He didn't know why, but he hadn't jumped yet.
Darien Shields sat on a cliff overlooking a rocky beach. Any second he was going to jump off of the cliff and onto the rocks. It would hurt, and it would probably take a while, but he would finally die. Finally be out of his misery.
It's not like he actually had anything to live for. His parents had died in a car crash when he was just a little boy, and he didn't have any relatives. He didn't have a girlfriend or even a friend for that matter. There was Andrew, but not even Andrew knew that he was an orphan....didn't know all the pain he had to go through whenever he saw anyone looking happy.
There were the Sailor Scouts too, but he was sure none of them actually liked him. For awhile it looked like Sailor Moon might have liked him, but he knew that she had to learn to get along on her own. And besides, who would want to have him as their protector? Cold-hearted, cranky, lonely him?
~
Serena Tsukino stopped running to catch her breath. She cast a quick glance behind her to make sure that no one was following her, then continued running.
She had just had the biggest fight with her parents ever. They kept treating her like she was 5, and when she told them, very politely...they had slapped her. Her own parents had slapped her. And she had run.
The young girl looked over the edge of the bridge she was running on. Beneath her was a rocky beach. Maybe she would go down there. Looking up she saw a path to a large cliff. But what surprised her was that someone was on the cliff. Whoever it was stood up and walked to the edge.
Oh no he's going to jump! Her mind screamed. She had to stop him!
~
Darien stood up and walked to the edge. This was it. Finally, all his pain was going to be over. So why wasn't he going any farther? Because you're a wimp! Disagreeing with his mind, he placed one foot over the edge...
"STOP!" He jumped in surprise and began to fall. Luckily he managed to grab onto the branch of a nearby tree before his second foot fell over the edge. His heart pounding he pulled himself onto the cliff and looked around for who had screamed.
Running up the path was a young girl, no older than 14. Her hair was put up into two buns on the top of her head that had pigtails hanging out of them. She was wearing a pair of blue jean short-shorts, a white tank top and an open pink blouse with a picture of a rabbit and the word, "bunny" on it.
He wasn't sure what he thought of her. She was beautiful, and seemed to be glowing with happiness and energy. Half of him wanted to hug her and thank her, and the other half was incredibly angry for making him stop.
And then it hit him. She was the reason why he had stopped.
There was something familiar about her. He didn't know what, but he felt as if he had known her all his life. Often late at night, a warm feeling would wash over him, and he never knew what it was...but now he felt that warm feeling again, with this young girl standing next to him, panting and looking up at him with scared eyes.
Darien knew it was crazy; he was a very logical person and didn't believe in things like destiny, but it had to have been her that he was feeling. But how could he be feeling her if they had never met? Maybe, just maybe, destiny was real?
"What were you doing?" She asked, never looking away from him. So far, he had not looked in her eyes, he was too afraid to, but he gave in and looked at them. He almost gasped, but stopped himself. In her eyes was something he couldn't quite place...an incredible love for all parts of life from birth to death... An almost irresistible longing to be kissed and held.... An excitement and happiness that seemed to shine from her soul...all pressed into two little eyes. He had never seen more emotion in his whole life than in those two eyes.
"I-I..." He stuttered. A sudden thought struck him. "What were you doing out here all alone?" He asked her.
"I...I had a fight with my parents..."
~
There was something about him. Her heart stopped when he looked into her eyes and her legs threatened to give in on her. Sure, he was cute, but there was something else...he could have asked her to spill all of her innermost secrets right then and there and she would have done it without any hesitation at all.
And there was something about his eyes. He looked like he was trying to be cold hearted, but she could see past that. There was something beyond the coldness... a needing to be loved, to not be alone....
"Parents..." He muttered, looking down at the rocky beach. "I wish I had some to fight with..." She was quite surprised. If her parents were dead she wouldn't have spilled it out that easily. And by the way that he suddenly looked at her it looked like he wouldn't usually either.
"Oh, I'm sorry..." The thought suddenly struck her of how absurd this was. She had just saved a total strangers life and was now talking to him on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, listening while he started spilling out his secrets to her. For all she knew, he could be some maniac killer who was waiting for just the right moment to strike...
"Don't be. What's your name?" He asked, turning toward her.
"Serena Tsukino."
"Mine's Darien Shields."
