Oh my gosh, I was completely blown away by all those reviews! They were so beyond what I was expecting! I love you all! I'm so sorry I updated a little late, my original plan was to have this chapter up by last Friday- almost 2 weeks ago now- but I got sick and ended up with a lot of work that I had to rush to make up before Thanksgiving break (teachers! Words fail me…) BTW, I'm really sorry- this chapter was originally going to be longer but I wanted to get something out as soon as possible.

Much love to everyone, me

@}----

Disclaimer: If Sailor Moon was mine, Tuxedo Mask and the Generals would ditch the girls and worship at my feet. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet.

~*~

~*~ That Simple Magic ~*~

~*~

Chapter Two: A Renegade Crystal

"No, no, no, no, no!" I wailed as I banged my head against my pillows. Even in a distraught state I try to keep myself away from actual harm. I smashed my nose against my crystal necklace. "Ow!"

"This is definitely all your fault," Darien snapped, jumping out of the bed a la nude. I covered my eyes with my hands but covertly watched him through them anyway. He looked at me and snorted.

"What? Are you crazy? This is so not my fault! It's obvious what happened here, you took advantage of me in my drunken state!"

"What?" Darien looked like he was going to blow a gasket. "That's preposterous! I most certainly did not do such a thing!"

"Well how do you explain THIS then?" I demanded. And we'd been doing so well, I had spent a night away from his bed and everything. "And even if you didn't take advantage of me it's STILL your fault! You suggested the dinner!"

"You could have said no!"

"What? And turn up the prospect of free food?" I asked, horrified. Darien sneered.

"Of course. How could I have thought Meatball would have ever done something like that?" I sniffed, not quite liking what he was saying. I couldn't exactly argue since I had almost said the same thing.

"No wait," Darien said, pacing the room. He was now clad in a pair of flannel pants that made me envious as I pulled the blankets up to my chin. "I remember something. Your necklace- it was glowing or something."

"My moon crystal?" I said, knitting my brows in confusion. Carefully, I unclasped it. It rested in my palm, a glittering mirror casting rainbows across the room while the gold chain pooled to the coverlet. I narrowed my eyes, thinking step by step over the past three weeks from the first time I had "slept" with Darien. I couldn't remember there being anything funny going on with the locket. But then again, the day before I hadn't worn it, having lost it by the shower. That was the day I woke up in my bed. There had to be some connection I was missing here. Suddenly I snapped the crystal into the air. It fell in an arc across the room, casting a thousand more rainbows, before shattering against the wall. I watched it silently.

"Oh my god," Darien hissed. "Did you just break a moon crystal?"

"Oh my god!" I cried, drowning out his second questing which was 'what were you doing with a moon crystal'. "I JUST BROKE THE MOON CRYSTAL! What am I going to do? Oh man! I'm so dead! Luna's going to KILL me and then refry my ashes!"

"Your cat's going to kill you?" Darien asked raising his eyebrow and folding his arms. Oops.

"What are you talking about? Why'd you let me throw it, you idiot? Why are you even talking to me? I have a hangover! What do I know? Aren't you supposed to protect me from myself?! I'm only twenty-four you nincompoop! I don't have any life experience!" I gasped as I ran to the end of my tirade, adding a few curses. My stomach rumbled and felt nauseous.

"Uh oh," I muttered, holding my stomach again. Darien stared at me.

"Oh no! Not on MY bed! No Meatball Head, don't! Get to the bathroom! No, no, NO!… Ew!"

"I don't like this whole blacking in and out thing," I grumbled from where I was lying on the floor. The whole room was hard to see and I moaned as I got to my knees.

"Darien?" I called. "Darien, you idiot! Where are you? I need you! Um… I love you! I promise I'll never say anything mean to you again if you come over here right now." Yes, I could lie on occasion but the apartment was scary and quiet and my vision was not working very well. I had a right to feel paranoid, god damn it!

I crawled to the center of his living room before putting my knee onto his remote and accidentally turning on the TV. The room was suddenly alive as the sound system blared.

"Ah!" I screamed, covering my ears. He just had to have a state-of-the-art system, didn't he! I knew for a fact he hardly ever watched any TV. Oh, I hated him. Here I was, a poor, defenseless little girl who had never done ANYTHING to ANYONE and I was half blind at the mercy of a maniac. Somehow I managed to turn the noise off.

