Title: Welcome To Reality
Chapter Title: Apologies
Summary: Serena Warren, now fifteen, graduates the tenth grade with honours and is offered a chance to go to Japan on a student exchange program. Here, she realizes that the reason her dreams seemed so real is that they were.
Author: Silver Sparklze
Reason For Writing: This story was written as a challenge set by Sage: The Dark Dryad.
Author's Notes: I have tried to translate the Japanese next to the words, but even so, anything written in bold will be translated at the end of the chapter if not already translated.
~Serena's Room, Hikawa Shrine, Tokyo~
Serena jammed her clothes into her suitcase, muttering under her breath as she did so.
"Stupid bloody Scouts, screw them, never gonna get my help again, letting Nega-Verse beat me up, don't care who gets hurt. And if they think I'm staying here they've got another thing coming. I'll live on the streets before I spend another night here with someone who wants to kill me." With that, Serena snapped open her cell, and called Darien.
"Moshi moshi?" {Hello?} Darien sounded sort of tired.
"Darien-chan, it's me."
"Sere-chan! Are you all right? You seemed stressed."
"I'm better. Can I stay with you?" In a few minutes Serena managed to tell him the whole story. Darien was silent for a few minutes. "Darien-chan? Are you there?" Serena asked, worried that he may have been in on the scheme.
"Yes…I'm here…but Sere-chan…I've got Rini-chan staying with me, remember? And she doesn't like to share…she'll be very annoying. She may even be nasty."
"Are you saying you don't want me there?" Serena felt tears spring into her eyes.
"No!" Darien said, "no, I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is, perhaps you should think of an alternative, before you go to such an extreme? What can it hurt to spend one more night at Rei-chan's? Chikuso! Sorry, Sere-chan…I've got to go…look, I'll speak to you tomorrow, and if you still want to leave, we can work something out, ok?"
"Fine. Talk to you later." Serena hung up. "Fat lot of help you were." She snarled at the phone, before finishing her packing. No matter what Darien said, she was leaving tonight. Before the renegade Scouts gave up on waiting for her to be murdered, and committed the act themselves…
~The Park, Tokyo~
Serena walked through the park, musing at how almost all her walks led her to parks. Odd. She could sense someone following her, but was confidant she could take him or her on, and so did nothing about it, until they laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Serena-san?" {Serena?}
"Kino-san." {Miss Kino (very polite. In this situation, indicates you don't know the person very well, or you don't like them very much)} Serena said coldly. "What do you want?" Lita winced, obviously not expecting such a cold reply. Nor did she probably like seeing eyes so like the dead Sere-ko's looking at her coldly.
"I wanted to talk without you." She said carefully, "you made a mistake."
"I made a mistake?!" Serena cried, outraged. Lita looked shocked, and shook her head wildly.
"No, no I make mistake. I want to apologise for not help. I should help. It is my duty. Friend?" Lita held out her hand, and looked at Serena hopefully, Serena jerked away, eyes blazing.
"No, not friend. I can't be friends with someone I can't trust, and I can't trust someone who will stand by and watch me be beaten to death. So not friends." Lita's face fell.
"Sorry…" she whispered. "I realise what I did was wrong. But can't you give me a chance?"
"Kino-san," Serena said, suddenly exhausted, "I've given you all chances. Chances to make things right, chances to see I'm not the villain, chances to be my friend. I've done everything I can think of to make you understand. All of you. And yet only Rini-san, Hotaru-san, and Darien-chan seem to have listened to me. The rest of you have not. But Ami-san and Michelle-san weren't there last night either. They didn't watch me be beaten by a couple of Nega-Scum, and do nothing about it. They probably didn't even know I needed help, did they?" Lita shook her head, looking very ashamed of herself.
"Please, Serena-san? Just one more chance? I won't disappoint." Lita pleaded. Serena thought it over. Something in her soul urged her to accept, saying that Lita was trustworthy, and that she had nothing to lose. Except my life. She thought cynically, effectively shutting up that inner voice. However, she decided to take its advice anyway.
"Ok," she said, "but there's just one thing…" Lita looked nervous. "Can I stay at your place?" The brunette's face broke into a smile.
"Of course!" She exclaimed. "Come along, we shall go there now. Can you sleep on the couch?"
"Easily. I think I'm narcoleptic." Lita grin widened, although Serena was pretty sure the Japanese girl hadn't gotten the joke, grabbed Serena's suitcase, and headed towards her apartment…
Gleaming silver eyes appeared in the darkness, and an unseen mouth smiled. Things were going quite nicely…
~Lita's bedroom, Apartment 20A, Ryoori Gakkou Apartoo, Tokyo~
Serena giggled at Lita's story about the time they'd been trying to find the rainbow crystal a little girl was supposed to hold, and it had turned out to be the girl's cat.
"I was the last one in, and we all trip, so I am at angle I can see down Ami-chan's skirt. It is very embarrassing, I can tell you. I never telling Ami. She go…how you say…crazy."
"It wouldn't surprise me." Serena chuckled. Her stomach growled, and she checked her watch in surprise. "Wow," she said, "I can't believe how late it is. I'm starved."
"I make food." Lita said immediately, getting up from her perch.
"No," Serena said, "I'm imposing on you. I'll cook."
"If you anything like Sere-ko, I don't want you near my kitchen." Lita said firmly.
"Don't worry, I can cook." Serena said truthfully. She could cook. It was just that toasters didn't like her.
"I come and show where things are." Lita said, and both girls went into the kitchen, where Serena proceeded to make a stack of hotcakes that rivalled Mickey D's.
"Yum," Lita said a few moments later, "these are good. When you learn how cook so well?"
"I'm an orphan," Serena began.
"Oh, gomen nasai, Serena-san, I not mean to make you feel pain."
"No, Lita-chan, you didn't let me finish. I'm an orphan, and I had to take part in the kitchen chores. My favourite was always cooking. Louie-chan and I – Louie-chan's one of my friends, her full name is Louisa Kiki – Louie-chan and I used to like to cook together. And my friends and I – we were the Galaxy Girls – we all loved hotcakes, and we didn't have much money to buy them, so Louie-chan and I would make them. You know what they say, practice makes perfect."
"They say that?" Lita asked, looking confused.
"Ah, gomen, Lita-chan. Amerika-jin hyogen desu." {Sorry, Lita (informal). It's an American expression.}
"Ah. Ok, I understand. Well, I am tired. Are you?" Lita yawned as she said this, as if to prove her point.
"Yeah, I am at that." Serena said, suddenly realising what a long night it had been.
"The couch will be ok? Because you can sleep in my bed…"
"Don't be silly, Lita-chan. It's your bed. The couch if fine. O yasumi nasai." {Good night.}
"O yasumi nasai, Sere-chan. Omoshiroi yume omisau." {Good night, Serena. Pleasant dreams.} Lita headed for her room.
"Hai. Anata mo." {Yeah, you too.} Serena yawned, snuggling under the blankets, and falling asleep…
Chikusho: damn
Ryoori Gakkou Apartoo: Cooking School Apartments
Gomen Nasai: I'm sorry