Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or the Characters, however all the other creative aspect of this story belong to TheGirlNtheYellowShoes.

A/N: I'm going to be honest, I was a little freaked out about the events in Japan that occured after I posted the summary to this story. I considered changing it out of respect for those who lost their lives this past week, but as it stands I will continue with it as planned. As things progress, if it becomes too hard to write or too much to bare I may change the Summary slightly. It's really hard to believe that I have actually been to some of the coastal towns utterly devastated by the Tsunami and earthquake. My thoughts and prayers are with Japan and their families during this difficult time. 3

Also, I'm really excited about the response I'm already getting for this story! Thank you and I hope you all continue to enjoy and read it. Please don't forget to review and let me know what you think. That said, here's chapter 2 - have fun!

Ill-Regarded Salutations

"Seeeereeeenaaaaaa!" Came a shrill voice through the phone.

Serena squinted her eyes at the ringing inside her head and sat up in bed. "Hey Lena, what's up?"

"You're here? I just ran into Andrew! He said he saw you two days ago in Juban Square!" She was... angry?

"Yeah Lena, sorry I haven't called yet, I've pretty much slept since I saw him."

Serena remember her dinner was still sitting on the counter, untouched, from the first night she got back. She hadn't had the strength to eat, the exhaustion being so overwhelming. For the past day and 1/2 she'd only gotten up for the bathroom and water. Vaguely she also remembered having thrown up, conceding to herself that she might have caught a viral bug on the flight.

"Well, Rae and I are heading to see you. So you may want to make yourself presentable!"

Serena sighed and looked at her clock, the girls had just gotten out of school not long ago, "Okay. When?"

"now."

Serena perked up and her eyes went wide. "NOW?"

"Um hm, we just left the shrine."

"Crap Lena, thanks for the notice!" Serena sang sarcastically.

She stumbled out of the bed and landed on her knees. Lena's laughter rang through the ear piece before Serena could snap her phone shut as she sprinted to the shower.

She got ready in record time and had just finished blow drying her hair when the door bell rang. Sliding her robe on and tying it, she stuffed her feet in the slippers by her bed in one swift motion.

"Coming." she called out as she slide towards the front door 'risky business' style and pulled it open quickly.

"It's about time!" Rae huffed. She wanted to be mad at Serena for not calling them as soon as she landed, but she just couldn't be. She'd missed her far too much. Which was evident as she dove through the door, reaching her before Lena could.

Serena laughed at her enthusiasm.

"We've missed you sooooo much!" Lena exclaimed, finally receiving a hug of her own.

Serena smiled. "We missed you guys too!"

"Speaking of 'we'..." Rae peered around the apartment.

Serena rolled her eyes, "Tomorrow."

They all laughed and walked into the apartment as Serena headed for the kitchen to throw away her untouched meal. There was a slight smell of it in the air and it was making her nauseated.

"Wow, this is beautiful!" Lena said walking around the apartment.

"Yeah, I think my parents kind of outdid themselves on this one," Serena chuckled and shook her head as she walked back into the living room. She figured it was because it was her and Mina's Sr year and perhaps it was supposed to be some sort of 'gift'.

Rae opened the door to the balcony and disappeared out side.

"Yah think?" Lena said inspecting the furniture, "Everything is so... sparkly."

"So how long before you're ready?" Rae asked from the doorway. She was standing there with her hands on her hips and was irritated Serena wasn't already ready.

Serena rolled her eyes, "let me changed."

Serena made her way to her room as Lena laughed before Rae shot her a death glare, abruptly cutting her off.

"Geez, someone's pmsing."

Serena blanched and snickered at Lena's remark as she pulled a pair of dark denim AG jeans out of her dresser and grabbed a white v-neck shirt. She quickly dressed and put on her grey all star sneakers, grabbing a grey matching sweater out of her closet. Afterwards, she tossed all the content from her todds bag to her mustard yellow messenger bag and threw it over her head and shoulder.

"Done." She called out looking at her watch, exactly five minutes.

Rae huffed and Lena chuckled again as Serena rounded the corner with an obvious smirk on her face.

"So... where to now?" Serena cocked an eyebrow.

Rae and Lena looked at each other and then back at Serena.

