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Disclaimer:

Six o'clock evening news anchor: (shuffles papers) "Breaking news! I have just been informed that EightofSwords does not own the rights to Sailor Moon!"

Subject to Change

"And to close today's afternoon announcements, students, I would like to remind you that the school's dress code prohibits any clothes other than tennis shoes or regulation loafers." The principal cleared his throat, and everyone in the classroom winced as the phlegmy sound issued from the intercom speaker. "Students, shoes are not weapons, and any pupil found using them as such will be severely punished."

Serena sank low into her seat as every head in the classroom swiveled around to look at her.

"Molly, make them stop staring at me," she pleaded to the girl sitting in the desk beside her.

"You deserve it, Serena," said Molly sternly, fiddling with her hair ribbon impatiently as the principal's voice droned on and on. "That poor Shields-san…"

"Aren't you supposed to feel sorry for me?' Serena demanded plaintively. "I'm the one who's your best friend!"

"Yeah, but he's the one with a hole in his foot," countered Molly teasingly. She patted Serena's shoulder. "Aw, chin up, Serena. Detention'll be over before you know it."

"Ugh. Don't even REMIND me." Serena wrinkled her nose. "An hour and a half with that jerk…"

"Dream come true, right?" Molly elbowed the blonde with a smirk.

"What is everyone's sudden obsession with the idea that I have a crush on Darien?" Serena demanded. "I do NOT like him."

"Then why do you always talk about him?" Molly balled her hands into fists and placed them on top of her head, mimicking Serena's buns. "Darien this, Darien that!" she squeaked out in a mockery of Serena's "Darien-ranting." "Ooh, sometimes I just want to kiss – I mean, kill him!"

"MOLLY!"

It shouldn't have been a surprise to Darien when Asanuma and Motoki plopped themselves down next to him during the afternoon announcements. After all, who could pass up a chance to tease the school's "Golden Boy" about getting detention?

"So, Darien, I heard an interesting piece of gossip," began Asanuma. "Seiko walked Serena to class today, eh?" He punched the black-haired student in the shoulder. "What are you doing, man? Letting him snatch up your girl like that!"

"It's outrageous," added Motoki, propping his feet up on top of the desk. "We're extremely disappointed in you, Darien."

"Would you two shut up for once?" said Darien sourly. "Believe me, you've caused enough trouble for one day."

"Whoah, what's with the long face?" Motoki dropped his feet to the floor, leaning forward. His arcade-psychologist persona was taking over. "What happened, Dare? Did you fail that History quiz or something?"

Darien shook his head. "It's nothing. Forget it."

"Ah ah ah." Motoki shook his finger at Darien. "I recognize that look on your face. That's an Usa-chan look – spill, what'd you do to my imouto?"

"I didn't do anything to her!" Darien exclaimed in a confused, reluctant sort of way, shoving his hair back from his forehead with a hand. "I mean – don't look at me like that, Asanuma – I kinda snapped at her during gym – "

"It's true, he did," interrupted Asanuma, speaking to Motoki. "I remember, she went over to talk to him, and he said something to her, and they didn't talk for the rest of the class." He frowned. "It was weird. Class was really quiet – I mean, usually you can hear one of them screaming their heads off at the other one all throughout the class, but today, there were just a bunch of guys flocking around Serena-chan." He smiled slyly. "Seiko, especially. Ooh, man, Dare, you've got competition, big time!"

"NO, I DON'T!"

Motoki cut off Darien's vehement denial with a glare. "Wha'd you say to her at P.E., then, Darien?" His voice was threatening. Even knowing that Motoki was only protecting the girl who thought of him as an older bother, Darien felt slightly hurt and slightly resentful.

"I – I didn't, much. I mean, I was already in a bad mood, and she said something that really rubbed me the wrong way –"

"Why were you in such a bad mood?"

Well, our conversation in Physics class kind of reminded me of the fact that I'll probably never even find out Sailor Moon's real identity, much less how to win her heart, Darien imagined himself telling them. Motoki and Asanuma would probably faint – or worse, announce to the whole class that he was obsessed with Tokyo's resident super heroine beauty. As if he wasn't considered a geek enough already. (A/N: Oh, please.) So instead, he said, "Pop quiz in English."

"Ouch." Asanuma and Motoki both winced. "Point taken."

"Yeah. So anyway, I kinda snapped at the Odango, which, as you can imagine, didn't go over too well with her. I felt really bad about it, so during Study Hall, I apologized to her for being such a jerk."

