A/N Hey everyone! So here is part one of my Christmas story for this year. It was originally going to be a one-shot, but the muse bug bit me hard and it just kept growing and growing to the point where I decided to split it into two to keep it from being too over the top. This is a stand alone story and isn't associated with either one of the other sagas I have going on right now, but truthfully it could almost tie in with the LP/GT storyline. The characters are basically written the same as they are in those stories, so readers of that saga will definitely see the similarities. But even if you haven't read my other stories, I hope you like it.
Disclaimer- I wrote a letter to Santa asking him if he could please give me Sailor Moon for Christmas, but he wrote me back and told me that he couldn't because Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. I'm okay with that though, because she is way more worthy to own it than I am.
ENJOY!
Little Packages, Big Gifts
Part I
"Hey, Serena, is the angel straight? I can't tell from this angle," Raye Hino asked from her perch beside an 8-foot tall pine tree that glittered with lights, ornaments, and tinsel.
Neo Queen Serenity, Serena to her family and friends, looked up from the box of ornaments she had been pawing through to study the tree closely. Her brow furrowed as she tilted her head first to the right, and then to the left, before a bright smile burst across her face. "It looks perfect, Raye! Don't move it an inch."
"I'll be a second opinion," bubbly, blonde Mina Aino cried as she hopped over the back of the sofa to bounce onto the cushion next to Serena. She cast a quick, almost careless glance at the tree before she said, "I think it needs to tilt slightly more to the left."
"No it doesn't! It's perfect the way it is," Serena insisted.
Mina waved a hand. "Okay! If you want a crooked angel on the tree it's no sweat off my back."
Serena's large blue eyes flared wider. "It is not crooked!"
"Would you two dumb blondes knock it off!" Raye bellowed. "I don't want to stand up here all day!"
Amy Mizuno walked through the door, shaking her head. "I thought you guys were in here killing each other. I could hear you all the way down the hall and saw two maids running like they feared for their lives."
"Amy!" Serena squealed as she jumped up and ran to hug her blue haired friend. "We were just discussing the angel on the tree. Mina says it's crooked, but I think it looks straight. What do you think?"
"Hmm…" Amy mused thoughtfully. In a blink her small, handheld Mercury computer was in her hand. She swiftly pressed a few buttons and the computer beeped a few seconds later. "It's only off by a minute degree. I doubt anyone could get it any straighter than that."
"Thhhbbb!" Serena's tongue said as she blew a raspberry at Mina.
Mina's china blue orbs rolled toward the ceiling. "Whatever! So you were right this time. Soak it up while you can, because I doubt it will happen again for a long time."
Raye snickered. "Hey, that sounds like one of my lines. Does this mean that I can get down off of this ladder now? I'm tired of being up here."
Serena giggled. "Sure, Pyro! Come on down. There are just a few more decorations to put on the tree and then we'll be finished and ready for the party tomorrow night."
"I can't wait!" Mina sighed in a wistful tone. "I mean, I'm looking forward to the big ball on Christmas night, but this party will be so much more intimate."
"Which is exactly why I wanted to do it," Serena stated as she sat back down and resumed looking through the ornaments. "We've all been so busy the past six months since we were revived in this time. Getting Crystal Tokyo established hasn't been easy on any of us, so I thought that we deserved some relaxing down time during this festive season. The ball will be crowded with hundreds of people, most of them strangers. This party will strictly be for friends and family."
A heavenly smell wafted across the room as tall, auburn haired Lita Kino walked in, carrying a heavily laden tray. "Hey, guys! I thought Santa's little elves could use a snack after all of this work." She looked around the informal entertainment room, which had become a retreat for all of the residents of the Crystal Palace and was where they spent a fair amount of their spare time, and gave an approving nod. "Everything looks great, you guys."
"Ooo, Lita! What kind of goodies did you bring us?" Serena squealed, leaning over the tray as Lita set it on a coffee table.
"Don't drool all over the food, Meatball Head! The rest of us would like some too, and I'm not eating anything that's covered in your spit!" Raye snapped.
Mina scrambled back from the table like it was a poisonous snake and curled into a ball in the corner of the sofa. "Ewww, Raye! Did you have to say something so disgusting?"
Amy sat down primly in an armchair. "I think I've lost my appetite."
Serena rolled her eyes at her raven-haired friend. "Cute, Raye! Way to ruin our jolly, holiday mood!"
"Oh, come on, you guys!" Lita fussed as she began unstacking plates from the tray. "Don't start bickering now. I made all of this food for us to enjoy. There are banana nut muffins, pumpkin bread, orange-cranberry scones, and gingerbread cookies."
"Sounds great!" Serena enthused as she reached for one of the muffins that was bigger than both of her fists put together. "Oh! But we need some tea or cocoa to go with this wonderful spread. Should I ring down to the kitchen for it?"
Lita waved a hand at her. "Nah! It's taken care of. Nephrite was following me with the drinks. I thought he was right behind me, but I guess he got waylaid by one of the guys."
"Did I hear someone say my name?" a deep voice chuckled as Nephrite came through the door. The tall, broad shouldered, chestnut haired general looked so out of place holding a tray with dainty silver teapots and delicate china cups that the women collapsed into giggles.
A look of confusion appeared on his face. "What? Do I have something on my nose?"
The moment was so adorably non-macho and the complete opposite of the tough as nails persona that the general usually tried to exude that the women only laughed harder.
"Aww, Nephi-poo!" a tenor voice cooed as a man that was slightly shorter, more leanly built, and sporting a mass of tousled golden curls barged into the room. "Did you have a Kodak moment without me? Darn! And me without my camera!"
"Jadeite!" Nephrite growled threateningly.
The blonde jokester held up his hands. "Kidding! I was kidding!" Then he paused thoughtfully. "Then again, you do look somewhat matronly carrying that tray. Maybe we should get you one of those French maid outfits. Ooo la la! I bet you would look absolutely stunning, dah-ling!"
"Why you…" Nephrite ground out, aiming a kick for the now laughing man.
"Wait!" Lita shrieked and ran over to save the hot beverages from becoming puddles on the gleaming crystal floor. After the tray was safely in her hands, she grinned at Nephrite and told him, "Go get him, baby!"
"Liiitttaaa! How could you sic him on me like thiiisss!" Jadeite wailed as he ran the length of the long room with Nephrite close behind. He dove under the pool table and popped up on the other side, being careful to keep the solid piece of furniture between him and his assailant. The two men circled the table, eying each other warily.
"Great Spirit!" Raye moaned, rubbing her temples. "Somebody remind me again why I married that goofball."
"Because you love him!" Mina trilled. "And because he is your soul mate. There will never be another one for you like him."
"Yeah, yeah! I've heard it all before," Raye grumbled, but none of her friends missed the fond, loving look she shot at her husband.
