A Winter Evening -- Serena was in an anticipatory mood as she studied her pre-calculus textbook. Normally she studied with Darien in the evenings, but tonight he was at class for his master's degree. She had a major surprise planned for him when he got home. No, she thought, Surprise is about an order of magnitude smaller than what I have in store for him. This, as Rei said when I told her about it, is a Cunning Plan. Hearing a very faint sound of a door opening and closing, she assumed that it was just a neighbor returning home. Then she sensed the very familiar presense entering the room, and saw his reflection in the window. From Darien's perspective, two things happened at once: Serena dropped her book and burst from her chair, to hurl herself into his arms. Fortunately, he was very used to being greeted like this by his wife. "Whoa! I love you too, Serena, but I was only gone for two hours!" "I don't care, Muffin, I always miss you when you're gone," she said as she closed her eyes and inhaled Darien's unique scent. Most guys smelled either salty or had an unpleasant smell. Darien was the only guy she knew who always smelled of roses. *Go figure,* she thought, *after all, he is Tuxedo Mask and his weapon *is* the red, red rose that I love so much.* She felt Darien's right hand leave her back and fumble around in his jacket pocket. She opened her eyes to see a small rosewood box in front of her. "An early Christmas present, my sweet," said Darien. "Well then, I suppose I'd better open it by the tree," said Serena. She carefully opened the box lid and gasped. Inside on top was an exquisite pendant made of American Black Hills gold in the shape of a thornless rose, with green gold for the stem and red gold for the beautiful, lifelike petals, mounted on a mirror-polished crescent-moon shaped piece of yellow gold. That wasn't what had made her stop and gasp and stare, though: she lifted off the tissue paper and her eyes immediately became wet with tears. For what she beheld there, she had thought she would never see again. The Star Locket. Symbol of their love. Mutely, she opened it and its eternal melody spilled forth, the melody which was powered not by the mere physics of an unwinding spring, but the power of their undying love. "Darien," she whispered, "where did you find it? I thought it had been lost." "So long as we love each other, that locket will always find its way back to us, my love." As Darien's lips met Serena's, and the anticipated rush of fire hit his bloodstream, he wondered how he could have ever dated Rei - the woman melting in his arms was so perfectly balanced with him, and made him feel so wonderfully whole, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, in ways that Rei never could have. *If things had been otherwise, my darling, I would never have known true happiness.* The little locket was so much more than the mere trinket it appeared to be on first glance: it symbolized everything Serena and Darien meant, had meant and would mean to one another. "And what do we have planned for this evening, my love? Another 'counting lesson?'" "Not this time," said Serena at a volume and intensity that suggested beautiful, exquisite danger, "I just want you to hold me and love me like there's nothing and nobody else in the universe." "And what if the universe interferes?" "It shouldn't. I set my communicator to privacy mode and unplugged the phones, so unless we get an Emergency All-Call, we won't be interrupted. I also told everybody that anyone who isn't you knocking on my door tonight will be greeted by my new Moon Rapier Annihilation attack. I even told Pluto that in the future there should NEVER be any reason to drop Reenie in on us tonight, and that if she did, I'll personally make her *VERY* sorry she ever thought of doing so. In short, we have twelve uninterrupted hours together, and if we get interrupted, well, whoever does so will have to deal with one extremely angry Princess and her guardian, lover and husband." "All three of us in one room?" Darien teased, affecting a shocked expression. Serena burst out laughing, and clocked Darien with a throw pillow, "You know what I meant!" "How long have you been planning this one, sweetheart? This is *not* the kind of plan that you usually come up with on the spur of the moment. It looks like you've. . ." "Longer than you care to know, and I've dotted every 'i' and crossed every 't'," She laughed, "I bet that Mina would have screwed that one up." "She *is* getting better about keeping her quotations straightened out." "True, but I don't think that she's ever going to get 'They also serve who stand and wait' right." They both laughed gently, "But anyway, tonight's not about Mina. Tonight's about you. . . me. . . some ice cream. . . and *no* *interruptions.