~ Chapters 5 ~ “Are you going to be okay Selene.” he asked softly, his embrace still tight. Her mind raced with thoughts of him, holding her, kissing her. She almost didn’t answer him, in fear that if she said anything else the moment would end and her world would return to the normal darkness. She slowly drew in a breath, “I’m fine now, I’m just a little embarrassed now.” “Don’t be, I know how you feel, it’s hard, and you never really come to terms with it, but it does get better, with friends.” she looked up at his handsome face, every feature so perfect, his dark blue eyes, his strong jaw, his soft ebony hair, he was the picture of perfection. “Thank you Darien, for everything.” his arms loosened and they slowly separated. She felt an uncomfortable silence settle in over them as he continued to walk her home. She looked up at the early summer sky, despite it being almost May the air still held a bite to it and she pulled Darien’s jacket tighter around her. “Are you still cold?” she looked up at him, the concerned look that he wore quickly morphed into a soft caring smile. She shook her head, “I’m fine, umm turn here.” the two of them turned down the dark block on which Selene’s apartment was located. The quickened their pace unconsciously , Selene just trying to escape the awkward moment which didn’t seem to want to fade away Darien just trying to keep up with the angel that walked with him though this neighborhood that he didn’t know very well. His feelings were growing, slowly but surely toward this girl who was so like Serena but so not at the same time. Selene didn’t wear the grin that was always pasted upon Serena’s glowing face, but she brought her problems out into the open, not bothering to hide anything. And while physical traits were nothing alike, Darien felt connected to her for some reason, something inside him telling him, ‘keep her, love her, she was made for you.’ Well here’s my apartment.” she pointed a well lit apartment just above them. “It looks like the party’s done at least.” he said softly, and she nodded in reply. “Well thanks for walking me home Darien, but I had better go inside.” Fighting off the urge to kiss her, he smiled and started to walk away, “I’ll see you later Selene. Bye.” he waved and she let herself into the stairwell. She watched him from the doorway as he paused for a moment, staring at her window and blew her a kiss. She smiled, maybe she had finally found someone to love and would love her in return. @~~~>>~~~~ “Geez, did you pack enough stuff?” “Well I don’t know how many cute guys live around here and it never hurts to be prepared!” “Come on let’s try to get a cab and get to our hotel room.” Raye gathered up her two bags and the group left the terminal. The jetlagged group flagged down a cab and rode into town. @~~~>>~~~~ “So you ran into Selene at the library last night.” Andrew asked him the next morning and Darien sat at the kitchen table in the tiny apartment that they shared. Darien nodded slowly while chewing on a spoonful of Cheerios, “Yep we had a cup of coffee together too.” “Wow a date! You two seem to be getting closer.” Andrew sat down next to him and poured himself bowl of cereal, “Maybe you should ask her out.” Darien glared at him for a moment, “I would except...” he trailed off and looked down into his empty bowl. “Serena.” Andrew supplied the word for him and Darien nodded again, “I still miss her, she was the only one for me. How can I be with anyone else when I was only supposed to be with her?” Silence fell over them, “If you love her, it was meant to be, this girl reminds you of Serena right?” giving Darien time to nod, Andrew charged on, “You’ll be with Serena again but Darien you are only 18, you said so yourself, you can’t spend the rest of your life alone. You deserve to be happy, Serena would want you to be happy, not sitting around waiting for her until you die. Go after this girl, tell her you love and spend the rest of your lives together.” “Andrew it’s not that easy, I’ve told you before when Serena died, I was brought here, to this time, to be together with the girl I love. Serena is the only one for me, but I feel connected to this girl, just like I did to Serena. Plus this girl needs me more, she broke down last night and I felt so bad for her like something was tearing out my heart. God this is all so confusing!” Darien put his face in his hands. “It sounds like you need to work everything out, maybe you should talk to Selene about all this.” Andrew put his empty cereal bowl in the sink and walked out of the kitchen. Darien closed his eyes and saw a vision of Selene, he had to talk to her. @~~~>>~~~~ “Selene are you alright? You seem spacey this morning.” Steph placed a hand on her shoulder, startling her from her thoughts. “I’m fine, I was just thinking of someon- I mean something.” Selene turned back to the book she was attempting to read for English class. “Someone? Could it be a guy?” Selene’s bright red face gave it away and Steph pounced on the opportunity, “It IS a guy, how cute!” she squealed. “Shut-up Steph, it’s nothing. And definitely NOT a guy.” Steph arched a brow, “Someone’s very defensive all of a sudden, just tell me, I won’t say anything about it.” Selene couldn’t help but crack a smile at Steph’s eager face, she looked a dog waiting for you to throw a stick so they could go fetch it. She marked her page and shut the book, “Alright, it’s a guy.” “I knew it! So tell me, what does he look like, is he cute?” Selene sighed softly, “He’s perfect, with these beautiful soulful blue eyes that just sparkle when they look at you and this dark black hair that falls just right across his face, making him look really, really sexy.” Steph’s eyes widened, “He sounds absolutely dreamy, why don’t you ask him out?” She rolled her eyes, “What if he doesn’t feel the same way? Then it would totally ruin the relationship we already have. But he’s so sweet and he would be a perfect boyfriend.” letting out a soft moan, Selene stood up, “See what you’ve got me doing now, I feel like some love struck teenager!” Steph smiled, “You are a love struck teenager, and this is normal, you must really like him. I say you give it a shot and ask him out, even if it’s just to study.” “I already told you this, it’s not that eas-” the doorbell rang, cutting Selene short, she walked over to the door, shooting a look at Steph to ask if she had invited anyone over. Steph shook her head no and Selene slowly opened the door a crack. She almost fainted at the sight of who was on the other side, “Hi Selene, can I come in?” her eyes widened and