Reinventing Romeo

Author: Dipi

Genre: Alternate Reality, Fantasy, Action, Romansu

Rating: R

Chapter 3

"Rise and shine, Romeo!"

Darien's bedroom door wasn't shut all the way, and when Serena rapped on it, it swung open. She took the opportunity to peek inside. Didn't it figure? He was still sound asleep.

"Men." she grumbled.

Because he was officially the guest of honor at this little masquerade, Darien had been given the larger of the house's two bedrooms, and since it was the master bedroom Stan and Missy were supposedly supposed to share, he'd also ended up with the queen-sized bed. In what little morning light crept itself around the frayed edges of the window shades, Serena saw that he was sleeping on his left side, sprawled against the pillows with the frumpy green striped cotton sheet tucked between his legs in a death grip. One of his arms was tucked underneath the yellow colored pillow; the other was flung across the empty spot at his side.

She grumbled under her breath and stretched her neck, working out the nooks and crannies that came from sleeping on a lumpy mattress and a rock filled pillow. She envied Darien not only for his oversize bed but the fact that he'd somehow managed to sleep like a baby. How could he look so peaceful when the reflection staring back at her from the grimy bathroom mirror earlier that morning showed a woman who'd spent the night tossing and turning?

Serena didn't even want to think about it. She didn't want to relive those hours of second-guessing herself.

His stirring shook her from her trance-like state and a wicked thought overcame her mind. She wanted to test him, get back at him for the restless night he'd caused her the night before.

Not the playboy-hunk-of-the-tabloids, Darien Romero, or the handsome-face- who-looked-back-at-the-cameras-and-smiled, Darien Romero, but the real Darien Romero. The one who, in the scant time they'd shared, had revealed himself to be arrogant, exasperating, disrespectful of even an idol like Smokey, and enough of a Romeo to make the most level-headed special agent in the entire Justice Department tingle with anticipation ever time he so much as looked her way.

She slid her robe down past her shoulders to reveal a neckline of flesh and no more. Picking up an extra bed sheet that he'd previously discarded in his deep sleep she rapped it around her rather skimpy robe so to have the appearance of a naked body beneath. Rapping the sheet loosely around her body like a toga, she slowly slithered underneath Darien's bed sheet.

"Damn.he's still knocked out." Serena mumbled below her breath.

Sheet met contact with skin.

"Shit! He sleeps undressed." she hissed, losing concentration and practically rolling onto him. Fortunately for her, he was still sleeping like a rock.

Smiling angelically she tucked herself in, and rumpled her already messy and tangled long tresses. Taking a fistful of the blonde hair, she gently draped it over his revealed chest. Then she took another lock and let it fall gently off her creamy shoulder. Finally for some sweet revenge.

"Hey baby.I thought I said to rise and shine."

Darien snorted and mumbled something. He then went right on sleeping.

She soothingly brought her index finger to trail down his hairless chest line all the way down the sheet lining covering his waist and down. Unfortunately for Serena, when she had reached over, she had to lean against Darien's back, causing her robe to drop much further down than PG- 13 would allow.

Even more disastrous was that Darien had chosen this moment to turn around to find Serena flashing him in the morning light.literally. He choked and fell off the edge of the bed with no sheet for shielding.

If Serena could possibly get any redder. The blood was beginning to travel up her neck. Barely composing herself, she pulled her robe back in place and meekly crawled over to help a bare butted Darien sprawled in all his glory on the cheap and itchy hotel carpeting.

He was as Serena had hoped, definitely shaking. She reached a hand down to help him up, but things decide they want to get worse and so she loses her footing, and her hand grabs onto something that's obviously not Darien's hand, wrist, or arm. He made it clearer by squeaking a high-pitch beyond a male's vocal system would normally allow.

She awkwardly got up and brushed her hands against her robe and continued her game now that she was more controlled.

She smiled inwardly as she began her false accusations.

"Y-You dog! You drunk bastard! I'm calling to your company to apologize, after I kill you!

Suave and Smooth Romeo was now in the state of being tongue-tied all the way to his tonsils.

Smirking to her subconscious she continued her rantings.

"I'm suing you down to your last golden rich boy penny, till you have to file for bankruptcy! Sleeping with me without my consent has to be the most low-down dirty disgusting things any man has ever done to me! You are a shame to the social society! The rich really are spoiled aren't they? They think they can get away with anything do they? Well.get away with this!