*" "How often has *that* happened lately? Always seems like any time we start getting, shall we say, cozy before nine p.m. that somebody or some*thing* always comes and distracts us." Serena laid a finger across Darien's lips and whispered, "Ssshhh, don't jinx us." Darien responded by kissing the finger, then the hand it was attached to, then holding her hand and kneeling down he kissed up her arm, inch by tantalizing inch to the hollow of her shoulder, where he blew a stream of air along her collarbone, making her shiver with anticipation as her other hand helped him get rid of his jacket. Darien's hand let go of Serena's for the moment it took him to slide his jacket off of the attached arm, and she snatched it away, laughing lightly. Darien reached again for her hand and their fingers interlaced, holding them together lightly, but with a force they felt helpless to break. One which they didn't want to break. The beautiful new pendant remained in its box, but the Star Locket was now about Serena's neck. "Now, my delightful little meatball-head," said Darien, "We start where we left off." Hand in hand like teenagers on a date, Serena and Darien padded to their bedroom. She opened the door and Darien gaped: it looked *exactly* like Princess Serenity's bedchamber. He felt Serena's magical energies well up behind him and turned around to see her transform into Princess Serenity. Within the anachronistic setting, it was easy for Darien to allow his twentieth-century body melt away and be replaced with the armored form of Prince Endymion. He quickly removed the body armor, so that all he wore on top of his skin was a midnight-blue shirt and a pair of black pants. The only piece of twentieth-century equipment in the room that wasn't hidden by an illusion was the sleek black CD player. Serenity took the remote, disguised to look like the crescent moon wand, and started a slow, stately Brahms waltz. Endymion took the cue and Serenity's hands, and they began to dance about the room, each matching their partner step for step, move for graceful move. As the waltz wound down, Serenity maneuvered Endymion so that they were facing one another across their study table, disguised as a white breakfast table. Reaching into the 'cabinet' behind her (actually a cube refrigerator), she drew out two tulip bowls full of ice cream: peppermint bon bon for her and chocolate for him. The spoons came from the bedstand. "And how much of this, my dear, is just a beautiful illusion layered over reality?" Serenity took a bite from her ice cream, looked up at him in that special impishly sexy way that some women have, and said, "Less of it than you think, my love. True, many of these things are merely illusion," and she waved her hand over the table surface, momentarily revealing its true nature, a simple table made of dark-brown wood, "but some of them are physically- manifested magic, and will stay until I wish them to leave." Endymion and Serenity ate their ice cream, alternating feeding themselves and one another. After the last spoonful, they laid out on the bed on their backs and held hands and talked of things of no consequence for a while. Casual topics of conversation came and went for almost an hour, but eventually they ran out of things to talk about. Serenity quietly rolled onto her stomach. Reading her intention perfectly, Endymion pulled the lace bow out on the back of her dress, and she let it drop to her waist in a tiny rustle of fabric. She slid the dress down her body, leaving the Star Locket around her neck. After the dress was off, she helped Endymion with his clothing. Her trembling hands pulled the Locket from around her neck. Offering it to Endymion, she breathed, "The music played by this locket is a symbol of our love, dear Endymion. So long as our love lasts, so will this music." "Then let's hope that the music never stops, my lovely Princess." They gently placed the locket on the nightstand, opening it so that its soft light and music filled the room, and then turned back to each other, letting their personal 'seemings' collapse, leaving only what truly was. Serena and Darien appeared again where Serenity and Endymion had been moments before. *He looks even more handsome now than he did a thousand years ago,* thought Serena. "Oh, my darling, the passage of a thousand years has made you even more wondrous than ever," said Darien. Serena landed a kiss right between his eyes, and gently licked across his brow ridge, just above the eyebrows, tasting sweat left over from his long ride back home on his motorcycle. Gently sliding the tip of her warm tongue over his cheek and the back of his jaw, she got what she wanted to hear: his moan. The signal that she was steadily driving him over the edge, just the way she liked it. Darien tried to reach for the nightstand, but her hand took his and her mouth closed over his mouth, silencing any protest. "Darien," she whispered after breaking the kiss, "We're married now, have been married for six months. If we concieve a child tonight, we know we'll always be there for him, or her." She kissed Darien aggressively and felt him respond in kind, pushing her tongue into his mouth and then accepting his into hers. Mischievously, she bit down lightly on his tongue as it reached fully into her mouth and felt him respond by wiggling to try to free the trapped appendage. Letting off on his tongue, she followed it back, only to be similarly caught, but only for a moment. Drawing away from Darien's mouth, she kissed down the side of his neck, hearing his voice resonate in his throat, "Oh, Serena. . . Ohh my God. . ." "Yes?" He grimaced through his arousal. "That was bad." "I'll just have to make it up to you." "I can hardly wait, my love." She caressed his chest with her lips and tongue, and