Author Note: So, I just found this chapter. My laptop got fixed but, for some reason, I was thinking I was on chapter five or something since this one was complete. I'm sorry guys, my laziness is overwhelming I guess.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Sailor Moon except my fanfictions.

Even Angels Cry

Chapter Four

A week after our engagement, I found myself walked on the isolated beach. There wasn't a person in sight and the air was gently breezing. I could feel it sweep through my hair and hug my sun kissed body. Over my baby blue string bikini bottoms were jean bootie shorts (what shorts nowadays weren't so tiny they could be classified as underwear?) and the matching top was clad on my chest. The sun was slowly sinking down in the horizon, again, and left a splash of colors in its quake.

Suddenly, I realized I wasn't so alone. Off into the distance was a silhouetted figure, completely blacked out. I squinted, trying to see if I could identify the boy on the surfboard. The waves were gentle today and didn't even exist as far out as he was yet he sat there. It must have been relaxing. I could remember lying out on my surfboard, previous years, just so I could think far away from everybody and everything.

The figure started to swim towards me, once I was apparently noticed. When the person got close enough to see features, I froze. The characteristics reflected all over him made my heart stop. My legs started to become wobbly and I shook my head madly. The alluring mirages that my mind had created before was reacting again. I was about to go crazy and lose it all; again.

"Serena, is that you? You're hair is shorter now, I love it. You look gorgeous." The voice drawled on quietly as he approached me. His broad, yet lean, figure was standing before me and he was playing with the tips of my blonde locks. His voice was barely a whisper.

"No, no, no! Get away!" I screamed and used my palms to push his chest away. I looked up through tearful eyes to see the shocked and hurt expression on his face."After all this time, why am I starting to imagine your with me again?"

My voice was hopeless and hurt. He didn't say anything, just wrapped his huge arms around me. This moment felt more real than anything ever before and I didn't resist the hold. I relaxed into the muscular frame and bawled my big blue eyes out. With his chin resting on my head he finally spoke, that sexy vanilla milk voice that I hadn't heard in forever. "Please tell me this isn't a dream."

"Only if you don't tell me it is, either." I whispered. He gently pulled an arms length away from me, palms of his hands still capped on my shoulders. His incredible stormy eyes roamed all over me and my body. My baby blues were doing the same to him and I couldn't deny that this was the real deal. "But, how? They said… they said you were dead."

"I know, they were wrong. They thought I was dead but now they believe it's a young man named Sapphire. He went MIA but there were no traces to me, where I had dog tags beside his barely existent dental records." He whispered and brushed some of the side-cut bangs from my face, swiping them off to the side they all resided to.

"What are you doing back here?" I questioned, curiously. Had he really been so in love with me that he tracked me down the whole way to Florida, in hopes of catching my eye? Did he plan to do the ever romantic idea of stealing the girl who was originally his, me, back? My heart started to pound with the excitement.

"Actually, this is just my break. I go back, next week."

"You go back…? Like, to the military?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I was sent home for a visit. I was thinking of going to Cali but there's really nothing left for me there anymore. I didn't want to come back into your life, either, just to walk out. I wanted to save you from all those mixed emotions and I didn't want you to hate me for my decision. I don't want any ties back home though, it makes it that much easier when I'm in Vietnam." Darien explained and my heart sunk.

"Oh, well at least your still alive… that's always a good thing. I hope everything goes well for you back cover there. It must be really scary." I pretended to imagine. In reality, it was scary how much I had fallen in love with him and it was hurtful that he didn't want me back with equal passion. I was just a pen pal to him; all love ideals down the drain. What had I been hanging onto all these years? False hope that he truly loved me?

Suddenly, I hated myself.

"We should keep in touch… I'm still going to be around for a couple more days so how about you and I meet up at the Dip N Dots place on the boardwalk around five thirty? If that's too early, you can set a different time but I always wake up with the sunlight." He responded.

This was nothing like I had expected it would be if we had ever seen each other again. It was plainly clear that he wasn't interested in me anymore. I needed to move on and maybe God made me see him, just this once, for some closure. This was so I wouldn't have to feel guilty and I could move on with my life.

"As Benjamin Franklin said, 'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise'." I stated with as much enthusiasm as I could possibly pull from my body. Full of disappointment I dropped my eyes to the ground, and then looked back up at him. "Did you ever miss me while you were over there Darien?"

"There really wasn't much of a chance to. I mean, I had too much on my mind to think about anybody or anything over than my mission and the war. I had a purpose and I wanted to put my entire heart into it. I'm not done yet, and I need to go back and fight. I didn't make a big enough impact yet."

"The best way to fail is to put your expectations too high…You're too busy trying to be perfect and save everybody, Darien; it's not physically possible. Look, I should probably get back home now. I'll see you tomorrow… I… Goodnight." I said, in self-confliction. I sighed as I turned my back and headed back towards the small but stylish apartment complex.

I swiped angrily at the tears that fell from my eyes as I broke out into a jog. I couldn't believe he was treating me like this… acting like I didn't even matter! When I got home I stormed into the house. Andrew was watching television and jumped to attention when I slammed the door. I marched right past him into the bedroom and he followed me. I ripped a metal box, with a lock, from underneath my bed and launched it in the very back of the closet, where it smashed against the wall and was blanketed in darkness.

"Serena, what's wrong? Are you okay baby?" Andrew asked cautiously as he ran to comfort me. He must have noticed my pink-red swelled eyes, paled skin, and silent tears. He grabbed me around the waist, from behind, and pulled me onto his lap. He cradled me like a child and slowly rocked me back and forth while my tears became violent. I gasped for breaths while he coaxed me sweetly. "Shh… it's okay baby, it'll be alright…."

I was torn. Andrew was the sweetest and most caring guy I had ever met. He was always there for me and I knew he always would be. Meanwhile Darien had a cold disposition that was indifferent towards me and was looking forward to going off to war, again. He wasn't concerned with me anymore. I was simply a figure from his past; I was a vanishing ghost of a picture in his vast and barren world. The world and emotions always seemed so vague coming from other people.

If there was one thing I knew it was that time doesn't really matter. Time doesn't exist when you're broken and your heart is so completely shattered it'll only make you bleed with every breath. Time doesn't heal pain, it just numbs it. The pain is masked because it's something you've grown accustomed to. Time was a matter of measuring longevity and I hated it. How much time had I spent waiting for long-lost letters, waiting for a coldhearted male to respond, waiting for some kind of acknowledgement? How much time had I spent thinking he loved me?

Darien

I laid on the bed at my hotel room, my hands resting on my well chiseled abs. It felt good to see Serena again. She was even more crazy beautiful than the last time I had seen her and had obviously matured. It had taken every fiber in my being to not grab onto her and kiss the living daylights out of her. Although she seemed hurt, it didn't seem to damage her that much. She didn't cry over me and that was good.

She was making it easier for me to move on and not get in her way. She obviously was living her life well enough that she didn't need me in it. Tomorrow we'd catch up like old friends and that would be it. The last time I would see Serena and then we could both go our separate ways and live different lives, the lives that we wanted and deemed fit.

I was a part of her past, I didn't belong in her future.