Once Upon a ….. Sometime.
By Skyflame
Chapter ElevenWhile Lita sent word to her friends Serena ran to Darien's door and listened outside to make sure he was alone before bursting into the room and throwing herself into his arms and kissing him hard on the mouth. Darien was shocked, he wasn't expecting Serena back for another week especially since the snow had begun to fall, and had been looking out the window when someone had burst into his room and thrown themself at him shamelessly.
It took him a moment to realise that it was Serena who was dressed in this blue velvet dress and kissing him like they had been apart for years. He broke away from her mouth and spun her around pulling her tightly into his embrace before saying,
"I thought you wouldn't be back for another week at least. What are you doing here?" Serena looked at him and said pouting.
"Didn't you miss me at all? I missed you like crazy and couldn't wait to get back to you and tell you what I learnt",
"Did I miss you? What a silly question. Of course I missed you. I love you and hated every minute you were away." Serena walked over to the window, watching the falling snow and when Darien came up behind her she pulled his arms around herself and then looked back into his eyes and smiled before saying
"Do you know what today is, my prince?" Darien looked confused and then said
"December 16?" unsure whether it meant something to her or not, Serena nodded and said
"That's right and it is also my birthday, which I have only recently found out but will explain about soon."
Darien looked stunned and spluttered
"It's your birthday, why didn't you tell me sooner I haven't got you anything and Mina's was yesterday. Hey what do you mean you just found out?" looking horrified that he hadn't known when his loves birthday was but from what she was saying it seemed that she hadn't known herself.
"I know it was Mina's birthday yesterday, we had hoped to be home in time for it but we were delayed by the snow. I don't need a gift, your love is gift enough and I will explain what I mean in a moment, but I need the conversation we are about to have to remain a complete and utter secret for the time being and you will know why when I am finished. But I need your promise first as I am about to tell you about my past" Darien looked at her suspiciously but promised anyway.
"Before I start, I need to know the answer to one question. Would you rather marry a princess or a commoner?" Darien looked at her like she was crazy and said
"I want to marry you, I love you and don't care if you are not a princess." Serena let out a sigh and responded
"If I wasn't in the picture, if this had nothing to do with love which would you marry?" Darien thought she was crazy and gave her a puzzled look as they sat down on the window seat.
Serena gave up and said
"Never mind. Where to begin, alright remember when I disappeared right after I told you that I would marry you well that was because I had just found out something's about myself that I needed time to deal with. Right after I returned home from telling you that I would marry you my parents told me that I was not their daughter and that they had no idea who my parents really were but they gave me something that might help me find out. After trying to absorb what I had just heard I went to visit Raye and ask her what she thought I should do since many times she knows my mind better than I do. Anyway she told me what I already knew but was too afraid to accept that I needed to know who I really was. The only clue I had was the symbol of an angel and so I asked you who it belonged to in hopes that you would know and you supplied me with what I had hoped would not be a dead end. So Lita and I went to Sapphire Coast in hopes of finding out about my past."
"When we arrived we sent a message to the King and Queen saying we were friends of Mina's and wished to see her childhood home, we were accepted eagerly by them and they were more than happy to talk to friends of their little girl who they miss so much. Anyway we asked to see Mina's room and there was a painting that seemed to call to me there was a picture of Mina when she was 6 wearing a heart shaped necklace, but it was something engraved on the necklace that shocked me. The heart seemed to be cracked down the middle with a symbol on each side and it was one of these symbols that shocked me as I had seen it before."
At this point Serena stopped and reached into her pocket withdrawing her necklace, she looked up into Darien's eyes that were stunned and pointed to the symbol on the necklace before continuing.
"This was the one clue my parents had as to who I was and so when the Queen explained about Mina's symbol and not this one, Lita asked what it was. Queen Celeste told us it belonged to Mina's twin sister that she didn't know existed and this is the story about what happened to her"
When Mina and her twin sister were born the King and Queen of Sapphire Coast were happy beyond compare as they had been given two little angels to make their lives complete. The nurse who looked after the twins was not as thrilled as she didn't like the extra work involved in watching two children and complained all the time. When the twins were 6 months old the nurse didn't want to watch two children anymore so decided to get rid of the youngest Serena, who was only a few minutes younger, but still the youngest and tell her parents she had been eaten by a wild animal while they were walking in the woods so they wouldn't look for her. So while staying in this area over the summer she took both the girls for a walk and wrapped Serena up and left her beneath a tree in the forest, then made it look like she had been attacked and only managed to escape with Mina.
The King and Queen had been heartbroken and fired the nurse immediately for not protecting the two things that meant the most to them. The nurse had not expected to be fired, but it was too late now for surely Serena would now be dead and she still would have been fired for lying so she left in anger. Unknown to the King and Queen, Serena had been found by a young women, when she was walking through the forest. The young women and her husband were unable to have children of their own, so finding this child had been a true blessing. The young women had looked for some clue as to who the baby was, for as much as she wanted this child she would not take it from its parents if she could discover who they were. She looked all through the blankets, which were beautiful and would be those of a child of someone in the upper class, but she couldn't find any clue as to who the baby belonged. Surely if the child belonged to someone important they would put out a notice saying that she was missing and then the young women could return the girl.
