Us
by Phantasy Star
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Chapter Three


"Darien, I want to go see the parade!"

Darien looked at Rini, the pink-haired little girl beside him, and smiled.

"Of course," he said, letting her take his hand, "We can stop for ice-cream there
too."

Rini grinned, skipping happily down the street as Darien followed.

She stopped when she saw a familiar figure on the road, staring at a pair of
slippers through a store window.

"Serena!" Rini exclaimed.

"Oh, hi Rini," Serena turned to look at her, "What are you doing here?"

Then she looked up and saw the lumbering Darien, looking intently into her eyes.

"Darien," Serena said, surprised.

"Yay!" Rini cried, "We'll all go to the parade together!"

"I'm sorry, Rini, but I'm a little busy right now."

Darien looked at her painfully, but Rini's expression was worse.

"But, but..." the little girl stuttered, "I want to go with the both of you."

Serena was hesitant, "I... I guess it would be okay."

Rini screamed with glee and flew herself against Serena with a hug, and Serena
laughed.

"Come on!"

Serena looked at Darien and offered a small smile.

Darien returned it and the pair followed Rini into the crowd.

* * *

"That was fun," Rini sighed.

Serena nodded her agreement.

Rini, sitting in the middle of the bench, suddenly gasped.

"Hotoru!"

She ran off, leaving Darien and Serena alone on the bench.

Serena was watching Rini chatter with Hotoru after they had greeted each other,
when she noticed that Darien had moved beside her, only a few inches away.

"We had our first date here," he said.

Serena didn't look at him, "Sort of. Rini came that day though."

"Remember how we rowed across the lake? It was beautiful then, with more birds
and less people."

"You remember things like that?" she said, finally turning to look at him.

"I remember everything," he whispered.

Serena shook her head. How did he do things like this?

No, she had made up her mind. She had to go through with it.

"I'm going to go, Darien," Serena said as she stood up, breaking their gaze,
"Just remember to bring Rini home before eight."

Darien watched her retreating figure. Then he put his feet on the bench and laid
down on it.

I'm not giving up, he thought, I'll get you back.

* * *

"And this, this is the children wing of the hospital, where you'll be spending
most of your time."

Serena nodded. She had signed up for this hospital volunteer work a few weeks
ago, and had forgotten about it until they sent her a letter accepting her offer.

"And if you have any other questions, please go see Ryan. He's our volunteer
supervisor. In fact, let's go meet him right now."

Serena followed the woman down the hallways of the hospital and stopped when they
came to a room with a brown door.

Without knocking, the woman opened the door and Serena followed behind her
timidly.

"Ryan, this is our new volunteer, Serena Tsukino."

Serena didn't see anyone at first. Then, a young man got up from the floor and
walked over to shake her hand.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, "I was getting a few push-ups in, seeing as there's
not much work to do."

Serena gave a small but genuine smile.

"Pleased to meet you," Ryan said, extending his hand and flashing Serena a
disarming smile, "I hope we'll enjoy working together."