*Hiiro sighed. Where were all of his friends again? Oh, now he remembered. They were at Serena's. Again. It seemed as though they lived across the hall with her instead of in their apartment they were over there so often. Not that he minded.
It made his life a hell of a lot quieter. He got more work done without Duo and Wufei fighting, and without Trowa and Quatre constantly talking or trying to stop the fights between Wufei and Duo. In fact, his life was now so quiet that he couldn't concentrate. He kept thinking of his friends and what they could possibly be doing with Serena every day all day.
He sighed again, shut down his laptop and opened the door to his room. After grabbing a coat and some gloves, he left his apartment and went across the hall. For a moment he stood in front of the door thinking if this was the right thing to be doing, but he shrugged the thought and knocked.
When Serena opened it, he felt the blast of cold air fly out of the room as it always did when she opened the door. Her apartment was always below fifty degrees, even on days when the temperature outside was over a hundred. Even when the heater was on full blast it was cold. It was strange. He and Duo had checked to see if there was something wrong with the furnace, but everything had checked out perfect. Why was it so cold?
"Hi Hiiro. Come on in, we were wondering how long you would be cooped up with your work." She said to him with a small smile on her face.
"Hnn. I had a lot of work to do." He answered. He didn't want her to find out about the true nature of his work, so he just told her that he had 'work' to do. After all, she was so nice and so, well, adjusted that he didn't want to rock her boat by telling her about he and his friend's being pilots in the wars, much less being the Gundam Pilots.
"That's fine. We were just about to begin a movie. Why don't you come in and take a seat?" Serena said, trying to be as polite as possible. Was it just her, or were Hiiro and the others hiding something from her? Not that she was innocent of keeping secrets, but still… well, no time to think about that now… She opened the door wider to let him in.
"Hey Hiiro! Glad you finally made it!" Said Quatre.
"Hey Hiiro man! We're going to watch Dracula Dead and Loving it! Ever seen that movie?" Asked Duo. Hiiro shrugged. He had seen it a couple of times, and Duo knew that. In fact, it was Duo's favorite movie.
"Wait a minute. We're watching what?" Serena asked in surprise. When she had told Duo to go out to the video store, she hadn't expected him to get a movie about vampires! This was like a giant nightmare! Suddenly she didn't feel as well as she usually did.
"It's an old vampire movie! It's really funny. It has Leslie Nielson in it, and he plays this vampire, it's this whole joke movie on vampires basically. What's wrong? Scared the vampires are going to eat you? Huh Sere?" Duo teased her.
"No. Not exactly." Serena replied quietly. That was a blatant lie. In reality, she was terrified Darien would finally catch her and then keep her… even now he had his stupid goons combing the cities across the world for her, and she knew it too. The few who had caught up to her, she had been able to slay no problem. The thing was, if Darien ever found her, she would have huge problems with him. He was still stronger than her any day of the week.
"Sere?" Asked Quatre. "You know, if you really don't want to watch it, we can always see what's on TV."
"No, no. I'm fine. I just don't like vampire movies. I'll make an exception this time though." She gave her trademark smirk to the boys as she settled down under the moonlight in her favorite spot on the floor.
"Well, then, let's get the party started! Come on, Halloween is tomorrow night! We have to watch a scary movie anyway, it's tradition." Duo rambled on.
"What is everyone going to be tomorrow night?" Asked Trowa.
"I'm going as the grim reaper!" Announced Duo enthusiastically.
"Nothing new there. I will be going as a Chinese martial artist." Said Wufei proudly.
"Humph. You would. Quatre, Trowa, Hiiro, Sere?" Duo said dejectedly.
"I thought I would go as Inspector Gadget" Said Quatre.
" A clown." Said Trowa.
"Nothing." Said Hiiro.
"Wait a minute, nothing Hiiro? Come on old buddy, you have to be something? A mummy, or Frankenstein, or, hey, I know! Go as a vampire!" Duo cried out.
"No!" Serena screamed.
"Huh?" Dead silence filled the room as all five of the guys stared at her.
"I mean, no. It doesn't suit him. A vampire has damned their soul for all eternity to the Devil. Please promise me none of you will ever pretend to be a vampire? It really isn't very funny to mock the undead who have damned themselves." She said with a dark tone underlying in her voice.
"What? Woman, what is it with you and vampires? First the movie, now this?" Wufei asked her.
"Nothing. Just promise me?" A chorus of yeah's and sure's echoed in the room. She sighed in relief. "Besides… Hiiro would fit in much better if he went as a warewolf." She grinned after her last remark.
"She's right! Hiiro would look good as a warewolf!" Duo began laughing so hard that he fell off of the couch. Soon the others, even Wufei and Trowa, were laughing hysterically at the thought of Hiiro as a warewolf.
Hiiro just stood watching them all. A warewolf? Him? Maybe he should comb his hair more often… no… The weirdest part of the conversation was when Serena had gone off rambling about how vampires were damned for life. Just what was she thinking about? And what was with her fear of vampire movies? She was acting strange tonight. Instead of remarking, he simply zipped his coat up and faced the TV, where the movie was starting. Soon the others followed in suit, zipping up their coats and watching the screen.
"Sere?" Asked Duo after they had all settled in.
"Yeah Duo?" She asked.
"What are you going to be? You never told us." Duo asked.
"I'm not sure. Halloween is really important to me, but I've never dressed up before…" That was true. In all of her years, she had never dressed up in a costume for Halloween. She always handed out candy and sweets to the children that came to her door, but spent most of the evening deep in thought and meditating.
She hated leaving the house on All Hollow's Eve because it was the night when Darien's power was the strongest. She usually used most of her power in the meditation to repel him from finding her through some spell or something.
"What? Never? Even Hiiro's gone in costume before!" Duo cried in shock.
"I know. Well, I just wouldn't know what to be. I would need to be something fitting, but I don't fit into any categories." She said, trying to deter them from getting her out of the house on such a wicked night.
"Something fitting? How about an angel? Or a princess? Or maybe even a belly dancer or I know! A french maid… you know, the ones with the tiny little skirts and really tight tops. I'm sure I could find one of those costumes for you on short notice." Quatre said.
"Quatre. A short skirt and tight top? What's gotten into you?" Duo mocked him. Serena watched Quatre blush.
"I didn't mean it like that! One of my sisters went as one last year, and I thought I could get that costume…"
"Quatre, it's alright." Serena said half laughing and half trying to be serious. "I was kind of thinking of not going anywhere tomorrow night anyway." Besides, she didn't 'fit' any of those innocent costumes anyway.
"What?" Said Trowa. He had thought Serena would die to go. She looked like the type of girl who would love free candy.
"Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween." She said.
"But you just said it was important to you!" Duo argued.
"It is. But not that way. Let's drop it, alright?" Serena really didn't like the way the conversation was heading. Little signs in her brain were screaming warning at her, and she was definitely listening to them loud and clear.
"Not that way? Drop it? Serena, you sure are one strange girl." Duo said, shaking his head.
"But you're still here, aren't you Duo? So I can't be all that strange." She said smirking.
"Yeah…" That ended the conversation and they all went back to watching the movie. *
~~~And we're back to short chs. I must have been really inconsistent when I was younger! Lol. Anyway. The next chs are the one I'm probably going to change the most. Not a lot, just clarify a few things and you know, make it sound better I guess! PLEASE REVIEW! Much love, Vixen~~~