A/N: STC Chapter 21 is still not coming along very well. I'm quite angry with it. So here's another chapter of this story.

Someone asked how old they are in this story. As usual in my stories, they're close in age: Serena's fifteen and Darien's sixteen.

Disclaimer: Once upon a time, there was a little girl who did not own Sailor Moon. Her name was EightofSwords. The End.

Don't Want You To See

Motoki's heart nearly stopped for the second time in two days when Serena raced into the arcade the next afternoon. It wasn't because he thought she was heart-stoppingly beautiful or anything – although of course he thought Serena was a very pretty girl, with her bright blue eyes and impossibly long golden hair to match her impossibly long legs and adorable figure – ahem. Anyways, that wasn't the reason Motoki nearly had a heart attack.

The real reason was that Serena had arrived an hour earlier than usual. Without friends. And she had launched herself into Darien with a muffled squeal of joy.

Darien nonchalantly lowered his spectacles, peering down over the rims at the sophomore whose arms had knotted themselves around his midsection.

"Am I correct in assuming that you did well on your Earth Space test, Odango?"

"More than well!" Serena disentangled her arms and dove into the other side of the booth, across from Darien and his mountain of schoolbooks and binders. She dug into her backpack and yanked out a packet of paper. "Look!"

"Hmm – my God!" Darien shoved his glasses up on his nose, snatching the test from her to hold it close to his face. "This is a one hundred!"

"Yup!" said Serena proudly. "I looked over all those notes again before I went to sleep, and while I was running to school this morning, and at lunch before class started – "

"I can't believe it." Darien took off his glasses and scrubbed them with his red blazer, then put them back on and examined the test again. "I had no idea my teaching methods were so effective…"

Serena's brows knit together. "Hello, are you forgetting someone?" She shook a hand in front of his face. "I took the test, remember? And studied? Don't I deserve a little credit?"

"Hush, Odango." Darien waved her away with a negligent hand. "I'm trying to savor this victory of mine."

"Victory of yours?" Angry pink flooded Serena's cheeks. "You are SO self-centered!"

"Of course. I'm a Leo. The universe revolves around me."

"You mean you actually know your horoscope sign?" Serena stared at him curiously, the pink draining from her features. "You don't seem like that kind of guy…"

"I find the daily predictions amusing." Darien smirked at her from behind the rim of his coffee mug. "I dare say that you, on the other hand, base your whole life on them, don't you, Odango?"

Serena bristled. "I can't help it if they're accurate!"

He smirked at her again before letting his eyes rove around the café, which was full of the usual hyper Friday afternoon crowd. "Where are your – ah – friends?"

Serena frowned at the delicate emphasis he placed on the word, but didn't say anything. Instead, she took a napkin from the dispenser at the end of the table and began to fold it absently.

"Rei has talent show rehearsal today. Ami decided she wanted to take advantage of some study time, and Lita's at a karate match." She grinned suddenly. "She wanted me to go with her, but it's Ken's match, so I wanted to give them some alone time…"

Darien rolled his eyes. "And you told me that because…?"

"I don't know. Just cause."

He watched her fingers neatly creasing the white paper. "So the dumpling's left all alone. What are you making?"

"Hmm?" Serena looked up, then back down at the napkin. "Oh, this. A swan, I guess."

"You wouldn't have struck me as someone who knows origami, Odango."

Serena shrugged. "I didn't use to be. Ami taught it to me. She says it's a good relaxation technique."

"And what," murmured Darien, eyes seemingly transfixed by the deft, sure movements of her fingers, "so preys on your mind that you find yourself needing to use relaxation techniques?"

Serena looked up again, blue eyes darkening. She closed them quickly and smiled brightly. "Nothing! I just like making the pretty shapes."

Darien leaned back in his seat, spinning his mechanical pencil in his fingers as he watched the unexpectedly enigmatic blonde across from him. After a moment, he spoke.

"Odango, do you need help in any of your other classes?"

Serena creased part of the napkin to make a wing. "I'm…passing them…"

"With what? C's?"

The slender white fingers stilled. "Please don't make fun of me, Darien."

Silence reigned for a long moment. Then Darien twirled his pencil again, unlocking the flow of words.

"I spoke with the principal today. He agreed to count it as community service if I tutor you every day after school."

Her fingers made no motion to continue the swan's construction.

"Is that what I am now? Community service?"

