"Toy store!" Serena shouted in pure joy, pushing the struggling teenager in with her.

"Serena!" her brother groaned, looking around and trying to pretend that he wasn't with this complete psycho.

"Oh my god! Glow worms!" was the high pitched response, "Sammy, look at this."

"Serena, don't call me that." He said in exasperation.

That got the blonde's attention.

"What's the matter Sammy?" she asked, smirking, emphasizing his name.

Her brother grabbed a Pickachu plush and threw it at her. Serena giggled as she ducked the flying rodent and ran into the next aisle. A second later a large Tigger came sailing over the shelves, missing him by mere inches.

Over the next few minutes everything from Care Bears to X-Men were launched by the two siblings at each other.

And then they found the box of finger darts.

The darts were foam missiles were rubber bands at one end so that a person could send them flying. After that, it wasn't too long till they were kicked out. But not before they bought a half dozen of the missiles.

Serena and her brother, Sammy or Sam as he was trying desperately to get his sister to call him, were spending the day together at the mall. Serena glanced at her brother as they walked into the music store. He had grown up a lot while she had been gone. He was at the age when he was desperately trying to prove to both himself and others that he was mature and no longer a child.

And like any good sister, Serena used this to torment him constantly.

Serena waited as Sam began to shuffle through the music, looking for anything that was worth buying. As soon as he was completely absorbed in what he was doing she took careful aim with one of her missiles and let it fly.

And missed.

The missile went sailed over his head and hit someone else in the back of the head. Serena dropped to her knees instantly, trying to look innocent and absorbed in the music in front of her.

After waiting for a short while she slowly stood back up and looked around covertly for the person she had hit. She hadn't gotten a good look at her accidental victim so she wasn't quite sure who she was looking for but no one was in the aisle her missile had gone into so she figured it was safe to casually walk over there and see if she could retrieve her toy.

She didn't see it after her first quick walk through that section. Eventually she decided to just swallow her dignity and got down on her hands and knees to look under the shelves. As she was searching, a bright yellow foam missile appeared in her vision, dangled in her face by a hand attached to an arm which was attached to...

"Darien."

"Serena, is there a reason you were attacking me in public?" Darien asked, a small smile was threatening to break through his control on his features at the sight of the flustered blonde on the floor.

"I missed." she admitted sheepishly.

"No, actually you hit me pretty straight on." Darien said.

"I wasn't aiming at you moron, I was aiming at..."

"Serena! Can you loan me a couple dollars?" Sam said, walking up to the pair with a couple CDs in his hand.

Serena could feel Darien looking at her as she dug into her purse and pulled out some cash and handed it to Sam, a questioning look in his eyes. When Sam took off to buy his finds Darien raised a single eyebrow at her.

"Who was that?" he finally asked when no information was forthcoming.

"That was my brother, Sam." Serena finally said.

"Your brother? I thought you weren't talking to your family."

"I'm not. Well, not my parents. But I ran into Sam awhile ago and we've been hanging out a little."

"That's great." Darien said, "You two seem close."

A slight smile flashed across her face, "Yea. He's a great kid and we get along better than I remember."

"Probably has something to do with not living under the same roof anymore." Darien said wryly.

Serena saw Sam, that name still seemed weird to her, coming back towards them, "Did you want to hang out with us?"

Darien shook his head, "No. You two should hang out together. Besides, I've got some stuff I need to do this afternoon."

Serena nodded, "Alright, then I'll see you later."

* * * * *

Darien watched as Serena and her brother walked out of the store.

She had been keeping a lot of secrets lately it seemed. This was just one more. She could have told him at any time that she was hanging out with her brother again but instead she had chosen not to.

At times it seemed like she didn't trust him. Oh, she always told him things having to do with the scouts but it still seemed like after all these months that he was still having to fight for a place in her life outside of the fighting. He knew that she had been hurt by things he had done in the past but he had hoped they would be able to have a new beginning.

Seeing Ami and Zoicite together had actually made him jealous. Ami wasn't holding anything back when it came to Zoicite. She had decided to trust him and she was giving him that trust with no strings attached. He knew that it was difficult for the blue haired girl to do that but Ami had always been one to never do anything by half measures.

Serena had been like that once too.

Now though, something had changed. Too many people had taught her to that love meant pain. And unlike in the past there had been no one around for her to look at and tell herself otherwise. He knew what she was doing. He had spent the part of his life after his parents died believing that anyone he got close to would eventually leave. But Serena had bounced back into his life. Twice. And that had made all the possible future pain and loss worth the present love and happiness.

Serena had said that. She knew it. But he knew there was a vast chasm between knowing something and believing it with all your heart.

So he was being patient with her. Or at least trying. There were times that the pain of her mistrust clawed at him and made him want to yell at her, shake her small frame and force her to truly understand how much he loved her and how much he wanted her to love him the same way.

He knew better than that though. He wasn't going to do anything that would give her an excuse to retreat into herself further.

* * * * *

Serena came home that night after her day with her brother and began to raid her fridge.

All day her thoughts had been on Darien. She had seen the hurt in his eyes when he realized that she had been hiding her little family reunion from him.

She hadn't done it to hurt him. It just seemed like there were times that she wanted a life apart from the scouts and monsters, apart from all the fear and fighting. Something sane and normal. Her brother was that something for her. It had just seemed like even mentioning her brother to Darien would somehow stain her relationship with her brother, take away some of its normalcy by bringing it into contact with her other personality. She knew it was ridiculous but that didn't mean she could stop the feelings.

