Hi again! I'm not sure what number 'fic this will make but it should be my third or forth. Hmm... It seems I can't seem to write anything but one peice stories. I've got so many planned. I was going to try to right a story in parts and I even got the first chapter nearly done, but I don't think I will after all. Maybe though. We'll just see how this goes. O.k, this story will take place in a certain part of Sailor Moon I don't think anyone's ever tried to write about before. I like trying to be original. This is 'before' Darien and Serena and the others find out who they are. It's not in the first person but it may have two different perspectives, like one of Sue Mei's stories, but I'm not sure. I'll just write what I want and see how it comes along. Also, I'm going to be using the NA names for this. I know it may seem a little odd for this story for quite a few reasons, but I just wanted to use those names. Don't flame me for it. Well, that's all you really need to know about this. This will probably be short (like all my other stories) so don't blame me for it. I guess I just can't write long stories. Well, that's all that needs to be said so go ahead and read the story! Tears of the Rose By: Jade The Past... The setting sun in the distance did nothing to warm the cold pale boy who sat on the edge of his bed, fearful and alone. Seven year old Darien cringed as a cool wind from the evening air blew through the open hospital window and russled his pale shirt. He stared straight ahead, unseeing, and uncaring of the world around him. Tears of anguish and sorrow streamed down his face unchecked and he shook with them. The same series of thoughts was running through his head, as they had for the past week or so... everytime he was alone. His parents were dead. He had amnesia. He had no one left. He had no idea what he was going to do. His life was ruined. He was alone in the world. Every one of those things terrified Darien, and so much more, but he wouldn't let anyone else know that. He had to be strong. He couldn't show how hurt he was in front of others. Only when he was alone did he cry like this. Only alone did he show weakness. Only one person had ever seen his true sorrow. There had only been one person who had seen him cry, who had seen what he kept inside, who could keep what was left of his mind away from the problems at hand. And now that person was leaving. His shaking increased, even as the wind died down in the room. He was leaving. There was nothing Darien could do. He was leaving and he would probably never come back. He had been the only one that could understand what Darien was going through, and now he was leaving. His only friend, Fiore, was leaving. In that moment, what was left of Darien's world just fell apart, and he began to sob. He cried for his parents. He cried for Fiore. He cried for himself, and he cried for things lost and gone to him. He would never again see, or speak to his parents. He would never again hold them tight within his arms. He would never again know what it was like to live happily, with a family, with their love. He would never again hear his parents voice or laugh with them. He may not remember them, but he didn't need a memory to verify what he knew as truth. That he had loved his family was obvious, it was almost as if he could sense it deep inside. Talking, and laughing, and taking car rides were just things that all normal families did, but Darien had no individual 'memories' of his parents. He couldn't remember what they'd done together, as a family. They probably gone to parks, and stores, and ice-cream shops and places like that together, but then again, it was also possible that they hadn't. Darien couldn't tell. nd the saddest thing of all was, that he would never know "Father." He whispered through his crying. "Mother." He tried to stop the tears but found he couldn't. They seemed to be endless. He felt something warm being placed on his ice cold hand and, startled, he looked down. He saw a small hand on top of his and blinked, the tears clouding his vision. A small golden head came into his view and a second hand rested itself with the first and Darien saw the golden head lower so that it's hair was touching his hand. He stared at the cute golden haired child before him and felt the tears begin to slow. She had her hair done up in an adorable style, a lot like meatballs with wavy tresses falling from the round spheres of hair. Darien felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips at the sight. She wore a tiny purple dress that fell just below her knees with lace on the hem and collar, and light matching slippers. In her hands she held a small bouquete of red roses. He sniffled slightly and then asked, "Who are you?" She looked up at him and he noticed that she had very pretty sky blue eyes. They were wide, and innocent, and the perfect color to match her hair. "Don't cry." She told him in a sweet caring voice, lined with genuine concern. Darien looked at the small girl before him for a long moment, then looked away and tried to blink back his tears. His hands curled into small fists, and he looked down at his feet. He didn't even realize that it was he who was speaking until the words had been said. "My friend is going away soon." He told