Tear Pearls
By LadyPrin
Disclaimer applies.
To Bakagirl123, MewMewInuSailorHeart, Ra, Kariangelgrl (You might just have to wait a little bit longer to see if Rei kills or just hurts Andrew and/or Darien. I don't quite know which she'll do myself, she hasn't told me yet. ^-^ ), Miakoday, Katblue, Richforce, Valkyrie Celes, -inuyasha, Lady Tristana Rogue, Sayain46, and Gallantmon of the Hazard (Oh, yes, there is more to Kenji than our little mermaid knows. It's been too long since I've last seen any episodes of Sailor Moon, so Rei's personality and everyone elses may be a bit off. But also know that I don't much care for some of the stories I've seen with Rei being portrayed as selfish, mean, and just plain evil. So I might of upped her on the goodness of her personality a bit. Hope it's okay!), thank you all!
If this chaptor isn't good at all, I'm sorry. I haven't written anything in months and I had to just throw myself back into writing this and get back in the groove. Also, I had lost my train of thought on where the storyline was going and all the plots (I get carried away with that sometimes), so I had to try to gather my ideas back together since I hadn't written them down. I still don't think I got them all, but I hope I got most of them. I hope the story stays interesting to you and that you will stay with it.
Chapter Ten ~ Desert Roses
"So, whatcha' doing Lita?" Serena asked, as she peered over the counter to get a better look at Lita's hands.
This morning Rei had to stay at the temple to help her Grandpa out, so Ami who had slept over had taken Serena to see Lita.
Lita worked part time at a flower shop in town, and for the last two hours Serena had been watching her do her assigned jobs: arranging flowers, cleaning up fallen petals and stems, etc.
"Well, right now, I am arranging a bouquet for a customer who will be here soon." Lita explained as she gently cut the excess stem off a flower so it would fit in the vase.
"And what will the customer do with them?" Serena asked curiously.
"Either set them on a table or counter or something so they'll look pretty, or give them to someone special." Lita replied.
"Look pretty, someone special." Serena repeated under her breath, while thinking.
Then an idea struck her.
"Can I give flower's to Darien? Do you think he'd like them?" She asked enthusiastically.
Lita paused and looked at her while she thought on that idea.
"Yeah, I think he might. He's used this store to buy flowers for Rei and Beryl when he dated them, but I don't know what kind of flower's he himself likes." Lita replied slowly.
"Roses." Ami interjected softly.
She had been using her time at the store to read up on flowers and their meanings from a flower dictionary that the manager of the store had chained to the counter.
"Rei once told me his favorite flower was the rose." Ami explained, readjusting her reading glasses. "We could buy a whole pot of them and if he's not at home you can leave it for him on his balcony, with a note so he knows it's from you."
"OH!" Lita exclaimed excitedly. "I think this is one of those rare times when anyone has caught Ami missing something totally obvious!"
Serena and Ami looked at her with curiosity, and confusion.
"If he's to know it's from her, it'd best be left by his door. Otherwise how will you explain her leaving it on the balcony, when his balcony is so high up?" Lita explained.
"Oh, right." Was all Ami could say as she blushed.
She didn't have any experience with giving flowers to someone, and having the abilities of a Sailor Scout made some things easier for them to do, but harder to explain to others. She wouldn't admit it so easily, but even she sometimes forgot about that.
"Well, if he's not there . . . we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Ami assured them.
"Go pick out what roses you'd like Serena and give Ami some time to reboot her brain." Lita instructed with a smile.
Serena bounded happily off to the rose section of the store, having them pointed out to her earlier by Ami when they'd first come in.
When she'd found the perfect pot of roses, which was really hard to do because they all were so beautiful to her, Ami paid for them and they were soon walking toward Darien's part of town.
The streets started getting crowded in one area they came to, and Ami suggested they transform and get to Darien's apartment by way of jumping buildings.
After they had transformed and had jumped onto the first building, it became apparent that they'd have to be more careful then usual.
Sand littered the tops of the buildings, and made walking across them a sluggish way to travel.
