Author’s Note: Hey, Minna-Chan! Had to write more! Thanks to my friend, who
inspires me about Mamoru, Sailor Starlite! This should have more romance in
it, I know, the other parts didn’t really, but the two have to be friends
before boyfriend/girlfriend... Standard disclaimers, as usual, apply. On
with the show...
**********************************************
Title: Serena and Darien... together? No WAY!
Part: 4
By: Mako-Chan
E-mail: Breeze13@hotmail.com
Rated: PG-PG13
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        Serena closed her eyes, her body felt numb, like she couldn’t move.When
the numbness went away, she was lying on cool asphalt, Darien sprawled next
to her. Her back had some scrapes and scratches on it, but mainly it was her
ankle that screamed for attention. Darien was breathing heavy, and he looked
scared. Serena wouldn’t have been frightened, but then she saw Darien’s
reaction. Not-scared-of-anything Darien was afraid. By the looks of things,
he was also on the verge of tears. That made Serena afraid.
        The driver of the car had long since taken off, and although it
would have
been nice to see the creep with a ticket, there was no way for that now.
Zoicite, Kunzite, Nephrite, and the valet, Jedeite, all ran out to see if
she was okay. Jedeite helped Serena up, and as soon as she got to her feet,
she whimpered in pain. Her ankle had no way of supporting her.
        Zoicite was about to prop Serena up and get her to the car, but
Darien feltthe familiar pang of jealousy and ran to her side instead.
        “Are you okay, Mr. Chiba? Ms Tsukino?” asked Nephrite.
        “We’ll be fine. I can help Serena with her ankle,” retorted Darien
coolly,“I am a doctor, after all.”
        “If you think you can manage, Mr. Chiba,” said Kunzite, gesturingfor the
other three to go inside.        “We’ll be fine.”
        “Do you want help with your bags?” asked Kunzite.
        “That we could use.”
        “Okay, then,” he said, clapping softly, and soon Jedeite returned,“Help
them with their bags.” Jedeite made the bow, gathered up the parcels, andleft.
        The couple was silent, driving to Serena’s home. Then Darien brokethe
silence, “I’m glad you’re not hurt too bad.”
        “You saved my life,” she managed to mumble out.
        “I had to... I, I...” he let it hang.
        “I know, Darien,” she said, then, “what happened to my ankle, anyways? I
was sort of numb with fear when it happened.”
        “It hit against the frame of the car. Hit it pretty hard, I imagine.
I hopeit’s not broken, it’s already swollen up bad.”
        “I can’t feel it anymore.”
        “Your natural antibiotics are at work. Rest now, okay? We’ll get you
home.”        Serena’s eyes flew open, “But my parents aren’t home!” she
exclaimed.        “What do you mean?”
        “Sammy went to a friend’s house, and my parents always play bridgereal
late on Saturdays,” she said.
        “Hmm. You were supposed to go home to an empty house?”
        “No, actually, I was supposed to stay the night at my friend Amy’s.”
        “I don’t think you should be at a sleep over with a broken- or atleast
sprained, ankle.”        “Neither do I, but I can’t go home.”
        “Why don’t we go to my place?” Darien suggested.
        “Are you sure? My parents won’t like it...”
        “They don’t have to know, and besides, nothing is going to happen,
we’re,”he struggled to form the words, “ju-just friends...” She nodded, and her
face flashed a quick emotion, then was hidden by a mask of happiness. Was
that disappointment? Darien shrugged, unsure.
        “Well, I guess so. You are a doctor, after all,” she sighed.
        “Okay then, to my place it is.” The ride after that was silentagain,
neither knowing what to say.
        They reached a huge apartment complex, and Darien carried Serena tothe
elevator and they got in. For some reason, Serena felt like she had been
carried by him before. She had no idea why, so she just shook the feeling
off and looked up at him. His hair was tousled slightly, his shirt was
ripped, and she could see blood on his back. But, despite all that, he still
looked perfect to her.
        When they reached the twelfth floor, Darien carried Serena a short
distance
to a door, and dug some keys out of his pocket by shifting Serena’s weight
into one arm, and taking the keys out with his free hand. He jiggled the
lock for a minute, then stepped inside.
        Darien’s flat was huge. Serena’s eyes grew wide as she saw paintings
on thewalls, and a black leather sofa with matching love seat. The only very
decorative piece was a vase of twelve perfect roses (which, unknown to
Serena, Darien had created in his spare time) on the black coffee table, and
a large bookcase at the end of a hall. Then Serena’s eyes became disks, she
saw the big screen TV.