Lita smiled and also looked toward the two men, letting her eyes rest for a moment on her own husband. "Ah, let them duke it out. Nephrite could use the physical outlet anyway. He's been wound up with pent up energy lately because of the lack of action."
"Why, Lita!" Mina drawled, wagging her eyebrows suggestively. "I'm sure there has been some action for him. Unless the spark between you two has fizzled out already."
"Ditz!" Lita muttered.
"Hentai!" Raye seconded.
Muffin crumbs sprayed from Serena's mouth as she burst into giggles. "Oh! If you two could just see your faces!" She doubled over, clutching her stomach as she laughed. After a minute she sat back up, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry. But the looks on your faces were priceless. I wasn't laughing at you though. We all know that you are deeply in love with your hubbies, and I'm sure your relationships are just fine."
"Says the woman that is constantly disappearing in between meetings," Mina said slyly. "And don't the rest of you find it odd that Darien just happens to vanish at the same time she does?"
Raye grinned evilly. "Indeed I do. But I'm sure it's completely innocent. They probably spend all of that alone time discussing matters of state."
"May I have a cup of tea, please?" Amy broke in, hoping to change the subject. She'd seen the way Serena's face had gone blood red one second only to blanch bone white the next. Obviously her queen didn't want her personal life discussed at the moment, so Amy hoped that her interruption would steer the conversation in a different direction.
Luckily it worked, and Serena shot her a grateful look that warmed her heart. But deep inside she felt a little uneasy. Were there problems between the king and queen?
The women all settled down with their hot drinks and snacks as they began to talk about Christmas, which was only two days away. At first they discussed the gifts that they had gotten for their husbands, but quickly changed the subject when Nephrite and Jadeite finally gave up their wrestling match, Nephrite was declaring himself the winner while Jadeite protested that he wasn't.
Kunzite joined them a while later, a silent, yet dominating presence as he leaned against the back of the sofa behind Mina. He was a man of few words, but his actions were gentle and loving as he played with the ends of his wife's golden hair. The two of them were as different as night and day, but even a blind man would be able to see the love between them, especially when Mina would glance over her shoulder to gift him with one of her blinding smiles. The stoic, head general's expression would soften and a smile of his own would tug at the corners of his lips.
Zoicite eventually made his way in to join the group, fresh from working a shift in the palace infirmary where he oversaw the medical needs of everyone who lived or worked in the Crystal Palace. Amy, who assisted him when he needed help, hoped to finish medical school in the spring so that she could work even more closely with her husband. She was all smiles and flushed cheeks as he sat beside her on the arm of her chair and she fiddled with a button on his white lab coat.
Nephrite had taken a seat next to Lita on the loveseat, and was busy extolling her marvelous baking skills as he steadily munched away on the pumpkin bread she'd made, which was one of his favorites. Lita laughed and waved off his compliments that it tasted even better than usual, claiming that she had made it the same way she always did.
Surprisingly, Raye and Jadeite were the quietest in the group. Raye had taken a seat on the floor, which was the norm for her. She always joked about that habit and said that it probably came from the fact that she spent so much time kneeling on the floor before the Great Fire as she meditated. Jadeite had sprawled out next to her and looked perfectly comfortable as he rested his head in his wife's lap. Raye's fingers stroked his curls and they both seemed content.
Serena felt a pang as she looked around at all of her friends, acutely conscious of the fact that there was one person missing from their group. Suddenly, all of the holiday cheer drained from her body and she felt like the odd duck out in the middle of all of the happy couples. She stared pensively down into her cup of cocoa, letting the conversation flow around her without listening to it. At least until Mina's voice broke through her reverie.
"So, Serena," she gushed in a conspiratorial voice. "Did you ever work out what to get Darien for Christmas? I know you were having a problem trying to figure it out."
Serena sensed the ears of the other three scouts snap to attention and blushed. It was true, she had been struggling for almost two months, trying to decide what to get her husband for Christmas. She wasn't sure why she'd had such a hard time with it. It wasn't like this was their first Christmas together or anything. They had been together since she was fourteen and he had been seventeen. Even if you didn't count the millennia that the Earth had been frozen, and she didn't because they had been comatose, they had been together for a long time. She was now twenty-two and he was twenty-five, and this would be the ninth Christmas that they had celebrated together.
But this would be only their second Christmas since they had been married, and their first one since creating Crystal Tokyo and becoming king and queen. She didn't know why this Christmas felt different than before. Maybe it was because they now lived in a massive palace with more rooms than could ever be used instead of a modest, three-bedroom apartment in the Azabu district. Maybe it was because he had worked just as hard as she had the past six months trying to build and establish this new city. But she wanted to get him something special.
She had combed the internet and had snuck out with the girls in incognito mode on several occasions to brave the malls and shopping complexes around the city, searching for the gift, but she'd had no luck. Nothing had seemed quite right to her.
And then, when she had least expected it; the perfect gift had practically landed in her lap. She was so excited about this gift that she'd had to practice some serious self-control to keep from giving it to him early. It had been hard to do, especially when he came dragging into their room at night, looking more tired than anyone had a right to, or when she found him slumped over his desk in his office where he'd fallen asleep, which she was guilty of doing several times herself. Starting a new government was hard work, after all. She knew that the stress and strain showed on her face. Her friends had commented on it several times and her mother fussed over her about it every time she saw her, but it worried her to see the exhaustion lining his face. She wanted to make him smile again, and that made her anxious to give him his gift.
Realizing that Mina and the other girls were still looking at her expectantly, she murmured, "Yeah, I got his gift taken care of."
Mina bounced up on her knees. "So, what did you get him?"
Serena forced a smile onto her face. "I'm not telling. I want it to be a total surprise for him, and I don't want to take any chances of anything slipping out."
"I wouldn't tell him!" Mina cried, aghast.
Raye snorted. "Maybe not intentionally, but you do have a bad habit of flapping your jaws, Mina."
The love goddess bristled. "I do not! At least, not when it's something important!"
"Aww, cut Serena some slack," Lita drawled. "She and Darien have become high profile, public figures now. Let her keep some things private if she wants to." Then she smirked. "So when are you going to give it to him?"
"To-tonight," Serena stammered. "I want him to have it before we get caught up in the whirl of parties and balls."
"So you two are still going out tonight?" Amy asked quietly.
Serena nodded. "As far as I know. We haven't taken a night off to just go out and be a normal couple since before the Freeze and we've been planning this night for weeks. I'm so excited that I can hardly wait!"
Zoicite leaned forward with a grin. "You two deserve it. I was just saying to Darien the other day that both of you need to take some down time before I have to hospitalize you guys for exhaustion. In fact, I'm glad to see you here enjoying some relaxation instead of slaving away in your office."
