-1AN: Yeah. I opened this file yesterday and discovered it needed another paragraph to be complete. Sometimes I forget things for ridiculous stretches of time. My apologies. On the other hand, I believe there will be one more chapter (possibly two) to wrap up, and it will go a different way than expected. I'm also starting to look into rewriting Mental Connections.
Serena rushed into the high school building, heading for her classroom. Skidding to a stop outside the door, she opened the door as slowly as possible, hoping Darien wouldn't notice.
"Oi, Tsukino! Just get in here. I know that's you," the voice of Miss Haruna rang out.
Serena sighed and opened the door fully. "Good morning Miss H," she said dutifully as she dragged her feet toward her seat. This was detention for sure. And why hadn't Darien mentioned his departure from the school? Sure, they hadn't done much talking, but that was an important enough tidbit for him to bring up.
"That would be Mrs. Y, now." The woman smiled happily at Serena as the girl took her seat. She then indicated a name she had written neatly on the board: Mrs. Yazujani; some of the girls in the class giggled joyfully.
"Gee! That's great Miss-I mean- Mrs. Y! I didn't know you were getting married," Serena exclaimed. Maybe she could keep distracting her long enough to get out of it. Having the woman happy was definitely for the best.
"It's alright, Serena. You're not getting detention; I can't stay around here all day." She beamed at the class. A boy in the back of the room nudged another and made a face that clearly suggested that he knew why she was in a hurry to get home. "You stop that right now!" she shouted, suddenly losing her cheerful demeanor. Immediately there after, a serene look came back to her face. "Let's begin."
A few minutes later, a crumpled ball of paper landed on Serena's desk. Glancing around, she saw Brayden wave a well manicured hand at her. Serena unfolded the paper and had to bite back the words that wanted to come out of her mouth. The note was nothing more than a rather crude drawing of a man, whom she assumed was Darien, with his pants down and a girl featuring her hairstyle bent over a desk in front of him. She quickly hid the drawing in her bag and flipped the ho off.
Serena received several more drawings throughout the day of the badly drawn representations of herself and Darien in different positions. As she left class after the final bell, she couldn't help but dread coming back the following day.
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Serena's spirits didn't improve by beginning her usual route to the Crown Arcade. Why were high school girls so mean and immature? Finding herself cornered by Mina unexpectedly certainly didn't help.
The other blonde suddenly grabbed Serena's elbow from behind. "Serena, you've avoided me long enough," Mina said, looking at the side of Serena's face with a stern expression. She burst into a smile as soon as Serena began to look sheepish. "What happened?" Her stage whisper was filled with excitement.
"Oh, you know, stuff." Serena paused, looking for a way to avoid the dressing-like-a-hooker conversation indefinitely. Besides, it seemed like things were different between she and Darien now. But maybe that was reading too much into it? "Darien gave me a ride home yesterday," she blurted.
"Really?" Mina squealed.
Serena sighed. Now that she had let the cat out of the bag, she wasn't sure that this story was much better. She began trying to think of ways to escape Mina.
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The amount of flack that Darien caught from Andrew on Monday upon entering the Crown Arcade with a sappy look on his face had been practically unbearable. But today was another day. Now that he no longer had to spend his free time at the high school, Darien was free to go back to his routine of sitting at the arcade's counter, drinking coffee for hours; studying was preferable but optional.
Serena thanking him for rescuing her from the storm was a good change of pace. Rescuing might be a strong word, but everyone likes to play the hero, including Darien. He could get used to being nice to her. Given, that might make her hang around him more, a.k.a. tempt him more, but he had enough faith in himself to think he could be friends with her. A kiss on the cheek every now and again wouldn't hurt, right?
A sudden thought occurred to Darien. What if Serena's parents had been looking out the window? "They could hunt me down. I could go to prison!" The terror must have shown on his face because Andrew chose that moment to interrupt his thoughts.
