Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon and I am not making any money off this story. It's just something to entertain myself with. Also, I do not own the "Alfa Romeo SZ" but I am firm in my belief that that is what Darien's anime car is based on.
Ugh. Worst chapter to write ever, which is my explanation for the longer-than-usual-wait. But, since it was a long wait, that means it's a long chapter! (Sorry; had to break my promise to not write another 30-pager. I wanted to make up for Darien missing the action last chapter. There was a reason people. Hehe.)
Reviews (and the chart that was requested) will be addressed next chapter, promise! There simply isn't enough room in this one.
On to the story~!
She was running. She could feel something was wrong, horribly wrong, but she did not understand how she knew. She gasped, a sharp twinge of pain causing her to stop and clutch her heart. A name frantically floated through her mind but before she could process it, she was running faster than she had in her entire life. She distantly heard sounds of battle, a mixture of cries and something entirely inhuman drifting up to her ears. She waved away all the hands reaching for her, unheeding of their pleas for her safety. It seemed that all too suddenly she was outside and staring across a battlefield to the cause of her horrific feelings.
She cried out as a golden sword slid through the chest of a dark-haired man, a sickening sound that replayed over and over in her mind as he fell to his knees. It should not have been so easy; no object should be able to move through bone and flesh so effortlessly. He was wincing and crying out as he clutched the hilt of the sword and attempted to pull it out. It was doing no good; his hands were too slippery --stained red with blood-- and each pull only caused him to cry out louder than the last time.
Her mouth was moving desperately but it took her a few moments to realize no sound was coming out, just the silent chant of "No, no, no…". She took an absent step closer only for the slipper on her right foot to step into something that instantly soaked into the fine silk. She looked down only to gag involuntarily as she saw the puddle of red washing against her ankle. A vibrant red, like the blood that ran along the side of the man's face…
She stumbled forward in panic as a shadowed, feminine figure appeared leisurely behind the man amongst the surrounding chaos. He noticed the figure almost instantly, snarling out something that made him receive a small smirk in reply. The smirk only widened as the woman calmly reached out and grasped the bloody sword, pulling it out of its foreign host almost violently. He fell down coughing up more red blood, only the hands he put out in front of him at the last second saving him from falling on the injury that was beginning to glow a golden hue through the slices in his armor.
She continued to stumble forward, never noticing the monster that had caught sight of her and began sliding closer with sickening grin stretching across its grotesque face. She was almost upon the scene that riveted her attention before she was grabbed from behind and pulled against a slimy body. Instinctively, she screamed out a name; the name of the one who had never failed to save her before. She watched as his head snapped over to her, blue eyes filled with horror at her presence, before they dimmed slightly as that same golden sword was plunged through his right shoulder blade mercilessly.
Something about that particular shoulder…
She screamed as realization dawned a second before the golden sparks faded away from his stomach. Before she knew what had happened, the monster was gone and she was running toward the two, blind to the carnage of both human and inhuman body parts littering the once pristine grounds. She watched through blurry, terrified eyes as the man pushed himself up to his feet, stumbling a few times before shaking his head and standing firm. A frantic plea escaped her dry mouth as he ripped the sword out of his body and cried out to the heavens. He stumbled even more once he was holding the weapon aloft, actually falling down onto one knee, and the woman only smirked down at him. Slowly lifting one foot, she kicked him square in the face and he was pushed down to the ground with a hiss of pain.
She could see the way his teeth were clenching, the muscles in his exposed skin rippling, that he was having a hard time getting up. Something was wrong… the figure was a mere slip of a person, a seasoned warrior like him should not have such trouble pushing her off. She found her answer as his eyes began to slide closed, rivers of red running down his body to splash on the already violated ground.
He was dying… He was going to leave her all alone.
The rest was a blur of thoughts and feelings. Pain, an all-encompassing pain that was not wholly physical, blocked out the rest of her actions. All she knew was the searing feeling in her heart and breast that continued on even as she collapsed. She screamed out the assault of her emotions and through half-lidded eyes saw a bright white light shoot up into the darkened sky.
Serena's scream continued as she flew up in her bed, her head snapping around frantically until she realized she was in her bedroom, safe. There were no youma, no battlefield, and more importantly, no blood. It had been a nightmare; only a nightmare. She took deep, shaky breaths as she gathered her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The glowing green numbers of her alarm clock told her it was close to three a.m., but she paid it no mind as she tried to calm herself down. "It's okay." She whispered as she closed her eyes, feeling a cold chill creep along her heated and sweating skin, "Darien is fine."
She bit her lip anxiously as she tightened her grip, fingernails absently digging into her calves. A week without seeing him didn't mean he was hurt or--or dead. She gasped, shaking her head frantically. 'No, no! Don't start crying now!' The chide did not good as she felt the telltale wetness slide down her cheeks. Seconds later, great shuttering gasps seized the breath out of her lungs and she was forced to bury her face against the top of her knees to muffle the sound.
Try as she might, she couldn't convince herself that Darien was fine and, over an hour later when she finally fell into a fitful sleep, her tears were still shining in the moonlight streaming through her curtains.
At 3:05 p.m. on the dot, a loud ringing erupted throughout the courtyard and halls of Juuban High School and seconds later a throng of teenagers pushed open the double front doors. Amidst the students' excited chatter about what they were going to do that weekend, one girl walked among the chaos with a serene smile on her face.
Not including the occasional nightmare and constant worrying about a certain dark-haired college student, Serena had to admit that she had had a fantastic week. Every time she'd gone to visit Hotaru, the girl seemed to be in better spirits and that was enough to put a grin on her face. By some sort of miracle, she had finished and turned in every school assignment given to her. Then, best of all, for a whole week she hadn't heard the shout of "Serena! Detention!" and it felt wonderful; no teachers breathing down her neck, no peers giggling at her repeated failures, no disappointed 'tsks' echoing in her ears by people she didn't really know. Was that what she had missed all those times she'd dejectedly accepted that little detention slip? That quiet and just, well, overall feeling proud of herself? Why hadn't she ever noticed it before?
The blonde grinned, practically skipping down the steps. Yeah, it felt good not to have detention. 'So good I think I might actually make a habit of not getting it. Mom and Dad are already in some kind of shock over this past week and Shingo's still stunned speechless from the first day, I think. Besides, it gives me more time to go home and relax before I do my homework, anyways.' Her grin widened. Who'd have thought doing homework was so rewarding in the end? 'Okay, so it's not the most fun to do and I'm not suddenly going to turn into Ami or anything, but the looks I get from my teachers completely makes up for it!' She giggled. Her Literature teacher had dropped at least ten Styrofoam coffee cups in shock by Wednesday and, despite her encouraging words, Ms. Haruna had still looked like she wanted to faint this morning. 'Yeah. Completely makes up for it.'
"Do you see that car!?"
Serena paused, thinking the shout was aimed at her, until she spotted two guys from said Literature class standing not far away and recognized the voice as belonging to one of them. Now that she looked around, actually, she saw quite a number of people crowding around something at the edge of the path she was on --the same something that the guys seemed to be talking about. 'A car, then?' Her brow furrowed as she glanced this way and that; there were little groups of people who'd stayed around everywhere on the lawn and the sidewalk, most of them talking and pointing to where the crowd was gathered.
"Completely! Dude, it's not even street legal in America!"
"That's just how awesome it is!"
Her attention turned back to the two guys from her class; they seemed to have a good vantage point to the car or whatever it was, so she headed toward them curiously. Along the way she passed a group of three girls giggling behind their hands, sharing sly looks with one another. Her brow furrowed deeper. 'Why would they be giggling and looking at each like that over a car?' She smiled humorously. 'Must be some car. Kaito and Shin are practically drooling as it is.' She giggled as she arrived between the said classmates. "Hey, what's going on?"
Kaito turned around with a glare at being interrupted but it quickly became a surprised and pleased smile, making his friend chuckle and roll his eyes. "H-hi, Serena." He cleared his throat and looked away. "We were just, you know, uh, admiring the car. Pretty cool isn't it?" The blonde nodded absently until she saw exactly what everyone was fawning over. She felt her jaw drop as her eyes took in the sleek red car. Kaito, incorrectly assuming her expression was due to her awe of the vehicle, grinned. "Yeah. I agree. It's an Alfa Romeo SZ. Definitely one of my favorite cars." He blushed suddenly, rubbing the back of his head. "S-Serena, did I ever t-tell you how pr--pretty you looked with your new hair?"
"Uh-huh." She whispered as her eyes drifted from the familiar car to its even familiar owner. Darien was leaning against the passenger door, arms folded across his chest and looking down at the ground, completely avoiding all the attention he and his car were receiving. He was wearing black and white sneakers, a pair of blue jeans, and a black long-sleeved shirt; she had a feeling if he'd been wearing his now-customary leather jacket (had she ever apologized for ruining his hideous green one? She couldn't remember) he would have been receiving a lot more attention and whispers. 'At least now I know what those girls were giggling about…'
Even she had to admit that he looked …handsome like that. His hair wind-tousled and hanging down in his eyes, his biceps defined by the well-fitting shirt. He didn't look like the regular Darien she was used to seeing on a daily basis --the one who was buried in a pile of schoolwork or even the one that treated Hotaru like a daughter. He looked like--like… 'I don't even know what to describe him as besides hot!'She froze, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Oh. My. Gosh. I did not just think that."
Kaito looked at the girl inquiringly. "What did you just think?"
She didn't hear either him or his words. As soon as she'd spoken, Darien had instantly looked up and captured her eyes; like he knew exactly where she was and had only been waiting for a sign. Before she knew what she was doing, she was walking over to stand in front of him. His eyes stayed focused on her hair, taking in the straight braid she'd put it in that day, before they slid to her eyes. "You cut your hair."
"Yeah." She answered breathlessly, "Sunday. After everything." She attempted a smile as the seriousness of the conversation penetrated her hazy mind. "Y-you said I might be as smart as Ami underneath all that hair, right? So--so I thought maybe if I--"
"Serena."
She stopped, suddenly feeling overwhelmingly self-conscious as he continued to watch her with those dark, fathomless eyes of his. She looked down at the ground to escape their gaze. "D-do you like it?" She asked hesitantly, her heart pounding in her ears, only to frown a minute or two later when he still hadn't said anything. She glanced up to see he was looking at her hair again, this time with an odd expression.
"I… have seen you like this before." He whispered as he touched the braid where it was hanging over her shoulder. She gasped silently, her face flaming into a blush, as his fingers moved up to run through her bangs before his hand slid down to cup her cheek. He gently turned her head this way and that, taking in her hair from as many angles as he could, before grinning. "I think I might like it." He dropped his hand to cross his arms again. "So what took you so long? I was afraid I would have to go hunt you down and make up some family emergency to get you out of your usual detention."
And just like that the spell woven over her broke into a million fragments. She glared as Darien went from stunning, mysterious hunk to the familiar annoyance. "I didn't get detention today, for your information." She growled, sniffing disdainfully. "I haven't had it all week."
His eyebrows rose sharply and he whistled through his teeth. "Wow. A new hairstyle and no detention. Any other changes you've made this week that I should be aware of?" He glanced over her head. "Any wings sprout up suddenly?"
Something tugged at the back of her mind, making her frown again, but she quickly dismissed it in favor of demanding, "Why are you here?"
"You and I are going for a little drive."
She gaped incredulously at the calm statement. "After a week of not seeing you, making me think that I finally scared you away or--or something, you decide we're going for a little drive?"
