Darien sat up in bed. He was a light sleeper and had had a lot on his mind before drifting off, but he liked to think that he would wake from any kind of sleep if he heard his balcony door slide open in the middle of the night. He always locked it; no matter how high he was, he wasn't taking any chances. With anticipation and some fear gripping him, he slid out of bed walked into his living room. He saw a figure standing next to the now closed balcony door and immediately lost all his previous feelings.

Serena was till wearing her school uniform, but she had removed her shoes at his balcony door. She was bathed in moonlight. Her hair was silver in the moonlight, and the illuminated parts of her face, arms, and long legs were ivory.

"How did you know where I live?" Darien asked.

"I followed you," Serena said simply. She stalked towards him, but he took a step backwards, unwilling to start something with her. She backed him up right to the wall. "What's wrong, Darien?" she whispered silkily, twining her arms around his neck. "Don't you like me?" Her blues eyes met his. She grinned and pressed her lips lightly to his. Serena kissed him gently for only a moment. Then she was kissing him so hard that the back of his head almost hurt from being pressed against the wall.

Darien's hands came up to hold her waist, pulling her tightly against him. After she wiggled her hips to adjust his grip, he began to stroke his tongue against hers in a mimicry of what he really wanted to do. He reached for a handful of her hair, running his fingers through it as carefully as he could, enjoying the softness.

Suddenly, Serena danced a bit out of his grip and was back to light, closed mouth kisses, and Darien watched her through slightly lidded eyes. She nipped along his jaw and licked his earlobe, earning a sigh from him. She pulled back and gazed into his eyes with hers for a moment. She grinned wickedly at him and dropped to her knees.

--

Darien's eyes snapped open, and he groaned. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling with the concentration of an artist studying a still-life. Clearly, he had done a 180 on his opinion of Serena. This is just what he needed: to be a creepy, twenty something bachelor with a crush on a school girl. "Then again," he thought as the image of Serena's beautiful eyes looking up at him played across his eyes, "crush might not be the right term." He pulled himself out of bed and headed for the bathroom, planning a cold shower.

On his way past the sink, Darien caught a glimpse of his face and stopped. Was that a wrinkle? He leaned in and realized it was just a crease from where he'd slept on his pillow. "Whew," he said to his reflection, smiling at himself. As he continued to the shower, he found himself wondering if he had always had those smile lines around his mouth. Then he decided that Andrew would say he was acting like a woman and thanked the heavens that his friend would never find out about it.

--

"Are you sure you're sane?" Serena asked, looking at Mina with raised eyebrows. Serena sat on Mina's orange bed spread as Mina rummaged through her closet.

"Perfectly," came the muffled reply. "Eureka!" Mina exclaimed, suddenly appearing from the closet. "This is just right." Mina held up an extremely short, pastel pink skirt.

"Right for what?" Serena asked cautiously.

Mina tossed the skirt to Serena, who easily caught it. "To wear, silly. Now, if I can just find a shirt..." She disappeared into the closet.

Serena gawked at the skirt. "I am not wearing this."

"But it will get Darien's attention," Mina said patiently as she emerged from the closet carrying a white shirt.

"Oh, so I should do that by making him think I'm a whore?" Serena asked. Her voice squeaked a bit when she came to the last word.

"Darien won't think you're a whore, Serena," Mina soothed. "You're very sweet an innocent, so--"

"Mina, I'm so not sweet an innocent." Serena glared at her friend.

"You so are! You don't break rules. Your only vice is failing school work. You don't chase guys or date. You're practically an angel." Mina raised a finger for each point. When Serena sighed, Mina took it as victory and continued with the previous topic. "Anyway, you're very sweet and innocent, so Darien won't think you're a whore. At the most, he might think you're wearing a 'come fuck me' outfit, but that's kinda the point."

"Mina!"

"Oh, Serena, stop acting like we're 12." Mina stuck her tongue out at her friend.

Serena rolled her eyes. "Nice comeback. Really, though, Mina, don't you think this could go very wrong?"

Mina looked serious and thoughtful for a moment. "Nope!" she exclaimed, beaming at her friend.

The other blonde couldn't help but laugh. "You're hopeless."

