Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Bunny's Trinkets ❯ Lawyers and Dinner ( Chapter 3 )

AN: Oi! Wee! That story that I mentioned was neither on FF or MM, and she never finished it due to complaints. I gave all the outers (and some others) other names, can you figure out who's who? Hotaru does not have her last name. ~Tokyo Rabbit

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Disclaimers: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of their characters. This is an AU, and I apologize if anyone, especially Naoko-sama, should be offended by the SLIGHT changes in the character's appearances or personalities. I also strongly apologize for making the Star Lights full fledged men. Sorry. I do not own the board game Monopoly either.

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Bunny's Trinkets

Chapter Three:

Lawyers and Dinner

- - - - -

Darien and Lita walked back into the empty Saotome household after the shop closed at seven. Automatically, the tall brunette widow made a bee line to the kitchen, "Sorry, but I usually cook late due to work. I hope you don't mind."

"No, not at all," he said truthfully. Eating was overrated.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, he began to unpack the papers to begin work again. Lita saw this over the counter that separated the dinning room and kitchen, "Darien! Don't you dare! You have worked hard enough today, just take it easy now."

He gave her a genuine smile, "Lita, I want to help. You are my last relative, family takes care of each other. Plus, you know me, the workaholic."

The twenty-six-year-old woman meekly smiled. Darien had been alone for the majority of his life, seeing how his parents died when he was very young. Her late husband's parents searched for several years for the young orphan. They finally finished the paper work from Rose Saint Home, letting their nephew stay with them when Ken and Darien where both sixteen....

Feeling that he was a burden, the young Chiba moved out when he was eighteen and began his legacy. So, Lita would indeed take care of Darien in any way possible. What was family for?

"So you and your coworkers are close?" Darien asked, typing madly away on a massive calculator.

"Yes, very. The majority of us knew each other through high school," Lita called through the various sounds that emitted from the kitchen.

"Oh?"

"Bunny used to live in Tokyo. When her and her husband got married, they moved out here and we all became fast friends."

Husband? So the medium height blonde was married? He shouldn't have been surprised... but for some reason it concerned him....

*Ding-dong!*

"Oh, Darien, could you be a dear and get that for me?"

He walked through the flowery house and came to the door, which was already opening. A blonde head poked in through the opening. His heart strangely jumped.

"Heeeeelllo? Lita?" The young woman saw him standing there and stepped inside, "Oh hi Darien!"

Oh. "Hi, Mina." He never forgot a name or face.

She smiled and closed the door behind her, then began to walk towards the dinning room, "Is Lita back here?"

"Uh-- yeah...." Shaking his head, he followed her.

"Hey girl! How goes it?"

"Hi Mina! Wanna stay for dinner?" Lita invited her.

She took a seat at the table and winked at Darien, "I was in the neighborhood and smelt something good brewing. I just knew it was you Lita, so I decided to pop in for a visit."

"I knew you would." They heard the cook laugh.

"So, how was your first day in Gleenbrook?" Mina asked the tall man with ebony hair as he sat down across from her.

"Well, half the bills and papers have been taken care of, but--"

She cut him off with a wave of her hand, "I didn't mean that. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're helping Lita... we all are. But what I was asking was, how was it?"

"How was it?" He didn't quite understand.

"How did everything go?"

"Nothing unsatisfactory happened."

The blonde laughed, "So it was okay."

Darien couldn't help but smile, "Yes, it was okay."

Soon, dinner was ready and Lita made Darien put away anything important looking. They were having Italian that night. The three sat talking as the dishes began to diminish as Lita refused to put away leftovers. Who likes leftovers any ways?

"--Darien and I are going to go see that lawyer tomorrow--" Lita said, dishing out even more lasagna on Darien's plate.

"Are you serious? I hear that he's really good!" `And cute,' she added mentally, "I'll come with you tomorrow. Maybe if I flirt with him, he'll be cheaper."

Darien looked up from his ominous plate in surprise, "You cannot be serious."

She winked at him and stuffed a huge bite in her mouth. He looked at Lita for help, was she just pulling his leg?

"Mina--" Lita warned.

After she swallowed, she began to laugh, "The look on your faces! I want to go to make sure he'll be able to help you out, Lita. I'm your friend, I have to look out for you."

Darien almost said something, but decided against it....

After the three got done finishing off everything, they cleaned the dishes then began a game of Monopoly, which Darien dominated in.

"Remind me never to play this again with you Darien," Mina said in mock grudge as she handed him over a couple bills of hundreds.

