your Majesty."

Endymion set off with only the dim glow of his candle as guide. It was hardly the first time he had made such an order, but definitely the first he was using it to sneak into the library. It was true... no one would find him there. The halls were eerily silent but not nearly as sinister feeling as the pitch black library, with nary a torch in sight. The rich tapestries that normally lent life and color to this hallowed space were completely devoid of form, just shapeless shadows that towered over him giving Endymion chills. Occasionally the light of his candle would catch the fabric giving him a flicker of a glance at some animal, or nameless face, but he had never spent enough time in here to recognize the paintings by this alone.

Helios would've.

He counted off the rows and eventually came upon the one Serenity had alluded to. Curiously, he traced his finger down the spines, until suddenly he came upon one that was marked with a feather, and appeared to have been disturbed more recently than the rest. He smirked, recalling their conversation about her affinity for winged creatures.

He pulled out the earmarked book. Small but weighty, it was titled Prima Nocta. He held it in place with the crook of his arm and flipped it open. Bringing the candle closer, he began to read.

oOo

Wedding preparations were well under way, an excited sort of energy filling the castle as servants bustled to and fro, readying the decorations, the food, the guest rooms...

It all made Endymion rather sick, honestly. He tried his best to avoid the seemingly unavoidable ruckus, lurking in dark alcoves with a permanent scowl on his face. He side-stepped yet another girl with arms overflowing in china and other ornate finery only to bump into the one girl he wanted to see least, and most, of all.

"Hello," she said breathlessly.

"Serenity," he half-moaned, images of pink flesh and golden curls filling his mind.

She was positively radiant in dusty blue today, the sort of color that made him think of a summer afternoon spent lying in warm grass, daydreaming heavenward. The shade complemented her eyes perfectly, which currently were brimming with the roguishness he so found attractive about her.

"You should take caution scrunching your face up overmuch. As my mother always says, one day it will get stuck that way."

Despite himself, he snorted.

She drew dangerously closer. Their chests almost brushed. "Have you visited the library yet?" she asked, mildly.

His eyes darted to assess their audience. He was very careful about his answer. "I did."

Serenity searched his countenance, as if looking for something. He wondered if she found it, because suddenly she stepped back, that same smile still tugging at the corners of her mouth. He ached to feel those lips beneath his. Or maybe clenched around some other part of his anatomy.

"Good."

And just like that, she was gone, sweeping away down the corridor. He shook himself, before he was caught staring at her retreating figure like a stoned lunatic, deciding then that he needed advice, and he needed it now.

There was only one person he could trust with information like this, and he was either in the Mead Hall, or enjoying questionable company in the bowels of his private quarters. Praying it was the former, Endymion sidled off in the opposite direction.

oOo

"Kunzite."

"Your Majesty," came the slightly surprised reply, as the aforementioned leader of his royal guard leaned back to greet him. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Endymion jerked his head at the surrounding soldiers and with that one swift motion, cleared the Hall. He pulled out another chair at the same table as Kunzite, flopping down and slouching most unregally. He flicked at a stray piece of lint on the chair's feather-pillowed arm and gazed moodily up at his old friend from below the sheath of black bangs, the only person he was willing to relax this much around. Of all the members of his guard, Kunzite had spent the most time alongside him, and he considered him kin as a brother. Certainly, he felt closer to him than he did Helios, most days.

"You look like shit," Kunzite observed, taking a dainty sip of his mead.

"I didn't sleep last night," Endymion said, rubbing at his temple.

Kunzite smirked. "Me neither. For differing reasons than yours, I assume."

Endymion pinned him with a look that was half-disgust, half-marvel. "Dare I even ask?"

"Let's just say, I've become well acquainted with the possible half-sister of your own future sister-in-law," Kunzite leered, with a lurid smile. "Princess Venus is quite the little vixen, I must say."

Sister-in-law. Endymion cringed at the connotation. It was the last way he wanted to think of Serenity.

