Disclaimer: I hope you enjoy this story, my mother and I have been working on this for some time now, I do not own Sailor Moon or any character involved with it. It belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, This is a story for what happens after the Three Lights leave!
Chapter 8
For the fourth night in a row, Serena found herself standing at the foot of the four poster bed. The beige drapes still hid the occupants. but this time, when her left hand reached out to the drapes, her ring sparkled at her. This was the first time in the dream she had noticed it. She began to spin it around on her finger and gaze upon it, just like the other day when she told Seiya about her ring.
Serena felt a hand rub her shoulder.
"Seiya," she murmured.
"Mina, silly," Mina giggled and shook Serena's shoulder. "Now wake up," she yelled.
Serena sat up with a jolt to find Mina sitting on the edge of her bed and Lita standing her night stand back up.
"Attacking furniture in your sleep?" Lita questioned and picked up the lamp and alarm clock.
"I keep trying to run away from this dream," Serena replied. "The other day I ran so hard, I actually fell out of bed."
"You keep having the same dream?" Lita asked, picking up both pieces of the phone.
"If you keep this on the hook," Lita sneered while picking the phone up, "You'll know when someone is trying to call you."
"Tell us about the dream," Mina insisted. "While you get dressed."
"This thing is dead," Lita mentioned, tapping the alarm clock.
"Good thing we came," Mina noted. "Or you'd miss the history test."
"That's not till after lunch," Serena moaned.
"Actually," Mina said, looking at her watch. "It's in an hour."
"Now get dressed and I'll go find something for you to eat while we walk back to school," Lita stated and walked out of the room.
"Yeah," Mina shouted after Lita, "She'll faint in gym class if she doesn't have food in her."
"How am I going to explain missing school this morning?" Serena whined as she dressed.
"That's easy," Mina smiled. "You just say you were having really bad cramps, I've used that excuse and no one questions it."
"What if they call my mom?" Serena moaned.
"She's not even home," Mina mentioned. "They won't say anything, trust me."
"My mom will be away for a few weeks and my dad probably doesn't even want to know about cramps and stuff," Serena responded. "So I think your idea will work." She continued to brush her hair.
"Where'd your mom go?" Mina inquired as she picked up Serena's book bag and put the history book back in it.
"My mom's best friend just had a baby. So she is going to stay there to help her out," Serena explained. "Her hubby is overseas and can't get back right away."
They ran down the stairs and met Lita at the door, holding two muffins and a banana.
"Here," Lita handed the food to Serena. "It should hold you till after school. We're all meeting at the Crown, Ami says she knows how to take us to Darien," Lita smiled at Serena as they briskly walked down the sidewalk.
"Don't ask us how," Mina giggled while lightly shaking her head. "It's probably some kind of technical stuff that only Ami can understand anyway."
"Now tell us about this reoccurring dream of yours," Lita requested.
"It has Seiya in it," Mina giggled.
Serena finished inhaling one of the muffins, then told them every detail she could about the dream.
"I think we had better get you to see Darien as soon as possible," Lita stated. "You seem to be dreaming about a blonde," Lita gave Serena's pigtails a little tug. "And a guy you can't see, but you're calling Seiya's name."
"You think I'm seeing Seiya and I in...In ah..." Serena's face got redder and redder.
"Yup," Lita and Mina agreed and gave Serena a slight scowl.
Serena started shoving the other muffin in her mouth.
"You better keep your mind on history instead of Seiya," Lita remarked. "I heard that you have to write a paragraph on each planet and it's God.
"I'm gonna have writers cramp," Mina moaned. "That's not going to help me in volleyball."
"You have a game after school?" Serena asked.
"No," Mina snickered. "Our gym class is girls against the guys in volleyball."
"We'll show those boys their place," Lita laughed evilly and rubbed her hands together.
"five of the girls from the school's junior volleyball team are in our class," Mina added.
"But I'm no good at volleyball," Serena whined.
"If we end up on the same team, we'll keep you between us," Mina assured Serena, put her arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
"Your Scouts will protect you against the evil volleyball," Lita laughed hysterically.
As Serena had thought the history test was easy. Her and her friends were among the first ones to finish.
Miss Takahashi divided the class into two sets of teams. Miss Takahashi left Ami out to referee one game, while she refereed the other.
Serena was happy she ended up on the same team as Lita and Mina.
The girls took their positions.
