Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Decided Bride ❯ The Walk ( Chapter 13 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Chapter 13 ~ The Walk

All of here muscles were tense and her lungs hurt from the sharp intake of air. The laughter was soft, but she still recognized it. A sudden flash of anger overtook her, and she brought her elbow sharply into her "attacker's" stomach. She heard him grunt and let her go, buckling over in pain.

As soon as she was free she drew the sword she always carried at her side and pointed it at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" she cried out, wincing a little at herself for cursing.

"Calm down meatball head!" he gasped out as he slowly straitened up, that stupid grin still on his face. He paused when he noticed the drawn blade which was uncomfortably close to him.

"Would you mind explaining yourself Darien!" hissed Serenity.

He smiled at her. "I should be asking you that. Why are you sneaking around in the shadows and planning on climbing a tree into the palace?"

She glared at him. "That is none of your business," she snapped.

"Well then it's none of your business why I'm here," he said as he pushed the tip of her sword to the side and crossed his arms over his chest.

Serenity brought the sword right back. "For your information, I work and live here. What's your excuse!" Even in the dark she could still see him smirking.

"That doesn't explain why you were sneaking into the palace," he replied.

She glared at him. "I said it was none of your business," she snapped again, "You still haven't explained what you're doing here though."

He snickered a little. "I work here," he said rather bluntly.

Serenity's eyes went wide. "What? No you don't," she said, not realizing how childish it sounded until the words were already off her tongue.

"Yes I do. I started this morning," he said. "I work with the horses."

Serenity slowly started to lower her sword. "In the stables? How did you get a job there?" she asked, a bit curious now, since she had not talked to anyone yet.

He raised his eyebrows. "Does it matter?" he asked.

"Well, no, I guess not," she replied, feeling really annoyed with herself for not being able to come up with a better answer. They stood there for a few seconds in complete silence.

"So, are you planning on holding me here at sword point all night?" he finally asked.

Serenity blushed as she sheathed her sword. "No, sorry," she said apologetically, then she paused. "Wait, I shouldn't be apologizing to you. You should be apologizing to me you jerk!" she cried out, her anger returning to her.

"For what?" he asked rather smugly.

"For scaring me half to death!"

"Keep your voice down meatball head otherwise you'll attract all the guards."

"Don't call me meatball head!" she shrieked.

Darien winced a little at her tone, but kept on smiling. "Look, if you insist on screaming like this, at least move further into the gardens so that someone doesn't think that I'm murdering you," he said matter-of-fact-ly. She kept her glare fixated on him. Seeing that she was not moving, he started to walk further into the gardens. She gave out an angry sigh, but followed.

They reached the bridge over the pond in the center of the garden. Serenity looked up at the earth, and then noticed that Darien stopped and was leaning on the railing of the bridge, so she followed suit.

She stared at the shining jewel in the sky above her, trying to let her anger melt away so that she could have a civilized conversation with the man beside her. She heard Darien give a quiet sigh beside her.

"What?" she asked a little sharper than she had meant to.

"Nothing!" he snapped back just as sharply.

Serenity winced, and quickly tried to smooth her tone. "Do you miss your home?" she asked as she looked over at him.

He shrugged. "A little. I haven't been gone very long, but I guess I do."

She looked down into the dark waters. "Tell me more about the royal family," she said finally. She could feel his gaze shift over to her.

"Well, the King and Queen and both wonderful people. They are just and fair rulers, and they love their people dearly." He paused. "They are both kind hearted. My-uh-Queen is the kind of woman that doesn't mind talking to common people and she helps them whenever she can. There isn't very much poverty on earth because of that. The king is good too, but he is more…well... gruff than the queen. He is a mighty warrior." Again he paused.

"What about the Prince?" Serenity asked. Grateful as she was about hearing that the king and queen were good people, she was more interested in Endymion.

"I already told you about him," she heard him say.

"Not very much," she replied. She heard him sigh again, but then he continued to talk.

"He is not a bad person. He doesn't have such a strong natural compassion as his mother, but he tries to. He is a skilled fighter like his father, but he prefers strategizing over battling. The people seem fond enough of him. He spends much of his time with his father taking care of issues of the court, but he also loves to read and learn about the physical laws that govern our universe."

Serenity smiled to herself as Darien described the Prince. She was glad that he wasn't an ogre at least. "What about you? What do you think of him?" she asked. She heard him chuckle a bit to himself.

"I don't know. I have rather neutral feelings towards him myself," he replied. Serenity frowned a little at his response. Her eyes came up to look at Darien, and she was surprised to see him watching her. She looked away quickly, feeling rather self-conscious all of a sudden. She heard him move closer and suddenly his arm was around her shoulders.

She jumped back a little. "What are you doing!" she gasped.

He laughed. "I figured we might as well continue with lessons even if Motoki isn't here and we couldn't meet at the tavern," he said. Serenity blushed, and was glad for the cloak of darkness. "I can see I still have a lot of work," he finished.

"I just wasn't expecting that, that's all," she retorted.

He grinned smugly. "Mmmhmm, sure," he replied calmly, and then went back to leaning against the bridge.

"Tell me more about the royal family of the moon," he said.

Serenity leaned on the bridge again as well. She felt more color rising to her cheeks, but decided to use his approach and to talk about her mother. "Queen Selenity is a very humble woman. She might look like a delicate flower, and she is very mild in temper, but she can rule with an iron fist when it is needed. Her people are first always. She is a very sincere person who does not get offended easily. Her main goal has been to attain peace between the planets of this solar system, and after that hopefully beyond this system. She does not like to see people suffering due to wars."