"Now Moon, what are we going to do?" In bad situations I had a nasty habit of talking to myself and, oh yeah, calling myself by my alter-ego. Then I was hit by a brilliant idea. What if I just changed into Sailor Moon to sleep? Granted, it had been years since I had done so and Darien might have a little bit of a shock when he came back to find the heroine Sailor Moon lying on his couch but still, it was nothing less than what he deserved for leaving me here. In fact, I hope he fainted! Heh, now wouldn't that be a Kodak moment.

With that much decided, I reached weekly into the air and managed to remember my costume changing phrase. That alone was a miracle. By the time I was done, I was exhausted. The sofa looked so nice and soft…. I curled up and would have promptly begun to snore except that I don't snore. So I just went to sleep instead.

"Eek!" there was a shriek followed by the thud of a person falling on her rump and breaking eggs.

"Go'way," I moaned rolling over.

"Serena what did you DO?!" was my horrified answer. Waiting a moment for my eyes to readjust to the light, I flopped onto my back.

"Lita! What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here! Holy moly, you didn't let Darien see you like that did you?!" Lita scooped up her grocery bag that was now leaking eggs and dashed to the kitchen. I followed after her a little more sedately.

"NO! I'm not that stupid," I retorted, conveniently forgetting that I'd been hoping to give Darien a heart attack with my outfit. "Naturally I didn't let him see me like that."

"Well- just- um, turn back! We can't risk letting him see you like that," Lita took a deep calming breath and began to vigorously assemble food products. Lita's relaxation methods were either cooking or exercising. Personally, I preferred it when she cooked… that meant I got to eat.

I groaned and went into Darien's bedroom to return to my original form. I rummaged through his clothes again before pulling out another knee length shirt and a seemingly endless pair of flannel pants. I rolled up the waistline of the pants and the sleeves of the shirt. I then marched back into the kitchen where very good smells were coming from.

Lita was at the stove flipping pancakes. I licked my lips in delight. This was the kind of service I expect when I woke up in a strange house! Oh, food… pancakes… I was in heaven.

"I don't think so," Lita held the plate temptingly out of reach as I grasped empty air for it. "You have to tell me what's going on first." Lita was a cruel taskmaster. A little piece of advice: never agree to spend a day at the gym with her.

"Fine," I sighed with resignation. "But you have to give me the food first!" Lita twisted her mouth to the side but gave me the food anyway. My eyes filled with the tantalizing picture and I proceeded to dig in with relish. I was munching satisfactorily on a piece of pig (AKA bacon) when Lita interrupted me.

"Okay, that's enough! Now spill," she folded her arms and looked very menacing. I swallowed the bacon that had become lodged in my throat during that moment of sheer terror and gulped some orange juice. Lita's brows furrowed.

"Okay, okay, enough already. Sheesh." I sat back and patted my tummy contentedly. "It's all silly really, hardly worth talking about…"

"Serena!" Why couldn't Lita have been Ami? She was the only one that wouldn't bug you when there was hot off the press slice of gossip to be heard. At least Lita wasn't Mina, that would have been truly torturous.

"Well it's weird. Anyway, um, some peculiar things have been going on," I began, scowling as I recalled everything. It's only in looking back that I began to feel angry.

"Hmm," it looked like Lita had some gossip of her own to share but she wasn't about to hand it over. Guess I would just have to continue the story.

"Okay, so for the past four weeks I've been waking up in the same bed as that Jerk and I haven't any memory of how I got there. Neither does he… jerk," I added to myself.

"Until more recently, it was only once or twice a week but this last week, I woke up there every day except for once. That was the day I had forgotten my moon crystal at home. Well, last night Darien took me out for a celebratory dinner because we thought we had finally overcome whatever 'curse' was plaguing us. I got mad at him and then got a little bit drunk so he took me back here. That was when I noticed my necklace was glowing; I thought it was just because I was hallucinating or something. Well turns out, Darien saw it too. Next thing I know, I'm waking up with no clothes on and that scum is the same!"

At the end of my story, I narrowed my eyes at Lita who had burst out laughing hysterically and barely managing to keep herself up straight.

"Oh my gosh," she snickered. "I'm SO sorry Serena." There were a few additional giggles. "This is really serious. We should call a meeting." She paused and managed to catch her breath. "We need to discuss your secret desire for Darien Shields!" She started to cackle again.

"Oh sure, let's all laugh at Serena because her stupid moon crystal's doing crazy things," I rolled my eyes. Lita started hiccupping she was laughing so hard. "Well I've got something that should interest you. I broke my moon crystal."

Lita choked and her face turned a funny red color. "What?"

"I know," I sighed. "Can we just get out of here? I can't think anymore."

I was lucky that Lita was still in shock. Otherwise she might have made a comment about myself and the witless Darien that would not have been appreciated.