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


Chapter 26

When dinner was over - and after deciding to purchase a second bottle of that excellent 
white wine for later - Serena and Darien headed out of the restaurant and toward her car 
after exchanging pleasantries with Denni and assuring her that they would most certainly 
return again at some future date.

"I have an idea," Serena said suddenly as they got in the car and closed the doors behind 
them. "I want to show you something, Darien," she told him as she started the car.

"What is it?" he asked as the car pulled out onto the street.

"You'll see," she said with a small, almost childish grin on her face.

"So, where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"So, I don't get any clues?"

She waited until reaching the traffic signal before she stopped, leaned over and kissed him 
on the cheek.

"You'll see," she said when she sat back down and started driving again once the signal 
turned green.

Darien looked at her with a small grin of his own. "I guess I can hold my curiousity in 
until we get there."

"Good," she said with amused satisfaction.

"Can I guess?"

"What was that you said about holding your curiousity in?"

"So, I lied," he replied with a shrug.

"You big fraud," she laughed as she turned onto a different street.

"So, are we there yet?"

"Don't make me turn this car around, Shields," she said in mock severity.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a huge grin on his face.

Serena couldn't help but smile to herself as she drove. This new relationship with Darien 
made her feel so incredible. There was no more pretense, no more having to show the world a 
calm, collected visage while on the inside she was completely empty. No more having to hide 
behind the mask of professionalism, while she wanted nothing more than to just lie in bed 
for the entire day. It was pure joy.

And the day wasn't over yet.

"Are we there yet?"

And Darien was awarded a playful smack across his left shoulder.

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

"Can you hand me that knife, Jason?" Lita asked as she turned from the sink and extended 
her left hand out.

"Here," he replied as he turned from the stove and handed her the knife that was lying on 
the counter next to him.

"Thanks."

"What's on the menu tonight?" Amy asked from outside the kitchen. "Something fancy?"

"With Lita, it's always fancy," Jason replied casually, which awarded him with a small 
spray of water flicked at him.

"Quiet, funny man," Lita said with mock indignation as she stuck her hand back into the 
sink and under the running water. "I'll have you know that I don't always make fancy meals 
for dinner."

"Right," Jason replied skeptically, but Lita ignored him. Amy giggled at the exchange.

"Anyway, I thought about making a shrimp dish tonight. Stir fry sound good to you?"

Amy nodded. "I'm sure whatever you make will be great."

Lita turned back to the vegetables she was cleaning under the running water. They were 
rinsed well enough so she proceeded to cut up the various vegetables she had gathered. 
Jason was busy boiling the water for the shrimp to cook in first before stir frying them. 
Well, Lita would be doing that. Even though she had offered to make the entire meal 
herself, Jason had insisted on helping out. In the end, she had relented slightly; Jason 
could help her begin, but she would finish by herself.

"Will this take a long time?" Amy asked curiously.

Lita shook her head. "Not too long. Don't worry; once Jason's finished, you won't have to 
stand there and wait for dinner to finish. You two can go enjoy yourselves in the living 
room." She pointedly ignored the look her brother gave her as she turned back to her work 
with a great big smile. Teasing the guy was so much more fun now that he and Amy were now 
a couple.

"I'll go wait there then," she said then turned to leave, but not after sending Jason a 
quick smile.

"You two have really hit it off, haven't you?" she said to her brother after Amy left.

"Think so?"

"Oh, definitely," she continued, nodding. "So, how does it feel, finally having the woman 
you have dreamed about for so long as your girlfriend?"

He turned toward the stove and looked down into the pot of water while he thought. "It's 
almost too amazing to believe," he said finally. "It's like... I'm wondering when I'm going 
to wake up and learn that this was all just a dream. A cruelly realistic dream. But, I know 
that this is real." He looked up from the pot and turned to his sister with a small, lazy 
grin stretched across his face. "I know it sounds cliché, but I suppose dreams do come 
true."

