4/27/03

Title: To Love Again

Author: DragonLow

Chapter: 5/?

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailormoon!

Hey, cool! I have time to write another chapter sooner than I thought! As always, thanks to kirei*snow*tenshi, ClaimingUntoughable, Fuschia, yadrianne, nadja, JilseponieAngel, white eternity, StarChild, and princess2000204 for your reviews! Also, thank you Azi and videl621 for pointing out my mistake in chapter 1! I got very mixed up there. Heh heh. It's fixed now, though. Okay, on with the story!

***

The Next Day: 10:00AM

"UmMs. Tsukino? Mr. Chiba is here for your appointment," Francis said hesitantly over the intercom. Francis wasn't a veryconfident person, and she'd been walking on eggshells around Serena since her outburst the morning before. Serena sighed. She'd have to do something about that. She couldn't have a secretary that was afraid of her. She'd never get anything done. "Send him in Francis," she said gently.

A minute later Darien Chiba walked into her office, looking as impeccable as ever. His crisp black suit looked as if it had never been worn and Serena had to admit it looked good on him. She wouldn't deny that her step-brother was good-looking, but he was an arrogant, overbearing bastard, and no amount of good looks could make up for that. She'd decided to try to be civil to him this morning since he'd let her be yesterday, but she wouldn't make much of an effort.

"Good morning," Darien greeted almost pleasantly. He watched her carefully under hooded eyes. She still looked tired, but much more calm than yesterday. There was still a frown on her face at the sight of him, but he'd put an end to that.

"Good morning," Serena replied tersely. "Let's get down to business. Where exactly is the location of your office, and what kind of design do you have in mind?"

"It's just a simple, 30 story office building. Square. Really tall. Tinted windows. That's all."

"Serena sighed in exasperation. Well, any architect could have done that. Why choose me if you don't exactly like me?"

"Like I said, you're the best. And I never said I didn't like you, Serena."

Serena snorted, then looked at him suspiciously. "To hell you didn't. What are you playing at?"

"Nothing. I'm just telling you the truth."

"My ass."

"Watch your tongue, Ms. Tsukino, we're in the work enviornment right now. Of course, that could easily be remedied if you went out to lunch with me."

Serena narrowed her eyes. "What's going on? Don't play with me, Darien Chiba. I have no energy for mind games."

Darien sighed, and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Look, I was just thinking. After I left yesterday I decided that we couldn't work together under these circumstances. I'm proposing a truce. You're a more interesting person than I thought, Serena, and I'd like to get to know you better."

"I guess I'm supposed to take that as a compliment," Serena said dryly. Her suspicious look hadn't changed in the slightest. "I don't trust you. You made assumptions about me and my family before you met any of us. You were rude to me and my brother when I met you. You're using my mother's illness to your advantage. You have no right to propose a truce."

"Please, Serena. I know I haven't been a brother to you, and I'd like to prove to you that I can be by taking you out to lunch. I'm trying to do something good, here."

"You want to do something good? Well, for starters, you could reconcile with your dad and meet my mom."

Darien's eyes narrowed. "You don't know my reasons for leaving my family. I just want to work well with you, Serena. I know you don't trust me, and you have no reason to, but everyone deserves a second chance, don't they?"

Serena looked at him for a long while. He had a point, there. She always gave deserving people second chances. The question was, was he a deserving person? Finally, she said reluctantly, "It's only 10:15. I have other appointments."

"I can come back at 12:00. And right now, you can show me what ideas you have for my office building."

She still looked unsure. Slowly, she said, "I'll think about it, okay? Anyway, I have an idea for your office building. Here," she said, taking out a poster with a drawing on it. Darien looked at it with admiration. Her art was very good, and the building looked unique.

"Here's what I was thinking. It's basically a skyscraper with rounded corners. One of the corners will be completely missing, except for the first floor. That part can be the entrance and on top of it you can have a modern sculpture by Lita. She's expensive, but her work is great, and she's a really nice person, to boot."

He looked at her curiously. "You know Lita?"

She smiled. "She's an old high school friend. Anyway, what do you think? There will be less floors, but you could make the demensions longer, and add floors to make up for that."

He nodded, still looking at the drawing thoughtfully. "It looks good. Make it happen."

She raised her eyebrows. He was ordering her to do things again. Well, she was tired; she'd let it go—for now. "Okay, you need to leave now, Mr. Chiba, I have other appointments," she said curtly.

Darien looked at her, puzzled. What had happened to her almost friendly demeanor? "Okay. I'll see you at 12:00," he said.

"You're assuming I'm actually going with you. I said I'd think about it."

He just smiled mysteriously and said, "See you at 12:00, Serena," before walking out the door.

Oh! That infuriating son of a— Well, he'd just have to be dissapointed. Serena wasn't going anywhere with him at 12:00.

***

12:04PM

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! I TOLD YOU I WASN'T GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU!" Serena shouted at Darien as he drove down the street. Darien just smiled. He'd come into her office to find her working hard on some papers. She'd told him she wasn't going out to lunch with a pompous fool. He'd completely disregarded her comment and flung her over his shoulders. She'd screamed and hit him, but he'd been oblivious to her strikes. He'd carried her out the building while she screamed for the supposedly good security guards—They were all on their lunch break.

Serena fumed the whole way to a small café Darien brought her to. When he got out of the car and opened the door for her, she refused to move.

"Come on, Serena. Do you want me to carry you into the resturaunt as well?" he asked with a devilish smile. "Come, you didn't have to resort to these methods. You could have just asked me to carry you." He winked suggestively.

Serena stared at him with open-mouthed astonishment before she quickly got out of the car and walked into the café. Darien smiled and followed.

***

Okay, that's it for Chapter 5! I need to work out exactly what's going to happen in the café, so I thought I'd stop here. I'll try to update when I have some free time, which will hopefully be soon! Hope you liked the chapter!