All standard disclaimers apply. Characters are based by Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon. Sorry its SO unbelievably late. If you've read the previous chapters, I suggest reading them again just for a recap. And if you're really kind, then leave a review. Thanks!

Chapter 3

'Oh, okay, its just an arm. I thought I was paralyzed.' She snuggled further into the embrace, and it wasn't until the arm tightened around her for a moment, as if for reassurance, that she fully woke up.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs like a banshee.

The stranger awoke and fell off the bed. He was obstructed from view because he was low on the floor. Serena started hurling things at him--anything she could get her hands on, all the while steadily screaming at him.

"WHO ARE YOU? HOW'D YOU GET IN HERE? I'M GONNA CALL THE COPS IF YOU DON'T GET OUT!! AAAHHH!!! SOMEONE!!"

The stranger dodged the items being thrown at him and tackled her to make her stop. He pinned her on the bed and held both of her wrist captive above her head. Serena tried kicking him, but he soon ended that tactic by straddling her.

Serena's wild blue eyes opened as wide as she could possibly make them and focused on her attacker. She screamed again, "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....You?" The scream died in her throat as she recognized who was on top of her. She stopped moving altogether and blinked a couple of times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. She slowly turned her head to where he was originally standing. Seeing that he wasn't there anymore, she slowly turned her head back to him, now looking confused. Blue met blue. "But, how is this possible? You're a dum...a mannequin."

"I really don't know. But I gotta say, you're taking it far better than I thought you would; you calmed down pretty fast."

"What is that supposed to mean? And would you please get off of me?" He was still pinning her down. She continued her tirade as he moved, "How long have you been like this? Were you faking the enTIRE TIME?!"

"No, No, NO!!" he tried to reassure her. "Let me explain. I don't know how this has been happening, but I've been waking up. It's always at night, though, and you were asleep. But I find that each time that I've become aware of things, my consciousness has been lasting longer and longer." He looked over to her window. "This is my first time seeing sunshine, and my first time seeing you awake. You have very beautiful eyes, my love."

Serena took in his story. It was totally unbelievable. But here he was! Talking to her. Then the last part of what he said registered. "I'm not your love! You don't even know me."

"Oh, but I do," He combed his fingers through her loose hair and cupped her cheek. "You are Serena Tsukino, aren't you? You are a spirited, talented young lady, who likes variety in her life. You are loyal to those you love, and you even allow the strangers you meet a liberal amount of trust. You'd do anything to help those who need it. Your dislikes probably include not being able finish all that you set out to accomplish, which I think comes from your helping others. But I want you to know that I'm here to help you. I love you. If you need someone to lean on, let me be your pillar. If you want someone to point the way, I'll be your guide. Please, don't let this wonderful thing happening for us be in vain. I don't want to lose you, but if that's what you wish, then so be it. I'd do anything to please you, Serena." He raised her hand and gently squeezed it.

Serena continued to look at him, and peered deeply into his eyes as though searching for an answer. "This is all so...nuts. It's impossible! I mean really. And I cannot believe that I'm actually starting to believe you." She must've gotten an answer, because her expression relaxed. She trailed her finger around his facial plane. "But there's something in your eyes that tells me to believe you."

He caught her hand and tenderly kissed the back of her hand, and gazed lovingly into her eyes. Suddenly, she was gathered up close and locked in a vice-like grip. "You have no idea how tortuous it was for me," he continued, his voice sounded shaky. "I only desire was to hear your voice, to talk with you, to truly get to know you, and you know me. But I was afraid of your reaction when you found out what was happening. I was so afraid, Serena. And now that I'm here and finally have you in my arms, I never want to go back to that darkness again."

"But how can we keep that from happening? I don't really understand."

"Neither do I. But this is the longest I ever stayed conscious. I've never really fallen asleep before. It must be something that you do. Tell me, love, what do you do? What's your routine? It must be something that you do."

"Serena explained her usual schedule, her classes, her friends, painting and talking to him, and then going to bed."

"And there isn't anything else? The only time you've spent with me is when you paint and talk to me?"

"Yeah, and then I go to bed."

"Oh." he sounded disappointed.

"And...uh," she hesitated, and looked away from him.

"Yeah?" he prompted.

"Well, I almost forgot," her face flamed, "I usually kiss you goodnight."

