Heeeeey guys!! I know I haven't been writing over the past few day - ok, ok - months but that's all OKAY now…'cause I'm back!!! *cheers and throws confetti * Hey! Don't run away! Plllleeeease….lol…anyway, this is the next chapter for the story and also, I updated the other story too so if you can, check it out and tell me if you like it (if you don't, don't tell me…lol…jk…just no flames, alright? ;) ) On with the story!!!

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Darien struggled through the small gathering, with Serena trying not to laugh. When Darien wrinkled his forehead, the uni-brow looked mushed together. One of the officers stepped up. "She was actually the one who helped catch our man. Are you her boyfriend?"

"NO!"
"Never!"

The officers tried not to grin as the woman and man stared at them as if they were crazy. "Alright then. Would you mind backing away, sir? We're almost done with Miss Serena."

Darien stepped back as Serena scowled at him. She yelled over the people, "What did you think I was, Darien? The robber?"

He scoffed, "No. I was just surprised. Although, knowing you, I shouldn't be…" With that he turned around and headed towards his car, cutting off Serena's reply. He didn't want to admit that he was actually concerned as well as shocked. As he was almost about to put his foot inside he heard someone calling his name.

"Darien! Is that you?" Darien squinted to see over the headlights. He could make out two feminine bodies…oh god. He didn't need more of where Serena came from. He wanted to sit in peace. Maybe even scrub his face for a while. Permanent marker comes of sooner or later, right?

Lita and Mina jumped out of their beetle to see a small congregation around the quaint store. Lita caught a glimpse of Serena among the small crowd of officers and was on her way to talk to her when Darien said, "She's okay, Lita. She'll be done in a sec."

Mina looked incredulously at the whole scene and turned to Darien, asking, "What is going - Holy cow! What did you do to your face?" Darien gritted his teeth as Mina stepped closer to see his face. Then it dawned on her. "Serena did that didn't she?"

Lita, although still concerned, chuckled. "I didn't know Serena had the talent."

Darien muttered, "Neither did I."

"What did you do this time?" Darien's eyes flew wide open.

"Do? I didn't do anything to her! I just think that she gets some kick out of this!"

Lita raised an eyebrow. "Uh…huh.."

Mina said, "Anyway, what are you doing here with Serena? What happened? We were just driving by to get some last minute…uhh… groceries when we saw you standing here." She grinned. "So we decided to stop and say hi." Darien really wished they would say bye as well. He knew that a major headache was on the way. Not that it was Mina's or Lita's fault. It was Serena's. And his damn procrastination on the paper.

"I don't know what happened, either. Serena went walking a few hours ago and when she didn't come back, Andrew sent me to look for her and this is where I found her. Why are you guys shopping this late, anyway?"

Lita grinned. "We realized that we were missing some ingredients for breakfast tomorrow."

"But you could just buy it tomorrow." Mina rolled her eyes.

"But these ingredients are something that every girl needs once in a while." She stressed the word 'girl', basically winking at him. Darien's face registered what they were talking about and nodded, wanting to drop the conversation he stared. He saw Serena walking up to them, tired and ready to sleep on the spot. Mina rushed over, jumping with excitement. "Serena, you have to tell us what happened! Oh my gosh! It looked so thrilling!"

Lita on the other hand, was more concerned. "Are you alright? Why was the police with you? Tell me nothing happened!" Serena looked at Lita's worrying face and enveloped her and Mina into a big hug. She smiled at them.

"Guys, thanks for worrying about me," she said, shooting that directly at Darien, "but I really need to get back. I'm tired and hungry and feel like shit." Serena didn't want to talk at the moment because if she did, she would lose whatever energy she managed to grab and keep.

"Of course, Serena. Want a lift?" Lita asked, pointing to their beetle. Serena, although happy for the offer, stared pointedly at Darien, who was everything but subtle. He shrugged his shoulders to say "What?" Serena said, "Thanks guys, but I'll just go back with Darien. I need sleep, fast." With one last hug, Lita and Mina departed, just as the rest of the crowd was parting (seeing that the interesting stuff was over). Darien opened his door once more and sat inside. Serena scowled before she walked around to sit in the front. What a gentleman. What a gentleman, Darien. After starting the engine, they were on the way back. Serena, for once, appreciated the silence. Looking back on what she did back in the store made her want to kick herself in a million places. How careless could she have been? That guy was big and you are a puny girl who held him down. However, it was hilarious to see him whimper like a wimp. Unknowingly, she giggled, startling Darien.

What the hell can she be giggling about? She was just involved as a witness in a robbery and she looked like she was dunked in water, her hair breezing any which way, her eyes wide, her nose ready to call it quits, and her face was overall pale. He felt a pang of concern as she finally sneezed for the first time. His knuckles gripped the steering wheel tighter. Oh, no, Darien. You will not feel sorry for that little minx. Minx?! Where did that come from.

"What's the giggling for?" he asked, still looking at the road. Serena startled, her attention drifting away from her thoughts. She smirked.

"For your information, that was a sneeze."

"Thanks, Meatball head. I was asking about before."

"When did I giggle?"

"Nevermind."

"Oh. Well, I was thinking about the robber and how he was whining when I was hitting him with the bottle -"

Serena almost toppled over the dashboard when Darien slammed the brakes down, earning the honking of irate drivers behind him. "You were hitting the robber?"
"Well, technically, yea but it wasn't like anything was -" Darien slammed the accelerator, making her fly back into her seat. "Hey! If you're trying to kill me, I'd rather do it one on one, not in a car."