made him growl with desire, while she moved around in his lap, always skirting extremely close to impaling herself on his member but never quite getting directly on top of it, allowing it to rebelliously slide along her smooth skin, silver in the moonlight that shone through their huge window. "I. . . see you've been getting creative, my love." Darien knew just how quickly he was boiling over, and he wanted Serena to come with him. He drew her back up his body and took as much of her left breast into his mouth as he could while still keeping his tongue over the hard nipple. Letting out most of it, he grasped the nipple itself with his teeth moments before it would have left his mouth, causing Serena to release a cross between a moan of desire and a cry of surprise, caressing the right breast with his hand. Her skin was perfectly smooth from below her scalp to her feet, and no birthmarks, moles or scars marred her creamy complexion. Darien licked the hollow of Serena's throat while he caressed her hair, hair that when unbound, like now, formed a king's ransom of spun gold. Then, Serena pushed down hard on Darien, trapping him inside of her, and a white-hot bolt of pleasure shot through him. Serena knew the feeling that was coursing through her body well, but that had only heightened her anticipation for it, and made the moment of delicious completion that much sweeter. She knew that over a thousand-plus years of life the pleasures of the flesh would never pale for her, because with Darien, her true love, how could they? That was her last coherent thought for quite a while, as the feeling of Darien moving within her drowned out any attempt by her mind to get any signals out. How, Darien thought dimly, could anybody have this much zeal for life? Serena was moving eagerly on top of him, and the expression on her face put the 'St. Teresa in Rapture' to shame with its pure, unadulterated joy. Tears of happiness flowed from his eyes, and Serena equally happily licked them from his cheeks. Beyond thinking, Serena felt how wonderful it was to become one with Darien, with the pleasure of physical union complimenting their spiritual and emotional union. When her orgasm coursed through her, she felt Darien coming with her, and rejoiced. Energy spent, she collapsed on top of him and let him hold her and be inside her as their minds began to work again, only to begin fuzzing downward as the gentle music of the locket lulled them to sleep. Satisfied and happy, Darien moved with the woman on top of him as she rolled off of him and curled up in his arms, his six-foot frame curled protectively around her smaller body. Dear Serena, you love me so much, how can I ever repay you the love that you've shown me? Equally happy, Serena snuggled deep into her husband's embrace and cooed quietly as he smoothed her long blonde hair with his hands. Dear Darien, I feel so complete with you around, I never want to be with anybody else. She laughed almost inaudibly at the schoolgirl crush she'd had on Andrew, five years ago. She knew full well (now) that he could never have loved her, other than as the good, close friend that he was, and that likewise she could never have loved him. Serena's voice filtered into Darien's ears, in soft tones replete with satisfaction, "Our love grows deeper with time, my dear Darien, but sometimes I can't help but think that I'll wake up and this was all a dream, I'm fourteen and so horrendously superficial again, and that you're still a jerk who likes to tease me all the time." She kissed Darien on the tip of the nose as she caressed the wispy black curls on his chest and tried to make neat the bird's nest her eager hands had made of his hair. "And sometimes I can't help but think that I'll wake up one morning and be eighteen again, so bitter and alone and that I'm still a jerk that likes to tease you all the time." "Well, maybe if that happens, we can do it right this time," said Serena as she slid into sleep. Darien laid awake for another minute and stroked his wife's hair. "I love you, Serena. So many good things have happened to so many good people because of you." To his amazement, from her slumber she whispered back, "I love you too, Darien." The last two things he was aware of as his mind fuzzed into sleep were Serena's body comfortably nestled into the curve of his own and the quiet sound of the Star Locket playing its endless melody. -- - Author's Note - I'd like to take a moment here to acknowledge Sailor Mac's help on my lemon fanfics - she's been helping me on this side of the 'tracks' (so to speak) as much as Tuxedo Will has with my mainstream fanfics. To quote Albert Einstein, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants: Sailor Mac, Lady M. Harris, Andrea Hui and Sexylyon are a great help and inspiration to my writing. As you well know, these characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi. IMPORTANT TO OTHER HENTAI WRITERS: Naoko is being nice enough to allow us to use her characters. You ought to treat them with a little more respect! Especially Usagi-chan and Mamoru-san! And poor Rei-chan and Mako-chan, too! I'm not going to name the names of those of you out there in hentai-land who are abusing these characters. You know who you are and you had BETTER be ashamed of yourselves.