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Drifitng Petals

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When dawn peeked in through the windows of Darien's appartment, it's happy rays found him still curled up on the floor wide a wake. His eyes were red and bloodshot from crying and exghaustion. He hadn't gotten one minute of sleep the entire night. Darien's cheeks held the salty remains of tears shed not too long ago. As the sun rose higher in the sky, one last tear spilled over, but this was the last. He had no more tears to give although his body still shook in silent sobbs.

Darien was totally ignorant of tha fact that it was morning, he was in a world alone, it was so dark and felt quite huge. He was just a small boy, scared and confused. He felt like he had lost something special. It wasn't fair, he hadn't wanted to lose it but he did anyway. Suddenly a sharp light sliced through him as he collapsed in pain. It was not longer dark and empty, he was in his living room on the floor. Light shone through his windows cheerfully, as if it was mocking him.

Voices swept across his hearing but nothing really made any sense.

"Jeez, Lita! You didn't have to break down the door!"

"Yeah? Well how were we supposed to get in Rei? Burn it down?"

"Guys, I don't see either of them in here."

"Perhaps we should inspect the bedroom?"

"AMI!"

"Just a suggestion, besides, it is a relatively logical conclusion."

"Girls, please! Just start searching."

"Right Luna!"

"Hey Mina, lets take a peek in the bedroom, shall we?"

"Good plan... Oh My God!"

"Darien!"

"Is he alive?"

"My scans indicate that he is but he also seems to be very weak, highly distressed and has lost a lot of fluid."

"Darien, hello? Are you okay?"

"Wow, this is really scary guys, he looks totally zoned out and almost... scared!"

"Darien, can you understand me?"

"Perhaps a pitcher of water would help?"

"Good idea Artemis!"

"Right, I'll go get it."

"Girls, I don't like this. Something horrible must have happend. Darien would never act like this and Serena's missing too. This doesn't look good!"

"Darien? Can you hear me? Ami, can he understand us at all?"

"I don't know."

"Here's the water."

"Okay, let's try once more before we try that."

"Darien! Can you hear me? Where is Serena? What happend?"

His mind was numb, he was dead in spirit, he was still breahting but that didn't mean anything. However, that name he clutched to fiercly with his mind and refused to let go.

"Okay, dump the wa-"

"Serena..." Darien gasped trying to pull himself to where the voices were.

"Huh?"

"What about her? What about Serena?"

What about Serena? She was his life, his love, his bubble of happiness, Serena was his meatball head. She had made sure he wasn't alone and now she, she... His body twisted as longing tore through his body...

"Lost..."

~*~Later~*~

The scouts didn't know what to think. They had gotten two words out of Darien: Serena and lost. After that he mercifully passed out. After some akward moments the girls had managed to get him to his bed. Lita sponged a little water into his mouth since Ami had said he was rapidly becoming dehydrated. Mina opened the window so that some fresh, healthy air could get in. Rei made a quick phone call to Serena's mom explaining that Serena had spent the night at the temple and had forgotten to call before. Apparently her mom bought it even though Rei knew it was a weak excuse.

When they were all done they sat down in Darien's living room for an emergency scout meeting.

"Luna, I'm afraid for Serena." Ami commented shakily. They were all pretty spooked. Seeing Darien like that could almost break a person. After a while Rei spoke up.

"What..." her voice broke," What do you think he meant by 'lost'?"

"I don't know." Lita's response was empty as she stared off in a stunned silence.

"What if a yoma attacked and... and she's dead?" Mina's voice trailed off as she voiced all of their's worst fear.

"Nonsense girls!" Luna jumped in relizing where this conversation was headed. "You must act like Sailor Scouts . Serena's not dead but she's out there somehwere and we have to find her!" The determination in her voice drew the attention of the girls.

"I don't know Luna, it doesn't sound very promising. I mean Darien, he's... he's," it was hard even for Artemis to acknowledge the state of the man, "he's shatterd."

"No! Luna's right." Mina's exclaimation schocked them all. "Serena's not dead and we need to find her!" Traces of smiles could be seen across their faces as Mina's confidence spread.

"Right! Why don't we transform so we can cover more ground?" Lita's suggestion sounded encouraging.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Ami said with a light of hope in her eyes. "If we need to search inside a shop it would cause quite a scene."

"She's right!" Agreed Rei feeling more comfortable now that they were falling back into their Sailor Scout pattern. "But we should split up."

"Right, Lita you take the mall." Mina had unknowingly taken command.

"Right!" Lita nodded agreement.

"I can take a look around the arcade and see if Andrew's heard anything." Ami offered.

"And I can go to the temple and see if the fire says anything." Rei quickly announced.

"Good!" Mina smiled, " We'll find her! I'll go look at all the candy stores and places she likes to eat."

"Sounds like you got a plan." Artemis remarked while Luna looked at them approvingly.

"You girls go ahead, Artemis and I will look after Darien."

"Right!" They all sounded in unison. Lita took a quick look at her watch.

