Chapter 3

Sitting outside in the back garden both Serena and Emerald was trying to relax after the events happening down at the studio, Serena had received a call from Andrew and she said if he could make it down on Monday around 5, she'd be able to sketch up something for him even give him a discount on whatever he wanted due to him being family.

Her parents really didn't know how to take her new change sometimes especially when her mother had caught the girl smoking once while driving passed a convenience store, but she couldn't really do anything about it, the girl had been smoking for 2 months straight at first she had been angry, told her husband and grounded Serena, But Rubious had spoke to them about the event's explain the reasons by the young girls actions.

So now, Irene was bringing out hot coffee for the girls while sighing in disappointment at her daughters bad habit, she just hoped Sammy wouldn't pick up on any of it, tattoo's, piercings and the motorbike she could handle but the smoking was a different story, "Oh Serena I wish you would just quit that, your destroying your perfect lungs," was all she thought, before getting in between them smiling.

"Hey girls I thought you could use some refreshments, Serena your fathers just nipped out a moment if you want anything from the store just give him a call." Giving a small thought about it, while looking around the garden, she smiled, "if it's the one near that garden store then I think I might get him to pick up some new flowers what do you think about lilacs and orchids mum?"

Irene knelt down in between the girls but trying not to get her face in the second hand smoke from them, "you know what that sounds nice, didn't I hear you and Sapphire talking about blue roses once?"

Emerald rubbed her hands together, "you bet they did, Blue Roses are Serena's favourite and they only grow in a special place, Sapphire was going to try and get some for Serena at some point" they both noticed the slight blush on Serena's face as she looked away, her mother gave a slight giggle, "they would go nice with some lilac, maybe some white ones too" both girls nodded in agreement as they began to plan re-planting the garden.

Meanwhile across town at the Hiwaki shrine, 4 girls and two cats was sitting on the steps talking about recent event's, "So the negaverse hasn't really been active lately, and what lose monsters have wandered around here, Serena's been able to take them out before we even get to them?" spoke the bluenette wearing a pair of thin blue framed glasses while typing on a mini computer.

"That's right Ami, Man were not even allowed to even question Serena about this because the school board said if we even go over to her house, we would be kicked out of school… ((A/N:- not sure if that's possible but didn't really want to do restraining orders on them …. )) Man we really screwed up on this one" added into the conversation a tall brunette, wearing a pair of rose earring's, green hoodie and skinny jeans. "Yeah we did, I know I was the hardest on her, when she came late that night I was just concerned for Mina and Ami's safety as well as my injured wrist, but when she left and we all saw her bloody back. I still see that image in my mind…. She's transferred schools, and not even seen around Juuben anymore. I know Molly's not seen her due to Serena finding both her and Darien having sex in his apartment."

Rei the raven haired shrine priestess clentched her fists, she hated the fact that there was nothing she could do to help the moon princess at all, She looked into the distance, and could see a very familiar bike coming up to the steps of her home. "Look who's showing his face girls, how we going to go about this?"

The blonde stood up and gave her knuckles a slight crack, "I don't know about you but I feel like cracking his skull open, due to him it made our actions look bad on Serena, and I've lost my sister from another family because of that." Another crack could be heard, they saw Lita doing the same thing with her neck, "I agree with you there Mina, Serena and you girls are the only family I have. So this will be interesting to see what he's got to say."

Not 5 minutes later, Darien Shields had made his way to the top of Hiwaki Shrine stairs, the four girls could see his face being rather pissed, they was curious as to why but Rei just spoke first, "What are you doing here Darien? You're not exactly in our favourite books at the moment."

Darien just gave a slight grunt but leaned against one of the pillars, "Just came to bare some news about Serena, yes I saw her this morning at 7.40 at the crown arcade." The girls blinked slightly but kept up their defences, "I found out a few things, one her and Andrew are half siblings. The second she's changed her looks slightly"

"What do you mean she's changed her looks Darien?" he let out a sigh, "she's cut her hair, piercings, dark clothing and she has a tattoo on her left arm." "WHAT!" he gave a nod, raising his head to the girls, "that's not all she has a job down town, she wouldn't tell me where it was but when I tried to tell her its in a dangerous area down town she wouldn't listen. I offered to give her a ride but turns out she's got her own motorbike now"

The girls had been taken back by this slightly, but Rei wasn't backing down, "So what if she has changed her style? So what if she's got a bike and tats? You are not in her life anymore Darien you screwed up bad style, I know us girls bad talked her slightly, but she told me herself later that day that she forgive us until you sent her over the breaking edge cheating on her…. With her old childhood friend!"

He stood up straight and walked over to Rei getting right in her face, "She's hanging around the dark moon clan Rei, I caught her smoking talking and laughing with them, that damn Sapphire thought he could keep her away from me while that Rubious is her god damn cousin!"

Again the girls was taken back by this information until Lita cracked her knuckles, "it's her life Darien yeah she's going to be future queen but you can't control Serena and I highly doubt she's going to go back to a guy like you, in fact i wouldn't be surprised if she's got a new guy in her life now. Why was you stalking her?"

