#5. Headphones
Rated: Goodness of WAFF G
Disclaimer: standard
Genre: First Season Romance
Author: nat-chan
Author's Notes: My first ever Beta-d fic! accepts roses
Thanks to my wonderful beta Alicia-chan! gives her the roses
I was terrified that my first beta would be a terrifying experience
(in the past I have been known to, only occasionally of course, get "slightly"
upset when "accepting" criticism of my writing, and on some
occasions, but really so very few it almost bars mentioning, objects
have been thrown) but Alica was wonderful, all her suggestions were awesome and she picked out
all the grammer errors and typos I myself missed.
WOOOT
Now, on to the fic!
Mina walked into the arcade to hear Serena and Darien in the middle of one of their louder fights.
They were screaming and pointing dramatically. Yet nearby them sat Andrew, smiling happily as
he watched the argument. Mina frowned curiously, walking closer and wincing at the shouting from
the famous pair. How could he stand it?
But once she sat down near him she realized he had his fingers in his ears.
He waited until she leaned over before removing his fingers and saying, "If you plug your ears
it's a totally different conversation."
Mina looked curiously from Andrew to the still-bickering Serena and Darien.
"Meatballhead, lower the decibels, I think you're gonna shatter the windows!"
"Shut up Baka, the only things I hope I shatter are your eardrums!"
"Too late for that!"
Andrew was looking between the two of them, ears plugged, smiling avidly.
She shrugged and walked away.
But the next time she came to the arcade before Serena arrived she remembered
Andrew's words. And as Serena came in she plugged her ears and watched.
Her mouth fell open in surprise.
Without hearing what Darien was saying she saw only the way his face lit up in
absolute delight when he spotted Serena. The entire time they were arguing he looked
happier and happier. Without knowing the words she would have assumed he was….she
blanched…in love with Serena! He looked so blissfully happy talking to her that Mina almost
laughed. She spotted Andrew doing the same and they exchanged a knowing glance.
She shared this phenomenon with the other girls who all dutifully plugged their ears and
watched Darien's face the next day.
It was uncanny. His voice said one thing and his face something else entirely. It transformed
each time and shone with such genuine happiness and enthusiasm they were all quite surprised
they hadn't noticed it before.
Then they set about making some kind of plan to reveal this fact to Serena.
No one could think of anything really plausible. Winter was months away and earmuffs
wouldn't really do the trick.
But two weeks later Mina had a stroke of genius and told the girls to wait and see what her
mind had brilliantly come up with.
The girls waited nervously. Mina's schemes were almost as disastrous as Serena's at times….
But then Serena walked into the arcade, smiling and bouncy as usual, looking the same
as always and they strained to see the difference.
Raye spotted it first…and patted Mina on the back. An MP3 player, a tiny one, hung
around Serena's neck and two tiny earphones plugged her ears, the cord was clear and hard to see.
Serena headed over for her usual chocolate shake and Darien's face did its amazing transformation
as he ripped into her. But for the first time Serena did not hear him and, to Andrew's immense
delight, she saw only his face.
The smile was so lovely and unexpected that Serena's eyes widened in surprise before she
smiled right back at him, stopping him dead in his tracks. He didn't see the headphones,
only the blinding, happy, friendly smile she was giving him and his own smile froze on his face.
The girls chuckled to themselves as the moment turned over and the two enemies stood smiling
rather stupidly at one another for much longer than necessary.
Then Serena got her milkshake and headed over to sit with the girls. She pulled out
her earphones, "Thanks for the present Mina! You're the best!"
"No problem girl!" Mina chimed, trying to make an innocent face but
winking at the girls rather obviously so that it was ruined.
"And hey, Darien was nice to me! What a great day!" Serena added.
Said Darien was getting ready to leave and looking over at Serena with intent
so Mina quickly grabbed the headphones. "Let's hear what you put on here—hey is
this the new Righteous Moon song?"
She stuffed the headphones back into Serena's ears just in time. She only caught
Darien's "Hey—" and not the "Meatballhead" and turned to see that delightful
smile once again directed at her as he headed for the door.