"How about we meet back here in about three hours?" A round of nods quickly followed her suggestion.

"Okay then, I guess we better go!" And with that they all took off out the door.

"Luna?" Artemis question as they watched the door that had just shut.

"Yes Artemis?"

"Do you really think Serena's okay?" Luna gave a deep sigh and headed towards Dariens bed before she answered.

"I'm not sure Artemis, but we can't let them give up!"

~*~The Next Day~*~

"Hey Darien!" Andrew's voice was happy and cheerful as he called over to his friend, his enthusiasm made Darien light headed. How could he be happy? The world seemed gray and boring, his light had left it.

"Darien?" The blond's voice was now tentative relizing that Darien was not in the best of moods. Darien, still desperately struggling for self control, clenched his teeth and nodded hoping this gesture would satisfy his friend.

"Man! You look like hell!" Darien looked up at the waiter with a cool, ice stare and managed a few gruff words.

"Thanks... Got any coffe?"

"Yeah. What's going on?" Andrew's voice betrayed his worry as Darien sat down. He was obviously upset about something and very tense about it. From where Andrew was standing his friend looked like anything would make him explode at any minute. Darien just stared at the cup in front of him filled with his favorite drink, eventually a hoarse wisper excaped his throat.

"She's safe." Andrew gave his friend a sharp look and then shook his head relizing he would get nothing out of him in this mood. He quickly picked up a rag and started to wash the counter as he looked sideways at Darien.

"You know, Serena's friends are over in that booth, she should be here any moment. Why don't you go join them, maybe that will cheer you up!" Andrew was quickly seized with shock as he saw Darien's reaction to his comment. His face had turned into a mix of emotions, love, fear, hate, anger and desperation.

Darien muttered something akin to a thank you and quickly rushed over to the booth Andrew had indicated earlier.

"Hey Darien!" Lita called when she saw him coming over, he looked awful and the news the other's had collected would not make him any better. As the other girls greeted him he nodded mutely and sat down. After an uncomfortable silence Ami spoke up.

"I'm afraid to say this doesn't look good." Darien gave no reaction and instead gazed impasively at the table. The other's however looked remarkably more depressed then any of them ever were. Many tears had been shed in private and in one another's company as their search seemed more and more hopeless.

"Ami? She is alive right? I mean just because we can't find her doesn't mean something's happend, does it?" Mina's voice was hopeful as she asked the question they all wanted an answer too. Seeing Darien tense up as the question was asked Ami just shrugged.

"Has anyone called her parents?" Lita suddenly relized that her mom must be worried sick.

"Yeah, they didn't take the news too well." Rei became even more depressed as she thought about that un-happy experience.

"Oh..." Was the only response she got.

"Hey guys!" Andrew came up to the table with an empty tray. "What can I get'cha?" All of them just stared at him a moment before Ami cleared her throat.

"I think we'll each have a six scoop sundae with extra chocolate sauce, caramel, sprinkles, cookie crumbs, whipped cream and extra cherries." Andrew stared at her along with the rest of the table save Darien. Relizing she was attracting un-needed attention she quickly added, "And I think Darien better have another cup of coffe." Feeling that he had been dismissed, Andrew walked away quite stumped.

Still feeling four pairs of eyes, six if you included the cats, on her she blushed bright red.

"Geez Amy, feeling slightly hungry are we?" Rei teased, relieved that the mood had lightened up.

Their sundaes and coffe came and a light, if only half-hearted chat continued while Darien sipped his coffe and stared intensely at nothing. As they neared the end of their eating-spree a fragile silence settled down.

Rei suddenly stiffend as if an un-pleasant thought had just occured to her.

"Luna, Artemis." As Rei addressed the two cats all eyes except for Darien's foucused intensely on the raven-haired girl. "I... I don't think she's coming back. I get this growing feeling that where-ever she is she's not coming back, at least not any time soon." Rei quickly turned her head to look at the window trying to hold back the tears that wouldn't go away.

"Darien?" Luna's eyes were doubtful, "What exactly happend?"

Finding that he couldn't suppress the answer he looked her straight in the eye.

"I broke up with her..." With that he quickly stood up and made for the door when four angry voices and two very mad cat's assailed him.

"YOU WHAT!??"

"I CAN"T BELIEVE THIS, YOU JERK!"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

The entire resturaunt fell into silence while watching the antics of the four girls and one very scared man. A tinkle of the door chime as a small, pink pony-tailed girl walked in.

"What's going on?" Rini looked confused at the scene beofor her.

"Um, well... I think we probably ought to tell her." Lita nudged the other's as Darien dashed out the door.

"It is only logical since she's supposed to be Serena's cousin." Ami deduced.

"Uh, well Rini..." Rei's voice faded off as she relized that Darien had gotten away. "That JERK!" She was just about out the door when she tripped over Rini who was blocking the door. After a few embarrassing moments trying to get up all of the girls looked at the girl who had a very serious and determined look on her face.

"What's going on with Serena?" Mina bent down so that she was eye-level with the girl.

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