When You Walked Into My Life
by Elysia [ely_chan@yahoo.com]
Rating:PG
Part One: You Walked In
It just wasn't fair. She had been the only one to catch the flu after she boasted she never got sick. What a punishment. Fortunately, it had turned out to be a twenty-four hour bug, and Serena was on her way to recovery. But she hadn't been well enough to go away for the weekend with everyone else.
Hot chocolate and a movie immediately brightened her spirits. Serena coughed once and stood up, determined to make it into the kitchen with the little energy she had left. The flu was a formidable opponent, Serena discovered, and she fought back fiercely. Stirring her hot cocoa slowly, she popped in the movie her roommates rented earlier in the week, and fell back onto the pile of pillows and blankets with a soft groan.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Serena was sorely tempted not to answer it, but it wasn't often for people to stop by in the middle of the day. "It's open," she called out as loud as she could, in spite of her sore throat.
A young man with dark hair and deep blue eyes stepped inside. He gave Serena a quick smile, then asked, "Is Mina here?"
Serena rolled her eyes. Every time a guy came over to their apartment, it was usually for Mina. Didn't they know she already had a serious boyfriend, and she was practically engaged to him? Guys could be so dense sometimes. "No," she replied quietly, "she's gone for the weekend."
"Oh, all right," the guy responded, and he opened the door to leave, but suddenly stopped and stared at Serena. "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?"
Serena chuckled slightly. "Now that's a classic. I've heard better pick-up lines than that before." He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant. I've seen you around before." He came back inside, shut the door, and perched on the arm of the opposite couch. "My name's Darien, by the way."
"Now I remember. I think you're in my social dance class. I'm Serena," she answered.
"Serena," he echoed, committing her name to memory. Trying to think of something intelligent to say, he started, "So, what do you think of the class?"
She pulled the blanket away that had been wrapped around her. "I like it, even though I'm just taking it as a refresher course. I've been dancing for most of my life."
Darien's smile fell a little. "Lucky you. I'm having some trouble," he admitted. "I swear I must have two left feet." Serena started to laugh at that, but it turned into an uncontrollable bout of coughing.
"Hey, are you all right?" Darien asked, concerned. Serena took a sip of her cocoa and sighed deeply. "I'm fine, I'm just getting over the flu, that's all." Seeing Darien's look of discomfort, she replied, "Don't worry, I'm not contagious anymore." She patted the couch cushion next to her. "Do you want to stay for a while? I was just about to start a movie."
Darien came over and sat next to Serena, barely dodging a pillow she threw at him. "Which movie?" With a big grin, Serena responded, "Only one of the most quoted movies on campus. 'The Princess Bride.'" He settled back onto the couch and made himself comfortable as Serena pushed the play button on the remote.
The next two hours were pretty silent, except when the two of them would launch into a contest to see who could quote the movie the most. It was definitely one afternoon Serena would never forget.
******
Serena walked into the ballroom and waited for class to begin. She still felt slightly weak, but she couldn't skip any classes, not with finals coming up in another month.
Placing her backpack on one of the chairs, she went over to sign the attendance roll. Turning around, she found herself face to face with Darien, and she broke into a smile. He grinned back. "How are you feeling today?" Touched that he would care, she smiled and replied, "Much better, thank you."
The teacher came in and was about to start the class. Darien held out his hand and offered it to Serena. "Would you care to dance, milady?" he asked jokingly. "Remember, I have two left feet."
Serena took his proffered hand. "I'm always up for a challenge," she teased. They started dancing, and it didn't take long for Serena to realize that Darien had been right about his dancing.
She looked up at him, smiled slightly and shook her head. "Have you been having trouble with this all along?" Darien knew what she meant and nodded glumly. "That's all right. I can help you."
She pulled him over to an empty corner of the ballroom, away from the rest of the class. "First you have to get your feet to move with the beat. If you listen carefully to the music, you can hear it. Once you do that, you don't have to concentrate so much on the steps and you can have more fun." She demonstrated the basic step a couple of times, then turned to him. "Now you do it."
By the time class finished, Darien was able to dance twice as well than he had when he first began. He even took over the lead from Serena, leading her around the room for the last few minutes of class. Twirling her around in his embrace, Darien surprised Serena by suddenly dipping her backward.
