Meus Amor et Mea Culpa: My Love and My Mistake
Rose
Luna Soleil Cartier was a beautiful woman.
Even more, she had talent, a combination that should have made her exceptionally more conceited than she actually was. Magazines and critics alike had hailed her as a formidable artist, a vanguard of modern art, whose sculptures and paintings continued to surprise and inspire with every showing she conducted.
Standing almost as tall as her husband Artemis Cartier at an inch ("Half an inch thank you very much," She'd insist) below six feet, her dark hair fell in luscious curls, framing her heart-shaped face and her distinctively colored crimson eyes. She had a great figure and legs that went on for days. Proudly (and truthfully) proclaiming her age as under 40, she could pass for a supermodel.
But right now, she turned from the stove in her kitchen where a set of eggs and bacon were sizzling in a pan before calling for a certain 17-year-old teenager living under her roof,
"SERENITY TSUKINO GET YOUR CUTE ASS DOWN HERE BEFORE I GET OUT THE WATER GUN AGAIN!"
A loud thump resonated from above as a body rolled off a bed and she smirked, satisfied. She turned back to the stove, humming a happy jingle while hearing her niece running about and raving foreign curses in her room upstairs. Luna sighed serenely,
"Ah," The toaster pinged happily as she heard Serena trip over the shoes that Luna had told her to put away last night. "The joys of guardianship."
She had just finish pouring the orange juice into a tall glass when Serena stumbled into the kitchen, fully dressed in her uniform, landing on her face.
Luna smiled widely. "Good morning!" She sang to the face-down teenager. The blonde lifted her face to her sickeningly happy aunt and Luna had to marvel at the family resemblance between her husband and this girl before her.
"You're evil," Serena hissed standing up, rubbing her nose. "You know that, don't you?"
Her aunt smiled, placing a kiss on the girl's cheek.
"Come now, darling," She said flippantly. "I'm not evil. Now your uncle singing in the shower, that's evil."
Serena giggled and sat down at the table and gobbled down her aunt's cooking like she hadn't eaten a gigantic meal the night before. Luna herself sat down at the table as well and began reading the newspaper. Suddenly, Serena's face twisted to one of disbelief and revulsion. Luna twisted her mouth at her expression.
"Oh come on." Luna insisted, closing Garfield's antics of the day. "My cooking's not that bad."
"It's not the cooking I'm gagging about." Serena replied pointing at Luna's collar. Just above the cotton top, rested a violent-looking mark along Luna's neck when Artemis had err…kissed his wife good-bye. Luna smirked.
"Well, it's better than the shower incident isn't it?" Serena threw up her hands expressively and glared at her laughing aunt through a mouthful of toast, the message clear,
'Yes, it might've been better but you didn't have to bring it up!'
"I'm kidding, honey." Luna said. Still laughing, she watched her niece finish up her orange juice. "You remember that Artemis had to go to an early faculty meeting today, right?"
Serena nodded, swallowing the fantastically crispy bacon and glanced at the clock. "I guess I'd better start heading there now."
Luna nodded. "You mentioned last night that you were going somewhere today after school?"
"Yup." Serena wiped her mouth and slipped into her shoes. "I'm going over to Minako's with Rei to work on a project."
"How long do you think it will take?"
Serena shrugged, picking up her satchel while her aunt leaned against the wall by the door. "Maybe an hour or two." She replied. "Rei's brother will bring me back to the house."
Luna nodded as Serena stood up and faced her. The older woman looked at the girl for a while, a strange but familiar expression that made Serena feel guilty. She smiled weakly.
"I'll be okay, Auntie Elle." Serena insisted reassuringly. She held out her pinkie to the older woman. "Promise."
"How immature," Luna scoffed with a laugh, linking pinkies with her nonetheless. Serena grinned and Luna leaned over, embracing her tightly.
When she pulled away, the guilt hovered again as Serena realized the smile on Luna's face didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Just be careful," She whispered almost pleadingly. "Okay?"
Serena smiled and gave her aunt a peck on the cheek good-bye before heading out without a word.
Luna watched as the white-blond waves disappeared beyond the front door. For a while, she stayed where she was, her eyes watching the door. Finally, she turned, heading to her studio at the back of the house. Casting one last glance at the solid door, she looked upwards.