Lita nodded quietly as she listened to him. She was so happy for her brother now that he 
and Amy were now a couple. They certainly seemed to be made for each other; Amy's quiet 
intelligence and serene, composed presence perfectly complemented Jason's subtle insight 
and strong presence. She only wished that they could've gotten together sooner.

Silence had settled in the kitchen, accentuated by the quiet roar of the stove burner, the 
bubbling of the boiling water, and the soft crunching and wisping of Lita's knife cutting 
through vegetables and scraping against the cutting board underneath. Lita glanced over at 
Jason's quietly pensive expression and grinned slightly to herself.

"So," she began, cutting through the quiet as effectively as her knife cut through the 
vegetables on her cutting board, "how was she?"

Jason looked at Lita in bewilderment. "How was...?" He blinked as he tried to figure out 
what she was talking about. Lita had the immense satisfaction of seeing her brother's 
expression slowly shift from perplexity to realization to mortification.

Oh, yes. Teasing him was so much fun.

"How can you ask me something like that?" he asked as his cheeks slowly began to turn a 
very slight shade of red.

"Just curious," she replied offhandedly, then gave him a quick, scrutinizing look. "Oh, are 
you blushing? I think you're blushing! Boy, that night must've really been something!"

"Just shut up and cut your damn vegetables," he grumbled as he turned back toward the stove 
and added the shrimp to the water.

"I'm done already," she told him as she watched his blush turn a slightly darker shade of 
red. "But if you don't wanna talk, maybe Amy wouldn't mind," she added with a laugh. "I'm 
slightly curious as to what she'd have to say about you."

"Lita!!!"

"What? Afraid of what she'll tell me?" she asked sweetly.

"You're not serious, are you?" he asked weakly.

"No, but I sure had you going, didn't I?" she said, laughing at his intense discomfiture.

"You have a twisted sense of humor," he said flatly. "You know that?"

"Don't be so upset," she said, shaking a finger at him and winking. "Just because I had you 
going like that...."

"Oh?" Jason said, suddenly grinning. "And what would you have done if I had reacted 
differently?"

Lita blinked. "Huh?"

"Maybe you weren't joking," he began as he turned off the stove burner and walked past her 
toward the doorway. "Maybe you really did want to know. What would've happened if I not 
only told you 'how she was', but went into specifics?" He gave her a very wide, almost 
catlike grin. "Would you like me to go into specifics?"

She smirked back and shook her head. She should've expected this would happen. Now that he 
had found a way to turn her teasing against her, she had gone from the teaser to the one 
being teased. She knew that he wasn't bluffing; if she she yes, he would certainly go into 
specifics. Not that the specifics wouldn't be interesting to listen to, but the fact that 
it was her brother made the idea uncomfortable. If she was hearing from a male friend, 
though... well, that was no problem.

"I think I'll pass on that," she replied.

Jason grin widened slightly in triumph. "Well, my work here is done. I think I'll leave the 
rest up to you."

"Oh, by the way," Lita said just as he was turning to leave. "I asked Amy if she wanted to 
stay the night and she agreed. You don't mind letting her stay in your room, right?" Her 
grin widened as well. "Just make sure you two don't make too much noise. I, for one, like 
to sleep at night." She began to laugh as she watched her brother begin to blush again as 
he turned and left, muttering to himself.

Game, set, and match.

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

Darien stared up at the large manor. It was getting dark so it was hard to see in great 
detail, but he could see well enough. The manor was two stories tall and seemed to be as 
wide as a football field was long... if you included the endzones and maybe even the rest 
of the grass field. As for how far back it went, it didn't seem to go too far back, but 
that didn't take away from the building itself.

"Welcome to my home, Darien," Serena said as she shut her car door.

"Certainly beats my apartment," he murmured as he glanced back and forth, taking it all in. 
"Almost seems like one of those places you'd see in one of those celebrity home tour shows."