She smiled happily back and waved. "Byyyyyye Darien!" she sang out and his face
turned rather confused, the smile fading a bit, his eyebrows drawing down but his hand
instinctively raising to wave back. He turned and stared at that raised hand for a long
moment, then walked out of the arcade looking quite baffled and making Raye and Lita laugh.
Serena fortunately did not notice and sang along happily with her mp3 player, thinking
what a beautiful world it was when a girl could drink her chocolate shake, listen to her
favorite song, and be smiled at by her enemy.
He was pretty cute—when he wasn't saying jerkface things to her!
Of course Mina and the girls knew it was only a matter of time before she
discovered the truth and that day came the following week, when Serena crashed
into Darien on her way to school, earphones in and music loud.
They landed in a tangled heap and Darien smirked (or thought he smirked) and
said, "Another collision with hurricane Serena! Tell me Meatballhead, are you
ever going to keep your balance for longer than five minutes at a time?"
And then she did that thing again! That SMILE thing where she didn't retort or
huff off or turn that delightful red colour that made him sure she wasn't thinking
of anyone else but him—even if it was with absolute hatred, she just smiled back
as though he'd said something NICE to her and she'd LIKED it. But that just couldn't be right!
This had been happening all week and he was good and freaked out. Just what was
going on here?
He looked so confused and didn't move from his position sprawled over her so she finally
reached up (for a moment he thought it was for his face and she was going to do something
really crazy like KISS him) and pulled out a pair of clear, tiny earphones. How hadn't he
noticed those before?
"Did you say something?" she smiled at him.
"You've had earphones in all week?" he breathed, finally putting it together.
"Yeah! Mina bought this for me, for no reason! It's awesome!"
His face slowly dawned with understanding. "So you haven't heard
anything I've said to you all week then?"
And now her own face slowly dawned with understanding. She turned,
crestfallen. "Wait, you mean you…..you WERE saying mean things to me all week?
I just couldn't hear you?"
He felt something unpleasant clench in his stomach at the sad look in her
eyes and tried hard to push it away.
"But….but you SMILED at me," she said quietly, almost to herself.
"Yeah, well, you make me smile, Meatballhead," he retorted.
In his head it had sounded sarcastic and cool. In the air, on its irreversible course
to her ears, it sounded totally different and his eyes widened as hers did.
Then he blushed.
Serena's face lit up again, a sudden, fervent, earnest wanting readable in her eyes
and Darien blanched.
They sat up slowly, legs still mixed up together.
"You smiled at me like… as though you liked me. And like you were
happy to see me," she said carefully.
He said nothing. His throat had closed and his lungs had ceased drawing in air.
He tried desperately to think of something mean to say and restore balance to their
carefully constructed universe—but he just couldn't. He had actually LIKED her
smiling at him all week, though his feelings were against his better judgment.
He opened his mouth, determined to say something, but then her small,
warm hand found his, fingers lacing through his own and she smiled an
entirely new smile altogether so that he froze, mouth open and she nearly laughed.
"I liked it," she finished bravely and dared to meet his eyes and hold them.
Then she blushed.
His fingers squeezed hers and the words "You're crazy Meatballhead, and
aren't you late for SCHOOL?" died in his throat to be replaced with:
"I like you too."
His brain, he was certain, turned around in his head and gave him a look,
tentacle like stem-arms rising as if to say "What the—?"
But she smiled that impossible smile again and he found himself returning it
so that her eyes danced and she said happily, "I like THAT smile even BETTER!"
Then she jumped up. "Gotta jet! I'm major late! But I'll see you later at the arcade okay?
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Darien was left to stare after her, still smiling and thinking to himself, Mina just might
have known what she was doing buying Serena that mp3 player.
Mina walked into the arcade later to behold the realization of all her matchmaker dreams.
Serena and Darien sat side-by-side on barstools, each with an earphone as Darien flipped
through all 50 songs scolding, "Don't you have anything GOOD on here?" as Serena finished
what looked to be her third shake by the row of empty glasses.
"Another chocolate shake for the bottomless Meatballhead, Andrew!" Darien ordered and when
Serena shot him a look he smiled bewitchingly and leaned over to say,
"My bottomless Meatballhead."