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Misunderstood

The next morning I woke to find my black cat Luna lying on my chest sleeping peacefully. The sun was shining brightly telling me it was late morning. Sometime around three we had all passed out and it looked like I was the first to wake. That was something to mark on the calendar. "Hey Luna…" I greeted my kitty and rubbed her ear. She stretched her body and began purring, her thoughts easy to read. Good morning… that feels nice. I smiled and touched my nose to hers.

"It's because I'm friends with you." Raye suddenly said in a low register. I turned my head towards her and saw her violet eyes focused on me. "It's because he's in love with you." I'm sure all the color drained out of my face as the words hit me.

Suddenly I sat up causing Luna to fall off of my chest with a startle look on her face. My room was pitch black. "A dream." I closed my eyes and let myself relax as I pet Luna. I was a little disappointed of course. I sort of wanted that to be the reason. I looked at the clock and saw that it was five in the morning. Way to early for my eyes to be open but something just felt wrong. Something was off.

Slowly I stood up and stepped over my friends then made my way to the bathroom. It had been some night. From the moment Raye finished her story about Darien I had been feeling jealous and Mina had been staring at me with that all knowing smile of hers. As I stepped into the hallway I looked from side to side as I always did in the dark. I know, it's silly to be eighteen and still afraid of the dark but that's my prerogative. Rather than seeing an empty hallway I saw the silhouette of a man. Fear overtook me as I froze and stared at him.

I could feel his eyes on me, even in the dark and as I inhaled to scream a large hand clamped over my mouth and an arm snaked around my waist. "Damn it they always wake up!" The man holding me hissed quietly as I tried to fight him off. I didn't want to use my powers but it was looking like I might have to. The other man was approaching and soon he had a hold of my legs and they were carrying me towards the stairs. I was so afraid… suddenly their thoughts started flooding my mind and I realized I was losing control of myself. If I didn't calm down I could do some serious damage!

That's when one thought stuck. We have to get rid of her. I froze. No way! I wasn't going to fall victim to this! These men were in my house and now thinking of murdering me? I don't think so! One of the useful things about telekinesis is the ability to hit someone with something and not have to lift a finger. Remembering a vase sitting on a table in the hall I called it to me and mentally smashed it onto the man's head who was holding his hand over my mouth. With a grunt he released me. I stopped myself mid-air and concentrated an energy blast in my feet causing the guy holding my feet to drop me and fall back unconscious. I quickly ran to the light switch and flipped it on. The men were dressed in black with burglar masks on.

"Rick? Tim?" I heard a masculine voice call up the stairs. "What are you guys doing? No lights!" He rushed up the stairs and his eyes locked on me. He quickly glanced at his comrades and the broken vase on the floor then back on me. "Shit…" He began to back up, fear in his eyes. "Stay away from me you freak!" He suddenly shouted loudly. Behind me I heard my bedroom door open and the girls rushed into the hall. I could hear my little brother Sammy talking on the phone to the police and moments later a cop had the man on the floor and in hand cuffs.

Mom and Dad were in the hallway now too. Mom was looking me over carefully to see if I was hurt. "You're a lucky young lady to get away." The cop smiled and lifted the burgler off the floor.

"She's not lucky! She's an aberrant!" The man shouted. "There was no one in the hall and that vase was smashed over Rick's head!" He pointed at me accusingly.

"I'm sure the girl simply broke the vase over your friend's head before she knocked this man out." The cop nudged his foot into the other man I assumed to be Tim. "Teenagers are resourceful. You ought to know that."

"No! Her forehead was glowing!" The man struggled against the cop. "It was a weird crescent shape! She was glowing!" The cop rolled his eyes and began to drag the burglar down the stairs. "She's a dangerous Aberrant! You'll see! She'll kill you all!" We all looked at one another with looks of confusion though I'll admit I was worried. I'd never been aware of any "glowing". Did I have a tell?

The cop soon came and retrieved the other two before coming back and questioning me. Relieved that he'd given me a story I fed him the "heroic" tale of how I had heard something, got up and saw a man in the hallway. Thinking fast I smashed the vase over his head and kicked the other man who came at me. I then turned on the light and that was when the other man came up the stairs and just started shouting for no apparent reason. "Well my dear. I can't tell you why he accused you of being an aberrant however we're going to do some drug testing on him to see if he's on anything. Then we'll do a mental evaluation to see if he's goofy. If nothing turns up you know we have to send you in for an evaluation." My mom put her arms around me and pulled me to her bosom. The cop simply shrugged and sighed. "I've got to go and book them." He then turned and left.