"The late Moon King's escapades aside," Endymion said, waving distractedly as if shooing a persistent fly, "That's precisely why I'm here." He averted his eyes to fiddle further with the arm rest. "Serenity, I mean," he elucidated, when Kunzite made no move to prompt him.

"Ah."

Endymion looked up to gauge his reaction, but all Kunzite did was cross his legs and take another sip from his gold-encrusted goblet.

"You've plundered nearly half the beds of women from the Terran Kingdom," he said, watching the appreciative glimmer in Kunzite's eye grow. He looked highly amused. "And don't think I don't know about your trysts with Zoisite either."

"And here I thought I possessed at least some measure of subtlety," Kunzite sighed with faux disappointment in himself. "What can I say? Love is a delicacy best savored without restriction."

Endymion sat up straighter in his seat. "Exactly. Without restriction. Kunzite... what I'm about to tell you is in the strictest confidence." He leaned forward, gaze serious. Kunzite inclined his white-blonde head and raised the goblet, a wordless toast of solemn agreement. Endymion took a deep breath.

"I'm in love with Serenity."

If Kunzite was shocked, he did a good job of disguising it. He merely lifted a brow.

"Does Helios know?"

"I think he has his suspicions."

Kunzite swished the contents of his cup, looking off into the distance, contemplative. "What are you going to do?"

Endymion sighed, this time scrubbing at his entire face, the frustration that had been relentlessly stalking him beginning to seep through. "That's why I've come to see you. To seek your advice."

Kunzite was quiet for a long time. He seemed to be weighing his words. Endymion couldn't blame him... he knew that this subject was bordering on treacherous. But he also trusted the man to be honest with him, which was more than he could say for the rest of the blasted kingdom.

"You are the future king..." Kunzite murmured, gaze still faraway. "As such, you are subject to certain... entitlements."

"Prima Nocta," Endymion breathed. "The right of a lord to a lady on her wedding night - if her husband is of lesser stature to the interested lord."

Kunzite nodded, eyes aglow with grey cunning and his ever-present perceptiveness as they snapped back to Endymion's. "Excepting your father, you are the only one with that power over Prince Helios."

Endymion swallowed thickly. It was that which had been plaguing him, ever since his early-houred excursion to the library. That power, to have exactly what he desired... but destroy his brother in the process. To claim another's wife, to take from them the blessed act of consummation... it was demeaning; a defamation.

"His reputation might never recover," Endymion whispered.

"Perhaps not," Kunzite concurred. "But now I pose to you - if you do not take this chance... this legal birthright... Will you regret it? Will you regret it so sorely that it destroys you, our future king, in the process - and thus the sanctity of the entire kingdom? If she is your weakness... your Achilles Heel... then would it not be better to get this 'out of your system' so to speak, so that your embittered feelings towards your brother do not color your decisions going forward?"

It was a persuasive argument... Worthy of consideration. Endymion nodded sharply, gracing his companion with a look of utmost gratitude for as always, the man's refreshing lack of cloak and dagger-speak he was so often forced to endure with others. He was already up and headed for the door, cape flaring out behind him, when he paused. Still mulling on Kunzite's words.

"Helios... he will not see it that way."

He didn't turn back. He didn't need to. Kunzite's reply was firm.

"Helios does not wear your mantle. He will never have to make the decisions you do."

oOo

The wedding day arrived in a fanfare of activity and celebrations. There was everything from fireworks and feasts, to what Endymion was fairly certain were clandestine orgies held all throughout private rooms of the castle. He chortled; let no one ever say Terrans wasted an opportunity to indulge in the carnal pleasures. He did not doubt Kunzite was one of their number, and perhaps his new conquest from Venus as well.

This kingdom he had been crowned to inherit was the supreme monarchy of the Golden Millennium, and yet underneath it was a veritable hotbed of sin and corruption. Endymion wondered what the response would be if he did enact this ancient law, and surprisingly... he found he didn't really care.