"Sorry, it's been a hectic week." He grimaced before his lips twitched. "Besides, I've seen you inhale a triple chocolate milkshake, two slices of peach pie, and a cone of rocky road ice-cream. In one sitting. You can never scare me more than that did." He pushed off the car and opened the door. "Get in."
She took a nervous step back. "I don't think so. I still don't know where we're going. Or why."
"On a little drive." He repeated, rising an eyebrow at her expression. "What? You don't trust me?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Do I need to remind you how we keep fighting? I'm wondering if I should trust you or not. You're acting weird. Who knows, you could have finally become fed up with me and have been planning some horrible practical joke in revenge this whole week."
He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "No. I was busy. You know, with things like schoolwork, preparing for finals, and trying to get Hotaru's guardianship?" He shook his head as she released a small "Oh". "Just get inside. You know you can trust me. We're just going somewhere to talk."
"What do you call what we're doing right now? It seems like talking to me." She gulped as he shot her a dark look. 'Ooh… Not the time for joking, apparently.'
"Get. In. The. Car. Now." He ordered as he leaned over the door to get a better look at her, "I don't have time for these games."
She crossed her arms across her chest and glared; well, if he said it that way… "No. I. Don't. Think. So."
"Don't make me, Serena." He shot a look over her shoulder to all the people still gathered around. The two of them had been given a wide berth, so no one could really hear what was being said, but actions always did seem to speak louder than words. "Do you really want me to fuel the gossip already running through the crowds?"
"And why would I care about their gossip? We're just talking. They can all see that."
"Really?" He murmured, leaning down toward her. She swallowed thickly. 'It's just Darien-withdrawal! He's not cute. He's not!' "So you're telling me you don't care that the boy that helped bring your get well card to the hospital --Umino-- is running around, telling everyone I'm your doting boyfriend that spent every waking moment with you that week? Or that the group of girls to your right are giggling and wishing I would kiss you and hurry up about it already?"
She sputtered in shock as her blush returned violently, making her face match the red bow of her school uniform. "They--they are not!" She hissed furiously, "You're lying!"
A lazy smile stretched across his face. "Now why would I do that? I told you. I could care less what these people gossip about. Hmm." His eyes flickered around briefly before he focused back on the blonde. "You know, most of them are pretty convinced I'm your boyfriend in just the few minutes we've been talking. Even those boys you were standing with. One of them is teasing the other right now, as a matter of fact. Saying you have a cool boyfriend with an even cooler car."
She narrowed her eyes as he seemed to lean toward her even more, before squeezing them shut. She told herself it was because she would be able to hear Kaito and Shin better and not because she could hear a few squeals echoing from the girls to the right.
"Man, you were completely blown off." That was Shin, sounding amused, "How long have you been trying to get Serena's attention? Since, like, the seventh grade?"
"I said shut up already!" Kaito that time, sounding both embarrassed and angry at the same time.
"Oh well. Do you think he was around before or after that? She never seemed to notice any of your attention." Shin chuckled. "Maybe that's why. She probably had eyes on him that whole time. I mean, did you see the way she walked over to him? She was practically in a dreamy daze, and I know it wasn't for the car!" He chuckled louder.
"Thanks for the sympathy, you're a real friend aren't you?!"
Her eyes snapped open as she quickly turned her head to see Kaito push past his friend's shoulder and fade into the crowd behind them. She looked back at her companion in bewilderment. "I--I didn't know… I thought he was just being nice. A-a lot of people are nice to me."
Darien eyed her in disbelief, his eyes absently sliding down. She'd always been beautiful but something about that new hair… He flushed, shaking his head, and forced himself to met her eyes. "Then let me be the one to make it clear for you. More than half of the guys nice to you are probably nice for a reason."
She gaped, searching his eyes for any form of amusement, mockery, or even some teasing. Instead all she found was blank seriousness. "They--they wanted to be…"
He nodded. "Correct. They wanted to be your boyfriend. Beau. Go steady with you, etcetera." He glanced around the crowd, unaware of the deadly glare on his face as he heard some of the conversations. His eyes narrowed on one guy in particular, if he said one more thing about Serena's "assets" he was going to…
"You jerk!" He blinked as his chest was unexpectedly shoved backwards. Serena grit her teeth as the man barely moved under her attack. "You just had to destroy my beliefs, didn't you!?" She growled up at him, thumping his chest one more time for emphasis.
His brow furrowed. "I did nothing of the sort. I simply made my observations clear." He shrugged and looked back to the car door pointedly. "Are you going to get in now or what?"
"No!" She stomped her foot, swung around, and began heading toward the crowd. "Now I have to find Kaito and apologize for all these years of ignoring him! Unintentional or not."
He glared, swiftly catching up to her and grabbing a hold of one of her upper arms. "I don't think so. We've wasted enough daylight as it is. You're getting into that car now."
"Make me!" She hissed over her shoulder, unsuccessfully trying to pull her arm out of his grip.
He grinned; those were exactly the words he had been waiting to hear. "My pleasure." Everyone crowded around watched in astonishment as, in one solid move, the dark-haired man let go of Serena's arm in favor of sweeping her feet out from under her to carry her back to the car.
"Darien!" The blonde half-growled, half-screeched. Her eyes snapped around, growing mortified as she saw all the wide eyes fixed on her and quickly became unwilling to bring more attention to the both of them by screaming like she really wanted to. "Let me go!" She hissed up at her captor, "You're starting to make too much of a habit out of this!"
"Aw," He rumbled into her ear, "Do you want me to be in a tuxedo next time? I know you never felt awkward then." She instantly froze and he winced. 'Damn. Stuck my foot in my mouth again…'
"Let me go, Shields." She whispered furiously, "I have no desire to talk to you."
He mumbled irritably under his breath, calling himself a myriad of things, as he eased her in the passenger seat. "Well I'm sorry but I have every desire to talk to you." He told her firmly as he squatted on the curb beside the car, "And I'd prefer that it's done now rather than later. You can just stand there and listen but I'm going to talk to you."
She leveled him a dark glare. "And just what is so important?"
He pursed his lips but didn't look away from the (admittedly) intimidating expression. "I used to dream of the Moon Princess." He smiled grimly as she paled. "Yeah. My thoughts exactly." He sighed. "I am tired of us fighting, Serena. That night I drove you home, you asked if we were okay, remember?" She nodded slowly, staring at him with wide eyes. "And I said no, but that's only because can't be okay until we figure out what's happening and share our side of the story about everything. Without fighting. Don't you agree?" She nodded slowly again, making him smile in relief. "Good. That's all I want. For us to be okay, too."
Her eyes widened even more as she watched him close the door and walk around to the driver side. 'Did he just kiss my cheek?' Outside, the girls squealed even louder and Darien refused to make eye contact with her as he turned on the car and roared out of the school premises. 'Well, I guess that answers that…' She quickly turned her flaming face to the window as she struggled to pull on her seatbelt and take her side pack off at the same time.
It took her a long while to gather the courage to talk. Or, at least, it had felt like a long while. The dashboard clock told her it had only been twenty minutes but she didn't believe that. It'd been an eternity of awkward silence. "This is practically kidnapping, you know." She stated as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Maybe. Yet you didn't scream for help when you had the opportunity so I'll take my chances." Her eyes narrowed at Darien's calmness as he continued to drive, not looking at her. "Your shoe is on the backseat. I figured you might miss it eventually." She winced but, before she had a chance to say anything, he spoke again. "I know what you were trying to do the other night and, honestly, I probably would have done something similar. But I'm not going to let you push me away, even if it's in an attempt to protect me. It's a well-known fact that we've been acquainted for almost a year; it'd only seem suspicious if we began avoiding each other and stopped talking." He glanced at her, growing concerned by her ashen face. "Serena, listen to me. I'm not going to let Luna, the Dark Kingdom, or anyone else for that matter, hurt me, okay?"
She could feel the tears instantly spring into her eyes as her mind flashed back to her dream. Why was it always swords? "Y-you don't…" She tightened her crossed arms protectively and bowed her head slightly. "You don't know what will happen. I--I could have died that day in the park for all we--"
"But you didn't." He interrupted, his knuckles white from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel, "I would have known. I would have felt it."
She froze at the swift, but confident, answer before snapping her gaze over to him. "But, I'm not Sailor Moon anymore. That--that link or whatever let you know I'd transformed for a battle doesn't exist anymore. It has no reason to."
"It exists."
Her lips parted in shock. "How can you be so sure?"
"I can feel it, Serena. Right this instant." He answered seriously, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "I didn't just know when you transformed. I was led to you, and thus the battles too."
"Like the pull," She whispered, "that sometimes told me know what tree Tuxedo Mask was hiding in."
His eyes dashed over to her in amazement. So it hadn't just been a feeling like she'd told him, then. "Exactly. That same kind of pull is leading me straight to you just like it always has. Now that I know you and Sailor Moon are one in the same, it doesn't matter if you can't transform anymore. I know what the link is supposed to feel like and I can… I'm not sure how to describe it. Fixate it on you instead? All I know is the feeling I received with Sailor Moon is now the feeling I associate with you as Serena too."
"Is…" She shook her head in disbelief. How could that link still work? "Is that how you found me on that bench? You could feel where I was? You were …pulled… in the right direction?"
He nodded. "Yes. It isn't as fine-tuned as it was when I was led to Sailor Moon but with some time it will be." He glanced over at her again to see her nodding silently, her brow furrowed. The question 'But why does it still exist?' was almost tangible in the air between them but he found he didn't have an answer for that so he stayed silent.
Serena, in the meantime, pursed her lips in thought. 'Does that mean if he ever transformed I could feel it? At least, if I concentrated enough? But… he said he wasn't going to transform anymore, so I'll probably never know.' She stifled a sigh, abandoning her thoughts, and looked out her window. Immediately her head turned to follow a sign they were passing. "We're leaving Tokyo?"
"Yes."
She frowned as she finally noticed they were on the freeway. "What are my parents going to think when I don't show up at home?"
"Look in the backseat."
She looked back curiously only for her brow to furrow again. She'd hurriedly thrown her side pack back there earlier, where she now saw it'd ended up on the floor. The strap was draped over her infamous shoe, which was right beside a very familiar pink and bunny-covered bag on the seat. Her eyes slid over to Darien suspiciously, and somewhat frightfully. "Why do you have my overnight bag?"
A blush formed on his cheeks at the accusation in her voice. "Not what you're thinking." He said quickly, "It was your mother's idea. Once she knew where I was taking you, she thought you might appreciate something other than your uniform to wear. Something warmer, too." He smirked. "She, also, said that if you're not back in your own bed by midnight, at the very latest, she'll hunt me down with her arsenal of kitchen knives. And since I have no desire to face her wrath, don't worry. You'll get home on time and none worse for wear."
"They know about this?" She asked disbelievingly, "Was this some secret plan only I didn't know about?"
He flashed her his smirk. "No, at least not intentionally. I thought all this up when I was walking home after our latest fight but I was barely able to find time to ask your parents, let alone you."
"You didn't ask me. You picked me up and practically threw me in here!"
He studiously ignored her. "Of course, by the bag's presence, you can see that I did receive their permission to take you out of town when I asked Wednesday morning. They told me their only condition, besides the midnight curfew, was that it had to wait until it wasn't a school night. So, here we are."
The blonde felt her jaw drop. "That was it? They let you --a college student they hardly know and a guy-- take me-- their teenaged daughter-- out of town on a Friday night and packed an overnight bag for me, just by asking for their permission!?"
