Umm… -cough- I'm going to defend myself now:

First off, updates have been lacking for two reasons over the last… however long it's been. One ­ I've been completely stuck on this next scene. And Two ­ Fanfiction.net has suffered a severe case of disfunctionality over the last few weeks. I apologise on both accounts.

Oh and I fixed the Italic's problem in the last scene... actually I fixed up a few problems throughout the story, but those Italic's where really annoying.

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"When Dawn Comes"

By Kimra

Part XVI

Luck was with Serena in some degree's. She wasn't sure how many degree's it was with her but Serena knew it was there. Luna had been persuaded, certainly not easily. But a thousand tears and lots of pleading had paid off in some measure. The assurance that she, Sailor Moon, would figure it out before the cat saw a need to spill the information to the others was probably what won her case. She didn't know why but they had been some of the most heartfelt words she had ever uttered, and Luna had seemed powerless to fight with them.

Still Luna had relented, exceedingly reluctantly. But the second she was in agreement she had also taken control of the situation in a way Serena hadn't felt capable of. She had muttered something about Central, and talking to the other scouts to see how they where going on the search for the Rainbow Crystals.

It had taken two hours to get the cat to submit, and by the end of it all Serena had little energy to do more then curl into bed and force sleep upon herself.

Sleep however proved a task quite beyond her for the fifteenth night in a row. She did doze, she was sure of it, because she would open her eye's from time to time feeling groggy and the clock's dials had always moved about ten minutes forward when she could only remember about three. However at one am she gave up, after one of the more intense memories of her night with Darien had left her shaking and a little flustered.

It was a bit odd, and she knew it, that she was getting flashbacks of things that had happened after entering his apartment, but she still had nothing from before hand. But there was nothing that could be done, so she curled up on the lounge room sofa with a glass of water and spent the next three hours flicking through channels before her body shut down on it's own accord and she fell asleep the screen flickering at her with random insignificant images.

Serena woke with a cold jerk, her body springing into an upright position as her eyes skittered about the room anxiously. Her breath, caught as she woke, released when she realised she was alone. The memory of warm hands against bare skin made her throw her head back against the pillow in frustration.

"Your just slowly going to go crazy Serena, nothing to worry about." She muttered to herself staring at the roof until her eyes fluttered closed once more.

A hand on her thigh, sending unexplainable currents through her body. Lips pressed hard against her neck, suckling soft skin. The other hand clasped behind her head, fingers digging into her hair and holding her arching body in place.

Another gasp and Serena was sitting up, her eyes moving about the room. Obviously I'm not meant to get any more sleep. She grumbled to herself, rising from the lounge on shaky legs. It wasn't the memory's, they where fine, it was the residue that was getting to her. The shaking feeling that made her feel weak and excited at the same time. The pulse that wouldn't calm down for such a long time after wards. The feelings pushing through her where what seemed to be driving her slowly towards the brink on insanity.

"Would you like breakfast dear?" Her mothers voice asked from the doorway and Serena's head snapped around with a glare that she forced down as quickly as she could. Her mother didn't seem to be effected, which was good, so Serena conjured a smile and nodded her head. It had become almost routine, if insomnia could be considered a routine. Her mother had left her alone for the most part. Her mother had tried to ask her what was wrong over the first few days after the incident but Serena had managed to prevail there as well. Now her mother was silent and watchful instead of questioning and curious. It was a dangerous zone to allow her mother to be in, but she couldn't fight it.

Her dad was just as clueless as always. He was only suspicious of anything because she was always awake before him, and leaving for school well before the required time. Her 'Darien avoidance tactics' had gotten her family's attention, but they where all subdued about their observations, and she knew they spoke to each other about them, but that didn't bother her. So long as she was left alone she didn't mind.

Sammy, well he was still a spawn, it didn't matter if he noticed there was something different about her or not. But he seemed to be treating her nicer then usual. She wasn't entirely happy with that change, she liked the mock enmity usually displayed between them.

Taking a deep breath Serena stood from the lounge where she had managed to get some sleep and went to prepare for school, she had things to do that day.

Luna, Serena did not conscript for this task, although she had been tempted, a little cat was much more conspicuous then a teenage girl. But she still had things she was keeping to herself, the Justin issue worried her just a little bit, she should have been able to find this person in her school somewhere. Molly knew him, and Serena had tried several tactics to get her to point the guy out, but Molly kept being unable to see him when those tactics where sprung. Serena had given up, after five attempt's Molly had started to get a funny expression on her face and started to turn the tactic around subtly.

When her friend had gotten sneaky Serena wasn't sure, but she had chosen to divert attention completely from herself and made Molly fixate on Melvin a bit more. Those two where the oddest couple, but it was exceedingly easy to distract Molly by mentioning him.

Serena moved through the library her finger running along the book spins as she searched for the title she wanted. Oh yes, she'd gotten a year book, sure she had, but she couldn't remember what had happened to it. She had tried every possible place she could think of, under her desk, under her bed, the bottom of her closet, but none had one. So the library was her next option.

Finding the book she pulled it down, flicking through it's pages for the year pictures, searched out her class for the year before. Then sat down at one of the table's reading through the list of names until she came across the one she was after. Justin Roberts. She scanned the other names, made sure there wasn't another Justin in the list and then counted across names and faces until she had the matching one.

It did take her a moment to note that she did know his face, and that he was one of the boys from her year. Placing the face took a lot of extra effort, there where lots of people in her year, and although she had glanced most of them she didn't really know most of them. She was certain, as she stared at the picture, that she had not seen him since Molly's party.

The class bell rang and she closed the yearbook leaving it in place and left the library. She didn't feel like giving Miss Haruna an excuse for being angry with her. And all the while as she moved and thought she tried to place Justin in one of her memory's.

It was in the middle of class after her brain had drifted from the teacher that it decided to give her a break and she came up with an image of Justin and his friends sitting around during lunch.

A smile broke onto her face at the image, she hadn't seen him since the party, but she had most certainly seen his friends.

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I realise this scene was tiny, and nothing happened in it. But I have been seriously struggling with the next scene. And I've had this bit waiting to be posted, so I finally bit the bullet and posted it when FanFiction.net decided to start working again. I hope the next bit will be out soon.

Kimra