Let them cheer or let them judge. They were no better than he, with their lascivious affairs and their immoral double-dealings, trading bibles for sex and sex for money. What was morality anyway, but a code created by humans to control other humans? Who were they, to dictate love?

Endymion's mind weighed heavy and his features must have resembled a storm cloud, because he was given a wide berth by everyone he came across. He had just been to Helios' fitting for formal wear, and spent the better part of that hour the unwilling recipient to his brother's narrowed stare. The sixteen-year-old was definitely too smart for his age, and his own good. He knew Endymion was up to something. He basically implied as much when Endymion went to help him lace up his leather tunic.

"You've been quiet lately," Helios commented, still irritatingly intense in his appraisal.

"There's a lot going on," Endymion side-stepped, but not neatly enough.

"You're always quiet when you're plotting something."

Endymion looked up at the younger boy imperiously, tightening the laces with perhaps less gentle fingers than before. "Enemies plot. Brothers run headlong without thought for consequence, yet rarely do they mean true harm."

Helios frowned, and something indecipherable flashed through his fiery umber eyes then, like the precursor to a tempest. He retreated from Endymion quickly, going to stand beside the window, finishing the last knot himself. He turned his profile away, and his voice was low but razor-like when he spoke next.

"Still, the line between the two is thin. It would be a shame for a brother to become an enemy. Don't you think?"

Endymion didn't answer, and nor did Helios return to him. He began continuing to suit up, across the room and alone.

"Don't ruin today for me, brother."

Walking now, Endymion had no real destination in mind. He just needed to feel the solid earth beneath him; a tether lest he lose himself to the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions currently swirling within him. Kunzite's words tangled with Helios' until he hardly knew where one began and the other ended.

Future king... entitlements... plotting... will you regret it? Brother becoming an enemy... he will never have to make the decisions you do...

He wrestled long and hard with this decision before him, but even once the ceremony began he did not truly know what he was going to do, until he did it.

"Speak now, or forever hold your peace," the priest was saying, and Endymion hardly registered the gasps as he stood up from his throne, or the slight tug from his mother... he only had eyes for the couple on the dais; for the rosy-cheeked blonde beauty beneath her veil and the boy chiseled in ice beside her.

"I invoke," he said loudly, in a commanding voice that traveled easily across the room, "Prima Nocta."

The crowd exploded into sound, an excited buzz that threatened to rival that of the spluttering of the priest, or the protestations of his parents. This probably wouldn't reflect well, for what they were trying to achieve politically. But Endymion held his ground, a stone, unwavering even in the face of his brother's cold - so blazingly cold - eyes.

"I will never forgive you for this," Helios seethed, one hand clenched at his side, the other around his sword, as if dying to draw it and retaliate with force. But he knew as well as anyone - perhaps better than anyone - that Endymion's declaration was perfectly legal, and binding.

He would have first taste of the beautiful Princess Serenity tonight.

"I am prepared to pay that price," Endymion replied the threat, blithely letting his gaze drift to the woman at Helios' side. The upward tick of Serenity's lips before she schooled her expression was so brief, he might have missed it had he blinked. But it was enough to infer, she was quite pleased at this turn of events, even if she had an appearance to maintain. And deep down, past the wretched guilt of his blatant betrayal, Endymion felt a stirring of smug satisfaction.

Though Helios had her hand, he would never have her heart.

oOo

This time... he couldn't hold back his lusty moan.

Endymion entered his bedroom to find her naked as the day she was born, as the night at the fountain, draped across his large crimson-canopied four-poster bed like she bloody belonged there. She wore a seductive smile, and between her fingers she was rolling the stem of a rose.

"Later that day... I came back for it," she said, in a soft, lilting tone that never failed to set Endymion's knees quaking. He loved her voice... her body... her recalcitrant streak that no man, or woman, had ever been able to tame. "You would have given it to me, yes? Not that wench Metallia?" There was the light of teasing in her eyes, and in the forward question.