Seiya looked over at Serena and gave her a big warm smile. Serena looked away shyly as Yaten served. Serena was proud of herself when she volleyed Yaten's serve over to Mina. The ball stayed in play for quite some time before one of the girls was able to score.
Lita and Mina were very good at covering up Serena. Until Yaten got the ball and spiked it at Serena with tremendous force.
Serena instinctively ducked and raised her arm in defense. The ball painfully slammed into her forearm.
"Are you okay?" Lita asked Serena.
With her teeth clenched in pain, Serena nodded to Lita. She would not give the boys team the satisfaction of tears.
This attack continued every time Yaten got the ball, regardless of Serena's position.
"What the hell are you doing?" Seiya yelled at Yaten after he did this for a third time.
"Going for the weakest link," Yaten sneered.
"What's the matter Yaten?" Lita growled over at him. "Afraid of a real challenge?"
The girls team was amused by the fact that Seiya was now trying to keep the ball away from Yaten. They had already scored on themselves once because of this.
The next time Yaten did manage to get the ball before Seiya could interfere, he hit the ball over the net with all the force he could muster.
Serena quickly moved, but she went the wrong way. Lita was trying to get the ball but collided with Serena and they both went down.
Seiya took two large steps and shoved Yaten from behind. Yaten crashed to the floor near the girls.
Lita and Serena scrambled to their feet as Yaten rolled onto his back, with Seiya towering over him.
"Stop this," Miss Takahashi yelled as Seiya reached down and grabbed the front of Yatens shirt.
"Seiya," Lita snapped, while Miss Takahashi was running over towards them.
Seiya released Yaten, who dropped back to the floor with his head making a 'thud' sound.
"All four of you," Miss Takahashi barked "To the office."
Everyone was watching the commotion they had created. Lita offered her hand to Yaten, he ignored her jester and got up on his own.
"It was meant for you," Yaten said to Lita after he got up.
"You four have been playing your own personal feud," Miss takahashi stated angrily as she escorted them all out of the gym.
"Where were you all morning?" Seiya whispered to Serena, while they walked behind Miss Takahashi down the hallway.
"No talking," Miss Takahashi ordered.
When they reached the office reception area, Miss Takahashi made the boys sit at opposite ends of the row of chairs. The girls were between them, but separated from either boy by at least one chair.
Miss Takahashi went through the secretary area and knocked on the principal's door.
"I slept in," Serena smiled at Seiya.
"Miss Takahashi ruined what was turning into a good workout," Lita huffed.
"Rei is going to be really mad if we get a detention," Serena remarked to Lita.
"Shhh," the secretary scowled at them.
"We didn't do anything wrong," Lita commented.
"You just suck at volleyball," Yaten sneered.
"You can't handle the idea of us being better than you," Lita returned the sneer.
"Shhh," the secretary said louder and slapped a ruler on the desk.
The four of them sat quietly for five minutes before Miss Takahashi came strutting out of the principal's office.
She stopped right in front of them and coldly stated: "The principal will see all of you when your parents arrive," then she stormed out.
"My dad isn't going to like this," Serena whined quietly at Lita.
"I think she thinks we were fighting," Lita sneered.
"We'll get suspended," Serena moaned.
"Those two might have been close to having a fight, but we weren't," Lita grinned
"That is enough talking," the secretary snapped at them.
Seiya and Yaten put their heads down, but the girls could hear them snickering.
"You started all this," Lita very quietly snarled at Yaten.
"He started it," Yaten stated in a whisper and motioned his head and eyes over at Seiya.
"At least I know I can still dodge things being thrown at me," Serena started laughing.
"But your scouts are supposed to protect you, not run you over," Yaten was now laughing.
The principal's door swung open. The doorway was filled by the man's mass and his caterpillar eyebrows were in such a scowl, that he appeared to have no eyes.
"What is so funny?" Mr.Oshiro roared.
"You called our parents because of an intense game of volleyball," Lita retorted loudly, then quickly put her hand over her mouth.
"Sorry," Lita mumbled from under her hand.
The boys snickered quietly.
"All of you in my office," Mr.Oshiro demanded irately.
"Ladies first," Yaten quipped.
"Thank-you," Serena smiled and stepped ahead.
"Always the gentleman," Lita sarcastically remarked, following Serena.
"I haven't been able to reach the parents of the girls," the secretary mentioned, peering over her glasses at the principal.