"Wow, he actually admitted to it! Serena-chan really must hold some sort of power over him."

Darien scowled at Asanuma, and was just opening his mouth to retort, when the bell rang.

"FREE!" Asanuma sang out, leaping out of his chair and bulleting out of the classroom. "See ya!"

"I've gotta get to work," Motoki added, dashing off with a smug smirk. "Enjoy detention!"

"Some friends I've got," Darien mumbled, hefting his book bag and trudging off towards the detention classroom.

Detention Hall – a place of noisiness and revelry, body piercings and leather jackets. The room's main occupants were the dregs of the school, who whiled away their afternoons in the cramped classroom, comparing switchblades and giving each other tattoos. They talked as loudly as they wanted to, for no teacher could scare them into silence.

But silence reigned when Darien Shields entered the classroom and came to a halt in front of Serena Tuskino and the empty desk beside her. Every lackadaisical student watched with bated breath to see what the Odango would do now that her turf had been invaded by her arch-nemesis.

"Odango."

"Shields."

The two enemies glared at each other at each other as Darien slid into the desk next to Serena's. Go figure that the only desk open is the one next to Serena, Darien thought uncharitably. Since when was detention hall so crowded?

Serena pulled out a manga and resolutely buried her nose in it; Darien fished out his graphing calculator and began his Trig homework, just as determined to ignore Serena's presence as she was to ignore his.

"CLASS!" A bellow sounded from the doorway. Both Serena and Darien whipped around at the sound of the terribly familiar voice…

"It's Coach!" they simultaneously exclaimed in horrified whispers. They spun to face each other – "Jinx!" – then spun back to gape at Coach Etoukou, who was lumbering into the classroom, which had fallen silent.

"Okay, I'm in charge of you young hooligans today, so everyone pick up a pair of barbells and – " His eyes, which had been roving around the room, stopped abruptly on Serena. She squeaked, and clutched Darien's sleeve. "Tsukino? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at Discus tryouts?"

"I – uh – well, I have detention," Serena stammered.

"Obviously," Darien muttered.

"Shut up, jerk!" Serena stuck her tongue out at him.

"WHAT?" exclaimed the coach. "Miss Tsukino, how dare you talk to me like that – "

"No! No, I wasn't talking to you, Coach!" Serena protested hastily. "It was Darien, see – " She hauled the junior into the Coach's line of vision.

"Oh, so Shields is here, too, huh? I should've known. The lovebirds never go anywhere without each other."

"That's not true!" exclaimed Serena with a scowl.

"Actually," spoke up a little freshman from the corner. "It kinda is. Gym class, study hall, lunch, the arcade – "

"Shut up, pipsqueak!" Serena and Darien spun on the scrawny kid, who dove beneath his desk.

"HEY! I'm the one in control here! Only I get to terrorize the freshies." Coach tapped his whistle threateningly. "Now, get back to work, the lot of you!" His eyes narrowed beneath his bushy eyebrows; he brandished a baseball bat. "Shields, Tsukino, if I hear so much as one suction noise from the two of you, so help me, I'll have the two of you running the track till you've worn holes in your feet." (A/N: Suction noises, Giri-chan, suction noises!)

"It's a bit late for that," commented Darien, scowling at Serena.

"Shields – "

"We get it, we get it," Serena interrupted, clapping her hand over Darien's mouth. "We promise to be as quiet as church mice who have had their tongues cut out."

"Guess that rules out French kissing," noted Darien, peeling Serena's hand away from his mouth.

Serena's face turned the color for a tomato. "You – you – " she sputtered, spinning around and jumping up and down in an attempt to reach Darien's throat so she could choke the life out of him. "You HENTAI!"

"Enough!" Coach barked. Serena froze and sullenly turned back around, fingers still twitching bloodthirstily. "Tsukino, tell me, have you given any consideration to the Track Team? I saw you running to school this morning, and let me tell you, with the right coach, you could be the next Maniac Magee!"

Serena sweat-dropped. "I'll pass, Coach."

"Why?" Coach Etoukou demanded.

"Um…" Serena scrambled around for an excuse. "Because…Track team members have to wear really short shorts!" she blurted out.

"It's not that bad," insisted the coach. "You get used to it, and I give you wedgie breaks every half hour."

"Wedgie breaks!" Serena's eyes bulged. "No WAY! I am NOT joining a club with wedgie breaks!"

