Hello readers, here is chapter 7! I am soo proud of myself to
have this one out so soon after I sent out 6. This was really
supposed to be part of the previous chapter, but it was getting
way too long, so I cut this one into the seventh.
This is the first chapter that actually has only one long
continuous scene, at a cafe on the Moon Kingdom. That was the
destination Serena and Darien were heading to when they first
left the palace. However, something very important happens in
here, that besides the garden sequence I consider to be one of
the more romantic pieces of the fic at the moment, because of the
way Darien totally gives into love, and explains his feelings.
Enough talk..."Sailor Moon" does not belong to me, I am just
a poor little teenage fan fiction writer with nothing better to do
than to use other people's characters. Respectivly these belong
to Naoko Takeuchi, DIC, Bandai, and a bunch of other people I
really don't feel like naming right now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Weaving a Romance"
CHAPTER 7: Cafe Dramatics and Romantics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The village was awake with night life. Serena had rarely ever
ventured into its depths at such a late hour. Once with Mina she
had...on an adventure. Raye had dared the two of them to sneak
into a bar and order two mugs of beer, then bring them back to
the castle without being noticed. It had turned out terribly --
they had gotten lost, and had to hitch a ride back with a wandering
minstrel just to find that Amy, in a panic, had alerted Serenity,
who grounded her daughter the second she returned home. Anyway,
they had all gotten a few good laughs out of it, and the bumbling
minstrel, (who had treated the girls with a song or two along the
road) received a reward for returning them.
"All he really got that gold for," Mina had laughed, "were
his bad verses!!"
Now here she was, with Darien. The stars shone above them as
they walked through the lighted road that led through the village.
There were people out, as the couple had figured there would be.
Which was why before they entered the haven of houses and stores and
twinkling street lamps Darien had taken off his cape and put it
draped over her head like a veil so that her face was concealed. It
would not be a good idea for her to be seen outside the castle at
night -- hardly with a man who was not her fiancee.
There had been few words between the two of them since they
had left the balcony. Neither was compelled to say very much...
perhaps because there was so much to discuss that they were not
looking forward to discussing. Like the complications their
being involved would be.
Finally he spoke. "Do you often come to the village?"
"Not often. Mother likes us to keep to the palace grounds.
It’s not so much that she’s concerned for our safety -- the Moon is
very safe. I just...I dunno." She looked up at him. "Do you often
go out in the cities of your kingdom?" Then she laughed, somewhat
strangely, before he had time to answer. "Why of course you do.
How silly of me to ask." Her mind added silently, how else would
you meet all of those ladies the gossip papers talk about you being
with?
"It’s true," Darien said. "I go out often. But not just at
night to meet women..." He laughed at the expression on her face.
"I can tell what you’re thinking, my princess. Does that really
surprise you?"
Serena shook her head loftily, almost losing the veil off her
face. "No," she said, hastily replacing it. "It actually doesn’t
surprise me. I don’t know why, but I figure we can sometimes tell
what the other is thinking. Is that odd?"
"Not in the least."
"Have you ever been able to --"
"Never. Not with any of the women I have ever been with, not
even with Jedite and the other generals. Or my parents...anyone.
But for us it seems --"
"Common. I know."
The two of them laughed heartily. She took his arm and
snuggled against it. "I hope we can always be able to tell what
the other is thinking. I don’t want that to ever change, Darien."
"It won’t." His voice was low and comforting. "I promise
it won’t."
In a way, it was almost as if he was not just promising that
they would always be able to read each others’ minds, but also that
he was also vowing in that promise that they would always be together.
That nothing would ever come between them. Ever.
It was the silent promise that made them both remember just what
they needed to talk about. "Can we go some place quiet to eat?"
asked Serena.
"You didn’t have dinner?"
"No, that’s not the truth, I did have dinner, and I ate so
much...I always do when I’m nervous, but this time none of it
seemed to have an impact on my stomach."
"When I’m nervous the exact opposite happens to me," said
Darien softly. Then he coughed lightly. "I...didn’t have much
to eat tonight."
The familiar tingle ran up and down Serena’s spine. Not
Darien, nervous over their secret date!? Nervous to see her? Her
hand tightened in his own, an involuntary reaction of the news that
someone like her could make the sophisticated and mature Darien
wobble on his feet.
"There’s a cafe over there," Serena said, in a voice that
did not sound like her own. Her fingers pointed out toward a
tiny hay-thatched building. "They’re very famous for their
desserts. Especially the carrot cake, if you like that sort of
thing."