He shrugged. "Pretty much. They wanted to know why, of course, so I gave them an edited version --they couldn't know most of it involved Senshi-related things, right?" Her wince went unseen. "Your mother was the only one that had any problems with it afterwards. Your father simply advised me to feed you so you didn't get cranky."
She instantly choked out a half-laugh, half-groan and buried her face in her hands. "What is wrong with them?" She glared at Darien through her fingers. "And what does my father like you when he threatens any other guy for even talking to me?" She sighed, dropping her hands, as he shrugged again. "Fine. How'd you convince my mom then? Enough for her to suggest packing me more clothes, that is."
"She wanted to know what that meeting you had at the hospital was for, since you were apparently too distracted for her to ask. I saw no harm in her knowing, so I told her about my hope to get Hotaru's guardianship." He chuckled. "The next thing I know, I was being smothered with hugs while a slice of cake was all but shoved down my throat. Apparently she'd forgotten all her reservations about the trip because the suggestion for the overnight bag came not long after…"
Almost against her will, the blonde giggled. "Figures. She wanted to foster care for Hotaru, I heard my parents talking about it when I woke up at the hospital once, but Dad said we couldn't afford it. She must have been really relieved. I'm sorry she got so overzealous though, she can be too much sometimes."
"It was alright. I had--" He paused before continuing haltingly, "I've never really experienced something like that before. That motherliness. It was… nice."
She winced at the reminder of his orphanhood before blurting out, "You could have just told them the truth. They know I'm Sailor Moon." She instantly groaned, slapping her forehead. "Smooth, Serena, smooth." She cringed at Dairen's look before he snapped his attention back to the road. "I know, I know. I almost can't believe it myself."
"How?"
"When I got home Sunday… well, you saw the way I left you." It was his turn to cringe. "Yeah. And then, to make that all worse, when I walked inside everyone was watching the footage of Jupiter's death on the news. My parents said something, I snapped back, and then I realized they'd all been looking at me and I mean looking. I knew they'd finally noticed the similarities so I ran upstairs and ended up locking myself in the bathroom." She gestured to her braid. "And voila. No more odangoes."
His mouth open and closed a few times as he struggled to find something to say. "So that's why you cut your hair." He shook his head in bewilderment. "I can't believe… four people, in one day, abruptly noticing the similarities. The woman on the street could have been a fluke, but your family too --who see you everyday-- to finally notice… It's unfathomable."
She chewed on her lip."…I told Ami about it, too. We think it might be the glimmer-stuff I told you about beginning to fade since I stopped being a Senshi. She promised she was looking into it but… I have a feeling no one has ever just stopped being a Senshi. It doesn't sound very likely from what I've heard."
Darien glanced over at her, frowning at her worried expression. "But cutting your hair was quick thinking on your part." He reassured, "Even if them noticing was a fluke, it's too much of a chance to take on anyone else. So I agree with your decision to cut your hair and let down the odangoes but… do you miss them?"
She bit her lip again and began to fiddle with the seatbelt strapped across her chest. "I'd had my odangoes since I was little, of course I would miss them, and maybe when this all blows over I'll grow them back out. I… I was crying as I cut my hair." She admitted quietly, "At first I thought it was because I was going to miss them so much but, after it was all over with, I realized that it had been in relief. I just can't understand why I would feel that way, though."
His hands tightened on the steering wheel almost involuntarily. "Maybe they're just too much of a burden to bear right now. In Tokyo's eyes, that is Sailor Moon's hairstyle."
"And the Princess's." She whispered before blanching as she remembered his earlier statement. It'd completely been shoved into the back of her mind in light of his abrupt kiss on her cheek. Her eyes slid to him in disbelief. "You dreamt about the Moon Princess. That--that's why you weren't surprised when Ami and I mentioned her that day at the hospital."
He winced as he glanced over. "I'd prefer we save that discussion until later. Please, Serena. When we arrive, I promise I'll tell you. Just… just not now. Please."
She nodded acceptingly but mainly because she wanted to avoid what those dreams could mean for as long as possible. "So, you said we were going out of town?" He nodded as forced himself to relax and loosen his grip on the steering wheel. "Where? And what are you going to show me?"
"We are going out of town, so I'm going to show you something out of town." He said dryly, laughing at her sour expression, "I thought you liked surprises?"
Her nose crinkled. "Well, yeah. Usually. But you're still acting funny so I'm not sure if I'd like your surprise. The only thing I can really think of in this direction is the ocean so I'm half expecting you to throw me in somewhere and drive off."
His smiled slipped. "No. I'm not going to throw you in and drive off. Don't worry."
"Their ashes have been scattered in the ocean for a number of years."
'I said something very wrong, didn't I? His parents ashes are in the ocean.' She cringed, hunkering down in her seat, and began looking around for a distraction. After a few minutes of a very uncomfortable silence, she heard herself say, "You know, I just realized this car isn't very… you."
He glanced back over at her but she couldn't tell if his amused smile was genuine or not. "And why do you think that? I rather like this car."
She nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I figure you would like it and probably drool over it like all the guys at school were. But, it doesn't seem something you'd actually buy."
"Because it's a sports car?" He asked with a chuckle, "Need I remind you that I own a motorcycle too? I have no problem with fast vehicles." His eyes took on a somewhat dreamy expression. "And this one is fast and sleek. Zero to sixty miles per hour in seven seconds. Max speed of a hundred and fifty two miles per hour. A three liter, V6 engine. Tan leather interior…"
She giggled. "Wow. You really are a typical guy, I never would have thought so."
He grinned, shrugging. "I am what I am. Which is, of course, very refined, intelligent, deviously handsome, having a superb taste in vehicles--"
She rolled her eyes. "And with an ego to hold it all in." She giggled again. "Seriously, though. I figure you'd be more likely to have the top-rated safety vehicle. Or a typical, affordable Japanese car." She glanced around, her brow furrowed. "This really is an Italian import, isn't it?"
"Yeah." All the wistfulness and amusement had long since faded from the dark-haired man and he was hard-pressed not to tighten his grip once again. "Special ordered, actually."
"See!" She smiled victoriously. "That's what I mean! It just doesn't seem like you to waste money on a foreign vehicle, no matter how drool worthy is it, and to special order one…"
"It had to be special ordered." He interrupted quietly, "I wanted it to be an exact duplicate but they had stopped making the model."
She looked over at him curiously. "Duplicate of what?"
"The car my parents died in." He answered, his gaze staring through the window shield almost blankly, "It… I don't know. Makes me feel closer to them?"
"O-oh." She stuttered, wincing. "S-sorry." She quickly turned to her window as he glanced at her, fearing the look in his eyes. She pursed her lips, firmly trying to keep her mouth shut in fear of saying the wrong thing yet again. 'Strike two. Shut up before you hit three and he decides to kick you out on the side of the road!' She scolded herself harshly.
Her sleep deprivation of the night before must have wanted to make itself known because the next thing she knew, she was being awakened by poking on her cheek. "Serena, wake up. …Serena…"
She groaned, swatting away the hand. "Five more minutes, Mom."
"Now that's the first time I've ever been called that." Slowly the voice registered in the blonde's mind. Male. Familiar. Amused? "You have drool on your face." Her eyes snapped open. Definitely amused and definitely Darien.
"I do not drool!" She growled but the menacing effect was ruined by a yawn. She rubbed her eyes, blinking around owlishly. "Where are we?"
He laughed. "What, is your nose failing? Or would that be your stomach?" He mused to himself before shaking his head. "It's not some four-star restaurant but I'd figure you might want some dinner in any case." As if in reply, her stomach rumbled in the quiet car and he laughed louder. "Seems I was right. And it turns out it wasn't your stomach failing you."
"Shut up." She growled in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. He only grinned, making her smile in return no matter how hard she tried not to. 'Annoying or not, at least he isn't sad anymore.' She unhooked her seatbelt and got out before instantly shivering as a cold gust of air blew through her school uniform skirt. When she looked back, Darien was holding her overnight bag by one of its straps.
"You're going to need this." He stated simply, "It's probably only going to get colder."
Her lips pursed in thought as she numbly accepted the bag. "Where are we?"
"Getting dinner?"
Her stomach immediately growled again at the reminder and he laughed once more. More annoyed than embarrassed this time, she glowered and slammed the door shut. A few seconds later, when he didn't do anything, she popped her head back inside the car. "Well, are you getting out or not?"
He shook his head in amusement as she closed the door again, practically bouncing from foot to foot. He chuckled as he walked around only to find her frantically rubbing at the corners of her mouth. "I was kidding about the drool."
She blushed, dropping her hand. "I know! I--I was just--- come on!" She tugged at his hand, dragging him to the diner. "You're too slow."
"Wow. Your father was right. You do get cranky when you're hungry." The withering glare she sent him over her shoulder only made him laugh harder.
"I am not cranky!" She snapped, slamming his stomach with the bag in her other hand in an attempt to get him to stop.
He only released an "Oomph!" that sounded more like a snort of laughter.
"So childish." She grumbled as she let go of his hand in favor of pulling open the diner door and walking in. She looked around curiously, seeing only a few people in the establishment which made turn around and grab her companion's wrist to look at his watch. '5:33. Which means we've been trying for a little over two hours.' She looked up, her brow furrowed. "Where are you taking me, Darien?"
He gazed back at her almost impassively, his amusement completely under control again. "Somewhere important." He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and nodded over to the serving counter. "Go change. I'll wait for you over there."
She watched him walk away pensively. There was something about him today that was full of double meanings. It was like he wanted to tell her things but didn't --couldn't-- come right out and say it. She sighed as she made her way to the women's bathroom and not even ten minutes later, she was sitting down beside Darien on a stool. "Anything good here? I'm starving."
He glanced over at her only to smirk at her change of clothes. She was wearing pink jeans and the thickest, whitest turtleneck he had ever seen in his life. "Guess your mother didn't forget all her reservations." He muttered, "Subliminal message, much."
Serena's brow furrowed as she looked up from the menu she'd snagged from him. "What do you mean?"
He shook his head quickly. "Nothing, nothing. Find anything you like?" They were in one of those odd restaurants that seemed to have everything you wanted --be it local cuisine or foreign-- and you were almost guaranteed to have it to go. For Serena, it was probably heaven.
She eyed him before deciding he was just being weird. "Well, yeah." She frowned as she looked back down at the menu. "But I barely have enough money for a single French fry as it is…"
"Who said you were paying for anything? Shouldn't you be demanding I pay for your meal since I quote 'practically kidnapped' you, anyways?" He rolled his eyes as she stared at him blankly. "You're lucky I am such a gentleman. I am paying. So if you want something, order it, and I'll pay for it. It's that simple."
And, apparently, it was that simple because fifteen minutes later they were walking out and Darien had paid for everything. "Are you sure it's okay to eat in your car?" Serena questioned for what felt like the hundredth time, her plain white to-go bag clenched in one hand and her overnight bag in the other. "I--I don't want to…" 'Tarnish the memory of your parents with ketchup on the seats?' She winced internally. Maybe she shouldn't have gotten the fries, chocolate milkshake, and the hamburger. She should have gotten something easier to eat. Like--like a chocolate bar from a convenience store or something…
"Trust me when I say I trust you." Darien sent her a small smile over the car but of course he was carefree; he had only gotten coffee and a small white bag, she grumbled to herself. "Just get in already, we still have about a forty minute drive."