"Ugh! Don't remind me!" Serena groaned. "I have a stack of proposals left to review that have to be done today so they can go out in this afternoon's mail. And I have to tackle those before I can even think about going out and having fun tonight. But putting up the Christmas tree has always been one of my favorite parts about the holidays, so I thought I'd play hooky for an hour or so and enjoy it."
Then she glanced down at her watch and sighed. "I guess I should be getting back to it though. I want to have plenty of time to get ready for tonight."
"If you need any help picking out what to wear or with your hair and make up, let me know," Mina chirped cheerfully.
"She's a big girl now. I'm sure she knows how to dress herself," Raye grumbled, but she shot a grin at Serena.
"Have fun!" Lita told her, and the generals echoed her sentiments.
Amy reached out and grabbed Serena's hand as she stood to leave. In a low, concerned voice she asked, "Are you okay, Serena?"
Serena smiled and patted her hand. "I'm fine, Ames. I'm just a little tired. But I'm not going to let it dampen my holiday spirits."
Amy looked unconvinced, but let it go. "Okay. But Zoi and I will be trailing you and Darien tonight. We figured we'd be the ones least likely to stand out in public and the others agreed. You won't even know we're there."
"Sounds good to me," Serena told her. "Well, I'm off to work." She strode from the room, the skirt of her long white dress swirling around her ankles.
Mina chewed on her lip. "I don't like this. Something just feels off. I think something big is brewing between Serena and Darien, and it may not be a good thing."
"You're just imagining things," Raye said crossly. But her eyes held a troubled look as well as she stared at the door that her queen and best friend had just disappeared through. She had been aware of the tension between Serena and Darien for several weeks now, even if they weren't aware of it themselves, and she felt that things were on the verge of reaching critical mass.
She was hoping that taking some time off from work would help things blow over between them, but it was hard to say. Both of them were stubborn and hardheaded. And while they rarely ever fought with each other the way they did back in the early days of their relationship, they would still go toe to toe sometimes.
Yeah, things could get messy if they weren't careful.
King Endymion pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, but none of his irritation was evident in his voice as he spoke into the phone he held between his ear and shoulder. "Yes, sir. I understand. I will be more than happy to help in any way I possibly can."
He heard a soft knock on the door, and his head shot up angrily, ready to glare at whoever was disturbing him. He had said that he didn't want to be interrupted, damn it!
The dark look melted from his face, however, when the door opened silently and an angelic figure in white slipped in and closed the door carefully behind her. He gave her a quick smile and turned his attention back to his phone conversation.
"Of course," he replied to the person on the other end. "We'll speak more about it after the holidays. Yes. Merry Christmas to you too."
He hung the phone up sharply and growled, "If that thing rings again today I'm going to throw it out the window!" He propped his elbows on the desktop and buried his fingers in his hair. "I'm going to go prematurely bald if I keep this up."
He heard Serena's feet whisper softly across the rug, and then her cool fingers were at his neck, massaging the tense muscles there. "Poor, baby," she whispered in his ear. "It's been another one of those days, hasn't it?"
He moaned slightly as she touched on a particularly sensitive bunch of knotted up muscles. Then he sighed. "It seems like everyday has been turning out to be one of those days lately. If all of the countries leaders would just quit dragging their feet so we can get everyone on board, things would start running a lot smoother."
"I know," Serena sympathized. "But we knew this wasn't going to be easy. That's why I said in the beginning that I was expecting it to take at least a year before things started calming down. So we're already halfway there."
He chuckled and leaned his head back to look up at her and grin. "That's what I needed, an injection of your infectious optimism. You are just what the doctor ordered."
She giggled and swatted at his shoulder. "Don't be silly, Darien. The only doctor I see around here right now is you, Dr. Shields."
He grimaced. "Not anymore. Dr. Shields belongs to the past. Now instead of seeing patients I get to sit behind this desk all day and hold meaningful, but incredibly boring meetings and phone conversations with foreign diplomats. In between those I have to keep myself from drowning in a mountain of paperwork."
Serena's fingers stilled on his shoulders as she asked, "Do you regret it, us doing this I mean? Sometimes I wonder what kind of place the world would be now if we had just gone back to our anonymous lives after reawakening the world instead of creating all of this. I asked Pluto one time what would happen if we did. And all she would tell me was that I didn't want to know. So I guess it must have been pretty bad."
He reached up and patted her hand. "No. I don't regret doing any of this. It just gets a little overwhelming at times. But we've known it was coming for a long while now. And since we've seen a little bit of our future, we know that we make a go of it somehow."
She turned her hand over to entwine her fingers with his. "That's true. But I don't care if the rest of the world only sees you as King Endymion, you will always be my Darien, my dashing masked protector that always came to my rescue and the studious and handsome doctor I married."
He swiveled his chair around and pulled her down across his lap. He kissed the tip of her nose as he declared, "And you will always be my clumsy, meatball headed super heroine that likes to throw crumpled up failed math tests and shoes at my head."
Her eyes narrowed on him. "Watch it, buddy, or I just might find something else to throw at you!"
He laughed at her. And since it was the first genuine laugh she'd heard from him in days, she let him get away with it instead of rebuking him for it. And when he tightened his arms around her and dipped his head down to kiss her, she sighed wistfully against his lips.
"Every time I kiss you, it's like I'm kissing you for the first time all over again," he murmured as they parted a full minute later.
She rolled her eyes. "You always say that."
"And I always mean it," he told her emphatically. "Being with you is what makes getting up out of bed everyday worthwhile."
She huffed a quiet laugh and snuggled her head between his shoulder and neck. "You're always such a sweet talker."
"And it always works," he replied with a grin. "So what have you been up to today?"
She shrugged. "The same as you. I've been fielding phone calls left and right while trying to slog my way through a mountain of papers large enough to wallpaper this entire palace with. I did take an hour off to help the girls decorate the tree for the party tomorrow night."
Darien leaned his head against hers. "That's good. Everybody needs a break now and then."
"Look who's talking," she quipped back. "I bet you haven't moved from this spot since you left the breakfast table this morning. Have you?"
"Guilty as charged," he muttered. "But I've been trying to get everything that is important taken care of. I don't want to come back to an overflowing desk after taking a couple of days off for Christmas."
"I know what you mean," Serena commiserated. "I still have the rest of the end of the year proposals to finish up by this afternoon. But after that I don't want to see another piece of paper until after Christmas. And besides, we have tonight to look forward to."
"Yes we do," he agreed. "Which is why we both need to get back to work if we want our date night to happen." He gave her a little nudge.
"All right! All right! I'm going," she grumbled as she slid off his lap and smoothed down her skirt. "I'm about to wage war on those proposals, because nothing is going to interfere with the wonderful night we have planned. Those papers better watch out! Because if they try to mess with me, I will punish them!"
"Go get them, Sailor Moon!" he said with a chuckle.