"Thank you," he accepted her compliment and money.

Soon after Darien had bankrupted his adversaries, Mina went home to her white cat Artemis.

"She's a bubbly girl...." Darien commented.

"Yeah, just like Bunny," Lita smiled, and they retired for the night.

- - - - - - -

The two cousins talked the whole way through Gleenbrook as they walked to Bunny's Trinkets. Lita laughed at the comment Darien had made about having nightmares about Hibiscus tea, but he was actually being serious. It was like he had eaten a truck load of lemons... but maybe he was exaggerating, give or take a lemon....

They walked into the store, ready for another day. They had made an appointment with Montag Hiroshi yesterday and were due to meet him around noon. Darien sat down and began to prep for it while Lita went upstairs to restock their chocolate treats supply.

From the corner of his eye he saw someone sit down and sit down a cup. A familiar and friendly smell wafted under his nose. It was...!

He looked up to see Bunny sitting there, smiling at him, "I picked it up on the way here."

It WAS!! It was coffee!

"I felt bad yesterday for the Hibiscus. It's really sour huh?" She smiled at him.

"That's an understatement," he looked at her, then smiled back, "You really shouldn't apologize. I was irritable and treated you poorly. I'm very sorry."

Again, he was rewarded by a dazzling smile, "I tried to pick something strong enough to stand up to that awful stuff." She was pointing to the cup of coffee.

"Hey, this stuff is what keeps me running!"

"Exactly. Petrol."

She laughed and got up to go back to work, leaving him to his first love, coffee. But as she did, his eyes caught a glitter on her left ring finger... so she was married....

Trying to take his mind off of it, he looked at the cup in near disbelief. She had obviously bought it from a local donut shop. It warmed his heart in a strange way, but she only did it because he was helping Lita, right?

*Twinkle*

"Morning everyone!" It was Mina, "Hey Bunny, is it all right if I go with Lita and Darien to the meeting?"

"Meeting? Oh, with the lawyer? Sure, Tuesdays are usually slow," the owner replied, smiling of course.

"Thanks."

And so they found themselves, Lita, Darien and Mina, in a clean-cut new age office waiting to talk to Mr. Hiroshi. Mina was the brightest thing in the office, seeing how she was blonde and she was wearing a gray suit, instead of a black one. She tugged on her skirt; places like that always made her extremely nervous.

A tall man with steel blue eyes, natural white hair pulled back in a neat pony tail, and a firm jaw line came out, causing them to stand. This was him.

"Hello, I am Mr. Hiroshi, I'm pleased to meet you," he shook their hands and came to Mina who seemed to have seen a ghost, "Are you Ms. Saotome? I'm very sorry for your loss."

He just assumed that she was due to the fact that she didn't speak up to say otherwise. This man was a god!! What was she here for again? A lease? A checkup? Well, whatever it was, it was totally obliterated.

Lita politely coughed, "No, this is my close friend, Mina Aino. I am Lita Saotome, and this is Darien Chiba, you two talked on the phone."

"Oh yes, I do apologize. Now please, come inside," he flashed them a confident, cool smile.

Darien followed him, leading the way while Lita had to tug on Mina's arm to get her to walk. Oh yes, that was why she was there. Her good friend Lita.

"Please have a seat," and they did, "I understand it that--"

That was the last thing Mina heard. She watched him intently throughout the whole thing. He worked so diligently and smoothly, it was like this profession had been made just for him, and this was only a meeting! His eye was laid sternly upon the goals and he meant to met them, come hell or high water.

Soon, it was all over and Lita was giving him some information, "Now this number is where I work...."

"Oh? I know the shop. I buy my tea from there," Mr. Hiroshi smiled, "I'm very glad that we were able to work something out. We'll be talking very soon."

Lita breathed a grateful sigh and thanked him, and that was it.

- - - - -

Back at the shop Lita seemed to be in the highest of moods, thanking Darien every five seconds when she was down stairs.

"This nightmare is finally going to end!" She cheered several times, almost coming to tears.

Bunny hugged her, "We're soo happy for you!"

"I know," the brunette smiled then danced her way upstairs.

Unlike her, Mina seemed to be brooding about something.

"What's with the mood, Mina? Aren't you happy for Lita?" Ami asked her.

"I am! Don't get me wrong.... I'm just thinking about how I can slip and fall and make it seem like an accident and then get Montag as my lawyer...." She said, chewing on her left thumb nail.

"Oh? You're going to sue me?" Bunny inquired.