He clicked his pencil. "It…benefits both of us."

Serena let out a long breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does. Okay. Thanks."

Darien opened his mouth, about to say something, then changed his mind and closed it.

Serena finished the paper swan. It looked strangely lopsided, but Darien supposed that that was just a side-effect of being made by the Odango.

Serena glanced at him. "Do you want to start today?"

Darien shrugged, apparently preoccupied by something he had discovered in his history textbook. "Your choice."

"It's fine with me. But I'm going to go get some sugar first, if that's okay."

"Be my guest," he replied, not looking up from his book.

Darien watched from the corner of his eye as Serena slipped through the maze of crowded tables to the counter. Motoki drifted over to her, and soon the blank expression Serena wore melted into laughter. It was only when Darien was sure they were too deeply engrossed in their joking conversation to notice anything else that he allowed his shoulders to slump and an angry hiss of breath to escape his lips. He kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. "Idiot."

Serena returned a few minutes later with her chocolate milkshake only to find Darien still bent over his book, looking to all the world as though he'd never stopped reading.

She made a small noise and slid into the booth.

He looked up. "Oh. You're back." He lowered his reading glasses. "Which subject shall we start with?"

"That depends." Serena glared at her milkshake. "Am I supposed to base my answer on which subject I like best, or which subject I'm doing worst in?"

"The latter."

Serena gave him a funny look, but dragged out a fat gray textbook. Darien recognized it, and a small grin flitted across his face as he took it from Serena.

"I should have known," he said, eyes twinkling. "Geometry is your Waterloo, huh?"

"Waterloo?" Serena sipped some of her milkshake. "Sounds like a British word for bathroom."

Darien rolled his eyes. "Only you, Odango." He ignored her mouth opening in indignation and flipped open the textbook. "Which chapter are you on?"

"Um…seventeen?" Serena placed a hand over her mouth as a yawn stretched her mouth. "I'm not really sure. I'm never awake in that class..."

Darien eyed her reprovingly. "I never pictured you as being that lazy, Odango."

"You don't?" Serena wore confusion on her face.

"No. Struggling with concepts, maybe, or getting distracted or discouraged, but I thought you cared about your grades more than that."

"It's not that…I do care…" Serena bent her straw back and forth. He saw her biting her lip. "I just…it's my first period class, and I'm always so sleepy…"

"Why?"

Serena wouldn't meet his gaze. "Stuff."

It was because she looked away from him that he knew "stuff" didn't translate to something frivolous like staying up to play video games or watch television. Perhaps something was going on at home…

"I see." He stopped flipping through the pages. "Is it…can I…"

Serena gave him a small smile. "Nothing you can help with. But thank you." She thought for a moment. "You really don't think I'm lazy – "

"I didn't before – " He saw her face fall and quickly amended, "No."

Her eyes began to sparkle, and he said hastily, "How about this? We'll start with whatever you don't understand." He shoved the geometry textbook at her. "Find the chapter where you started getting lost."

A moment later, Serena pushed the book back across the glossy tabletop to him. He looked down.

The book was opened to Chapter Four.

It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Darien had expected time to crawl by as slowly as a tortoise, between the agonizing slowness he expected from Serena and the awkward conversation lulls. But once he actually went though the lessons, step-by-step, Serena absorbed them like a sponge. The only explanation he could concoct for Serena's grades was that she slept through class, then went home and had no idea how to do the homework and consequently, failed the tests. Nor was she as boring as some studymates he'd been saddled with before. She frequently made strange noises as she worked out problems he wrote down for her, and hummed little songs beneath her breath. It was rather amusing to watch her chew erasers and see the bizarre pictures and acronyms she came up with to help her remember formulas and postulates.

When they completed Chapter Twelve, night had fallen over the streets outside, and they agreed to stop. The hour hand on Darien's watch had nearly reached eight by that time, and the arcade was even more crowded than it had been five hours ago.

Serena stretched, yawning, and cast a yearning look at the Sailor V game, around which a knot of enthusiastic middle-schoolers had gathered.

"Sorry, Odango," said Darien, smirking as he followed the direction of her eyes. "No youma-dusting for you tonight."

Serena's blue eyes snapped back to him, her face suddenly pale. Then she relaxed and laughed, popping another French fry in her mouth – they had ordered dinner somewhere between Chapters Eight and Ten.

