Chapter X
Serenity giggled as she hid behind a short wall in hopes of loosing Darien. With a smattering of wet gooey liquid running down her back, she realized she hid in vain. She looked up and behind her and there was Darien, with a huge grin on his handsome features.
Serenity pulled a bag of her own out and smashed it in his face. The goggles protected him from any real harm, but it made it harder for him to see.
She ran off and he followed, trying to follow at any rate. He tripped and careened into a slide. Serenity jogged back to see if he was all right. When he didn't move, she bent over him and poked him in the ribs.
His other hand came up and smashed a plastic container onto her chest, where one boob rested. It was a red circle of paint on her white jumper. She jumped up and dropped a green one on his crotch and sent another one at him. He moved out of the way and took off running to avoid even more splotches of paint being flung at him.
Eventually their time was up and when the splotches were counted, Darien took one last one out and smacked her on the ass with it.
"Ow!" She complained and sent him a glare. He shrugged.
Darien was deemed the winner by one more spot, and Serenity told him he may have won by cheating, but they were most definitely in a tie.
Darien rolled his eyes. "Serenity. It's time to face it, I'm just better at this game than you are!"
Serenity stopped and glared. "And who was it that won most of the games?" Her hands rested firmly on her hips as he undid his outfit. "That's right, me!"
Darien took one look at her and they both burst out laughing.
They were helping each other clean up when Darien's watch beeped.
"Time to go." Serenity declared as Darien pulled away to look around to see if anybody was watching them.
"Maybe." Darien agreed, hoping it not to be true. "Mask here."
"Hi, Mask, it's Mars, we have a slight issue down in the Heineken loading docks up here."
"Hi Mars!" Serenity greeted, pulling Darien's watch towards here. "Mask'll be there shortly."
She let go after Mars responded in a friendly hello and Darien agreed with Serenity's insertion. "Aye, I'll be there shortly." They cut off from each other and Darien pulled Serenity in for a short kiss before running off to go change into Tuxedo Kamen and help their friends. Serenity sighed wistfully and finished cleaning up. She had nowhere to really be for a while, so she took her time. Maybe she'd go shopping? This was the issue when all of her friends were involved with the same thing.
"Hey!" A girl called out.
Serenity stopped and looked to a redhead jogging over to her, she was dressed as if she was heading for the gym.
"Hi." Serenity replied cordially.
"I'm Molly Baker, you're in my Psychology class aren't you?"
"Oh, that's right, that's where I know you from!" Serenity remembered the girl now; she sat almost right behind her. "I'm Serenity General."
"I thought your last name was King?" Molly frowned; she could have sworn that was the name on the sheet they passed to take attendance.
"Ah, well, technically it is, but I go by General."
"Oh, well both are pretty cool." Molly smiled and it lit up her whole face. "I was planning on going to the Mall, I just got back from the gym. If you'd like to join me you're more than welcome to come, I just have to take a five minute shower and change first though."
"No drying your hair?"
"That's the neat thing about being from Boston, my hair's used to heavy humidity, so being here, it dries in a snap. Well… comparatively at least."
Serenity laughed, this girl was rather entertaining. "All right, should I join you there in fifteen then?"
"Sure. Could I give you my number? I don't have my phone on me right now."
"Of course." Serenity took hers out and dialed in Molly's number. "I'll see you in fifteen minutes then."
"Yep, see ya then." Molly took off, still jogging, back to where Serenity didn't doubt was her apartment.
The girl didn't look as if she'd worked out, and hadn't a really thick accent, but Serenity didn't doubt either tidbits of information. The rest of the day was spent with the redhead from Boston. They had fun, shopping for awhile, then having a light ice cream snack before making plans for dinner in a couple of days.
For the next couple of weeks Serenity and Molly got closer as friends.
Darien and the girls continuously got moody and were watching her even closer, to which she spent more time avoiding them and hanging out with Molly.
Making their friendship stronger.
Which gave Jadeite a relief because she seemed, if possible, even happier, and not as worried that she'd be doing something with Darien and have to watch out for her. Also Nephrite had been recalled onto the base without being able to leave.
Which made him able to attack more often.
Which made Darien and the girls moodier and worried for their friend to accidentally stumble into the cross hairs.
It was just a circular pattern that was just fine until one day Serenity snapped.
"What is it?" She demanded. Usually when there was a problem Darien would come out and say it, which recently he'd been hiding.
"It's nothing." He lied and led Serenity away from the crowd growing near them. The first general was attacking crowds more rigorously, the second one hadn't been seen in weeks.
"You're lying. Why can't we go through that crowd?" Serenity stopped and stomped her foot.
"All right fine!" Darien snapped back. "The first general, the one that's been around forever has upped his game. He's attacking more often and getting away with everything. We haven't been able to stop any part of his plans."
"What do you mean?" Serenity asked softly.
"Before we used to be able to destroy the youma, or stop him from draining one of our energies, or even stop him from getting the object that he wanted, usually a person's talent, and using it to equip the youma with it. But now, now we haven't been able to stop a single part of his attack. We're being drained every time, the youma's aren't being destroyed and he always gets what he wants."
"What is he looking for?" Serenity pried.
"The silver crystal."
"The what?"
