Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Seduction ❯ Apologies ( Chapter 14 )

Rei sat with Artemis, watching the cat as he watched the news. She knew they were worried about her, which was why he was watching her. She sighed and shifted. So Serena was the Moon Princess, and Darien was her Prince. She shook her head. She'd known deep down that those two were attracted to each other. How else could they get on each other's nerves so much. She smiled at the memory of their fights. It was nice that it was out in the open now. She glanced at Artemis.

“Hey…how did she really hurt her foot?”

“Who, Serena? I don't know, why?”

“I mean, I know she's a bit of a klutz, but not even Serena is that clumsy. I know I act like I don't like her and sometimes she just pisses me off, but she's a good person and…and I'd hate myself if I destroyed our friendship in a moment of rage.”

“She is the leader of the Scouts.”

“Yeah, I know. And she's a great leader, the best we could hope for. Still, I can't help but wonder what she did, or rather, what someone did to her. She can be pretty tough. There aren't many out there that can hurt her, and she was definitely hurt before our battle. She seemed fine during dance club, so that leaves the interim time. Only a few hours, not much could have happened.”

“You know you could go ask her.”

“Yeah, I could. And I could apologize while I'm at it.”

She rose and scooped Artemis up in her arms as she ran all the way to Serena's house. It was dark out when she finally got there. She knocked on the door and smiled at Serena's mother.

“Is Serena home?”

“She's in her room doing homework.”

Rei snorted at the unlikeliness of this and walked the familiar path up the stairs and down the hall to Serena's room. She knocked and let herself in. To her utter shock, Serena was indeed sitting at her desk doing her homework. She set Artemis down and he found his way to the bed next to Luna as Rei shut the door.

“Um…Serena, I wanted to apologize.” Serena turned to watch her. “I should never have said you were useless, and…and I should never have called you that name. I'm sorry.”

She hung her head and Serena smiled. “That's ok. I was acting pretty pathetic.”

Her head shot up. “I didn't know you were hurt, and it was obviously serious. I'm so sorry.”

“It wasn't that bad, I was being whiney as usual.” Rei sat down on the bed as Serena turned the chair to face her. “I'm glad that's out of the way though, everyone can stop acting like their walking on eggshells around me.”

Rei faced her friend and sometimes rival. “Serena, I know you didn't trip and fall. How did you really hurt your ankle?”

Serena frowned slightly. Her mother stopped just outside her door, holding her breath as she heard her daughter sigh. “Darien was walking me back to Lita's place after the party when some guys that go to his school ambushed us. They offered Darien first go at me if he would let them have me.”

“Let them have you?”

Serena frowned. “Rape me.”

Rei sucked in her breath. “Oh my God.”

“He told them in no uncertain terms to go to Hell. That's when they attacked. I twisted my ankle when I was doing a sweep. I'm surprised Darien didn't break his fist on one guy's face.”

“So you two beat the crap out of them, excellent. Why didn't you go to the cops?”

Serena winced. “Because Darien stabbed their leader. I didn't want him to get into trouble for defending me so I cooked up the phony fall story.”

“You must have known that once we saw how badly hurt you were, we would have seen through it.”

“I didn't realize how bad it was.” She shook her head. “I doesn't matter, it's over and done with. I take it since you know now, the others will too.”

“You can hardly expect me to keep this from them. Does anyone else know?”

“Darien said he told Andy. He said he wanted help watching over me, and I think Mariel at least guessed at it.” She laughed nervously. “She knows me too well for my own good.”

“So,” she leaned closer her voice conspiratorial, “have you two…you know…”

Serena laughed softly. “First off, none of your business, secondly, no. We have not and won't for a while.”

The lie had been amazingly easy to tell. Now all that was left was to follow it up. She looked down a blush staining her face. “Besides, I wouldn't really know what to do.”

Serena's mother slipped away, a relieved sigh escaping her lips as the two girls talked. She knew her daughter was responsible, and she knew that the birth control the doctor had put her on was the only thing keeping her from having killer, gut wrenching cramps so she wouldn't stop taking them. That meant that even if something did happen, she was safe. She wondered if she should tell her husband and immediately discarded the idea. He would only use it as further proof that she should never be let out of the house.