"Actually, I did do one of those once," she admitted as she led him to the front door. "I 
only agreed because I thought it would be a nice distraction from the normal grind. I 
suppose it was fun, but that was a long time ago." She turned toward Darien and smiled. 
"But this time is different. I want to give you a private tour of the whole place. Even the 
places I never bothered to show them when they shot that show here." She opened the door 
and reached over to flick a lightswitch near the door, then turned around and gestured for 
him to enter as she took a few steps backward. "Come in, Darien. Make yourself at home."

Darien walked in and closed the door behind him as he looked around the main entrance to 
Serena's home. The room he was in was huge; it reached all the way to the roof of the manor 
where a large hanging chandelier flooded the room with a soft light. It wasn't bright 
enough to hurt his eyes when he gazed up at it, yet it was bright enough to shed enough 
light to brighten the huge room it hung in. There were two huge white marble columns that 
stood in the center of the room with a pair of black marble staircases that curved around 
the two columns and led up to the second floor, each one the mirror opposite of the other. 
The black staircases were a stark contrast to the white-tiled floor.

"I considered having a fountain or some statues put in here," Serena began. "But later, I 
decided that the only decorations that I wanted in this room would be the few paintings 
that I have hanging on the walls. I suppose there's something to be said in simple 
decorations rather than extravagant ones, don't you agree?"

Darien nodded. "I think so. I like it the way it is."

Serena regared him for a moment, then nodded to herself as if telling herself something. 
"Well then, shall we get this tour started, then?" she said as she held out her hand to 
him. With a smile, Darien took her hand in his as she began to show him around the manor.

There was a lot to see. An indoor pool, a small indoor gym, several entertainment rooms: 
one for watching TV; one mini-theater; one for her small collection of video games - which, 
to his amusement, contained Marvel vs. Capcom 2; and so on, several bathrooms, a few guest 
bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining room, the garage, and finally, her bedroom.

Darien was slightly surprised to see that her bedroom wasn't as ornate as he thought it 
would be, or as large. The ordinary-sized bedroom was painted in a light purple with dark 
blue carpeting. Her bed sat at the other end of the bedroom from the door with windows to 
the left and right of the head. The bed itself was simple; it was made of wood and 
unpainted, so as to give it a natural look. The bedcovers, pillows and sheets were all 
white and looked like they were made of some kind of soft fabric. Maybe silk. There weren't 
very many decorations in her bedroom; there were simple white curtains on her windows and a 
painting or two on her walls, but not much else.

The only thing that didn't seem out of place was the wall that held a shelf of awards. Many 
awards. Awards for movies, television, and even theater, but mostly for movies. Darien 
couldn't help but stare in awe.

"This is one of the few places I rarely let anyone see," she explained as she sat down on 
the bed. "Not because of the fact that this is my bedroom, but because of that," she said, 
gesturing toward the shelf of awards. "In fact, the only other person to have ever seen my 
bedroom is Tanya.

"I know you must be surprised, Darien. You may even be wondering why I'm showing you this 
if I've never shown anyone else." She pointed toward the awards again. "Those are part of 
the reason why.

"Look at them, Darien. Years of hard work. A few in theater, during my first few years 
directly after college. I guess you could say I had some lucky breaks, since most people 
don't start off successful. But I took my success in theater and ran with it.

"If you recall, I had moderate success in that TV series I did years ago," she continued.

"I know that one," Darien said as he smiled at her over his shoulder. "'Fly By Night.' I 
really liked that show, too."

"Tanya was right. You are a flatterer," she retorted with a small smile. "Yes, it was a 
good show, except that it didn't last very long. The show was in a bad time slot since it 
had to compete with a well-established, long-running show. I'm surprised it lasted as long 
as it did. But, at least the show gave me my opportunity to go from TV to the movies. And 
from that, the rest is history."

"I see," Darien said as he stared at the awards some more. "But, what does that have to do 
with me?"