"Bunny! You should have SEEN him! He was just too good to be true." Mina nearly melted just thinking about him.

"Yes, he was a very good lawyer," Darien commented as he flipped through the news paper.

"That's not what I meant and you know it...."

He just chuckled, causing Bunny to look at him. His voice was like velvet....

*Twinkle*

"Momma!" A girl who looked to be around seven or eight with light pink hair bounced into the store and ran towards... Bunny?!

Darien saw this and it gave him a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. So this was her daughter, then where was her husband? And why hadn't he seen her yesterday? Perhaps she had been at a friend's house....

"Hi Rini!" The two embraced as the girl jumped up into her awaiting arms, "How was school?"

"It was good. I have tons of stuff to show you," the girl smiled.

*Twinkle*

Another girl about the same age walked in. She had short black hair and icy violet eyes. A woman had walked in with her; she had long, dark jade hair.

"Hello, Helen, Sigourney," Bunny smiled at them and then put Rini down, making a joke that she was getting too old to pick her up, "Thanks again for watching her yesterday. Everything just seemed to want to happen that day."

"Oh, no problem," Sigourney, Helen's mother, smiled, "You would do the same."

The two girls spotted Darien watching everything as it unfolded and decided to see who he was. They took pride in knowing just about everyone in town, it was their business to know. So, much to his surprise, they sat down, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Who are you?" Rini asked.

"Darien Chiba. You?"

"You don't ask the questions here, we do."

He had to smile.

"Where did you come from?" Helen asked.

"Tokyo, Japan."

"How old are you?" Rini asked; they were like machines!

"Twenty-eight."

"What do you do for a living?"

"I'm head of a corporate company."

"Do you have any kids?"

"No."

"Are you married?"

"No."

The two interrogators looked at each other and nodded. Their serious faces turned into smiles.

"I'm Rini Kou and this is my best friend, Helen Meioh." Rini explained and Helen waved.

"We're both seven and we go to Gleenbrook Elementary," Helen said.

"Rini, Helen. Leave Mr. Chiba alone," Bunny came over and saved him, giving him an apologetic smile.

The woman known to be Sigourney Meioh called her daughter and the two left, waving good bye.

*Twinkle*

"Rini was just checking me out," Darien and the girl shared a wink.

Bunny looked down at her daughter, "Did he pass?"

She nodded and smiled, "He's Darien Chiba from Tokyo, Japan who works in a company and who's twenty-eight without kids!"

"Sounds good to me," her mother smiled, "Now, do you have any homework?"

The little girl wrinkled her nose, showing a yes. She got up and retrieved her backpack from the store counter in the back, then bopped back to the table, "Sorry to break it to you Mommy, but it's math."

Bunny sat down, "Well, we'll just have to try our hardest."

Rini leaned forward and whispered to Darien, "She's not very good at math."

"Oh, okay," he whispered back, amused by this little girl.

"YES!" Mina came bursting out of the back curtain, drawing their attention, along with the customers.

"Mina?" Bunny asked in curiosity as her bubbly cousin came bouncing over.

"Guess who just called me?" She pulled up a chair and sat down, "Well, not me, but the store?"

"Uh, who?"

"Montag! And guess who he asked for?"

Darien rolled his eyes, this was too easy, "Who?"

"ME! And guess who has a date tonight?" She bit her lower lip.

"You and Montag!" Rini cheered.

"That's right!" The elated woman rocketed out of her seat then gained her composure again, due to the customers' glances, "Yes well, I'll be helping Ami if anyone needs me."

They had to laugh, but did Lita know about it? They couldn't be sure until she said so.

"So, Momma? How do I do this?" Rini shoved her paper over to her obligated mother.

Darien chuckled at the clueless face that came across the poor mother, "May I take a crack at it?"

The girl looked at her mother, "What do you think?"

The two peered cutely at him to see if he had what it took, and decided that he could handle it. So Rini hopped over one seat to be right next to him while Bunny watched them with a maternal grin on her face.

After the math was done, it was time to show them the puppets they made in art that day. And thus, the story of Cinderella began to unfold in front of their eyes, with a rabbit prince and a carrot and everything!

Bunny would steal glances at Darien and Rini.... It was strange how she treated him so warmly. For the longest of time, it was just them two and their own little world. Then came along a handsome stranger and it seemed to grow a satellite or perhaps gotten bigger....

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TR- Wee! You guys gave me such a HUGE response on it, that I had to get another chapter out to you RIGHT AWAY! Thanks guys, for being so awesome! See you soon?

7-30-02 (unedited)