The baby had beautiful golden hair that curled into little ringlets around her smiling face while her bright sapphire eyes shined up at the young women. She was dressed in a white silk dress with gold embroidery all over it and around her neck lay a gold heart necklace, which seemed to have been split in half. On the half of necklace the little girl was wearing there was engraved a picture of an angel with a crescent moon behind it and on the back the name Serena was engraved. The young women decided that the angel had something to do with the little girl's family while the moon had something to do with the child and her name, but she couldn't think of any families in the area who had an angel as a symbol of the family but of course the girls parents could have just been visiting. The young women took the baby home and her husband and her raised Serena as they had never found where she belonged since there had been no search for her, but they had always known that somehow she had the right to know where she belonged
"When I showed the Queen the necklace that my mother had recently returned to me. And told her how my mother had found me in the woods wearing this necklace and dressed in the same clothing they had always dressed the youngest twin in she realized that I was the daughter she had always thought she had lost. Lita and I stayed at the castle for a few days but all the time I missed everyone horribly and longed to come home. But most of all I missed you and your ways of showing you care. So that is why I didn't know that today was my birthday until recently, but you must not tell anyone of this as Queen Celeste wants to tell Mina herself when they get here in a few days time. You see I missed everyone but they wanted to spend more time with me so they decided to come and stay for Christmas so that all the family could be together. I think Celeste is secretly hoping that I will be able to get Mina and my brother Greg to get along better."
Darien looked at her in amazement for awhile and finally said,
"This is so unbelievable, so you really are a princess and Mina is your twin sister, which would explain why you look so similar, but I never would have suspected this. But wait shouldn't twins share the same birthday" Serena laughed and said
"Lita asked exactly the same thing and normally yes but Mina was born just before midnight and me just after so we each have our own birthday although we are only minutes apart. You still love me know that I am Princess Serena Angelique though right?" Darien smiled at her and answered
"I would love you were the loch ness monsters daughter, nothing will ever change that. Did you tell the King and Queen about your sickness?" Serena looked down at her lap and said
"I didn't have the heart to tell them that the daughter they had just found was going to be taken away from the again this time for good." Darien nodded his understanding then trying to lighten the conversation said
"I can't let you have nothing for your birthday. How about we have a party and you invite Ladies Raye and Lita and their husbands?"
Serena looked up at him guiltily and said
"I was hoping you would say that because I already invited them, well Lita was sending them messages when I came to find you" Darien laughed and pulled her into his arms before saying
"What am I going to do with you. Well since you seem to be throwing yourself a party to which I hope I am invited, I will have to find something else to give you. And don't tell me not to give you anything because you are truly my princess and if I want to spoil you, I will."
"If you don't mind I want to go and see the others since I missed them too, just not as much as I missed you and I'm going to tell everyone that you are throwing me the party. Plus I want to apologize to Mina for missing her birthday, but remember your promise Darien. You can't tell anyone, not Amy, Andrew, your mother and especially not Mina. She has to find out from Celeste as it has to be explained why they never told her she even had a twin" Darien nodded and replied
"I know and don't worry I won't say anything. Now go and find your sister, I have some things that I need to do." As he pushed her out of the room Serena looked at him suspiciously before going off to find her friends when he shut the door on her.
She knocked on the door of the duchess's chamber and when she heard a reply, bounded in and hugged Amy with joy before jumping over to hug Mina.
"I'm sorry I missed your birthday Mina, we would have been back a day earlier but we were held up by the snow. But what beautiful snow it is. I've also come to invite you all to the birthday party that Darien is throwing for me tonight. You will come won't you?" watching them with excitement.
"Of course we will come we wouldn't miss it for the world, but I had no idea that it was your birthday today, Darien never said anything. By the way how did you know it was my birthday yesterday?" Mina answered, Serena looked at her happily and said
"Good. Darien told me when your birthday was but he didn't know about mine until a few moments ago so he couldn't have told you about it" before sitting in the chair between Amy and Lita.
They were so involved in their talk that when a few hours later Darien entered the room telling them he hadn't got a reply to his knock they were surprised. But then when he said
"Serena someone just arrived and I thought you might like to see her so she can wish you a 'Happy Birthday'. Lita your husband has just arrived as well." Hearing this Serena leapt from her chair and after excusing herself grabbed Darien's hand with a huge smile on her face and pulled him with her down the stairs while Lita, Mina and Amy followed at a slower pace than their running friend. But the three of them almost died laughing when Serena threw herself at Raye almost knocking her over in her glee that she was there.
After Raye was standing firmly on her own two feet once again she yelled at Serena
"What are you trying to do, kill me."
"No, I just missed you and am glad you are here" Raye smiled
"Well Happy Birthday, I trust you had a good trip" before telling Serena through her eyes she wanted details later at which Serena just nodded.
