Selene

35 | Colours

Selene slammed her fist down on the stop elevator button and stared at Peony. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Peony gasped for air and then swung down into a deep bow, her head nearly touching the floor. Selene stiffened and watched as Peony mumbled out, "Y-Your Majesty," still locked in the same bow.

"Stop it with that ridiculous bow. I asked you what you're doing here. Are you stalking the prince, or something?" Selene recoiled at the sound of her own voice. That had come out harsher than she had expected. But Peony simply laughed shakily and slowly came back up. Only then did Selene see the pile of brown packages stuffed into her arms.

"No, I- We're running a little short on cash, and I thought Mom might finally be happy if I found a way to pull in a little extra." Peony ducked her head. "I found a job delivering some of the extra fragile stuff to the palace medical wing, the stuff they don't trust androids or the long palace process to bring in. I was just- they told me I could use the service entry, anyway, and-"

Selene nodded once as Peony rambled and looked towards the door, crossing her arms over her chest. "How old are you, anyway? You don't look old enough to be trying to support your family."

Peony paled a little bit. "I'm fourteen."

Selene nodded again, glancing back at her. "I'm sixteen." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she snorted in dry laughter. "Stars, it feels weird to say that. I don't really feel as though I'm sixteen, and I'm running the entire moon. But I suppose that's how you feel, too."

Peony bit her lip. "So- It's true, then? You are Queen Selene?"

"Who else would I be," Selene said sarcastically, "her stunt double?"

Peony shook her head hastily, her wide-eyed gaze plastered on the floor. "No, it's just- you didn't seem particularly queenly before, and now you're actually, like, talking to me, and- oh, stars, I should-" Peony fell into another bow, hugging the packages tight to her chest, and Selene recoiled.

"Please stop doing that," Selene said, "you're bowing way too low. It's making me uncomfortable."

Once Peony had stopped shaking and stopped bowing, Selene leaned against the wall and hugged her torso, staring at the floor. "You're the first normal person I've talked to in- forever." Glancing up quickly, Selene hastily shook her head. "No- I didn't mean it like how it sounded. I just mean, I've never compared ages with anyone ever before. That's silly, isn't it? Nobody's ever asked me, my whole life. I've always been untouchable territory. You're not supposed to interact with me unless you have certain credentials, you know. And so no one ever asks me how old I am, and no one ever asks me what my favourite colour is." Selene tilted her head back against the elevator wall. "It's never really bothered me before, though. I wonder why it bothers me now."

There was a long silence, before Peony said, hesitantly, "What is it?"

"What is what?"

"Your favourite colour."

Selene froze, and then turned to look at Peony. "My favourite colour is green, actually. I like green."

Peony nodded. "I like green, too. My favourite colour is red. And pink. I like warm colours."

Selene was silent, staring at the scratched linoleum floor. She stayed like that for a long time.

"Right, then. I shouldn't be keeping you." Selene pushed off from the wall, walking over to the impressive array of buttons beside the elevator doors and letting the elevator go free again. "One more question. Why didn't you go to the media with your story, of what happened that day at the market? You would have made a lot of money, and the press would have eaten that up."

Peony shrugged as though the thought hadn't even occurred to her. "I don't think anyone's privacy should be violated like that, even if they are queen of the moon. If you had wanted attention, you'd have gone out in that dress you're wearing now, with guards and maids or something to keep you safe. And I don't think anyone should be exposed when they're being private and vulnerable like you were." She smiled, meeting Selene's eye. "It just feels like a violation."

Selene swallowed as the elevator swept to a halt, the doors pinging and whooshing open. "This is my floor. See you at the ball, maybe."

And then Selene stepped out of the servant's elevator, and Peony was gone.

Selene's head spun. She'd never told anyone, ever before, that her favourite colour was green. It was the colour of all Earth's land, as it swept up from the horizon on Luna. It was the colour of evergreen trees. Selene had always loved trees. It was the colour of all those rolling landscapes that she'd grown up studying on virtual screens, the colour of all of the natural world that she wanted and could never have.

But what made her head spin was not the awful paradox that kept tripping over itself in her head- Earth being within an arms reach, a treaty away, and yet Selene wanting nothing more than to step away and never look at that marriage proposal ever again- but the fact that no one had ever thought to ask her about her favourite colour, her favourite book. The things she liked, the things she loved, and had never revealed to anybody. Nobody had ever, ever asked Selene about anything personal- no one had ever tried to know her. Her.

Was she anything more than a figurehead chained to a rock in the sky, or was she a teenage girl, a girl who liked green and liked Earthen literature and liked watching people sew and knit, the way their fingers were so gentle and lithe, knowing exactly where to go to create something beautiful? She would never tell anyone, especially not Winter, that she watched Earthen soap dramas sometimes, and they were so bad they made her laugh. She would never tell anyone that she loved frosting so much that when she was alone, she'd scrape it off with a spoon and eat it without the cake.

But if anyone had asked, actually asked, would she have told them?