She stuck her tongue out at him and then flounced to the door that adjoined her office with his.
He was still chuckling as he leaned back in his chair. He was glad to see her so excited about the coming night. Despite his bone deep weariness, he was looking forward to it too. He hadn't had the chance to take his wife out for a night on the town since they had been awakened in this time, and he was wound with anticipation about it. Sure, he knew that Zoicite and Amy would be lurking around to keep an eye on them in case anyone recognized who they were, but for the most part they would be alone.
He slid open his top desk drawer to look at the small, gift-wrapped box inside. He had been worried that Serena's gift wouldn't arrive in time for tonight, but it had arrived early this morning, much to his relief. He had other gifts for her that she could open on Christmas morning when they celebrated with their extended family, but this one was special, and he wanted to give it to her when they were alone. He could already picture the look of happiness on her face when she saw it, and he could hardly wait.
But the magical night wasn't going to happen if he didn't get finished with his work. So he reached for the next page on the stack of papers sitting in his inbox and pulled it toward him.
Then the phone rang, causing him to let loose a string of curses that would have caused most sailors to blush.
"Ugh! Why can't this stupid thing go away like it used to? Now I look like somebody smacked me in the forehead with a dirt clod!" Serena moaned as she leaned toward the mirror of her dressing table to examine the spot she had been dabbing repeatedly with concealer.
She tilted her head to the left, and then to the right, but she couldn't see any sign of the crescent moon birthmark that had stubbornly remained on her brow since she had used the Silver Crystal to reawaken the Earth. She had made many wishes on the crystal to make it go away, but it adamantly stayed put. While she was queen of the Earth, she was also technically queen of the moon as well, so the royal lunarian symbol refused to budge.
"I guess that's as good as it's going to get," she muttered, dusting the spot with a bit of powder to tone down the heavily applied concealer. At least it wouldn't be blazing bright gold on her forehead and give her identity away. She was sincerely hoping that she and Darien could avoid drawing the attention of any paparazzi tonight. That would really put a damper on things if they had to spend all night dodging curious photographers and reporters.
In a further attempt to be as unrecognizable as possible, she had taken her hair down out of its unique, and very well-known style, and had braided the golden strands into a long, thick rope that she had then looped up a few times and pinned with some glittery rhinestone hairpins that had been a gift from Mina.
She'd also decided against wearing anything white. White was Neo Queen Serenity's signature color, and tonight she was not a queen. She was simply Serena Shields, going out for the evening with her husband. So she had chosen a dress of deep blue silk that made her eyes pop. It was conservatively cut with a modest neckline and long sleeves, it was December and she didn't want to freeze to death after all, but the skirt ended a couple of inches above her knees and she felt slightly sultry wearing it.
Raye had snidely pointed out that she could just use the Luna Pen to make her look any way she wanted too, but she didn't want any illusions between her and Darien tonight. She was going completely as herself, and no one else.
Spying the time on the clock that sat on her vanity table, she saw that they only had a half hour until their dinner reservations. So she jumped up from her chair, spun once in front of the full length mirror to give herself the final once over, and then grabbed the slender, rectangular box wrapped in shiny gold paper and tied with a red ribbon that was sitting on her table.
She picked up the calf length coat she was going to wear tonight and carefully slid the gift into one of the deep pockets. She wasn't going to take any chances of losing it. Then she left her dressing room.
"Darien, are you about ready?" she asked as she walked into the bedroom, but heard no reply.
"That's strange. I could have sworn I heard him come in about twenty minutes ago," she mused as she moved to the enormous walk in closet where Darien usually changed. She peeked inside, sure that she'd find him in there, putting the final adjustments on his tie, but there was no one there. The bathroom was dark as well, so he wasn't putting on cologne or trying to tame his unruly hair.
She shrugged, unconcerned. Darien was very efficient, and he could get ready to go practically anywhere in just a matter of minutes. He'd probably come and gone while she had been primping and had gone back down to the office to make sure that everything was cleared for the night.
She reached out very lightly with the soul bond that they shared, just enough to sense where he was, and sure enough she felt his presence on the ground floor in his office. She'd just meet him there then.
She left the bedroom and stepped lightly down the hall, feeling like she was floating on a cloud. This was the night that she had been looking forward to for weeks, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it. She was careful going down the wide staircase, mindful of the high heels that she was wearing. Her balance had improved greatly over the years, but she still had her moments.
She encountered no one in the halls, which wasn't unusual for this time of night. The palace day staff would have gone home for the day by now, and they only kept a couple of people on hand at nights when there weren't any visitors staying in the palace or something big like a meeting or a party going on. In two nights there would be more people than she could count overflowing the place.
The scouts and generals were probably off enjoying their own evenings by this time, except for Amy and Zoicite, who were probably staked out somewhere waiting for her and Darien to leave so they could shadow them. Deep inside, she resented having to be bodyguarded everywhere she went. But if that was the way it had to be, then she was glad it was them. Kunzite and Nephrite were so large that they had a hard time blending into the background, as did Lita, who was very tall for a woman. Raye and Jadeite tended to bicker a lot, which usually turned into screaming matches that would call attention to them. And Mina, bless her heart, well, she would find it impossible to follow her and Darien around all not and not try to stick her nose into the middle of things. Amy and Zoicite would be so unobtrusive that she wouldn't even know that they were there unless she looked for them.
She saw a light shining underneath the door to Darien's office and rapped lightly on the door before opening it and stepping inside.
And then she froze in shock.
There was Darien, sitting at his desk, still wearing the same wrinkled and rumpled shirt and slacks that he had been wearing earlier in the day. He was hunched over the keyboard at his computer and was typing furiously. He barely spared her a glance as she stood in the doorway.
"Hey, Sere," he said absently. "I'm just updating the last of these reports and I'll be done."
It took her a moment to get her voice working again, and when she did she shrieked, "Darien! Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Uh…around 6:30," he muttered, never taking his eyes from the screen.
Unexpectedly, Serena's vision turned red with rage. "I suggest that you check your watch a little more closely, your majesty!" she snapped sharply. "For your information it happens to be slightly after 7:30 and we have 8:00 dinner reservations!"
Darien looked down at his watch, and his face paled slightly. "Oh, shit! I'm sorry, Serena. I guess time just got away from me."
"Got away from you? Got away from YOU!" she seethed. "I thought this night was as important to you as it is to me."
"Serena, baby, you know it is," Darien tried desperately to placate her. He pressed a few more keys and then pushed away from his desk. "See there! All done! Now just give me five little minutes to change real quick and we'll be on our way, okay?"
"Okay," she grumbled as he rushed by her and pounded down the hall toward the stairs. Then just as quickly as the anger had flowed into her, it trickled away, leaving her feeling like sitting down on the floor and having a good cry. She leaned against the wall and sniffled heavily in an attempt to hold back the flood of tears that suddenly prickled her eyes. After a minute of deep, steady breaths, she felt her nerves calm.
