Footprints in the Snow

Author: MoonStarDutchess

Chapter 3: Telling the Scouts

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon and gain no profit from this fiction. Any original characters, if any, are mine. Any similarities to people, living or dead, real or fictitious, are purely coincidental.



Telling the Scouts

Serena sighed happily as she took her place at the table where the other scouts were sitting. She rubbed her arms making the warm tracksuit that Rei lent her rub against her skin, warming her. Lita poured her a cup of tea and handed it to her.

Serena smiled, thanked her, and took a large sip, the slight lemony taste hitting both the sweet and sour section of her tongue. The warm liquid descended her throat in what Serena would describe as an affectionate warm layer, dispensing the cool feeling inside her. It was as if every sip restored her body to its normal temperature.

"Lita, you make the best tea in the world," Serena said, seemingly gaining strength with every single sip. Maybe if she waited until she finished the tea then she would gain more courage that would help her to tell them what happened with Darien. Unfortunately, she would have to confront the matter before she finished off the liquid in her mug.

Serena, what happened that caused you to arrive here looking like that. It looked like someone literally dragged you all the way here. I mean I know you don't like meetings but…" Luna started, saying her last sentence with a humorous tone and trailing off.

"Very funny Luna," Serena said. She then giggled and rubbed the back of her head with the hand that wasn't holding the teacup. "I think the only explanation that would make sense with the fewest words would be that it is snowy and icy and the beast from hell got after me."

"OHHHHHH," they all said, instantly understanding what she meant by beast from hell. They all knew of Serena's relationship with the Doberman that roamed around the neighborhood; everyone there except Rei had the same relationship with the canine.

"I just don't understand why that dog doesn't like us. We never did anything to provoke the animal," Mina said. "He's like a huge puppy toward Rei and Darien."

"Speaking of Darien, isn't he supposed to be here?" Rei asked, "Amara, Michelle, and Trista already said they couldn't make it but Darien never said anything. Did you see him today Serena?"

Serena tensed up; she found it quite silly that such a simple question could bring out so many conflicting emotions to the forefront of her mind. She played with the top of her half-full, (Or is it half-empty?) cup. She moved a drop of liquid, a result of the steam, around the top rim until it disappeared from its position by rolling down the side of its container.

"Serena? Are you alright?" Mina asked. "You look stressed out."

"I don't think Darien will be coming to a meeting again. At least, not for a long while. We probably shouldn't be looking for him to help us as often as he used to either," she said, not lifting her eyes from their place staring at the cup that her hand was surrounding.

"Why? Did something happen to him?" Lita asked. "Is he sick?"

Serena heaved a huge sigh, emptying herself of air before taking an intake of breath. She bit her lip and adjusted her sitting position. She knew that they were staring at her with their quizzical looks that she'd grown to be so familiar with. When they stared at her, it always felt like they were shooting a bit of their planet powers toward her ostentatiously.

She finally summoned the courage to meet their gazes. Her palms sweated and knew it had little to do with the fact they were gripping a warm mug and more to do with her nerves. She bit her lip tighter and thought she felt that irony taste that blood possessed. The girls' eyes widened as Serena released her teeth from her lips, lifted her hand, and ran her thumb across them. She lifted it to her gaze to see a small red streak on her finger.

She reached to the middle of the table to take a napkin to wipe her lip.

"Serena, what's going on?" Ami asked, the concern in her voice evident.

Serena folded the napkin and took a huge sip of her now lukewarm tea. "I need to tell you all what happened but I really don't know how. I never thought of how to say this to you guys because I didn't think they'd ever be a need to do so. I don't know how you are going to react. It's not going to be something you'd consider positive even though to me, it is exactly that."

The occupants of the room were quite surprised with how Serena spoke. It didn't seem like her. Usually when she told them things it was in a rowdy manner like she'd eaten too much sweets and was trying to get rid of all of the sugar that had taken over her blood and turned it to the consistency of syrup.

Mina scooted closer to her out of concern and rested her hand on Serena's hand. She squeezed it and the napkin that it was resting on.