Darien gritted his teeth. She was attacking the robber? How stupid can she be! She could have hurt herself beyond repair. "Did…he…have…a-a…gun?" Serena could literally hear Darien grinding his teeth and was hesitant to answer. On the flip side, she reassured herself, he cared. For some reason, that though warmed her up a little. "Well…I don't remember. I'm sure that some sleep will help me answer your irritating questions tomorrow." Alright, she thought, a million and one kicks. By watching the route, she realized that if she took a right instead of a left, she could have saved herself hours…well, something like that! Darien fell into silence as he brought the car into the parking lot. She wrapped her jacket tight around her body before running into the building. Without waiting for Darien, she walked into the elevator, making Darien dive in before the doors closed. He scowled, "You could have held the 'open' button."

She quipped, "I could, if I would."

When Darien opened the door with his key, there stood Andrew…and Ami and Rei, all looking very, very angry. Serena cowered behind Darien. "Hide me!" she squeaked. It was Darien's turn to smirk. He walked away, leaving Serena completely exposed to the killer glazes. "Heeeey, guys, "came her whimpering voice. Darien, wanting to add the salt in, said with sarcasm, "Did you know what a fun evening she was having? Walking in the cold for hours, searching for a phone, getting into a crime scene, beating up the robber - boy, it just excited me to hear about it." He could feel Serena's glare as the other three's jaws dropped.

Rei was aghast. She grabbed Serena's shoulders and shook them - hard. "What hell were you thinking, Serena? Beating up the robber? Did he have a gun?"

"You know, Rei, that Darien asked me exactly the -"

"Answer me, Serena!" Her violet-blue eyes flashed with anger at the cowering Serena.

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaa…."

Ami squeaked. "Oh my gosh! You could have gotten hurt!" Her eyes flowed over her friend's body, looking for a sign of injury or a small bruise.

Andrew on the other hand, looked excited yet worried at the same time, confused on which one to express at the moment. "That was highly irresponsible, yet very interesting, Serena. That's pretty brave to -"

"Andrew!" the two girls and Darien cried, shutting him up. Rei glanced at her watch and beckoned Ami.

"We gotta go. Serena looks fine to me and Mina and Lita will be back anytime now." She glared at Serena once more, pointing her finger at Serena. "Don't think we're done with you! You're spilling it all tomorrow. By the way, Darien, if you didn't notice, you have ridiculous things all over your face." Ami leaned forward to see what the writing read before exiting.

With a small sympathetic smile, she said, "I think you have a brain, Darien. Don't feel bad." With that the door closed behind a glazing mad Rei and a worrisome Ami. Darien tried scrubbing once more for luck but no avail. Serena turned cold eyes on Darien, who shrugged. "What?"

"You know what! You did that on purpose!"

"Oh, quick thinking there, Meatball head." Andrew jumped between them and held up his hands to silence them.

"That's enough, you two. Right now, I have some delicious but cold lasagna in the oven, heating up. You two will sit our butts down, enjoy a nice dinner, and get some rest. Tomorrow, we can talk about it."

Serena sniffed and stuck her nose in the air. "Fine. And for the record, Lita and Mina were cool with it."

But Andrew pointed out, "But Lita and Mina aren't Ami and Rei. It's just that they care. All of them do. And you really can't frighten them like that. It's not fair to them."

Serena looked surprised. "Not fair? Who do you think was kicked out into this place, huh? (A great place, nevertheless, Andrew). I think they deserved the fright." With that she firmly folded her arms and held her ground.

Darien smirked. "For once, I have to agree with her. It wasn't fair that her friends sent her here. Poor me." Andrew smacked him on the shoulder. "That's enough! You two will eat. Now."

After grabbing up their plates, Serena plopped on one end of the couch while Darien scooted to the other extreme end."

"You know, Darien. There are other places to sit."

"Shut up, Meatball head."

"I told you not to call me that! You arrogant -"

"Jerk? Slime? Loser? Reject? Nothing original." Darien's took a victory bit of the nasty lasagna as Serena sat back into the couch, too tired to think of a reply. Andrew sat down firmly between the two.

"You two are acting just the way you did a few years ago," Andrew snapped. Then he continued, "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you were flirting." He immediately noticed two bodies lacking motion. Serena had stopped chewing, while Darien's fork was in mid-air. Andrew secretly smiled until his ears were vibrating from the outraged, "No way!"

"Get a life, Andrew!"

"Then would you mind shutting up and just eating?" When they opened their mouth to protest, he gave them glares. And that was the end of that. Serena angrily chewed on the extremely chewy lasagna while Darien tried to look cool and postured.

"You know Andrew, this lasagna is very rubbery. Is it supposed to be like that?"

Another glare from the chef rendered her silent. Serena huffed. Where was Lita when she was needed the most?

Andrew thought the Lasagna was just fine and he didn't regret letting Serena into Darien's life for even a moment. It was nice to have a little variety in life. Why, he hadn't seen Darien so spirited before Serena. Now he was full of insults and fire, although it wasn't exactly a great thing. Who knew? Maybe, one day, they might learn to tolerate each other. Andrew felt relaxed as the environment around the apartment dropped into silence for a long moment until…

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.

"Darien, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to peel my skin off, Andrew. Do you mind?"

"It's permanent marker. It'll come off sooner or later."

"Probably later. Use the lasagna to scrub. It's hard enough."

"Shut up, Meatball head."

"I was just trying to help."

"Closing that big mouth would work."

"Bum."

"Reject."

"Loser."

"Son of a b-"

"Serena!"

" - anana. Sorry, Andrew."

Andrew sighed. Toleration wasn't exactly around the corner for these two.