"I gather you don’t."
"I hate carrots."
He laughed.
"What’s so funny?" she demanded.
"The way your nose wrinkled up when you said that."
Serena considered this a moment and then laughed along with
him, their voices carrying up into the star spangled night.
The table the waiter led them to was in the very back, and
alone amid a sea of vacant booths. Before going in Serena had
undone her odangos and used one of the rubber bands to tie the
hair back away from her face, then had styled her bangs so that
they fell over the birthmark on her forehead that announced to
the world that she was a member of the Moon Kingdom’s royal
family.
She had glanced at her reflection in the mirror and laughed
that she looked a trifle bit like Mina, with blue eyes and her
hair down. No one would suspect even looking her in the face
that she was really the Imperial Princess, daughter of Serenity.
"You look mighty familiar," said the waiter, and for a moment
Serena was startled before realizing that he was talking to Darien
and not to her.
"I come here a lot," lied the prince.
"Oh." The waiter seemed content with that answer. "That
must be it. What can I get you two kids to drink?"
Darien looked over at Serena, who blushed as she realized
that she was supposed to order first. She was not used to eating
out. "Ummm...hot chocolate, please."
"I miss the odangos," whispered Darien under his breath in a
tone so soft that only Serena could hear.
"Sir?"
"Coffee, black," was the curt sounding response. Serena
blushed and wished for a moment she could have her hair back up
in the little balls to please him.
The waiter nodded briskly and strode off.
"Why didn’t you just tell him who you really were?" asked
Serena as soon as he was gone.
Darien shrugged. "No reason to complicate matters. And
the last thing I want is for some gossip to get around that I
was seen here with yet another woman last night."
Serena nodded, angry at herself for being jealous when he
mentioned the word "woman". She knew he was a playboy...it was
nothing to be surprised at. Still...what if she turned out to
be just another of those women? It was a thought that had been
at the back of her mind constantly. When she was looking into
his eyes she knew that they loved each other and that could not
be a lie. But other times, she was not so sure, and that
frightened her. She needed proof...proof to trust Darien. If
only she knew just how to obtain that proof.
The waiter brought them their order and placed the drinks
before them quickly and silently. Serena flushed as she sipped
her hot cocoa, because as Darien drank his coffee his blue eyes
were staring at her over the brim. Constant examination made
her nervous.
"What are you thinking?" she couldn’t help asking.
The prince put down his cup and stared her down even harder.
"I thought we agreed we could read each other’s thoughts."
"I know but..." She shrugged and twirled the stirrer around
in her mug. "I just..."
There was no more to be said. Serena was somehow ashamed of
herself, and she didn’t know why, and now suddenly Darien was
trangely quiet. "Darien..." Her voice was soft. "What are we
going to do?"
"About?" he asked, even though he knew full well what she
meant.
"Bruce. The betrothal. Mother. Queen Estelle. I’m going
to be married in almost a week now."
Darien said nothing for a long time. Then, "No, you won’t."
"Won’t what?"
"This wasn’t a good place to start. Its evident to both of
us that there is nothing either of us can do at this time to stop
the wedding and reveal this romance between us --"
Romance between us, she thought with another shiver.
"-- to your mother and the rest of the galaxy without
starting an intergalactic incident, so let’s just start finding
out if these feelings are even real before that has to happen.
Do you love me, Serena?"
"I...I think so," She was not quite ready to say the words,
not until she had heard them from his own lips. The princess was
not about to say the words, not until he had said them also.
"Yes," he said softly. "Serena, I have never been in love
before, as that should not surprise you. I may act like I know
everything, and nothing can touch me, but it’s all an act." An
act he was dropping before her very eyes...the voice was different
...the real Darien, the Darien that had spoken to her in the garden
when she was crying. THAT Darien, who didn’t have to prove anything
to anyone, just his love to the woman he cared for.
"You don’t understand, I mean, you can understand that I have
not been in love before, because you have not either...but you
cannot understand what it’s like for me.... All my life everything
I have ever been faced with I have been able to handle. The
military, brawls, my father’s discipline...liquor, women, fist
fights with the generals, particularly a nasty one once with
Malachite. But that’s beside the point.
"And normally this would bother the hell out of me,
Serena, it would bother me to be forced to give up, to surrender
to something. But now it doesn’t, and that is what scares me the
most. At first I tried to fight it, when I first met you I think I
knew what I was going to be up against before it even hit me, and I
didn’t want that, so I fought against it, using you as my target.