~
I don't know if I should be thanking her or yelling at her... He thought. Thanking her. His mind settled on.
"Do you come up here often?" Darien asked her, taking a seat on the cliff and motioning for her to sit next to him.
"Only when I want to be alone...which isn't a lot..." Serena giggled slightly and a smile threatened to break out on Darien's face. But he couldn't remember how to smile. It had been too long. "Er, Darien... I know this is going to sound kind of nosy... but why were you going to jump?"
"Because I don't have anything to live for. I don't have any family, a girlfriend, or any friends for that matter. I'm completely alone." He answered truthfully. He could feel her eyes on his face, but he didn't look back at her.
"T-That's not true...because from now on, I'm going to be your friend." Darien's head turned toward her slowly. He couldn't believe how friendly she was being. No way would he ever be like this to a complete and total stranger! But...he liked it. He liked having someone being nice to him.
"Thanks." Was all he could manage to say. They sat there in silence for quite a few minutes, but finally he broke the silence. "So, I told you why I was going to jump, why did you run away?"
"Well my parents kept treating me like I was five, and when I told them about it...very politely, I might add...they slapped me...both of them, very hard on the cheek and I ran." His jaw dropped. How could anyone ever hurt that angel? Angel? Where did that come from?
You know where it came from, Mr. Shields. You've got the hots for her.
Hots? Me? No way! I don't fall in love.
You mean, *didn't* fall in love.
"Oh wow, I'm so sorry Serena..."
"Hey, it's not your fault. It's not like you called them up and said, "Hey Kenji, Ikuko, you need to slap your daughter for no reason." Darien laughed at her imitation of him, and she smiled up at him. She was glad that he was actually smiling.
No way! I'm smiling! He thought. He hadn't smiled for well over three years, because he hadn't had a reason to. And now here he was, laughing and smiling like it was actually a regular thing to do... Serena was doing strange things to him, alright.
"So, if we're going to be friends, I might as well tell you a little about myself..." Serena said. "As I said, I'm Serena Tsukino. I'm in Junior High, I'm 14, and my teacher's Ms. Haruna. My best friends are Lita, Mina, Amy, Raye and Molly. I don't think I could really consider Melvin a best friend, but I guess he's all right...for a dweebmister! Oh listen to me, Molly's rubbing off on me, she always calls Melvin dweebmister, even though she really has a crush on him. I've got a little 12 year old brother who's really annoying, named Sammy. My mom's name's Ikuko and my dad's name's Kenji. Dad's really overprotective and he tries to kill any boy he sees me with, unless it's Melvin. He thinks Melvin's perfect for me but there's no way I'd have him as my first boyfriend. I want my first boyfriend to be cute, romantic and sweet." All of this was said very fast, and Darien laughed again, making Serena blush. "So tell me a little about yourself!"
"Well, there's not much to tell....I'm 18 and I'm in college. Um... I've kind of got a friend named Andrew, but he doesn't even know that I'm an orphan...and he's more like a classmate than a friend. My parents died when I was six, and I got amnesia from the car crash I was in. So I'm not sure if my name's really Darien. I had to go to an orphanage until I was 16, when I got a job as a model. I just got fired recently because they said I'm too old. I have my parent's money so I have an apartment and a car and a motorcycle, but I live alone. I spend most of my time studying since I have nothing else to do. And that's about all there is to my life." Oh, and I'm also a superhero who saves the lovely Sailor Moon whenever she's in peril. He added to himself.
"Wait a second, you mean the Andrew that works at Crown Arcade?" Serena asked incredulously. He nodded. "I know him too!"
"Cool. Sounds like we've got something in common, Serena." Darien said, grinning at her.
The two sat on the cliff for hours, laughing and chatting, each losing track of time. After the first three hours, they knew almost everything about each other... except for the fact that they were both Sailor Scouts. Until they began talking about embarrassing moments...
"I know! One time, Mercury used her bubbles while I was fighting and I totally lost the monster! I felt like a complete idiot when the fog cleared and there was no one there!" Darien laughed, then stopped and looked at Serena with a deer-caught-in-the-head-lights look on his face. He had basically just told her he was Tuxedo Mask. And to his great surprised, she just laughed.