Sailor Mercury nearly suggested that they should go back to the street, but Sailor Moon was almost always a few feet ahead of her working her way energetically and diligently through the sand.
Sailor Mercury figured that the sand must be more remains of the sand youma of yesterday, like the dust trail left behind by a comet.
Sooner than Mercury expected they reached the top of Darien's building, though they almost missed realizing it because the sand made all the building rooftops look alike.
As Mercury was clearing a square by the door that led down into the building so that it would open easier (it swung out onto the roof), Moon stared around at all the sand and thought hard.
"Am- Mercury!" Moon called out, getting Mercury's attention. "I have an idea! How about we plant a lot of roses up here! He can have his own little rose garden!!!"
Mercury stood thoughtfully for a moment.
"I don't know if that'll work. Plants like roses normally grow from soil, dirt, not sand. Cactuses grow out of sand." Mercury explained. "Us being Sailor Scouts might actually enable us to make such a thing happen though . . ."
After thinking for a few more minutes, Mercury had Serena set the pot of roses down on the sand, and then follow her off the roof.
"We'll go get Jupiter." Mercury explained. "She should be getting off of work by now. Aside from harnessing thunder and lightening, she's the one that is great with plants. Her earrings are even roses. Most people don't even realize they're real roses. If anyone can make roses grow in sand, Jupiter can!"
After a moment of jumping buildings in silence, Mercury added with a small smile:
"With a little of my help of course."
~*~
"So, you want to make a huge rose garden for Darien, up here?" Jupiter asked as she surveyed the sand beneath her, staring at the sand with a doubtful expression.
"Yes! I want to give him all the roses I can! One little pot just doesn't seem like enough!" Moon replied enthusiastically.
"I can see how you might think that." Jupiter smiled at her. "Well, first we plant the roses that you brought, and I'll take it from there."
Moon nodded and walked with the flower pot held securely in her arms over to a corner of the roof.
She kneeled down on her knees, and started digging a hole in the sand with one of her gloved hands. When the hole was big enough, she gently took the roses from the pot and laid them in the hole.
Once she covered the base with sand she went and stood by Mercury and let Jupiter walk up to the roses.
Jupiter started stroking the petals and patting the sand that covered the base, softly muttering words that couldn't be heard by Mercury or Moon.
When she stepped back the roses had grown twice their size, and multiplied by three.
They all smiled at the plant, but the smiles disappeared as the plant started to rapidly wilt.
Mercury stepped up then and sprayed a little stream of water onto them.
For a moment it looked happy, then it started wilting again.
"I don't get it." Jupiter muttered, as Mercury glanced at her.
Moon then rushed forward to look closely at the plant. She didn't understand why it was wilting, but she wasn't ready to give up.
She pulled off one of her gloves and layed it on the ground, then went to hold one of the flowers by its stem.
"Ow!" She cried when she felt the thorns dig into her palm.
She pulled her hand back and saw a little blood swelling up in the pinpricks left by the thorns.
"Look!" Mercury cried.
Jupiter and Moon looked back at the roses.
They were growing, multiplying and blooming brighter!
Mercury stared at it through her visor for a few minutes.
"Okay, for some reason there's something in your blood Moon that the roses like, it helps them to live." Mercury quickly explained. "All we need to do right now is help to guide them as they spread and replant themselves. Help make them look more like a garden and less like a blob of red."
"Right!" Jupiter and Moon replied together.
For the next three hours they worked to gently guide the roses to the right spots. It was around two in the afternoon when they were finally done. Though they were tired, and had a few scrapes along their arms and legs from the thorns, they were happy with their work. Jupiter had enough energy to suggest they make a pond.
"How?" Moon asked.
"Well, I know a friend who has a kiddy pool that they don't want anymore." Jupiter started explaining. "If she still has it and will give it to me, we could put it here. Then, we could collect a few rocks and place them around the edges, and Mercury could fill it up with water."
"That sounds good!" Mercury replied thoughtfully.
At the mention of water Moon realized that that tingle she was feeling, wasn't because she was tired.