"Go ahead Serena. Whatever it is, I am sure we can deal with it."

Serena smiled at her friend that looked more like her sister. It was absolutely amazing that they weren't blood related. Mina was one of the few people in the world that respected and understood her fully.

"I broke up with Darien," Serena said in a softer tone than she intended. She just couldn't seem to raise her voice to the volume that she wanted. It wasn't that she was ashamed that she did so since it was for the best. She reasoned for a moment that her body didn't allow her to speak at normal volume because of the sensitivity of the subject matter. The future would be changed and Serena wasn't entirely sure the scouts would be happy with that.

Serena gazed at each of the girls, every one of them wearing stunned looks. Suddenly, they burst out laughing. Serena nearly fell over upon seeing their reactions. How could they laugh at a time like this? It was then that Rei spoke among her fit of giggles, indicating that they weren't taking her revelation seriously.

"Serena, stop joking around."

"Oh my god, I can't breathe," Lita said while laughing and resting her head on her arms that were resting on the pine table.

"You guys, I am being serious. I really did break it off! Stop laughing!" she said, in an oddly regal and stern tone. Her voice was loud and confident, something incredibly different from her normal self. Her pitch seemed to carry across the room and paralyzed the group into silence. They all stared at her like she'd committed a forbidden act against all of her own morals.

Silence took over the environment and Serena shifted in her seating position yet again. She felt awkwardness drift into the room like waves of thick fog drifted in during the early mornings in the city. Awkward waves were covering everything, coating it with thick tension that Serena wasn't sure could be broken. She rushed ways to cut through it in organized patterns of thought in her head but came up with nothing. She would have to wait and see if one of the girls would cut through it.

Finally, after a full minute of terseness, Rei spoke. The fire of her words burning up the… Awkfog. Yes, that would be a good term for it, Awkfog. Her mind always made up those tiny words that brought some sort of relief and description for things she couldn't describe with existing words and phrases.

"Serena, did you really break up with him? I… I find that incredibly hard to believe."

"Please, don't make me confirm what I've sternly told you already," Serena replied, trying to keep her voice pitch perfectly level. She lifted her tea to her lips and took a drink, cringing when the cool bitterness drifted down into her body.

"I can't believe it," Mina said. "I thought you two were so happy."

"You used to be crazy about him. What changed?" Ami said, her manic shock recovering much quicker than the others.

"I wasn't happy and I don't believe he was either. I can't help but believe that the excitement with him was that same excitement that every girl gets when it comes to a first boyfriend. Then when we discovered our pasts, it was as if that cemented everything together like bricks. We were meant to be together then, so the plaster just stuck. I felt I had to stick to it so I eluded myself into believing I was in love. The future tacked on more mortar and reinforcements in the form of Rini and I was just so trapped. The fact that I could have fallen for Seiya so easily, cracked the wall a bit. He chipped at my heart and made me question what I felt for Darien. It was so hard and broke my heart to break his."

"Are you in love with Seiya?" Lita asked.

"Part of me fell for him at that time. Now however, there's no romantic love in me toward Seiya. Just like there's nothing romantic there for Darien. I love them both but I am in love with neither. This isn't about Seiya though: this is about Darien. The more I thought about us, the more I realized how different and ultimately incompatible we are. I deserve to be with someone more like me, someone that shares more common interests with me. He deserves the same thing."

The girls were stunned over Serena's words and mannerisms. They could tell this was something that she'd spent time thinking over. Despite their worries about the future, they each decided individually that they would support her decision.

"Wow meatball head! I'm impressed that you took the time to think things through," Rei said, trying to add a slight bit of teasing to break up the tension everyone was feeling. She failed but didn't acknowledge that failure.

"I do that sometimes," Serena muttered so low that no one could hear her.

"So how did he take it?" Ami questioned, genuinely intrigued by the new side of Serena that she was seeing and about the events that were taking place.

"He was upset. Much more upset than I thought he'd be but that's just because I believe he needs to come to the realization that I came to. He doesn't love me the way he thinks he does. With time, he'll see that. His actions already display his disinterest."

