Author's Note: God, I'm SO bad at summaries.
Summary: What is this all about? Serena's happy with Jaymison? Interesting. Is this the truth? And hmm, a flashback to take us back to that fateful day of how it started or... 'how it came to be..' And hmm.. Darien and a certain happy faced boxer... what else is new?
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Roommates, You and I
By Yamito-Hitori
Part 3: How it came to be..
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"He's amazing, Dare!" Serena exclaimed, referring to Jaymison Nakagawa. She bounced across the living room and leaned onto the kitchen counter top, clasping her thin hands together in a wonderfully joyous state, stars glittering in her eyes. Never had she felt so loved by one person! (AN: bwahaha! I know, I know.. confusing, but keep reading.. You'll see...)
Darien was sitting on the other side, reading a newspaper. Hinting the tone of voice that she used, it meant the possibility of another moving.
The possibility of her moving out.
"Really?" He asked, wryly. A slight twitch on his right eye was felt. Jaymison had finally gotten to her.
"Yes!" Her eyes changed, and gave itself a far away look of daydreaming. "He's so sweet, and caring, and gentlemanly. Not like your grumpy butt..." She laughed. Darien was always the one to spoil a good laugh. His younger side would not show, but she knew he had it somewhere within him. "Oh Darien, he's perfect! And quite handsome, I should add!"
"You may think that now--"
"I do!" Was her immediate response. "And I think I always will.."
Darien shook his head. "That's your opinion." At the moment, Serena resembled a 14-yr-old teen rambling on about the latest male teen heartthrob. Hormones. And they say men cant control it..
She humphed. "What's that suppose to mean?"
"I've known Jaymison since high school," He began. "and let me tell you, he wasn't the one to stay with a girl for more than four months.. He'd always have a new one by the end of the day." He casually flipped the page of the newspaper and began to read another article.
She stood, shocked, for a moment and then, "That can't be." She said. Darien must have been lying. Or else why would he introduce them in the first place? It wasn't as if he didn't want them to meet that day, right? Because if he didn't, then he would have told her to go back in her room since it was none of her business who came over or not. It would have been none of her business to meet him, and grow to care for him..
"Believe what you wish." He replied. There was no way to convince her of something she did not want to believe. If she did, then fine. If she did not, fine as well! What she does depends on her own actions. For now, he gave up. He felt like he was talking to a toddler! Always, wanting what they want to hear and not what should really be heard. It was utterly useless.
"Dare," She gasped after a while, causing him to look at her. Her tone changed into a sarcastic mock. "Are you, perhaps.. jealous...?"
Darien's eyes grew. "Are you out of your mind, meatball head? I'd trade you for a bum on the street in a flash!"
"That doesn't have anything to do with whether you're jealous or not."
"Ah, but it does!" He laid his newspaper down with a slam and stood up leaning over the counter to gaze at her with challenging eyes. "It means, I wouldn't care if you were replaced. And I wouldn't care who you go out with or not. Get it?"
For a fraction of a second, her eyes flickered sadness and regret, but it glazed back onto Darien with the same fiery eyes as he was giving her at the moment. "You wouldn't care at all?"
"Go out with him, fuck his brains out, fuck the whole world! For all I care, you could live with him!"
Darien was getting out of hand, Serena thought. It wasn't like him to be so.. spontaneous with words. He always remained cool, calm, and collected. Unlike the being that he was acting as right now. It scared her a bit, but she knew there was something wrong with him. Something that he seemed to be hiding under an angered soul.
What is it that you hide from me, Darien? She pondered.
"You don't care of what I do..?" She said softly looking into his wild eyes, followed by a sharp nod from whom she was speaking with. It was as if a storm had raged within his deep blue pools dark azure. His pupils were at its smallest. Was he that mad at her? "..Do you care at least for.. me?" (AN: omg, this scene sounded so corny to me. but plz bare with me and keep reading ^^")
Darien's eyes softened at this. The storm fading into nonexistent state. He had been so caught up in arguing with her, that he had just realized that he did not know what he was trying to prove.
He looked at her. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, waiting for his answer.
He had hurt her. Emotionally. He had not even noticed that he had stood up to face her. He dwarfed her by about a foot, as because her height only reached to his chest. To kiss her, he would only have to bend his head a little lower..