As he brought her back up, their faces were merely inches apart. No words were spoken as the two of them gazed somberly into each other's eyes. Not sure what to make of the feelings that suddenly surged through her, Serena dropped her arms and stepped away from Darien, who appeared to be as confused as she was.
Her cheeks flaming red, Serena quickly recovered her composure. "Wow, Darien, I'm impressed." Lightly blushing, he shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
Glancing at her watch, Serena discovered that she only had a few minutes to get to her next class. She gasped, grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulders. "Sorry to run off, but if I don't go now, I'll be so late. See you around, Darien!"
******
If there was one thing Serena did not enjoy about college, taking tests would certainly beat out everything else. And to make it worse, the only place she could take it was in a tiny cramped room in the basement of the library. With a sigh, Serena slid into one of the desks and glanced over the three-page humanities test.
The time passed quickly, people came and went, and still she sat there, briefly wondering if she would finish before the day ended. With only ten questions left, Serena shook herself out of her daydream, and concentrated on finishing as quickly as possible.
Suddenly, she felt something poke her in middle of her back. Serena shrugged it off and went back to her test. But then she felt it again.
And again.
And again.
She turned around in her desk, extremely irritated now. Preparing to tell off her tormentor, she came face to face with Darien who had a goofy smile on his face.
"What are you doing?" Serena whispered lowly. "Can't you see I'm trying to take a test?" No answer, just a quirky grin from him. Rolling her eyes, she turned back around to finish up and get out of there as fast as possible before Darien could distract her again.
Too late. Another poke in her back made her turn around to glare at him again. "Quit it," she hissed through clenched teeth. The proctor walked by and threw the two of them a warning glance. Finishing the last three questions in record time, Serena scooped up her belongings, handed in her test, and walked out. Darien followed closely behind.
Serena whirled around and faced Darien, placing her hands on her hips. "You know you could have gotten me in a lot of trouble in there." Darien smiled sheepishly. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. But how else was I supposed to get your attention?"
"Waiting until I was finished would have been just fine," she shot back, then paused a moment. "Why did you want to get my attention anyway?"
Darien took her backpack from her and slung it over his own shoulder. "I finished my own test early, and then I saw you, so I figured I would wait around to walk you home. Is that all right with you?" Serena's features softened a bit. "On one condition," she replied, an impish smile flickering across her lips, "just don't poke me again."
"Oh, really? You wouldn't happen to be ticklish, now would you?" Darien said, inching towards her slowly. Serena began backing up as he came toward her. "No, not exactly..." but as she said this, she turned and took off running toward the trees on the grassy quad.
Darien stood there in shock. He had no idea she could run that fast, but considering she was a dancer, it wasn't surprising. Without a moment's hesitation, he dropped the backpack, and took off after Serena, who was nearly five yards ahead of him. Looking over her shoulder, she squealed as she saw him catching up to her, and she began to run faster.
Unfortunately, Serena didn't see the large stone right in the middle of her path. Down she went, her knees and hands hit the ground first, and the rest of her body a moment later. Serena let out a loud grunt of pain, and she winced as she rolled over onto her side and examined the damage.
Darien finally caught up to her, and went down on his knees to help her. Gently, he pulled her into his arms, brushing the loose hair out of her face. "Are you all right?" Where does it hurt the most?"
"Everywhere," Serena complained through gritted teeth. "But mostly my pride and my ankle." Leaning over to examine her ankle, she winced again as she tried to move it. She sighed in exasperation, and fell back into Darien's lap, waiting for her strength to return so she could get up.
Gazing down into her face, Darien found himself mesmerized once again by this girl he had been lucky enough to run into. Slowly, he found himself getting closer and closer to her, just inches from her face...
"Um, Darien?" Serena spoke softly, looking back up at him. "Would you mind getting my backpack you dropped back there? I need something from it."
Darien grudgingly pulled himself out of his dream world, and got up and retrieved her backpack. By the time he returned, Serena was sitting up, and she was taking another look at her ankle. "Here," he said, and dropped the backpack by her side. She immediately opened a side pocket and pulled out a rolled-up ace bandage. "I'm always prepared," she said with a grin, and began wrapping her ankle.