"Are you out of your mind? You know perfectly well Darien is crazy over you!" Rei protested.

"Actually, I don't. If he was really so crazy about me then he wouldn't read a book almost every time we get together. We have nothing to talk about unless Rini does something funny or aggravating, or if we have an enemy we have to defeat. We are nothing like a couple is supposed to be. We are just friends that seem to go through the motions as boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Does being friends seem like a possibility?" Mina asked.

"I doubt he wants to be friends with me right now but I hope he will someday. I don't think I could bear it if he hated me," Serena replied.

Mina and Lita hugged their friend.

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you at all," Mina said.

"Yeah, Mina's right," Lita said.

Rei and Ami walked over to the three girls and gathered Serena in a huge hug. "We are all here for you," Rei said.

"We will support whatever decisions you make because we are your friends," Ami stated.

Serena smiled as tears began leaking from her eyes. She was truly touched by their reactions to the situation. It was nothing like she expected and she was happy to realize that they weren't just friends with her because she was Sailor Moon or Princess Serenity, but because she was simple Serena.

"Thank you all so much," Serena said.

--

After determining that there were no new threats to be concerned about and nothing bad was going on other than the normal crimes of society, the meeting concluded and the scouts made their way back to their homes.

Serena felt odd as she made her way up the street on which her house resided. She had a butterfly feeling in her stomach and it seemed she was getting oddly excited for reasons she yet knew. Since she'd become Sailor Moon she'd slowly develop some sense of the future. Her body seemed to warn her when something was about to happen in the very near future.

She walked through the gate and stopped on the path that led to the door of her house. Any other time her house wouldn't look so big, but the closer she stepped to it the more her sense of anticipation seemed to grow, causing the house to feel like a giant looming skyscraper that extended into the evening sky.

Serena made her way up to the door and touched it: the normally cool metal feeling oddly hot to the touch. No, warm to the touch. That doorknob, as she turned it, gave her almost a happy, affectionate feeling.

She entered the house and after shutting the door behind her, announced that she was home as per customary in the household. She slipped off her shoes and slipped on her pink slippers with the small white bunny sewed onto them. They felt warmer than normal as well, encasing her feet in a fleece hug.

"Serena, could you please come in here a minute," she heard her mother yell. Serena took off her coat and hung it up before making her way through the hallway and into the cozy peach living room. Her dad and mom were sitting on the light blue couches and a small fire was lit in the fireplace, casting the room in the warm glow that mirrored the way Serena felt inside at that moment.

Serena's parents looked at her with serious looks on their face; the kind of looks they had when they were about to punish her or tell her something dramatic. While she hoped for the latter, something inside her mind was whispering to her; building up anticipation that something was going to happen to change her direction in life.

---

"Please sit down Serena," her father said, his tenor voice filling the room, blocking out the crackling of wood on the small fire. Serena walked over to the couch beside them and took a seat, folding her right foot over her left, and her legs crossing at their calves. She rested her hands in her lap, right over left, a gesture she inherited via her mother's genetics, and then she began twiddling her thumbs, a gesture she inherited from her father.

"I'm not in trouble am I? Because seriously, if I am I can honestly say that I don't know what I've done," she started, instantly defending herself against a potential grounding worthy mistake.

"No, you aren't in trouble," her father said, his words vibrating due to a slight chuckle of amusement. "We want to ask you for a favor. It's a big responsibility so if you don't feel up to it you don't have to do it."

"We don't want to pressure you in anyway," her mother added.

Serena stared at her parents and curiosity took over every fiber of her being. They never asked her for favors so her earlier warning about something different looming on the horizon of her future, was justified. Since they were staying quite, she figured that they wanted some sort of response from her even though she would have preferred that they would have just gotten to the point.

"What is it?" Serena questioned simply.

"Your mother and I were wondering if you'd like to go stay with your grandmother in Kyoto for a while," her father spoke.

"What? Really? Kyoto? Why do you want me to do that? Is grandmother alright?" she questioned, her heartbeat increasing out of both worry and excitement that she could possibly start a new life in a place where she adored visiting every spring.