"Right now, you are poised to do the exact same thing that I have done," she told him. "You 
are about to go from mediocrity to stardom overnight, almost like I had done during my 
theater days. As you know, at first, I resented you for that, but I realized that, in a 
way, you're just like I was, except that your rise to stardom took much longer to begin, 
but the rise itself would be much shorter than the one I went through. I slowly gained 
fame; you're going to gain it all at once."

"I think I understand," he said as he turned to face Serena. "But you said that that was 
part of the reason why you wanted to show me these. What is the other reason?"

"I think that's very obvious, Darien," she said softly as she stared up into his eyes. "Do 
I even need to tell you?"

"No," he said as he walked over and sat down next to her on the bed and took her hands in 
his. "You don't have to tell me. I know." With a careful tenderness, he raised one of his 
hands toward her face and cupped her chin in his hand and gently turned her head toward 
him. "And I love you, too." Delicately, gently, and lovingly, he slowly bent his head 
toward hers and kissed her.

The kiss was long and ardent, full of longing and passion. Serena felt herself lean into 
the kiss as she wrapped her arms around him and felt his arms wrap around her. When the 
kiss broke off, she gazed into his eyes, her tacit question showing in her eyes. His 
unspoken reply reflected back in his.

Night fell outside, but inside her bedroom in the arms of the man she loved, Serena didn't 
care. As far as she was concerned, the entire world consisted of this bedroom, the bed, and 
the man she shared it with.

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

Raye sat in her living room, thinking as she sipped at a cup of tea she had prepared when 
she woke up earlier that morning. She hadn't bothered to get out of the bathrobe she had 
put on after her morning shower since she wasn't going anywhere today.

As she set down her cup of tea on her coffee table and stretched out across the couch, she 
continued to ponder the events after the revelation of Darien's new relationship with the 
actress, Serena Moon. Getting him back from her wasn't going to be simple.

Normally, after finding out about Darien's new girlfriend, she would've put him behind her, 
like she had done with previous ex-boyfriends, but there was something about him that was 
different. Something that set him apart from all the other men she had even dated. Maybe it 
was his genuine honesty and sincerity; a rare trait in a lot of men she had dated. Maybe it 
was because he actually cared about her and wasn't trying to figure out a way to get her to 
sleep with him. Maybe it was because he was always trying to make her feel special... no, 
not trying. He had made her feel special.

But, not anymore.

And it was all her fault.

Well, she had apologized and tried to make amends. She was so certain that he would come 
back to her. He cared for her, didn't he? Didn't the time she had spent with him, the time 
that she had cared for him, shared with him... didn't it mean anything at all?

It had... until Serena Moon came into the picture. That woman took away the chance that she 
had to regain something that she had foolishly spurned. She wanted... needed to make up for 
what she had done, but that woman ruined everything. It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair!!!

Raye pushed herself back up from her couch and reached out for the cup of tea she had set 
down and took a sip to calm herself. Just thinking about that blonde actress made her 
upset. She needed to calm herself. Her fiery temper wasn't the easiest to control, but for 
Darien, she had learned to do so. But since he was gone, she had let her temper fly when it 
would and let it settle of its own accord. There was no reason why she should control it, 
now. No, wait. Yes, there was. If she couldn't control her temper, then how did she expect 
to come up with a way to win back Darien? Going into a rage at Serena Moon wouldn't bring 
Darien back to her, no matter how tempting the idea sounded.

As she took another sip at her tea, she quietly thought and hoped for some inspiration. So 
far, everything she had thought of was petty and ineffectual. Of course, she never had the 
need to perfect the art of romantic sabotage, so she had no idea of where to start. All she 
could think of was petty acts of revenge on the blonde actress, but she knew that doing 
that was not only childish, but it would make Darien think less of her. She certainly did 
not want that.

But, what could she do? She didn't know Serena, so it wasn't like she could persuade her 
that dating Darien was a bad idea and that she should dump him....

