Seeing Stars
By Jason Ulloa
Original story by Moonsong
Continued with her permission.


Chapter 20

Darien was about to head for his car and go to lunch when he heard Serena call 
out to him. "Serena?" he said in surprise as he turned to face her. "Something 
wrong?"

"Nah, nothing's wrong, Shields," she said dismissively. "It's just that I 
wanted to know if you could do me a favor."

"A favor?" he asked. "What is it?"

"I sort of enjoyed that place of your friend's," she told him. "The Crown, 
right?"

"You wanna go there again; that's what you're asking me?"

"That's right. Can you set it up again?" she requested.

Darien grinned slightly at her. "One condition, though," he told her finally.

"Condition?" she asked, frowning slightly in confusion.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Last time we went, I only pretended to be on a 
date with you, just so that we could keep up appearances. This time, it's 
gotta be for real."

"For... real?" Serena asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. "You wanna... go 
out... with me? On an... actual date?"

"That's right," he said certainly.

"You gotta be joking...," she said as she looked at him with some amazement.

"No joke, Serena," he told her. "An actual date."

"Getting braver, aren't we?" she asked, grinning slightly. "Good. I think I 
could actually get to like you like this... maybe." She made a show of 
considering his proposal, when her mind already knew the answer. "You'd better 
hurry up and call your friend while I go start the car. We'll take mine again, 
like last time, but remember, Shields, date or not, my rule about the car 
still stands. Wreck the interior... prepare to die."

"Of course," he said with a grin as he turned and rushed to the nearest phone. 
'Oh, man...,' he thought excitedly to himself, 'I can't believe this! She 
actually AGREED to go out with me! Things just can't get any better....'

'Well, Shields,' Serena thought to herself as she made her way to her car, 'I 
definitely hope you turn out better than all those losers who only wanted a 
relationship with my status and not me.' She glanced at him over her shoulder 
and grinned slightly to herself as she turned back toward her car. 'You seem 
like a nice guy. Stay that way.... Please....'

            **********************************************

"Oh, hello, Tanya," Lita said as she walked over to where she was standing. 
"What's going on?" she asked as she noticed her watching Serena and Darien 
talking at the other side of the room. "Anything interesting?"

"Huh?" she asked as she broke her attention away. "Oh, nothing much, Lita."

"Really?" she asked with a knowing grin, as she also glanced over toward 
Serena and Darien. "Looks to me like you were watching something very 
interesting. Lemme guess; Darien's trying to ask out Serena?"

"Yeah," she told her excitedly. "I think he's finally gonna do it...." She 
paused as she realized she said too much, by the look on Lita's face.

"Oh?" Lita asked with a wide grin. "So, playing matchmaker, are we?"

"Well...," Tanya began sheepishly.

"Don't worry," Lita told her with a big smile. "I won't say anything. After 
all, I've done the same thing before, so I kinda know why you're doing this."

"Amy and Jason?" Tanya asked.

"Guilty, as charged," she agreed, raising her right hand up next to her head 
in a mock-guilty gesture. "I have a perfectly good reason, though. He's my 
brother, so I have every right to meddle in his life."

Tanya laughed at that. "Well, Serena and I consider ourselves almost like 
sisters, so I guess I'm all right."

It was Lita's turn to laugh. "I guess so. Hey, look," she said as she pointed 
over toward where Serena and Darien were. "Serena's leaving. Where's Darien 
going?"

"I think I have an idea...," Tanya said cryptically with a slow smile crossing 
her face. "Well, I think I've seen all that I needed to see."

"Huh?" Lita asked quizzically.

"Hey, wanna go get something to eat with me?" Tanya asked. "I'll fill you in 
on all the details, as long as you don't start telling everyone. Once the word 
gets out, Serena will definitly know who to blame, if you know what I mean."

Lita nodded understandingly. "Sure thing. So, where're we going?"

"Hmm...," Tanya said thoughtfully. "Well..., how 'bout some Italian food? For 
some reason, I'm in the mood for Italian."

"Fine by me," Lita replied as the two women left for lunch.

            **********************************************

"Again?" Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yeah," Darien told him. "Think you can pull it off again?"

Andrew shrugged to himself as he glanced up at the customer card with Serena's 
signature that he had framed on his wall. "Why not? Bring her over. I'll make 
it happen again."

"Thanks, Andrew," he said gratefully. "I really owe you one now."

"Oh?" Andrew asked, noting the tone of Darien's voice. "Something special 
about this visit?"

