Serena practically jumped at the knock on her door. That knock signaled that her date, Kyle Garret, was here to pick her up for their date. Serena glanced out the window at the downpour of rain that was coming down outside. Smiling, Serena wasn't about to let the weather dampen her spirits today. Quickly, she checked herself in the mirror before going to the door to open it for Kyle.
When Serena opened the door Kyle took in her appearance appreciatively. She'd decided to buy a simple sleeveless black dress since she had no idea what Kyle had planned for tonight. It was similar to the ones that Serena had seen women wear to the restaurant though she was sure that it didn't cost nearly as much as the ones that those women wore.
"Hi," Serena said nervously as she sensed Kyle's evaluation of her attire.
"Hi," Kyle returned with a smile. "You know, when you said that you were on the fourth floor, I somehow missed that it was a walk-up," Kyle chuckled while trying to break the initial awkwardness of the moment.
"Oh no! I should have warned you," Serena groaned. She hadn't thought that it was important when she gave Kyle directions to where she was living at when they planned their date.
"Forget it; it's good for me to get my butt up and climb some stairs every once in a while," Kyle said with a laugh. He found the way that Serena's cheeks flushed with embarrassment adorable. "Now I hope that you won't be disappointed with a plain, ordinary dinner and a movie. I had planned a picnic but I didn't think that you'd want to go in weather like this."
Serena giggled a bit at the idea of a picnic in the rain. "Dinner sounds good."
"Excellent. Let's head on down then. I made reservations at a restaurant across town. I figured that it wouldn't be a treat to go to the same one that you work at on your night off," Kyle teased as he helped Serena with her jacket that she'd bought to match her dress for the cool mountain evenings. He then walked her down the four flights of stairs to the waiting car outside. Kyle hoped that this would be only the first of many nights together.
Luna sat and listened to the Scouts tell her of their latest encounter with the Shadow Scouts intently. Nodding, Luna spoke up once they were done. "I spoke with Central about the Shadows. It's possible that their appearances have something to do with a dimensional rift that was opened right after Sailor Moon disappeared."
"What kind of dimensional rift?" Ami asked.
"They aren't quite sure yet," Artemis said from his place beside his feline companion.
"So how are we supposed to defeat them if they don't know where the Shadows came from?" Lita asked with a stubborn set to her jaw.
"For right now you'll just have to keep doing what you've been doing. Hopefully between you four and Darien, we'll be able to keep them from completing whatever mission they are here to perform," Luna sighed.
Shortly afterwards, Luna began to head back to the Tsukino residence out of habit. Some part of her hoped that she'd go back and find Serena in her room; just like always. Ready to yak her ear off about one thing or another. Staying up late only to need to be jolted awake come the morning to prevent her from being late for the day. Each night she would crawl up on Serena's pillow and wish that her charge would return to the fold on her own. She had spent many nights thinking over her teaching methods that she'd used to try to mold Serena into the princess that she knew her to be. Luna asked herself how she could have missed that Serena was so miserable. Enough to cause her to abandon her destiny and run away. If given the chance, Luna vowed that she'd make things different.
At the house, Luna would watch day after day as Serena's parents tried to go on from day-to-day while they began to lose hope of finding their missing daughter. They had posted flyers all over town when Serena first went missing but now with it being so many months of no word at all they seemed to have accepted that their daughter didn't want to be found. With Serena's absence so left the joy of the household as well. Even her brother, Sammy, no longer seemed to be as carefree with the bubbly blonde gone.
The only solace that Luna had was that Sailor Pluto, while refusing to reveal where the princess was, told her that Serena was safe and even seemed happy. That knowledge was better than nothing but she still wished that she could find the young woman. Especially now that it seemed that the Scouts needed her to fight this new evil threat.
"So, are you going to tell me more about you?" Kyle asked as he stared into Serena's eyes from across the small table for two. "Where did you live before you showed up in town?"
"I...uh..." Serena glanced down at the table not really wanting to talk about her past. "I lived in Tokyo."
"Really?" Kyle asked since his family had offices in the city. "How did you come here of all places then?"
"Kyle, I decided that I wanted to get away from some people that I knew in Tokyo so I just chose a bus at random when I left," Serena said truthfully since she hoped that she'd be able to head off too many other questions. "But I don't want to talk about why I left Tokyo tonight."
"Alright, fair enough," Kyle said as he placed a hand over hers. "But I sure am glad that out of all of the buses that you could have hopped on that you chose the one that would bring you here."
"I am too," Serena said with a smile.
