Here's the next part. Sorry it took so long. Most of it's been written for a while. I just wasn't sure I liked it. By the way, there are some mentions of the 5

th arc if you haven't read it, obviously with some small changes. But, yeah.

Disclaimer remains unchanged.

Enjoy!


There was a slight jingle sound as he walked into the arcade. He wasn't sure why he'd come here to find Andrew; it just seemed like the best place to start. Maybe somebody could tell him where Andrew worked now. So, it was much to his surprise when he saw the sandy haired man standing behind the counter. Andrew had his back towards him, so he hadn't seen him yet.

"Hey, a coffee, please," he spoke when he hit the counter and saw Andrew visibly jump, almost dropping the glass in his hands.

Andrew spun to face him very slowly and laughed nervously, "Oh, Darien. Sure, just one minute."

"So what are you doing still working here?" Darien asked him, sadistically enjoying the other man's discomfort.

"Well, I took over for my dad. I own this, the diner, everything now. I just work here because all the business stuff's no fun," Andrew replied as he got the coffee cup and coffee, avoiding Darien's gaze like he plague.

Darien watched as Andrew poured his drink with very shaky hands. He smirked at his friend and shook his head, "Serena explained. I should have given you a chance before getting angry."

Andrew relaxed noticeably, "You should have let us explain. I could never think of Serena like that and I like Lita, just so ya know. But, you two talked?"

"Not exactly," Darien said scratching his neck. It had been more like they yelled at each other and then, of course, jumped into his bed.

"Alright," Andrew said slowly. "Look, it's not really my business, but you should just leave Serena be. She went through a lot after you left. She may have explained some of it when you talked on the roof, but you had to have witnessed it to see how bad it really was. Even now you can tell; she's not the same Serena that she was. And, she grew up much faster than she should have."

Darien looked down at the counter, "I slept with her."

"YOU WHAT?" Andrew screamed at him. He looked around to notice most of the occupants of the arcade staring at him and lowered his voice, "You slept with her? What were you thinking? You can't just sleep with her."

Darien shrugged, "It happened. I saw her at the club and we started yelling at each other. Then, we went back to my place. She left with a note that said it was only a one-night stand. That's it."

"You can't just sleep with her Darien. I was letting you get away with that jealousy bit when I shouldn't have. You have no hold over Serena anymore and the girls aren't quite as forgiving as I am. When they catch wind of this, you're in trouble. So, just don't go pulling stunts like that anymore. You don't hold anything on Serena anymore; do you understand that? Just in case, I'll make this clear. Leave. Serena. Alone," Andrew told him, showing every bit of protection he had for the young woman.

"You are really protective over her," Darien observed stoically.

"Like I said, you didn't see her when you left," Andrew looked down, obviously going through those times in his head. He shook his head and looked back at Darien, "Why did you decide to stay anyways?"

"You really wanna know?" Darien asked and it was his turn to get caught up in his memories. Andrew nodded and Darien took a deep breath, "You've got to promise not to tell anyone. That includes Lita, the other scouts, and most definitely Serena."

"Darien, was it another woman?" Andrew was suddenly kind of worried.

"Just promise," Darien told him.

"Yeah," Andrew hesitantly agreed.

"Okay," but before Darien could get any farther, the doors slid open. Darien turned to see Lita walking into the arcade with Amy. He turned back to Andrew and slid off the stool, "I'll tell you later."

Andrew started to protest but closed his mouth and just watched Darien walk out of the arcade, him ignoring the glares that both Lita and Amy threw his way. Then, the two girls approached the counter and Lita began to question him, "So, what were you two talking about?"

"Just catching up. He's still one of my friends," Andrew told them.

Lita scowled, "Even after everything he did to Serena?"

Andrew shrugged, "Maybe we should give him a chance to explain. I'm not going to forgive him for what he did so easily and I'm not going to let him continue to be around Serena. But, I'm still his only friend."

"Fine, but I don't like the fact that he slept with Serena," Lita crossed her arms.

"Neither do I," Andrew agreed. "But, it was both of their choices and it was done."

"He should know that Serena still loves him, though. Even though she says she doesn't," Amy shook her head.

"You know," Andrew drummed his fingers on the counter, recalling what Darien had said. "I don't think she wants to love him anymore."

The girls looked up at him with questioning eyes but then nodded. They thought the same thing.

Andrew look back towards where Darien had been sitting and though, 'Maybe that's a good thing, though. Because, whatever he did, he doesn't seem to want Serena to know about it. In the end, she's bound to get hurt again.'

-x-

"Oof," came from the sleeping blonde as a body mass collided with her.

"Serena, get up!" Mina's voice called from over her as she started shaking her by her shoulders.

Serena opened her eyes to look straight in Mina's, whose face was about six inches away from her own and had the expression of a kid whose mother just promised them all you can eat at a candy store. She was, for lack of a better word, straddling Serena. Her hands were clutching Serena's shoulders firmly and not stopping the shaking that the poor woman was currently having to endure.

"What the hell are you smoking?" Serena growled as she pushed Mina by the shoulders, making the other blonde let go of her.

