Title – The Anniversary

Category – Sailor Moon

Author – Satori Blackthorn

For my mom and dad, Happy 19th Anniversary! No, it's not happy – the story I mean – not yet anyway. This will be a two-parter, with the second instalment having a bit more of the fluffy stuff that we look so much forward to!

There was no red circle, or even a small 'x' in the center of the box, but this day was marked. He didn't need a reminder of what this day meant. He would never forget what September 20th meant – the day his life changed forever.

He would never forget the day, and what it represented, but he would never remember the event.

"What an ironic twist," Darien thought, staring at the calendar tacked unceremoniously next to the fridge. Today was the anniversary of the death of his parents. An event he would never remember and yet still never forget.

The dark-haired teen sighed and shrugged on his jacket, picking up the two red roses from where they had been placed carefully on the countertop. Locking the door behind him, he made his way to the cemetery, to once again pay his respects to his departed parents.

The day was cool, and a chill blew through his jacket and settled deep into his skin. Today was always like this. Unseasonably cool, with a persistent wind that made pedestrians pull their collars closer to their necks and rub their hands together, hoping to steal more heat from the friction it would produce.

Darien didn't bother with fastening his jacket or even putting his hands into his pockets. The chill he felt was an internal one – one that would only dissipate when night fell and this anniversary was finally over and he wouldn't have to deal with it for another 365 days. He made more of an effort to conceal the roses from the chill, afraid that the wind would cause them to wither, or for even a petal to fall. These were the most beautiful roses he could find; every year he scoured the city for the perfect specimens, and spared no expense in acquiring them for this day. He wouldn't conjure them, as he had always done it this way, it was the way it was going to stay.

He had many traditions for today. The fact that he never marked it on the calendar and that he always bought his memorial roses were the first two of many. He would always take the same route, from his apartment, passed the arcade, where Andrew would nod him a greeting as he went by, passed the school, through the park and passed the pond and then into the cemetery. Here he would spend an hour sitting and thinking, sometimes talking to the gravestones. At the end of the hour he would rise, lay the roses down and take the same route back home, pausing only to throw a coin into the pond. The rest of the day would be spent at home, not doing much of anything besides thinking about what his life would have been like. Andrew would show up in the early evening, make sure he had been fed and ask him if he wanted to hang out. Darien would always refuse and Andrew would sit with him for a little while before excusing himself to go and close up the arcade for the night.

Then the day was over; the next day Darien could go back to his regular life of work, making fun of Serena's meatballs and saving Sailor Moon from whatever demon that was attacking the city.

Had Darien not been so caught up in his inner ponderings he would have noticed that Andrew wasn't in the front window to nod his traditional annual nod his way. Today was not going to be traditional any bit in the slightest.

Inside the Crown Game Center, Andrew was fully aware what today was and what it meant for Darien but was otherwise occupied. As this year's September 20th fell on a Saturday, the arcade was virtually overflowing with kids of all ages. Including one of the arcade's most frequent visitors, a blonde teen with two meatball shaped buns on the top of her head.

"Andrew! Can I get another chocolate milkshake?" Serena asked, waving enthusiastically at the apron-wearing manager. Thinking he hadn't heard her requested she repeated it, "Andrew? Can I get another milkshake?"

Andrew was staring guiltily through the front windows, so lost in thought that he didn't notice that the cloth he was using to wipe up a spilt soda was actually the bottom of his apron. Serena followed his gaze to see another familiar figure making his way passed the huge slightly frosted windows. Her exuberant mood shattered as she recognized the dark-haired teen.

"Darien! I hope he doesn't come in here! I'd rather enjoy my milkshake in peace!" she said, crossing her arms as she glared at the walking figure, he, of course, not noticing her dangerous expression. "Why's he walking so funny?" she wondered belatedly.

"Don't worry Serena," came Andrew's distant voice, "he won't be coming in today."

"Good!" she chirped, happy that she was finally lucking out and would have a day free of the annoyance that was Darien.

