The kingdom was in the midst of a huge celebration. Kings, queens, lords, and ladies from all around came for the introduction of Princess Serenity. For the longest time the kingdom ruled by Queen Selene and King Apollo were afraid they would never produce an heir. They had been married for many years, and had a few failed pregnancies. They had almost lost hope, that is until Serenity was born. If they had been unsuccessful, however, and had never been able to have a child, because both the queen and king are only children, rule of the kingdom would be passed to Lord Diamond.

Diamond was well known for dabbling in the dark arts. He was also considered a very cruel man, who was well known for the philosophy 'guilty until payment received' in the village that he governed. King Apollo had wanted to pull him from his power, but unfortunately there was never any proof of his cruelty.

After hearing that the queen was finally close to bringing an heir to life Diamond had started planning his attack against the king, selling his soul in order to receive the full power of the dark arts.

Fortunately for all, King Apollo had learned of the attack before it could take place and was able to preemptively stop it from happening.

Because Apollo was a fair ruler he could not on good conscious call for Diamond's death, as he had never actually been able to fulfill his plan. Instead Diamond was banished from the kingdom, parting with the promise to come back and destroy everything that Apollo loved.

For awhile the kingdom was in constant fear of Diamond and when he would return. But, when the small Princess Serenity was finally born the threat was eventually forgotten. The village under his rule rejoiced his banishment when he was replaced by Lord Hermes who brought with him his wife Iris and their newborn daughter Ami, now truly believing that they were free from his governing.

And then all heard the rumor of the plan that Queen Selene and the widowed Queen Gaia created in order to join their families as well as their kingdoms. Queen Gaia had brought her two young children to the introduction of Serenity, her fourteen month old daughter Rei and her two-and-a-half year old Endymion.

Selene and Gaia had grown up as best friends, and as they watched the young Endymion interact with the four month old princess they both knew what they would do. Starting when Serenity turns 6 both Queen Selene and Princess Serenity would visit Gaia's kingdom each summer, and hopefully the young prince and princess would fall in love.

Serenity is 6 and Endymion is 8

Today is the day. Queen Gaia could hardly contain her excitement as the carriage that contained her best friend and the small Serenity pulled up to the front steps of the palace where she, Endymion, and Rei were awaiting their guests. She stood at an average height, neither to short nor too tall, with long raven hair and violet eyes. It had been six years since she had last seen her dear friend and the small princess, and the plans for, what Gaia and Selene liked to refer to as Operation 'Fall in Love', had begun. After what Gaia felt like was an eternity, the carriage stopped and the door opened.

The young Rei was angry about their long-awaited guests finally arriving. She stands next to her mother, who she is an exact copy of. Growing up the only friend she had was her older brother, and now this little girl was here to take her best friend. After all, as her mother would say, "it is important that Serenity and Endymion bond, so try not to get in the way." So, though she had never truly met the princess, Rei already hated her.

Endymion, however, couldn't have been more bored. Taking after his father's height, he stands tall for his age. With his dark raven locks that he inherited from his mother, but with dark blue eyes he is told are just like his father's.

Endymion couldn't quite understand why his mother thought that he would want to spend the summer with a little girl. He also couldn't understand why she couldn't just play with Rei. They were closer in age, and both happened to be girls. And while Rei usually enjoyed the kinds of games he liked to play, he highly doubted that this little princess would want to wrestle or play sword fights.

Inside the carriage, a similar situation was occurring. While Selene was always a picture of serenity, her crystal blue eyes could not contain her excitement. So when the carriage door opened, the petite woman was already at the door and stepping out, her long silver tresses, in the traditional hairstyle of two bun pigtails, following after her.

Serenity, however, is extremely slow in exiting. She is also the spitting image of her mother. A very small girl, she had the same eyes and hairstyle, however, she got her golden hair color from her father. Serenity didn't really understand why she had to spend the summer away from her papa and her cousin Mina, who was the same age as her and has been her playmate, along with the shy Ami, for her entire life. She had never played with a boy before, but even for such a young girl she knew the moment she saw him that this summer was not going to be fun.