I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't panicking. I was internally hysterical! Once the other two came to they'd tell a very different story and then they'd send a whole team to come and get me! Mina put her hand on my shoulder to try and sooth me but failed. "Honey? Serena…" Mom was shaking me. "Serena!"

"She's hyperventilating." Amy said calmly as I began to feel light headed. "Quickly! Someone put their hand over her mouth!" I felt Dad cover my mouth just as my world went black.

When I woke up Mom and Dad were staring down at me with worry on their faces. "We have to hide her." Mom said softly and put her hand on the side of my face. What was she talking about? Hide me from what?

"How could we not know?" Dad asked and looked at Mom before looking at me and shaking his head. "Serena… you didn't tell us you're an Aberrant?" I fixed my eyes on the girls who looked extremely guilty. "What's worse… is that your friends know and we didn't! I feel so betrayed."

"She was probably scared to tell us!" Mom shouted and looked at me sadly. "We can't let them take her away from us though Ken. They'll kill her!" I slowly sat up and looked at Dad who was leaning against the wall.

"What can we do? They're going to find out… she's our daughter. They're going to come here and take us all away and test us." I paled and looked at the girls as Amy's hair turned Sapphire blue. Dad jumped and stared at her wide-eyed. "You're all Aberrants? All of you?" They nodded as he threw up his arms. "Great!"

Raye stepped forward and frowned. "Mr. Tsukino… you must understand why we never said anything. We couldn't risk it. Seeing as we're all compromised… we have to leave. You have to let Serena go so we can leave. You can't know where we're going or they'll find out." Dad simply blinked then looked at me.

"I can fix this!" I cried and jumped up. "If I go down there I can erase their memories and they'll only know what I want them to! I just have to be near them!" I offered with my palms up. As if I had flipped a switch I saw fear rush through my father. Not a fear for me, but of me. "No… Daddy… I've never…"

"Get out of my house! I will not have someone who can erase minds in my house. I will not tell them anything about you but you have to leave." I couldn't believe what was happening. My father was actually throwing me out of my house because I was an Aberrant. "Go! All of you!"

I couldn't help myself. I turned away from them all and ran out of the house. I ignored everything. I just ran, blindly ran with tears in my eyes. This was a mess, your family was supposed to protect you in times like this not kick you out!

Suddenly I felt myself collide with someone and we both tumbled down to the ground. "Ouf!" I found myself lying atop a man and without thinking, I pressed my face into his chest and began crying. "Hey… hey!" He suddenly realized the girl on his chest was crying. "No need to cry miss." He lifted me away from him and suddenly I was staring into two chestnut brown eyes with gold flakes in them. I felt myself inhale sharply, as if someone had puched me in the stomach. Those eyes! They were so beautifully addicting. "As much as I'm enjoying this position… can you move a little so I can stand up?"

"Oh… yeah… sorry." I wiped the tears from my eyes as I rolled away from him and he stood up. "I hope I didn't hurt you at all." I finally looked up at him and felt my heart flutter. The man standing over me was breathtakingly handsome. He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and silver hair that fell to his shoulders in a carefree way. I say he was handsome and yet, he was nothing like the type of man I attributed to the word. Darien was handsome… actually, I take that back. Darien was mouth-watering. This guy was… I don't know how to describe it.

"You look like a woman who's had a rough time." He offered his hand with a smile and for some reason I immediately took it. He effortlessly pulled me to my feet and stared into my eyes, his held so much mystery. "My name's Diamond." He finally whispered and I realized that our faces were mere inches apart.

"Serena." I whispered in response and heard the frantic footsteps of my friends approaching. "That would be my friends." I forced myself to pull away from him and turned just in time to see them round the corner and stop. "It was nice meeting you Diamond." I smiled and walked to my friends who were staring at Diamond with concern.

"Who is that?" Mina stared at him until he turned around and began walking in the opposite direction. "He's got lust written all over him… but in that sweet sense." She smiled slightly and looked at me with a childish glimmer in her eyes. "He's cute."

"I don't like him." Amy said meekly and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Tell me you're not going to see him again." The sincerity in her eyes took me by surprise. Amy never said she didn't like someone. "Promise me."

"I don't even know the guy!" I cried and looked from one friend to the next. What was up with them lately? I heard a snort come from Lita and when I looked at her I could see anger blazing in Raye's eyes. "What the hell's the matter with you guys?"

Lita stepped forward and looked into my eyes determinately. "I could feel how close you were to him. If you don't know him… then why were you two about to kiss?" I blinked at her and took a step back. "Well?"