Everyone who came into her life seemed to get drawn into her constant fighting with the enemies of her long dead kingdom. Her friends from school, her family, even complete strangers that she only talked to for a couple minutes. It was like she was some sort of horrible curse on humanity and everyone she came into contact with got affected.

So she had hidden her brother away, made him her own little secret, a secret to be kept from everyone. But the secret was out now and it had caused pain to one of the people she never wanted to hurt.

She knew that Darien would never admit it. He was her dark Prince, who would always stand beside her, offering his strength and power. And no matter how much she hurt him he would never let it show or turn away from her. And because of it she was determined to save him from any kind of pain.

She laughed at that.

They were quite the pair, the Earth and the Moon. Dark and Light. Man and Woman. Constantly circling one another, drawn toward the other. Both were equally determined to stand between the other and harm and both were equally stubborn in their resolve. And he was stubborn at times. Stubborn and pig headed and obnoxious. He could push her buttons like no one else in the world. It seemed at times like he enjoyed seeing her mad. There were times when she thought that the only thing keeping her from hating him was the fact that she loved him.

She tried to stop smiling as she thought of him but eventually gave up.

She would have to talk to him. Explain about her brother and her feeling and her fears. She really didn't want to but he deserved it.

She sighed, finally giving in to the realization that no matter how far she dug in her fridge there was nothing to eat. She grabbed the phone and dialed.

"Hello."

"Hi. I'd like to make an order for take out."

"Serena?"

"Yes, I'd like one tall, dark, handsome man delivered to my apartment with a side order of food please."

Laughter.

Serena loved that sound. It was so low and deep, so full of emotion.

"I'll be there in thirty minutes or the food is free." Came the eventual response before the phone clicked off.

* * * * *

Darien took thirty two minutes. Which meant he had to pay for the food.

They spent most of the night curled up of the couch, watching movies and just enjoying one another.

At the end of the movie Serena watched as Darien turned off the television with the remote and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

Darien looked at her in surprise, "For what?"

"For hurting you. For keeping secrets. For not telling you about Sam."

Darien pulled her towards him, "Its okay. There was no reason why you had to tell me."

"No." Serena said firmly. "It is not okay. I was trying to keep you out of a part of life."

"Serena, I understand."

"Darien, let me say this, okay? It was not okay. I love you. I want you to be a part of my life. All of my life and not just the parts that involve fighting and the past. I was being stupid and selfish and I'm sorry."

Darien leaned over and kissed her, taking her by surprise since she had refused to look at him during her whole speech. It was a gentle kiss that said more eloquently than words how he felt. When he pulled away he smiled at her.

"I love you too."

Maybe they didn't have as far to go in their relationship as he had thought.

* * * * *

Okay, sorry, still no Lita but I needed to do some good old fashioned S/D filler and to remind you all about Serena's family... Anyways, Lita's story starts in the next chapter. Come on, tell me you guys can't see Lita as a fiery Irish lass. And don't tell me Nephlite doesn't look Irish to you too. Oops, too much info. Oh! And if I miss anyone I'm sorry but ff.net is a touchy site that sometimes doesn't give me all the reviews. Super sorry.

Ginny-Star - Yeppers, the others are coming. Why is that no one ever believes me? *sigh*

Lil-PrincessK - Well, here is a little Serina/Darien fluff and we'll get Lita in the next chapter which I will try to get out soon.

Jedi Master Calriel - That sounds like an awsome story idea. Let me know if you write it. As for the outers, I'm thinking I may have to drag at least Pluto into solve some of the problems but we'll see. This story is already too confusing for me sometimes. I'm surprised people still read it.

Jabba1 - Oh man. I am actually looking forward to Rei and Jadite. It'll be fun. Volatile. But fun.

happygolucky111 - Despite what anyone who has read my other fics may think, I do not like unhappy endings. I love angst but I need my happy ending so right now, in true Sailor Moon fashion, I am planning of everyone hooking up and living happily ever after. Eventually.

Chibi J - You're frightened?!?! I'm the one looking at this and hyperventalating. I seriously think I've lost complete control over this monster and am just along for the ride. But hey, its fun. Anyways, I'm glad you enjoy it so far. As for downtime, I would love to put some in but I think that things like this chapter are as close as I can get. More of an author problem than a story problem.

BenRG - I think I said before that I could go either way with the pairings but I want to play a lot with the whole past/future destiny stuff and so this is what ya get. I actually love Chad and Rei (part of the reason he got such a nice feature there). Anyways, I know I said I was going to e- mail you (I did say that right?) I actually tried onece but my internet chose the moment I hit the send button to die on me and I was too lazy to rewrite the whole thing. I'll have to try again sometime here. But this is me so don't expect a lot.

Deny - Lita is definatly next and you'll just have to wait to see who gets mixed in there with her.

Mercurial1 - The scouts have no clue who Rini is. Anything that happened after Beryl in the comics/show didn't happen in this story unless I've said otherwise. Rini may have tried to run into the past but Serena and Darien were not at the park to find her, Serena had been kicked out of her house so Rini couldn't live with her and that meant that there was no where for Rini to hide from the four sisters.

JerseyGirl03 - Rubeus is going to die. And probably not at the scouts hands. How's that for a teaser?

Mena1 - Can't stop. Too many evil plot bunnies.

Bluejello - Well, I'm glad people like my Zoicite. I was a little worried about that chapter. I knew all the characters were a little OOC but it was because I was trying to mix their old personalities with their newer ones. Blah!

FireSenshi2 - I'm updating, I'm updating. Pushy reviewers. I luv ya!