        Darien set Serena on the couch as she begged, “Can we watch a movie?
Prettyplease? Please?” then her eyes grew devious, “this one always works on my
brother. I’ll give you a KISS if you don’t!”
        Darien laughed, and said, “Give me a kiss and I will!”
        Serena leaned over and pecked him lightly on the cheek. Darien was
clearlydisappointed.
        “You only said a kiss, you didn’t say on the lips,” giggled Serena,
remembering the trick she had learned from Amy.
        “Okay, we can, but not now. Now we have to get some ice on that
ankle,” he
handed Serena his cordless phone, “call your friends, and call your parents
at their friend’s house to tell them that you’re all right. Tell your
parents that you’re staying with a friend if she asks, and that you’ll befine.”
        She nodded, and dialed some quick numbers, “Is Elaine there?” sheasked
into the receiver.
        “Hi, mom? Um, this is Serena. Yeah, I sort of hurt my ankle, butdon’t
worry, I’m at a friend’s house now, and I’m being taken care of.”
        She sighed a little, “Thanks for understanding, mom, bye!” shepushed the
off button and then clicked it on again, dialing Amy’s number.
        “Anderson residence. (AN: I use this name because in the episode“Tuxedo
Unmasked” she answers the phone like this.) This is Amy,” said the voice.
        “Hi Amy, this is Serena, I hurt my ankle and I can’t go over there,
so I’m
at Darien’s, and we’re about to watch a movie, um,” she sighed a little and
cupped a hand over the microphone.
        “Darien! Can we invite my friends over for the movie, too?” she
called for
him He was in the kitchen, getting some ice and bandages, along with other
first aide stuff.        “Sure, but only for the movie!”
        “Hey Ames, you can invite the girls over here to watch a movie,okay? He
lives in the huge apartment complex down town; you know the one near the
arcade? Well, he lives on the twelfth floor, first door to the right. You
know where it is?”
        “Yeah, Serena, I do,” said Amy; “We’ll be there in ten minutes. Howare
you?”        “Well, Darien’s taking care of my ankle now, he’s in the kitchen.
Ooh, Ialso have a surprise for you guys when you get here!” she giggled,
remembering the dresses.
        “What, are you and Darien an item now?” asked Amy.
        “Of course not, Ames! We’re just friends, my surprise is for YOU,”she
laughed.
        “Well, we’ll be here. Raye’s going to be jealous, though,” she said
slyly.        “See ya, Amy!”        “Bye!”
        Serena hung up the phone as Darien entered the room, a whole first
aide kit
and that much more with him. Serena smiled and said, “Thanks, Darien, for
everything...” she looked guilty, “I know tonight must have cost a fortune,
and I wanted you to know how much fun I had.”
        He set the kit down on the coffee table, and leaned next to her, “It
was noproblem, Meatball Head. You know, I had lots of fun tonight too...” he
grinned, “Well, minus one car accident.”
        She smiled, and he pulled her shoe off slowly, her ankle swollen
almost toomuch to take it off. She winced a little, but bit her lip to keep from
crying out in pain. She refused to show weakness in front of Darien. He
might laugh at her.
        Darien was surprisingly gentle as he looked at her foot. He moved it
slowlyup and down, left to right, all the while asking the question, “does this
hurt?” She replied the same to him, “yes, not too bad,” until he moved it
and all of a sudden it felt like a thousand burning knives were being
stabbed into it. She wasn’t able to catch the whimper that escaped her lips,
and Darien said, “Sorry, Serena,” before continuing on. He followed up by
putting an ice pack wrapped inside a cloth on her swollen ankle, and let the
ice put down the swelling.
        “Ooh! That is REALLY cold! Even for ice!” she grimaced.
        He laughed, “That’s good, though, it will get the swelling down!”
        She bit her lip and watched his eyes stray to her other scraps.There was
one on her knee, one on her hand, one on her shoulder, and one on her cheek.
He moved slowly to her knee and began washing it out with warm water.
        “Thanks, Darien,” she said all of a sudden, “I mean, not just forthe
evening, or for the help here, but,” she bit her lip against tears, “but for
saving my life.”
        He brushed the tear that was slowly making its way down her cheek
away and
said, “I had to, Serena, you mean so much to me.” He began drying the water
that had fallen around the scrape. Setting the towel aside, he took some
antiseptic spray and said, “This is going to sting, but it will clean itout.”
