A/N: Oh wow! It's been too long! I'm sorry for the long wait and truly hope I still have readers sticking with this story! I have been ill and busy and am still very busy but as promised, I won't give up on any of my stories. The chapter Concerned Friends was supposed to consist of four separate Serena/Scout moments in one chapter but this would make the chapter too long and would take too long to complete and edit if I were to combine all four moments. Hence, here I am posting the first part of the chapter.
I'd like to thank those who "favourite" and "follow" this story especially everyone taking the time to review the previous chapter:
trish1573: It truly is an honour that you have so much faith in me and takes pleasure in my writing! I hope you are well and taking good care of yourself. Don't work too hard and make yourself sick again! :) mangamania: LOL. I think Lita will do the punching instead but that will be in the upcoming chapter! ;) Shaydoe: Thanks Shay! More Usagi for this chapter and Darien for the next chapter! :) Moonprincess998: Wow thanks! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to write angst really well. But if you can feel their pain, I guess I'm not doing so bad! Thanks again! :) freakblueangel: He will beg! Not this chapter though. I do think he's worthy of her, it takes strength to let go of someone you love. Although, in this case, I really think he should've trusted her to decide with him. What can we say? Love makes a fool out of some! :) L and misa for eternity: Oh thank you! Here's your update! Enjoy! ;) Guest: I know it's sad but I can promise a happy ending! ;) lostinshanghai: LOL. I'm glad you like my version. Thanks! :) Princess Eternal: The writer in me is glad that you're in tears! LOL. Here's more and thanks for reviewing! :) AimlesslyGera: I know what you mean! These are two of my favourite SM episodes too! :) Guest: I don't really know what to say except: Thanks! Your review and support means a lot! ;) bunny88rosemagic: LOL. I thought you'd be reading one of my favourites rather than one of mine! But I do hope they made you feel better or at least served as a distraction from your discomfort. Get well soon! :)
Alright then, without further ado, I give you the first part of 'CBTM (Part 4)' titled Concerned Friends: Mina's Mutiny
Thoughts are in Italics.
(Standard disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sailor Moon characters. All characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi.)
Come Back to Me (Part 4(a): Concerned Friends: Mina's Mutiny)
Andrew walked around the counter and sat on the stool next to Serena. "But I'll miss you," he grumbled.
Serena got up and wrapped her arms around his neck from his side, resting her chin on the top of his head. "We'll see each other," she promised and turned her head so that her cheek rested on his hair.
Andrew let out a long sigh, reached up and closed a hand around hers. That's how Darien saw them when he opened the door, the two people he loved more than anyone, holding on to each other, traces of sorrow marring both faces. And when both instinctively turned to look up at him, he saw the beam of blame shoot out of Andrew's eyes even as the shutters closed down on Serena's and felt the slice through his heart.
Serena tightened her grip on Andrew for a moment before letting go. "Well, I'd best be going now. I love you Andrew," she said, kissing his cheek, surprised that she didn't stumble on her way to the door, the way her heart was pounding and her knees were shaking.
Andrew turned on Darien angrily. "Serena was just letting me know that she's not going to be coming by the arcade for awhile. I haven't seen her in two weeks and she came in to tell me she won't be coming anymore. Any guess on the reason why?" he snarled sarcastically which is very uncharacteristic for him. But given the circumstances...
Darien quirked a brow and even though bitterness lodged in his throat, he managed to keep his voice even, "She's a free agent. She can go wherever she wants." Calmly, he sat himself on the stool in front of the counter.
Andrew exploded. "The hell she is! She belongs with you! I don't know what the heck happened to you or what train wreck hit your head, but breaking her heart Darien? That's cold, even for you!" With that said, the ever genial blond stomped his way back to behind the counter in a rare display of temper.
A muscle worked in Darien's jaw. His stomach twisted and his hands clenched. When Andrew went into the kitchen, no doubt to calm himself, Darien's composure slipped and he raked his hands up over his face before letting them dropped on the counter. When he saw her, emotions had warred through him. Guilt for the pain he knew he caused, she's lost weight, he thought and hated himself. But he also felt relief and enormous pride for the strength he saw in her and most of all, sorrow and fury for the fact they can't be together. I miss you so much, his heart sighed.