Reaching for Darien's hand, she shakily stood up, putting a tiny amount of pressure on her left foot. "This is going to be a lot of fun trying to get home now," she replied sarcastically.
Standing in front of her, Darien stopped Serena from going any further. "Who says you're going to be doing any walking?" She looked at him incredulously. "Well, I don't have any other choice, do I? Besides, it's not like you'd carry--HEY!" Darien scooped her up into his arms, which caught her off guard. Serena looked at him and rolled her eyes. "No way am I going to let you carry me all the way back to my apartment." Darien looked back at her skeptically. "Do you have a better suggestion?"
"Anything is better than this. This is a little awkward, don't you think?" Darien actually felt pretty comfortable, but he couldn't let her know that. "I know," he replied, setting her back down gingerly. "I'll give you a piggyback ride."
Serena nearly burst aloud laughing. "Of all the stupid..." then she thought about it for a moment and decided anything was better than before. "All right, if you think you're up to carrying me two blocks." He lifted her onto his back. Unsurprisingly, Serena was quite light and Darien had no problem carrying her back to her apartment.
They were laughing about how stupid the day had turned out to be as Darien slid her off his back and opened the front door for her. As they walked inside the apartment, Lita, Mina and Ami, Serena's three roommates, looked up from where they sat in the living room and kitchen.
"Umm... hi," Serena sheepishly grinned, and she took her backpack from Darien's grasp. "Thanks for helping me get home," she replied, turning away from her roommates. She knew she was in for it now. Darien stepped back outside. "No problem. You stay off that ankle, all right? If I catch you dancing before it's healed, you'll have to answer to me," he said with a grin, and left.
The silence in the other room was intense as Serena closed the door, picked up her backpack and hobbled back into her room. She jumped up onto her bed and waited for a few moments, taking the time to re-wrap her ankle. There was no noise coming from the other room and she knew any minute now...
Sure enough, three heads popped in the doorway of the bedroom, and they all had suspicious looks on their faces. Serena smiled at them and sighed. Freshmen. They were all the same. "What? I tripped over a tree root. It happens. I'll be fine."
Lita came over and sat on the opposite bed and stared at her. "Oh, we know you'll be fine. Question is, who was that hot guy who was helping you?"
"What, you mean Darien?" The three girls nodded their heads vigorously. Serena pulled her other leg up and tucked it underneath her, being careful of her ankle. "I met him about two weeks ago, when I stayed home sick that one weekend. He came by to see Mina, and we just started talking."
"He dropped by to see me?" Mina asked incredulously. "Darien, hmm? Where do I know him from... oh, now I remember! He's in my English class. He sits in the row next to me and hardly ever talks." Shaking her head, Serena replied, "Are you sure we're talking about the same person? Once he gets going, he doesn't shut up."
Ami nudged her roommate in the side. "So are you two officially going out?" Serena's eyes widened. "No, we just barely met. Besides, I don't think he likes me that way." There was a burst of laughter from Lita. "Did you see the way he stared at you when he was leaving? Hello, Serena! He wants you. He wants you bad."
Serena rolled her eyes. "Whatever. We're just friends." Mina jumped up onto the bed. "So if you're not dating him, does that mean I can set you up with a friend of mine?" Serena groaned. "Remember what happened last time you set me up? I'm not sure I completely trust you." Mina held up her hands in protest. "Hey, how was I supposed to know that he was going to shave off all his hair the night before your date? If you had seen him with hair, you would have agreed with me that he was really cute. Anyway, I work with Tim in the library, and I think you two would really hit it off. I suggested that he take you to the dance on Wednesday."
"Can he dance?" was Serena's first question. Mina shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't asked him. But will you at least give him a chance? Please?"
Sighing loudly, Serena knew she couldn't refuse when it came to the pleading of a roommate. "All right, I'll do it. First I have to wait until my ankle heals. But you owe me big time."
******
"She really owes me big time," Serena muttered under her breath as Tim stepped on her toes for what seemed like the hundredth time. She tried not to wince, but he saw her discomfort and apologized again. If she heard him say sorry once more...
