Darien woke up much later than usual. Well today was Sunday, the only day he had off. The kids weren't in school today either. After the engagement party, he had come out with a lot of bruised areas over his body. He was planning to cuddle with his pillows under his plushy comforter all day before his sister's rude interruption. He sat up hugging his pillow while glaring at his sister.
"What do you want?" Darien stressed out trying not to flip out at his sister.
Trista looked tense, "Madeline is at the front and she's asking for you."
The drowsiness disappeared as his eyes widened. Didn't she say she was going to be back by his birthday two months from now? Why was she back so early? Darien quickly got dressed before following his sister down the stairs. His eyes met long red hair he hadn't seen for four months to her next season's designer bag. It was like she hadn't changed at all, but had he? She turned and smiled brightly at him, but she didn't walk towards him, that was when he noticed the cast on her left leg that looked so foreign with the green heel on the right one.
"What happened?" Darien asked racing to her side.
"One of the models was green with envy." Maddie explained bitterly as Darien pulled her into his arms. He led her towards the couch of the living room.
His grandparents made their entrance once they were seated. His grandfather had forced smile on his face. He shot looks at his wife hoping she'll remain civil. His grandmother rolled her eyes at his warnings before turning her attention onto the pair on the couch.
"We're having brunch." This was all Wanda Shields said in a stiff tone before going back to the dining room.
He felt his Maddie stiffen at his grandparents' reaction. His hand reached over to cup her cheek forcing her to look at him, "It's going to be ok. We've done this a hundred times."
"One day I'm going to be done." Maddie muttered. Darien froze his hand dropping from her cheek onto his lap.
"What are you trying to say?"
Maddie shook her head forcing a smile for Darien's sake, "Nothing. Just silly serious stuff. Let's go eat."
Darien sighed before nodding. He wrapped his arm around her waist, helping her balance to the kitchen. He was greeted with monotonous expressions from his family. This was just like Christmas Eve two years ago all over again. Haruka sat next to Michiru both exchanging looks with each other remaining as cold as ice towards the couple. Trista sat next to her friends with her head held up high like a queen, refusing to acknowledge peasants. His grandmother cut into her pancakes making a small remark about the weather. His grandfather tried to be welcoming, but it didn't turn out well with the women sitting with their passive aggression.
"Congratulations for your engagement." Maddie said to the couple.
Haruka scoffed, "We've been engaged since high school graduation, Aren't you a little late to the party?"
Michiru nudged Haruka for her rude tone. She forced a smile only it looked more like a grimace, "Thank you."
Darien led his girlfriend to the empty chairs luckily next to his grandfather. His family continued to remain silent with only the clinking of silverware to against the glass plates. He heard the trio whisper amongst themselves. When he tried to eavesdrop they switched to speaking in Russian, a language he didn't want to learn. How he wished he did.
"You have a meeting with Serena." Wanda spoke up at the end of the meal. He watched as his grandfather roll his eyes at his wife's antics, but didn't interfere.
Maddie turned to him with a suspicious look, "Who's Serena?"
"A matchmaker we hired. She's been doing a fine work with Darien these past few months you've been gone." Wanda replied smiling like a shark. The trio all had the same smirk on their faces as they watched their grandmother work.
"Oh, that's…interesting." Maddie forced out politely.
"She can see soul mates. Literally. She sees lights and can tell you your whole romantic history." Wanda gushed.
"How do you know she's not a fraud?" Maddie asked out of curiosity.
"I knew her grandmother. She's retired now, but her granddaughter isn't. She's legitimate." Wanda replied coolly, "I wouldn't expect you to understand."
"Grandma enough." Darien interjected. His grandmother remained unaffected with his outburst, a wolfish smile still on her face. The doorbell rang all of a sudden forcing her out of the chair. His grandmother came back with Serena in tow. She skipped into the room, greeting his sisters first with a wave. When she turned to Darien her eyes widened at the figure sitting next to Darien, Madeline Blanc. Darien groaned, placing his head against his palm. This was going to be a long day. He watched as Serena continued to sway back and forth while standing in her position, her hair still in meatball style form. He turned to Maddie who had narrowed her eyes at their unexpected guest. Serena was pushed down onto one of the chairs next to Trista who was giving Serena her sugary smile.