The rest of the night passed with the couple getting to know one another. All too soon, though, the evening came to a close. Serena and Kyle joked and laughed all the way up to the fourth floor room that Serena lived in. They'd had a wonderful evening and Serena was a little sad to see it end. When they got to her door she gazed up at Kyle a bit nervously. Though only for a moment before he leaned in to give her slow, soft kiss.
She remained at her door after he left and headed back down the stairs for nearly five whole minutes. With a dreamy look on her face Serena went inside her room and hurried off to her dreams that would continue the night that had gone much better than she could have ever hoped for.
Shadow Moon frowned as she crossed her arms. She'd been all over Tokyo and hadn't had any more luck with finding Sailor Moon than her friends had. The Shadows had been sent to find the Imperium Silver Moon Crystal. They needed it to take Queen Beryl's kingdom from her. It was their only chance to be able to combat the crystal in the other woman's possession. Shadow Moon had been told that it should be found with her counterpart. So far, though, there had been no sight of her. Fortunately, the other Sailors didn't seem to know where the Scout and her crystal were at either. That made it more difficult for the Sailors to vanquish the Shadows. Only Sailor Moon can return them to their own dimension.
"I thought that you would be able to trace the Sailor Brat," Shadow Mars said with scowl. "After all, we can find the others anytime that we want." Mars smirked when she saw the look that crossed her leader's face.
"She has the crystal, the others don't," Shadow Moon shot back. "The crystal must be hiding her location. Otherwise, I'd be able to find her anywhere in a hundred mile radius."
"Sure, you say that now. I'll believe you when you actually find her, though," Shadow Mars said as she spun on her heels to leave her princess where she was watching the city from the top of a building in the business district of Tokyo. "I just hope that when the brat is found, Shadow Moon can defeat her. We need that crystal."
Serena waltzed into work the next night feeling lighter than air. She hummed to herself as she got ready for her shift to begin and was stopped by one of the women that worked as a waitress in the restaurant.
"Serena, rumor has it that you went out with Kyle Garret last night. Is that true?" Misty asked as she leaned in to speak in whispers to her coworker in private.
"Well, actually it is. Why?" Serena asked with a smile.
"You have got to be kidding!" Misty exclaimed. "You went out with KYLE GARRET? Do you have any idea just who he is?"
"Look, I know that going out with a customer may not be a very good idea but I had fun last night," Serena said defending her actions.
"A customer? Oh no. You really don't know who the Garrets are," Misty said with a bit of laughter. "The Garrets own more than half of this town. Including this restaurant. You went out with the owner's son!"
Serena's jaw dropped a bit at the revelation. She knew that Kyle must have a bit of money but she hadn't expected anything like what Misty had just told her. She couldn't help but wonder just why someone like Kyle would want to date her when he had his choice of nearly anyone else around. Still, the fact that he had chosen her made Serena feel more special than she had in a long time.
In Beryl's throne room she gazed worriedly into her crystal ball as she searched for any evidence of the evil Shadow Scouts who had been trying to invade her kingdom for over a millennia. It worried her that she had not seen or heard from them in months. To the queen, that meant that they were up to something big. When Beryl heard footsteps, she looked up to find her most trusted advisor, Malachite, making his way into the throne room.
"Any trace of them yet?" Queen Beryl asked in anticipation.
"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. We've searched all over the kingdom as well as on Earth but we haven't been able to find a single trace of them," Malachite said as he swept his silver cape behind him. "Nephrite is consulting the stars as well but so far they remain silent on the location of our enemies."
"Keep trying to find them, Malachite. We must not allow them to be set loose uninhibited on the galaxy."
"Yes, My Queen," Malachite said as he bowed before his queen. He prayed that they would be able to find the Shadow Scouts before they did something horrible. He couldn't bear the thought of Shadow Moon and her Shadow Scouts taking out their revenge against the Light Kingdom by attacking innocents on the Earth. Simply for bringing an end to their evil reign on the Moon years ago.
Shadow Moon snuck into the Tsukino residence to snoop around in the room of the missing Sailor Scout. She hoped that perhaps the Moon Crystal had been left behind when the Scout ran away. After all, if she was running away from her life as a Scout she wouldn't really need it, would she?
On the bed sat a cat that looked very much like the annoying feline that she'd left behind in her own dimension. The black cat was fast asleep and Shadow Moon planned to keep it that way. Like the shadow that she'd been trained to emulate, Shadow Moon moved around stealthily in the darkened room. Frowning, she wondered if there was some other place in the house that her duplicate would hide the valuable crystal. Silently, Shadow Moon slipped out into the hall. She was nearly to the stairs when Serena's younger brother, Sammy, came out of his room on his way to the bathroom.
"Sailor Moon?" Sammy asked since he'd been a fan of the heroine since he was little. Now as a teen he'd admit that he has always had a little crush on her. "What are you doing in my house?"