"Well, yeah," Darien replied. "This time, it's real."

"What's real?"

"Our date."

"WHAT?!?!?" Andrew exclaimed, physically jerking backward in shock. "You've 
gotta be joking...."

"No joke," Darien replied smugly. "I'm going on a date with Serena Moon."

"Woah...," he murmured in pure disbelief as he sat down in his office chair. 
"What a change, Dare. She goes from hating your guts to just tolerating you to 
forgiving you to... well... this. All I can say is... HOW?"

"I'm not too sure myself," Darien admitted. "I don't give a damn about how, 
anyway. I'm here; that's all that matters. Now, all I need to do is make sure 
this all goes well. Can't blow my big chance on something stupid, right?"

"Leave it to me, Dare," Andrew said confidently. "No one will bother your 
table, even if I have to evacuate the building to do it."

"You don't have to go THAT far...," Darien said with a chuckle.

"Well, I just wanna make sure that no one bothers Serena," Andrew said with a 
sly grin. "I don't care if they bother you."

Darien laughed at that. "I still say you're a big kiss-ass."

"And I still say you're ungrateful," Andrew countered, causing even more 
laughter to erupt from both men.

"Listen, Andrew," Darien said when he got himself under control. "Serena's 
waiting for me, so can you start getting everything ready?"

"Got it, Dare," he replied with a nod. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Darien said gratefully. "See you in a bit." With that, he hung up 
the phone.

Andrew hung up the phone on his end and sighed to himself. It wasn't that it 
was going to be hard; it was just that he had just remembered Raye. She was 
going to be upset once she learned that Darien was now seeing Serena. Then 
again, Raye had said that she was going to try and see Darien when he got off 
work.... Had she already learned the bad news?

He slowly pushed himself out of his chair after shaking his head to rid 
himself of those worrisome thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be contemplating 
on Darien's old girlfriend. It was time to help him try to gain a potential 
new girlfriend.

            **********************************************

It was nearing the time when the Crown was the busiest when Serena pulled up 
to the building. She glanced around and grimaced slightly. "I'm getting a bad 
feeling about this, Shields.... There wasn't half as many people as there was 
last time."

"We came on a weekend, remember?" Darien pointed out. "This place isn't as 
busy then. College students, remember? Probably out partying."

"One of them is surely going to recognize me," Serena murmured to herself. 
"Especially in that poor excuse for a disguise you used last time. I can't go 
in there. Not now."

Darien was about to say something about the crack on his disguise, but decided 
against it. He had to think about how they were going to get in unnoticed. A 
slight tapping on the window made Darien jerk back in surprise.

It was Andrew.

"Did I startle you, Dare?" Andrew asked as Darien rolled down the window.

"How'd you...?" Serena began.

"I remembered the car you came in last time," he explained.

"Oh," Serena said, obviously relieved. "I thought you saw me through the 
window and recognized me."

"No," he assured her. "I only saw the car. I recognized your car since it 
wasn't that long since you visited my establishment. After all, how can I 
forget the vehicle of the most distinguished guest to ever enter my place of 
business?"

"I told you he was a kiss-ass," Darien murmured to Serena, which earned him a 
laugh from Serena and another smack on the shoulder from Andrew.

"Before I was interrupted by this ungrateful jackass," Andrew continued, "I 
was about to say that I've come up with a way to hide you from the public 
eye."

"Really?" Serena asked, intrigued. "Tell me."

"With these," he said, bringing out a bag from behind his back. "This kerchief 
and these sunglasses were all I could scrape together on such short notice, 
but I'll let you two in through the side entrance, as if you two were 
important business vendors and I was trying to persuade you two to bring some 
of your business to my establishment."

"I see," Serena said, nodding as Darien took the bag and handed it to her. 
"That way, everyone won't be paying much attention to us, even though we might 
stand out slightly."

"Exactly," Andrew agreed. "I'll stay by your table for a little bit, then I'll 
make an excuse about needing to take care of important business and leave you 
both to yourselves."

"I gotta admit," Serena said with a grin as she undid her hair and started to 
gather it up underneath the kerchief, "you're very shrewd."

"You gotta be in order to run a business as successful as mine," Andrew said 
smugly.

"Hey, I owe you big for this, Andrew," Darien said as Serena began to tie up 
the kerchief under her chin.

"You're giving me bragging rights, Dare," Andrew replied with sly grin. "Not 
many people can say that the famous actress Serena Moon has visited their 
place of business. And twice at that!"