"You do?" he smirked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry. It seems sort of weird now. But I hadn't figured--"

He pressed his fingers against her mouth. "Shhh. It's me who should be apologizing. No one should experience a one-sided kiss. Even if it's just a peck." With that, he lightly brushed his lips against hers. A single, soft kiss. She thought that she could have imagined it. Serena saw that his eyes had darkened from that innocent butterfly kiss. The deep blue eyes became even more loving as he looked down at her. His head slowly lowered to meet her own. Serena's eyes closed. She could feel his warm breath on face, when she suddenly pushed him away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she pushed him away from her and got out of bed. "I believe that you came to life, and I may even believe that you...love...me. Or that you think you do. But I don't fall that quickly buddy. You're certainly moving too fast for me. What we really need to be doing right now is finding out how to keep you here."

He moved to follow her, "I really believe there's something in your kisses...," he made a move to hold her again.

Serena backed away, "Stop that! You already gave me a peck, and that's all I ever did. Besides, for all we know, it could be something that you've done. Tell me what happens when you come alive."

He explained that when he woke up, she'd be asleep, so he'd usually kept watch, but soon he started exploring her apartment. Not really snooping, but little things, like reading her books, eating her food. He even went out and strolled around the silent city.

"That was YOU who was eating all my food! I knew I wasn't going crazy." She got a weird look on her face as another thought came up. Her eyes traveled her around the bedroom, "And was that you putting the flowers by my door?"

The meaningful look and tender smile he gave answered her question.

She smiled then. "Thank you, Spidey. That was sweet of you." She moved to kiss him again, but he looked too eager. Instead, she walked to her closet and searched for something to wear. "We really need to find you another name. I don't like spiders, and I hadn't seriously considered giving you another name because you were Spiderman. I wasn't expecting to win you, you know."

"Win me?"

"Yeah, you were the prize for Blockbuster video sweepstakes. I thought it was just a promotional gag for the movie. I didn't even want to sign up!"

"What made you sign up?"

"My brother, Sam. It was really stupid. I was there in line complaining how the prizes are never real and how I'd never sign up for anything so crazy, when the little twerp dared me to do it. He knows I never back away from them, no matter how stupid." She brought out some cloths and laid them out. "Hey, considering how you got here, maybe I ought to call you "Dare" or something." She looked him over, "Darryl...no, Darren...Darien. Yeah! Darien! That was relatively easy. What do you think about that name?"

"Whatever you wish is fine with me."

"Argh, fine. Now get out, I have to shower and get dressed," she looked at what he was wearing as she pushed him out the door, "and so do you. You can't run around in those pajamas all day. After my late classes, I'll go out and get you some things."

"Serena, one question. Why are you taking all of this so calmly?"

She smiled wide, "I read a lot of stories."

So after school, Serena spent her time shopping for the newly dubbed, "Darien". She returned with many bags and handed the entire armload to him. Later, after a ridiculously long shower--he'd never experienced that before--he came out dressed in the t-shirt and jeans that she got him. He modeled them for her.

"Wow." she murmured. "You look great!"

He just smiled in response and was moved to take her in his arms to show his appreciation.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"I wonder who that is," she was grateful for the interruption. Being so close to him was doing something to her insides. She opened the door.

"LITA!"

"Hey Serena. Look, grab some bags, they're heavy."

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean 'what am I doing here?' I told you I was coming on Thursday, and you said drop by after seven."

Serena gasped. "It's Thursday already? The party's tomorrow! It's AFTER SEVEN?! My mom's gonna fry me! I didn't even call her!"

"Whoa, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

"Serena?" came a deep voice outside of the kitchen.

"Who's that?" asked Lita.

Darien walked into the kitchen. "Oh, hello," he greeted Lita.

Lita eyes got big as she looked over the gorgeous man, "Hello yourself."

"I heard yelling, I thought I'd check on you," he said, "everything's okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. This is my friend Lita. Lita, Darien. I totally forgot about going to dinner at my folk's house. I gotta call my mom later."

"Yeah, and I have to go do some other things. Uh, Serena, walk me out."

"Sure Lita. Darien. Don't touch anything. Lita forbade me to even peek at what she made." She walked away with Lita in tow.

"Ok," Lita harshly whispered as soon as they were out of earshot. "Who is the fabulous looking man? Where'd you meet him? And what's going on between you two?"

Serena sighed. "It's a long story Lita. I don't have time to go into it. Just please, don't say anything to anyone yet. I need to figure what's going on myself. But I promise, you and the girls will be the first to know."

"Alright Serena. I won't say anything yet, but just tell us soon. I don't want to be around Mina if and when she finds out on her own. If you need help, you know where to look. Say, is he coming to the party?"

"I don't know. I'll ask."

"Yeah. And tell him to bring some friends if they look anything like him."

Serena laughed and said bye to her friend. She walked back inside to find that Darien had put away all the food that Lita brought over.

"What's with all the food?" he asked.

