"A Dream Deferred"

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Dawn had just broken over Crystal Tokyo, as the world was beginning to awaken. He sat up, rubbed the sleep out of his golden-brown eyes, and stared longingly at the woman beside him. Her long pink tresses that were normally neatly arranged in cone-shaped odangos were tumbled wildly across her pillow. The sunrise peeked in, giving her skin a godlike glow against the silk sheets. In his opinion, the princess of Crystal Tokyo had never looked lovelier. He fought the urge to take his sleeping maiden in his arms for fear of rousing her. Instead, he placed his feet on the glacial marble floor, gathered his clothes strewn at various places across the chamber, and donned them silently. Now garbed in the robes of the High Priest of Elysion, Helios quietly returned to his maiden's bedside. She rolled over and grabbed his pillow, but did not stir. Helios again resisted the desire to replace the pillow that Rini believed to be him. But if he woke her, Helios would have to look into those beautiful scarlet eyes begging him to stay. He knew he did not have the strength to oppose the power of those haunting eyes, not to mention the other tactics she would employ to keep him here. He hated leaving her, especially without saying farewell, but he had no choice. It took all of his willpower to leave her while she was asleep, if she were awake the pain would be too much to bear. So he kneeled beside the silk clad canopy bed and tenderly kissed her on the lips. "Goodbye, my dear Rini," Helios whispered in her ear. He took one last lingering gaze at the girl who meant more to him then all of the dreams he was sworn to protect, trying to burn the image of her sleeping like an angel into his memory. Then he tore his gaze away, made his way to her balcony, and returned to Elysion, amber eyes clouded over.

She woke up with her arms wrapped around a wrinkled pillow, still warm from being slept on. The head that had occupied it, however, was no longer there. She tried to blink back the tears welling up in her eyes, crushing the pillow to her chest as she inhaled what little was left of her lover.

Princess Lady Serenity looked around her bedroom, red eyes searching in vain for gold ones. He was always gone when she woke up, but Rini never stopped looking for him. Sometimes she wondered if their secret nights together were nothing more then dreams, his rumpled pillow was the only physical evidence of his being there. It was almost as if he was a ghost, and in many ways he was. Because of their respective duties as Crown Princess of Crystal Tokyo and High Priest of Elysion, Rini and Helios had almost no time to spend together. Their relationship had been reduced to these night visits that were sometimes months apart. They both kept saying it was only temporary, that things would get better soon and they could get married, or at least go out on an actual date. But Rini was going to be crowned Queen of Crystal Tokyo in two years, which would suck what little was left of her precious free time dry. She knew that once she became queen, or even before that, there would be a lot of pressure for her to marry. Already men were buzzing around her, trying to catch her eye, but she had been able to hold them off. Rumors were beginning to circulate about the princess as people wondered why she didn't show interest in any of her illustrious suitors. A princess and future queen needed a prince and king by her side, after all. "I already have my prince!" Rini felt like shouting at everyone.

But she didn't, not really. All she had was stolen moments in the dark and an empty bed in the morning. Rini let the tears that had accumulated in her eyes fall as she came to a realization. They both had glittering destinies to fulfill, but those destinies would keep them forever apart. Rini had dreamed of becoming Helios's wife and ruling together just as her parents had done for the past two millennia. Unfortunately, a dream was all it would ever seem to be. Rini couldn't imagine a marriage where she only saw her husband a few times a year as she did now. His duty would never change, he must always watch over the dreams of the world. He could not rule Elysion from Tokyo anymore then she could rule the earth from the land of dreams. She glanced at the vacant side of the bed again; a crater formed by his body was faintly visible. She wished that the crater was filled, in her bed and her heart.

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. The poem at the beginning is "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes.

Author's Note: I started writing this in AP chem this morning and couldn't seem to stop writing. I have some ideas for this story, but I'm not really sure where it will end up. I know this chapter is on the short side, it's setting things up for later. I promise the rest of the chapters won't be this brief. The poem embodies the theme, I want to explore what will happen if Helios and Rini put their duty ahead of their dreams. Please review and let me know what you think!