As for Serena, once she was alone again, she simply backed herself to a wall, braced her elbows on her thighs and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. Breathe, she commanded herself and bore down on the ache that centred in her heart. Standing up straight again, she took a deep breath, determined to keep her promise to him, resolved to keep whatever pride she has left and more importantly, protect her friends from worrying about her. Forcing a smile onto her face, she marched her way to the mall to meet Mina.
Mina stared at Serena in hopeless anger, not certain why Serena's attitude so upset her. Serena's smile was still in place, she looked completely fresh and immaculate, and, except for a dramatic loss of weight, she looked like a girl who was in control of a reasonably satisfactory life.
The two of them had been shopping for the last three hours and Serena had been laughing and was as amiable as ever. Except when you look closely into her eyes. Anyone who has looked closely into those eyes before would see that the shine that was usually there like a second skin, now lacked its luster. And Mina has looked into those eyes countless number of times and she is livid.
"I wish you'd stop acting as if everything is normal!" she snapped out.
"What would you have me do?" Serena replied calmly. "If you're waiting for me to rant and weep, you're wasting your time."
"I want you to talk to me! I want to know what's going on in your head, and in your heart!" She stopped walking, turned to face her best friend, dropped her shopping bags on the ground and slapped her hands to her hips. "You're not happy," she declared.
Serena shifted her feet, rolled her eyes. "Of course I am," she insisted.
Mina shook her head vehemently, "No you're not. And worse, you don't think you're ever going to be again. Not 'deep-down-in-the-gut' happy." And that is what was tearing at her heart.
The thought that her best friend who happened to be the most optimistic person she knows, who loved life, found beauty in anything and anyone, to whom laughter is like a second nature, for Serena to be in despair, to not believe that she'll ever be happy again, twisted her gut and sliced her heart.
"I know you're hurting, Rena," she said it quietly now. Lifting her chin, she continued stubbornly, "I'm not moving from this spot until you talk to me!"
Serena studied her friend. One who looked so much like her, and had the sudden urge to laugh. With a chuckle, she gave Mina a hug, picked up the shopping bags and started to pull her friend to a less crowded area of the mall.
Once relatively alone, she sighed, "I'm not hurting. I'm numb. I'm going to stay numb for as long as I can."
Gently she grabbed both Mina's hands, looking up at her friend with pleading eyes, "There are people out there that needs me. They need Sailor Moon to protect them. I don't have a choice but to stay strong, do I?"
There was both sympathy and patience in Mina's voice now, "But that doesn't mean you have to go through this alone. You have us. You have me. Talk to me, Rena," she pleaded, gripping the hands that held hers, almost desperate in her need to help.
Because her hands were unsteady, Serena let go of Mina's hands, tried to link hers together, found them damp and let out another sigh and lowered herself to a nearby bench. "Dreams," she muttered.
"Huh?" Mina looked down, waiting for an explanation. When Serena said nothing, she sighed and lowered herself next to her on the bench. "Serena, I know what's between you and Darien. Even without my powers, even without being the Scout of Love, I can feel what's between the two of you when I'm within ten feet of you. He still loves you, and you, him. So what happened?"
With no comeback, Serena kept her mouth shut, unsettled and restless inside. Suddenly weary, she leaned forward and rested both her arms on her knees.
But just like Serena would not have given up on her, Mina persisted, "Since the break up, you've been stepping behind this line that only you can cross and lately, you've stepped over it more often. I'm so scared that we are going to lose you."
Not wanting to see the look in Mina's eyes but needing to know, Serena leaned back and closed her eyes and asked just loudly enough for Mina to hear her, "Would it matter? Would you care?"
"What?! What kind of question is that?" Mina jumped up, all five feet seven inches of raging fury rounded on the Moon Princess. "What kind of question is that?!" She asked again, bafflement and hurt clouded the anger.
Serena opened her eyes. Deliberately calm, she looked steadily up at the leader of her Senshi. "It's a question that I need an answer to. Rather, I know you'd say 'yes'. I know you care. So I guess my question is, who is it exactly that you are so afraid of losing? Serenity? Sailor Moon? Or Serena?" she asked.
Mina was stumped. For a moment she squeezed her eyes shut. She's unbelievably hurt by the question and it showed in her eyes when she opened them, shook in her voice when she asked, "How could you ask that? How could you not know?"