"I'm here for a reading." Serena said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. Darien was surprised, usually she sounded like banshee.
Serena grinned before introducing herself, "I'm Serena."
"Nice to meet you." Madeline forced out, but Serena didn't notice her discomfort. She turned her attention to Darien.
"It's time for my end of our deal."
"Then you leave and never come back. Doesn't matter what your silly reading says."
"Darien…" Trista interjected, but Serena stopped her.
Serena smirked, "It's fine. It's part of our deal. We signed a contract through text."
It wasn't hard to focus on Darien, that's pretty much been all she's been doing since he agreed to do this. A couple blinks and there were those pretty lights.
"Darien loves her more than she loves him. Soul mates? You're potentials, but even that is pretty weak. Setting you up with Xavier had a stronger glow. I really have no idea how you got together in the first place. All I see is the love that Darien bears so greatly for her, but she's lacking in return. I see gray which isn't black but still an unhealthy relationship. It's not a dark grey, but it'll get darker that's inevitable." Serena explained watching as the eyes in the room widen at her quick reading. She turned to focus on Darien's girlfriend, "Ms. Blanc is harboring feelings of envy towards the important people in his life like his friends and family I suspect. Green is her brightest color. I'm sure the purple I see which is love is shared with her career. Maybe 75% of it is for her career. Now if you'll excuse, my job here is done."
With that said Serena hopped out of the chair and made her way towards the exit. Just as her hand was about to reach the handle, another hand grasped her wrist pulling her out of the house and onto the front yard. She whipped around the see Darien seething at her. Serena stood her ground glaring at him.
"I was leaving and never coming back, why were you stopping me?" Serena yelled.
"I thought we agreed to make sure my family approved of Madeline." Darien seethed.
Serena crossed her arms scoffing, "You agreed to that! I never once agreed to that Mr. Poor Listening Skills."
"You made it ten times worse!"
"I told you I was going to be honest! Being nice doesn't get through to you so I settled for brutal honesty. Your relationship with that girl sucks! I was only in that room for five minutes and I could see all of the progress I made with you gone!" Serena exclaimed, "And you don't even care. You care about her more than she cares about you. That's not how relationships that last are supposed to be! She's going to leave you."
"You don't know that! Your gift doesn't say a damn thing about that."
Serena threw her hands in the air, "I know a hell of a lot more than you do."
"You've never been in a relationship! How the hell should you be giving advice when you don't understand?" Darien yelled.
"Because it already happened to me!"
Darien froze at the confession out of Serena's mouth. She was breathing heavily from yelling so much. Her breathing stopped when she realized what she had just said. She turned so her back was facing Darien. She didn't want someone she didn't trust to see her cry. Serena tried to steady her breathing and slow her heartrate. Her throat clenched painfully her first sign she knew she was going to cry at any minute. She had to get out of here.
"How…?"
"My parents had a love of the normal. My mother had Olympic athletes as siblings and my dad had my grandma. Jealousy can turn to hate very easily. Obviously I'm not normal. I loved my parents more than they will ever love me and they left. I learned that love that lasts is equal." Serena explained.
"You didn't seem that effected when you told me that before." Darien commented.
Serena laughed bitterly, "I'm human of course it effected me."
"What about the curse?" Darien asked, remembering that tiny bit of information from his sister.
Serena glared at him, "You don't know a damn thing about that stupid curse!"
"I think you're afraid to love because of that curse."
"Then that just proves you don't know me! The reason I don't want to fall in love is because it's not worth it. There's too much shit in this world that'll cause a break up then have people stay together." Serena exclaimed.