"I don't know if someone can hear me up there." She sighed, mostly to herself and bowed her head, clasping her hands, murmuring, "But…She's been through hell and back. Please give her a break already…"
Luna suddenly had to laugh at the desperate tone of her voice. "I'm getting soft," She muttered before continuing her path to her studio…
The frog blinked at Zachary.
He, in turn, glared at the little amphibian on the sidewalk like it was Mr. Hopper's fault he was in a bad mood. Well, Mr. Hopper did not appreciate this, and promptly hopped away, its slimy nose in the air.
Zach 'tsk'ed, somewhat annoyed that he didn't have anyone/thing to focus his bad mojo at. Adjusting his uniform tie uncomfortably, he continued trudging his way to school. Ah, good 'ol New Moon, the center of the soap opera of his life. Why did he choose to come back again? Oh yeah…
He ignored the feeling of Beryl Sinclair's eyes on his back at sat down at his new seat. The annoying girl swore they were dating and his blatant attempts to correct her went completely over her socially-climbing head. He forgot her though, when Mr. Cartier lean over and place a hand on Ami Mizuno's forehead.
"Miss Mizuno, are you alright? You look pale."
Almost as pale as Zachary's clenched knuckles were on the edges of his desk behind the resident genius…
Zachary felt a tick on his cheek. He had a feeling that not even having the X-Men comics on the reading list could help him enjoy English with Artemis Cartier this year. He growled thinking of the man. The very infuriating, all-knowing man…
And yet, Zachary thought grudgingly, he's the only reason I'm even here.
As he thought of the white-haired man, his thoughts drifted over to this summer. His very blue summer, that of his bright cerulean pool to the clear sky and a certain crystal clear lake. Unbidden, the blues in his mind's eye warped into the hazy figment of a certain blue-haired nymph who-
A gruff voice broke his chain of thought and Zach glared irritatingly at the source of the rude interruption. Up ahead, where he would turn towards New Moon, gathered three, menacing-looking guys, all of whom Zachary had had the…pleasure of knowing. Mace had long greasy hair, Talon had jeans that hadn't clearly hadn't been washed into two week, Frankie had a permanent case of halitosis and douche-ness, and all three were dropouts who Zachary and Jaden had a few run-ins with a while back, and none of them happened to be pleasant.
His brow furrowed once he realized they were surrounding a dainty-looking blonde. He stared and blinked in disbelief. No, wait… That wasn't just a blonde. That was Artemis' niece. What was her name again? It started with an "S"…
And while he was going through the vowels in his head in an effort to remember her name, Zach watched the girl (seriously, she had to be under five feet) slam her elbow into Mace's face behind her and use the momentum from pushing the idiot down to swing a kick at Talon's face.
…Zachary decided then and there that all the Cartiers must have a genetically-ingrained chromosome for looking pretty while kicking ass.
While he admired the fallen thugs at her standard-issued penny-loafers, Zach saw Frankie suddenly lumber forward and quickly jogged to stop him before he mauled the little girl…But then he saw Serena (yes! He remembered her name during rollcall) swing her bag into the idiot's face and decided to take his time. Either she was packing bricks on the way to school or had one hell of an arm because Frankie's nose all but exploded in blood when her bag smacked his face.
Serena landed a final punch into Frankie's pouchy belly and as the oaf let out a grunt and fell to his knees, Zach realized that she'd literally taken down three huge (figurative and literal) assholes in the time it took him to move 8 yards.
And obviously, Talon hadn't had enough and was slowly getting up and stumbling in her direction as Frankie dropped to the ground. Zachary moved quickly (he'd be damned if he wasn't getting a piece of these idiots while he was in such a bad mood), sprinting over to where the hoodlum was and roughly pinned him to the fence wall on the sidewalk. Cartier's niece spun around at the noise, dropping to what he recognized as a defense position, holding out her bag and ready for action.
Zach merely inclined his head at her, twisting Talon's shirt in his hands in the process and chirped,
"Mornin'."
Beside her, Mace grunted and started to pull himself up. Serena's bag seemed to swing into action by itself and the greasy hair went down again.
Her defensive hands lowered and she nodded back at Zach, "Hey."
"And good frickin' morning to you too Talon," Zach sang/snarled.