"STALKING! I wasn't stalking! I just wanted to talk to her and see if –" The prince of earth was cut off by getting shoved slightly by the mars scout, "Try and make her feel guilty to get back with you? You've caused her so much pain and heart break that this time it's the final. Just leave Darien you are NOT! Wanted here, if we find out that you've gone after Serena again then we will hurt you got it?"

"You listen her Serena will be back with me again and she will learn to deal with it, so will you girls simple because Serena can't have a future without me, I give it another week and she will be running back to me, now I'm going to leave since I'm not really wanted or even been thanked for this information. Goodbye" with that he turned to leave, but not without feeling something hit his head, he turned round to see a stone falling to the floor but none of the girls looked like they had thrown it. So he just continued down the stairs and left without saying another word.

The girls turned to the bluenette who never even got chance to say a word when he was here, and burst out laughing, "Wow girl, didn't know you had it in you to throw a rock at him." Ami just looked down at the floor, "Well he just made me so mad, acting like Serena is some prize trophy." 3 of them kept talking while Rei just leaned backwards against the temple holding the sweeping brush close. Her mind was on something else, she got bad vibes from Darien while he was here but didn't want to mention anything about it to the girls just yet. She was just going to go with a hunch for now and confined with the great fire later on.

7pm rolled around at the Tsukino house, everyone had been fed, Rubious and Sapphire was doing the dishes while the girls was relaxing, they had helped Irene cook dinner in which she had said she barely did anything, just shadowed the girls while they made dinner. She was surprised on how far Serena had come with just cooking a simple Lasagne with homemade garlic bread and sauté potatoes. It was apparently a recipe Serena had wanted to try out for a while since Sapphire had mentioned it. The whole family had loved it, even Sammy couldn't pick a fault with the meal, well his only fault was that Serena ate smaller portion sizes to what she use to three months ago so he couldn't pick on her for being a gluttony anymore.

Ken stood up from his chair giving a stretch "well everyone thank you for dinner, it was nice seeing you Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire but I need to get my head down I have to be up early tomorrow for work. Make sure you get home safe ok?"

Irene began to make her way upstairs also after grabbing a glass of water, "We will do Uncle Kenji, Bunny doesn't even have any homework since she did it last night without our help" the older man nodded to his nephew saying their goodnights, Serena's parents went upstairs, Sammy was already in his bedroom so it just left the 4 of them to talk.

After the boy's had done the dishes they was all sat in the living room with a beer each, "ok cut all the crap and get straight to the chase, Why the fuck was Darien down at the studio today?" they all winced at the moon princess tone, meaning she wasn't happy at all. Her eye's straight away landed on her only cousin in the room, he took a swig of the cold beverage before speaking, "he was still there at the crown arcade when I went to go pick up our food. He seemed rather surprised that Andrew knew me and that I was also alive. When I was leaving I told him if he comes near you or hurts you again that I would kill him."

"He mentioned he followed you love, so how did he turn up at the studio before you?" Emerald spoke, kicking her legs up on top of Serena's, "It must have been when I was parking my car at the multi-story building I noticed both you girls outside the studio talking so when I drove past he must have seen stopped and started talking"

While the conversation was going, Serena noticed sapphire was quite, "what's your input on this Sapphie?" he looked at her with soft eye's, "I was thinking that he has a different vibe on him from when we all fought 3 years ago and I don't like it, like a possessive way. You'd told us all that you kept refusing to bed him while dating and that's when he went after your friend Molly, he must have seen her weakness at the time when her an Melvin was going through that hard time. You still speak to Melvin right? How's him and Molly doing?"

Running a hand through her blonde locks she sighed, "Melvin is still pretty upset over the ordeal, but he's pulling through with it. It's harder on him since he still goes to the same school as her. Where I've switched to a Ladder type school, I just miss seeing Miss. Haruna, I might have to go see her at some point."

Rubious couldn't help but laugh, "that dim wit teacher that kept giving you detention? Yeah she'll be shocked about your 180 turn, Either way I'm more concerned about Darien popping up now at the studio when we're not there. Especially Thursday nights when it's your turn to close up shop." Serena just held up her hand, "I'm not having you all stay glued to me cause of him I can handle Darien Anyway you guy's should be getting home."

They all stood up and she lead them out the door, she just couldn't get Sapphire's concerned face out of her mind, he had mainly stayed quite where he was normally quite vocal about this sort of thing.

10 minutes after they had left, she grabbed riding gear, key's locking the door and began driving off into the dark.

It didn't take Serena long to reach the park, near the Tokyo spring lake one of her most favourite places in the park. Not many people liked to go near it due to no fence being around so kids couldn't go up and watch the ducks. She sat on a patch of grass while looking up at the sky, the moon was full and shone brightly with its counterparts the stars.