She didn't wait for Darien to speak as she broke into a run. She didn't care if the bus wasn't supposed to be there for another 30 minutes, she had to get out. Serena stopped when she felt her body begin to feel sluggish. Her run became slow before her knees wobbled and gave out on her. She didn't even know where she was, but judging from the trees and flowers she was still on Shields property. Her argument left her mentally and physically exhausted. It was a good thing she wasn't around people because without her control, all of the lights would be shining everywhere. What a headache that would be. She didn't know how long she sat on the damp grass, but it must have been a while because the blue skies were now covered with clouds. Serena hugged her knees towards her chest, resting her head on top of her knees. At this point she didn't care she was loitering. Darien Shields made her relive one of her worst memories.
"Are you ok?"
Serena turned to the right to see Trista sitting next to her with a look of concern. "Where did you come from?"
Trista's lips twitched upwards, "My brother came back to brunch acting broody and you didn't come back in. I looked through the cameras in our house and saw you run off. You didn't run to the exit."
Serena lifted her head from her knees, "We said things to each other and it just brought back bad memories for me."
"Madeline wasn't happy that her boyfriend ran off to another girl just minutes after she arrived. I love the dramatics you displayed earlier." Trista praised leaning against the tree Serena had found herself under.
Serena gave her an incredulous look, "I ruined brunch with my reading."
"Grandma expected it. We knew Darien would try to revert back to naïve prince charming once Madeline came back. Believe it or not, but he is thinking about what you tell him and it's driving him crazy that you may be right." Trista said with a smile, "Darien's growing up. Right now he's trying not. "
"What will his girlfriend think?"
Trista rolled her garnet eyes, "At his sudden sense of rationality and common sense? She'll hate it. She can't control him anymore with empty promises."
Serena looked at the older girl with curiosity, "Why do you hate Madeline so much?"
"She's been stringing my brother around since they were 13. Madeline Blanc has always been the prettiest girl in school. Out of every male in that establishment, she gave my brother the most attention. She's broken his heart more times than I can count, but because of his idea of true love and forever and always he goes back for more." Trista said with a hint of anger in her voice, "I blame our parents for his actions."
"Why?"
"Our parents loved each other more than the world. They were childhood sweethearts. They've broken up countless times, but still found each other again. I suppose they were the relationship I too strived for once upon a time." Trista smiled at the memories, "They told us what love was like and how it happened. It sounded like a fairy tale. What they didn't tell us was that love is far too complicated for fairy tales."
"You and Kael…?"
Trista stiffened for a moment before relaxing again. She turned to Serena with a smile, "You saw that didn't you?"
Serena nodded in reply. Trista sighed, "Not even my friends will ask me about Kael."
"Well I'm the helper of Eros. You still love each other."
Trista shook her head sighing, "I will always love him. I've come to accept that as a fact of my heart. He had such a crush on me growing up."
Serena grinned trying to imagine the stoic wall that Kael is blushing. She shook her head, "I have a really hard time seeing that."
"His dad is a big time lawyer and his mom is queen of our society. They weren't around growing up. Kael was the loner that no one wanted to befriend because of his blank stare." Trista explained. She watched Serena whose eyes had widened. Trista laughed, "Yes he was a statue growing up too. Darien was such a mischievous child. He didn't have a filter back then. He wanted to know why Kael had hair longer than any girl he had ever seen."
Serena giggled, "He actually asked him that?"
"Yes he did. That's the beginning of their friendship. Because Kael's parents were never around, he was raised by my grandparents. He had his own room here. My grandpa gave him a piece of property on our family land at graduation. So Kael was always there." Trista explained, "He was always extremely polite to me. More so than my grandparents. I thought it was adorable that a boy who could stare down a grown up could still harbor such innocent feelings as a crush."
"What happened?"
"We grew up." Trista said, "He had the confidence to confess to me during my first year of college. I thought why not? There were many ups and downs in our relationship, but it was mostly a happy one. I thought it was going to be like my parents. It changed when he went to college. His father became a more present character in his life than before pressuring him to follow in his footsteps. Kael didn't disappoint him. He became first in his class when he began law school."