"Get over it, Serena," she chastised herself as she pushed away from the wall and started making her way toward the main foyer of the palace. So Darien had been wrapped up with work until the last possible second. It wasn't the end of the world or anything and the night was still young. Once they got to the restaurant and had a chance to wind down things would be fine.
She was at the foot of the stairs, sliding her arms into her coat, when she heard running footsteps from the floor above. Then Darien was flying down the steps, his black suit jacket only half on and trying to knot his tie as he ran. His hair was in complete disarray and there was a bit of 5 o'clock shadowing his jaw, but Serena thought it just made him appear more roguishly handsome than usual.
He skidded to a stop in front of her as he fixed his tie in place and shoved his other arm into his jacket. "Ready to go?" Then he smacked himself on the forehead. "Crap! Hold up just a sec." Then he was running back toward his office.
Serena stared after him in shocked disbelief. He was going back to his office…now? At the rate they were going they would be lucky to make it out the door by next Christmas.
She was working herself into a righteous, angry fit when he reappeared, one hand in his jacket pocket and panting slightly.
"Okay," he said with a grin. "Now I'm ready."
"Are you sure?" she flung out waspishly before she could stop herself. "Are you sure there aren't a few more million things you need to go do first before we go?"
His eyes narrowed and a slightly irritated look settled over his features. "I said I was sorry. What more do you want? I hadn't planned on working this late, but I got sidetracked by a couple of phone calls that went on longer than I expected. Are you going to let this ruin our entire evening?"
She blew out an exasperated breath. "No, I'm not. Let's get going."
She looped her arm through his and together they made their way to the garage where a small army of cars was kept. She giggled as he opened the door to the red BMW that he had owned as long as she'd known him. The car had been found in the basement garage of their old apartment building and in surprisingly good condition after being frozen there for a thousand years. It had needed a lot of mechanical work to get it road worthy again, but Darien had been thrilled to have this small piece from before he was king to hold onto. It meant more to him than all of the sports cars and limos that were now at his disposal combined.
"So we're going old school tonight, huh?" Serena asked as she slipped into the passenger seat.
He paused with his arm resting on top of the door to grin down at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was taking my wife out tonight, not the queen. Would the Lamborghini be more to your liking, my lady?" He gestured to the sleek, black machine the next parking space over.
"Oh, hush!" she mock scolded him with a laugh. "You know what I mean. Actually, I'm glad you decide to take this car. It'll be just like it was back when we were dating."
"That's the whole point," he told her with a wink as he closed the door.
Serena settled back happily in her seat as she waited for him to take his place behind the wheel. Things may have gotten off to a rocky start, but it was looking like it might turn out to be a decent night after all.
Darien suppressed the urge to groan for the hundredth time that night. Things were definitely not working out the way he had planned them to go and he was close to being ready to bang his head against the closest brick wall he could find.
Okay, so the whole evening hadn't been a total bust. He and Serena had shared quite a few laughs and loving moments together. But there was tension between them. He could feel it like it was a tautly stretched rubber band, and it had snapped a few times. He wasn't sure if it was because he was worn out or because she was. It was probably a combination of both. But it seemed like every time he turned around some little spat was flaring up between them over the tiniest little things; like when they'd had to wait a few minutes for their table at the restaurant because the people before them had stayed longer than the staff had anticipated. Serena had moaned to him for the entire ten minutes about how hungry she was.
But then, when they had finally been seated, she had dithered over the menu forever over what to order. When he had cracked a joke about how they should just order one of everything to appease her bottomless pit of a stomach, she had pierced him with an icy glare and had even kicked him under the table. When the waiter had come to take their order a few minutes later she had ordered nothing more than the chicken alfredo and a side salad. Then she had said that she was going to bathroom and had abruptly left the table.
Darien had sat in stunned silence for a moment before looking across the room to where Zoicite and Amy were seated at a table. He saw the blue haired woman slip from her seat and follow Serena at a discreet distance, so he knew that she was well looked after. He was just puzzled by her behavior.
She hadn't returned until their salads and bread had been delivered. When she had sat back down she'd seemed to be in a better mood than she had been before, but she'd declined a glass of wine from the bottle he had ordered.
"Alcohol and meatball heads don't mix well, remember," she had teased him lightly.
"That's never stopped you before," he'd joked back, holding a glass of the deep red wine out to her.
She'd recoiled from it like it was poison. "Ugh! No! I really don't want any. Besides, it's probably full of sugar that will go straight to my hips."
That had been a strange statement coming from a woman that was incredibly slender and had the bone structure of a bird, but he'd let it go. Things had gone a bit smoother after that, and they had chitchatted about this and that over the food. He'd polished off every bit of his salad and had three rolls while she'd only picked at her salad and never touched the bread. When the main course came she'd perked up some and had dug in with her normal enthusiasm.
But after a few minutes she'd sat her fork down and glared at him. "Do we really have to talk about work tonight?"
He'd blinked in surprise. "I wasn't talking about work. I was just telling you the funny story that the American president told me the other day."
"I don't want to hear anything about presidents, ambassadors, or any other politicians tonight," she'd grumbled darkly. She hadn't eaten much after that and she'd declined desert. That was nothing short of a minor miracle for her.
He'd asked her if she was feeling okay, and she assured him that she was fine, just a little tired. He'd offered to cut their evening short if she would rather go home and rest, and she was suddenly bouncing in her chair like she had enough energy for ten people.
"No silly!" she'd insisted. "We have tickets to the Christmas play at the theater, and I am not missing that. Now you just drink your coffee and we'll be on our way."
Then her cell phone had rung, and he'd felt a spike of irritation when she'd dug it out of her handbag and answered it. It was only Lita calling, who apologized profusely for interrupting her during her date, but a problem had come up concerning the catering for the Christmas ball that she needed an answer on right away. Serena had handled the call quickly and efficiently in less than a minute, but he had still been annoyed. She had glared daggers at him when Kunzite had placed a brief call to him ten minutes before and had threatened to throw his cell phone off the tallest bridge she could find. The double standard being used against him had pissed him off, and he'd been unable to prevent himself from pointing that fact out to her in a very rude and asshol-ish way.
They hadn't spoken the entire way to the theater.
But the ice around them had cracked once they had taken their seats in the crowded theater and a child-like enthusiasm had claimed Serena and had become infectious. They had sat with their heads close together, whispering together and drawing indulgent looks and smiles from some of the older couples around them, making them laugh as they wondered what these people would think if they realized that Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion were sitting in the middle of them.