"Let's not get too excited now," Serena said flatly as she slipped on the 
shades. "After all, I'm not to fond of having the places I go to infested 
with paparazzi and fans screaming for an autograph. Remember, over everything 
else, I like the fact that they won't be looking for me in a place like this."

"Of course," Andrew said, quickly containing his eagerness. "Well then, we can 
go whenever you are ready, Serena."

Serena nodded as she and Darien exited the car. "Then, let's go."

"Welcome to the Crown, Mr. Morrison and Ms. Forrester," Andrew said with the 
air of someone trying to impress someone important. "Please, come this way."

"Hmm...," Serena said, giving the place a sweeping glance, as if surveying the 
area. "Not too bad," she said with a slightly approving tone. "A friendly 
atmosphere; seems to draw the local college crowd. What do you think, 
Morrison?" she asked turning to look at Darien.

"Huh?" Darien asked before catching on. "Oh, right. Seems to be really busy 
right now, as well. Your lunch crowd, I take it?"

"Yes, we usually serve an average of over 300 people during the peak lunch 
hour," Andrew told them. "Also, we take in an average of $35 in quarters in 
the top five most popular arcade machines. Mostly fighting games. We 
occasionally hold a small tournament with a grand prize of $50. That brings in 
a good amount of revenue as well."

"And how is the variety of your games?" Serena asked, showing some slight 
interest.

"We have a good variety, but we lean toward fighting games, since a lot of the 
students like to take on one another during their off-time," he replied. "We 
also have sports games, action games, a couple of classic games for nostalgia, 
and I'm waiting on the delivery of a flight simulator game that'll really 
attract a lot of customers."

"A flight simulator?" Darien asked as Andrew showed them to their table. "How 
much did that cost you?"

"I had to save up for it for quite a while, but I truly believe that it's 
going to be worth it in the long run," Andrew said.

"Hey, Andrew," a student in the booth not too far away called out. "I thought 
I heard you say that you're getting a flight simulator."

"Yeah, that's right," he replied. "It should be coming withing the next couple 
of weeks."

"This ain't one of them cheap simulators that look like someone put a wide 
screen in front of those quarter rides that you find in front of supermarkets, 
is it?" he asked warily.

Andrew turned to look at Serena and Darien, then winked, signalling that he 
was going to give them their privacy. "If you two would please excuse me, I 
must see to some other important matters that need my immediate attention."

"That will be all right, Mr. Craven," Darien said. "Ms. Forrester and I will 
be all right here. We'll make our decision after we observe your 
establishment's service."

"We'll be sure to inform you of our findings when we are satisfied," Serena 
added. "And thank you for the tour, Mr. Craven." 

Andrew nodded and left to go continue his conversation with the student. After 
a short time, Darien glanced around them. "I think we pulled it off," Darien 
said with a wide grin. "No one is staring or even bothering to glance this 
way."

"I've got to hand it to you, Shields," Serena said as she pulled down on her 
shades and grinned at him over the frame. "I never expected you to be able to 
pull off improv acting as well as you did back there. I'm impressed."

"Thank you," he said with a chagrined smile. "You were perfect, as usual."

"Bah, that was all right," she said, waving off the compliment. "I could've 
done better, but that's the way it goes with improv. You always think you 
could've done better when it's over."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she told him. "It was always like that whenever I did improv back in 
high school and in college. I wasn't as much of a perfectionist as I am now, 
but I always felt as though I could've done better when it was over." She 
paused as she glanced at him thoughtfully. "You know, Tanya used to say the 
exact same thing to me. That I was perfect. I never believed her, though. I 
just couldn't believe that. I was always finding ways that I could've done 
this or that in a better way...."

"That's probably why you're as great as you are now, Serena," Darien said. 
"You took what you learned and improved upon it. You know what I think?"

"What?" she asked, her expression showing no sharpness; only interest.

"I think that your performances were perfect... at the time," he explained. 
"The only reason that you thought that they weren't perfect was because once 
you saw how you could improve, you raised your idea of what perfect was. The 
only reason why you can never achieve perfection is not because you aren't 
good enough; it's because you keep finding ways to improve upon perfection."

Serena was silent as she pondered his words. It was amazing how he could find 
just the right thing to say to make her change the way she thought about him. 
Add to the fact that the guy was unbelievably handsome, not to mention that 
he had a sexy body.... She once again recalled the image of Darien without his 
shirt, when she had caused him to have his little coffee accident what seemed 
to be ages ago. A slow grin curved her lips as she stared down at the menu on 
the table in front of her.