Mercury caught her expression and interperted it correctly.
"Considering all these roses are blocking off the view of all the other building roofs, I think it's safe for you to transform to your mermaid self. I'll water you down." Mercury offered.
"Thank you." Moon replied with a grateful expression as she detransformed from being Moon, and started to transform into her mermaid self.
~*~
It took them another hour to make the pond, but they thought it was well worth it.
"I hope no youma's attack today, I'm too tired to fight." Lita groaned as they walked slowly together toward the Crown Arcade.
"As Mina would say, it was all in the name of love." Ami responded though her expression screamed 'tired' too.
"I think Mina will approve once we tell her about it, but she'll probably be upset that we didn't invite her." Lita stated thoughtfully.
"She was working, otherwise I would have. We could've used her energy." Ami replied.
Serena meanwhile was walking and daydreaming at the same time. She really had wanted to see Darien's face when he found the roses, but she had to admit it would be hard to explain the hows, and much harder to explain the why's. So for now she was content to just find out second-hand whether or not he liked it.
When they reached the Arcade, they went directly to the booth by the window that Ami, Mina, Lita and Rei always shared. Andrew came up to them as soon as he saw them.
"Serena, are you okay?" He asked quickly taking note of all the little scratches on her arms and taking them to be cuts from glass shards.
"I'm fine, why?" Serena asked as she sat down, looking up at him with wide blue innocent eyes.
"The youma attack on the children's hospital was all over the news last night and you and Darien were mentioned!" Andrew explained. "Darien called to tell me that he was alright, but he didn't know about you. He just knew that the Sailor Scouts had taken you off somewhere saying that you'd be fine."
Serena understood and smiled assuringly as she replied.
"They did a wonderful job taking care of me. I am fine!"
Ami and Lita smiled to themselves.
Andrew looked relieved and asked them what they wanted to eat.
As he took their orders, he noted the small scratches on the other girls arms. The ones on their legs went un-noticed as they were hidden under the table.
He didn't ask them about it though, he just took their orders and went quickly behind the counter to call Darien and let him know Serena was safe. Last night when Darien had called he sounded increasingly worried. Andrew understood how he felt. Though both of them hadn't known Serena for very long, Darien for a shorter time than Andrew, they both had come to love that little dim ball of sunshine. Andrew loved her like a little sister, Darien loved her . . . Well, Andrew wasn't quite sure how Darien loved her, but he hoped it was going in a certain direction, away from a certain red head.
Darien's cellphone rang twice before he answered.
"Darien Chiba here, what's up?"
"Darien, it's me, Andrew." Andrew responded, glancing toward the girls at the table and noticing that Mina and Rei had come to join them. "I'm calling to let you know that Serena is safe and here at the Crown Arcade."
Andrew heard Darien inhale deeply and exhale loudly.
"I'm glad to hear tha--." He trailed off for a moment, and then Andrew heard him mutter under his breath. "Go to the roof. What the heck for?"
"Darien, what's wrong?" Andrew asked, something in Darien's voice made him start to worry.
"There's a note taped to my appartment door telling me to 'go to the roof'." Darien replied, as the echo his shoes made as he climbed the metal stairs toward the roof made for a background noise. "I have no idea what for, and the handwritting is terrible."
Andrew chuckled.
"Alright, let's see what's on the roof shall we?" Darien asked Andrew through the phone as Andrew heard the door swing open on its hinges.
For the next five to ten seconds the only sounds Andrew heard was from the people around him. The phone line on Darien's end was total silence.
Andrew heard distinctly the giggles of those five girls above all the noise of everyone else.
"Dare, what's wrong?" Andrew asked in a low voice. "What's up man, talk to me!!!"
"There is . . . sand . . . and . . . roses . . . lots of roses . . . everywhere!!!" Darien choked out.
"Roses growing out of sand, on your roof?" Andrew asked him curiously trying to figure this out.
Darien wouldn't lie about something like this, Andrew knew it, but Andrew was seriously considering whether Darien's mental state had finally deteriorated beyond repair.