Getting swept away in her excitement, she punched Darien, possibly breaking his jaw.

"Oops.sorry Dare.didn't mean for it to hehe.get so carried away."

Darien slumped to the floor and let out a painful groan. He brought his arm to his jaw and tested to see if it could move. Results were not very promising.

"What the HELL was that.ugh.all about."

Serena self-consciously shuffled her feet and used the first excuse that came to mind. She'd used this every time since she had been able to.

"Um.mood swings? They have a tendency to be much like a hangover.

She then stormed out of the bedroom in a flurry of blonde hair and bed sheets.

She crossed her room, slamming the laundry basket onto her bed, and bent over the suitcases she'd brought with her from New York. She didn't bother to look through the clothes. Handful after handful, she grabbed whatever was there and shoved it roughly into the basket. She'd already emptied one suitcase and had started on the second when her bedroom door swung open.

"Where are we going?"

Serena's finger's tightened around bright neon orange T-shirt that she'd just fished from her suitcase. She took a calming breath, willing the redness from her cheeks, and turned around.

Unfortunately for Darien, Serena, in all her frenzy, had forgotten to change into something less.revealing.

Now, her other shoulder had been covered, but one shoulder was still bare as was the top of her breast.

Though it wasn't all peaches and cream in Serena's case either. He was definitely more covered now, but still very desirable.

Slapped on him were black exercise shorts that didn't cover up very much. They came straight from a second hand store, just like the rest of their wardrobes. The elastic at the waist was pulled out of shape and hung low along the line of Darien's hips. His hair was wet and slicked back against his head, and hat, plus a night's growth of beard, made his face look rawboned and angular. He hadn't bothered with a shirt or shoes and there were drops of water on his chest. They sparkled like diamonds in the morning sunlight.

Taking his embarrassment, he turned it into humor.

"Say it ain't so!"

Darien held both hands to his heart.

"Missy, my love, you're not walking out on me, are you?"

"Don't be an ass." Serena supposed she should have been grateful he was. It made her remember exactly what they were doing there, or at least what they were supposed to be doing. It also reminded her how much a pain in the behind Darien Romero could be. With a look that told him exactly that, she dumped everything left in her suitcase directly into the clothesbasket. "We're going to the Laundromat."

"She'd never have imagined the day that Darien Romero would be at a loss for words. Even when the phony agent pulled a gun, he'd never lost his legendary aplomb. Now he stood with his mouth half open and a look in his eyes that told clearly told her she was nuts in his book.

There was something about knowing she'd caught him by surprise that made Serena float on air. She grinned while she poked into the pockets that lined he inside of the suitcase.

"I don't know about you," she told him, "but I'm not willing to wear any of this stuff 'til it's been washed."

With two fingers, she lifted a remarkable piece of clothing out of one of the pockets. It was a shirt-or at least a shirt made of polyester lace. That was bad enough. The bilious shade of chartreuse was worse. So were the long, tight sleeves and the scooped-out neckline. To top it all off, the whiteness of it was long gone. A yellow substance stained the entire shirt like fabric. Whoever had snatched it off the rack sure didn't know Serena Ellison. It was at least two sizes too small.

She held the shirt at arm's length and wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"No telling where some of this stuff has been. Or who's worn it. Of course, that may not bother you, but I'd feel better if my stuff made the acquaintance of a little detergent and a whole lot of bleach."

"And then you'll wear it?"

For a second, Serena wondered what he was talking about. Then she saw his gaze slip from the lace shirt to the front of the pink shirt she was wearing with her jeans. His eyebrows did a slow slide up his forehead.

"I gotta admit, Special Agent Ellison, in that lacy shirt, you'd look-"

"Tacky?"

There was no use in giving him the opportunity to charm here, especially since Serena was afraid one of these times, it might actually work. She stopped him before he had the chance. She tossed the shirt in with her other clothes, zipped her suitcase shut, and slid it under the bed.

"It's up to you," she said. She didn't have to pretend; she honestly didn't care if he washed his clothes or not. "If you don't think your clothes need to be washed-"

"Well, sure. Sure they need to be."

As if working his way through the logic of the plan, Darien nodded.

"You can just grab my stuff on your way out, and-"

"Oh, no!" Serena cut him off.

"Let's get something straight here, pretty boy. We may be playing house this summer, but the only thing I'll be doing for you is popping Bartone. And that means, I'm not willing to act the part of a little woman. I'm not going to pick up after you and I'm sure as hell not going to wash your clothes."