"Are you... blushing?" Darien asked hesitantly.

Serena blinked in realization, graeful that she was wearing shades. Even 
though her experience and training in the performance arts gave her flawless 
command over her facial expressions, her eyes would still give her away 
whenever she was caught by surprise. She had no idea that she had been 
blushing, although now she was fighting the urge to blush in embarrasment for 
getting caught blushing like that. She had better control than that.

"Just read your menu, Shields," Serena muttered without looking up from the 
table.

One of the servers came to their table and asked them if they were ready to 
order. Serena grinned to herself as Darien ordered a large pizza for the both 
of them. She watched how easily he fell back into the role of Mr. Morrison, 
speaking with the calm, straight-forward and competent tone of one who is used 
to dealing with high officals and very important people. 'He may not be as 
experienced as I am, but he certainly can handle his own. Anderson and Van 
Holst seem to have lucked out when they came across this guy.'

After the server left, returned with their drinks, then left again, Serena 
thoughtfully glanced down at the drink in front of her. "You know, Shields," 
she began quietly, "a few weeks ago, I never would've come within thirty feet 
of you if you were near any drinks." She softly laughed to herself as she took 
a small sip of her soda. "Now, here I am, drinking with you at the same table, 
and on a date, no less. Funny how things can change so quickly."

Darien nodded wordlessly as he glanced down at his soda. "I know what you 
mean, Serena," he replied. "It was over drinks that I lost my previous job, 
and it was while I was drinking a soda that I learned that my agent had gotten 
me this job." He glanced up at her with a charming smirk on his face. "Maybe 
it's just me, but I'm beginning to think that sodas are kind of a good luck 
charm, considering everything that's been happening lately."

Serena raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Soda... a good luck charm?" She 
laughed quietly as she raised her glass to him in toast. "Well then, Shields, 
here's to your sodas."

He laughed as he raised his glass in return. "May they always bring me good 
luck," he said as he clinked his glass against hers. "And may they always have 
ice."

She laughed again as the server returned with their pizza and a couple of 
plates. She thanked him and dismissed him, telling him that they would need 
nothing further. After they had each served themselves and started eating, 
a stray thought crossed her mind. "Say, Shields, mind if I ask you a question?"

"Only if I can ask one in return," he replied with a smile.

"Bargaining now, are we?" she countered slyly. "Well met, Shields. Very well, 
I accept your proposition. A question for a question. What I want to know is 
this: How much acting have you done? To be honest, your acting is of a level 
equal to that of a well-seasoned professional. I've heard from Anderson and 
Van Holst that although you've had experience in bit parts and extra work, 
you've never really had much experience in major parts like the one you have 
now. I'm curious as to how you can act at the level you're doing now with 
almost the same amount of competence that I would display."

Darien nodded as if he was expecting the question. "Somehow, I knew you would 
ask me that question one day," he said in a level tone. "However, I have no 
real explanation as to how I can do what I do. All I can say is that when I 
act, I become the person I'm playing."

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about," Serena replied, nodding as if she 
had heard the explanation before. "'Think as though you are the person you are 
portraying.' Am I right, Shields?"

"Not in the way you're thinking, Serena," he told her. "Let me put it this 
way: when I act, I'm not acting like Jack Terrance. I am Jack Terrance."

"I'm not sure I get what you're trying to tell me," she said as she took a 
bite from her pizza.

"It's like my mind shifts into a totally different personality," he explained. 
"Maybe I should go a little further back. When I was little, my parents were 
killed in a car accident."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said consolingly as she reached out and put a 
sympathetic hand on his.

"It's all right," he said with a small grateful smile. "Anyway, I was put into 
an orphanage when I was very young. While I stayed there, I grew tired of all 
the people telling me how sorry they were for me that my parents were dead. 
They would always try to make me feel better, but for some reason they just 
made me angry. After all, they still had their parents. How could they know 
what I felt?

"In order to escape from all the insincere condolances an sympathy, I started 
to pretend that I was different people. I made up many different people, 
complete with personalities, ways of thinking, everything. I had to be 
convincing, otherwise they'd just think I was playing around and I wasn't 
serious. Then they would start all over again, saying that it must be hard not 
having my parents around anymore. It just drove me crazy.

"Crazy...," he repeated with a laugh. "You know, I was so convincing that they 
actually thought I had a multiple personality disorder or something like that 
and took me to see a psychologist. After seeing how worried I made them, I 
stopped trying to hide behind my made-up characters and took their pity.