Half of those forty minutes were the longest of her life, she was sure of it. She'd stuffed napkins into every exposed inch of her seat in hopes of avoiding getting crumbs or drips anywhere on the tan leather. It had helped and everything had been going well until she hit the last of her meal-- the milkshake. Somehow, someway, she managed to get a splash of chocolate on the door. She literally felt the blood drain out of her face as she looked at the incriminating drop. 'Oh, no! Strike three! He's going to throw me on the side of the road and I still have no clue where we are!'
She swore she almost died when he made a sound. It took her a few minutes to hear over her pounding heart enough to realize it was laughter. "I thought the food would have calmed you down." He remarked, "Not make you tenser than before."
"I am not tense!" Her fingers itched to throw her overnight bag at him again, this time preferably at his face once they were safely stopped. She quickly placed the almost empty milkshake into a cup holder to avoid tossing it on him.
Darien chuckled. "You are. Do you hear yourself? Even while you were sleeping you were tense."
His gaze swung to him disbelievingly. "Why do you expect when I'm terrified of making a big fool of myself? And saying something wrong or inadvertently insulting your parents again!?"
His hands tightened on the wheel for the umpteenth time. "You haven't insulted or said anything wrong about them. How can you when you've never even met them?"
Her mouth dropped open incredulously. "I can say a million things wrong about them! Do you not remember the 'throw me in the ocean and drive away'-thing?" He winced, making her to sigh "See. Even the reminder makes you wince."
"No." He whispered, "It's not that."
She gazed at him expectedly, waiting for elaboration, but he stayed silent. She stifled a sigh and turned to blot the chocolate off the leather siding with a napkin. Seconds later, she looked up through the window and gasped in delight. "Wow. We really did go to the ocean…" She bit her lip, glancing over at Darien as a suspicion forming in her mind but decided if she was right, it would be best not to say anything just yet.
'This awkward silence thing is killing me.' Serena thought to herself miserably as she rested her head against the window. Despite her fuss over the chocolate mess, it really had been only a minor thing and took less than a few seconds to clean up and, unable to help herself, she'd watched the rise and fall of the ocean in a kind of daze as they drove. But Darien had yet to say another word, despite them driving for another fifteen minutes and him having stopped at the lookout point almost five minutes ago. It gave her a better view of the ocean, sure, --'It looks so majestic with the sitting sun behind it…' -- but wouldn't it be rude to just leave him inside while she went skipping out of the car? 'Especially when he looks all depr--'
"Well, are you getting out or not?" She released a started yelp at the sudden comment, her head snapping over to see the aforementioned man leaning in from outside, a grin on his face. "You're too slow."
She instantly scowled. "It's not nice to turn people's words against them." He only shrugged and closed his door, making her grumble under her breath as she got out to join him. 'He's bipolar, I swear.' Her irritation melted as soon as she heard the crash of the waves, however, and she grinned as she raced over to the railing and looked down. They were at the top of a cliff, the bottom of it a sandy shore dotted with racks that the waves were crashing against. "Wow, it's so beautiful."
"I thought so too." She glanced back; Darien was standing half-way between the car and the railing, his hands stuffed in his pockets with his face turned down to the ground. "My dreams of the Moon Princess," He began so suddenly she jumped, "began a month after that first youma battle. Every night after that, she begged me to find a jewel. An ultimate source of power."
"The Silver Imperial Crystal."
He glanced up and the sunset reflected in his eyes, making her stare in awe. "Yes. I expected you would know what I was talking about." He smiled just a little before looking over to her shoulder to the ocean. "Anyways, all the dreams basically consisted of her begging and pleading with me to find the crystal. Constantly, she'd tell me she felt its presence in Tokyo, but never where."
She swallowed thickly. "Why-- why did she ask you to find it?"
"I have no clue." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "That's actually why I agreed to help her in the first place. I was intrigued by her plea. A princess from some mythical Moon kingdom asking me --plain old Darien Shields, well if you ignored the Tuxedo Mask and having powers-thing-- to find the Silver Imperial Crystal because it had the power to free her."
"Free her?" The blonde blurted incredulously, "From what?"
"She refused to say. At least, until the last dream I had about her." He smirked, the action bitter. "I had snapped, I guess you could say, and ask why --if there was such a short time to find the crystal and free her-- she didn't give me any useful information. Like I was saying, she'd constantly tell me she'd felt the crystal presence in Tokyo but would never give me even a general direction to look in. Every time I told her I'd had no luck finding it, she just insisted I must be looking in the wrong places." He shook his head irritably. "There there was this damned fog that would block her from my sight so I had no clue what she looked like. She wouldn't even tell me her name."
Serena's brow furrowed. "You didn't know her name?" She shook her head. "That doesn't make any sense. If you're supposed to help her, you should know anything you possibly could about her. The Senshi and Luna knew her name. It's Serenity, remember? I know I mentioned it before; when we talked after Ami…"
"Serenity." He looked up at the blonde only to see another image superimposed over her. It was gone in the span of an eye blink though, so he just nodded his head at her statement. "Those were my thoughts exactly and by that last dream, frustration didn't even cover what I was feeling toward her. So, I pretty much told her to find someone else because I wasn't her lapdog and didn't have to obey her every whim."
Her mouth opened and closed a few times in disbelief. "You said that to the Princess? What did she do?"
This time his smirk was amused. "Surprisingly she agreed that it wasn't fair to me and ended up telling a story. The history of the Silver Imperial Crystal."
"Will--will you tell me it?" She asked, her eyes wide, "Luna never told us anything like that. She just gave us this kind of generalized history lesson."
He nodded to his car. "Come on. It'll be more comfortable to sit down somewhere before I begin." She bit her lip and hurried over, Darien sitting beside her on the cooled down hood after a moment of hesitation. He took a deep breath before beginning. "She told me this story:
"Eons ago, when the great Gods and Goddesses ruled, the universe was in what everyone believed to be eternal peace. At that time in history, all planets --from the desolate terrain of Pluto to the blazing infernos of the Sun-- were inhabited by life. The most powerful of these great people were the Lunarians; those whom lived on the Earth's Moon. They had incredible power but were a gentle and peaceful nation.
"That glorious universal peace lasted until a great war broke out between an evil entity and the very first Queen of the Moon; a direct descendant of the Moon's patron goddess Selene. The Queen managed to destroy the evil entity but with her victory came a terrible cost. After the battle, the Moon was left in a state of disarray. Ancient temples and buildings had been destroyed, crops ruined; overall the planet was in shambles. The Queen was at a lost of what to do, that is until the goddess granted her a blessing.
"Selene had been distraught when she saw the state her beloved people had been left in and was determined to see them healed. To do this, she took a beautiful silver flower from her favorite garden in the heavens, passing onto it a small portion of her power. Through her magic and the celestial flower, the goddess had managed to create the Silver Imperial Crystal --a great power that the Lunarian royal family would then use for millennia afterwards. Despite the crystal only possessing a fraction of Selene's magic, it was still incredibly powerful. Whole civilizations could be destroyed if the wielder chose to do so. Yet, the crystal also had the wondrous power to heal.
"Due to the goddess's gift, the first Moon Queen was able to restore the whole planet to its former glory and a beautiful temple was erected in honor and remembrance of the generous blessing bestowed upon her and her people. Yet, the former glory was soon not enough as the Queen realized how effortlessly the evil entity had broken through the Moon's defenses. She quickly set out to make the universe a more secure, peaceful place for everyone who inhabited it. Even when she passed on and her successor took over the planet, her desire for a peaceful life lived on. All rulers of the Moon Kingdom --Lunaria-- upheld the first Queen's desire and eventually a pact was made between all planets that joined them in a great alliance simply known as the Silver Alliance. The current Queen of the Moon would always be a the helm, a testament to how the Lunarian rulers were renowned for their fairness and great power.
"Peace reigned throughout the centuries until a cursed child was born. She would be the sole reason for the Silver Alliance's destruction. Everyone around her was fooled by her childish innocence and she eagerly used that to her advantage, becoming a disaster to the universe during her life. She managed to deceive the entire Silver Alliance into believing she was an innocent bystander in all her schemes. One of her greatest conspiracies was managing to steal the Silver Imperial Crystal from where it was housed on the Moon. Her most horrendous felony, however, was managing to imprison myself, the Lunarian Princess and heiress."
As he stopped, Serena gazed at the ocean with wide, unseeing eyes. "Oh my god… I'm that cursed child." She gazed at her companion disbelievingly. "I have to be. I imprisoned the Moon Princess and stole the Silver Imperial Crystal!" She squeezed her eyes shut as shock began to set in. "Oh my god. Oh my god."
Darien immediately grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Did you listen to that story?" He asked, half-panicked, "Did it match up with what you and the Senshi were told?"
"No." She squeaked, peering open an eye slowly. She gasped, her eyes widening again. "No. It didn't."
He released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding; a mixture of acceptance and relief swelling up inside him as he dropped his hands from her shoulder. "She was lying to me, I'm almost positive of it. Maybe not all the way but something…something tells me that this 'cursed child' wasn't a villain."
"That story seems so familiar, though, like I've heard it before." She gazed at him, her head tilted to the side slightly. "But you're right. Something about it sounds… wrong."
"Yeah. I even told the Princess I suspected she was lying." He smiled wryly. "Then I went on to say that if she was foolish enough to get imprisoned the first time, what made me so sure it wouldn't happen again if I managed to find the crystal and free her?"
"You didn't!" She groaned, slapping her forehead, as he nodded with a grin.
"She called me a fool so I revoked my promise to help her. I haven't dreamed of her for a month, I can't imagine why though…" She gave him a dry look, making him laugh for a minute. "Okay, okay. Now it's your turn. Will you tell me that history lesson Luna gave you?"
She immediately nodded, telling him everything without an ounce of hesitance, and all the while he watched in concern as her gaze become blank as she talked about the Senshi and their duties; how the smile never met her eyes as she spoke of the princess and how she'd been heir to practically the universe; how confused she looked as she talked about Terrans --with the exception of the royal family-- being the only ones in the universe to live for such a short, approximate eighty years while everyone else seemed to live for centuries.
"So, yeah." She continued, "Luna also admitted she can't remember exactly what led up to the fall of the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Alliance but that she does remember the last few hours. At some kind of celebration on the Moon, the evil sorceress appeared with an army of youma while everyone was busy with the festivities. She killed the Senshi, then the royal family. As the Moon Queen, Selenity, was dying she used the Silver Imperial Crystal to grant her wish of everyone being reincarnated on Earth to live a peaceful life. Then she used the last of her power to seal away the sorceress and her army for what she thought would be an eternity. But, since the sorceress obviously broke out and has been unleashing youma and her dark Kingdom generals everywhere, Luna followed her mission of finding the Senshi and reawakening them. The Princess is supposed to destroy the sorceress with the Senshi's help, then what happens next is all up to her. She decides if the Senshi continue protecting her and if she'll reinstate the Silver Alliance --or at least her former kingdom-- or not."
Darien was silent for a few minutes as he compared the two stories. There were definitely similarities but there were also differences. And inconsistencies. "But, then, Luna suddenly began dreaming of you and the Dark Kingdom generals being all friendly a few weeks ago?" He leaned back on his elbows and shook his head. "That doesn't seem like the kind of detail that would be easy to forget."
"Well," Serena bit her lip. "she wasn't reincarnated like everyone else was. Queen Selenity gave her orders and instructions before putting her in a deep sleep. Ten thousand years is a long time to keep things straight in your head, I think." She shrugged. "Things just got jumbled and forgotten."