"But-"

"you want 'em washed, you wash 'em. You don't.," she shrugged. "then all I ask of is that you don't sit anywhere within a 2 mile radius of me." And with that, she headed towards the door.

Darien stepped in front of the doorway. She had to give him credit; even in out-of-shape work out shorts, he looked like the chairman of the board. His eyes glinted with a spark that reminded Serena of sunlight against granite, he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'll send them out," he said. "There must be a dry cleaner nearby, or a Laundromat that picks up and delivers."

Serena laughed at the absurdity.

"Wake-up call, we're in the hillbillies of Southern Italy, the most refined thing that your going to get out here is a plastic filet mignon.

"But a Laundromat?" Darien's lip curled. "I'll pass."

"Fortunately for me, you can't pass."

Right before she got the door, Serena remembered her carry-on bag. She set down the basket and went back to the bed. She knelt and felt under it and when she found her carry-on, she pulled out the book that was inside and set it on her nightstand. The Bureau had made one concession to her wardrobe-new socks and underwear-and she retrieved the packages, sat on the floor with he back to the bed, and ripped at the corners of the plastic bags with her teeth. She finished tearing them open, pulling out the only things in the world she could say really belonged to her for the next four moths: nine pairs of white cotton panties and nine pairs of white cotton socks.

"That's one of the rules. Don't you remember?" She asked Darien.

"Whither thou goest, so goest I. And when I goest anywhere, thou must goest with me. Even when one goest to the Laundromat. I can't take the chance of leaving you alone."

"Chance?" Annoyed and not reluctant to show it, Darien paced form the door to where Serena sat on the floor. It was poor strategy, Serena knew. With Darien standing and her sitting, he was in a much better position of power. She could just stand up, of course, but if she did, she'd be in dangerous proximity of Darien's bare arms, and Darien's bare chest, and the hint of Darien's bare hid that showed above the droopy waistband of the exercise shorts.

She decided to stay put.

"What kind of chance is there that anybody could ever find me in this hellhole?"

Darien paced to the door and back again. The floor squeaked with his every step. "You said so yourself, you said that's why this was such a perfect hiding place. No one will ever find me. That's what you said. So go to the Laundromat by yourself and-"

"No can do.' One by one, Serena balled up the empty bags and tossed them like basketballs into the wastepaper basket across the room. She made every shot. When Darien was a safe distance away from her, she pulled herself to her feet and brushed off the seat of her pants.

"As much as I'd like to, I've got clear orders. I go where you go, you go where I go. I can't protect you if I can't see you, and that means I can't let you out of my sight. There's no going two ways this time Romero."

He huffed snootily and looked away. She rolled her eyes to the back of her head, for a brief few seconds. She really didn't have time for his rich boy attitude.

"Ready?" she asked.

Darien didn't answer. She turned to find him looking at the book he'd picked up from her nightstand.

"Rubeus Martinez. Strange Freedoms. You're reading this?"

Serena wasn't even particularly sure why the question put her on the defensive. Maybe it was because she remembered that back in New York, Darien had shown that he was one of the legions of Martinez supporters.

Not that Serena didn't think this was a good thing, it was true that Martinez was obviously a man of principle who wasn't afraid to put his money where his mouth was when it came to standing up fro what he believed in deeply for. But even before he'd become a cause celebrity, Martinez had been the envy of the intelligentsia and the darling of the social set. Lured by his reputation, not to mention the fact that everyone was talking about him, she'd plunked down her $26.95 at the local Barnes & Noble and plunged into Strange Freedoms. Frankly she couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

"Yes, I'm reading it."

Serena tried to sound the way everyone else sounded when they talked about the brilliant Martinez.

To Serena's surprise, Darien's body seemed to relax.

"I see. Well, shall we go to the Laundromat then, Mi Lady?"

Serena blinked a few times. Reading the book that his idol wrote was all it took to win him over? Romero was just too queer of a guy for her.



Well folks. That's all there's going to be of Reinventing Romeo.

It's far from over but if you'd like to read the actual book, look at the library nearest you. (How corny did that sound? ^_^)

Review me if you like it, if you don't like it, or if you would like me to finish it. E-mail me at Dipi_chan@yahoo.com.

Thank You, and God Bless. ~Sayo from Dipi_chan!~