Andrew smiled sadly, but still looked guilty about something. He looked away from the front window to regard the teenaged girl sitting in front of him, as if noticing her for the first time. "So what can I get you Serena?"

Contrary to popular belief, Serena wasn't as oblivious as Raye or Darien made her out to be. She noticed the strange, sad expression on the arcade owner's face and stared pointedly at him, her bright blue eyes searching his expression for something.

"Serena?"

"What's wrong Andrew, you look as if you lost your best friend."

Amazed at the younger girl's power of perception, or just her strangely accurate guessing skills, Andrew looked away. "Nothing's wrong," he answered.

"Something's up Andrew! Come on you can tell me!"

"It's not my place to tell… I just… I missed a friend this morning…"

Once again, Andrew was amazed by the blonde's power in logic.

"It has something to do with Darien walking so funny, doesn't it?"

Then again, he surmised, it's not like I have many more friends other than Darien… He winced as her words hit so close to home.

"Is something wrong?" A note of worry in her voice gave away something Andrew had known long ago.

"Why Serena? I never thought I'd see the day where you were actually concerned for Darien…"

Her eyes widened and despite himself, Andrew smirked. He would have had to be pretty daft to not see the attraction his two best friends had for each other, though they would never let that fact slip to the other. Instead of acting on their feelings, they disguised them beneath barbed retorts and scathing comments, sometimes in thrown projectiles, most of them coming from Serena and intended for a smirking Darien.

"I'm not worried about him!" she said quickly, "you look worried and I worry about you. Darien can go fall off a cliff for all I care about him…What? Did I say something?"

The look on Andrew's face now was worse than the one where he had been staring out the window at Darien. This one was pained, and his eyes held a sorrow for his friend that Serena had never seen before. She had never realized that the two of them were so close… "Andrew? What's going on… You're scaring me…"

"Alright Serena, I'll tell you what's going on, but that's only so you stop asking questions and don't say something in front of Darien that would cause the both of you more grief than you want to deal with. Darien confided this with me a long time ago because I was his best friend and he needed someone to talk to who wasn't a shrink." Andrew took a deep breath and looked past Serena for a second before continuing, trying to convince himself that he was doing the right thing in telling her this. Looking down at her troubled eyes, filled with guilt at the thought that she caused, or would cause either of them pain, he knew he had to tell the truth.

"Alright… Today's September 20th, and every year on this day Darien visits his parents' gravestones with two roses… It's the same thing every year. He gets up, stares at the calendar for a few hours, gets dressed, walks to the cemetery, visits the graves and places his flowers. Then he goes home and I check in on him later, to make sure he's still somewhat okay… The next day it's like nothing happened, he goes about his regular life, until next year…"

"So his parents…"

"They died in a car crash when their car fell off a cliff, today's the anniversary of their death."

He could hear a sharp intake of breath as he told her how Darien's mother and father had died and he knew she genuinely felt bad about her earlier comment, at this he had to smile. He couldn't understand why they gave each other such a hard time… She obviously cared about him and felt guilty about wishing he would, as she so eloquently put it – fall off a cliff. And Darien would never do anything more than tease her about her marks, eating habits and her strange hairstyle. Andrew wondered if the two of them would ever resolve things between them.

When she didn't say anything further, Andrew took that as his cue to continue on, "Every year I nod to him as he passes, but he was early this year and I missed him, things were so busy here I didn't notice him go by until it was too late." Andrew hung his head, knowing somehow that him missing their September 20th morning ritual would somehow have repercussions later on. He would make sure that he was there for him when he was on his was back from his parent's headstones. Later on, near dinnertime, he would even bring Darien something decent to eat, instead of him assuming his friend had eaten or cooking up a batch of instant noodles to leave for him to eat as he left.

With that resolved he raised his head to see what had Serena so deep in thought.

"Serena?"

Well, that answered his question… Serena wasn't deep in thought - she had disappeared…

To be continued...

Reviews are welcome...!