"How could I not?" Frustrated, Serena's hands fisted by her side, pain and insecurity making their way to the surface and she was too tired to fight them, too heartbroken. "He said he loved me. I believed him! But look how that turned out! He broke my heart Mina. I don't think I'll survive another blow. But I need to know, because I wonder, I wonder if it's the same with you girls. I know you love me but I wonder and forgive me, oh do forgive me for this, but I wonder if the loyalty and the oath of fealty to the Moon Princess in another lifetime is what kept you girls to me."
It was the despair in her friend's eyes that pushed Mina's anger and hurt aside. "Oh Serena, do you know, oh, if only you know just how much you mean to me," her vision wavered with tears and she found she had to sit. Instead, she kneeled in front of her princess, her best friend and grasped both small hands in hers, looking up through her tears and fervently tried to push that despair away from her friend's eyes, "Before you, I only had Artemis. But he's an advisor, a father figure and as much as he tried, he couldn't really relate to a teenage girl, could he? And then we met and you loved me instantly. No questions, no judgment. You just accepted me and loved me. Do you know what that was like? I finally had a friend. One I can talk to, laugh and cry and argue with, someone to listen to my ramblings, my worries and my dreams. More, I finally had a friend whose loyalty and love I need not doubt, whom I could trust without hesitation. One I'd die for and know would die for me. You are my most precious treasure," she declared wholeheartedly.
Bubbles of relief warred against flickers of guilt. "I love you so much, Mina."
The words and the simple emotion in them neatly sliced away at any remnants of anger and hurt Mina might've had.
Wiping the tears on her cheeks, she took a deep breath and brushed the dirt on her jeans before once again settling herself next to Serena on the bench. "Good. Because I love you too. Now tell me what happened," she insisted.
Serena pressed her lips together, "He was having dreams. Nightmares..." Serena's voice trailed off.
"And?" Mina prodded.
"I had the same one too. Just once. But apparently he had it for weeks. We were getting married. And then...I died."
Mina's brows creased. "You died?"
Serena nodded and wearily pressed her fingers to her eyes. "There's a voice in the background that said if he were to stay with me, that's what would happen, that I'd die if he doesn't stay away from me. If he remained with me, I wouldn't survive, the voice said." Shamed now, Serena lowered her eyes. "He broke up with me because he didn't want the responsibility. He said...he said that I'm not worth the trouble," the grief of it trembled in her voice like tears.
Mina's eyes fired. "He broke up with you over a dream?" she hissed.
All but shaking with fury, she stood up again, "That idiot! How dare he break your heart over a dream! What absolute rubbish! Of all the stupid, selfish things..."
Serena grabbed Mina's hand to stop her pacing, "There is no point in this. No point in casting blame and in recrimination. He didn't love me enough Mina. But he did care enough," she said, the tears that are in her eyes refused to fall, she wouldn't give it the satisfaction.
Every muscle in her body tingling with suppressed anger, Mina looked down at Serena, "Love isn't a light switch that you can turn on and off at a whim, you know that. It's not," she insisted. Whatever Serena may have chosen to believe or however Darien chose to act, every instinct in every bones in her body told her that Darien is every bit as in love with Serena as she is with him. Just stupid and idiotic and male and since he knows her better than anyone, he knew exactly which button to press on to push her away, she thought heatedly. She was torn between sympathy and anger and admiration for the Earth Prince. But looking down at Serena's dejected form, anger won hands down.
"But I have to. I have to lock this love away. I'm afraid if I don't, I won't survive the pain."
The statement, the quite truth in it made Mina's own heart ache. "You loved him that much?"
"Yes. And I still do. And I always will," It hurts, Serena thought, to even say it. She sighed. I have no barriers, no defence where he's concerned.
Mina said nothing. This isn't over. Shields will answer for his action, she thought. Sitting down yet again, she slipped her arms around her heartbroken friend and drew her close. Slowly, Serena let her guard down and let her head rests on her friend's shoulder.
Posted on fanfiction: 20 May 2013
A/N: Well, how was that? To be honest, it didn't turn out quite the way I initially planned. I wrote each 'Serena/Scout' moment separately, in whatever spare times I had in between my busy schedule. There were no snippets in my head and way too many distractions. I did my best though.
So, next up will be Concerned Friends: Lita's Loyalty. I hope it won't take me too long to post it as I've already written half of it. But, we'll see. I might even combine Lita's chapter with Raye's. Do review and let me know what you think of this particular 'Serena/Scout' moment! ;)