        She nodded and took his hand, squeezing it for support. Darien
glanced downat the joined limbs. They fit so well together, like two pieces of a
shattered jigsaw puzzle. He sprayed the disinfectant, hearing a sharp gasp
from Serena, and he leaned down to blow on the spray.
        ‘This hurts so much,’ thought Serena, ‘ooh, he’s blowing on itnow...
what’s this feeling?’ she asked herself. She felt this weird energy spread
from her knee to her heart, as if she drank a thousand jolt colas, her heart
beat incredibly fast. He then placed a band-aide on it and smiled.
        Darien repeated the procedure, until he came to her cheek. Then heasked
her to close her eyes as he sprayed it, so that it wouldn’t sting them. As
he was about to do that, he said, “You know what? The swelling in your
ankle’s gone down quite a bit, I think you should probably get an ace
bandage on it. It is sprained, after all.”
        She smiled and nodded, lost in his sea of blue. He gingerlyunwrapped the
ice, and set it on the table, grabbing the ace bandage as he did so.  He
then carefully wrapped it up, back and forth, until she couldn’t even feel
the pain anymore.
        He moved back to her cheek. “Now close your eyes,” he commanded. She
quickly obliged him. She felt the sting of medicine, and then the electric
shock of Darien’s warm breath blowing on her. He moved closer, and she
opened her eyes. Their lips were so close; the both saw the same in each
other’s eyes. They were so close, they moved in and then...
        “Hey, guys! It’s Amy, Raye, and Lita,” they heard Raye call. Serena
wanted
to smack them all, but she held back. They were behind the door, after all,
so how could they have known?
        Darien got up, “I’d better go answer the door,” he said, annoyed.Serena
just nodded.
        Then in bounced Amy, Lita, and Raye, with an armload of junk food.“Hi!”
they all chirped.
        Lita bounced next to Serena, “Hey, we even brought your favoritemovie,
Serena!”
        Serena clap happily, “Ooh! Do you mean ‘The Return of Sailor V?’”she
asked.
        “That, and of course the new one, ‘Sailor V Makes the Scene,’” saidRaye,
smiling.        “It’s supposed to have a lot of action in it,” said Amy.
        Darien laughed, “Hey, Serena, are you going to give them theirsurprises
now?”        Serena suddenly remembered the gowns, and her eyes became wide with
excitement, “Yeah! You’ll all adore them! They’re from Darien and I!”
        Raye raised an eyebrow, “Darien and you, huh?”
        Serena nodded and grabbed the boxes that they had gift wrapped.
Serena was
still wearing her dress and the tiara, along with the other jewelry that she
had picked out.
        She handed Amy a light blue package with a dark blue bow, Raye a red
package with a purple bow, and Lita a green package with a pink bow. They
were perfect for them.        “Ames, you open yours first, k?” commanded Serena.
        “Okay, Serena,” she said shyly. She carefully opened up the package,
making
sure not to rip the paper. Amy was so organized. When she finally had gotten
the package open, she carefully lifted the lid and peered into the box. “Oh,
Serena, thank you! And thank you, too, Darien!” she cried out, pulling the
dress out of the box.
        Raye and Lita’s eyes filled with surprise at the gown. It must have
costeda fortune. The main thing that caught their attention was how perfect for
Amy the gown was.        “Now you, Raye,” giggled Serena.
        Raye managed a slight nod before slowly tearing the paper up. Amy
cringed,
but Lita seemed to cheer her on. When she opened it, she gasped. It was the
most beautiful dress she had ever seen, and probably would ever see.
        She pulled it out, staring at it. It was just her size, and color,
too. Sheloved it, “Thanks Darien, Serena,” she choked out.
        “Lita,” said Serena softly.
        “I don’t know, Serena. If you picked out a dress for me, I’ll be the
happiest one here. Do you know how hard it is to find a dress that fits a
tall girl?” she asked, wagging her finger in Serena’s face.
        “I know, I know... just open it!” she urged.
        Lita ripped away the paper viciously, and then stared at the deepvelvet
inside. She finally saw the beauty inside the box clearly as she pulled the
dress out. She smiled, with tears in her eyes, “Thank you so much, you two!”
then she eyed Serena, “is that your new dress?” she asked Serena with asmirk.
        Serena blushed and said, “Yeah, do you like it?”
        “Of course!” giggled all the girls.
