Quick Fics

#9. Roommates

Author: Nat-chan

Genre: Romance

Disclaimer: not mine not mine noooooot mine ;)

Author's Notes: inspired of course, entirely by dance music!

Beta: the lovely and amazing Alicia B.

Things I don't dare

Dare to speak of when you're near me

No no no…

Infernal "Ultimate Control"

Darien Chiba sat at his computer, bedroom door open, typing up organic chemistry notes until his eyes began to blur and water. Half-drunk cold coffee sat beside him with a half-eaten, long-ago stale sandwich. Various textbooks and notes littered the rest of the desk and his hair was stuck up on one side where he had run his hand through it for the fiftieth and final time.

It was Friday night. Mina, one of his roommates, had long ago headed out and mocked his anti-social behavior with her usual mixed-metaphor eloquence.

"All work and no play makes Darien a lull boy!" she chided delightfully (he wouldn't dream of correcting her). "Really, are you sure all this studying is going to reap you the most bang for your reward?"

He had merely smiled widely until she shook her head at him and walked away. She was a beautiful, lively girl with long blonde hair and a keen eye for flattering clothes. The mixed metaphors were just another charm in her easy, flirty nature.

But Darien thought of her only as a sister; an amusing, bubbly, highly blonde sister.

Darien made sure to keep a healthy distance between himself and the opposite sex. When he did date the girls were always the same: studious, usually uptight and neurotic study partners that were conservatively dressed mirrors of himself. It never lasted and he never minded. He was going to try for a double major and he didn't want any distractions.

Alas, Mina was not his only roommate and he really felt some kind of huge oversight had been performed on his housing arrangement. He lived with not one but TWO blondes and it was the second that tortured him; intruding into his late night study sessions in alarming fantasies that distracted and delighted him.

And on cue Serena sashayed by his door, pausing at the threshold to smile at his disheveled appearance. She knew only she and Mina saw him like this: messy, untucked and overtired.

Darien took her in with a wary but appreciative eye. She was dressed to go out dancing. She had on yet another flippy little dress that hugged and dipped in all the right places. Her earrings were long and dangly and accented her neck to great advantage and there were a variety of sparkly little things holding up her long hair in a sexy mass of curls from her hot rollers. She wore little ankle socks and sneakers though, so she could dance for longer. He always got a kick out of that.

She had bangles on each arm and was fixing one earring as she crossed the room to him, smelling fresh and lovely.

"Can you zip me up?" she asked innocently, turning around and giving him a view that made him blush. Where did she find these bras? He zipped her up quickly with shaking hands and she did a quick twirl for approval.

"What do you think? I really like this guy!" she gushed.

Serena, he reflected, thought of him only as a brother. A bookish, boring brother.

He smiled mildly at her. "You look great. If he doesn't say that, he's an idiot and you should dump your drink on him."

Personally, he rather liked the idea of her latest moron-date ending with a drink dumped on his head. Serena managed to dig up the most incredible, bleached out, incoherent wanks he had ever encountered.

"You always think I should dump my drink on them," she returned accurately.

"Yes well, dating is an art….which you turn into a disastrous though colourful mess."

"At least I date!" she retorted.

"I date!" he defended with amusement.

"You date? You mean you occasionally embark on a doomed-from-the-start 'meeting of minds' with some always-dressed-in-gray study partner? That doesn't count."

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Then your bleached out surfer rejects don't count either!" he mocked.

She looked taken aback and he groaned.

"This guy has a bleach job?"

Serena had the grace to blush and, looking down, mumbled, "And he's a surfer—but only in the summer! He's still taking his degree!"

"In what?"

"Er…..something to do with the arts….."

Darien just rolled his eyes. "Have a good time anyway."

She smiled and surveyed his books. "This junk looks so boring I could weep! And this is your date for Friday night?"

"Yes, well, it won't get drunk and grope me in some shadowy corner!" he teased, then, turning serious, he wagged his finger at her. "And if it did, I would knee it in the groin and come home EARLY!"

Serena rolled her eyes, he really was like an older brother, "Yes, yes, I'll be sure to remember that if any chemistry textbooks come-a-callin!"

She shook her head at him, hair clips winking in his desk lamplight and bangles tinkling as she shifted her feet, "You should come out some time!" she chided, but with a resigned air.

She headed out the door and called back teasingly, "You never know WHAT might happen if you do!"

That comment hung in the air, no doubt meant to inspire him with visions of dancing freely, chemistry forgotten, for many carefree hours like a "normal" university student. But instead Darien found himself imagining himself in that dim club with Serena, a few drinks and possibly dances with that fantastic dress later, cozying up in one of those forbidden, shadowy corners that he had so heartily warned her against.

You never know WHAT might happen……

He was extremely careful to hide his infatuation from the interfering Mina but it was really only a matter of time. That time came the next day in the kitchen as the two girls compared nights and Serena complained about her disastrous date, much to Darien's delight.

Mina was making her famous chocolate banana shakes in the blender they'd all pitched in for and soon all three of them were partaking as Darien took a study break.

"He was a total dud!" Serena complained. "I never want to hear about surfing again—or the word 'dude'!" she imitated him with real spirit and Mina and Darien both laughed.

"Well, mine was a dud, too," Mina sighed. "He drank too much and spent twenty minutes discussing my 'assets' in excruciating, unromantic detail. Then I left."

Serena patted her shoulder consolingly then turned to Darien. "And how was YOUR date with the textbooks?"

Darien smiled humorously over his shake. "Well, they kept me up late and mostly bored me to tears and at the end of the night, after all my efforts, they didn't put out at all."