"I… we were not! He had just helped me up! That's all!" I held up my hands. Honestly, of all the things in the world, I didn't need this. Not tonight. My parents had just kicked me out and now my friends were ragging on me. Yay! Happy birthday to me! "Look! I didn't do anything wrong okay? I ran into the guy that's it!"

"I think he knows who you are." Raye offered frankly and put a hand on my shoulder. "It's far too early for someone to just be out walking around." Her violet eyes were ablaze with what reminded me of fire. She was reading the future, I could tell. "I can't read anything on him." She shook her head and looked at Amy.

"I'm not surprised. He's an Aberrant too. He's powerful… I think he's a level ten." She hesitated and looked at me. "That means he could be bad news… especially because he's a persuader and a detector… among other things."

"You're saying that… he knows we're all Aberrants?" I took a deep breath as Amy nodded and looked at me sadly. "Wow… so… is that a bad thing? I mean he's a level ten… and he's a detector so he knows that you know he's an Aberrant."

Amy seemed to mull the thought around in her mind and shrugged. "Look Serena… the thing is… it seemed like he was scanning the area for a particular Aberrant and… then he stopped. I think he was looking for you." I took a step back and stared at her wide eyed.

"Yeah, we saw him the other day and you said he was scanning Ames…" Mina said innocently as Lita smacked her upside the head. "Ow! Hey! That hurt!"

"The point is… he's searching for Aberrants and I have this suspicion that he's been evaluated." We all gasp that time. What Amy was proposing was dangerous, very dangerous. If the government was using a powerful Aberrant to detect other Aberrants then we could be in trouble. "Besides, now we're on the watch list. Those cops are going to find out the truth and they're going to come looking for all of us. We need to hide somewhere… somewhere they won't look for us." Amy sighed. "We can't go home, we can't go to school… we can't go anywhere they might find us."

"But… my things… Luna!" I cried as I felt the weight of the situation fall on me. I'm here. Luna's cute little voice appeared in my mind and I turned towards Lita who was holding a large bag that I knew to be mine. Luna was uneasily sticking her head out of it and looking at me with hopeful eyes. "Okay… well… you guys… I hate to go Rambo on you but… they won't be looking for you. Only me. They won't suspect you because my parents won't say anything about you. I'm the only one in hot water here." I paused and looked at each of them. "They'll come looking for me at your houses so I'm the only one that needs to hide."

"I have an idea." Raye stepped forward and looked at me. "I know where you'll be safe." We all looked at her with anticipation for her next sentence.

We all stood in the doorway of a hallway leading into a rather large apartment as Raye pleaded my case to the one person I didn't want to turn to. "Look, this was totally unexpected and we were all shocked that her parents did this. I mean, yeah she's eighteen but to just kick her out for no reason? She has nowhere to go… so… please… as a favor to me?" We all watched in wonder as Darien's deep blue eyes shifted to me then back to her as he whispered something inaudible."What's your point?" She crossed her arms and seemed to glare at him. After a brief staredown his broad muscular shoulders fell and he ran a hand through his dark black locks.

"You're not funny." He snapped and turned on his heels. He disappeared into the apartment and Raye triumphantly turned to us with a smile.

"He'll let her stay." She proudly strolled over to me and gave me a wink. "Hey, if you manage to do what I didn't you'll tell me what I missed out on right?" She grinned as he appeared at the end of the hallway again with an annoyed look ok his face.

"Okay meatball head. You can stay but I have rules. First, you're in my apartment, my living space so you will respect me. Second, you will clean up after yourself and not bother me with all of your petty whining." I felt myself becoming flushed as I gazed at him as he stared at me as if challenging me to disobey him.

"I don't think I can do this…" I whispered to Raye who simply snorted and turned towards the door to leave. "Wait! You guys!" I pleaded but only received a sympathetic gaze from Amy. The sound of the door shutting echoed in my ears and frankly… it was the loudest sound I had ever heard.

When I turned back towards Darien his posture had changed and somehow looked more… inviting. His eyes were studying me and after a little while he smiled and stepped forward holding out his hand and motioning towards my bag. "Here, follow me." He quickly picked up the bag and began to walk to a small hallways off to the left. "Your room will be over here. Fell free to decorate it as you see fit. Since this is your home now I expect you to make yourself comfortable." He set my bag down and stood in what would be my new room, silently looking around.

LET ME OUT! Luna's pleading cries rushed into my mind and I hurridly dove down to the floor and opened the bag so she could jump out. "Oh Luna! I'm so sorry!" I cried and hugged her close to me. She held onto me as if I was going to give her a bath then she squirmed to be let down. When I released her she rushed out of the room and into the apartment to explore.