She always came to this place when she needed to get some air, to think, to take a breather basically to get away from all her problems. It worked most nights but tonight her mind wasn't easing off. She was about to lay down when she heard a voice behind her, "Hey your too close to the lake!" quickly turning around she saw the one person she didn't think would ever be in this part of the park.

"Rei? What are you doing out here so late?" Rei blinked a few times before realising who it was. She slowly walked forward, "I thought it was a nice night to take a walk." Giving an approving nod, the moment felt a little weird to both of them until Serena sighed, "Get your arse over here now girl and sit with me. It's been months since we've had a girly chat or even had a row with each other."

The senshi of fire had to blink a few times to realise what the girl was saying until she got her arse moving and went sitting by her princess, it had gone quite, Serena looking up at the sky, while Rei was looking at her friend, she saw the glistening piercings on her eye brow and lip, the black vest she was wearing showed off the half sleeve wolf tattoo on her arm, Rei felt drawn to that and thought it suited Serena quite well.

That's when it dawned on her, hanging out of Serena's mouth was a cigarette the girl was just letting it burn away while hanging there in her mouth, "So Rei, how's things going with the girls? I keep meaning to come and stop by but I've been so busy lately. Especially since I transferred schools" Rei hugged her slender legs close to her chest, "Don't look like that Rei it's not yours or the girls fault, it's that bitch that betrayed me as well as him. You girls was just trying to push me in the right direction and I took it the wrong way, the next day I caught them in the act."

"What do you mean it's not our fault? I yelled at you while you was injured yourself! You could have died Serena!" the blonde couldn't help but laugh at that statement, "Rei how many times have I died to protect this world but yet we're still here having this conversation? I don't care how badly I get hurt so long as I can make sure you girls are ok. Especially you Rei you're like a sister to me."

That single sentence had put Rei slightly emotional, "I'm Serious Rei, you girls didn't do anything wrong ok?" she reached her hand over wiping some stray tears away from the girls left cheek. "Oh Sere, you are such a goofy ball, caring more about my feelings than your own, so what are you really doing out here tonight?" giving a slight sigh, she couldn't help but bite on the tip of her smoke, "Darien, I ran into him twice today, once this morning while getting my morning coffee from Drew, then a second time down at the studio where I work. That jerk had the nerve to claim me as some possessive freak. If it wasn't for Sapphire I don't know how I would have reacted. Most likely kicked his arse but still…."

"Yeah we heard all about that when he decided to pay a visit at my house, telling us all about your new looks, change and this filthy habit you've started. Take that stupid thing out of your mouth" the young princess laughed as she took out flicking the thing far away from them. "Oh that, yeah I went through a rough first month after transferring schools, wasn't very liked and was beaten up a couple of times for being ditzy and naïve. Not only that but the girls didn't like the fact that I was hanging around Sapphire a lot."

Rei bit her bottom lip, "Sapphire, the same one that …" "Yeah… he somehow came back, same with Rubious and Emerald, but apparently according to my parents, Ruby has always been my blood cousin but lived in Osaka with his parents for the past 10 years. So when he moved back to Tokyo and we met up he was shocked to find out what his future self, had done. He and Emerald was dating back in Osaka and had moved here because business was better for their type of work. The more my parents talk about what we did when we was kids, the more I remember him. I must have blocked his moving out of my mind cause it was painful."

"I can imagine Sere, in any case I take it as you 4 work together?" she nodded to her friend, grinning, "Oh hell yeah, one heck of a job it is too well Sapphire doesn't work there too much he wants to be a lawyer but he fills in at the shop if one of us can't make it in, so far I've never taken a day off, working 5 days a week, hell that's how I was able to afford my baby here." She patted the helmet underneath her right arm.

Rei had to sit back and take in this new Serena, she was amazed on how far the princess had come within such a short time especially with she was a flunker to a straight A, "Ya know what, why don't you and the girls come down to the studio on Monday evening? Or just you, the day's kinda slow on a Monday but some extra company for me an Emerald could help livin' up the place ya know?"

Rei thought about it, it could be the chance she was waiting for to finally get back friends with her again, even though Serena doesn't seem to think anything had been wrong in the first place, standing up Serena helped the raven haired priestess off the ground, "Sure, I'll speak to them and come down Monday, I best be off now though it's getting later and I told grandpa I'd only be half hour." Suddenly the helmet Serena was holding was shoved into Rei's hands, she looked to the blonde who winked, "I'll give you a ride, it's pretty dangerous at this time of night, we maybe sailor scouts but we can still get jumped in our normal life style in fact it's Saturday night crash at my place and I'll call grandpa and let him know while you take a nice bath. Just got this new Aroma scented candles that I know you'll love."

The girl thought about it and nodded, she could always borrow some of Serena's nightwear, "Sure girl, why not?" And with that the two headed towards Serena's bike. Although off into the distance, they didn't know they had been watched the entire time by none other than Darien.

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Well that's all for now folks, Bet you all think that Serena hated the sailor scouts? Nah….. Not in this story!

CureDream90~ over and out! ~