Serena's mouth fell open in surprise at his joke and Mina laughed heartily.

It was only because Mina was looking at him anew that she really caught what happened next.

Serena stepped over casually and lifted her fingers to his mouth. "You've got chocolate on your chin!" She smiled and wiped it away with an innocent gesture.

She turned quickly to wipe her hand on the dish cloth and missed the look on Darien's face. But Mina saw it. And Darien saw that she saw. Oh no…..

Serena checked her watch, "Oh! Time for work! Ciao for now amigos!"

She disappeared out the door and Mina turned to wag her finger at him, "Oh oh oh, caught ya!"

Darien groaned and put his empty glass in the sink.

"I knew it!" she cried and he shook his head. "Why don't you ask her out?"

"Are you insane?"

"Are you?"

"Mina, she looks at me like an older brother."

"So change her mind!"

Darien just muttered under his breath and marched off.

But Mina was determined and that evening when they sat watching TV before Serena got home from work she concocted a plan. When she heard Serena's key in the door she grabbed Darien and shoved him behind their enormous drapes.

"Mina!" he hissed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to prove you wrong!" she whispered. "Now hide in here and shut up!"

He sighed and sat up on the windowsill. If she was determined to hear the truth from Serena at his expense, so be it. Perhaps hearing her crushing rejection firsthand would finally free him of this disturbing infatuation.

He listened to Serena's happy voice as she came to join Mina on the couch. "Hey girl! Where's Darien?"

"Library."

Serena laughed. "Shocking!"

They sat flipping channels together and chatting about school until Mina asked innocently, "So that surfer guy was a total loss?"

Serena moaned pitifully. "You have no idea! Seriously, I may give up! I have the worst luck with guys! Why can't I find anyone decent? I don't think my standards are so unreasonable!"

Mina chuckled. "Standards? And what are those? If you have them I'd say you compromise at least five with every new guy!"

Serena laughed. "True, true. Let's see: great sense of humour, easy to talk to, reasonable IQ (Mina laughed at this new amendment since Surfer Dude), big heart, and fun to be with."

"You forgot hot."

"Hot is not a standard darling, it's a given."

They both laughed and then Serena sighed and said, "I think I need to try dating someone totally different than the usual losers I manage to dig up. Someone with more going for them. Someone smarter."

"Someone like Darien?" Mina chimed.

Darien was glad he was sitting, but unhappy he could not subtly reach Mina to choke her or find anything heavy to throw at her.

"Darien?" Serena rolled his name of her tongue curiously. "Yeah right! Guys like him are never interested in me!"

Darien nearly fell off his perch on the windowsill. Was she kidding?

"And just why not?" Mina asked.

"Smart guys think I'm ditzy, Mina. They only like girls as intelligent as themselves."

"You're pretty smart I think," Mina said severely.

"Not book smart!" she retorted. "Have you seen the girls he dates?"

"He seems to have the same track record as you actually."

Serena laughed. "That's true."

"Would you say yes if he asked?" Mina asked seriously and Serena smiled.

"Of course I would! I had a huge crush on him when we first moved in, but I could tell he just thought of me like a sister."

Mina tsked her. "I think you're wrong."

"Oh really?"

"Only one way to find out," Mina said suggestively.

Now Darien's ears perked up. Was there going to be some kind of test? Wretchedly Mina was careful not to mention it.

Serena seemed to consider it, whatever it was.

"Alright, I'll try it," she decided and Darien felt his body run hot, then cold.

The two girls headed out after that, for cheesecake at the coffee shop downstairs, and Darien was a long time coming out of the drapes.

A few nights later, as Darien sat typing his term paper, Serena once again sashayed into the room and he swallowed hard.

"Zip me up please!" she commanded, turning around and giving him a tantalizing glimpse of her back and yet another colourful bra. Tonight's dress was violet and accented with beautiful feather earrings and a violet flower tucked into the curls of her hair. She smelled of that perfume she sometimes wore that made him crazy and turned to face him with a broad smile. She plugged her mp3 player into his speakers as she often did before going out, blasting him with some dance tune or another and dancing happily around his chair before heading out.

But tonight she pulled him up and told him, "Tonight, you're coming out with me!"

He looked surprised and when she grabbed the bottom of his shirt and tugged upwards he looked really surprised. She yanked it over his head as she chided, "This shirt won't do though!"

She reached for the buckle of his pants and he froze but she stopped and considered. "The pants are ok." Darien managed to exhale as she danced over to his closet and rummaged through his shirts.

Finally she pulled out a black t-shirt and turned back with a broad smile. "Perfect!" she announced and pulled it over his head. He got his arms through the sleeves and she tugged it and smoothed it with gentle, distracting hands.

Then she mussed up his hair, grabbed his hand, and pulled him out his door, past a grinning Mina and out the front door of the apartment.

He shot a reproachful look at Mina who just laughed at him.

"But my term paper!" He protested as she dragged him through the night towards the club.

"It can wait!"

He laughed and finally relaxed, teasing her, "But Serena, I'm not blonde."

"Nope."

"I don't surf either."

"I am aware of that."

"I don't think I've EVER said 'dude' and meant it."

"Points to you for that!"

"I don't dance!"

She made an irresistible half-pouty half-flirty face at him then, "You'll learn for me, won't you?"

She enjoyed the look on his face then and dragged him through the front door of the campus pup.

And some hours later, after dancing until his legs ached with Serena, Darien found his way into a shadowy corner with her to finally tangle his fingers in that incredible hair and kiss that always laughing mouth.

He made a mental note to buy Mina an entire cheesecake of thanks.