Konnichi wa, minna! Well, guess what. I just get too many ideas. SOOOO, for now, I have pushed Forgotten Legacy, the sequel to Crisis called "The Return" which I haven't even started yet, The Future Has Changed, and another story in the making, Saturn Rising, aside for now while I work on THIS new story.. This takes place after the end of the last season, focusing on Darien and Serena when they are married. I'll give a brief summary - their relationship is strained when Darien finds himself working too much. Serena is really bored and starts spending more time with the senshi, which puts even MORE strain on the relationship, because every time Darien is free, Serena isn't. See how it all turns out, in... P.S. None of the SM characters belong to me, but Melody Silverblade does. =) *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* Love Will Still Live On *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* "Darien?" Serena opened her eyes groggily and rolled over. She kind of expected to see her husband at her side, and when she didn't, it miffed her off. In frusteration, she pounded the mattress with her fist and got up. She dressed in jeans and a T-Shirt and walked into the living room. On the kitchen table was a note, with a rose laying on top of it. Serena couldn't help but smile at that. It showed that at least he still loved her enough to give her roses. The note read -- "Serena, Sorry I'm not here, I had to go into the lab early. I'll see you later this evening. Love, Darien" She sighed and put the note and the rose down. She thought again. She fixed her hair up, no longer wearing the childish odangos, but a long ponytail. Suddenly, the door rang. Serena ran to get it and opened it. "Hi Serena!" Exclaimed Mina. Mina was a pretty girl with blonde hair almost as long as Serena's. "Hey Mina! You ready to do some serious shopping?" "Always!" Mina winked and gave the V-Is-For-Victory sign. "I left Artemis at home, he had something or other to do with Central Control. I think it was just an excuse. Where's Darien?" Serena sighed. "Where else?" "Ohh.. sorry Serena.. well, we didn't want him along, anyway!" Mina faked a cheerful smile. "Men get in our way!" She linked her arm through Serena's and led her out into the hall, closing the door. Serena smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right! Well, time to do some shoppin`!" *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* Darien stood over a rack of test tubes sitting on a table, frowning. The experiment had been going haywire lately. he thought. He shook his head angrily. The motion was reflected in a mirror, which caught his attention. He took one look at himself and burst out laughing. He resembled a bug, with those huge goggles on, an enviromental suit, and long rubber gloves worn when handling dangerous materials. "What's so funny?" Melody Silverblade, Darien's assistant, looked at him as if he were crazy. With long black hair and striking green eyes, she was easily the prettiest girl in the whole lab. "Oh, nothing," said Darien, still chuckling. "I caught sight of myself in a mirror." Melody continued to give him a strange look. thought Darien. "Oooo-kay.. methinks it's time to take a break." She walked out of the room, pulling her goggles off. An explosion from the table brought her running back. "Oh no! Quick, get the acid bucket and rags!!" Darien ran over to the mess, trying to contain it as best he could with the acid-proof gloves. Melody rushed over with the bucket and rags. Darien scooped up the mess and surveyed the ruined table. "Damn it all to hell! There goes 4 weeks worth of hard work!" Melody sighed. "Yeah. Professor Tomoe isn't not gonna like this one bit. I bet we get chewed out like a .." She didn't get a chance to finish her sentance, however. The acid was CRAWLING across the room! Not thinking, she stomped on it, then howled in pain. She hopped away on one foot, tore the shoe off and hurtled it across the room. Her foot wasn't burned badly. "You OK, Mel?" Darien walked over to her. "Just fine," she said through gritted teeth. "I need new shoes." Darien laughed and shook his head. "What's going on in here?" A gentle, soft voice spoke. The voice belonged to Hotaru Tomoe, the daughter of the lab's owner. "Hi, Hotaru," said Darien. "Don't worry, it was just a .. minor .. accident." Hotaru observed the room in that quiet, calm way of hers. "Dosen't look minor to me. Please tell me what happened... WHAT IN THE ABYSS IS THAT?" Hotaru pointed to the crawling acid. "Um, well.. that's what we were experimenting on." Darien laughed sheepishly and put his hand behind his head. Hotaru knealt down and examined the thing from a few feet. "What were you doing? Trying to make new life? There's only one way to get rid of this." "Right.. Hey Mel, you better get that foot looked at, alright?" Darien smiled at her. "Alright." Using a broken piece of table as a crutch, Melody hobbled out of the room. Hotaru rubbed her hands together. "Time to clean up this mess. SATURN PLANET POWER, MAKE-UP!!" Hotaru transformed into the Pretty Soldier Sailor Saturn. "Death Ribbon Revolution!" Purple ribbons encircled the thing and turned it into dust. "Good work, Hotaru. But shouldn't we have saved some of it? I mean, it could be -" He was cut off by an incredibly evil look from Hotaru that plainly said : Don't question me. "Forget about it. I'm afraid you'll have to start over." She detransformed and looked about the room. "Well. I'll see you later, Darien." Hotaru turned on her heel and left. "Why me?" Muttered Darien under his breath. With a sigh, he set to work cleaning up what remained of the room. *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* "Whew! I'm beat!" Serena entered the apartment she shared with Darien and set her shopping bags down. "I think we hit every store in San Fransisco!" "We did really well! Well, I have to book it, I have work in 45 minutes. Catch you later!" Mina winked and left, closing the door behind her. Serena surveyed the pile of shopping bags. Serena hummed to herself as she put clothes away and hung up Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask wall scrolls. The door opened and in walked a rather pissed-off looking Darien. "Hi Serena." He tossed his jacket aside and flopped down in a chair. "Bad day at work, Muffin?" Serena walked over to him and perched on the arm of the chair. "You could say that. Half of the lab exploded and the Silent Messiah is really mad at me and Melody, my co-worker." He sighed and ran a hand through his silky black hair. "Things just didn't go my way today. How about you, Serena?" Serena grinned and guestured towards the wall scrolls. "We hit the Sailor Scout Imporium! They have soooo much cool stuff there!" She walked over to a bag and pulled out a stuffed Tuxedo Mask doll. "And look what I found!" "Cute," said Darien, looking at it. "They actually got it right. Can I see it?" Serena tossed him the doll. "It DOES look like you, dosen't it?" She winked. Darien laughed. "I think it might look MORE like me if it wasn't so small and chubby." "Can't have everything!" Serena giggled. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. "Coming!" Serena ran over to the door and opened it. "Oh! Hi, Hotaru! Come on in!" Darien looked up. He forced a smile onto his face. "Hi, Hotaru! What can I do for you?" He stood up. "I just dropped by to say that no one blames you for what happened. I think what happened with the experiment was the room got too warm. That was my fault. I thought the building was cold, so I upped the temperature a bit." Hotaru blushed and looked down. "Hey, Hotaru.. don't worry about it, alright? It's nothing we can't redo. And maybe this time we can keep it from exploding and some kind of wierd thing forming." Hotaru chuckled. "Maybe so. Well, I should be going. See ya." Hotaru waved and left. Serena shut the door. "Wanna tell me what happened?" Serena looked at Darien expectantly. "Well, it's like this.. we were working on something and it went wrong. Sailor Saturn saved the day." Serena nodded slowly. "O-kay.. Whatever." She turned away. "I'll fix dinner, okay? Does chicken cacciatore sound okay?" "Sounds great. I'll go shower." Serena nodded and headed for the kitchen. She looked around and frowned slightly. She grinned. She picked up the phone and punched in the number. *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* Lita Kino looked at the Caller ID when the phone rang and grinned when she recognized the number. she thought with a chuckle. She picked up the phone. "Hey Serena! Did you get stuck with dinner duty?" "Sure did, and it's a major bummer! I told Darien I was gonna cook and he just said 'okay, I'll go shower' rather than 'um, Serena, why don't we get some food from Lita?'" Lita laughed. "Well, what can I do for ya?" "Ooo.. let's see.. I'd like a bucket of fried chicken, some of your great mashed potatos and gravy, and 2 Cokes!" "Alrighty! We'll send it right over!" Lita finished scribbling down the order. "Thanks Lita, you're a livesaver! Bye!" Serena hung up. Lita laughed. "That Serena!" *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* After dinner, Darien and Serena settled down on the couch to watch TV. "What's on tonight, Darien?" Serena snuggled up to him, smiling. "Don't know.. Oh yeah! I heard there's going to be a program about science and how it affected World War II! Can we watch that?" Serena's smile froze on her face. "Um, sure, Muffin! Whatever you like!" So, the couple watched the program, Darien listening intently, and Serena kind of staring off into space. Things like this made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever, and she wasn't in a historic mood. She felt herself getting tired. Leaning against Darien, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. About 2 hours later, Darien gently picked her up and carried her into their bedroom. She was sound asleep. Smiling, he tucked her in, then went back into the living room to finish watching the program. *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* The next morning, Serena woke up to find Darien asleep beside her. Serena rolled her eyes and got up. She walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. "What's happening to me? I'm usually not this bitter!" She frowned at her reflection. "Serena?" Darien's voice was thick from sleeping. "Where are you?" She walked out of the bathroom and to the closet. "Right here. Where else would I be?" Darien frowned. "What's THAT supposed to mean?" "I'M here when you wake up. But are YOU here when I wake up? No! You are usually at work! Why do you work so much? Don't I mean anything to you? You broke a promise to me yesterday!" "Now wait just a minute, Serena! It's not my fault that I have a demanding job!" Serena whirled on Darien, her eyes filled with tears. "You're never around anymore! How should I know what you do in your job? You never tell me! You're always busy with the computer or something!" "Serena!" Darien was really getting mad. "Why don't you just TELL me when you want to spend time with me? Ever think of that?" "I _HAVE_ told you! You just say something like 'Not now Serena, I'm busy'!" "That's not fair!" Darien climbed out of bed and walked over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Look, Serena, I'm sorry if I'm not around alot, but -" He was cut off when she slapped him. Hard. "Get your hands off me!" she screamed. She ran from the room, sobbing. Darien heard the door open and close with a slam. "Serena...." *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* To be continued... *~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~**~!~* Well? What do you think? I'm going to take some time now to thank EVERYONE who has helped me out in some way or another! Lianne: You always encourage me to write, even if I insist my stories are pathetic. It means a whole lot to me! Thanks! =^.^= (BTW - you need to go read her stories! NOW!! http://members.tripod.com/~Lianne_Sentar) Razzzberi: Thank you soooo much for your ideas! I think this story would still be unfinished if it wasn't for you! (You have to read her stories, too! I don't have a link, though.. =() Kaos: Well gee, isn't this story nifty? =P Thanks Kaos, for encouraging me to write ... and if you killed me, this story won't be finished! Bwahaha! Person wm: I guess your criticism is constructive ... you should start writng. (His homepage is at http://members.aol.com/~Personwm) Thanks again, minna-chan! Tiga Shadow http://members.tripod.com/~PaladinStar/index.html Tiga2@hotmail.com