The thug looked like he'd just pissed in his pants. "Z-Zach?"
"Hey Blondie I think you knocked him around a little too much," Zach called over his shoulder, earning the beginnings of a smile on Serena's face. He swung his head back around to glare at Talon once more, "Apparently, my old buddy here can't even recognize my smiling face."
"Y-You're back!"
"No shit." Zach quipped, grabbing Talon suddenly and slamming him face-first into the fence. "Now, buddy, I'm pretty sure the last time we saw each other, Jaden broke your nose so I'm really, really," He tightened his grip on the man's collar. "Curious as to why the hell you think it's safe to come around here again."
Beside his feet, Frankie had begun to stir, but Serena's magical bag of innate heaviness swung down once again and practically skipped over his limp form to Zach's side.
"So here's what's gonna happen," Zach said slowly. "You're going to wait here, until Talon and Mace wake up from this little girl's," He gestured to Serena who waved with her fingers at him, "Bag-induced short-term comas, and then you're all going to hobble back into the hole you crawled out of. And if I even so much as catch a whiff of any of your respective B.O.s in the neighborhood, I will personally hunt you down and remind you of how bones sound when they break."
He patted Talon's back with excessive enthusiasm and gave a Cheshire grin, "Great talking with you Talon. Now goodnight."
Talon tried to protest, but Zach had already slammed Talon's head onto the concrete fence and watched his body slump to the ground. For a while, neither of the two conscious people said anything, simply studying Talon's unconscious, drooling form.
"You know," Serena began, breaking the silence, "I don't think we've been formally introduced." She tucked her coma-inducing bag over one shoulder and held out a hand that looked too petite and intact to knock a man unconscious. "I'm Serena."
It was such an awkward conversation to have before 8:30 am after watching her knock out the neighborhood assholes with nothing more than her school bag and some fantastically-aimed attacks that Zach had to laugh, grasping her dainty out-stretched hand.
"Good morning to you, too." He replied and watched as a smile spread on her face. "My name's Zachary Monroe. You're Mr. Cartier's niece, right?"
The girl before him nodded. "Yup. Serena Tsukino, your regular damsel in distress."
Zachary laughed once more. He really couldn't help it; she'd knocked the shit out of three guys and now referred to herself as a 'damsel in distress'? Oh yeah, this was a beautiful way to start the day.
"In that case, mademoiselle," He bowed exaggeratingly low in a fake French accent. "Allow me to rescue you from the contaminated air of all this filth."
With that, he turned his nose upwards in a snobbish fashion and helped her to skip over Talon's fallen body, still holding onto her hand. She laughed with him and the two went on their way to the school.
"You could've gone around the other way you know that, right?" He said after they had been walking for a while. Serena shrugged.
"They were in my way and this is the shortest route to school." She reasoned and then waved her bag as evidence, "Plus, it's not like I couldn't take care of them"
"I won't argue with you there." Zachary said with an impish smile. "Where'd you learn all that?"
It was barely a moment, a flicker of a flicker, but Zach could've sworn that a dark shadow passed over Serena's face. Before he could apologize for whatever man-thing he did wrong, Serena had a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and replied, "An old friend of mine taught it to me about a year ago. Back when I was in Japan…"
"Hey Serena!" Both turned in time to see Minako coming up to Serena, neither of them realizing that they'd manage to come across the school so quickly. The blonde slowed however, when she recognized Serena's companion.
From the way Serena stiffened and shot him a wary look, Zach got the hint and gave her a sympathetic smile, "See you around Bombshell."
Serena coughed a laugh, barely swatting Zach's arm as he walked off, smiling still when she turned and found that Mina was still staring in shock. Serena sweat dropped. "Ehehe, good morning?"
And so, Serena spent her first ten minutes on the second day of school explaining her tardiness and the fight and how Zachary had saved her from a black eye and probably worse. However, she conveniently left out the part in which she was the one who did the ass-whooping before he came in to the scene. 'It's not really lying,' She reasoned with herself, 'Just a little tweaking…'
Just as she had finished explaining, Rei entered the Chemistry room when the last bell rang. When the two looked at Rei inquiringly, she shook her head and mouthed 'Later'.
"Are you alright?" Mina asked when their Chemistry class finally let out. "You look exhausted."