Then the curtain had gone up and the show had begun. Serena was not normally much of a theater-goer, that was more Darien's thing while she preferred movies. But this play was a production of A Christmas Carol, which was one of her favorite holiday stories. And he had ordered tickets to it almost immediately after she'd seen the article in the newspaper announcing that a local drama group was going to be putting it on and he'd heard her say that she wished that she could go see it. In fact, this play was what had started the whole planning of this "date night".
Serena had made it through the first act with no problem, but by the time the second act started her head had begun to drift listlessly toward his shoulder. Several times she jerked like she had been on the verge of falling asleep only to force herself back into wakefulness. But within a few minutes her head would begin to loll again.
When the intermission had come, Darien had led her into the lobby of the theater and off into a quiet corner where they could talk privately. Their two shadows had followed them, but Amy and Zoicite kept a respectful distance away from them.
The purple shadows under her exhausted eyes had convinced him that she needed to be at home in bed, but she had insisted that she didn't want the night to end yet. But she had agreed that if she went back and sat in the theater for the rest of the play that she would probably be snoring like chainsaw within five minutes, and they had come up with a compromise…or at least Serena considered it a compromise.
So now here they were.
Darien finally succeeded in holding back the groan that had threatened to rumble in his chest and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and shaking his head at his wife. "No, Serena. This is not a good idea at all. In case you haven't noticed, it's not exactly a warm summer night out here. I'm fairly comfortable, but I'm wearing a lot more clothes than you. You'll freeze!"
Serena, teeth chattering just a little, clasped her hands together at her chest and gave him her best sad puppy eyes. "Please, Dare! Just for a little while. We won't stay long. The cold actually helps keep me awake, and I just want a little bit more time with you before we have to go back to the real world. I promise I'll let you take me home after this. I swear I will. And I'll go straight to bed like a good little girl."
He looked at the entrance in the stone wall in front of them and sighed. "Really, Serena? The park?"
She nodded eagerly. "Uh huh! I figured that since we were pretending that tonight was just like the nights back when we were dating that we could end here. After all, we have a lot of memories in this park."
He couldn't help but be taken in by her. He grinned. "Okay. But we're only going as far as the lake, and then we're turning around and coming back. All right?"
She squealed and hugged his arm tightly to her. "Deal!
"Just stick close to me," he warned her. "I know we've done a fairly good job of getting rid of the riff raff around here, but there are always a few bad apples left behind."
She threw back her head and laughed. "Like we should be scared of any common thugs. Either one of us could take them out with our eyes closed. Besides, if something were to happen I doubt we would have to do a thing. I can't see them, but I know Amy and Zoi are lurking around somewhere nearby."
They entered the park and followed the path that cut right through the middle of the park to the lake at its center. There were a few couples scattered here and there, despite the cold December temperatures. But for the most part it was a quiet and peaceful stroll.
They reached the lake in just a few minutes, and Serena tilted her head back as she stood at its edge so that the silver moonlight shining down from the three-quarter moon could bathe her face.
She sighed. "Oh yes! This is exactly what I've been needing. It's nice to get away for a little while so I can hear myself think for a change. We should do this more often. I feel like I never get to spend any time alone with you anymore. I mean yeah, we share a bedroom and all, but one of us is usually either asleep or about to fall asleep. And I don't like it."
Darien stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he propped his chin on her shoulder. "I don't like it either. But it's like you told me earlier, we knew what we were getting into when we started this. We just have to hang in there and hope that everything smoothes out soon."
She shook her head. "I don't want to wait that long. I've been doing some thinking about this, and I came up with an idea. I think that from now on we should take one night a week for ourselves. We don't have to go anywhere or do anything, but I think it would be nice to just have one night during all of the weekly chaos to call our own; no paperwork, no phone calls, no faxes or e-mails. Just one night where we can curl up with a movie and some junk food and be Serena and Darien again, like we used to be, instead of being Serenity and Endymion."
He heaved a sigh. "It's a good idea, Sere, but it's just not very feasible at the moment. We both have odd schedules and that makes it hard to make plans."
She yanked away from him, eyes flashing furiously. "Well it wouldn't be so hard to do if you would just quit work before 3 am for one night a week!"
His own temper, fueled by stress and lack of sleep, flared to the surface. "You're one to talk! How many nights have I had to carry you to bed because you fell asleep at your desk while burning the midnight oil?"
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "The only reason why I even go into my office in the middle of the night is because I get tired of rattling around in that gigantic bedroom all by myself! I figure that if I'm going to be awake and alone I may as well do something productive with my time."
He snorted. "I'm sorry if my having to keep late hours offends you. But one of the problems of trying to unify an entire planet is dealing with the time zone differences. It may be nighttime here right now, but on the other side of the world it is day."
"So make some of them have stay up late and call you when it's daytime here for a change!" she snapped.
He ran his hands through his hair. "Why are you making such an issue about this, Serena? You never used to have a problem with it when I had to work the night shift at the hospital."
She crossed her arms and grumbled, "That was different."
A black brow arched in her direction. "And how exactly was that any different?"
She stomped her foot. "It just was! Sure, when you were working at the hospital you were gone a lot. But I always knew that when you came home after a twenty-four hour shift that you would have a day or two off unless there was an emergency. You would go sleep for a while to rest up, and then you would be rearing to go. Now we spent practically twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week together in the same building, and I see you less now than I did then."
"Well it's not like you don't know where I am!" he almost yelled at her. "If you want to see me, you know where to find me."
Her usually warm blue eyes were like two chips of ice. "I shouldn't have to come and find you all the time! I am not some little puppy that will come crawling to you on its belly in hopes of receiving a pat on the head. True, I miss you when you're not around, but I'm not that pathetic! And I would think that if you missed me even half as much as I miss you, then you would come to find me from time to time."
"I do!" he insisted. "I came and broke you out of that luncheon a few days ago."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, to ask me if I knew where the file for Ireland was."
He smirked. "You seemed to be happy enough to get away from those French women for a while."
"Yeah, they were a pretty snotty group," she murmured. Then she shook her head. "But that's beside the point. The real issue is that I feel like we're not as close as we used to be. We pass by each other going to and from the bathroom in the morning. On some days we get to eat at least one meal together. And if we're really lucky we might get to lie next to each other for a few hours at night. Other than that we may as well be nothing more than friendly acquaintances. We haven't even made love in almost three months."
"Ex-excuse me!" Darien sputtered indignantly.
Serena held up her hand to cut off his coming tirade. "I mean really made love. Quickies in your office in between meetings don't count. I mean they're fun and all, but I miss the times that we used to share."
He shoved his hand through his hair in a frustrated gesture. "I miss them too, but our hands are tied right now. We have our responsibilities…"
"Oh! The hell with our responsibilities!" Serena screamed. "I'm not saying that we should turn our back on the planet and everything that we are trying to build. But we are only human. We may have powerful crystals and be able to fight monsters, but at the end of the day we are still just human beings. And I believe that it's important that we take time to acknowledge that and remember who we are, or we take the chance of losing ourselves."