"I didn't know you had a cat." Darien's amused tone reminded me that I was not the only one in the room. I could feel his eyes on me and I'll admit I couldn't help but pry. I reached out and entered his mind.

Of all the things… for Meatball head to be here. I wonder why her parents would kick her out like this. It doesn't make sense. I bit my lip and felt my heart jump as he knelt down and placed one of his powerful hands on my shoulders. "Hey, don't worry about your parents. I'm sure they'll ask you to come back… and if they don't. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you'd like."

"What about your life? Won't that interfere with your… schedule?" I questioned. I didn't want to continue on the subject of my parents. It was too risky and I didn't want to chance revealing myself to him. If I did then I'd really be out a place to stay.

Darien chuckled as he patted my shoulder and stood. He took a few steps towards the door then turned towards me and grinned. "Just what schedule do you think you'd interrupt?" I opened my mouth then thought better of it and simply looked down at the ground. I couldn't be my normal self around him if I hopped you stay. "Oh, come on… I know you have something to say."

"I just… you know don't want to inconvieniece you. I mean… I don't want to be the reason you don't have company over or anything." I shrugged then, heard a hearty laugh. It warmed my heart to hear him laugh so genuinely but at the same time it was unsettling.

"Meatball head, you are company." He then walked out of the room, his laugh trickling after him. I balled my fists and felt my face go red. I hated the way he just so aloofly got a raise out of me! This is going to be overly difficult. It's hard enough to just talk to her at the arcade every day! I then stood and marched after him. I was ready for any type of confrontation he could give me. Afgter all, if he thought I was going to be so difficult then maybe we just needed to hash it all out right now.

"Do you have some sort of issue with me Darien?" I spat as I marched into the living room where he was sitting on the couch petting Luna. The little traitor had her eyes closed and was leaning into his hand with a loud purr erupting from her throat. He looked at me, his eyes wide with shock as he digested my question.

"I think someone's tired. Why don't you go and get some sleep. I'm sure it's been a rough morning for you." I could tell he was trying to be nice, he was wanting to avoid conflict. After all, this was his sanctuary and I'm sure he resented the idea of me being here in the first place. Sure he was being generous in letting me stay but I couldn't seem to shake the feeling that he was allowing me to stay just so he could gloat later on.

"Seriously Shields. Do you have an issue with me?" I put my hands on my hips and waited for an answer as he sighed and shook his head from side to side. "You do don't you?"

"Stop it Serena." He glared at me fiercely. The intensity in his eyes both scared and exhilarated me, that and the fact that he called me by my name. "I don't have any issues with you other than the fact that you're trying to pick a fight with me right now for no reason! I just want to sit here, watch some news, then start my day. Is that so hard to believe or are you stupid enough to think that I just want to fight all the time?" I stared at him wide-eyed. There we go, even when we didn't have an audience he called me stupid… and it hurt.

I quickly turned and walked into the room Darien had given me and shut the door. I don't know why he affected me so much but he did. Then again if I didn't provoke him so much perhaps he wouldn't say the things he did but it didn't matter. It actually hurt when he called me names and told me I was stupid because he was so wrong… or, maybe… he was right. "He probably is." I whispered and threw myself onto the bed face down so I could cry.

A few seconds later I heard a knock at the door and then it opened. If the sound of a person inhaling sharply could be any louder I wouldn't have known it because it sounded as if all the air had been sucked out of the atmosphere and he was trying to take one last breath.

I'll tell you the truth, what happened next forever changed the way I would look at Darien Shields. Remember, I was upset, I had just been kicked out, the police were going to be looking for me, and I was now living with the Jerk face. Needless to say, I didn't control my wandering mind and I found myself searching through his as he slowly entered the room.

Now, I don't know how much you know about the human mind but to see the inside of one is like exploring a maze of filing cabinets. For every person, place, thing, etc there is a file in the mind that governs what one perceives and interprets that subject to be. To my surprise I found the file labeled "Serena" and quickly dove in. Flashes of memories invaded my mind and to my surprise, they were all associated with a pleasant feeling.

A sudden realization hit me. After all this time of thinking that he hated me, I couldn't be farther from the truth. Based on what I was finding now, he actually loved me. "Hey, meatball head?" I felt the bed depress as he sat on it and placed a hand on my back. I shivered as electricity traveled through me, originating from the place where his hand was. It spread through my body like a wildfire and that was when I happened upon the more… mature part of the mental file Darien kept on me. I quickly pulled out of his mind and sat up. Staring at him with shock.

The only thought going through my head as he looked at me with concern was: Oh my God! Darien Shields wants to have sex with me! ME! Meatball head! He turned Raye down but he wants me!