Coach burst into tears. "Why must you be so cruel, Tsukino? What did I ever do to you?" He continued sobbing as Serena sank guiltily down in her seat. She didn't have the time for any extracurriculars…but who was she to impede the Coach's lifelong dream? He needed her to achieve his goal, she shouldn't just turn him away…

"Wipe that look off your face, Odango Atama." She looked up to see Darien glaring at her. "I know what you're thinking. Don't let him bully you into doing something you don't want to do, no matter how sorry you feel for him."

"But…"

"No."

Serena smiled internally. Can't let the jerk know he made me feel better. "Who are you to boss me around anyway, jerk?" she demanded. "Maybe I want to join the track team!"

Darien just smirked at her. "One word: wedgie breaks."

"Ooh…." Serena scowled and retrieved her manga, sticking her nose back into it again. Someday, Shields…

"Hey, Odango Atama," said Darien a few minutes later. "Can I borrow a pen?"

"Yeah," Serena said sulkily, tossing him her pencil bag and returning to her manga, drooling slightly. Hatori's so hot… (A/N: Furuba!)

"Good God, Odango, your pen is making me nauseous," she heard Darien mutter beside her. "It's so…pink." (A/N: You better hope your daughter's not reading this, Darien!)

Serena blinked, frowning. I don't have any pink pens…do I? Her eyes landed on the writing utensil in Darien's hand. "OH MY GOD!" Serena shrieked, lunging at Darien. My LUNA PEN! Luna's gonna KILL me! "Gimme that, Shields!"

"Whoah, whoah, calm down, Odango." Darien stood, holding the pen high out of her reach. She jumped up and down, trying to snatch it out of his grasp. What if it accidentally transforms him? In front of the whole class…everyone'll find out who I am…Luna is SO going to kill me… A whimper escaped her lips as she pictured the various injuries her cat's claws were capable of inflicting."It's just a pen!"

"So shut up and give it to me!" Serena growled, scrambling on top of the desk so that she could reach her precious pen. Darien laughed and ducked away from her hand. "SHIELDS!"

"WHAT'S GOING ON OVER HERE?" Cleats clicked across the linoleum towards the deathly pale Serena.

Serena gulped and looked down at the jelly-bellied coach now standing with his fists on his hips beside her desk. "Darien stole my pen, Coach!"

"That's it! This flirting has got to stop!" Coach tugged at his meager fringe of hair. "I can't HANDLE the two of you anymore! You're messing with my digestion!" He let out a watery belch. "You hear that? I can't even burp properly anymore!"

"Um…sorry?" Serena ventured.

"No, sorry doesn't cut it!" Coach stomped his foot. "You're going to be punished! For the rest of the week, you're going to report to that art teacher lady. She asked me to find her some models…it scores me some points with her, and gets you out of my hair. SCORE!" He pumped a brawny fist in the air and burped.

"That would be great, if he had any hair," commented Darien into Serena's ear. She giggled, then scowled, remembering whose humor she was laughing at.

"Now go sit down again," ordered Coach. "And for God's sake, Shields, give Tsukino back her pen."

"So…models for the art teacher, huh?" Motoki regarded his friends from the other side of the counter, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "That's interesting."

"Uh-huh," answered Serena, taking a slurp of her milkshake. "Do you know anything about her, Motoki-onii-san?"

Motoki smiled enigmatically. "I've heard things about her. Supposedly, she's quite obsessive. Believes in aliens from the moon and stuff like that."

"Really?" Serena's curiosity was piqued. Could she be the princess? "Is she nice?"

Motoki shrugged, though the grin still played about his lips. "She's weird. That's all I know. Asanuma took a couple of classes with her, though; you could ask him."

"No!" Darien glared at Motoki, slamming his fists on the counter and causing his Moutain Dew to tip over and spill. "The Odango Atama isn't going anywhere near Asanuma."

"Why not?" demanded Serena, simultaneously bewildered and incensed by Darien's violent reaction. "And stop calling me that, Shields!"

"Yeah, why not, Darien?" Motoki joined in. "Aren't you being a little possessive?" He arched an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're jealous."

"What? No!" Darien grabbed a handful of napkins and began to mop up the puddle of green soda, muttering murderously under his breath about backstabbing best friends and stupid dumpling heads.

"Hahaha," laughed Serena nervously. "You're so funny, Motoki-onii-san. As if the jerkwad would ever get a crush on me."