"That's when everything went downhill." Serena stated seeing the pale blue brighten around her.
Trista sighed, "I was a coward. I didn't tell him how upset I was. I often felt as if I was speaking to the brick wall most people have the pleasure of speaking with. I found myself trying to find the comfort he used to give me. I found someone else. At the time we were on opposite sides of the country. I didn't tell him how I have found another. Kael didn't know, he was abroad most of the time. He didn't know until he received my wedding invitation."
"Besides me asking, why are you telling me this?" Serena asked.
"My situation was similar to Darien's. The only difference is that if I told Kael all those years ago how I felt, he would have done something about it to make me feel better. Madeline won't do that for Darien. She only cares about herself. I told you my story because I know you can change Darien." Trista said.
Serena twirled her golden hair around her finger, "That's a lot of faith you're putting on me."
"You're already changing him."
Serena scoffed, "He's still the hopeless idiot I've first met."
"You're making him see his worth in a relationship. That's a powerful thing."
"You are going to allow some woman, who is probably a con artist or a nut, proclaim if our relationship is a match?" Maddie exclaimed as Darien tried to calm her down.
After a few failed efforts, Darien finally dragged his girlfriend to his house on the Shields Property. It wasn't hard especially because she was in crutches and couldn't run away as quickly as she used to. He often wondered why he didn't just move into his house instead of staying in the main Shields home. Once the door closed in his home, Maddie stopped remaining silent and exploded.
"I'm not, I don't care if she says in our past life we killed each other out of hate or if she says we are the worst match ever or we're not soul mates..."
"So you believe we are doomed as well?" Maddie demanded forgetting about the cast on her leg leading her to stumble. Darien reached for her hands to steady her. "Now you're just twisting my words." Darien groaned. He grabbed her waist pulling her towards him, "Maddie stop it. I love you. Nothing in this entire world will ever make me feel anything different."
"I'm sorry I know this is a repetitive argument. Your family has always been...cold towards me." Maddie expressed.
Darien wrapped his arms around her pulling her into a hug. He waited for her arms to go around his neck and wasn't disappointed, "They'll learn to get used to it because I'm not going to let you go."
Maddie pulled back to look at Darien, "We'll be ok won't we?"
Darien grinned nodding, "We've faced worse."
Mina ran off of the bus, mentally cursing herself. After her late night with a countless number of shots of Vodka with her friends to celebrate this annoying chapter in her life, she was late. It wasn't like she had to be there, but for both of her parents' sakes she sat through the airing of their dirty laundry. Now she had enough knowledge of both of them that she never needed to know in the first place. Her morning was pretty eventful. With her quest for liquor she forgot to bring clothes the next morning. Sure Serena had enough oversized hoodies to last a lifetime, but they weren't appropriate wear for meeting with her parents so she chose the clothes she was wearing, which weren't exactly decent. She had dragged Lita and Rei with her to bars and clubs while in her black glittery short party dress. She stole a cardigan from Serena to look a bit more decent, but it wasn't working. Her dress was still wrinkled from sleeping in it on the ugly orange couch at Serena and Lita's home. Mina didn't notice where she was going until she crashed into a wall. Being hungover didn't help her balance in her heels as she fell on the floor. Mina rubbed her forehead groaning. Her eyes slowly opened only to see a hand outstretched to her. She looked up to see Kael Argentum being the wall she hit. Blushing she took his hand as he pulled her back to her feet without much effort.
"Miss Aino, are you alright?"
Mina laughed rubbing her head, "Yeah…sorry I wasn't looking where I was going."
The stoic man shrugged, "Your night must have been memorable judging by your appearance."
Mina looked down at her appearance blushing, "I crashed at my friend's place after my night of debauchery." Mina paused, "Did you just make a joke?"