        “Are we going to watch the movies, or what? It’s late as it is, and
Serenaneeds to get to bed soon,” Darien lectured with authentic concern.
        “Yeah, yeah, Mr. Chiba,” giggled Raye.
        Amy popped the video into the player, but didn’t watch it. All she
saw was
Serena sit possesively next to Darien and lay her head on his shoulder as he
wrapped his arms around her. She grinned to herself, knowing that the other
girls were wrapped up in “The Return of Sailor V” to notice.
Darien and Serena had feelings for each other, that was more than obvious,
but they were buried deep into their subconcious, it seemed. Amy continued
to stare at them. They need a push, actually a big shove, in the right
direction. And Amy knew just WHO to find to help play match maker....
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        “Andrew, I’ve been thinking,” started Amy, early the next day.
        “That’s no big surprise, Amy, you’re a smart girl. So what have youbeen
thinking about, as of late?”
        “Well, does Darien like Serena?” she asked flatly.
        “Well, I wasn’t supposed to tell... but, he’s head over heels,
completely,insanely in love with her.”
        “Well, Serena’s that way with him, too. I was wondering if you andRita
would like to help play matchmaker.”
        “What’s this about matchmaking I hear?” quipped Sherry, (AN: The
waitress,remember?) wiping the counters off.
        “For Serena and Darien,” said Amy, glancing at Andrew’s wide eyes,
“and wecould use all the help we could get, so do you want to help, too?”
        “Count me in!” giggled Sherry, “I’ve known for a LONG time thatDarien
needed a girl!”
        “Great,” said Andrew, “Now we have four people helping out.”
        “Well, I’m sure I could easily make it... hmm, how does eight total
sound?”asked Amy.        “If you can do it, Ames.”
        “Oh, I’m sure I can. Later guys, I have to go round up morematchmakers!”
Amy giggled, rushing out the door.
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        Serena awoke around noon to the smell of bacon and eggs. Her eyespopped
open, and she noticed that she was still wearing her ensemble from last
night. She was on his couch, three blankets tossed lightly over her legs.
She picked herself up, still half asleep, and managed to go into the kitchen
where Darien was.
        She looked at him. He was wearing shorts and a tank top, his hairruffled
lightly in his eyes. He looked so cute like that.
        “Hi there, Muffin,” she said in his ear, “you need to dress like
that moreoften, k?”
        He gave her a funny look, so she kissed him lightly on the nose andsaid,
“I’ll be right back, Darien, gotta go get fixed up in the bathroom.”
        Darien laughed softly to himself. So now he was “muffin”? What aboutthe
kiss? She was obviously delirious from the pain killers, and her foot was
wrapped well enough that she probably couldn’t feel it. He laughed at her
site, her hair was sticking out all over the place and her meatballs were
falling out, but she still looked adorable.
        Serena walked dazedly into the bathroom and began to brush her teeth
automatically. Then she spit out a mouth full of tooth paste and brushed
some more.
        ‘Wait a minute!’ she thought, stopping her actions, ‘this isn’t MY
toothbrush!’ she spit again, and took a paper cup from the holder and began
spitting out the germs from the brush. Then she remembered what she had just
said.        “Darien!” she called, “I didn’t mean it! I was still half asleep!”
        “I know, Meatball Head, don’t worry about it!” he answered.
        Serena let out a loud sigh before fixing her hair in the buns and
bouncingout to the kitchen.
        “Feeling better? How’s your ankle?” he asked with concern.
        “MUCH better!” she chimed.
        He laughed, “Glad to hear it! I guess we should eat and then get you
home!”        Serena sighed, disappointed. She wanted to spend the day with HIM.
Shesighed it off, trying to feel optimistic.
        “Well, can we go to the park, first?” she asked him.
        “Sure, Meatball Brains, we can go any where you want!”
        She pouted a little, and Darien couldn’t help but grab onto her handand
kiss her lightly on the cheek.
        “To the park, Darien!” Serena said with a fake super hero voice.
        “After we eat.”
        “Food?! Of course after we eat I’m starved!” said Serena as she
wolfed downthree pancakes.
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Do you like it? Or not? Well, just answer by e-mailing me! I should have the
next part in quick, too, so don’t worry about it! Laters, all. Gotta thank
my bud, Sailor Starlite for gettting this up there for me. My e-mail from
the word and word pad is screwed up, so she’s probably sending this in now.
-Mako-Chan