she opened the door, “Sure Darien, come on in. Don’t mind the mess.” Steph stood up quickly, knowing full well that this was the guy that her roommate was pining over, she smiled her approval at Selene, who in turn blushed bright red. “Um, this is my roommate Steph, Steph this is Darien, my new friend.” Steph smiled warmly at the uncomfortable guy in front of her, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Darien. You’ll have to excuse me for a moment.” she walked past Selene, “You are so right about those eyes.” Darien smiled at Selene as she turned ever brighter red then before, “So what brings you over here?” “You.” it was a simple, truthful answer, but it made her even more uncomfortable with the situation of Darien standing in her living room. “Do you want to go for a walk, this apartment is a bit stuffy.” Selene asked him, in a hurry to get him away from Steph who was no doubly plotting something in the kitchen to hook them up. Darien nodded and the two of them rushed out of the living room and out the front door without saying goodbye. “Your roommate seems nice.” he told her as she was ushering him down the stairs. She smiled, “She is but she can be a very nosy, besides it’s beautiful out here today.” the sun was shining brightly over head and birds circled them in the sky, chirping there happy little birdie songs. “Yeah, it looks like it’s finally warming up, I’m so sick of the cold.” Darien looked into the sky, his thoughts suddenly on Serena and how much she used to love the warm weather, going to the beach or walking though the rose gardens, just the two of them. A ping of sadness flew though him and he stopped walking. Selene turned around to ask what was wrong, he had pain written all over his face. “Darien!!!!!!” a shrill voice rang out down the street. He turned to see who it was and saw a dark haired girl running toward him. “Raye!!” he exclaimed and wrapped the girl up in a bear hug. Selene turned away, afraid that she might be interrupting this moment. She looked only for a second to see three other girls racing toward him. He gave each of them a warm hug, his friends from so long ago. “How are you Darien?” Mina asked him softly, “Having fun here in America, away from everyone in Japan?” Darien sighed, they were still mad that he left, “I’m sorry guys, but I to go, it was just too hard to stay there any longer. Besides I wasn’t much use to you guys anymore anyway.” he had lost his ability to transform into Tuxedo Mask after Serena died, he no longer had any use for it because his only purpose in that form was to protect Sailor Moon. “It was hard for us too Darien, we could have used you for moral support and I’m sure you could have used some good friends as well.” Amy told him gently. “What’s done is done and I don’t want to defend my actions anymore, I did what I thought was necessary at the time and I have no regrets.” “Who’s that Darien?” Lita asked softly, pointing at the brown haired girl standing away from the group trying to fade away from this awkward moment that was obvious private. He sighed, and put an arm around her shoulder, “This is my friend Selene.” Selene forced a smile and the other girls looked at her funny, “You two seem awfully close.” Raye said harshly. “You certainly forgot about Serena quickly, didn’t you Darien, I guess true love is overrated.” Lita told him coldly. “We are just friends guys, Selene, this is Raye, Lita, Mina, and Amy, my friends from Japan who dropped by very unexpectantly might I add.” “It’s nice to meet everyone.” the discomfort level rose again as the girls glared coldly at the two of them together. “You know what maybe I should go?” Selene said suddenly, she pulled away from Darien’s hold and walked quickly back toward her apartment. Darien sighed and turned back to the group of angry girls. “I can’t believe you Darien, you come here and completely forget about the girl you were supposed to love for all eternity!” Raye went off on him, she couldn’t take in the whole situation. “I didn’t forget about Serena, I will never forget about her. I miss her everyday but I can’t spend my whole life alone because she’s gone.” “She’s gone because of you!” Lita spat out, a hand flew to her mouth, “I didn’t mean it Darien, I was just angry-” he cut her off, “I knew it, you all blame me, don’t you? I was right, Andrew told me that it wasn’t true but it is. You all think that if I was still with Serena, she would still be alive. I can’t believe you all, maybe if you had been better friends to her, especially you Raye, she would have went to one of you guys for help.” “Don’t you dare try to change everything here Darien, we aren’t the ones trying to replace her, she hasn’t even been dead over a year yet. She was a your soulmate and you’re already trying to get some from someone else, you are a disgusting pig Darien!” Mina exclaimed. “I don’t have to stand here and take this, not from you guys! And because of all of you, I might have lost a chance with a great girl, that you didn’t even bother to give a minute of your time to. If you would have talked to her you would have realized what a great, kind, loving person she is, just like Serena. I’m going to go and try to fix this with her and I better not see any of you come near me again or I won’t be responsible for my actions.” he turned and started back toward her apartment. @~~~>>~~~~ Selene raced in the front door and straight into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. She threw herself onto her bed and valiantly fought back tears, she didn’t even know why she was about to cry. She could still see those cold stares in her mind, the feeling of anger that those girls gave off was unspeakable. They hated her, it was blatantly clear to her, they hated her and she wasn’t even sure why? Finally the dam broke loose and tears spilled out. She didn’t bother to brush them away. To be continued... Okay another part done! I’m so happy with the way this story is going, most definitely one of my best pieces of work to date. I guess I am progressing as a writer. So tell what you all thought. Should I have brought the other scouts here? There’s a lot of unresolved stuff between them and Darien. Is he really to blame for Serena’s death? I don’t know, but it should be interesting since the other girls haven’t come to terms with her death. Thanks to Clare-chan, Serena Moon, Usako, Susan aka Endymion no Megami, just everyone who has offered me support and help with this story. it’s all so much appreciated more than all of you know, thanks to everyone. Please write me! Elisabeth aka Liz-chan