her, closing his eyes tightly as the tears came faster. "And I can't do anything to stop him." Saying this out loud was what truly made it real for Darien. He had thought perhaps that there was a way to get Fiore to stay, to stop him from leaving him all alone, but now he knew. Fiore was leaving, and there wasn't a thing that Darien could do to stop it. Slow tears began to trickle down his face again. "Don't be sad." The little girl said, her voice just as sweet as before, her head lifting from his hand. And then she smiled slightly and her eyes shone. "Today Serena-chan will be a big sister. My mommy had a baby." Darien looked down at her again and he saw that her eyes told him to be happy, begged him to be, and Darien smiled ever so slightly. If he could not behappy for himself then he would be happy for her. Little Serena beamed as she saw that the boy now smiled, no matter how small smile was. She looked down at her tiny hands which now held the group of roses her father had bought for her, and an idea came to her mind. Picking out one of the roses in full bloom she brought it away from the rest and held it high, as if it were a trophy of some kind. Looking up again she the the beautiful rose towards Darien. She smiled again. "Here." She said her voice happy and her eyes shining. "This is for you." Darien stared at the rose a moment, his eyes fixing on the ruby petals. A gift? For him? From her? But why? Why would anyone want to give something like this to him? Something so special and perfect as a rose? Why? He couldn't be sure how long he sat there, merely staring at the offered gift, but he came back to the real world when Serena began to retract her small hand. Her eyes told of confusion. Had she hurt him somehow? The pain in his eyes only seemed to increase when she offered the rose. Had she caused him pain? Well, if she had then she was sorry. She hadn't meant to. She began to step backwards, wondering why a rose could be painful, but suddenly Darien reached out a wrapped his fingers around the proferred rose. He gave her a watery smile and pulled it towards him looking down at the girl before him with something akin to awe in his eyes. "Thank you." He said finally and Serena smiled. Darien stared down at her and felt his smile widen. "Thank you." He said again, not knowing what else to do. He felt he should say so much more, should do so much more. He felt that he should fall to his knees and thank this girl, this tiny angel, over and over until he couldn't anymore. He felt he should grab her up into a hug and squeeze the living daylights out of her. He felt there was something more he had to do, something more he had to know about this girl before him. But before he was given the chance a deep male voice called from the hallway, "Serena!" Serena jumped at her fathers voice and glanced over her shoulder at the door, then turned and smiled to the boy again and said four simple words. But the sentence these four words made, displayed such maturity that Darien jerked startled. For herself Serena knew these words were not her own, that the voice she spoke the words in was not her own, and that the words she spoke held deeper meaning that she would ever know. She would only recall these words as they had been, in a time far away, when she was in dire need of them. When she needed to remember this point in her life. When the danger was at it's greatest for her. "We will meet again." And then she turned and ran out into the hall, leaping into her fathers arms for a hug. Darien stared after her silently, still holding his rose. He looked down at it and smiled again. This had been a gift to him, from a guardian angel, a tiny girl no older than two or three with eyes like the sky and hair like gold, and a smile that he would always remember. And now he would give this as a gift to another, someone like him, who was alone in the world, someone with no one left. Just as he had been before that little girl had walked into this room and gave him this rose and smiled at him. Now he knew, he was not always alone. He jumped up from the bed he'd been sitting on and ran for the stairs to the roof. If he ran fast enough he could make it, he was sure of it. He ran step by step, flight by flight, until he reached the door marked 'roof'. Then he pushed it open and stumbled through, into the fresh air and sunlight. A brown haired boy, standing on the roofs edge, looking down, glanced over in his direction and then turned completely as he saw who it was. Without a word Darien ran to him and stood before him breathing heavily from his long run, his chest moving up and down quickly. Then, taking a deep breath he held out his hand, as the girl had, and offered the rose to his friend. Fiore stared at the rose a moment, astonishment painting his features, then he slowly reached out and took the rose from Darien's hand. He brought it to his chest and stared at it a moment cradling it in his hands as though it were made of glass. Looking up again Darien saw the awe that had shown in his eyes when Serena had given him the rose. "Thank you." Fiore said, his voice thick and happy. Darien smiled. "Next time I will bring a lot of flowers back for you." Even as the last word left Fiore's mouth his figure was fading and disappearing