"Now you're talking like a romanticist," Darien muttered. "You sound more like Mina than you do yourself."
"I'm only saying what I feel inside," she replied sadly. "There's a chasm that has opened up between us, and it's growing wider by the day. I'm afraid that if we don't do something about it now that soon it will be too late close it and we'll be swallowed up by an empty life of living and ruling side by side with nothing else to hold us together. And I don't want that." She turned from him and started walking away.
Scared that she was about to walk out of his life forever, he reached out and grabbed her arm. "Where are you going? Please, don't leave me. I swear I'll try to make more time for just the two of us. Just don't walk out on me now!"
She turned back to him with a ghost of her usual smile. "I'm not walking out on you. But I think maybe we need a few minutes apart to think and get our priorities lined up. I won't go far."
She stood on her tiptoes and brushed a light kiss over his cheek. Then she pulled a small, rectangular, gift-wrapped box from her coat pocket and slipped it into his hand. "Merry Christmas. This is for you. Let me know what you think about it." Then she gently extracted her arm from his hand and walked calmly back down the path.
Darien watched her until the night swallowed her up and hid from view. It wasn't until he saw Amy slipping through the shadows behind her that he realized that someone had come to stand beside him. He looked over and met Zoicite's inquisitive green gaze.
"Is everything okay?" the dark blonde general asked him in his quiet voice.
Darien shook his head. "I have no idea. Serena's been acting strange all night. Now that I think about it, she's been a little out of sorts for the last few weeks. I thought it was just all of the stress we've been under lately, but now I'm not so sure. Now she's got the idea in her head that we are growing apart, and I'm scared she may use it as an excuse to divorce me."
Zoicite clapped him firmly on the shoulder. "I'm sure you two will work things out. Serena's crazy about you, and you're crazy about her. I'm positive that you guys will find a way to get past this little speed bump."
"Here's hoping," Darien grumbled as he fiddled with the gift in his hands. It seemed odd to him that Serena would have chosen this particular moment to give him a Christmas gift, but she'd seemed to think that it was important so he decided to open it.
The red ribbon and gold paper fell away easily under his fingers, as though eager for him to get what was inside, to reveal a plain white box like one that a bracelet or a watch would come in. He lifted the lid to see what his wife had given him.
His heart stuttered once…twice…and then began pounding like a jackhammer as he fell to his knees.
"Darien! Are you okay?" Zoicite cried in alarm.
He nodded, tears blurring his vision as he looked down at the most precious thing that anyone could have ever given him. His voice cracked as he whispered, "I've been a fool, Zoicite. I've been a damn fool!"
And then he was back on his feet as he took off after his wife. He came across Amy, leaning against a tree, after only a minute or two. She straightened up and gave him a wide smile.
"Wow!" she said in an impressed tone. "It didn't take you long to follow at all. That must have been some gift Serena gave you."
He nodded numbly. "It is."
"We'll just give you some privacy then," Amy replied as she flitted over to Zoicite, who had followed Darien, and took his hand in hers. The two of them melted away into the darkness.
Darien took a deep breath and rounded the bend in the path.
Serena stared down at her hands that were folded neatly in her lap as she sat in a spot that was very special to her. The bench beneath wasn't the same, the original had been lost during the Great Freeze, but she had made sure that a replacement had been put in the exact same spot after the awakening when she had used the Silver Crystal to restore the Earth as much as she possibly could. In fact, she'd tried to make everything as close to what it had been as possible. Sadly, some things had been lost forever. They could be replaced, but they weren't exactly the same.
Overall they had been extremely lucky. Her parent's house had escaped with minimal damage, as had the Crown arcade. The Hikawa Shrine, where Raye's grandfather served as a priest, had sustained a bit more damage, but it hadn't been irreparable. Some of the buildings in the city had been far too damaged to be repaired and had to be rebuilt, but for the most part Crystal Tokyo very much resembled the Tokyo from a millennia ago, just with a few upgrades…such as the tall tower of the Crystal Palace that she could see jetting up into the night sky from where she was.
A few trees were also missing from around the spot that Serena sat, young saplings that Darien had coaxed to life with the power of the Golden Crystal sprouted up here and there among the mature trees that had survived. They were all dormant now in the cold of winter, but in the spring they would bud and spout new leaves as they grew. It would take years for the younger trees to catch up in size to the older ones, but someday in the future it would be impossible to tell by just looking which trees were from before or after the freeze.
She shivered as a cold wind whipped by and pulled her long coat closer around her as she wondered how long it would take for Darien to follow her, and she knew that he would come after her. Despite some of the harsh things that she'd said to him a short time ago, she knew that he loved her just as much as she loved him.
She certainly hadn't meant for them to get into an argument when she had decided that it would be nice to take a walk through the park, but once the words had started coming she hadn't been able to stop all of her fears and doubts from tumbling out one after another. She really was afraid that they were beginning to drift apart, and that scared her more than any monster she'd ever gone up against. She'd rather face Chaos again a thousand, no, a million times over than take the chance of losing the closeness she'd always shared with her soul mate. He was more than just her husband. He was her lover, her protector, and the one person on the planet that probably knew her better than she knew herself. And the thought that she would wake up one day to find that they had sunk so far into a rut that they viewed each other more as just being habits instead of the partners they had pledged to be when they had spoken their vows before their family and friends made her blood feel like it had turned to ice water.
Newspapers, television stations, and magazines around the world had declared her to be a saint after she had revived the Earth. They'd called her an angel for all that she had done and the groups that she had organized to make the planet a safe, pleasant, and hospitable place to live. There were some countries around the world that still looked warily upon some of her views and were hesitant about joining the worldwide alliance that she was trying to establish, but she and Darien had still offered aid to those countries when they needed it, and she hoped that it would pay off in the end.
But she wasn't vain enough to buy into the stories that the reporters made about her. There was definitely nothing saint-like about her, and she doubted that there was an angelic bone in her body. In fact, right now she felt just a little bit selfish and needy for complaining about not having any quality time with Darien when there was still so much that needed to be done in the world. But she was a wife and a woman first and a queen second. So she really didn't see the problem with her wanting to take a few hours here and there to remind themselves that they were real people.
But Darien was a stubborn man. And when he got started on a project he was worse than a dog with a bone. Granted, she had jumped into all of the work that had to be done with a single minded determination that could rival his, and their hard work had paid off beautifully, but they had cleared most of the major hurdles now and it was time to reassess their priorities. And their marriage was just as much of a priority as organizing world politics in her book.
