Hello again, everyone! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating as much lately... life suddenly got quite busy. This is the farthest I've gotten on the story so far. I will be writing more but I can't promise that it will be very soon. Thank you everyone for the continued reviews and interest in this story! I really appreciate it! I hope that you enjoy this chapter and I will update when I can.

Chapter 11

When they finally reached the temple, the girls were upset. They knew that Serena had a habit of being late but they thought that Darien would make her a little less late.

"You guys took forever to get here. Was there a traffic jam or something?" Raye sounded irritated with them. "The candles on Serena's cake are melting into the icing!"

"We're so sorry, Raye. We would have been here earlier but we got held up by lights." Serena winked at Darien and he blushed, which raised a red flag to Mina, Lita and Raye. Amy had an idea that something was going on, mostly because she knew that red lights wouldn't hold people up for that long but she wasn't willing to question it further. They all knew that Darien's plans would come to fruition later on so they weren't really anxious to question either of them any further.

"Oh well. Let's have some cake! I made it special for today. Since you weren't in the apartment much over the past couple of days, I had a lot of time to do a nice job." Lita pointed out her cake proudly and Serena noticed how much effort she had put into it.

"Wow, Lita. It's beautiful." She smiled to her then looked back to the cake, noticing the care and detail Lita had put into it. Lita had taken the time to make sugar roses around the edge and she created a picture of the moon using icing. The sugar roses took a lot of effort so she decided to keep the image a little simpler than she had originally intended.

"You know, we really have to stop letting Lita go first. Her presents are always food related and we know how much Serena loves food." Mina laughed as she spoke and Serena glared at her for a moment before continuing her smile at Lita. "Now open my present, Serena" Mina had a huge grin on her face as she handed Serena the hot pink bag with soft purple tissue paper poking out.

As Serena began pulling out the tissue paper, she noticed a card wrapped within the tissue. Upon opening it, she realized Mina's likely intent with the present too. The card had a naked man holding a cake in front of him, covering enough to make the card suggestive but not pornographic. After opening the card, it read "Dear Serena, on your birthday I want you to have your cake and eat it too. Happy Birthday! I hope our lessons are helpful and Go Get Him, Tiger! Love Mina xx"

Serena couldn't help laughing, which peaked Darien's curiosity. Needless to say, he was not pleased with the nearly naked man on the front but he thought the card was sweet overall. Once Darien had lost interest in the card, he focussed his attention back on Serena, who was still opening Mina's gift. It was pretty much a sexual care package. She got everything from massage oil to lubricant to lingerie. Serena's face turned a bright red as her friends watched her reaction to all of the gifts and her immediate response was to look at Darien. Everyone was in fits of laughter by that point so no one really noticed the knowing looks they gave each other. Right when Serena was ready for the next gift, Mina yelled "No, wait! You missed something!" Tucked inside the folded pink underwear Mina had given her was a tiny charm of a pink heart. Serena was confused but continued with her birthday excitement.

Then it was Amy's turn for gift giving. In her mind, the most logical option was something that would help Serena with her future and post secondary education. She had made lists of important topics for university and flash cards to accompany the lists, depending on how much detail was needed for study. Though Serena was really not that interested in studying, she could see the benefits of Amy's present and was very appreciative.

"You know, Serena you missed the other part of the gift." Serena looked down where she had picked up the gift and noticed another small package, wrapped in shiny pink paper.

"There's more? Amy, you shouldn't have gone to so much trouble!"

"It was no trouble at all. I know that you're not that interested in studying so I figured I would add something more exciting for you."

Serena smiled and brushed her hand over her hair, laughing. "Yeah… I should be more interested in studying though... Thanks Amy."

She finally started opening the other part of the gift. Beneath the wrapping paper, a jewellery box was revealed and she began to open it, excited to know what was inside. She found a small blue charm, shaped like a water droplet with a very small pearl on the edge. She was a little puzzled with her second charm. She didn't have a charm bracelet and although she thought the charms were beautiful, they were sort of useless with nowhere to put them.