"Ami," They all three said at once.

So, decision made the girls gracefully slid out the front door and Serena turned to lock up her sparkly new apartment. She was happy to venture out for the first time in two days - actually giddy to go somewhere. Once they were on the street she took in a deep breath. In Tokyo, the air is like any other city - there's smog to spare, but Serena didn't care. For her, it was a breath of fresh air because for the first time in 14 months it felt like she was finally home.

The girls made it to the Crown in record time to find Ami saving a corner booth. All four girls were laughing and stirring up chatter in the restaurant within minutes.

"What's all this racket over here?" Andrew huffed sarcastically. He casually strode up and slid in beside Lena, who blushed in response.

Serena noted the change of color in Lena's face and furrowed her brow curiously.

"Hi Andrew, what are you up to?" Asked Ami.

"Nothing really, Just waiting for Darien." he sighed, "We're supposed to have an early dinner this evening."

"Darien?" Serena asked, taking her drink from the waitress and silently thanking her.

"Oh I didn't realize he was back already?" Rae said sucking down her coke in one smooth motion, handing it back to the waitress before she'd even left the table.

Andrew nodded, "Two days ago."

"Who's Darien?" Serena asked again, a little louder this time.

"Andrew's brother," Rae and Lena replied in sync. They looked at each other and smiled, jinx.

"He just graduated from University in America," Andrew finished.

"Oh wow, what did he go for?" Serena asked nonchalantly. If this guy was even remotely as cute as Andrew, she couldn't wait to meet him.

"Medical school. He just Graduated from Harvard. Now he's working on residency at Tokyo Medical University Hospital after completely a five month teaching program at Duke Medical Center. He wants to be a Neurosurgeon."

"Wow, Andrew. When you said graduated I though... maybe undergrad at some party school, not genius at a pretentious level." Serena squeaked in shock.

Everyone else laughed.

Just then Andrew's phone rang and he stood to take his call outside, "excuse me."

The girls picked up their conversation from before and it eventually led them through every possible topic. Summer, Love, school, boys, pop-stars, the works. Andrew never came back, so they assumed that he had met up with Darien. After dinner everyone decided to call it a night; Serena yawning four times in a row confirmed it.

They all said their goodbyes after they made plans to meet at Serena's apartment the following day around noon to see Mina when she got in. Serena loved her friends, but she was grateful she'd waited to see them. The conversation was more enjoyable coherent and conscious. Especially four hours of it.

As she began walking towards her apartment she realized how much the sky had darkened. She knew the Juban area was fairly safe, but she still didn't like being out alone and not having someone at home to expect her there.

Two blocks from The Duplex Tower Serena stood waiting for the light to change so she could cross the street. That was until she noticed the shadow of a man lurking just outside of the lamp post. She made a split decision and stepped off the curb deciding to jay walk quickly to the other side. She was almost to the curb when a speeding car came out of nowhere, she heard the screeching tires as they made a right hand turn into her lane. She gasped at the sound, her hair swirling up around her face as she spun around just in time to see the headlights coming at her.

"no..." she whispered, unable to react to the coming danger.

Two hands shot out of nowhere and pulled her up over the curb and into the opposing wall of a building before, both, Serena and the man sank to the ground.

Serena stared at where the race car had just been in shock. The Shadow on the other side of the street no longer there.

"What were you thinking?" An angry voice said in her ear as the man sat her up and jumped to his feet, brushing off his expensive looking pants.

Serena looked up, brushing her hair out of her face, "I...I..." What was she supposed to say?

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

He yanked her to her feet and her knees wobbled. She forced herself to stay up right and squinted her eyes to see the man as he picked up his brief case. His profile was beautiful - his nose perfect against the opaque backdrop, his full pink lips glistening in the the light of the street lamp, the contrast the shadows made on his jawline against is neck... and his full dark hair hung just right over his features. When she didn't answer he looked up to make sure she was even still there. As their gaze met his eyes widened, mirroring her own.

The man from the airport. Serena thought.

The girl from my flight. He thought in sequence.

When she had been boarding her flight from America he had helped her because he said they " might not get home before christmas if he didn't, seeing as she felt the need to haul half a continent with her."