"Have you ever even played a video game?"

"Of course I have," replied Darien, with slight indignation. "Who did you think the initials D.G.S. belonged to?"

"D.G.S.?" Serena swirled a fry in the pool of ketchup on her plate. "You're talking about the high scorer on Mortal Kombat, and Mega-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and a bunch of other guy games – " She caught the broad smile on his face. "You're pulling my leg!"

"Would I lie to you, Odango?" Darien stole on of her French fries. She lobbed a ketchup packet at him.

"Well, what does the G stand for?"

"Genius, of course." Darien flashed her a smirk.

"I think I like you better like this," decided Serena suddenly.

Darien lifted an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"The way you act after you've had three large Mountain Dews. You're not as grumpy."

"When am I grumpy?"

Serena gave him an incredulous look. "You've got to be kidding. When aren't you grumpy?"

"When I'm happy," answered Darien sensibly. "Besides, I'm a genius, you've got give me some leeway – "

"Well, I guess if you're such a genius, I shouldn't bother asking you how you did on your Trigonometry test today…"

"How did you know about that?" Darien said slowly. He eyed her suspiciously. "Now who's stalking who?"

Serena giggled. "Motoki told me about it last night. I'm sorry I kept you from studying – "

"Ah, that." Darien flapped a hand dismissively, then stopped and stared at his hand for a moment. Perhaps the Mountain Dew had affected him more than he thought. "I could have failed that test and still kept an A in the class." He grinned. "Besides, a genius like me doesn't need to study."

"I think that 100 of mine has gone to your head," commented Serena wryly.

Darien's eyes sharpened suddenly, his gaze focused on the arcade doors behind Serena. There was Lita, holding the door for Ami, who thanked her and laughed at something Lita said in return, and Rei, who was adjusting her earrings and smoothing her cropped hair.

"Looks like your friends have decided to make an appearance, Odango."

Serena twisted around in her seat and squeaked. Next thing Darien knew, she had dove under the table before he could even blink.

Darien jumped despite himself as Serena's head collided with his shin. He bent down to glare under the table at her. "Odango! What mental disorder are you suffering from?"

"I can't let them see me!" Serena hissed back, eyes wide and glowing slightly in the darkness beneath the table. "Do you know what Rei would do to me if she found me sitting alone in a booth with you?"

"Claw your eyes out?"

"With a fork!" Serena whispered.

"So what do I do?" Darien looked up and saw that Rei had seen him and was leading the other two girls towards their booth. "They're heading right over here!"

"Put your legs right here!" Serena positioned his shins so that they formed a sort of fortress wall for her to hide behind. He stiffened. "Play it cool. Be Dentyne Ice Darien."

"I don't want Rei getting close enough to smell my breath!" Darien snapped, a slight bit of panic tingeing his voice.

Serena was unable to reply because at that moment, her friends reached Darien's table.

"Darien," began Ami in a concerned voice. "Have you seen Serena? We thought that she would be here…"

"The Odango Atama?" Darien gritted his teeth as Serena punched his leg angrily at his use of the nickname. He imbued his next words with particular sarcasm in retaliation. "She graced us with her presence this afternoon, yes. Why?"

"We were just…looking for her." Ami pushed a bit of her blue hair back from her face, frowning slightly. "If you see her, could you tell her we're meeting after school at the temple on Monday?"

"I'll relay the message if I encounter her." Darien nodded and opened his history book, expecting them to leave.

But no such luck. Rei leaned against the edge of the table, twirling her hair around her finger. "So whatcha doing, Darien?"

"Enjoying a peaceful night of solitude," answered Darien coolly, letting his reading glasses fall from the top of his head onto their usual perch atop his nose.

"But it's a Friday," stressed Rei. "Do something fun, it's the start of a weekend! Did you eat yet?"

Darien stared pointedly at the two empty plates and multiple empty glasses sitting on the table.

"Oh." Rei frowned. "Hey, were you on a date or something?"

Darien felt Serena tremble against his leg. "Motoki came over on his break. We ate. Hey, Lita." He said suddenly, changing the subject deftly. "How did your friend do in that karate competition?"

"He placed third," Lita said proudly, beaming, then raised an eyebrow. "Hey, how'd you know about that?"

"Serena mentioned it when she dropped in this afternoon." Darien shrugged nonchalantly. He felt Serena punching him repeatedly in the leg and struggled to resist the urge to exact revenge by kicking her shin.