"Doing okay there, buddy?" the blonde questioned. He poured coffee into Darien's cup.
Darien nodded. "Yeah, I was just contemplating the likelihood of Serena's parents hunting me down and sending me to prison." He grimaced.
Andrew chuckled at the possibility; he had met Serena's father once or twice, and he was fairly certain Kenji was willing to bend laws to protect his daughter. "So, you're back to waiting for her everyday?"
"What? I'm not waiting for Sere--"
Andrew interrupted him, "You just looked at your watch then at the door."
"Did I?" Darien didn't remember looking at either, but Andrew, despite all the teasing, wouldn't lie to him. He wondered at this. He had no plans to tease Serena or to go out of his way to do something nice for her. She was like a fixture of the Arcade.
Returning from serving a soda, Andrew leaned down next to Darien. "So are you going to sweep her off her feet and into another kiss when she gets here?" he teased.
"It was on the cheek!" he protested in a hiss. "Besides, it's not the best idea to go around kissing Lolitas in public." Darien wondered at this; he was uncertain if being willing to joke about Serena was a good or bad thing. It seemed to suggest that he was getting used to the idea of them together. He stomped that thought down.
Andrew rolled his eyes. "Oh, please, Darien. It was just a kiss. Plus, you try to act like you're a 50-year-old man in comparison to Serena, but you're not. And Serena is definitely not 12." Here he waggled his eyebrows suggestively, but that was not what interested his friend.
"You've actually read uLolita/u?"
Though tempted to agree just to maintain the look of shock on Darien's face, Andrew explained. "Are you seriously asking me that? I saw a few minutes of the movie, got creeped out, and changed the channel." He paused as he intensely cleaned a spot on the counter. "Also, I read… stuff."
"How did you know she was 12?" Darien wondered.
"I wasn't creeped out enough to not look it up later." Andrew smiled jauntily.
With the question answered, other problems were able to come to the forefront of Darien's mind. "Regardless, one thing leads to another…"
"Bud, there's this little thing called self-control. Ever heard of it?"
Darien sighed. "I don't feel like it works around her. Plus, you know how I am." Here his mind began to conjure up every image of Serena it had recently imagined. He was very fond of the one with handcuffs. Things like that were exactly the problem.
"So figure out how to stop being such a perv, dumbass." He threw up his hands in frustration when Darien gave him a shocked look. "Darien, when you came in the other day, it was the happiest I've seen you for a long time. You can either have that by figuring yourself out, or you can just keep going around being Mopey the Dwarf all the time."
Darien immediately burst into laughter. "Really? Mopey the Dwarf?"
"Shut up. I was pressed for an analogy," Andrew muttered with a huge grin on his face. "Regardless, my point stands." He was saved from more explanation by the door opening, resulting in Darien's inevitable turn toward it.
Serena came up to the counter, plopped down on the stool next to Darien, and slung her book bag off and to the floor. "Hello," she said in what she hoped was a cheery voice. She turned her full gaze to Andrew. "Chocolate milkshake, please?" She gave a weary sort of smile.
Darien couldn't help thinking that something was a little off with Serena. "Hey," he said, nudging her gently in the side and giving her a small smile. "Is everything okay?"
Serena looked at Darien. She wanted to tell him that no, nothing was okay. He was thick and stubborn and didn't want anything to do with her as more than a friend. Her friends were nosy. The girls at school were vicious. She carefully schooled her features and gave him a smile in response. "Nothing a milkshake can't fix! Thanks Andrew." She promptly picked up her drink and headed for a Sailor V game.
Watching her walk away with the slight bounce she had to her step, Darien realized he was smiling. It wasn't a smirk of amusement; Andrew was right; Serena made him happy. At this realization, he tried to hold a straight face and looked down sheepishly. The path of vision lead his eyes to Serena's schoolbag, which she had dropped haphazardly and which was now spilling some of its contents onto the floor.