"Now, get dressed, or you'll be later than usual," Mina directed. She pushed Serena toward the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Serena quickly pulled on the clothes Mina had given her. She tried to pull the little skirt down as far as possible, but given the size, it wasn't very far at all. Serena wasn't very happy about how much of her legs were visible or how close her butt came to showing. The shirt she was okay with. It was an excessively low cut tank top, but she had adjusted it so that it was pulled down a bit further in the back. She took a steadying breath before going out to Mina.

"Hm." Mina walked around Serena once and nodded. She then pulled down the tank top in the front, revealing Serena's cleavage.

"Hey!" Serena exclaimed, putting a hand over her chest in an attempt to cover it.

"Hay is for cows, Serena. Oh! I almost forgot." Mina reached up and loosed Serena's hair, allowing it to fall down her back. "You look perfect. Let's go." The smiling girl offered her arm to her friend.

"Like this? Can't I change at the Crown?" Serena asked, her eyes wide.

"Don't be so shy. You have to take some risks, or you'll get nowhere. Where's your sense of being open to risk taking?" Mina replied.

"Adventure," Serena corrected, but she let Mina lead her toward the door.

--

Darien slid into his preferred stool across the counter from Andrew and placed the stack of papers he was carrying in front of him.

Without a word, Andrew slid him a cup of coffee. "How's it going? Whoa! did you bring work with you?" He gestured toward the stack of papers with the coffee pot still in his hand.

"Fine, and, yes, I did," Darien replied in answer to both questions.

Andrew stared at him. "I'm having enough work as it is, so you can go over there somewhere with yours." He swung the pot toward the tables across the way.

With a bemused smile, Darien gathered his papers again. He crossed the arcade and picked a chair. Sometimes, Andrew could really throw him for a loop. Darien wondered what reason he had to come to the Crown if his friend was going to banish him for doing work.

A while later when the arcade had only two other patrons, Andrew sat down across from him. "Sorry, hard day at the office," he explained. "It's rent day. How much fun is school work without all the hot girls around to chase you while you're doing it?"

Darien glared at him. "Young girls."

"Right. Young, hot girls." Andrew grinned.

Darien considered telling him about the wrinkle he'd thought he had. He quickly thought better of it.

--

As Serena and Mina were walking toward the arcade, Serena had her hair around her like she was trying to hide. "Mina!" she exclaimed in a whisper.

"Yes, Serena?" Mina didn't lower her voice.

"Everyone is staring at me!"

"I know; isn't it great?" Mina asked. She winked at a particularly attractive man who was staring at her friend; he tripped over his feet as they passed.

Serena sighed.

Just as they neared the arcade, Mina glanced at her wrist. "Look at the time! I've gotta go."

"Mina, you're not wearing a watch," Serena stated more calmly than she felt.

"I know. Bye, Serena! Good luck! Knock him up!"

Serena stood outside the Crown in the middle of the sidewalk and could do nothing but blink as Mina practically dashed away from her. She made a mental note to explain the difference between knocking up, knocking out, and knocking dead to Mina later.

Serena walked past the last few shops before the Crown Arcade quite slowly. She grimaced before she walked up to the sliding door. The door opened, and she walked inside, fixing her face with a small grin.

"Serena." Andrew's eyes widened as his friend walked in and walked toward the counter. He scrambled to get behind it.

Darien wondered momentarily if Andrew was crazy, but he continued grading.

"Hey, Serena." Andrew tried his best to keep his eyes focused on hers. He considered Serena a friend and wanted to keep it that way.

"Hi, Andrew!" she chirped. "Andrew is such nice guy," Serena thought when she noticed he wasn't checking her out like everyone else.

"What can I do you for?" he asked. Andrew contemplated that sentence and hoped the panic he felt didn't show on his face. "That's what she said." After this thought, he had to force a straight face.

"I don't really want anything, but thanks." She smiled widely at him before turning away.

Andrew grinned at her and quickly turned his back on her to resist the urge to stare at her skirt. Right, he was going to stare at her skirt. Andrew rolled his eyes as he cleaned the soda fountain.

"This is it, Serena," she told herself. Using will power she didn't know she had, Serena walked up to Darien's table.

From the corner of his eye, all Darien could see was skin. He carefully kept his focus on his papers, but his mind was else where. Somehow, he had to discourage Serena; he was bad for such a sweet girl.

"What's up, Darien?" Serena asked, shifting to one foot nervously.

Darien quickly pulled his mind away from the first response he thought of for her question. "Not much, just doing some work. What are you up to today, Serena?" What was the easiest thing he could do to keep her away from him? He turned his chair to face her nonchalantly.