"It's the princess's famed crystal, the one that's supposed to make her virtually invincible, also the thing that caused the destruction of the moon."
"Why does he want it?"
"To give to his queen and then destroy us once and for all."
"And your energy?"
"Is feeding them, making them stronger, we're apparently more powerful than normal citizens to feed the queen."
"And has your energy been taken?" Serenity didn't know why, but knew it was imperative that his energy remained away from the dark kingdom.
"No." Darien acknowledged, for some reason the girls and him knew his energy should not be taken and protected against at all causes. "We make sure of that."
"Good." Serenity hugged him. "Now back off, I won't be caught up in the center of an attack again, I haven't been for months now. So stop being so worried."
"All right." Darien sighed. Then a glint entered his eyes. "How about, you and I go rent a movie and take it back to my apartment?"
Serenity pursed her lips then smiled. "I think that would be an excellent idea."
"Chinese too?"
Serenity wrinkled her nose, a tiny vertical crease down the center formed, and Darien loved to see it appear. "Can we do Indian today instead?"
"Ok." Darien sighed, trying to sound defeated. Serenity just whacked him on the shoulder. "Ouch!" He complained, and it had stung a little, she was stronger than she looked.
"You big baby!" She laughed at him. "Should mama kiss it to make it better?" She batted her eyelashes at him and he nodded moodily.
She smiled evilly and made as if to kiss him on the lips then kissed his shoulder instead. "There better?"
"No!" Darien groaned and drug her up against him to kiss her completely.
After a few minutes they split apart and went to go find a movie and then ordered Indian take-out that was on his street.
They turned off all electronics, except Darien's watch, because that was for emergencies only, even Mina abided by the rules for it, in fact she was the one that was strongly against anything but Senshi business being discussed on it.
After the movie, neither of them truly watched, because both passed out half way through it, Serenity awoke to static on the screen and cold food on the coffee table. Serenity smiled wryly as she detangled herself from Darien's arms and picked up the food and shut off the television screen and DVD player. She put the food in the refrigerator, unsure how well it would be when Darien was hungry in the middle of the night after a battle, but it was there. Serenity turned her cell phone back on. Jadeite had set up a PO box for all their mail to be sent to, hence they could pay bills and tuition and for them both to have a cell phone.
Her phone beeped at her, telling her she missed a phone call and a text message. She looked at the missed call then at the message, both were from Rei. The message read 'we need to talk.' Serenity was a little apprehensive about this call; usually Rei wrote 'call me back, I'm bored.' Or something to that effect.
Serenity called Rei back, punching in the numbers that were memorized instead of looking through her phone for Rei's nickname, Pyro.
"Hey Rei." Serenity said when Rei answered the phone.
"Hey Serena. I was calling you earlier."
"I know." Serenity didn't need to add more because Rei took over the conversation.
"I need your help." Serenity blinked at the imaginary image of Rei in front of her and tried to form words, Rei never needed her help, the girl was so confident, Serenity was sometimes envious. "It's about your uncle."
"My Uncle? Jay?" Serenity was glad she caught herself; she almost said his full name in surprise. "What about Jay? Has he been bugging you? Wondering where I am?"
"No, no, nothing like that, on the contrary, he's been ignoring me so much recently, usually he at least says hi, even when you are not around, but recently he hasn't even said a word to me."
"That's strange." Serenity knew there was a change in her uncle recently, but hadn't known what it was.
"I thought so too." Rei paused. "I would like to get along with your family, family's important."
"I know." Serenity agreed, she loved her uncle dearly but sometimes she wished she had a female role model too. But none of the girls or Darien had a complete family unit; even Molly just had her mother.
Serenity had secretly wondered if Jadeite would get along with one of the girls' mother or even Rei, but that would have been slightly weird, her uncle was so much like her father that if he dated her friend… Serenity shuddered.
"Maybe…" Rei ventured, she hated not being completely honest with her best friend, but wouldn't dream of telling Serenity anything of the true nature she was thinking. "Maybe… you could set Jay and me up for a lunch together so we could talk out the issue? I would love to get along with him."
"I'll talk to him."
"No!" Rei hesitated. "Ask him if he'd like to go to lunch with you and then ditch him and I'll show up instead. That way he can't say no, and leaving would make him feel like a jerk."
"All right." Serenity frowned at the phone, she wouldn't like lying to Jadeite but if it'd help both of them, then she'd deal with it.
"When would you like this lunch set up?"
"Tomorrow would be nice."
"I'll check with him then get back to you."
"Ok." Rei was about to hang up then changed her mind. "Thank you Serena."
"You're welcome." Serenity said her goodbyes then walked back into the living room where Darien was still sleeping, poor man, he must be tired from all of these youma attacks.
Serenity would have woken him up in her very own special way, but she knew the dangers of being tired on the battlefield could outweigh any form of skill. Anything that happened to him because of her, it would kill her.
She headed back into the kitchen to grab a piece of paper and a pen and wrote him a note. She placed it on the coffee table next to the remote and pulled a blanket up over him. As she was letting go, his hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Don't go." He pulled her down next to him and she rested her head on his chest, as his arms wrapped around her and he drifted back to sleep. Serenity sighed and curled up next to him and drifted off herself, it was after all, midnight.