She leaned in unknowingly, and only craved to touch his lips at the moment. Did he care?
Everything had started to fade. The echoes of their earlier fight. The sound of the busy street that poured through the windows. The happy chirping of birds that passed by.. were gone. All she could focus on now was him.
He leaned forward, ready to taste and capture her awaiting lips when...
A buzzing sound interrupted them.
He looked at the door, and it buzzed again.
"I'll be right back." He told her firmly, she giving a quick nod, and went to answer the door.
He grabbed the handle as it buzzed again. "Hold up!" He called out.
Unlocking it carefully he tried once more.. and failed. Trying yet another time, he twisted the handle and failed.
"Darien." The voice called from the other side.
"Who is it?" He asked, hoping the visitor wouldn't leave. The door was jammed!
He cursed. The visitor had come at a very bad time. He agreed with himself that should it be the likes of Jaymison showing up to claim Serena, the first thing that he would do was.. knock the living daylights out of him!
"Darien!" The voice called again. Listening carefully, he had found the voice to be gentle and lady like. So it was not who he had thought it would be. He sighed in obvious relief. Starting a ruckus and cause rumors to spread like wildfire throughout the whole building was the last thing he wanted.
"Yes??" He unlocked it once more and twisted, yet to no avail.
"Darien! It's me, Darien!"
"Who?" He peeked through the peephole but it was covered, for all he could see was someone's palm against it.
"If you will not tell me who you are, then take your hand off so that I can see!" Darien ordered, minutely irritated. But the hand stayed at its place.
"Who is it?!" He continued, trying with all his might to open the jammed door.
"It's me... Serena!"
Darien halted. "Serena..?" He looked back at the kitchen counter and a ghastly feeling entered him. She was gone. "Serena!" He shouted.
"Darien!" She called from the other side of the door. "Damn you, it's me! --Wake up!!" (AN: cheesy, no? *grin*)
With a start, Darien bolted up from the bed.
"Hm." Serena said, hands on her hips. "You okay?" She was still in her pajamas, he could tell. The moons gentle beams hit her softly, shading her worried eyes in a light blue-gray color.
He had been dreaming.
And it was still night.. or early morning, may haps.
She bit her lip. Darien was a mess. When she had come in earlier, he was tossing every few minutes. Tiny beads of sweat started to form on his forehead and it seemed he was still in a daze.
"Darien..?"
"I was just.. dreaming, that's all." He ran his hands through his jet-black hair. It wasn't as if it was a nightmare, it was a dream... but the odd thing was, what took place in it.
"Must have been some dream," She scowled. "I heard you babbling nonsense through the walls and when I came in, you were sleeping. but you twitched a lot so.."
She played with her hands as if she was a kid again.
"Sorry for waking you up. I got worried..."
"I'm fine," he said almost too immediately. "Go back to bed."
She decided not to further the conversation and with a last look, she knitted her eyebrows together, and left. Closing the door behind her silently.
* .:. * .:. * .:. *
She backed away from his closed door and walked through the hallways once more after she had heard him flop back on the bed. Was it natural to be concerned of someone you always argued with? They didn't argue as much nowadays anymore since she had grown. Since they had both grown. Darien seemed to tire of their feuding as well, he seemed a bit proud to stoop back down to that kiddish level ever since he had come back from abroad. He had been gone for almost two years while visiting Japan. And when he finally returned, he seemed to have changed in some way, 'grew up a bit more', she should say. And now that Darien was reaching the age of twenty-four soon, it seemed he had lost that kid inside of him.
"I miss our nonsense fights, Dare.." She told no one but the air.
Turning a hallway, she brushed her fingers against the corner of the wall. Her footsteps, ever so quietly tapping the tiled floor of fake white marble. The golden paint --(that was used to look seemingly familiar to an original)-- seemed like little thunderbolts in a vast cloud of white.
Crossing the plush living room, she glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. 2:45 in the early morning. And still, she could not sleep. She had gone for a glass of milk when she had heard a vague voice rambling. The sounds had come from Darien's room so she had decided to inspect. Right when she had opened his door, she heard him utter her name, almost inaudibly, but still loud enough for her to hear.