That’s why I from the very start gave you a rough time...when I saw
you in the hall I realized something, I realized that you were the
woman that I was going to fall head over heels in love with, but I
didn’t want that, damnit, I didn’t want to be tied down. Not at all.
"But then when I heard that you were marrying Bruce...the
feelings, I can’t explain, and for the first time I felt overpowered.
All I knew then was that I had to find out if you loved him in return,
and if you could possibly love me back. In the garden all was
revealed, and I finally understood that what I had been running and
hiding and ducking from was what I really wanted.
"In short, I love you, my princess." He breathed out slowly
and his face was beginning to form it’s mask again, as if regretting
that he had ever opened up to her in the first place. "And if there
is one thing you must never doubt...even when everything else has
given up on you...you must never doubt my feelings for you, and
their strength." The voice was now a deeper growl. "We can move
mountains with this power, Serena. I know I am even now ready to
move the stars in the sky at your command."
Serena felt a tear trickle down her cheek, and in the same
instant that she felt the cool drop of salt water slid over her
skin Darien was at her side, kneeling beside her chair. The
room was spinning, and then it stopped, but things were still
hazy. The emotion of his words...it rocked her...
From somewhere far off, the waiter’s voice came and asked
in a panic if everything was all right. At first Darien ignored
him, then snapped to leave the two of them alone. His hand was
caressing her hair tenderly and his throat was making comforting
noises at its pit to soothe her. "Calm down, Serena, its all
going to be okay...stop crying...."
She buried her head against his shoulder, though she was no
longer weeping. Darien loved her. He loved her, he loved her,
and loved her again. It had been in the power of his words, for
her benefit, the love. She had been able to feel it, and it scared
her because his feelings matched hers exactly. It was strange, and
scary, like being able to read each others minds sometimes, but had
more of an urgency in the realization that they were in love, really
and truly, and nothing would ever be able to break it.
Darien refused to leave her side even when she pulled her
head away and insisted that the spell had passed. She was trembling
slightly, and her heart was still going several hundred miles an hour.
When he suggested that they forget the dessert plan and just go home,
she nodded shakily and rose from her chair...following him out the exit.
"Pay...the cashier..." she mumbled to him once they were outside.
How totally out of place, after being through such an ordeal, such
feelings, and she was worried with paying for their two drinks.
"I left a few silver pieces on the table. More than enough,"
Darien answered. His arm was around her shoulder, pulling her
small frame to his. He never once asked what had happened at the
table when she began to cry. Whether he didn’t really have a clue
and just was too polite to ask, or he did know because he had been
feeling it too, Serena would never know.
But never again after that would she doubt his feelings for her,
anymore than she would doubt her own. No man could talk like that,
especially a man like Darien, and not mean the words with his whole
heart.
However, she realized sleepily that he might not be so
aware of her feelings for him. And unless she made them known to
him quickly it might lead to the doom of their love, for a man who
has given and not immediately given back in return can become as
hurting and lonely in time as he has ever felt, and will hide that
all...by breaking the heart of whom they love before theirs can be
broken first.
~~~~~~~~~
Well, what did everyone think? This chapter is really touch and
go, and was never planned to happen, unlike the other more well
thought out scenes and chapters in this fic series.
There was a dark sort of foreshadowing at the end...I don't
think I give away much by hinting at it because you must all have
figured out by now that something big and bad is going to happen
to the couple...something I'm not sure y'all are expecting.
There's a sort of role reversal here, I don't know if I like
it yet or not, I'll have to see if it fits with the upcoming
chapters, but as you noted Serena was the one careful of putting
her heart on the line, when in reality most people assume Darien
is the one out of the two that is never quite ready to put himself
into the relationship. But it's alien to both of them: Serena is
naive, but no dummy...DARIEN is the one who has been taken by
surprise and is ready to get deeper into the romance.
By the time this chapter is posted my fan fiction web page,
(cruddy as it is) should be up!!! That's where all of my work
will be posted as soon as it is finished, and where you can find
previews, summeries, and lots lots more about fan fiction! Here
is the address:
http://members.aol.com/jlcavazos/page/hideout.htm
E-mail SlrUnico@aol.com to comment!
~~~Ali~~~
PREVIEW FOR CHAPTER 8: Defying the World -- Bunchs more secret
meetings with Darien and Serena, including a very nail-biting
dinner with Bruce, Queen Serenity, Serena's court, and Queen
Estelle that Darien and Serena both must take part in, that
will have you all on the edges of your seats!! (
geocities.com/tokyo/courtyard) (
geocities.com/tokyo)