"I would've given you a hundred roses, if you desired it. Thousands. The entire castle, transformed into a garden."

She took a deep inhale of the fragrant flower, but her eyes never deviated from his.

"Take your clothes off."

He couldn't comply fast enough. The belts and buttons were easy feats but he ended up snagged in his bottom layer shirt, Serenity snickering wickedly at his plight. When he was finally free, he growled and lunged for her. "You dare mock a prince?"

He crawled up onto her and hovered overhead, but she scooted onto her back and placed her warm hands on his chest, raking the nails gently as she went. "It is hard not to when the prince doesn't appear able to follow directions." He shivered as her fingers traced fire down to his midsection, then patted at the pants he still had on. The pants that were very much constricting the part of himself that so desperately ached to be free. She brushed across his straining bulge, and Endymion jumped, making a noise that was embarrassingly strangled.

"Do you need help?" Serenity asked sweetly. "Following directions?" She began to stroke at him from outside his breeches, and with a groan, he rocked back and forth into her hand. "Perhaps you are used to your servants doing it for you," she whispered, against the fine hairs of his chest. He shivered again when she laid a kiss there. Before his lower half did something he was bound to regret, Endymion took her entire slight weight and rolled them over, until they were side by side in the bed.

"What, dress me? Or... this? Because no one has done this for me," he said, significantly. She smiled, a little shyly.

"Me neither. Though I have certainly heard enough secondhand stories from my girlfriends."

"You are apparently a very good listener and a very quick learner, then," Endymion murmured, his eyes darkening into freshly stoked coals. The energy shifted again, and he leaned in, capturing her lips with his own, that which he had been yearning to do ever since she walked into the great throne room a fortnight ago. She tasted as intoxicating as forbidden fruit, plucked from the tree at Eden. He wanted nothing more than to lay here forever, suckling at the sweetness that she provided. His mouth began to experiment, drifting away from her lips and down to the supple neck, the arches of her collarbones. The lower he went the louder she became, his teasing tongue dipping to circle her nipples. He remembered how they had looked, poking from out of the water, too far to touch... and now he laved them with his own wetness. Licked and sucked and bit and bruised until she was pleading with him to go lower, please go lower.

He could never deny her.

The world that opened to Endymion was unlike any he could have fathomed. He had seen the statues, heard the gleeful tales from boys older than himself, and still nothing could have prepared him. He hesitatingly darted his tongue across like testing the waters, and was surprised to find that she still tasted sweet, albeit of a different kind. The cry he was rewarded with was enough to encourage him to keep going, and soon he found himself with tight thighs wrapped around ringing ears. It was unbelievably sexy, to know he could hold this much power over her, to hear her begging for him and to feel the proof of his skill in the way she was spilling wildly into his mouth. He knew she would be ready now.

"Don't stop," Serenity panted, grabbing at his hair. Her eyes burned with fever. "Oh please, Endymion."

He grinned roguishly and his hands fumbled with his pants, until they were a heap alongside his other clothes. His erection sprang to full attention, and carefully, he guided it to her heat, but did not enter, simply gliding his member back and forth along the slick folds.

"Do you want me, Serenity?" Endymion crooned huskily, swimming in his own beautiful pool of pleasure, the waves lapping at his insides, increasing in strength the more he toyed with her.

She couldn't even speak, just whimpered unintelligibly.

"Tell me... tell me you want me..." he purred, now starting to give her the slightest penetration - just the tip, in and out, in and out. His whole body screamed to bury himself and be done with it, but still, he waited. Waited for her to say the words.

"I want you!" she gasped. "I want you, Endymion!"

Relief flooded him and finally, finally, he gave in to his most primal urge. There was some resistance, and he held her as she clung to his shoulders, nails digging with a different kind of pain. He scarcely moved as he listened to her ragged breathing, all the while her unbearably blissful heat surrounded and pulsed around him.