"Stranger things have happened."

"Oh, yeah?' Darien looked up from his counter-scrubbing. "Like what?"

"Uh, well…" Motoki thought for a moment, then rubbed his neck and laughed. "Nothing comes to mind at the moment…but I'm sure there's something…"

Motoki fell into deep thought. Serena and Darien exchanged glances.

"He's hopeless."

"You're telling me."

Absently, Serena finished her milkshake and fished in her pocket for some money. She put it on the counter beside her empty glass and noticed Darien doing the same thing beside her. He, too, looked lost deep in thought as they walked out of the arcade into the darkening street.

How does this keep happening? Serena wondered. Walking side-by-side like this…detention together…talking to Motoki together…it's like he's one of my friends – but he's not. She shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her mind. "This is my street."

"Hmm?" Darien blinked looked down at her. "Oh. Uh…see you tomorrow, I guess…"

"Yeah. Tomorrow." Serena began to walk, but a hand on her sleeve caught her. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Darien, eyes fixed determinedly on the sky. She shook away the strange nostalgia that swept over her and gathered her thoughts. This was Darien. Darien, the upperclassman, who loved to tease her. "What is it, jerkwad?"

"Odango – you – do you – " He stumbled over the words. "Gym this morning…I really am sorry…do you forgive me?"

Serena smiled. It was a sincere expression. "I already did, jerkwad."

"Oh." Darien raked a hand through his hair, gaze falling from the emerging stars to her. "So…back to normal, right?"

"Right." Serena nodded. "Back to normal."

"Zoicite?"

"My queen, the plan is almost finished. I am planning to send out a youma to test the waters."

"Make sure it is not a waste. I'm sick of spending youmas without getting results."

"One did get results," Zoicite reminded her queen. "And is still reaping us benefits now."

"Yes, one out of fifty." The queen snorted. "Never mind that. Just make sure your plan works, Zoicite. Have you found the masked man's weakness?"

"He seems to have several, Your Majesty." Zoicite smiled. "The Silver Crystal and Sailor Moon have both evoked quite a reaction from him in the past."

"This Sailor Moon, Zoicite…" The Queen tapped her long, curling fingernails. "My memories of the Silver Millennium are vague, but I can't remember a being such as her being one of the Princess' Senshi. I want you to keep an especially close eyes on her, see if you can find out any more information about her."

"Yes, my queen." Zoicite bowed. "Do you have any theories as to her identity?"

"Several. The Lunarian Queen may well have reincarnated herself into this time, and is searching for her daughter in that form. Sailor Moon could also be one of the Senshi from outside this solar system, sent to help this system's Senshi find the Moon Princess…the Princess' survival is crucial to the Higher Senshi, as you well know from the prophecy, Zoicite."

"Of course, Your Majesty."

"Another possibility is that Sailor Moon is one of the Moon Princess' younger sisters – I can't recall any such siblings, but those cursed Lunarians were always close-mouthed and stingy with their information. There could very well have been a whole brood of the Moon brats up in that palace, all huddled up like rabbits." Beryl spat, as though the thought of those creatures put a bad taste in her mouth.

"My queen…is it possible that perhaps Sailor Moon is the Moon Princess?"

Shrieks of laughter rang out in response to Zoicite's question, echoing through the cold stone caverns.

"Ah, Zoicite," gasped Beryl, wiping tears of malicious mirth from her eyes. "The one thing I am sure of is that that Moon brat is not the Moon princess. Despite the numerous holes in my memory, I do remember the tales of the Princess's legendary grace and serenity. As you have seen many times, Sailor Moon is anything but graceful or serene."

"She is quite the…klutz, if you'll forgive me for using the human term, Majesty."

"Indeed. It is impossible for Sailor Moon to be the Moon Princess. Not only because of her clumsiness, but if she was the Moon Princess, her Senshi would never allow her to wage battle. They were always too concerned that she might get hurt, or dirty her pretty face…" Beryl sneered into her crystal ball, lip curling. She waved a hand abruptly. "Be gone, Zoicite. You have my permission to set your plan into motion."

A/N: There you have it. Chapter Six. Again, not much humor, please forgive me. I've got a fever again, so I'm kind of out of it, but I wanted to get another chapter out. Um…I'm kind of worried about my Darien and Serena characterizations…do they seem OoC to you? Please tell me in your reviews.