"It's really beautiful, Amy. I love it." She smiled to Amy and showed the gift to Darien and the girls, who responded with gasps and other impressed sounds.

"My turn now!" Raye handed Serena another gift, shaped similarly to the gift containing the charm from Amy.

Serena opened it to reveal a pink flame, obviously chosen because of Serena's favourite colour as well as Raye's powers, both as a priestess and as a Sailor. Raye had also given her some socks, an umbrella and chocolates, which she loved but she was still unsure about the charms.

Out of the blue, Lita approached Serena bearing a small gift. "Lita? I thought you said that the cake was your gift? You really didn't need to go to all that trouble for me."

"Just open it." Serena began fiddling with the paper on the small box and again, a charm was revealed. This one was a small green lightning bolt with a small pink crystal in the centre.

"It's beautiful, Lita but umm… you guys know that I don't have a charm bracelet, right?" They all laughed in response and Serena remembered that she had another gift remaining. The last one was from Darien.

Darien motioned towards his gift to hand it to Serena but before he reached it, she had already grabbed it and was beginning to rip out the tissue paper. She stumbled on a card and proceeded to open it but when she did, a folded piece of paper fell to the ground in front of her. Pausing for a moment, she reached down and opened it to reveal a letter from Darien. Unsure of whether she should read it at that moment she looked to him and he nodded. She decided to read it silently, knowing Darien's feelings about sharing such personal things but of course, that wasn't good enough for the girls.

"Come on, Serena! We need to see it!" Raye urged her to show them but Serena shook her head.

"Please show us!" Mina was very curious as to what Serena wouldn't share, especially with her.

"Please, you guys. This time it's just for me and Darien." She refolded the paper and put it in her pocket so that the girls wouldn't be able to get a hold of it. They complied and so Serena carried on with her gift. Now Darien was wondering what she had told them before… especially with their recent sexual activities. Lucky for him, Serena's birthday was a good distraction from his thoughts.

Serena proceeded to the gift itself. There were many boxes within it and she was surprised that Darien had gone to the trouble of wrapping each one. The first box that Serena unwrapped contained the charm bracelet for all of the charms she had just received. It was rose gold and attached to it was a single charm – a crescent moon with a red crystal rose attached to the inside of it. Serena was completely shocked that Darien could even find such a thing.

"Darien, it's so beautiful. I really love it!" She was grinning but had tears brimming in her eyes, surprised by all of the effort her friends and boyfriend had put into making her day wonderful. Before getting too overwhelmed, she remembered that there were more gifts remaining in the bag and carried on opening them. Most of her gifts were clothes that she had seen with Darien during some of their mall outings. She got a couple of skirts, a blouse and a pack of different coloured tank tops. After opening her gifts, she put the bag down, thinking that she had opened everything.

"Wait, Serena. You're missing one of the gifts. Check through the bag again." Darien pointed to the bag and Serena discovered the final gift.

"Well... this time I know it can't be a charm" She grinned to all of them and they laughed. The final surprise in the bag was shaped like a ring box and Serena felt very nervous and excited when she began tearing off the wrapping paper, especially when Darien went down on one knee.

"Oh Darien! It's…" she began opening the box frantically. "A key?" She looked at him, confused and a little frustrated. "Why would you put a key in a ring box!"

"Serena, will you move in with me?" He smiled, knowing that his small trick had worked and hoping that she would say yes without being too mad at him.

"Well, I would have to ask Lita and I'm not sure what my mom or especially my dad would think about that." She was a little giddy but didn't want Darien to know until after she knew it would be okay.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they'll all be okay with it; I talked to your mom." Darien reached out and held her hands, waiting for her definitive answer.

Lita nodded in agreement, also letting her know that she was free to move out if she wanted.

Serena nodded her head excitedly and jumped off her chair, tackling Darien to the ground. They both laughed and the moment suddenly changed from one of silliness and fun to much more serious. Both of them stopped laughing and they stared into each other's eyes, Serena blushing as Darien slowly moved his head to hers, giving her a sweet, lingering kiss. He didn't even remember or care that it was in front of all her friends.