"Gaia, my dear friend!" Selene walked up to Gaia and embraced her before turning to the young princess. "And this beauty must be Rei, my have you gotten big!" And then she finally set her sights on the young boy who would hopefully become her son-in-law. "And this strong young man must be Endymion."

"Welcome to our kingdom Selene. And of course welcome to you young Princess Serenity." Gaia addressed the young girl who had come towards them and proceeded to hide behind Selene's leg. Gaia cleared her throat and pushed Endymion forward.

He, of course, begrudgingly said "hello Princess Serenity, it is a pleasure to meet you" bowing slightly without once making eye contact.

Selene then pushed Serenity forward, who proceeded to give a small curtsey and say "the pleasure is all mine Prince Endymion." Endymion, hoping he could go do something else, tried to go back to his mother who made a disapproving noise. He then remembered the conversation his mother had with him before Selene and Serenity arrived, making him turn around and take Serenity's hand and kiss the back of it. Endymion immediately wiped his mouth, while Serenity wiped her hand on her poufy pink dress her mother made her wear but Serenity had always hated.

"Mom can I go now?" Endymion whined, looking impatient to go anywhere that was away from where he currently was. Gaia and Selene exchanged a small smile.

"Okay Endymion, just take Serenity with you." Endymion started to protest, but Gaia quickly gave him a look that immediately made him stop.

"Fine, come on Serenity." As the young prince and princess walked into the castle Gaia and Selene followed talking in quiet excited voices, and Rei was left all alone.

Serenity is 10 and Endymion is 12

"Go away Odango-atama!" Endymion was getting annoyed. He was playing with his future guard, and his friends, and the little Princess Serenity would not stop following them. In the past when she visited he actually would play with her. After all, for such a small girl she was not afraid to wrestle or play sword fights with him. Actually sometimes she won. But this year is different. His future personal guards had been chosen at the end of last summer and they all became really fast friends.

I was tradition in his kingdom that the future king would be assigned a personal guard. They would be chosen young and would all be around the same age as the future king. This way, the guard would grow and train with the king so that by the time the prince became king the group would be able to act like a well oiled machine, predicting each other's next moves. And it also allowed for friendship among the men that would last a lifetime.

There are four boys that make up Endymion's guard. The first is Malachite, a quiet studious boy who is the oldest of the four, as well as the strongest. He is around the same tall height as Endymion, with pale blond hair and pale blue eyes.

Then there is Nephrite. He is around the same height as both Endymion and Malachite. Nephrite is very outdoorsy. He is very interested in learning about everything that is outside or deals with the outside, especially the stars. He has wavy auburn hair and blue eyes.

Next is Zoisite. He is a very book smart boy who loves reading and science. He is shorter than the others, but not too much shorter. He has long blonde hair that he usually keeps in a ponytail, and green eyes.

And lastly there is Jadeite. Jadeite was the joker of the group, and always seemed to get in the most trouble, especially with the Princess Rei. He has short blonde hair and hazel eyes.

"Come on! I wanna play too! And don't call me Odango-atama!" Serenity complained. She really had nowhere else to go. Usually Endymion would play with her while she was here, and she actually started looking forward to the summer. When she was home Mina and Ami never wanted to wrestle or do any of the fun stuff she did with Endymion.

But this year when she came it was different. She immediately tried to play with Endymion, but he kept making her go away. It was now half-way through her trip, and she had no one to play with.

After the first few weeks of being ignored by Endymion, Serenity went to Rei. While she never had been able to get to know Rei before, she figured now would be the perfect time. She had always tried to include the girl in the past, but strangely Rei had never wanted to join them. Serenity had always figured that Rei did not enjoy the types of games that she and Endymion usually played, so she was surprised to see her playing sword fighting with a tall brunette around Rei's age, who she later learned is named Lita.

When Serenity had gone up to them and asked if she could join, Rei only sneered at her and said "we don't play with annoying Odango-atamas." Of course Endymion was in the proximity and had adopted the nickname as his own for Serenity.