"I know the feeling! Lots of times I use...or rather try to use my tiara in the fog and it usually goes haywire and hits everything but the monster!" She replied, giggling. "Trust me, my friends have got the scratches on their legs to prove it!" Serena kept giggling for a few seconds, then looked back at Darien with the same expression he was giving her. "A-are you T-Tuxedo Mask?" She asked slowly.
"Are you Sailor Moon?" She nodded, and for some reason she wasn't surprised when he nodded back.
"Well, then I guess I did know you after all!" Serena said, laughing. And then, she did something that almost made Darien fall off the cliff. She leaned her head on his shoulder, like they were a couple or something. His body immediately tensed at the feeling of her head on his shoulder, and then relaxed again right away. She seemed to be waiting for something...
So he did something. Carefully he slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to him. She sighed and he was very tempted to do the same.
"Isn't this a pretty sunset?" She asked suddenly. Darien just now noticed that the sun was indeed setting, which surprised him greatly. More time had passed than he had realized... he had come here very early in the morning.
"Yeah, it's gorgeous." Darien replied. Not as gorgeous as you though, Serena... He added in his head.
"You know what makes it even more beautiful, though?" Serena said.
"What?"
"Watching it with you." Darien couldn't remember when he had felt this happy.
"I...it's...sunset....beautiful...you....ditto." He finally managed to say.
Neither one moved for quite awhile, until the sunset had turned to a nighttime sky. Then finally Serena moved.
"I...I wasn't going to go home but...you kind of made me appreciate my parents a little more, so I think I should be heading there..." She said. "Would you walk me there? It's kind of far off...."
"Of course, Serena. I wouldn't want you walking home this late at night alone." He stood up and extended his hand to her.
~
"This is my house Darien. Do want to come meet my parents? They like meeting my friends..." Serena said as she turned into a garage-way.
"It might be better if I met them tomorrow. They're probably pretty worried about you, and I wouldn't want to get in the way." He replied.
"All right. Good night. And...thank you, Darien." She whispered, and then surprised both him and herself by leaning forward and giving him a peck on the cheek. Pulling away, she smiled, then ran into her house.
~
"T-This is so sad..." Mina sniffed, blowing her nose on a tissue.
"W-Why are y-you crying, Mina? T-This is a h-happy day!" Ray told her, though she was crying also.
"S-Sad? This is r-romantic!" Lita cried, reaching for a tissue.
"W-Would you three be q-quiet? I can't hear what's g-going on!" Amy scolded, also crying.
"Stop crying! Y-you're making me g-get teary eyed too..." Haruka complained, trying to hide her own tears.
"There's n-nothing wrong with c-crying at a wedding!" Mirchiru said, bursting into sobs at the end.
"I k-knew they were going t-to get married, b-but I didn't know i-it would b-be so beautiful!" Setsuna commented, wiping a tear away from her cheek.
"The moon p-princess and p-prince are joined t-together at l-last..." Hotaru whispered, not doing a very good job of hiding her tears. Everyone was crying so hard that no one even heard the slight "pop" when something appeared out of nowhere....
It was exactly three years after Serena and Darien's first meeting, and now they were standing on the cliff again. But this time, Darien was in a tuxedo, and Serena in a flowing gown...
"Serena, the first time I met you was right here, on this very cliff. I was getting ready to commit suicide because I didn't have anything to live for. But the minute I saw you, I knew that you were the reason why I hadn't already killed myself." At these words, a slight, "oh," came from the audience, especially from the nine sobbing girls in the first two rows... "You opened my eyes to a whole different part of the world that I never knew, and every day with you I seem to learn something new. I hope that I can spend the rest of my life with you, because that's how long I will love you...and even after I'm dead, my love for you will still keep growing."
"Darien, when I had first met you I was feeling pretty depressed myself. I had just had a big fight with my parents, and I never wanted to go home again. Not only did you make me appreciate my parents, but you made me appreciate my life like I never had before. I'll never forget the first time I looked into your eyes, because right then I knew it was you that I wanted to be with, and nothing will ever change that. I love you more than I love life, and my love for you is growing every day. I'll never forget this day for the rest of my life, because you truly are my prince." Suddenly, a little pink haired girl let out a very loud round of tears, making both Serena and Darien turn to the audience.
"Rini!" They said in unison, completely shocked.
"Er, hi!" Rini said, trying to sound innocent. Serena and Darien glanced at each other. The rest of the wedding was going to be quite interesting...