"Maybe Ami really is sick." Serena murmured. "And Rei must've caught it."
Rei waved her hand dismissively at the thought. "No, I'm not sick." She said as Minako and Serena plopped down by her. "Tired and feeling like crap, yes. But not sick."
Minako smiled sympathetically. "Care to share?"
"God." She muttered. "Dad was being such an ass yesterday. Someone tipped him off that I'm not signing up for the 'right clubs and societies.' I mean, seriously," Rei dropped her bag on her desk emphatically and Mina and Serena each took a half-step back. "Who the hell thinks about joining sororities when they're not even in college anyway? Then he starts talking about some political get-together where everyone smiles superficially and acts like they care about whatever new charity-of-the week they're funding."
"That sounds like one of my runway shows." Minako said laughingly. "I do part-time modeling for some extra cash." She explained to Serena. Mina then nodded back to Rei. "Rei has a grandfather who lives at the shrine a couple of blocks from here. You ought to meet him one day Serena. He's hilarious."
"Yeah, if only my father were the same." Rei muttered. Mina gave a small smile of encouragement.
"Hey, at least you dad wasn't trying to introduce you to guys twice your age for the sake of business."
Rei shook her head at the thought. "But at least your dad doesn't badger and try to bribe you to take on the governor's son as an escort."
"You're kidding!" Mina exclaimed.
Rei shook her head, propping a chin on her hand and staring away. "I wish." She sighed. "And so, if I don't find a date by this Friday, he proclaimed that I'm stuck with Señor Watch-and-admire-my-gorgeous-body-while-I-crush-your-toes-to-a-bloody-pulp."
She gave a short shake of her head. "I then made the idiotic mistake of telling him I didn't want to go." Rei reached up and touched her cheek lightly and Minako gave a small, angry start.
"He didn't!" She hissed, scandalized. Rei gave a short snort and nodded, suddenly recalling the sting of the slap from the night before.
"Thank God for coverup." She half-joked with a bitter laugh. Serena and Minako only looked at each other helplessly. They didn't know what to say at that point.
Rei suddenly gave a small smile. "Well, at least one good thing came from it." When the other two looked at her questioningly, she said. "I got him to talk to me with words that had more than two syllables and for a time frame longer than three minutes."
Mina and Serena didn't know whether to be happy or be sad by that fact and Rei just shook her head, replaying the scene with her angry father in her head. Serena gave a small comforting smile and Minako decided that they ought to move off such a depressing subject.
"Hey Rei." She began slyly. "Guess who Serena here ran into this morning."
Serena caught on with Minako's change of topic and went on about her morning meeting with Zachary Monroe and endured all questions and comments from the other two until the bell rang. It was worth retelling a half-lie as far as Serena was concerned, if it meant getting that awful, faraway look out of Rei's eyes.
"Hey guys." Serena called back to them. "I have to go to the bathroom, okay?"
The two nodded and she was off.
Serena had finished touching up her make-up and was washing her hands when she caught a glimpse of hovering scarlet in the mirror in front of her. Already knowing what she'd see, Serena looked up…and watched as Beryl Sinclair sauntered to the sink beside her.
"Hello." Serena took a while to reply at the sudden greeting, thinking that the redhead was talking to someone else. But a quick glance about told her that they were the only ones in the girls' bathroom.
"Uh… Hi." Serena stuttered lamely. Beryl smiled widely.
"You're new here right?" Serena forced a smile and reasoned that, just because the nicest girls she'd met deemed Beryl a she-witch didn't mean she should be rude before exchanging a dozen words with the girl…right?
"Yeah." She replied. "I just transferred."
Beryl nodded sweetly. "So I heard. You're Mr. Cartier's niece, right?"
I'm getting really tired of that title. Serena thought but continued smiling as falsely as Beryl. "Yes, I am."
"That's nice." Beryl said patronizingly. "I'm Beryl by the way."
"I know." Serena replied. "You're in my English and Algebra classes."
"Yeah, I noticed you there." Beryl said. "You hang out with Minako, right?"
Serena nodded slowly, getting the idea of where this was going and wanting to get going already. "Yes. She's very sweet."
Beryl gave out a fake, depressed sigh. "Yes, very sweet. It's really all too bad about what happened last year though, isn't it?"