She glared at him. "You," she replied breathily and huffed. "No one asked you to save me."

"Great." He rolled his eyes, "I'll remember that next time." He held out his hands gesturing for her to walk.

"What is your problem?" she snapped, bawling her first by her sides and stomping her foot. Real mature Serena.

"How is someone like you such a train wreck?" he snapped back.

He sighed and put his hand to his head, reminding himself that this girl hadn't caused his long miserable day. He'd not been able to get off work when he was supposed to, having to work 36 hours straight.

Serena was hurt, she might be a lot of things, but train wreck wasn't one of them. Stubborn, yeah; selfish, yeah; spoiled, yeah; too loving, yeah; naive, yeah; immature, yes; train wreck, NO.

She bit her lip and glared at the man while he tried to pull himself together.

"Do me a favor.." Serena started, "Don't, do me anymore favors." She turned on her heel and started off down the street leaving the man standing there and when she reached the end of the next block she started off in a sprint towards her apartment building as the anger boiled in her veins.

Not realizing the man had started after her, but giving up when she'd started running thinking she was trying to get away from him.

The following morning, a Saturday, Serena woke up to a buzzing sound. She glanced at her clock and then brushed it off, thinking it was her phone and rolled back over. Mina wasn't due for another three hours. She was just starting to fall asleep when the same sound brought her back out of her dream state.

"What the hell is that?" She growled, sitting up in bed and throwing the covers off.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

She clamored out of bed and checked her alarm on her side table, then checked her phone. Her apartment was freezing for some reason and the goose flesh rose on her bare legs.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

"What. the. FUCK." Serena pulled at her hair from the roots. Wincing at the pain in her right elbow. It had gotten scraped pretty badly from getting throw into a wall by Mr. Dick-wad the night before.

yes, but mister dick-wad saved your life. Remember?

Great, now her conscious wanted to play sides. She grabbed a pair of sweatpants out of her dresser and threw them on, slipping her feet into her slippers as she did. She walked into the living room and leaned over a few of the boxes labeled 'Mina' to see if maybe she had an alarm in one of them that could be going off.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

No, that's not coming from a box.

Serena looked around, completely baffled. It's 7 AM on a saturday and she's getting "buzz. buzz. buzzed" by some inanimate object with no heart.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

"UGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Serena stomped back into her room.

Buuzzzzzzz.

Her attention snapped in the direction of her messenger back. She narrowed her eyes and walked over, dumping the entire contents of the bag onto the floor. She was sifting through the mess when she noticed it.

A pager! A PAGER is what's causing all that damn racket?

"Wait... I don't have a pager..." Serena stated to herself and shook her head simultaneously.

She eyed the object in her hand, cocking an eyebrow before turning it over to read the bottom under the clip, if lost please return to TMU hospital. It was accompanied by an address.

"Asssshole", She hissed jumping to her feet.

His pager must have slipped off his waist and into her bag when he...

Okay, okay, when he 'saved' me.

In her mind though, that didn't make up for waking her up at 7 am the next morning. No, in her mind, It was official, he was determined to annoy the hell out of her.

She stood and put the pager on her nightstand on her way to the washroom. Clearly she was going to have to make a pit stop on the way to get Mina from the airport.

After rinsing off Serena turned on her curling iron and went to turn off the air. Dressing in pink diesel boy shorts and a matching cotton bra, she then picked up her ipod and plugged it into the alarm on her beside table.

Sour Cherry by The Kills started to fill the air immediately changing Serena's mood as she started dancing around her room to the music.

She went back into the bathroom and picked up her brush to lip-sync the words while air guitaring her legs. For three minutes it seemed like her day might turn round... until she slipped on a wet spot and ass planted on the floor, sliding straight up until she was straddling the toilet with her legs.

"owwwwwwwww," She cried as she laid on her back on the floor and stared at the ceiling. "That's really going to hurt tomorrow."

Stupid hot pager carrying perpetual dick-wads.

After all... she would have been sleeping right then instead of practically saddle riding her toilet if it hadn't been for him.

*hides* I know, I know! Quite a little tease at the end, but I promise that this is to ensure the next chapter is packed full of Serena/Dick-wad interaction :D. Until next time...