"Still, if it was real, I don't think I would have ever forgot. Let alone mistake you for being a Senshi in the first place." He sighed, running a frustrated hand through his hand. "And nowhere in that story mentions a 'cursed child' or Princess Serenity being imprisoned."
The blonde rested her chin on the top of her knees. "There's something I've always wondered. If the sorceress was so evil and jealous, why was she unwilling to harm her planet's rulers to gain that immortal secret? She doesn't sound all that evil to me for being so incredibly loyal to them."
"Valid point, and I agree." He mused, "This sorceress though, is she the Dark Kingdom's Queen --what's her name? Beryl?"
Her brow furrowed but she nodded. "Yeah, and it was… Jadeite, I think, that said something about how his queen was a great and powerful sorceress. The sorceress would have had to have been in charge of the youma --like a queen-- for them to have been organized enough to invade the Moon. Makes sense to me."
He blinked before smiling proudly. "Yeah. That makes sense to me too." He shook his head. "But nothing else does. Someone is definitely lying --either the Princess or Luna, maybe even both. And there's still this thing about Min--" He stopped, his eyes sliding over to his companion. "Hey, something just occurred to me. Minako is that English model who posed for Sailor V promotions and things, right?" Serena nodded, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Then… Minako probably isn't her real name, is it?"
She quickly shook her head. "Nope. Minako Aino is just her cover while she's in Japan. She said she didn't want the press or anyone else to find out who she really is and disrupt her life here." She frowned. "And she wasn't just the model that posed for Sailor V, she was Sailor V."
His eyebrows shot up, though admittedly he wasn't very surprised. "Really? Then how did she get her powers before the rest of you --let alone know she was a Senshi? Just a few minutes ago you said Luna was the one who realized who the Senshi were and gave them their powers."
"She… was." She replied slowly, a baffled look on her face, "I always wondered that too, but never got around to asking. Minako had only been in Tokyo for a few weeks before everything started happening, so it wasn't like I had many opportunities…" She shook her head. "It never made sense that she was Sailor V either, instead of just Sailor Venus." Her eyes slid to Darien as he remained silent. "What's wrong? Wait. You… think Sailor V was a ploy, don't you? In hopes of bringing the Senshi to her."
He winced but still nodded. "You need to consider the possibility. She shouldn't have had her powers before Luna's involvement. There's also the fact that she modeled and posed as her alter-ego. You have to admit it doesn't seem like she took it very seriously. She was more like an over glamorized law enforcement then anything else."
"Because she helped the police capture criminals and thieves. Humans." She murmured, "She mentioned how the youma she fought were only 'strays' --nothing serious." Her lips parted in a stunned silence as she wondered if Darien might be on to something, before shaking her head. "B--but she's Sailor V. She was practically my role model for--for ever!"
"Since before I met you." He agreed, "Sailor V had been fighting in England for some time--"
"One year and four months." She injected knowingly; she hadn't idolized the woman for nothing.
"--before any Senshi was ever awakened. From what I can remember, her fame was almost instantaneous in Europe and it didn't take very long to extend overseas either. But, after a while, she-- what is Minako's real name?" He questioned abruptly.
"Wilhelmina Rogers." She giggled. "Mina. Minako, get it?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Her fake Japanese name is genius. Must have taken her days to figure out." She shot him a dark look that he easily ignored. "I was going to say that after a while, Sailor V completely disappeared from the spotlight and not long after Min-- Wilhelmina left the country, according to you."
She nodded slowly. "Yeah. In August. About a week after…" A small, sad smile curved up her lips unexpectedly. "--after Makoto became a Senshi. A little over a month from now was when Venus joined us. And that tells us--" She paused for dramatic effect. "--nothing."
He opened his mouth to disagree before realizing she was right. "What I was trying to point out was that there was two months time between when she left England and when she joined the Senshi. You and I had been fighting youma since February, why in the world would she have waited until August to do something about it? Then wait until November to join everyone? And where was she those two months?"
The blonde frowned. "Maybe she wanted to wait to join us when everyone was together again, but something got in the way?"
He began nodding before his eyes flickered back over to her. "That implies she had knowledge of how many Senshi there are supposed to be. Knowledge she'd only have from an outside source or--"
"Or from memories of the Silver Millennium that she's lied to everyone about not having." Her jaw dropped in disbelief. Less than a second later, she scowled and slapped Darien's shoulder with a hand. "No way! You completely made her the bad guy here!"
His eyes flashed darkly. "Maybe she is. She had powers before Luna. Was a Senshi before anyone else but let the press glamorize her. It was her apartment where you were held captive for days in!" He was on a roll now, jumping off the car's hood to pace in front of the frozen teen. "She appears in Japan and two weeks later, you're labeled a traitor and attacked! She probably didn't even bat an eyelash when Princess Serenity finally appeared while I had no clue the Senshi were her protectors until Ami mentioned her at the hospital. There there's that argument she got into with Motoki at the arcade." His pace increased and he shook his head angrily. "And don't even get me started on Motoki because, no matter how much we don't want to believe it, I still think he's up to someth-- Serena?" He glanced up at her, afraid he'd gone too far when he saw how she'd hugged her legs to her chest and buried her face in the tops of her knees. He grimaced. "I'm sorry. You made it perfectly clear how you feel about my 'wild accusations', I should have been more--"
"No." She lifted up her head and, instead of tears as he expected, her eyes were filled with fear and confusion. "It's just… I think you might be right about Motoki. Maybe."
His eyes instantly narrowed as he walked up to her. "Why? Did he do something to you?"
"No, no! Nothing like that!" She quickly grabbed a hold of his sleeve to prevent him from charging to the driver seat. "But, you know the day we fought? Sunday?" As he nodded slowly, she absently let go of his shirt. "There was something that happened earlier that day. Something with Motoki."
"Go on…" He urged quietly, his whole posture stiff and tense.
She winced; why did it feel like she was tattling on her friend? Oh, wait, she was. She stifled a groan, but one glance at Darien told her that he wouldn't let her not tell him what happened. "I went to the arcade to tell him I was out of the hospital that morning but he, uh, was acting all weird."
"Weird how?"
"I--I asked a waitress where he was, you know Suki?" He nodded, vaguely remembering the teenager who constantly dyed her hair. "She said that he was off that day, and two days before, but he suddenly came in saying he forgot something while he was working the day in-between. She thought he was acting weird too --all evasive, she said-- so I know it wasn't my imagination."
His brow furrowed. "Evasive about anything in particular?"
She shrugged. "She didn't say, so I just assume in general. Anyways, she told me he was in the backroom looking for the thing he'd forgot but when I went back there, it was empty. I called out his name and he came rushing out from behind a pile of boxes. He was covered in dust; head to toe. Then he was just …odd. Eyes shifting around nervously, his smile plastic." She shrugged again. "Odd for Motoki."
"Did you look behind the boxes?" He frowned as she quickly shook her head. "And why not?"
She blushed in remembrance. "H--he, uh, distracted me before I could. Then I ran out and didn't stop until I was in the park."
His eyes narrowed in on her expression. "How did he distract you?" He immediately shook his head in dismay, not giving her the chance to answer. "Please don't tell me you were blinded by a charming smile and sparkling eyes. Please."
"Ew." She crinkled her nose. "Do the words 'like my brother' mean anything? I got distracted by what he said, not by his looks."
"Which was?"
"Uh."She squeaked, "Why we hadn't told him we were dating?" Her jaw dropped again, this time in indignation as he broke out into laughter. Deep, loud, very amused laughter that caused him to double over and hold his stomach. "Darien!"
"W-wait." He wheezed, but she could still hear the laughter in his voice, "C-can't breathe y-yet."
Her eyes narrowed and, offended, she jumped off the car hood. She towered over him, waving a menacing finger. "Oh, so now the thought of us dating is funny? Not long ago you were revolted by it!"
He chuckled a few more times before straightening out, a calm eyebrow raised. "When was I revolted?"
"When your friend --Rose's father-- asked if we were! You sure didn't act that way when Doctor Rupert assumed the same thing the day before that. I've been revolting you more and more by the day!"
The other eyebrow rose to join the first. "I don't think so. I was laughing because it's ironic everyone is assuming we're involved, given how we usually are around one another. I wasn't revolted when Neil asked, I was caught off guard because he'd just met you. As for Doctor Rupert?" He snorted. "Like I care what he thinks. The guy's a loon."
"Well I care!" She snapped back, "He's one of my doctors!"
"Well, he shouldn't be." His hands abruptly tightened into fists at his sides as a dark look filtered over his face. "You shouldn't have been hurt in the first place, and if that doctor does one damn thing to you, I'll make sure that Mars regrets even thinking of hurting you. Friend, guardian, or not --"
"What… what's happening to you?"
Darien stopped his rant at the sudden whisper, his head snapping over to Serena. His eyes met the sight of her, wide-eyed and pressed up against the grill of his car. "You're afraid of me again." He whispered in horror, stumbling back a few steps.
That, if nothing else, rattled the blonde out of her stupor. She quickly and frantically shook her head, taking a few steps closer to him. "No! Not you!" She took a shaky breath. "Of what's happening to you! A few months ago, you never would be shooting off threats and everything else. B-but now you actually beat up Motoki, your best friend, not to long ago. That isn't like you at all!"
He eyed her in disbelief, wondering if she'd finally gone crazy, before slowly the past month flashed through his mind. He stumbled back a few more steps, feeling his back hit the cold railing violently. It was true; ever since she'd gone missing for those few days, he'd been treating almost everyone he came across like they were conspiring against him. No, against him and Serena. "I…" He stopped, speechless.
"I wasn't afraid of you that afternoon." She whispered, feeling a cold chill blow through her as she stepped closer to him, "You just… you have to see things from my side. My whole world had been completely spun on its axis, then dumped upside down by then!" She took a deep breath. "One--one of my best friends had just died. All the girls but Ami hate me and think I'm some Dark Kingdom general's wife. My powers had been stripped away from me only days before. Then, to make that all so much better, I learned that I may be being slowly poisoned to death and have been since the first time I transformed--"
"And I wasn't helping you any when I called you naïve and told you how I'd been following you home from battles for months like some stalker. Not to mention accusing Motoki of scheming against you as well." He frowned, unnerved by this change of topic more than he cared to admit. Something was going to revealed --and he didn't think he would like it.
"Tonight's about honesty, right?"
He blinked in surprise before nodding. "Yes. Everything out in the air."
She sent him a small, sad smile. "Then, yes. That didn't help me. It just made me even more paranoid and worried than I already was. Then the next thing I knew, I was yelling that I didn't need you anymore. Which is something I will always regret." She looked at him sincerely, her eyes watery. "I want you around, protecting me or not. I always will. I was just-- I still am so used to being able to protect myself that when you kept insisting you would protect me, it was like a blow to my inability. Because, lets face it, I'm completely defenseless now and I have to rely on you more than ever, which puts you in even more danger than you already are in."
"I… I didn't mean for it to sound like that. Like a jab at the loss of your powers." He whispered, staring at her somberly, "I just wanted to make sure that you knew someone would protect you. Me."
She smiled sadly. "I know. I was irrational. Everything had finally taken it's toll on me."