"We're having a party here tomorrow night. A costume party. That Spiderman costume is gonna come in handy. That reminds me, you're gonna meet all the girls tomorrow. They're coming over early to help me set everything up."

"I'd love to meet your friends, Serena. I want to be a part of your life, and I want you to be a part of mine."

"Yes, but first we have to establish a life for you to live. Once we figure out how to keep you here on a more permanent basis, we'll talk. Right now, I need to call my mom."

The night went on, and they stayed up talking. Darien told her of all the things he wanted to see and do. She told him her dream of being a top food critic for four-star restaurants. She already had a job at the city's newspaper as a research assistant.

Serena yawned, and looked at the clock. It was now after midnight. "I have to get some sleep, I gotta get up early tomorrow morning to let the girls in. You might as well share the bed with me, seeing as how you've been doing that all these weeks."

They walked to her room. He stopped her, and pulled her into his arms. "Thank you for today. If I never wake up again, I want to tell you how much I enjoyed being with you. It was amazing." He hugged her close, and kissed her hair.

She stood there a while with him, enjoying being this close to him and being encased in his arms. "Thank you," she answered. "I had fun too." She smiled. He let her go, and she disappeared into the bathroom to change. When she came out, she saw that he was standing and staring at the bed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he turned and looked at her, "it's just that I've never actually been under the covers before."

Serena laughed, "It's no big deal. C'mon." She climbed into bed and settled herself in. She felt the bed depress and the sheets shift as he moved. She reached over and turned out the lamp. "Goodnight, Darien."

"Goodnight, Serena."

All was quiet, and Serena was almost asleep when Darien spoke.

"Serena?"

"Yeah?" she mumbled.

"Would you mind if I...," he hesitated, "Would you mind if I held you?"

She smiled in her half sleep, and scooted closer to him. His warm arms came around her once more and pulled her closer, if possible, to his chest. The rising and falling of his chest was soothing. Serena woke up a little more and thought about how nice and comfortable this felt. She then drifted off to sleep.

He couldn't believe the wonderful day that he had had. He never expected to meet her face to face. Though her reaction to him this morning caught him off guard, he was infinitely glad that he made the mistake of being found out. Serena was everything that he thought her to be and more. He loved everything about her. The way she laughed, the way all her emotions showed on her face, her thoughts and feelings about life, and people, even the way she ate. He loved her so much. He had to figure out how to stay with her permanently. He pulled her closer as if to reassure himself that he wasn't leaving anytime soon. He couldn't wait until the morning when he'd get to see her luminous blue eyes open once more. Darien dozed off but woke up when he felt that familiar tingling in his arms and legs.

"Oh no," he whispered. "Serena!" He had to unentangle him arms from around her before she would be trapped. Darien knew he didn't have much time left, but he needed to get back in his blue and red bodysuit and fast. He winced as the stiffening increased, and he hurried over to where he left the suit. Dressing as quickly as he could, he wanted to wake Serena to tell her goodbye. Who knew when he'd wake up again. But his body was solidifying too rapidly. He kissed her cheek, and walked over to his corner and watched her until everything went dark.

Serena reached out to touch Darien and encountered emptiness. She raised her head up to see where he was and saw that he wasn't there. 'Is he in the bathroom?' That's when she saw him standing in the corner with his Spiderman bodysuit. She groaned, "It was a dream?" She jumped out of bed and ran over to him and threw her arms around his waist. "It was a nice dream, Darien." She looked into his eyes once more, thinking about the 'dream' and caressed his face. She reached up and kissed him, then turned and got ready for the day.

The girls arrived later that day and moved Serena's furniture around, and set up the lights. Amy and Raye paired off to hook up the speakers and other electronic things, Mina shuffled through the music, and Serena and Lita went to the kitchen.

"So is Darien coming?"

Serena swung around to stare at Lita in surprise. "What?"

"Serena, you've been out of it since yesterday. Are you getting enough sleep?"

"I'm fine Lita, you just surprised me with that question."

"Why? Oh, never mind. So is he coming? More importantly, is he bringing any friends?"

"Oh, uh, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if he's coming."

Lita saw that Serena obviously had other things on her mind. Was something wrong? "Hey, seriously, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just still tired I guess. I'll be right back."

Serena ran out of the kitchen towards her bedroom.

"Hey Serena!" called Mina.

"Where did you put the new cds you bought? I can't find them."

"Um, hold on. I'll go get them."

She continued her trek to her room, closed the door, and went straight to Darien's still form. She sadly gazed at him as she fought the tears. She just couldn't hold them in.