into nothing but glowing sparkles on the wind. Darien's tears began to flow again, he wanted to cry to out, to scream at Fiore not to leave him, but he remained as quiet as he could, knowing nothing could stop Fiore. He fought to keep the increasing tears back, but his chest and throat were beginning to hurt with the effort and a few sobs escaped his guard. "Don't cry." Fiore's disembodied voice told him. "The next time we meet I will bring you lots of flowers. I promise." And then there was silence, and Darien was alone again, but he didn't feel so alone. He still cried, but some of the tears were that of happiness, and some of sadness. He knew he would see Fiore again one day, and he knew that he would see his angel again one day. Although he was alone right now, his future was looking a whole lot brighter. ~*~ The Present... Darien strolled down the street aimlessly, just walking and looking into some of the street shop windows, not really interested in anything in them. The sun was out and shining today, but Darien had dressed rather warmly. He wore black slacks, a black shirt and green overcoat, and black shoes to match. Blue tinted shades covered his eyes. It had been twelve years since his encounter with his angel, and with Fiore. He was a young man now, 19 years old, nearly twenty. He had not seen either one of the people he'd met in the hospital so long ago and he had nearly lost hope that he ever would. Be he was patient, he knew his angel would keep her promise, and he knew that Fiore would also. He would see them again some day. When however was a mystery he may never solve until it solved itself. He felt something hit him square on the head and looked in front of him to see a short blond haired girl with her hair up in buns on her head walking away from him. He bent down and picked up the thing that had hit him on the head. A crumpled up peice of paper. "Hey! Watch it Meatball Head!" He shouted to the girl still walking away from him. It was an apropriate name considering her hair did indeed look very much like meatballs. He uncrumpled the paper in his hands and saw that it was a math test. In the right hand corner was a number, obviously her score, in big red pen and a comment about her having her parents sighing this and bringing it back. Darien blinked in shock as he read the mark. "A thirty?" He paused and glanced over the sheet, at the girl who was turning around. "Admirable." He could hear the heavy sarcasm in his own voice. "Are you stupid, or just... incredibly lazy?" He looked at her as though actually expected her to answer. Now the girl had turned to him completely and he had full veiw of her face. He nearly dropped the paper in his hands as his eyes met hers for a moment. They were exactly the same shade as those of his angel, a deep summer sky blue. Was this girl her? Could it be possible? But before he could contemplate further the girl in question stalked up to him and snatched the test from his hands. "How dare you! Give me that!" She cried and Darien felt his eyebrows go up. Her voice was most certainly not as he remembered it. It was higher and held no hint of the caring or warmth he had heard in his angels voice, just annoyance at the moment. Perhaps this was not his angel after all. He felt his spirits drop a bit. She turned away from him and fumed for a moment, before marching away from him, her feet making loud noises on the pavement. She was muttering something under her breath but Darien couldn't hear as she was turned away from him. He reached up and took off his sun glasses revealed two deep blue eyes. He narrowed the blue orbs at the girl as she stormed away from him in annoyance. But Darien found that his thoughts were weaker than he had expected. Shaking his head Darien walked away. Perhaps at his next encounter with the girl, if there was one, he would be able to tell if she was truly his angel, but for now he was left to speculate. But as it turned out Darien would not be able to either confirm or deny his thoughts on the girl he'd met until long after this moment. His knowledge of who she was, and his meeting with Fiore would coincide. But as we all know, Darien did not, and could not know what would happen in his future until it had been done, and so he was left to walk home to his apartment, wondering and thinking about the girl he had met on the street whom he did not know would one day be his wife. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, there you have it! I finished the story. At first I just got the frist two or three paragraphs done and then left it at that. I had no idea how to make the story turn out the way I wanted it to and I also had no idea how to end it. But I think I've found the right place. This was not initally what I planned to write. I had intended to stop when Fiore left Darien on the roof, but I wanted to make the story longer so I added on that part about Serena and Darien's first meeting. I'm not too sure I like what I wrote though. I'm getting tired of writing long authors notes as I naturally tend to do so I'm just going to say that I would love to get e-mail from you people reading, so my e-mail address is tnag@lightspeed.bc.ca Sorry this was so short! Please e-mail me if you liked the story! Gotta book it! See yah! - Jade