"Huh. I suppose we were both irrational, then." He muttered, his brow lowering. "That day… once I found out what your powers had done to you, it was like a floodgate had opened somewhere inside of me and all these feelings and emotions flooded my thoughts and mixed up my beliefs. There were points in our conversation where I truly, honestly thought that Minako was to blame for every single thing that was going wrong and that Motoki was eagerly helping her along. It was irrational but I couldn't stop at the time." He smiled humorlessly. "It seems like I still can't, considering how I was just accusing them of things."
She chewed on her bottom lip nervously as he turned around and grasped the railing, looking down into the darkened ocean. "It wasn't just that, though. Your eyes… sometimes your eyes were gold when you were talking." She watched as he turned around, confusion obvious in his expression. "It's true. Y--you didn't sound like yourself. And--and it was the way you were talking, walking even!" She exclaimed, "It was like you but not, all at the same time. And I just-- I couldn't handle that on top of everything else."
"Gold… eyes?" He gaped before shaking his head. "Impossible. Wouldn't I have seen them before? Was that the only time you saw them?"
"No." She pursed her lips. "That day I first woke up at the hospital was when I really saw them. First when you told me I wasn't to blame for Makoto's death and then later. You know, when that perverted boy walked into my room while I was being bandaged?" His dark, narrowed eyes told her he remembered very well. "Both those times you kept getting gold flashes in your eyes. And that time you were studying at the arcade and ended up leaving because of how me and Motoki were looking at you? I think I seen a flash of them then too, but it all happened so fast so I'm not sure." She paused, her brow crinkling as she tried to remember if there were any other times she saw the gold eyes. "Oh! And when we ran into that rude woman on the street, your eyes flashed gold once. Right before you told her to swim with the fishes."
Darien's jaw had long since dropped. He was right; something had been revealed and he didn't like it in the least. "All those times…"
She nodded. "Yeah. It seems so random because I have no clue what was going on in that head of yours."
"No, they weren't random." He realized with a start, "You'd said you deserved to die like Makoto and I was just so furious that you would say that and not accept you weren't to blame. And the boy, that damn perverted boy gawking at you like that." She blinked; was that jealously she heard in that growl? "Then that old woman had called you a bimbo. And that day at the hospital, I'd been livid from the second I realized what your powers had done to you and it only gotten worse as time wore on." He looked up at Serena with wide eyes. "All those gold flashes happened when I was angry. Even when I was studying at the arcade, I'd been thinking about one of the professors I didn't get along with."
Her mouth formed a perfect 'O'. "You're right. Every time it had happened you were all angry or, well, really intense. But, what's happening?" She asked almost desperately, "Are--are you being, like, possessed or something?"
"I--I don't know." He whispered, sheer confusion in his stance and facial expression. "Y-you said that I talked and walked different, what do you mean?"
"Like--" She faulted, her eyes narrowing in thought. "like you're dignified. I mean, more than you already are on a regular basis. Does that make any sense?" The blank look on his face told her it didn't. "It's just… you-- you stand straighter and you act like you could talk your way out of anything. Probably talk your way into something, too. Or make someone think what you want them to on a issue." She frowned, frustrated at her words. "Then there's this--this accent in your voice sometimes and your words are different. Like instead of saying 'hi', you would gold eyes would probably say 'hello'. Or--or instead of 'how are you?', it would be 'how do you do?'. You know what I mean?"
He nodded slowly, somewhat understanding. "…I definitely don't blame you for being scared of me. I'm starting to be terrified of myself." She instantly scowled, reaching out and slapping his shoulder. Startled, he released an "Ow!" and rubbed the spot.
"Didn't you listen to me!? I was scared but only of what's happening to you!" She thumped him again. "I'm scared for you, dimwit! I can't handle thinking you're suddenly going to decide to eat yourself for dinner on top of everything else that's happening!"
He blinked. "I highly doubt I would ever become a cannibal." He shook his head. "So, I haven't done anything to you? Or anyone else, that you know of?"
"No. You--you're just super intense. Like you know what you want and won't stop until you have it."
"But, then, what do he-- I-- it want? The only thing I can think of is-- is," He paused, staring at her, "is to protect you. I always got the gold eyes when I was angry for you. On your behalf. Like when the woman called you a bimbo, I knew you weren't going to defend yourself, so I wanted to." He whispered.
Involuntarily she felt her eyes mist over with tears. "Darien…" She sniffled, rushing up and squeezing him in an abrupt hug that he hesitantly returned. "You--you're so sweet in a way overprotective way. I mean, first with a superhero and now a split personality?"
He was tore between laughing and cringing at the sheer lunacy of the situation. "…If that's the case, I'm speechless but not surprised, honestly." He mused, "First it was Rei, then Luna--" He stopped, his arms tightening around her, as he realized something he should have long ago. "Ami confirmed the description of the human Luna. You've all but outright said it this entire time."
"I wasn't sure how to." She murmured against his stomach, flinching. "How do I admit out loud that my former guardian attacked me because my broach attacker her, thinking she was me? And that, because all that happened, it's probably safe to say I've been --maybe am being--- poisoned by my powers?"
"Not easily." He murmured before pausing, "But, that means someone else saved you. For you to wake up unharmed on that bench with Luna nowhere in sight, someone had to have intervened. It better not have been that fabled Dark Kingdom husband of yours--" He blinked, seeming to come out of a daze as he felt her shaking in his embrace. He grimaced, lifting his head up from hers and looking into her eyes. To his surprise, she was giggling. "…Serena?"
"Sorry," She giggled again as she stepped out of his embrace. "It's just, you sounded so jealous when you said someone else saved me."
He frowned but his eyes were gleaming with mirth. "Well, it is my job. Even my split personality and alter-ego say so."
She instantly laughed louder. "That---that," She gasped, "--is so weird to hear."
"It wasn't so great for me, either." He grimaced, laughing slightly, before sobering up. "Seriously though, what if it was --even though I hate the mere thought of it-- a Dark Kingdom husband?"
She gave him a half-sad, half-quirky smile. "Then I have to ask this: know anyone that could give me a quick divorce?"
He chuckled. "I think I might. My lawyer. I'll even spring for the charge, how does that sound?"
Instead of laughing as he expected, her brow furrowed. "Your lawyer. His name wouldn't happen to be …Arthur, would it?"
He rose a sharp eyebrow. "Now how do you know that?"
She grimaced, digging her toe into the asphalt. "Um, I have something of yours I think you really should have back." She raced back to the car, instantly grabbing her book bag from the back and digging into it. A few moments later, she triumphantly pulled out a paper before wincing and trying to straighten it out on her thigh as she sat in the passenger seat. "Sorry," She muttered as she looked up to see he'd followed her. She vainly tried to straighten it out one more time before handing it over. "I hadn't wanted to lose it in my room so I never took it out of my bag, but that might not have been the smartest idea…"
He frowned as he read the paper. 'The statement from the interview. I hadn't even noticed it was missing.' "Thank you for returning this. Crumpled and wrinkly or not." He looked up with a grateful smile before it slipped as he caught sight of her uneasy expression as she leaned against the open door. "What is it?"
"Are you really a millionaire?" She blurted before blanching, "No. Wait. That--that's really nosy. I have no right to know. I--I, uh, shouldn't have looked at such private information anyways. Ms. Haruna said it could be used badly--" Her eyes widened in horror. "Not that I would use it against you or anything! I promise!"
He laughed as he folded the paper again and slid it into a back pocket. "Easy there, Serena. I know you aren't going to blackmail me for money or something." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm not the millionaire. Not really. My parents, or well my father, was. It was just willed to me on the event of their deaths."
"Oh." She winced. "That--that sort of makes it your money, though, right?"
"Except for the fact that I didn't earn any of it. I just improved what already existed with stocks."
"But--" She bit her lip; why was she still talking!? "--the stocks had to have made money. That would have been what you earned. Your investments."
He gazed at her silently before chuckling. "Maybe, Serena, maybe." He crossed his arms across his chest. "My father invested in companies before…" He paused, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Y-you don't have to say anymore." She cringed.
He, in turn, rose an eyebrow. "Now why would I do that when I dragged you all the way out here?" He smiled weakly, nodding to the ocean. "Say hello to my parents."
Her eyes instantly softened. 'So I was right. This was where he scattered his parents' ashes.' "Thank you for bringing me out here. I know this place means a lot to you."
He shrugged, trying to act nonchalant. "I figured there was no better place to talk about everything. Since I told them I'm Tuxedo Mask and all." He turned to face the vast ocean, the last spokes of the sun illuminating it eerily. "I come out here at least once a year to update them on my life. It's always on my birthday, I thought it fitting because it's also the day they died."
She gasped, involuntarily taking a step toward him. "Oh, Darien…"
He glanced over at her murmur, a sad smile on his face. "Don't feel bad for me. I was oblivious to the fact for a long while." He turned back to the ocean pensively. "I forced Arthur to tell me when he found me at that orphanage when I was thirteen. He was none too happy, but I was because I could finally visit on the day of their deaths. I used to come on the anniversary of the day I woke up in the hospital but… it didn't seem very appropriate to me anymore."
"Because you felt you would be celebrating your life, not mourning their deaths."
His head snapped over to her in surprise before he ruefully shook it. "You know me too well."
"Not very, apparently." She whispered as she stood beside him, "Motoki let it slip you'd been in a some kind of serious accident when you were little, but I had no clue you'd gotten amnesia or lost your parents until recently. Let alone knowing it'd happen on your birthday."
"It isn't really information I volunteer out." He retorted quietly, "Only people that I trust know, or it's unavoidable like with Arthur and the directors of the orphanages I grew up in. …That accident happened not far from here, actually." He looked around, almost as if reminding himself what the area looked like, but she knew he didn't need to; it'd long been etched into his heart. "That's why I chose this particular spot when I scattered their ashes. I had no clue what my parents would have wanted, but I wanted them to have their final resting place somewhere meaningful. And, well, this place called to me." He paused. "I thought, and still do, that they would be happy in the ocean, being able to go wherever they want."
She bit her lip as she saw the blank look on his face. "A-are you sure you want to share this with me? Y-you don't have to. I'm not expecting you to, or pushing you to, or anything."
"Which is why I'm perfectly happy sharing this with you." He answered, sending her a ghost of a smile. "The question is, do you want to hear?"
In reply, she dropped down onto the asphalt and folded her legs, her hands resting on her lap demurely. "I'm all ears."
Almost against his will, he laughed as he sat down beside her and leaned against his car. "You're probably going to regret this. It isn't a very happy story."
"I won't regret it." She insisted, her eyes radiating concern and compassion. Not an ounce of pity, he noted thankfully.
"Okay then." He struggled to gather this thoughts. "I had never known the whole story, I guess the doctors thought I was too fragile. When I was thirteen though, Arthur showed up at the orphanage doors, armed with police reports and documents to prove who I was. I'd remembered my name was Darien and that was it. No family name, no address or telephone number. I couldn't even tell you how old I was exactly. For all those years, I'd been going by the name Darien Chiba for legality issues." His lips turned up ironically. "I couldn't have very well gone by Darien No-Name for all those years but, truthfully, I never accepted it. When Arthur came, I was revealed to be Darien Shields, son of Abigail and Henry Shields. You can guess by their names, I'm not Japanese." He shook his head in bewilderment. "Honestly, it's a mystery how I even know the language." His eyes slid over to her to see her gaping in surprise. He grinned, bumping her shoulder. "I bet you didn't expect that, did you? I was born in the United Kingdom, and lived there too."
She gasped. "No way!"