She glanced around the small alcove she was in and smiled as a hundred memories flitted through her head. If she squinted her eyes just right she could see the ghost of her teenaged self, running down the path toward the spot where she sat. Darien would be sitting on the bench, waiting for her, usually with his head stuck in one of the abominably thick books from his college classes. She would bounce onto the seat beside him and begin jabbering his ear off about her day. He would continue studying, but the way that he would look up every so often and smile at her had always let her know that he was paying attention to whatever she was saying.
This was also the place that he had chosen when he'd officially asked her to be his wife. They had known for a long time at that point that they were destined to be together, and she had been wearing his promise ring on her left hand for about three years by then, but when he'd gone down on one knee and asked her to marry him while presenting her with a diamond ring it had been like a fairytale come true.
The sound of footsteps broke through her reveries, and she looked up just in time to see Darien walk around the bend in the path. He came to a stop as he saw her sitting there, his face hidden and unreadable in the nighttime shadows. But she was able to see the white, unwrapped box that was clenched tightly in his hand.
Her mouth went dry and butterflies went wild in her stomach as she suddenly became extremely nervous. It had seemed like a good idea at the time to give him the present when she had, but now it reeked of emotional blackmail. She probably should have waited until they had both had a chance to calm down before she had done it. Darien wasn't normally an overly emotional person, but there were a few things that could press his buttons, and she had practically punched a giant red button with her gift.
She jumped to her feet, wringing her hands in front of her as she stared down at the ground. Coward that she was, she found herself unable to look at him.
After a minute, she was finally able to force her voice to speak, but it was barely more than a whisper. "Sorry. I know it was rotten timing…but I was just so angry…I wasn't thinking clearly…I'm a horrible person…"
"Serena, stop," he interrupted her, his voice gravelly and not much louder than her own.
She heard his footsteps approaching, but she kept her gaze fixed firmly on the ground. She couldn't bear to look at his face and see what she had done to him by acting so selfish and callous. Then his black shoes entered her line of sight and his hand was under her chin, forcing her head up.
She gathered what courage she could and decided to bite the bullet. She lifted her eyes to his, and as sky blue clashed with sapphire, her breath hiccupped in surprise. "Darien! Are you crying?"
"What do you think?" he almost growled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her against him, lifting her feet completely off the ground. And then his mouth was over hers, plundering deeply.
Serena squeaked in shock for a moment before she flung her arms around his neck and threw herself whole-heartedly into the kiss. It felt like it had been so long since they had last kissed each other this way. Sure they had kissed. They had even been intimate with each other. But those were just stolen moments of passion, insane moments of want and need that always seemed to explode between them whenever they did manage to find themselves with a few minutes alone.
This kiss was different. The hunger and the passion were still present in it, but they took a backseat to the love that was zinging between them like an electrical current. This was the way that they had kissed during their courtship, engagement, and the first ten months of marriage that they had enjoyed before disaster struck and they had woken up to find themselves a thousand years in the future with the weight of royalty on their shoulders.
Serena was beginning to feel a little lightheaded and dizzy, probably from the emotions whirling inside of her as much as from the lack of air, when Darien finally pulled back. But he didn't go far, only far enough to lean his forehead against hers so that his still wet eyes could gaze into her glazed ones.
"Wow!" she mumbled through lips that felt swollen from his kiss. "What was that for?"
He chuckled, a deep, rich, wonderful chuckle that rumbled his chest. "You silly Meatball Head! What do you think that was for?"
She lowered her lashes shyly. "So you liked your gift."
"No," he replied with a shake of his head. "I loved my gift. I can't imagine anything more special or precious than what you've given me tonight."
Her eyes flew wide. "Really? I mean, I knew that you would be happy, but I really bungled up giving it to you. I had things planned out much differently in my head. But we started arguing, and I just felt so sad, angry, and miserable all at once that I just did it. So much for well laid plans."
He laughed. "Yeah, tonight definitely didn't pan out the way I hoped either, but I can't argue with the way it has turned out. Maybe we'll do better on our next date night."
Serena blinked hard. "Next one?"
He cocked the slightly lopsided grin that always made her feel like gooey, melted chocolate. "Yep. I got to thinking about what you said, and I decided that you were right. From now on I'm going to stop work every night no later than ten, whether I'm finished or not. The planet is not going to crumble to pieces just because I take a few hours to spend time with and sleep beside my wife. All the work will still be waiting there when I get back the next morning. I am only human, and I can't always be at everyone's beck and call. They're just going to have to live with it. I can't promise that I'll always be able to make it to lunch, but we will have breakfast and dinner together everyday. And I will take one whole evening off a week for us to have our time. Sometimes we'll stay in, but I would like for us to go out some more. I think tonight would have been more enjoyable if we weren't both so rundown."
Serena's eyes sparkled happily. "I think I can live with that. And I'll promise you the same thing. I won't work past ten. I'll be sure to make it to at least breakfast and dinner. And I'll take one evening off a week to spend with you."
His expression turned a little thunderous. "Oh no you don't, missy. You will not work past dinnertime and you will stop skipping meals."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You sound like a doctor."
"That's because I am one," he quipped back. "And right now I think the best thing to do is get you home and warm. Your hands feel like icicles against my neck."
"I'm wearing gloves!" she cried indignantly. "How do you know what my hands feel like?"
He gave her an Eskimo kiss. "Because those tiny little fingers of yours are so cold that I can feel them through the fabric." He set her back on her feet. "Besides, you promised me that you would go straight home after we had a walk in the park."
"Oh, all right!" she play pouted at him. "But can I have one more kiss before we leave?"
"Okay, you minx, one kiss" he chuckled as he drew her tightly against him once more. Before he lowered his lips to hers he stared deeply into her eyes and told her, "I love you, Serena."
"I love you too, Darien," she whispered back. Then she pulled his head down for a deep, scorching kiss.
As his hands scrabbled at her waist, the small gift box slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground. The lid popped off to reveal a skinny, white plastic stick with two pink lines visible in the tiny window on it. A small card had been nestled inside as well, and in Serena's curly writing it read…
Merry Christmas, Daddy! I'll be seeing you soon. Love, Rini
A/N So that's it for part one. There was quite a bit of stress and tension in this part, but things are going to lighten up after this. I like happy Christmas stories, and it wouldn't be happy if Serena and Darien spent the entire time fighting with each other. So what's in store next for our soon to be parents? Well you'll just have to wait and see. Just keep these two things in mind, #1 Darien has yet to give Serena his present. And #2 They have to tell everyone else that Rini is on the way. I know this part was a little emotional and possibly even slightly depressing in a few spots, but some comic relief is soon on the way. Part two is almost done, and I'll be posting it soon. But in the meantime I would love to hear what you guys think so far. Remember, reviews are very much loved and appreciated, and I treasure each and every one. So Happy Holidays to all of you, and you guys be safe out there in all of the holiday madness. Lots of love and hugs!
~Sere~