She looked over to Darien and saw him nod absentmindedly while still staring at the earth. "You haven't told me about her daughter yet at all," he said.

Serenity sighed as she looked back down at the water. Little ripples formed around a spot where a fish had come up and touched the surface of the water. "There isn't really much to say about her. Many people still say she is a child, even though she has changed."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, she was a child for a long time. Maturity can come very quickly though, and some people have not had time to notice it yet, that's all." She stopped as she glanced up at him. He was watching her intently again. They broke their gaze and both looked back up at the earth. She assumed he sensed her reluctance on the subject, so he switched his question.

"What about the Senshi?" he asked.

"What about them?"

"I don't know much about them, other than the fact that they are warriors from other plants, companions to the princess, and her protectors."

She smiled to herself as he said this. "They are all that, and goodness help anyone that tries to hurt Serenity. They would be there in an instant to protect. Granted she can fight herself too, but you are right, they are there to protect her." She smiled again. "They are her closest friends too."

She heard him chuckle. "I saw a few of the Senshi earlier today. They didn't look too dangerous to me."

Serenity giggled at his comment. "They might look harmless, but they're not when they get angry. When did you see them?" she asked. A thought suddenly hit her, but he answered her before she could finish it.

"Earlier this afternoon when I was working in the stables. At first I saw only one, this dark haired girl in red. Later though I saw three of them. One of them was the same one as I had seen before, and another one of them had short black, well, almost blue hair. The third was a brunette with a ponytail…" he let the sentence drift as he noticed that Serenity was laughing. "What's so funny?" he asked.

Serenity almost couldn't catch her breath as she was thinking back to how Ami, Lita and Rei had reacted to that 'new stable boy,' whom she now realized was Darien. "It's nothing, really…." She couldn't finish her sentence as she started laughing some more.

Darien looked utterly confused. "Did I say something funny?" he asked, a small smile creeping onto his face.

"No, you didn't," Serenity said, finally managing to get a hold of herself. "You're right though, those were three of the Senshi. The first one that you saw was Rei. She is the princess of Mars. The other two were Ami and Lita, princesses of Mercury and Jupiter, respectively." Serenity giggled at the thought of the girls seeing her dancing with the man beside her the night before. Rei would be absolutely livid! She glanced at him. He had a confused smile on his face, and they both turned to look at the shining globe above them.

"Why did you decide to come here to the moon?" she finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I wanted to see what it was like, what the people were like, what a royal wedding might look like…" His sentence trailed off into the night. He then sighed "Honestly?….I came here for a wife," he said.

Serenity drew in her breath sharply. "What!?"

Darien laughed. "I came here for a wife," he repeated, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Is there something wrong with that?" he asked.

"N-no," Serenity stammered, not being able to get any more words out. She looked back out to the sky to all the stars, a strange pain in the pit of her stomach.

Suddenly, she felt the pressure of his arm around her shoulders again, but this time did not jump back. "Why didn't you just look for one on earth?" she asked, her voice sounding strange to her.

He remained silent to her question. Finally, after several long moments, he finally spoke. "I have my reasons," was all he said. Then he looked down at her and smiled. "Un-tense your shoulders," he commanded.

Serenity had a surprised look on her face as she noticed just how tense she had been. She relaxed her muscles a little. She could feel the heat radiation off him through the few thin layers of fabric separating them. It made her shiver, despite the fact she was feeling the extra heat.

He felt this, and pulled her a little closer. "Motoki was right," he said, "you really need to learn how to relax around men."

She felt herself turning red, and for the thousandth time that night was thankful that it was dark. They stood there for several minutes, just staring at the stars, neither one minding the silence, both lost in their own thoughts.

"Good," she heard him murmur.

She turned her eyes up to look at his face. He turned his eyes to meet hers. "What?" she asked, feeling a bit perplexed.

He smirked. "For the last two and a half minutes your shoulders haven't felt like they were made of stone."

She roller her eyes. She looked back up at him and noticed that he was still staring at hera sharp comment was making its way to her tongue for him not to think too highly of himself, but something in his eyes stopped her. She couldn't quite explain what it was, but he seemed to draw her to him, seek out the depths of her heart. She felt her heart start beating wildly in her chest, and noticed his face moving ever so slightly closer to her own. Panic started to raise up in her.

"Usagi, I….." she swallowed hard at the sound of his husky voice.

"Yes?" she managed to whisper. She could feel his breath on her face, and almost screamed from their closeness. Then, that look in his eyes disappeared, and he pulled his face away from hers ever so slightly.

The smirk that had disappeared now returned. "I won't torture you any more tonight," he said as he slipped her arm from her shoulders. She shuddered, a bit from relief and a bit form sadness at the loss of contact.

She let out a shaky breath as he clasped his hands behind his back. "I should go. I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Maybe I'll see you around," he said.

Serenity nodded her head, but no words came to her mouth. He smirked again, said a farewell, and started to walk in the direction of the stables.

Not until he was well out of earshot did Serenity dare make a sound, and it was more a strangled squeak than anything else. After a few minutes of being paralyzed on the spot, she finally found the strength to move, and made her way back to the palace, and up to her bed.

As he walked away, and was out of sight, he ran his hands through his hair and let out a shaky breath.

What the hell just happened back there? Did I really almost just kiss her? Why…why does she affect me like this? he thought as he let out another shaky breath. I have to be more careful, he concluded as he reached the stables.


*****
~Disclaimer~
I do not own the rights to Sailormoon or any of the characters. That honour belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, and I am simply a lowly author who can use her characters for my plots.