"Darien," she sobbed. "It wasn't a dream. But I don't know how to wake you up again." All of the stories and fairytales that she's ever read and heard came to mind. Should she wish? Kiss him? Rub him like Aladdin's lamp? What? She tried everything she thought of, and stood back each time she did something different to watch for a reaction. Nothing happened.

What could she do? No other ideas were forthcoming, so she just stood there and mourned the loss of possibly the greatest love the world has even known.

"Serena!" called Mina, "have you found those cds yet?"

"I'm coming Mina." She grabbed her latest cds, and looked once more at Darien. "Don't worry Darien. I'll think of something." Walking out, she remembered that the girls needed to get dressed in here, so she pulled her dressing screen over to cover Darien and left.

"Well, that's it," said Raye, "Come on. Let's get ready before the guests arrive."

The four girls grabbed their stuff and ran to Serena's room.

Serena hung back, making sure everything was alright and that her apartment was still in fact, her apartment. While doing so, she reviewed everything that happened with Darien, and everything she did all those nights with him. Nothing special. She just painted him, talked to him, kissed him goodnight and went to bed. Kissed him goodnight... Maybe there was something in her kisses after all. But she had kissed him this morning too. So if that was the case, why didn't he wake up again? Maybe it only works in the wee hours of the morning or something.

Meanwhile, the girls were talking. "What's up with Serena?" asked Mina.

"I'm not sure, but she sure seemed distracted right after we got here. Do you think anything's wrong?" asked Amy.

"How can you tell?" said Raye, "That Meatball Head is always out of it."

"Give her a break Raye," said Lita, "she has a lot on her mind these days. Besides, it's probably just about that guy that was with her yesterday."

Everything became silent.

"What guy?" screeched Mina. "How come I'm just hearing about this? How long have you known? I'm gonna march right out there and get some answers from blondie out there. SER--" A hand cut off her call.

"Shh!!" said Lita. "Chill Mina. Look, I don't know anything because she said she wanted to figure things out first. She made me promise that I wouldn't say anything, but it slipped. C'mon, don't say anything, please?" She looked pleadingly at all three girls. "Mina?" Lita took her hand away from her mouth. "Oh. Sorry."

"Well, alright. But I'm gonna ream her if she doesn't tell us soon.

"Don't worry. I already threatened her. I want to know too."

The conversation was dropped when Serena walked in. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing," they replied, and went back to getting dressed.

Some of the guests arrived early, but everything was ready. Raye, in her Wonder Woman costume, was the most ready and started greeting guests as they filed in. She cranked up the music, and called over a guy from school to work the sound system.

Amy's costume looked like it was poured onto her. She definitely commanded attention in her tight, black leather bodysuit and her 4" heeled boots. Her blue eyes flashed out of the eyeholes of the costume. No one knew who was behind the mask, and so with added confidence, she picked certain guys she knew and smacked them with her whip. When she knew she had their full interest, she only quirked her bright red lips at them, and turned away to her next victim.

Lita walked out next in her vintage business suit. It was a black pinstripe and polka dot suit. She had her hair down and in a net like those movies from the 1940s. She even put on false eyelashes to make her eyes stand out more, and candy apple red lipstick. She carried a small notebook with the words, "Daily Planet" as a prop.

Mina, as Supergirl, stayed behind because she need to do some last minute touches on her makeup and to help Serena with her red wig. "I think my skirt shrunk. It didn't look like this when I tried it on." She stepped back. "Do you think it looks too short? Serena?"

"Hmm? Oh, no Mina. I think it looks fine."

"Oh, good." She through her stuff, "Serena, I can't find my lipstick. Can I borrow that Magic Kisses shade? I liked it, it looked natural."

"Oh sure. Wait, what did you call it?"

"Magic Kisses."

"Magic Kisses? Mina! I told you to get Kissable Magic! I never even heard of Magic Kisses. Oh well, I've been wearing it all along and never noticed the difference. It's in my purse."

"Thanks."

The other three girls filed in. "Hey, everyone's here. What's keeping you?" asked Lita.

"Yeah," said Raye, "and you should see all the guys crowding Amy."

"Well then they really won't stand a chance as soon as they see all five of us, right Serena?" asked Mina.

Serena grinned, "Right."

She just wasn't her usual bubbly self--and this was a party!

"We forgot to take Spiderman out there," said Amy.

"Oh yeah, Spidey!" exclaimed Mina. "Can we see his real face right quick Serena?"

"Uh, sure." She moved the screen out of the way, and heard the gasps of her friends.

"Oh, Serena! He's gorgeous!"

"He's hot."

"He's is a Greek sculpture."

"He's Darien!"