"It's almost one o'clock and you've been sleeping since you got back, granted that's only about an hour… But, get up. We are meeting the other girls at the arcade. Amy's already left with Lita and Raye left before them, she had to stop by the shrine. And, don't forget how Raye gets when we are late," Mina hopped off of Serena and bounced up and down. "Let's go, let's go, and let's go."

"Are you sure you aren't smoking anything?" Serena asked as she pushed her blankets off and stood from her bed. She ignored Mina as she threw her a mock glare and finally took note of Luna lying on one of those fancy cat beds in the corner of the room, which she usually shared with Artemis. She walked over and scratched Luna on the head, which as undignified as it may seem, Luna really liked having her head scratched, before questioning the feline, "And, How long have you been in here."

Luna eyed her warily for a second, "Since before you got home."

Serena's face showed her shock before she covered it up with a small smile, "Oh, I didn't notice you."

"Obviously. We'll talk later," Luna told her lowly, so that Mina couldn't hear. "I'm going to go wait with Artemis."

"Get dressed," Mina demanded before marching out after Luna.

Serena sighed and got dressed. She wasn't quiet in the mood for the arcade today, but she certainly couldn't let her friends know that. If they did, they were sure to worry. That and they'd find out that she still sort of cared about Darien… A lot. Even so, she really was trying her hardest not to, even with him back. And, she actually didn't want to care about him anymore. She had to admit that she was ready to close this part of everything.

A little while later, Mina and Serena, who had put her hair back into its meatball form, were walking down the crowded sidewalk. They were chatting about odd and end things, especially current hospital gossip. They were clearly avoiding anything to do with 'Dr. Gorgeous,' as Kisa had dubbed him. Not that that put any sort of lack on the gossip, their hospital would make a great soap opera. Luna and Artemis were merely shaking their heads at the two girls who still acted like they were in high school.

"Hey, muffin," a voice called out from behind them and they spun to see Amara, Michelle, and Hotaru. "We're seeing you more this weekend than we normally see you in a month."

Serena smiled cheekily, "Not that you can complain. And, you haven't called me muffin in a long while."

"Old times sake was called upon," Amara told her as the three finally caught up to the stopped duo and their two guardians.

"Where's Setsuna?" Mina asked, looked around being the three.

"Emergency at the lab," Hotaru filled them in.

"So, what are you up to?" Michelle spoke up from her place to Amara's side.

"Heading to the arcade," Serena answered. "I don't know why. It was the girls' idea. Lita probably just wanted to see Andrew or something."

"Oh good, we can continue our past reminiscing with a race," Amara told her and flicked one of her buns.

"Alright, you're on," Serena spun around and started towards the arcade.

"She's finally starting to act like Serena again," Michelle smiled softly at their soon-to-be Queen.

"At least on the outside," Luna muttered, a little louder than she'd meant to.

"What do you mean by that?" Hotaru asked and Luna jump, not noticing that she'd said it as loud as she had.

"We just don't know exactly how she's feeling on the inside," Luna tried to cover quickly since she had a feeling that she should talk to Serena before she told everyone what she had witnessed that morning. She and Serena had grown a whole lot closer over the last five years; especially after her and Artemis returned after they were killed in the battle with Galaxia.

"I guess you're right. But, at least she's trying," Michelle said as she watched as Serena finally noticed that the others weren't in step with her and turned around, waving her arms at them.

"Have you and Setsuna been keeping watch?" Luna questioned.

The group started to walk towards Serena and Michelle glanced down at Luna, "As always."

"What are you two talking about?" Mina asked, feeling very out of the loop at the moment, and stopped walking.

Michelle smiled, "Nothing worth worrying over."

Mina scrunched her eyebrows together and glared down at Artemis, "Artemis?"

In return Artemis gave the best shrug a cat could give, "I'm just as out of the loop as you are Mina."

Mina started walking again, "I don't like this, as leader of the Senshi guarding the Princess, I should know."

"If it makes you feel better," Hotaru took stride to Mina's left side.

"We don't know either," Amara finished, coming up on Mina's right side. "Michelle and Setsuna won't spill a thing. I'm willing to bet that they know something they aren't telling us."

"Stop speak such nonsense, Amara," Michelle admonished as then quieted down as they finally reached the very impatiently waiting Serena.

"If Raye's mad because we are late, you better take the blame," Serena scowled as she turned and they continued the walk to the arcade.

Sure enough, when they entered the arcade, the first thing to meet their ears was Raye's reprimand, "Serena, you have to stop being late. You should really grow out of that. Sure, you reach work on time now; which I don't believe you could do without Mina and Amy. But, you're still late just about everywhere else."

"I wasn't my fault this time. We ran into familiar faces and those six decided to stop for a nice talk on the streets," Serena pointed at the six standing behind her. "At least now one saw Luna and Artemis. That would have made us even later."

Amara stepped forward and grabbed on of Serena's pigtails, just as she had that first day they'd met, and started pulling her towards the racing game, "We've got a game to play."


Honestly, I'm sorry this took so long. But please review. I don't think I have any questions today though :D

I do have another story idea in my head... I dunno if I'll post it before or after I finish this one. The next one is mostly a friendship fic with a dash of romance thrown in between, of course, Serena and Darien and then Senshi and Shitennou