"Now that I think about it, it was one of the people at the orphanage who put 
the idea of becoming an actor into my mind," Darien said thoughtfully, then 
chuckled in wry chagrin. "After graduating high school, I was ready to go to 
college to study the performance arts and become an actor. The end result is 
what you see sitting across from you."

"That's quite a story, Shields," Serena said after a while. "I guess you've 
had it rough for a while, huh?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," he replied confidently. "Well, shall we enjoy our 
pizza, Serena? It's starting to get cold."

"What about your question, Shields?" she asked. "Aren't you going to ask me a 
question in return for you answering my question?"

"Yeah, but not now," he replied. "You see, we agreed that you would answer a 
question for me in return for me answering a question of yours. We never 
specified WHEN I would ask you the question."

Serena's mouth opened, as if she going to say something, but closed as a slow 
grin crossed her face. "You're almost as slick as your friend, Andrew, 
Shields," she said wryly. "Very well, then, when do you plan on asking your 
question?"

"When the time is right, Serena," he replied cryptically as he bit into his 
pizza.

            **********************************************

"That's it!" Serena said with mock anger as she and Darien left the Crown. 
"The next time we come here, I swear I am going to kick your ass on Marvel vs. 
Capcom 2! If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were cheating somehow."

"It's the skill, Serena," Darien replied with an exaggerated arrogant tone. 
"All you need is practice.... Lots of it." He made a show of grinning at her 
over his shoulder. "Either that, or just choose better characters."

"Hey, I LIKE the characters I pick, thank you," she retorted with a smirk, 
fully enjoying the back and forth teasing. "Unlike those lumbering hulks that 
you enjoy using. I prefer to use technique, rather than just brute force."

"Well then," he said as he opened the car door for her, "keep working on your 
technique, since my ungainly brute force is still whipping your ass."

Serena grinned as she got into the car and let Darien close the door for her. 
Normally, she would prefer to close the door herself, just beside she didn't 
want her dates to think that she was some kind of helpless bit of blonde-
haired fluff who would always depend on the man to do everything for her. With 
Darien, she somehow knew that he wouldn't think that way about her. She knew 
he would let her open her own doors and pay her own way if she wished it, so 
letting him do these things for her was just her way of letting him act out 
the part of the chivalrous gentleman.

"I want to thank you for another great time," she said as soon as Darien got 
into the passenger side and closed the door behind him.

"It was my pleasure, Serena," he said with a small nod and a smile. "No thanks 
are necessary."

She nodded as if she was expecting him to say that. "Well, I'm going to thank 
you anyway," she said firmly as she leaned over and kissed him gently on the 
cheek. "Thank you, Darien."

As she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, Darien smiled as he 
looked out the window. Every so often, while Serena was busy watching the 
road, he would reach up and touch the spot on his cheek where she kissed him 
and remembered the intoxicating feel of her lips against his skin. Combined 
with the sound of her voice as she said his name - she had actually called him 
by his FIRST name! - he knew that, to him, she had given him more than he had 
given her.

"No," he whispered softly to himself so that she couldn't hear him, "thank 
you."

            **********************************************

                              To Chapter 21

            **********************************************

Author's Note: Aah!!! I did it again! I wrote so much that I had to break to 
the next chapter... again! Well, I guess that's what happens when I get 
carried away. Oh, and another thing, for all the readers at Fanfiction.net, I 
reloaded Chapter 19 and made sure it was all up. Sorry for not doing it 
sooner, but I thought you were all talking about how I ended the chapter when 
you all said that it had just cut off as it did. Oops! -_-; Well, everybody 
makes mistakes, right? Oh, well... look forward to the next chapter, coming 
soon to a website near you! ^_^ Next chapter: Melvin, Molly, and G.Q. discuss 
ideas for the possible final revision; Hotaru and Ryoku are released from 
their prison... only to be taken to somewhere worse; and the second attempt on 
Jack's life goes horribly wrong.

Disclaimer: All original materials belong to their respective 
owners. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and a bunch 
of big companies. No copyright infringement is intended. This 
story belongs to Moonsong and myself, and I would appreciate 
you emailing her or myself for permission before posting it 
anywhere else. Thank you.

Prologue Copyright © January 24, 2000 Moonsong.
Other Chapters Copyright © August 12, 2000 Jason Ulloa. 
All Rights Reserved.