"You see, she is getting older and we know that it is hard for her to take care of all the things she needs too. It's hard for her to run that entire apartment building alone. We'd like you to go help her Serena. Of all the people in the world, your grandmother respects you the most."

"I never could understand why," Serena said honestly.

Her father smiled. "I think it's because you two are so much alike," he said.

"What about school?" she questioned then realized exactly what she spoke when her parents looked at her with wide eyes and open mouths. "God I must be sick. I never thought a question like that would ever pass my lips."

She began laughing and, a moment later, her parents joined in.

"Well, Serena," her mother said, "you can go to school in Kyoto of course. There's an excellent high school right in the area."

Serena leaned back in her chair. If she went to Kyoto, she would be leaving behind her friends and everything she'd known her entire life. It was almost mind boggling to think that a simple yes or no answer could possibly change the course of her life. Then there were the scouts to consider, she would be leaving them to take care of everything here if an enemy appeared. Could she really do that to them?

She laughed inwardly. It wasn't as if she was much help anyway and there wasn't any sign of any enemies. In addition, she could always come back home after she graduated in a year: if she wanted to come back. She'd already made a drastic change in her life by breaking it off with Darien, why not make a new one while she was on a roll. Perhaps the move would help her gain more insight as to who she really was.

"All right, I'll go," she said.

Her parent's once again displayed looks of shock on their faces.

"What's the matter?" she questioned, noticing the looks. "You did want me to go didn't you?"

"Well…um…yes, but we didn't expect such an abrupt decision. We thought you would toil with the idea a bit first," her mother said.

"Then turn it down flat," her father added, earning an elbow from his wife.

"Nope, I think it would be fun and a good growing up experience for me," Serena replied as she smiled at her parents.

"Um…okay then," her dad said. "When do you want to leave?"

"Tomorrow too soon?" she questioned. The fact she needed to tell the scouts where she was going was the last thing on her mind as excitement at the new circumstances filled her brain.

"No, not if you can get packed tonight," he said.

Serena jumped up and smiled even wider. "I can do that!" She started to rush out of the room when her mother's voice stopped her at the door.

"Wait Serena, there's something else we want to talk to you about," she said. Serena turned and looked at her mother quizzically. "Please sit down."

She walked over and sat down in her previous spot on the couch.

"Yeah mom?"

"Well, your father and I have noticed that you haven't been eating much at all or sleeping the way you normally do. We are worried about you."

"You know that you can tell us anything right?" Her father said.

"Yeah, I know. I'm fine now. You remember Darien?"

"Yeah…" her father muttered, making his displeasure over the boy evident as if Serena didn't already know about his feelings.

"We broke up," she said simply.

"What! That jerk broke up with my daughter and that's the reason you haven't been eating! I'll kill him," her father exclaimed, standing and marching toward the door, his face red and, if Serena hadn't known better she would swear she saw smoke coming from his ears. He was like a bottle rocket ready to explode.

She began laughing when her mother grabbed his waist to keep him from moving any further. They both turned to her and looked at her oddly. She held up her hand to indicate for them to wait a moment while she calmed herself.

"I broke up with him," she said calmly. In an instant, her parents rushed to her side: her mother checking for a fever and her father checking her pulse with one hand and watching his watch.

"Are you alright? Are you sick?" her father questioned. Serena would swear that he had some sort of bipolar mental illness that hit specifically whenever her dating life came into play.

"You were crazy about that boy," her mother said.

"Things change. People grow up and grow apart. I've put a lot of thought into it before I did it, so that's the reason for the lack of appetite and sleep. I'm sure now it will return to normal soon."

She stood up and walked over to the door. "I should get packing," she said and then laughed as her stomach growled. "After I get some food."

She left the room and headed to the kitchen.

Serena's father turned to his wife when he heard her sniffle and saw her wipe a tear away with her white apron.

"Kenji, it seems like it was only yesterday when she was in a little cute pink bundle. Now our baby is leaving!"

Kenji took his wife's hand and prepared himself to cure her empty nest syndrome. That is, if he could control his own.


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Author code: RW 2009