Melonade

Melonade

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"It's been... a strange time, this past year."

"Like the ancient Chinese proverb," she agreed. "'May you play an interesting fife.'"

The Chinese hadn't said that at all, but he wasn't going to press the point. Dr. Xadium and Aino Minako were spread out on a blanket in a park, both looking up at the night sky. While Japanese summers were relatively mild compared to other places in the world, it was just a little too hot for the both of them. Besides, there were people in parks during the daytime, and other people had a tendancy to spoil the romantic nature of the outdoors at night.

A year ago, if they wanted a private retreat, they would have just popped in the TARDIS and popped somewhere else entirely. Hawaii, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and even more foreign locales were available at the push of a button and the turning of some dials and pulling of levers.

That little option was no longer available to them, though. They were both pretty sure that they had accepted the events that had happened on the TARDIS so briefly before-- they'd discussed it in brief sentences every so often, but hadn't gone into depth about it. The wound had just scabbed over, and neither was willing to open it so briefly.

He seemed like he'd taken the changes better, though. The regeneration process of the Time Lords had a tendancy to do that, really; Xadium had always been moved by the novelty of his altered thought processes, and his twelfth incarnation had interested him just as much as the fourth, fifth, and sixth had. He seemed to have adapted to his new-ish life much in the way that someone adapted to having a cavity filled-- brief, irritating pain followed by momentary relief and an eventual return to normality.

Minako, by contrast, was not quite herself yet. She wasn't certain if she ever would be again, really. The recession of her oldest incarnation had removed a sense from her that she had never noticed how often she used until it was gone. It was like suddenly losing the sense of taste, or realizing that you couldn't feel hot or cold anymore- something you took for granted until it was gone.

She knew it wasn't entirely her fault. It wasn't anything she'd done; it was the power boxed up inside her, a shard of divinity that only a few others were aware of. It was a strength few others could match, and even fewer could actually control. Before now, she'd almost treated it like a party trick-- a trick she respected for its origins, but a trick nonetheless.

Now, though, she knew what her husband and daughter meant when they spoke about the old things. The universe was a lot bigger than people gave it credit for, and a lot older than anyone knew. How far back did it go? Had the Galaxy Cauldron always been churning ancient, dreadfully powerful starseeds? Or had it been manufactured by some even higher power as a way to regulate and monitor the generation and regeneration of life?

The question was dangerously bordering on theological grounds. The Cauldron was not the only source of power in the universe-- not by a longshot. rei.bot was the perfect example of this fact: she possessed almost infinite power, but she had neither starseed nor Sailor Crystal. Minako was not up to code on the more technical aspects of her metallic friend, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know this.

Knowing the secrets spoiled a lot of the mystery, she thought. A moment after this thought had passed through her head, Minako snapped upright, stunned.

Someone had been suggested to her, somewhere along the line, that her loss was the perfect opportunity for the Goddess of Love to learn how the rest of the world got along. She hadn't given this idea much credit when it had been first voiced, given the particularly cruel enjoyment that the sentiment had been spoken with... but this was perfect.

She was going to turn her melons into melonade.

"X-chan?" Minako whispered breathily, rolling onto her side to face him.

His gaze turned from the sky and met hers, a small smile fitting his lips. "Mmm?"

"We're going to be okay," she said quietly, but firmly.

Xadium's grin widened. "You've officially decided this, then?"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a light smack on the arm. "I realized something," Minako added. "Do you remember how you showed me that funny English movie that one time, and all of the men were being circumsized outside the town?"

"'Cruficied,'" he corrected, wincing, "and yes, I do. Monty Python and the Life of Brian."

"I'm going to take their advice," Minako announced, smiling widely. "'Always look on the blight side of strife,' neh?"

He specifically decided against correcting her. "Marvellous," Xadium responded, smiling and nodding. "What brought this about?"

"Well," she said, drawing herself closer to her husband, "I thought about it, and I thought I could either be sad about something I couldn't change-- or I could decide not to be sad and learn something instead."

"A wise decision," he agreed.

"I was also thinking," she continued, leaning in closer as she whispered, "that since we're alone out here, we might want to take advantage of the opportunity..."

"But we aren't alone."

Minako's head tilted. "Huh?"

"There's a policeman making the rounds," Xadium responded thoughtfully. "The park officially closes at nine in the evening. It's a little past ten. I've been wondering when he's going to stumble across us, actually..."

"Really?" An impish grin crossed Minako's face. "Do you think maybe we should give him a little show?"

"Speaking purely in my capacity as husband," he said after a thoughtful moment, "I think it would be best if we did not actually demonstrate what we actually know, what with there being laws against indecent exposure and all."

"Oh, poo." Minako gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and rolled back into a sitting position. "So I guess we should get out of here and not give the nice policeman a reason to ticket us?"

"Probably," Xadium agreed, pushing himself off the blanket they had been laying on. "I imagine we'll have the space we need for a private screening later."

She giggled, a melodious sound in the relative quiet, and the two of them were off in a flash.