"Tell me when," he whispered, and gazed solicitously into Serenity's celestially divine features. She plied him with a sardonic brow even despite the discomfort he could still discern in the furrowed lines of her temple.

"Still as bad as ever at following directions," she chuckled gruffly. "Did you not hear me before?"

His chest rumbled with mirth - the little vixen! Still mindful of causing her hurt, he began to thrust ever so gently. It wasn't until she started to loosen and relax, even meet him at the hips, that he allowed himself to dive deeper; to let go of his inhibitions.

Oh God... it was everything he imagined it would be, and more.

She was his perfect fit; his opposite yet his complement. They danced together like they were made to do this; like they were created for the sole pleasure and passion of the other, and if that was his purpose then Endymion could hardly ask for better. He burrowed into her like he was staking a flag, he ran his hands over her like cordoning off his territory, and his kisses were fierce enough that he hoped Helios would still be able to taste him on her when this night was through. Her soft skin he marked all over with his teeth, and it was with a thrill that he felt her respond in kind.

"Mine," he growled, guttural into her ear.

"Mine," she hummed right back.

When he exploded into her, it was with victorious knowledge that he was the first, and no one would ever be able to take that from them. She went right alongside him, trembling and keening and spasming until every drop was sucked dry and he collapsed, boneless, into her waiting arms. They did not part until the sweat was long cooled.

oOo

"I don't want to go," she sobbed quietly. "I don't want this night to ever end."

He kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, her mouth. Her skin didn't taste so sweet anymore; it was laced with a salty tang.

"Then hold me tight. Just hold me tight, so it blocks out the sun, and we'll pretend it's night forever."

oOo

"Promise you'll come for me," she murmured, lazy fingers carding sleepily, affectionately, through his messy hair, as they ignored the telltale signs of light creeping in through the curtains. "When you're king." Not fully realizing, or caring, the traitorous weight of her words.

He rested the rose from earlier upon her stomach, watching as it followed the pattern of rise and fall, wondering if she might bear his child before she bore Helios'. If even now, his seed was taking root within her. It was a tantalizing thought, and he laid his head upon her pressing that rose to her belly wondering, wondering. What would a child of theirs look like? Would they have his dark hair, her enchanting eyes? Or would they be full on moon sprite, her tiny carbon copy? Or maybe, they would take after their grandparents. Beryl's flaming red hair mixed with Serenity's stately silver. Oh no - a pink headed princess? He buried his face in the swell just between her hip bones, endeavoring to stifle his smile.

He knew already the answer to her question.

He'd come this far, and there was no going back now. This night did not succeed in getting her out of his system, if anything, it had only served to entrench her further. They could not act on their feelings yet, but one day he would be king, and he had already betrayed his brother once, for this woman who had stolen his heart, mind, and now body. He would go to war for her, if necessary. Because he knew, with terrifying certainty...

This was the kind of love that could topple kingdoms.

"Promise."

-FIN-

Author's Note: Whew. Another long one! I thought of breaking this up into three parts, but in the end I think it's best a hefty sized one-shot. Keeps its emotional impact that way ;) It's a little embarrassing, I haven't written smut in YEARS, the last time it was with a drastically different plot... anyone remember a little ditty to the tune of "One Dark and Perverted Night" with the Senshi stuck in Mamoru's pea-green jacket shrine, I mean closet? ;) Anyhoo. Here's hoping I gave the big "O" justice, in a rather more serious smutty fic than the last one! Prima Nocta, also known as droit du seigneur ('lord's right'), gained fame from the movie "Braveheart" but was supposedly a real thing in medieval times, though I did tweak the definition to fit my plan for the story.

ALSO! It's my birthday tomorrow! The last year in my twenties... *cue wailing* Spending it in a quarantine is not exactly how I planned, but, a few hellos from my favorite readers will make it that much better ;D

I pinky-promise to start working on "Blind Faith" now. Stay tuned - and thanks for giving this a shot!