It puzzled her quite so as she made her way through another set of hallways. She shuddered at the thought that he might have been dreaming of a bloody night of murder on a poor bunny. Her. Shaking her head, she vigorously pushed the thoughts out of her mind. Darien wasn't at all like that!
Who would have thought that we would become roommates? It was a delusional thought.
* .:. * FLASHBACK * .:. *
"Come on, Raye! Mom wont let me move out," Serena wailed and continued. "Unless I have someone to move in with!" Tugging on Raye's red shirt, Serena tried her best to persuade the last of the four girls.
--Amy gave her a sympathetic look from across the booth. Serena had come to the blue haired genius as well, but unfortunately, It was studies above anything else.
--Lita bit her lip. She wanted to make her friend happy, really she did. But she was already living on her own and pained to move again. Her home was one of a kind with a large kitchen for a skilled cook. Now, why would she decide to leave her comfortable palace.. or kitchen?
--Mina hung her head low. Serena had come to her a few days ago, and she would have loved the idea --if not for the fact that she was still living with her mom. And her only protective parent forbade her to do so.
Somewhere in the midst of it all. Darien walked in. What perfect timing..
"I already told you, Serena," Raye said sympathetically. "I can't leave my grandfather. He needs me there, I am the only priestess who can look after the shrine properly." Raye shook her head embarrassingly. "Especially with the way my grandfather takes care of the female visitors rather than his duties..."
Serena pouted, but guessed it wouldn't work, and let her head fall to the table with a THUD. What help her friends were..
"I'm sorry, Sere." Raye apologized.
"Ahh, the meatball head finally shows defeat." From the corner of her eye, she could see the bottom half of the person whom was speaking. From the looks of what he wore --jeans, black top, and a green coat-- she needn't see his face to know who it was. "What's bugging yah today, kiddo?"
"Don't bug me. Not now." Serena muttered, exhaustingly. "I'm too busy contemplating death from all the work there is to find a simple----" Her head jerked up in an instant with the idea her mind was registering. Darien stepped back a bit, confused at the sudden perkiness the girl in front of him was showing.
What kinda coffee does she drink? He wondered nervously. He did not like her look.. and that grin.. She resembled that sly Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. and it gave him a slight feeling of uneasiness.
"Serena, you're crazy!" The four other girls in the booth said simultaneously, knowing full well what she was thinking --it was madness! Pure Madness! they all thought.
"Darien~!" Serena got off the booth and stepped in front of a slightly confused man.
"See, I was looking' for a roommate and..."
* .:. * END FLASHBACK * .:. *
It had taken good convincing, but she won out in the end.
Right when she was turning a corner, she realized just why she had gone out of her room in the first place. Her milk!
Muttering to herself, she irritatingly scratched her head in annoyance and made her way back to the kitchen.
"Now where was it..?" She asked herself as she crossed the living room. It seemed as if everything was connected through the living room. And come to think of it, everything was! Going up the short steps to a new platform, she marched into the kitchen --only to be met by the cold midnight blue eyes of..
"Darien.." She breathed. He stood in front of the open refrigerator, --the only thing that gave off light more than the moon itself in the vast darkness of the night-- topless, with only but a flimsy boxer on decorated with yellow happy faces. Shaking her head to prevent any soiled thoughts to pierce through her mind, she lowered her gaze to the floor.
Motionless, she stood for a while until the sound glass drinks clicking together signaled he was rummaging through the food and the like.
"I thought you'd gone to sleep." He said as he closed the door of the fridge. Leaving the faraway moon as the only source of light..
* .:. * .:. * .:. *
Author's note: Darn it, I feel as if I did worse on this chapter. Grr… I have no inspiration right now. And my older sister just came from Hawaii today to visit for four days, too. Who'd have inspiration when I'm around her? LOL. playing.. but yes, forgive me If you thought this chapter could have been done better. I tried to make it a little longer than the first two chapters, so I receive credit for at least that, right? I know, it's STILL short, but I'm tryin. I'm no expert~! ;P Bwaha! Anyways, it wasn't much, but I got tired so I decided to end it there. Alright, stay tuned for the next chappie!