"Never mind," he replied and stood aside his door, allowing the four students to go ahead of him. "I'll send them home with letters."
"This is just a big misunderstanding," Serena revealed to Mr.Oshiro as he walked across his office and plunked himself in his chair.
The four stood quietly as Mr.Oshiro pulled his chair as close to his desk as his stomach would allow.
Seiya kept glancing at Serena then smiling.
"Do you find this amusing?" Mr.Oshiro snapped at Seiya.
"No sir," Seiya replied and tried,unsuccessfully to stop grinning.
Yaten started coughing to mask his snickers.
"It was just a very intense game," Lita repeated. "We're all friends, sometimes we can get rather competitive with each other," Lita smiled.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kou are here," the secretary's voice came through on the intercom box on the principals desk.
The principal heaved himself out of his chair.
"What'd they do 'star shoot' here?" Yaten mumbled as Mr.Oshiro walked over and held open his office door.
As soon as Sikora stepped into the doorway, Lita's eyes widened and she turned her head to look at Serena. Lita was surprised by Serena's lack of shock, she already knew who the boys parents were.
"Please sit," Mr.Oshiro smiled at Sikora and Maliki, and motioned towards a couple of chairs near his desk.
"I'm fine, thank-you," Maliki stated as they stepped into the room.
They remained standing off to the side, between the Principal's desk and the four students.
"It's a big misunderstanding," Serena began, looking from one adult to another. "They know," she pointed at the boys. "That I'm not a good player, so they kept hitting the ball at me. Then I moved the wrong way and Lita crashed into me. And Seiya and Yaten both went for the ball at the same time and Seiya slipped and fell into Yaten, then Yaten fell on the floor. Mrs.Takahashi started yelling when Seiya tried to help Yaten up," Serena nervously spit out so fast, no one else had a chance to say a word.
There was a brief moment of silence, before Serena started again: "We weren't fighting, we were just kind of playing against each other."
"Miss Takahashi said Yaten was using the ball like a weapon against you," Mr.Oshiro stated.
"That's ridiculous," Serena laughed and waved her hand at him.
"It might have looked that way," Lita explained. "But in any game you look for your opponents weakness. That would be Serena."
"I'm not very good," Serena sighed.
"I think Miss Takahashi was mistaken," Maliki mentioned.
"And what was going on between both of you," Mr.Oshiro looked at the boys.
"I fell into him," Seiya said at the same time as Yaten said: "He was trying to help me up."
"I think you should hear both sides of an issue before coming to a conclusion," Sikora remarked coldly to the principal.
"I am sorry fro the misunderstanding," Mr.Oshiro apologized and bowed as low as his belly would allow, and held the door open.
Mr.Oshiro then looked at the young ones: "You might as well go change, quietly and call it a day.
"Miss Takahashi will never put us on opposing team again," Serena snickered after they left the office.
"Serena,Lita," Sikora called to the girls when they reached the hallway. "Kakyuu would like to know if all of you would like to spend the weekend?"
"Sounds great," Lita beamed.
"We're meeting the girls after school today," Serena responded. "I'll ask them and let you know," she too had a big smile.
"Nice, coming to spend the night with me dumpling?" Seiya snickered.
"Seiya," Maliki called before the boys got nay further down the hall.
Seiya continued, without turning around: "I'll get my test score and meet you out front," he sighed rather displeased.
"You passed, didn't you?" Serena asked Seiya.
"Of course," he grinned.
"But he's still grounded," Yaten laughed. "So no tea today either," he added after he moved closer to Lita, away from Seiya.
"Isn't it great," Seiya smiled with a very happy tone. "I'm grounded and stuck in a house with five beautiful girls all weekend," he laughed.
The girls laughed, Yaten huffed.
Serena and Lita were already working on milkshakes when the rest of the girls came into the Crown.
"What happened?" Mina scowled when she came over to the table.
Serena and Lita exchanged glances: "Nothing," they answered.
"We ordered you guys shakes too," Lita mentioned, seeing the waitress carry a tray towards their table.
"I was expecting you two to be in detention right now," Ami remarked.
"For what?" Rei scowled.
"A competitive game of volleyball," Lita responded with a grin.
"You talked your way out of an obvious attack on one another," Ami was surprised. "Seiya and Yaten looked like they were going to start fighting in the middle of class."