The song finally ended, and Serena saw her chance to escape her torture. "Tim, do you mind if we sit this next song out?" she asked sweetly. He nodded and escorted her off the dance floor. Leaving Tim to talk with a couple of his friends, Serena made her way over to the refreshment table, grateful to be alone for once. Just as she was daring to try some of the infamous peach punch, out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a familiar face.
Almost choking on her drink, Serena sputtered out, "Darien? This is a surprise." He was just as surprised to see her as she was. "Serena... hi," he stuttered. He turned to the girl hanging on his arm. "Rei, this is Serena, a good friend of mine. Serena, this is Rei."
Serena smiled at Rei, then looked back at Darien with a raised eyebrow. He cleared his throat. "Uh, Rei, I'll be right back. I have to talk to Serena about something." The willowy raven-haired girl nodded, and went to check out the other refreshments.
Taking her arm, Darien led Serena over to the corner of the ballroom. "It's not what you think. I got set up. She's my roommate's girlfriend's best friend." Serena poked him in the ribs. "You don't have to report to me, you nut. I didn't think I'd run into you here. Besides, I'm on a blind date too," she rolled her eyes, "and I wish it was over already."
"You're not having any fun?"
Sighing, Serena replied, "I think it could be better."
Darien faced her now, looking directly at her. Serena found herself wanted to melt in his penetrating gaze, but she managed to contain herself. In a quiet voice, he asked, "What would make the night better for you?"
'If I was here with you instead,' the words were at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't find the courage to say them. What would he think of her if she had? Just as she was about to answer him out loud, another song began blaring through the speakers. Serena groaned as she recognized the tune.
Darien was confused. "What's the matter now?" She rolled her eyes. "Tim—my date—said he was going to request this song because it's one of his favorites, which means he's going to want to dance to it. And since I'm here as his date, I have to go and find him." She sighed and plastered a smile on her face. "Have fun with your date, Darien. I'll see you later."
******
An hour later, Darien caught sight of Serena again out on the dance floor, trying not to look miserable but not hiding it very well as she went to the side of the room. He wanted to do something to make her happy again.
Darien whispered something to his date, then walked over to where Serena was standing. Laying a gentle hand on her shoulder, he asked in a low voice, "Would you like to dance?" Without giving Tim a second glance, she took Darien's hand and they walked out onto the dance floor.
Serena leaned up on her tiptoes and whispered into Darien's ear as they began dancing. "Thank you." He looked down at her. "For what?"
"For saving me from the monster."
He chuckled. "Still that bad?"
She groaned. "You have no idea. He has no rhythm whatsoever... I will never let my roommate set me up ever again."
Darien pulled her a little closer. "And what does that say for me since I'm not the best dancer either?" She grinned at him. "Oh, believe me, you're like a breath of fresh air. He has to watch his feet the entire time. I don't know about you, but I've never liked looking at someone's forehead half the night."
He chuckled again. "I understand. This girl hasn't learned the meaning of quiet yet. I can hardly get a word in edgewise." Serena giggled. "Looks like we'll both swear off blind dates after this."
The song ended and another slow one began. "I don't want this to end yet," Serena murmured under her breath. Darien heard her and whispered back, "It doesn't have to." He tightened his embrace around her, and she laid her head on his shoulder and sighed. They swayed to the music, and Serena was enveloped in Darien's scent. He smelled faintly of chocolate and some other spices mixed together, a heavenly combination that made her drowsy as she closed her eyes, turning her attention back to the song softly playing in the background.
Like a miracle out of the blue
You rescued me like the angels do
You shook the heavens and cracked the sky
When you walked, when you walked into my life...
The last traces of the melody rang through the room and Serena lifted her head to look at Darien. Time seemed to stand still and the whole room faded away from around them as they gazed into each other's eyes. They began drifting closer and closer to each other...
Then out of the corner of his eye, Darien caught sight of Serena's date, most likely looking around for her. With a sigh, he pulled away from her warm body. "Your date's probably wondering where you are." He reluctantly led her back over to Tim, quickly found Rei, and left the dance. Darien couldn't stand it. If he couldn't be there with Serena, he didn't want to be there at all.