Serena raised an eyebrow at the mocking mood behind the other girl's voice. "Pardon?" She asked in the most careless fashion she could muster without gagging.
Beryl turned away from the mirror to her. She touched Serena's arm sympathetically. "Oh, don't worry about it." She looked down at Serena with a superior look. "I know Minako and her little friends have probably fed you with those horrible stories about me. But I'll tell you right now, they're just very confused."
Serena glanced at the intruding hand on her arm to the red-head in front of her. "Is that so?" She murmured.
Beryl sighed sadly. "Yes. They seem to have it in for me. Can't say I blame them, though."
"Why not?" Beryl looked at the other girl, surprised at the question. She scoffed.
"Well, I am very popular at this school." She smiled smugly. "I suppose they can't help being even a little bit jealous."
"'Jealous'?" Serena repeated softly. "Is that what they are?"
"Yes." Beryl smirked. She then gave out something between a laugh and a sneer. "Or at least that's what everyone believes."
"You mean that's what you lead everyone to believe." Serena corrected coldly.
Beryl's happy-go-lucky façade was dropped faster than a cheating boyfriend caught red-handed. Serena only half realized that Beryl had tightened her grip on her arm as the girl brought her face menacingly close to Serena's, furious violet eyes glaring into her bright and unfaltering blue gaze.
"I do hope you know that I won't go easy on you just because you're my teacher's niece." She snarled. Serena only smirked.
"Why, Beryl," Serena said sarcastically. "I do hope that that's not a threat."
"Why?" Beryl leered, grinning angrily and tightening her grip. "Scared?"
Smirk. "Hardly."
Excruciating pain suddenly shot through Beryl's arm as Serena gripped her obtrusive hand and jerked it from the death-grip Beryl had on Serena's arm. With a speed that could've been considered abnormal, Beryl's arm was suddenly twisted behind her back and she found herself jerked right next to the bathroom walls, her cheek abruptly pressed hard on the cold surface of the tile walls much like Talon's had been a few hours earlier.
"Do be careful with how you deliver your threats, Beryl." The red-head stopped struggling against the immovable arm lock at Serena's ridiculing tone. Twisting, she tried to glare at the blonde behind her, only resulting in more pain on her captive arm. She was suddenly aware that Serena wasn't really all that dainty or fragile. In fact, she was looking very… inhuman from the anger that was radiating from her. Serena continued in the same patronizing manner Beryl had just used on her. "I'd hate to see you not be able to back them up."
With that, she pushed herself away from the girl, releasing Beryl's hand. Beryl tried to back herself up, as if trying to phase through the bathroom walls. She glared at the impassive Serena, fury and fear in her eyes, cradling her arm. Serena glared at her coldly once more before walking over to the door. Before she left, she turned around, allowing Beryl to see the same enigmatic face she had witnessed at lunch yesterday when Beryl had first seen her with Minako and the others.
"I don't want trouble, Beryl." Serena said, slowly and deliberately. "But if it's a fight you want, you've just been warned."
And so, Serena pushed through the doors, leaving a challenged and alarmed Beryl in her midst. As she made her way to her four new friends with a genuine smile on her face, she barely cast a glance at the curious and previously-eavesdropping Zachary who had been standing right outside the girl's bathroom.
…For those who questioned her ability to change emotional shifts so readily, one had to understand that Serena was a rose.
She was meant to be treated with tenderness and delicate affection so that one could marvel and take pleasure in the beauty that she was.
However, if she was faced with brutality or negligent threats by those who did not know how to handle her, she could and she would draw blood.
chickay
The end!
NOT! But it will be if no one reviews and lets me know what they think.
Reposted 05/16/11
A/N: Yes it's true: I live!
To be fair: I've graduated, passed my board exams, and found seemingly impossible employment. So cut me some slack on the haterade? I'm still working through the chapters and trying not to hate everything I used to write and turning it into something I can actually read without wanting to claw my eyes out going, "WHAT WAS I THINKING?" And it's a slow process, I know, but my love's still here, otherwise this chapter wouldn't be…
Also: And I require someone to handle a site for positing the original MAMC chapters because I suck with my LJ account. So any takers do please contact me with a PM. Read and Review (again, since I haven't made an actual chapter update to this story in forever [but I'm working at it!]). This story is far from over.