So now she had absolutely no one to play with. Since there was nothing better to do, a few days ago she had started follow the boys around begging to play with them. But, after a few weeks of getting yelled at and made fun of by the boy she once looked up to she gave up and spent the remainder of her time there in her room crying.

Serenity is 14 and Endymion is 16

"Can you believe them? Serenity is way too young to be doing things like that!" Endymion's expression turned even sourer when Serenity placed her hand on the forearm of the servant boy she was currently flirting with. After the summer when Endymion was 12 Serenity had started bringing her cousin Mina with her to visit in the summers. Although Endymion could understand why, after all he and Rei had both made it perfectly clear that they didn't want to be around her that year, he couldn't help but think that Mina was a bad influence on Serenity.

In the summers he liked to refer as 'the before time' Serenity had always been somewhat of a tom-boy. She would also be in playing clothes and would spend her time playing with him. Then he had to be a jerk to her, he fully admits (to his guards at least) that he shouldn't have been so mean to her four years ago, and she was able to convince her mother to allow her to bring Mina and Ami with her.

Ami, a small brunette who kept her hair almost boyishly short, spent most of her time in the library, or talking about books, with Zoisite, but Mina was a different story. She had spent the last few years making him, Malachite, Nephrite, and Jadeite play dress up with her and Serenity.

He was never quite sure how Mina managed to make them play, after all they were bigger and all older than Serenity and her almost identical, minus the hair style, cousin. But somehow they were always convinced that it was absolutely necessary that they play with the girls. Although admittedly Malachite might have been willing since he started having feelings for Mina the moment he saw her.

When they arrived this year and did not make them immediately start their 'dress up' game, Endymion was relieved. But then he realized why Serenity and Mina no longer played dress up. They found something much more interesting to do.

When he first saw Mina flirting he wasn't surprised. After all she had started flirting with Malachite the year before, but Serenity had been oblivious. Serenity had always been innocent, and truthfully a little naïve. So when he saw that she was flirting with some servant boys along with Mina he saw red. He couldn't believe what Mina had done with his sweet innocent Serenity.

"Endymion, she is 14 now. She was bound to start noticing boys at some point." Jadeite said as he was restraining his laughs. He and Nephrite exchanged looks as Endymion's face almost turned pure red when the boy Serenity was flirting with whispered in her ear causing her to start laughing.

"Endymion, why don't you just tell her you like her? If she knew I am sure she would only flirt with you, and then you wouldn't have the desire to kill any male she talks to." Nephrite commented with a smirk.

"Are you insane? I do not like her! I am just concerned. She never used to flirt with boys before that Mina started tarnishing her."

"Well Endymion, I guess sense you're not interested in her maybe I could make a move." Jadeite smirked while Nephrite looked terrified and Malachite mumbled 'idiot' under his breath. Endymion just tackled him and they started wrestling on the ground.

Meanwhile Serenity was trying so hard not to run away screaming. When she confided in Mina and Ami that she liked Endymion she never thought that Mina would make her do this. Personally she felt that her flirting was awkward and looked like she was trying too hard. Mina, however, was a professional when it came to boys and convinced her that the way to get Endymion was to pretend to be interested in someone else. But when she looked over to where the guys were standing Endymion wasn't even looking at her, he was wrestling with Jadeite which was actually quite normal. So she said goodbye to whomever it was she was talking to and took Mina to her room.

"I told you that was pointless! He didn't even notice me talking to him." Serenity started fuming as soon as her door was closed.

"Who didn't notice you?" Mina asked, oblivious to the turmoil Serenity was currently going through. She was still slightly dazed after seeing, again, how much Malachite had bulked up since the previous year.

"Mina! Will you pay attention please! What am I going to do?" Serenity sat on her bed next to Mina and put her head in her hands.

"Serenity, now you do nothing. I know for a fact that he saw you and believe me he was steamed. Now you just have to give him a couple years to realize why he was so angry and he will be yours. Now let's go. The boys should be starting their training soon and I want to watch Malachite sweat." And so they did, never realizing that for the first time in her life, one of Mina's plans worked.