"When Serena started talking at a mile a minute, in an inventive manor, it's hard for someone to disagree with her," Lita snickered.
"You lied?" Mina squeaked at Serena.
"No," Serena stated. "I told them how I saw it."
"Will one of you fill me in?" Rei demanded.
Mina explained the volleyball game. Serena told them how she saw it and how she explained it.
"Sikora's their mom?" Rei spouted in the middle of Serena's explanation.
"You didn't know that?" Mina was surprised.
"You knew?" Lita scowled at Mina.
"She looks like Yaten, with Seiya's eyes," Mina mentioned.
"Now that you mention it," Serena smiled. "She does have his eyes."
"Get your mind off Seiya," Lita demanded.
"Yeah," Rei snapped. "We're taking you to see Darien, Remember him?"
"You found him?" Serena almost jumped out of her seat with excitement.
"Not exactly," Ami admitted. "We just need to concentrate on him and I think we should end up where ever he is."
"Should?" Lita scowled.
"Every time we've teleported, we've concentrated on who we need to get too. Not an address," Ami explained.
"Five Sailor Scouts showing up in the guys washroom or something, could be a bit odd," Rei sneered.
"I thought if we waited till about nine o'clock or so, he should be at home, especially if tomorrow is a school day," Ami explained further.
"Or he'll be in the library," Serena commented.
"What library?" Ami questioned.
"There's this big library at his school that he likes to go to," Serena replied.
"I can't gain access to personal information from the Harvard computer. It will tell me he's registered, but personal stuff, like phone numbers or home address are not accessible," Ami told them.
"so we show up wherever he is or we have to wait for him to call you," Rei added.
"It's an adventure," Mina grinned.
"We'll all meet at your house at nine and then we'll go. Or do you want to wait?" Ami asked Serena.
"If this works," Mina beamed. "We can go to him anytime you want."
"We shouldn't be using our Scout powers for this," Ami noted with a sigh.
"Serena's our friend, and she needs our help," Lita announced.
"Nine o'clock," Mina stated and held her hand out in front of her.
"Nine o'clock," all the girls said and stacked their hands on top of Mina's.
They discussed the weekend and decided they would spend it at Kakyuu's place. Then they discussed school and of course homework. It was decided they would go do their homework. Just in case they ended up staying at Darien's rather late.
Serena ran home, pulled out anything that she felt like eating, that didn't need cooking or heating, and went up to her room.
Serena stuffed her face and did her math homework. She continued to eat and started to read the book she had to do a report on for next Friday.
Just like every other time she tried to read this book, the words soon began to blur.
"Good book?" She heard Rei's voice.
"Serena," Rei's voice became louder.
It took a moment for Serena to realize that Rei was not in her dream.
Serena opened her eyes to see Sailor Mars bent over her, shaking her like a rag doll.
"I'll never be able to do a book report on this thing," Serena whined and pushed the book off her bed. "Every time I try to read it, I fall asleep.
"Ready to go see Darien?" Sailor Venus asked, bouncing happily around the room.
Serena rolled off her tummy, sat up and saw her friends standing in her room in the Sailor Scout forms.
"It feels like forever since we all took on this form," Serena yawned and got to her feet. "I have to pee, before we go."
When Serena came back, she transformed and smiled at her friends.
All the girls held hands and began to concentrate on where they wanted to go.
"Serena!" Sailor Mars snarled when she realized nothing was happening.
"I'm nervous," Sailor Moon admitted.
"We're here with you," Sailor Jupiter smiled.
"Scouts are here to help you on this journey, and friends are here to stand beside you," Sailor Venus told her and gave her hand a little squeeze.
"As soon as you feel his arms around you, you'll be fine," Sailor Mercury assured her.
Sailor Moon exhaled loudly: "I'm ready," she said confidently.
"Sailor planet power," they all yelled.
Sailor Moon knew by the tingling sensation, they were on their way. Where they were on there way to, no one knew for sure.
Sailor Moon felt her feet touch a hard surface.
Horror struck her face when she opened her eyes and found herself standing at the foot of a huge four poster bed, with heavy beige drapes around it.
The others stood frozen, afraid they might be heard past the soft giggles that came from the bed.
Sailor Jupiter reached over, grabbed Sailor Moon's arm and pulled her close: "This is not your dream, this is real," she whispered as quiet as possible into Sailor Moon's ear.