"The Crown for a while, and I might go to the mall later, " Serena answered. She was fairly impressed with how steady she kept her voice, especially because she could clearly see Darien's eyes slowly roving over her figure

Darien's jaw tightened as he looked at Serena. She was wearing an outfit that left little to the imagination, and, judging by how he was reacting, his imagination was taking note for future dreams. His eyes zeroed in on her long, beautiful hair, and he contemplated running his hands through it to find out if it was as silky as he had dreamed. As images of Serena dropping to her knees before him crossed his mind, he couldn't help but hate his timing. Darien fought the lust he was feeling. "17-years-old," he reminded himself. Inside, he felt like lust was warring with panic.

"Do you like my outfit?" Serena asked finally. She couldn't think of anything else to say, and the silence had drawn on too long for her liking. What was he thinking?

Darien's eyes met hers. "Not really," he said coolly. Inside, panic won.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically.

Darien's hand shot out and gripped Serena's hip. Still looking into her now wide eyes, he pulled her forward and down, making her straddle him.

In the back of her mind, Serena wondered why she ever listened to Mina. "Why did you do that?" she demanded quietly, arching her back to keep her face as far away from him as possible. This invading personal space thing was new for her, and she wasn't sure it should have progressed so quickly.

"Why did you wear that?" Darien retorted, ignoring her question. With her body arched into his, he had quickly forgotten why this seemed like a good idea. He would hate himself for it later, he knew.

"You first," Serena responded, crossing her arms.

Darien was quickly reminded of how young she was. "I was getting your attention," he said as calmly as possible.

Serena glared at him. "That's ridiculous," she muttered, attempting to get off of Darien's lap. She tensed her thighs to stand, but Darien's hands suddenly grasped her arms firmly. "Eeep," Serena whispered.

Later was coming much sooner than expected for Darien. His desire to teach a lesson was quickly fading into simply desire. This had to end quickly before he forgot himself and compromised Serena. "Why did you wear it?" Darien insisted.

As she was prone to do in uncomfortable situations, Serena fidgeted and felt Darien's fingers dig into her arms and interpreted it as an attempt to get her to speak. "Ow! I wanted to get iyour/i attention. Happy?"

"Not really. I would appreciate it if you didn't try to get my attention and never wore that again," Darien said in a commanding tone. He likened it for a moment to his teacher voice and quickly dropped the thought to avoid panicking. It was a good distraction from the warm feeling of Serena on top of him, though.

"Why is that, Mr. Shields?" Serena asked sarcastically. The tone had not been lost on her.

Darien had to hold back a wince. At least her comment made his aim easier. He leaned in to make Serena feel his breath ghosting over her neck as he whispered in her ear. "It's not completely necessary that two people love, or even like, each other in order to fuck." Darien released her arms and pushed her away from him.

Serena scrambled backwards, her face bright red. "OkaybyeDarien," she said breathlessly. Serena turned and almost scampered out of the Crown Arcade.

As he turned back to his table, Darien let out a deep breath that he didn't know he was holding. Serena hated him, which was unfortunate, but that, as far as he was concerned, was the end of that. Thinking of her shocked face, Darien nodded in satisfaction.Then, from the corner of his eye, Darien caught sight of Andrew's apron. "Great," he thought.

Andrew smirked at him. "Why haven't you jumped off of your balcony yet?" he demanded. "I could really use that entertainment system of yours to watch the soccer game on Saturday."

Darien gave Andrew the best confused face he could muster. "Nothing happened to give me a reason to." This couldn't be good.

"Unless you count the whole pulling Serena into your lap thing you just did. And I thought I heard you say something quite interesting to her about two people not having to like each other..." Andrew began.

Darien made a face and opened his mouth to speak.

"Got you!" The blonde pumped a fist in the air. "Now that you've admitted it, the only thing to do is act."

Darien glared at Andrew. "There will be no acting; she's too young. I was just scaring her off. And why were you eavesdropping?" As long as he kept telling himself that, it would make sense.

"I wasn't eavesdropping. I was coming over to ask Serena if she wanted a milkshake, and you happened to be holding her in your lap, whispering naughty things in her ear," Andrew replied with a shrug. He smiled roguishly at his friend. "Duty calls." With that, Andrew returned to work, leaving Darien to his rather conflicted thoughts.