It was a cold winter day when Darien was walking home from work. It had been a long day in the pediatrics department as the flu was currently going around. However that only made him more excited to get home to his wife and daughter.
So he turned his coat collar up against the wind and fixed his scarf around his neck. Looking at his watch and seeing it was almost time for the last train he made a run for the station praying he didn't miss it.
Darien was glad he had been able to make the train but was surprised at how packed it had been with it being the last train, but he was happy to be almost home. He was only one block away when he heard a scream. He sighed knowing he couldn't leave someone who might need his help to fend for them self. Quickly he ducked into an alley pulled out his rose and transformed into his alter ego Tuxedo Mask. He quickly made his way up to the nearest roof and started his search as he jumped between buildings.
When he finally found the alley that the scream had come from he saw it was a simple mugging and the victim was in serious trouble. He was just about to jump down and help when he saw the attacker turn around stunned. Following his line of site and Darien saw the sailor scouts standing at the alley opening.
"Stop you creep!" He saw Jupiter step forward as she yelled at the assailant.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you it was wrong to steal." He heard Venus say as all the other scouts stepped forward to stand with Jupiter.
"Stop now or I will be forced to punish you in the name of the moon!" He saw sailor moon strike her signature pose as she yelled at the mugger.
Darien didn't even bother to stick around to give his usual little bit of advice. He let out a sigh and decided to just leave it to the scouts to take care of. He jumped back down to the ground and undid his transformation. Once back as himself he continued his walk home eager to be out of the cold. It had been like this ever since they had defeated the dark moon years ago. Since then there hadn't been much for either the scouts or him to do other than stopping these petty crimes. Tonight was just another reminder of how useless he had become.
He sighed as he walked through the door of his home.
"I'm home." He called out as he took of his shoes and took of his coat and scarf. Before he could take another step in he was knocked off his feet and was now sitting on the floor.
"Welcome home daddy!" Said the child that had jumped on him and now had their little arms wrapped around his neck.
He chuckled and ruffled their hair. "Hello sweetie." He said returning the hug he received. He easily got of the floor while still holding the little girl that had her arms around his neck.
"How was your day Rini?" He asked walking them into the kitchen and setting her down so she was sitting on the counter.
"My day was good. I got to play with Hotaru at school. Mama came and brought me home. And then I got to do whatever I wanted for several hours after Mama left again. And then you came home." She said swinging her feet and smiling up at Darien but there was a hint of sadness she tried to hide that was in her voice.
As he listened Darien had started to make them some dinner. "Your mother left you home alone again?" he asked with irritation in his voice.
"Yeah…but it's okay Mama's been busy so I have to be a good girl and wait for daddy to get home." The young girl said jumping down to get a stool so that she could help.
Just as she was climbing onto the stool the front door opened.
"I'm home." Serena called out as she walked in.
"Welcome home." They both called from the kitchen t far into making diner to even take one step away.
Serena made her way into the living room and sat down. Darien and Rini quickly finished preparing the meal and called to Serena so that they could all eat.
Once they were done Darien looked at the little girl and in a gentle voice said. "Honey I have to talk to Mama so why don't you make your way up to your room? I'll call you back down for some dessert when we're done."
""Okay!" She smiled at him and made her way up to her room.
Serena had used the opportunity of this conversation to make her way back into the living room to sit down and watch the news again. Darien seeing that his wife was not still sitting with him made his way into the living room, and spotted his wife sitting on the couch.
He took a deep breath and approached her. "Serena…we need to talk."
"Oh really can it wait?" she asked not taking her eyes away from the news no doubt waiting to see news of one of her rescues from her escapades earlier in the night.
"Serena this is serious!"He was getting tired of his wife never taking him seriously, even though he was older than her.
She sighed turning towards him.
"What could possibly be so important that I can't watch the news in peace?" She asked the annoyance of having been interrupted clear in her voice and on her face.
"Oh I don't know maybe our daughter." He said trying to keep his voice calm, but was unable to keep a small tremor of his annoyance from being heard.
Serena sighed. "Really Darien you're bringing this up again? She's not a little baby any more besides back when we were fighting the dark moon we used to leave her at home all the time." Serena said as she turned back to the TV.
"Yeah back when you still lived with your mother and she was there to take care of Rini! For god's sake she is only four Serena! You can't send her to day care and go play scouts and then expect to just pick her up and go run around some more! You're her mother but you act as if you couldn't care less about her or our family!" He said as he finally lost all patience he had left for Serena's attitude.
"Oh really? You think I don't care then you can just stick all the work I do for you up your a-" She started to say her voice never raising an octave before she was interrupted be the newscaster on the television.
"We interrupt this story with some breaking news!"
AN: I just want to thank you for reading this chapter! Also thank you to t-rex989 for giving me the challenge of this story I'm so excited to finall start on it and I hope you enjoy it! As always please review I love getting feedback from you guys on how I might improve the story, and if your enjoying it. Thank you again and have a wonderful day.