All the Scouts exchanged glances, each also darted their eyes towards the door.
Sailor Moon stepped away from her friends, towards the bottom of the bed and extended her hand. She quickly drew back her hand. She knew it wasn't Sailor Moon's hand that had stretched forth in the dream, but it had been Serena. For the hand before her bare no ring.
She chose instead to go to the side of the bed, where she knew the male should be.
Sailor Mars made an attempt to move, Sailor Jupiter held Mars back and shook her head.
Sailor Moon took her first step towards the top of the right side of the bed. Step two, she had changed into Serena, step three, she removed her ring from Darien.
Sailor Jupiter, now held Mars in a headlock with her hand clamped over her mouth.
Sailor Mercury had stepped backwards out into the adjacent room.
With the stealth of a mouse, Serena held the top end of the drape and peeked in.
Dariens eyes were closed and his face held a big smile. The woman had her head tilted downwards as her nails gently caressed Darien's chest.
Serena carefully and quietly placed the ring on the vacant pillow beside Darien's head and then let the drapes fall back into place.
She felt Sailor Venus put a comforting arm around her and escorted her out of the room.
Ami quickly opened the door into the main hallway of the apartment.
Only once the door was closed behind them did Sailor Jupiter release Sailor Mars.
"Let me go say hi," Sailor Mars growled. "Let me shove his ring up his..."
"We need to take Serena home," Sailor Venus interrupted.
"I wanna see the look on his face," Sailor Mars grinned evilly. "I wanna see him explain the ring to that bitch."
"Shhh," Sailor Mercury told her. "Serena you have to change."
Serena had never wanted to leave a place so much in her life. She transformed.
"Home," Sailor Moon stated and took hold of one of Sailor Mars' hands.
As soon as Sailor Moon saw her room come into focus, she collapsed to the floor.
Sailor Mars stormed out on to Serena's balcony.
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury transformed before they went out to try and calm Sailor Mars down.
Sailor Moon was Serena again by the time Sailor Venus got her to sit on her bed.
"They'll get her to calm down," Mina now smiled at Serena and sat beside her.
Mina wrapped her arm around Serena, as the tears finally came rolling down her face.
"I'm sorry," Mina whispered. "I guess we were wrong about your dream," she gave a little giggle.
"You never know," Serena tried to laugh. "We just won't be in a four poster bed."
Mina laughed a little louder: "Serena," she pulled her friend down, so they could giggle and admire Serena's poster.
"When did Seiya autograph your poster?" Mina pointed up.
"What?" Serena sat up a bit.
Mina stood up: "It's dated for Tuesday," she mentioned. "You had Seiya in your bed Tuesday?" she attempted to scowl over her big grin.
"You make it sound," Serena paused. "Um...Um,"
"Wrong," Lita interjected as the other three girls came over to the bed.
"He walked me home and came in for tea," Serena responded, looking quite innocent of any wrong doing.
"Where were you serving the tea?" Rei said with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
"Considering he was mad at Sikora for interrupting," Ami added and paused before saying the word: "Tea."
"How do you know?" Serena questioned.
"Taiki and I were standing beside her when she called," Ami grinned. "Not to mention your squealing and giggling."
The now very red faced Serena began to explain: "He was up here, I was downstairs making tea. I put the tea down," she pointed at her little table. "The phone rang, I grabbed the phone, Seiya pulled me down on the bed. The phone crashed to the floor, I screamed cause he startled me. Then I gave him the phone and he left before we even got to have tea."
"When's he coming back for..Um..Tea?" Mina giggled.
"I don't know," Serena's tone went sad and distant.
All the girls went quiet, as soon as they realized Serena was crying again, and looking at her hand.
She gently rubbed her vacant ring finger: "I remember the first time we had tea. Just the two of us," she sobbed.
Anger resurfaced in Rei's eyes, but she remained quiet and clenched her fists.
"It's over," Serena sniffed and put her hand on Rei's fist.
Rei was surprised, she didn't think Serena had noticed.
"After all you two have been threw together, the whole destiny thing, He must not care that much," Lita scowled. "We will always be there for you, no matter what happens," Lita smiled and put her hand on Serena and Rei's.
"To an unknown future," Mina spouted and added her hand.
"The future is now what we make of it," Ami joined in.
"As long as I have you guys, the future will still be good," Serena smiled at each of her friends individually.