"I did. It reminds me of Jerry's nights of debauchery and he ends up in my office passed out on my desk." Kael explained with the smallest bit of warmth in his tone accompanied by the smallest smile.
Mina giggled, "How often did that happen?"
"Too many times to count."
The elevator doors opened to her uncle's floor. Kael walked out first, the smile vanishing as he stepped off. Mina ignored the eyes on her as she walked behind Kael. Yes her appearance screamed walk of shame, but she was sure she made it the most beautiful walk in the world. She tried to focus on what was straight ahead of her, which was Kael. She watched his hair move back and forth as he walked, how did he grow his hair to this length and keep it this healthy? Her hair didn't look that soft. She didn't realize her hand went up to touch his hair, didn't even notice as he froze in place. Her earlier embarrassment disappeared as her focus narrowed in on his silvery hair. In her hair envy induced trance, she didn't notice that everyone in the room stopped to watch the stoic intern with the lead lawyer's niece.
"How is your hair this soft? Your hair shouldn't be this soft. I mean I thought my hair was soft, but now it's a bird's nest compared to yours." Mina asked surprising Kael who still hadn't moved a muscle.
"Regular trims. The men in my family have a custom shampoo and conditioner they use." Kael replied. The shy Mina was gone simply because of her fascination for his hair. He never had anyone touch his hair unless they were a professional. Yet for some reason he was allowing Mina to twirl her fingers with the ends and occasionally stroking his scalp.
"I should ask my grandpa for custom shampoo." Mina said still enthralled by his hair. She didn't notice her family until her uncle cleared his throat to get the pair's attention.
Artemis frowned at the interaction between his intern and his niece through the window. He thought he made it clear that clients are not to be romantic partners especially his niece. Judging by his niece's revealing attire and their intimate contact, his intern broke the rules. He cleared his throat, shooting Kael a stern look in the process. Kael had the decency to look embarrassed, well as embarrassed as he could look without giving away his discomfort. Mina didn't notice.
"Uncle Artemis, have you felt his hair? We should all get custom shampoo and conditioner following his family's recipe." At his niece's declaration, his uneasiness disappeared. Mina always had an eye for the finer things. Because of her curiosity, she failed to learn personal space. Luckily her beauty and charms helped her not land herself in trouble.
"That's great Mina, your parents want to speak with you." That was partially a lie. Mina nodded leaving the two men alone.
Artemis sighed, "Sorry Kael. I thought you had inappropriate actions towards my Mina."
"It's alright. I wasn't expecting that treatment." Kael replied, composing himself again. Mina's actions had almost made him drop his societal mask of no emotions.
Artemis laughed, "She does that often. Only it's to purses and fabric, never to hair." Artemis stopped laughing, "Mina is a client and my niece."
"I have no intentions with your niece. She's a lovely girl and I respect you too much to ever do that." Kael replied.
"I believe you." Artemis said, then he grinned. "Are you coming over for dinner again? Luna has been asking about you."
"I would love to." Kael replied with a tiny smile of his own. If you didn't know Kael, you wouldn't have seen it. It was interesting how he wasn't an orphan, but was pretty much adopted by different families throughout his life. His attention turned back to the blonde who in the matter of minutes almost shattered his supposedly impenetrable mask. He had to fix that.
"You are my best student I have ever had the pleasure of teaching and I'm not worried about you trying to start a thing with my Mina, more like the other way around. Mina is a beautiful girl and she knows it, never been the shy type. I am just warning you to not fall for her…lures." Artemis elaborated as Kael began to pick up his files and other documents.
Kael smirked, "I'll try Artemis."
You had to be blind to not see that Mina Aino was a beauty. With blonde hair that reached her back and eyes full of mischief, she was very much the majority of male's fantasies. He was part of the minority. He accepted that he was attracted to Mina, but he had no plans to pursue her. Mina was a troublesome girl that played to her heart's content. When her eyes met his through the glass windows he felt entranced. He thinks he just found his favorite shade of blue.