He chuckled. "Way. I have all the documents to prove it. When I was thirteen I went from Japanese orphan Darien No-Name to European orphan Darien Shields in a blink of an eye thanks to Arthur." He frowned. "Thank to him I, also, learned the full story of that accident. A drunk driver came swinging around a blind corner on the wrong side of the road. My father swerved to miss him only to end up flipping us over the side of an embankment." He paused, running a hand through his hair nervously. "We tumbled down the side of the mountain and probably would never have been spotted if it hadn't been for two things. One, the crunched guardrail and skid marks, and two… a bystander found the drunk driver's car tangled into the railing about a mile from where we went over. He died before ever making it into the ambulance."
His brow lowered. "As for my parents… the police followed the skid marks, found the guardrail, and spotted the car about five-hundred yards down." His fingers flexed against his thighs. "It was steep, very rocky terrain and the car had landed on its roof. They never expected to find anyone alive so I don't think they minded much that it took three days to find a way to safely propel down. My parents probably died on impact with the ground, maybe before. Myself on the other hand--" His lips twisted bitterly. "--had been found about twenty feet from the destroyed car. I'd been ejected from it miraculously and they think that's what enabled me to survive. So, while my parents' bodies were forced to be cremated because the damage had been so bad, I only had amnesia, a few bumps, and a broken wrist."
Serena bit her lip, glancing down at his wrists. "The cast no one signed…" She murmured, almost to herself. "That's what it had been from." She lightly touched the one closest to her --the left one-- before looking up at him with glossy eyes, trying not to cry. "I really would have signed it."
"I know." He tried to smile but couldn't so he just sighed. "I was unconscious so they shipped me off into a helicopter to Azabu General. Doctor Vigil, actually, had been my first doctor and the second I woke from the small coma I'd been in, he dubbed me his miracle boy." He grimaced. "Never mind the fact I couldn't remember a single thing except for basic skills and my first name. But I was alive, and that was a miracle in itself I suppose. I just hate being reminded of the fact my parents never got to miracles themselves."
"That's why it bothered you so much," She whispered absently, "when he called me a miracle. Because it reminded you of your parents…"
"Somewhat." He shrugged. "I spent months going from hospital to hospital, lots of things trudge of the feelings and memories I have of that time. Honestly, I think I was more bothered by the fact you had to be a miracle. Every time he called you one, I was reminded why you were in the hospital, what condition you'd been in. With my parents… I have pictures to see what they looked like but I have no memories of them full of life. You, on the other hand, are quite the opposite. No pictures, but plenty of memories. And when you were lying unconscious… you didn't have that life about you. You know," He said suddenly, "when you fainted, I'd left you with Motoki while I went home to get medical supplies. I'd told him, or rather ordered him now that I think about it--" He smiled humorlessly. "--not to take you to the hospital."
"Why?"
He looked over at her with those fathomless eyes of his. "I was afraid. Afraid that your injuries would lead to the discovery of your alter-ego. Afraid that if you went to the hospital, you would be diagnosed with some horrid, internal injury that I'd missed while I was taking care of you. Or, heaven forbid, caused you. That whole night was just one big blur of emotions. Anger. Fear. Worry. Distrust. Suspicion." He shook his head. "It's no wonder I took it all out on Motoki. I was panicked when he tried keeping me away from the hospital. Irrationally I thought that if I didn't get to you, you would die."
Her eyebrows rose. "Really?"
"Yeah. That's why I refused to believe him when he said you were okay. I had to see it for myself, because if you weren't, only I had the power to save you." His wiggled his fingers and obediently, a few healing sparks flared to life. "Why is it always gold?" He mused unexpectedly, "Gold powers. Gold eyes. I even have a gold transformation phase."
"Well, the term 'golden boy' had to come from somewhere. Maybe you were the original." Laughter bubbled out of his throat, making her grin. "You have to admit, you are pretty perfect."
He glanced over at her, amused. "During one of our arguments, you told me I was too cocky to be perfect."
She smile, bumping his shoulder. "Well, then you're pretty close to being perfect. The cockiness just proves your human to the rest of us."
His smile dimmed. "Trust me, I'm very human. Which is why I am now apologizing for being so… weird. It's been a weird kind of day."
Her brow furrowed as she noticed just how tense he was. It was something more than telling her about that horrible accident. "Did something happen?"
He shrugged half-heartedly. "I received a call this morning. From Mrs. Taiko." He looked up and met her eyes. "They made their decision about Hotaru… and me getting her guardianship or not."
"What did they say?" Her eyes darted around his face nervously as she held her breath.
Surprisingly, he smiled wryly and shook his head in amusement. "Apparently Mr. Nihou --he was the last of my references. He ran the last orphanage I lived in." He elaborated as he saw her confused expression, "--sung my praises Wednesday."
A slow smile stretched across her face the second all the breath left her in a 'whoosh!'. "So they said yes?"
He nodded before catching sight of her giddy grin. "Now don't get too excited," He warned, "they just agreed to let a judge hear the case. He, or she, will be making the official decision."
She pouted but the sheer happiness she felt for both Hotaru and Darien caused her smile to return not long after. "Well, when is all this going to happen? Soon? Shouldn't it be, cause they said that Hotaru can't stay at the hospital for much longer?"
"Yeah." He shook his head, seeming to come out of a reverie. "Tuesday, around two in the afternoon, is when the judge will make his, or her, decision."
"And that'll be all?" She asked eagerly, "Then Hotaru's will be your ward that day?"
He shrugged briefly. "From what I understand and if the judge rules in my favor, then yes. Mrs. Taiko told me that they handed over the case files as soon as their decision had been made yesterday afternoon. It gives the judge a few days to review before telling everyone the decision."
She laughed, throwing her arms around his neck in a squeeze, and let out a joyous scream. "Finally!" She smiled down at him but instead found him staring at the ocean, a brooding expression on his face. "Darien? What's wrong? Aren't you happy?"
"Of course." He glanced up at her with a smile but she easily saw the turmoil in his eyes, so she narrowed her eyes pointedly. He sighed. "I am happy, honestly. It's just… I'm worried that the judge won't rule in my favor. I mean, look at me!" He suddenly exclaimed, gesturing to himself. She dropped her arms, sitting on her knees but he continued on. "I'm an eighteen year old that has no family to speak of! I haven't the foggiest clue who my parents were, only some pictures and money to get me by. I only have three friends in this entire world because I learned early on to rely on myself and myself alone. What kind of life would I be giving Hotaru? The judge will see that as soon as I walk into that courtroom."
"You would give her a great life." Serena whispered after a few moments, "One filled with a man who cares for her deeply and knows exactly what she's going through. A man who, even though he has only a few friends, he cares about deeply and fiercely. A man that would never let anything harm her and would fight tooth and nail to make sure she had everything she needs, even at the cost of his own dreams." Her eyes softened as he looked up at her. "At my meeting they told me what promise you made --about giving up your schooling to take care of her. That right there tells me all I'd ever need to know. You would do anything for Hotaru. You'd make a great guardian --and a father, if it comes to that." She added somberly. He stubbornly stayed staring at his hands so, pursing her lips, she reached out and grabbed his face in-between her hands and pulled it up. "Now you listen to me, Darien." She said firmly, watching in satisfaction as his eyes briefly widened in surprise, "Just because you may not have any living blood relatives, does not mean you don't have family." The look in his eyes told her otherwise. "Fine. Tell me something, then. What do you know about your parents?"
He looked at her dumbfounded, but still complied. "Not much. My father was born in the United Kingdom like me, my mother somewhere in America. They met on a volunteer mission in Africa and ended up keeping in touch. She moved to the U.K., they got married eventually and had me. My dad had a lot of money, apparently, and they used it to volunteer everywhere. That's probably why we were in Japan. Volunteering. Arthur said he liked to call them 'Super Samaritans'." He shook his head as much as he could in her grip. "And that's all I really know."
She nodded. "Okay. Now close your eyes and think of one of those pictures you have of them." He rose a dubious eyebrow, looking at her like she was crazy, but she only narrowed her eyes. "Just humor me and do it." After a hesitation, he did. "Okay, describe the picture to me. Tell me anything you know about it."
'She's finally lost it.' He decided, giving up on trying to understand her. "According to Arthur, I was about four. We were somewhere in… New Zealand, I think. We were visiting a hospital."
Almost against her own accord, her eyes began to slid closed. "What was happening in the picture?"
"I was sitting on my father's shoulders. With my mother standing beside us."
"Expressions? Mad, happy, sad? Or just neutral?" He peeked an eye open, eyeing her disbelievingly, but a quick demand of "I said close your eyes." caused him to quickly shut it.
"Happy, I guess." He shrugged. "It looked like I was laughing."
"Your parents?" Her brow furrowed as she saw a flash of something dart across her mind. A little black-haired boy? Unknown to the both of them, her fingertips began to pulse a slight silver as they rested against his cheeks.
"Mom had her hand over her forehead but it looked like she was trying not to laugh." He answered absently, having long ago memorized the photo. "Dad was making an odd face at the camera. You know, crossed eyed. His tongue sticking out. That kind of stuff."
"Now, what do you feel when you think of your parents?"
"Loved." His eyes instantly snapped open only to find Serena's fluttering open as well, the silver light going unseen by both as it twinkled out of existence.
The blonde blinked a few times, her head feeling unexplainably hazy, but she quickly smiled. "See, I told you you have family. Maybe not in flesh but in spirit."
His mouth open and closed a few times as she dropped her hands and sat back. "I--I called them Mom and Dad. I've… never done that before."
"Because you didn't feel for them." She answered without hesitation, "You think you're seeing and hearing about people, it's like your brain forgot to connect that they're your parents." She reached out and tapped the skin above his heart. "But that, it never forgets even when the mind does. I got you to think with your heart inside of your brain."
He gaped for a little longer. "I called them Mom and Dad… and I really felt loved by them. I never have when I was thinking about them. Just… blankness."
"Feelings aren't like memories. You may have lost your memories of your parents but that doesn't mean you lost your feelings for them. Or the impression of their feelings they left on you. It's all just a little …lost right now." She smiled. "But that doesn't mean they can't be found. Besides," She suddenly declared, "I'm your family too! After everything we've been through together, we can't be anything but. And, you know, the saying 'my family is your family'. And, since this all happened in the first place," She gestured around her pointedly. "you know my parents have to like and trust you. And my brother's already on the way to worshipping you, anyways, since I said you came up with the nickname Odango Atama."
He gazed at her, feeling something that he couldn't describe. "Serena," He paused, smiling softly. "Thank you for being so… you."
She giggled, shrugging slightly. "Well, no one can be a better me than me."
"It's more than that." He acted on an impulse, reaching over and brushing a few of her bangs out of her eyes. "In one conversation, you've made that feeling go away."
She watched him curiously, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks from his actions. "What feeling?"
A side of his lips curled upwards in a semblance of a smile. "You inadvertently brought it up earlier." He gestured with his chin toward the ocean. "Every time I came out here before, I would tell my parents about what was happening in my life but, inside, I felt like I was just throwing in their ashes all over again and walking away."
"I knew I'd said something wrong…" Her eyes watered for the millionth time that night. "You--you know I didn't mean anything like that when I said you were going to throw me in the ocean and drive away, right? It--it was just--just…"
He laughed, grabbing her shoulders. "Calm down. I know you didn't mean anything; you hadn't known. It's fine. Besides, you made that feeling go away. Now, now I feel every time I came out here, it was like I went home and had a conversation with them. That they've actually been listening to me."
She smiled watery. "That's a good thing."
"Very good." He agreed, "And all thanks to you."