"Wait!" said Ami suddenly. "Is that Serena's?"

Darien's eyes followed her pointing finger to a paper half-buried beneath all of Serena's geometry stuff.

"Uh – yes!" He forced himself to sound surprised. "She must have forgotten it here."

"But that's a – this is a perfect score!" cried Ami, snatching up the paper and staring at it in pure wonder and delight. Lita peered over her shoulder at the test paper and let out a whoop. "Go, Serena!"

"A hundred? Meatball Brain? Lemme see that!" Rei grabbed the test from Ami. "No way. There's no way she got this grade on her own! She must have cheated! Ami, do you sit near her in class?"

"Rei, as you well know, I am enrolled in a higher-level science, not Earth Space," began Ami heatedly, but Rei cut her off.

"Melvin, then! She must have copied off Melvin!"

"Aw, shove it, Rei." Lita rolled her eyes. "Serena studied her butt off for this test. Remember at lunch yesterday, Ami? She stayed inside to look over all those notes of hers instead of sitting outside with us?"

"Yes, I remember." Ami nodded and hugged the test paper to her chest. "Oh, Serena's finally getting serious about studying! I'm so proud of her! Quick, you guys, let's go ask Motoki if he knows where she is – "

Rei watched Ami dance off to the counter with Lita marching after her. "They're almost as dense as Serena," she said disgustedly.

Darien raised an eyebrow. "I doubt Serena's as moronic as you would have everyone believe she is."

Rei snorted. "You're right. She's even dumber."

Darien felt Serena shake. A sad sound escaped her, and he shuffled his foot across the floor to keep Rei from hearing it.

"You and me are the only people who see through her," continued Rei, scowling slightly. "Everyone else excuses her stupidity and laziness because she's so happy and friendly all the time, but she's really just as selfish as the rest of us."

"My psychology teacher would say that you seem to be afflicted with a severe case of jealousy, Rei," Darien said bluntly.

The priestess's pale face flamed. "Why would I jealous of pasta-brain? She's got nothing to be jealous of. And why are you defending her?"

"Leave."

Rei flushed a deeper red. "Look, fine, I'm sorry, okay? Serena's not an idiot. She's the perfect doll everyone thinks she is. Now come on, let's play some air hockey or something – "

"I asked you to leave, Rei. Is there something you don't understand about that request?" Darien said icily.

Rei let out a strangled sound and turned around. She stalked off into the crowd.

Darien didn't watch her long enough to see her disappear. He bent down to look at Serena. He opened his mouth, then realized he didn't know what to say.

That was okay. Serena broke the silence for him.

"I wish you hadn't been so mean to her," she whispered, knees drawn up to her chin.

"You wish I hadn't been so mean to her," repeated Darien blankly. "You wish I hadn't been mean to her…" He blew out his breath. "You're insane."

"She really likes you. And you just crushed her heart – "

"Exactly. Like an ant beneath my foot."

Serena stared up at him. "How can you say that?"

"Odango, you need counseling." Darien held out a hand to help her out from under the table.

"Is Rei still here?"

"I don't know. I don't care. Come on." He hauled her up and began separating their stuff into separate piles. "Yours, mine, mine, yours, mine, yours, yours, mine…"

Serena wordlessly took the things he pushed towards her and dumped them in her bag.

"Are we still on for Monday?" he asked her when their table was clean.

She nodded, fiddling with an errant curl of golden hair.

"Are you going to be at the temple?" he asked. "Even after all that?"

"Yes." Her voice was quiet. "I have to."

Darien shook his head. "Whatever." He raked a hand through his hair. "I'll probably see you tomorrow, then. Here, I mean."

"Yeah." Serena nodded, turning to go, then stopped and glanced up at him with a small smile. "Thanks, Darien."

He looked at her gruffly for a long moment, then finally relented, a corner of his lips curving up. "Bye, Odango."

A/N: Aw, I guess it was okay. I wanted to post another chapter of this one, since 1.) I want to get it over with quick, and 2.) I feel guilty that STC's new chapter won't be up this week. Thanks for all your reviews, I was positively SHOCKED by the response to only one chapter…you're so sweet (sniffle). Tell me what you think of Darien, Rei, and tell me if there's anything you want to see. I MIGHT accommodate (wink).