"Beat it, Kid. This ain't none of your business," Shadow Moon said as she scowled at the adolescent teen.
Sammy scrunched his face. That didn't sound like the Sailor Moon that he's followed in the news and even met once before when he was younger. Something wasn't right.
"You can't be Sailor Moon," Sammy said as he started to back up towards the other end of the hall. "Who are you?"
"Like I said, Kid. It's none of your business." Shadow Moon released a bit of dark energy which sent Sammy back up against the door of Serena's room. That woke Luna up and she had just gotten to the hall in time to see the imposter Scout leave by way of the front door. Fortunately, Sammy was only knocked out. Not really hurt. He later woke up thinking that he'd been sleepwalking.
After Luna told the Scouts of Shadow Moon's appearance at Serena's house they all began to suspect that the Sailor Moon look-a-like just might be looking for the moon crystal. Lita had been watching over it ever since Serena had left it in her care nearly six months ago. Now they felt that perhaps it should be moved to a safer location than her apartment. If the Shadows went to their missing leader's home then it would only be a matter of time before the Shadows searched the other Scouts' own homes as well. Luna and Artemis were able to convince Sailor Pluto to keep the magical talisman safe until it could be returned to its guardian. Luna and all of the Scouts hoped that the time would be sooner rather than later.
When Serena got off of work Kyle Garret was waiting for her outside. On the inside she was practically giddy when she saw him but at the same time she still couldn't believe that he'd taken an interest in her. Serena smiled as she approached the man that she'd been able to kiss only a day ago.
"It's a little late for you to be here, isn't it?" Serena said with a laugh.
"I just figured that I'd save you a walk to the bus stop. Walking up four flights of stairs is enough after standing on your feet all day," Kyle said as he opened the passenger's door for the red-head. "How you manage that trek up to your room every night after work and walking from the bus stop, I'll never know."
"You get used to it," Serena said as she took her place in the car.
"I wouldn't. I'd rather work up a sweat doing something other than climbing stairs," Kyle said before he realized that what he had said could be inferred as a lewd comment; especially after he saw Serena blush. "That's what the gym is for," Kyle added to try to redeem himself. "So, how about while I drive you home you tell me how your night went after I left."
"Oh, you mean you want to hear about how the fact that the two of us went out last night was the biggest bit of gossip in the whole place?" Serena asked with a smirk.
"How did anyone know?"
"Misty's sister works at the restaurant that we went to last night. From there, word traveled very fast," Serena said with a hint of humor on her lips. "You should have seen her when she asked me if it was true." Serena decided to leave out the fact that Misty had also told her of Kyle's position with the upper-class in town. If the fact that he was out of her league didn't bother him then she wasn't about to let it bother her.
"I think I can imagine," Kyle said as he joined in Serena's laughter. That was one thing that he loved about Serena. She just couldn't laugh without causing him to join in. "Well, what do you say that we help the rumor mill along a bit?"
"Depends, what do you have in mind?" Serena asked as she slid over in the seat to get just a little bit closer to the man behind the wheel. It was all innocent. She just loved being as close to Kyle as she could.
"Well, it's really just a small thing but you know how no one will believe the truth anyway."
"I'm not sure I'm following you," Serena said confused.
"I'm having to head into Tokyo next week..." Kyle paused as he felt Serena stiffen beside him. He'd thought about asking her if she wanted to go with him but changed his mind when he noticed Serena's reaction to the name of the city. Things must have been worse for her there than he thought. Instead he asked, "I usually try to find someone to stay in my apartment while I'm gone to watch after Brutus."
"Brutus?" Serena asked as she tilted her head to look up at Kyle.
"My German Shepard."
"A dog?" Serena furled her brows. "I don't know. I've always been more of a cat person."
"You're kidding. Cats are pretty self-centered. They let you know real quick that they don't really need you. They can take you or leave you. It doesn't matter to them," Kyle said with a smile. "Dogs on the other hand, they love you unconditionally. Even if the whole world is against you a dog will have your back. And if you've had a bad day a dog will sit there and listen to you without you having to really worry about him telling anyone what you've said."
Serena giggled at the comparisons between cats and dogs. "Talk to your dog often, do you?"
"Depends, you ever talk to your cat?" Kyle replied.
Serena sighed a bit, "All of the time."
"Me too," Kyle confessed. "So, you want to watch the town go all a buzz at you coming and going as you please at my place?"
"It sounds like fun," Serena said as she moved past her momentary lapse of home-sickness. "Though I'm not sure that Brutus will like me very well."
"He'll love you," Kyle said as he put his hand over Serena's. "He has great taste in women."