"And a pond." Darien added quietly after a moment.
By now Andrew had the phone pressed to his ear so hard that his ear was starting to hurt, was growing hot, and was probably red too. Having pressed it so hard to his ear, and pressed his other ear closed with his fingers, Andrew could just barely make out what sounded like a rock being thrown into water.
He was wondering if he was going crazy too.
"What the . . . ?" Andrew heard Darien whisper almost too low to hear.
"What is it Dare?" Andrew asked, not really wanting to know about anything else, though his curiousity to see this with his own eyes was growing.
"I found a . . ." Darien started to say and then stopped. "Well, never mind. Is Serena still there?"
Andrew glanced over his shoulder at the table. Mina and and Rei were giggling together, Lita was grinning ear to ear, Ami was smiling while reading a book that layed upon the table, and Serena was . . . staring at Andrew with a small smile on her lips. Her expression made Andrew feel like she knew what was going on at Darien's end, and that she could hear their conversation. It freaked him out a little.
"Uh, yeah, she's still here." He replied into the phone, glancing away.
"Great. I'm coming to talk to her." Darien stated slowly.
"You think Serena had something to do with that garden thing?" Andrew asked in shock.
He quickly glanced back at Serena. She was no longer looking at him, but trying to read over Ami's shoulder.
"No, I don't think she had anything to do with this. I think it's . . . someone else. I just wanted to talk to her." Darien replied.
"Oh, okay." Andrew sighed in relief.
After that look of knowing that was on her face just a few seconds ago, he wasn't so sure that Serena wasn't involved somehow. Don't ask him how she might be though, he couldn't come up with any answer for that.
"I'll be there in a few minutes." Darien told him in a more normal voice.
"See you then." Andrew replied, and they both hung up on each other.
~*~
Darien flipped his phone closed and slid it into his back pocket.
"What does this mean?" He asked himself, staring at the sandy white glove with three red stripes around the elbow that he held in his left hand.
He knew it was a Sailor Scout glove. No mistake on that, but who's? It was red, so either Sailor Mars, or Sailor Moon's . . . Could it be possible that either of them did this? If so what for? Did they know he was Tuxedo Mask? Was this a thank you or something else?
So many questions were running through Darien's mind, but he reminded himself that he was supposed to go to the Crown Arcade and make sure for himself that Serena was alright. She looked terrible last he saw her, and unless she was really okay he would keep beating himself up over the fact that he couldn't protect her when she had needed him yesterday.
Trying to shake the thoughts from his head, he stuffed the glove into his right front pocket.
Then he stroked the petals of the nearest rose.
"Whoever planted you all here, don't worry. I'll take very good care of you." He whispered to them before turning around and walking toward the stairs, closing the door as he went.
The flowers seemed to grow a deeper shade of red and its petals stretched out a bit farther.
He had always had a way with roses . . .
~*~
Andrew started making Ami, Lita and Serena's orders and Rei and Mina's regular orders, but he looked over at Serena every chance he had.
She looked just as normal as the others beside her, only once did she pause in her smiling and laughing. Her eyes became unfocussed, and then her cheeks burned bright red. She smiled widely and then continued her conversations.
He was just starting to feel more comfortable, which was good considering the food was about ready to serve, when he nearly jumped out of his skin.
BAM
Something hit the wide window of the Arcade with quite a force!
Everybody jumped, and the noise immediately quieted as everybody looked to the window.
BAM
It hit the window again!
Serena was the first to leap to her feet and head for the door in a hurry.
BAM
Andrew couldn't see what it was except that it was a blur of white and gray, but he hoped that it wouldn't break the window.
Then he was reminded of the youma attack on the children's hospital yesterday, and he grew afraid that another youma had come back for Serena, though why he hadn't a clue.
He quickly grabbed a big knife from the rack and was rounding the corner of the counter just as Ami, Rei, Lita and Mina exited the door behind Serena.
He feared he might not get to Serena or any of the other girls in time to protect them.
Then he heard Serena cry out in a commanding voice that made his body just have to obey.
"STOP!"
Everything stopped.