Wait. She did know Darien. Maybe she didn't have to convince Serena. Maybe could convince 
Darien. After all, celebrity relationships were fragile ones at best. Break-ups and 
divorces were commonplace. All she had to do was convince Darien that Serena would dump him 
the moment that it fancied her and....

But, wait. Now that she thought of it, celebrity relationships DID end abruptly. What if 
she was fretting over nothing? What if Darien and Serena's relationship did suddenly fall 
apart, just like all the others? She wouldn't have to lift a finger. Not only that, but he 
would be so upset that all she had to do was welcome him back with open arms and he would 
be hers again. She wouldn't have to get her hands dirty at all. Best of all, Darien would 
probably even apologize for not believing her sincerity and commit himself to her more 
strongly than before. Perhaps this turn of events was a good thing, after all....

As she finished her cup of tea and set it down, she reached over for the remote and turned 
on the TV. With a pleased smile, she settled back into her couch and started to watch. She 
would wait, and she would watch. She would be there for Darien, she would be his friend. 
And when the relationship collapsed, she would be there to pick up the pieces and take back 
what was hers to begin with. But this time, things would be different. Things would be 
better.

Maybe today wouldn't be such a bad day after all.

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

As the Saturday morning sun shone into her bedroom, Serena awoke feeling more alive than 
she had ever felt in her life. And the reason for that was lying next to her, breathing 
softly onto the nape of her neck with one arm lazily draped over her underneath the 
blankets. He was still asleep, of course. That was probably to be expected; she still felt 
tired herself especially after what happened last night.

A very small part of her told her that she felt as if she had rushed into this a little 
too fast, but the very pleasant sensation of being held in Darien's strong arms combined 
with the memories of last night and the feelings it invoked in her all joined forces to 
tell that very small part of her to shut the hell up. Last night was heaven and she 
wouldn't have missed it for anything. As a matter of fact, all she wanted was to do it 
again. And again. And again. And after all that, once more for good measure. She felt her 
cheeks heat up at the thought and grimaced slightly.

'Well, a year of doing without combined with an overwhelming sense of lonely emptiness will 
do that to a person,' she reasoned with herself. 'I can't say I blame myself. I suppose I 
could say that I did this to assuage the emptiness in my heart, but that's not entirely 
true, now is it?' She smiled lasciviously and laughed languidly.

Darien stirred slightly and unconsiously pulled her closer to him. She sighed in pleasure 
as she felt his body against hers and his hand move against her bare skin.

'Even when he's asleep, he makes me feel so good,' she thought as she let herself feel him 
lying next to her. To hell with the morning sunshine, she was still worn out from last 
night. She'd get some more rest, then she'd wake up. Or rather, she'd wake Darien up. After 
all, she had never actually said that that agreement she and Darien had made so many weeks 
and almost a lifetime ago about him paying her back for ruining her favorite designer dress 
was fulfilled. Well, she would give him some more rest, then she would demand the next 
installment. After all, she was a reasonable woman. And she was still slightly tired.

'Rest up, love,' she thought as she drifted back to sleep with a huge smile on her face. 
'You'll need it for later.'

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

                              To Chapter 27

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

Author's Note: I know, I know, I'm taking way too long between chapters of this story. I 
can't help it. I'm juggling this and three other stories all at the same time and I don't 
get a lot of time to do my writing. Besides, all of my fics are long ones, so it's not like 
I can just finish a story just like that. Well, on another note, I'm one chapter away from 
finishing one of my stories: Alone No More - Minako's Story, so after that's done, I'll 
have a little more time to work on this fic, but that's only until I start work on the next 
story in the series: Atonement - Rei's Story. I guess I'm just going to be perpetually busy 
until I get most of my fics done. Of course, having never finished one fic yet.... Anyway, 
I'll try to get more work done on this fic on a regular basis. Next chapter: Ryoku and 
Hotaru try to figure out where they are now; Jack and Diane try to locate the Green 
Nijizuishou; and Haruka becomes more suspcious.

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.