Enter Darien

Darien nodded at the guy that Mina pulled over to them. He looked as if he was about to get his teeth pulled and Darien gave him a sympathetic smile and whispered so that only he could hear. "I know how you feel." The white haired youth smiled wanly back at him.

"Hey guys, meet my new friend Aisu." Darien leaned away and cleared his throat awkwardly as her eye twitched furiously at the word 'friends'. She was kind of scary like this, though he would never admit it out loud. He watched the girls argue back and forth about "Things" they had to do. Mina blew them off though in favor of taking Aisu with them to the arcade. Sucks to be you, he mouthed and Aisu gave a small half shrug and crooked smile as if to agree with him. "Hey! We can go to the arcade!" Mina shrieked jerking her head to Aisu. Darien and Aisu flinched slightly at the high-pitched sound. She was starting to sound like Serena. But Serena made it cute. Even if it was ear shattering. He gave himself a mental shake. Ok, he told himself. Don't start getting mushy now. "Have you ever been to one?" Aisu scratched his head awkwardly and Darien knew that he was looking for an excuse to get out of the situation. He had been there many times before with Rei. Poor guy, Darien thought.

"Um...well..." he stuttered racking his mind.

"That's great!" She interrupted. "I can teach you how to play the Sailor V game!"

"You know, I really should be-" Mina cut him off.

"Yea, we need to hurry up and get over there before the crowd gets there. Come on guys!" She grabbed Aisu's arm once again and pulled him down the sidewalk. The rest of the girls exchanged glances and shrugged.

"I guess we have to," Rei said, her voice fraught with annoyance.

"Um... you guys go ahead." Serena smiled weakly and looked up at Darien. "I need to have a little talk with Darien." Darien shifted uneasily as the girls gave these smiles that made him feel like he was missing something important that everyone else understood but him. He glanced around nervously until Serena's small hand slipped into his.

"Serena?" he asked softly. She tried to give him a smile but it was rather puny.

"Can we go to your place and talk?" she asked. He opened the passenger door that he had been leaning against and held it open for her.

"Get in," he said.

Later

Darien listened silently as Serena regaled tales of their battles against Queen Beryl and her followers, Alan and Ann though he hadn't participated at all because of another memory loss, Berti, Rubeus, and the Sisters, and all their other former foes. She regaled their first meeting with Rini and, with some lingering pain evident in her voice, how he had broken up with her soon after. Though he said nothing through her explanation of the past events he had forgotten he silently berated himself on how stupid he had been to have broken up with Serena for any reason.

When she had finished he sat for a moment letting his mind absorb all of the information she had spewed. He absently rubbed his right temple to ease the pain that had started there. "So Rini is our daughter?" he asked. Serena sighed deeply. He had asked this question at least four times and still couldn't quite get it through his head. He had a daughter. Good grief. He was a dad. A DAD. It made him so immensely proud but at the same time made him want to run and hide. What if he wasn't a good father? What if he screwed up so badly at this whole parenting business that Rini ended up like those serial killers you saw on the evening news? He felt himself break into a sweat. Serena gently grabbed and squeezed his hand.

Written by: Darien (Iketeru--dohai)