She blushed, bowing her head under the intense look in his eyes. "Well, I don't think I really did anything. I mean, you're the one who decided to bring us out here anyways." She squeaked the last bit as he leaned over and kissed her cheek. Wide-eyed, she placed a hand over the burning flesh, watching as he leaned back slowly. "W-what?"
A blush slowly crept into his own cheeks. "I… don't know." He chuckled quietly. "I think I might be going through some type of Odango withdraw. A week without seeing you was a long time."
Her eyes widened in surprise. "You called me Od--" The rest of her sentence was swallowed in a gasp as he abruptly seized the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss. It was frantic and desperate, as if Darien expected her to push away, but as she began to increase the pressure from her end, it quickly became soft and slow. It was like the world was at a standstill, waiting for the two of them unhurriedly.
Darien felt undeniable relief as Serena begin to return his unexpected kiss, her head tilting to the side slightly. He wasn't sure where he was going with this, so he kept it as light and unintrusive as possible. Though that quickly began hard to do as her hands slide up around his neck, fiddling with the hair there absently. 'Now, why haven't we done this before?' He wondered, his hands sliding down to her neck.
For Serena, the kiss was like the one that woke Sleeping Beauty. Or the one that Cinderella received from Prince Charming. Or the one that Snow White received from her prince charming. Absolutely, blissfully… perfect. Her lips curved into a smile as she struggled to ignore her lungs' burning demand for oxygen. 'We should have done this ages ago…'
"So," Serena watched with a gleeful grin as Darien jumped in his seat. They'd been stopped in front of her house for a few minutes and, for the most part, had been quiet since "The Kiss" (she thought it deserved big, bold, italicized capital letters in her mind; it wasn't an everyday occurrence after all). By some miracle, she'd quickly found that it wasn't in embarrassment or awkwardness, but in contentment. So they'd had no problems sitting side-by-side and talking (after their dazes were gone, of course) a little longer about all they'd learned from one another. Of course, they'd only ended up deciding it would be best to think of a plan of action later, when they weren't so mentally exhausted. And when the wind wasn't freezing them.
Yet, she hadn't been able to leave until she'd walked to the railing and paid her respects to his parents, silently telling him what a wonderful son they had and how proud they would be of him; how proud she was of him. Then she'd dropped a white rose she'd requested from Darien into the ocean before settling in the car to give him private time with his parents. And ever since then, she'd been thinking about, well, everything that had happened.
"So…"
It was her turn to jump, a blush forming on her cheeks as she looked back at Darien's inquiring look. She hadn't finished her comment. "Oh. Um." She laughed, rubbing the back of her head and letting her eyes wander to her house nervously. It was light up like it was trying to land a jet again. A quick glance to the dashboard clock told her it was because it was 11:42. "Well, we made it with twenty minutes to spare." She tried to grin as she looked over at him, but the thick atmosphere felt like it was choking her. Apparently the awkwardness had waited to appear.
His eyes slid from hers to the house. He could see a shadow standing in the window before it was quickly pulled away. "Somehow, I don't think your parents are too happy about that little fact." He grimaced suddenly. "Hopefully it's not because they figured out I lied to them this afternoon when I came to pick up your overnight bag."
She blinked in surprise. "Huh?"
He smiled over at her sheepishly. "Technically, I was only given their permission if you had agreed as well. But, because I always seemed to be running one place or another, I never could ask. I was so determined that we have that conversation, though, that I kind of told your mother that I'd asked and you'd agreed."
She stared at him for a moment before giggling. "You're lucky I had a good time, so I'll cover for you."
It was his turn to be surprised. "You had a good time?"
"Sure." She smiled. "The heavy conversation wasn't the ideal choice but it was nice out there. Just the two of us, talking. We've never done that. I--I liked it." She was sure she was blushing even to her toes.
He grinned. "I liked it too. We will have to try it again soon, without the depressing topics." He paused. "That is, if we're okay again?"
She turned to face him slightly. "I think so but… we've been avoiding something that happened back there. And don't you dare pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, mister!" She added fiercely.
"Trust me. I can't stop thinking about our kiss." He looked up with horrified eyes, a blush on his face. "I--I mean…" He groaned, choking on a laugh. "Sorry. I'm no good at this. It was just… unexpected. We went out there to fix our tentative friendship and then…"
"…that happens." She whispered, "My first kiss was with the guy I used to love to hate. Before we openly became friendly and he revealed to me that he was Tuxedo Mask. I can't even handle regular teenage stuff!" She exclaimed, "How am I supposed to handle th--that!" Her eyes swung to his, feeling as startled as he looked. She swallowed thickly, "…I--I don't know what to say. I honestly don't."
"Then," He began with a soft smile, "we'll take it slow. We'll deal with everything else that is happening around us and let… this," He gestured between the two of them. "happen as it does. No pushing it, or rushing it. Just take things one day at a time."
"Okay." She breathed a sigh of relief she didn't even know she was holding, nodding. "Okay. That sounds good to me. One day at a time. No pushing, no rushing. Okay. I can do that."
He chuckled. "So we're good?"
She grinned. "Very good. Everything out in the open. I know about your princess dreams. You know I'm not scared of you--" She stopped, eyeing him with narrowed eyes. "You know I'm not, and have never been, scared of you, right?"
He nodded. "Yes. Just for me because I happen to have a split personality with golden eyes. Got it."
She rose an eyebrow. "I just love how you can say that so calmly."
"Thank you?" He grinned, chuckling. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm still in a state of emotional shock from the entire week. From deciding to bring you out there and tell you about my parents, to the kiss… just give me a few days to absorb it all." He frowned as he caught her chewing on bottom lip nervously. "Serena, just to make one thing perfectly clear, I didn't regret our kiss." Her eyes darted up to his, her lips parting in surprise. "I never will. No complaints either; you had to have seen the stupefied expression I was wearing as I talked to my parents."
She smiled shyly. "And the way you fumbled three times trying to get the key into the ignition?" He cleared his throat and looked out the windshield. She couldn't see the blush in the darkness, but she knew it was there. "I'll take that as a 'no comment'." She giggled.
"Yeah… well…" He stopped, shaking his head. "I'm so out of my element right now, it's not even funny."
"I don't know about that." She grinned. "I think it's kind of cute that you're all tongue-tied."
He turned to her, an eyebrow raised. "Cute, huh?"
She instantly blushed. "I'm going through my own type of withdraw or something. I've been thinking weird things since I saw you this afternoon." Her eyes slid to him, a glare on her face. "Thanks for that, by the day. I'm going to be the talk of the school Monday."
He grinned proudly. "You're welcome."
"Wasn't thanking you." She grumbled, "I still can't believe you picked me up like that! And kissed my cheek before you closed the door! Everyone is going to think we're dating!" She paused, glancing over at him curiously. "Are we?"
His brow furrowed. "I… don't know. I mean, it's not like we date other people." He grinned over at her. "Of course, you told me you couldn't date until you're married anyways."
"Ha-ha." She rolled her eyes and looked over to the house, seeing two shadows in the window before they disappeared. "I'd still love to see how that'll happen."
He stayed silent, not saying what he wanted to. 'If you really are married to a Dark Kingdom general, I guess that means we would be able to date.' He grimaced. 'After I kill the man for causing you so many problems, that is.'
She suddenly sighed, a wry smile on her lips as she watched the shadows reappear, this time not leaving. "I guess that means they're getting impatient."
He chuckled as he followed her gaze and caught sight of the two. "I guess so."
"Better take my leave before the clock strikes midnight, then." He continued to chuckle as she reached into the back and grabbed her two bags. She turned back around to find her face close to his, an intense look in his eyes. "Thank you." She whispered as she kissed his cheek, "For everything. The dinner. Bringing me out there. Telling me about your parents… It means a lot that you would share all that with me."
"No problem. I trust you." He smiled. "Maybe one day I'll get the courage to tell you everything else that's happened in my life."
"I'd like that." She groaned as she looked back, seeing her parents openly staring, the light now turned on in the living room behind them. "So embarrassing." She opened the door, smiling back at him one last time. "See you soon?"
"Soon." He agreed, watching as she got out and began to close the door, before suddenly leaning over. "Serena! Wait!"
She bent down, a confused look on her face. "Yes?"
"You're welcome to come if you want. To the courthouse to hear the decision, that is." He offered hesitantly, "If you can get out of school and all…"
She smiled brightly. "You wouldn't mind?"
"No, of course not." He paused, before plowing through. "I… want you there."
"Then I'll be there." She grinned happily, waving. "See you Tuesday then, if we don't run into each other beforehand." She closed the door, but not before his "Hopefully not violently." comment drifted up to her ears. She grinned, desperately trying to ignore how she felt like she was walking on air and how she wanted to skip to the door. At least, she would ignore it until Darien had driven away so he wouldn't see her making a fool out of herself. She'd managed to do well, her hand on the door handle and preparing to turn it, when his voice rang out in the cold air.
"It seems I forgot something."
She gasped, spinning around to see him behind her. "Huh?"
He lifted a hand, revealing the small white bag he'd gotten from the diner. "Another sweet confectionary concoction for you. A slice of chocolate cake. I seen it at the restaurant and got it for you, but it seems I forgot to actually give it to you."
"Oh." She numbly accepted the bag, her heart pounding in her ears. "Thank you."
He grinned, shaking his head. "You're welcome." He turned to leave before suddenly stopping. "Ah. One last thing." He leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth. "My first kiss was with a girl I affectionately like to call Odango Atama." He whispered into her ear before leaning back, chuckling at her stunned expression. "Just don't tell her, okay? That would be embarrassing."
"Okay."She squeaked, nodding dumbly. She watched him walk away before he looked back halfway to his car, winking at her with a grin, before he laughed again and continued on.
'We were each other's first kisses...' And she proceeded to sigh, literally feeling herself melt against the door she was leaning against. She was only glad that he had driven away by the time her mother opened the door and she fell inside the house in a flurry of bags. Now that would have been embarrassing.
"You must prepare faster. There is not much time left."
Artemis released a muffled shout as he turned around to find the Senshi of Time standing in his office. He clutched his chest, feeling his heart's frantic beat. "You're going to give me a heart attack one day." He complained with a glare, "And I'm preparing as fast as I can."
She didn't narrow her eyes or show any other outward sign of annoyance but he could feel the air change with the emotion. "Then I will not hesitate again. Do not presume King Endymion will hesitate, either. Know this, if Luna attacks my queen once more, then you will have lost your soul mate. By my own hands or by those of King Endymion."
"WHAT!?" He watched as the woman tilted her head slightly before she began disappearing from his sight. "Wait! Pluto, what do you mean Luna attacked Serenity!?" He reached out to grab her hand but his own went right through her form before she vanished altogether. "Damn it, Pluto! Come back! I know you can hear me!" When nothing happened, his teeth grounded together and punched the corner edge of his desk. The rattling and shaking of his belongings didn't give him the satisfaction he expected, making him rub his temples irritably. "Damn it, I wish that infuriating woman would have just stayed a myth."
Done: June 2, 2009 11:00 pm.
Posted: June 2, 2009 11:45
…And, since it's not yet midnight here, that means Happy Birthday to me still! I wanted to make sure that this was posted as a nice gift for everyone else out there. :) Nothing really to say except that I hope you guys enjoyed this (monstrous, horrible, but sweet) chapter. Please R/R, always appreciated.
Last words: THEY KISSED! FINALLY! --insert fangirl squealing--
Tiger Celeste.
