Yay-yay!  Chapters 8 AND 9 both released at the same time!  
This is all made possible by the long LONG dinner sequence, 
which will be introduced in this chapter and completed in 
the next.  I wrote the dinner scene after watching a friend 
and her crush making eyes at each other secretly at a dinner 
party...it's been sitting on my desktop in the "clipweave" 
folder for months now, I was waiting for the right moment 
to put it into a chapter.  Now I have my chance.  Perhaps 
if I had been more satisified with it earlier this scene 
might have made its debut sooner.  I still don't think it's 
up to perfection yet.  But, ::shrug:: I have done the best 
I could.
     Okay, as always, legal such and stuff: "Sailor Moon" 
is owned by a bunch of other more important people including 
the great Naoko Takeuchi, as well as Bandai, TOIE, and DIC 
and Mixx-zine and Kondasha...did I miss anyone?  K, and as 
always again, I am Ali and you can reach me through my e-mail 
address slrunico@aol.com



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Weaving a Romance"
CHAPTER 8: "The Morning After"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The next morning Serena woke up and remembered instantly 
what had happened the night before.  She curled back up 
into her covers with the memory.
     She recalled very little from the walk home -- that 
Darien had at one time or another pulled off her wrap and 
scoffed at how thin and little it was, and that if that 
was all she had to keep warm with then it was a wonder 
she hadn't caught her death of cold out late at night by 
that time.  His voice was gruff, he was back to being the 
Darien he had been before the incident at the cafe, but 
his mannerisms were gentle as he smoothed her skin over 
with his hands as he took off his own cape and placed it 
around her shoulders, giving her the drawstrings to wrap 
around her neck.
     When she had reached the stairs up to her room, she 
offered to give it back to him, but he had not taken it, 
insisting that she keep the cape...for what reason she did 
not know.  With a blush she looked under the blankets to 
reveal that she had slept with the item of clothing 
throughout the night.  It had comforted her -- when she 
brought it to her nose she could inhale his scent...his 
cologne, or shaving lotion, or whatever it was that made 
him smell so great.
     "I suppose," Serena said out loud, "that this 
can be considered the morning after."  Then, after 
thinking about it a little more carefully, she came to 
a different conclusion.  "No, maybe the morning after 
really was the yesterday morning...wow...was it really 
only yesterday morning that I awoke to find the rose?  
Wow..."
     And then with a shriek of happiness she dove back 
under the blankets to dream, the cloak of the man she 
loved still within her grip.


Serenity sighed a long and heavy sigh.  "Well," she 
murmured as she wandered into the dining hall, picturing 
the event that would be taking place there that evening, 
"of course Serena's not going to be particularly in love 
with the idea.  But it's not up to her, it's up to me, 
and sooner or later she has got to come to a mature 
understanding with the prince."
     Serenity had decided:  that night there would be 
a dinner, in which Bruce, Estelle, Serena, Serenity, 
Darien, King Aaron and Queen Celia, and the Inner 
Princesses would take part.  This decision was made for 
two reasons.
     The first was the obligation she felt to introduce 
Aaron and Celia, the Earth's monarchs, as well as their 
son to Estelle and Bruce.  After all, now that the Earth 
was back in the political swing of things as far as their 
neighbor the Moon Kingdom was involved, it was only right 
for them to meet the future mother-in-law and husband of 
Serenity's daughter.
     The second also had to do with politics, and was 
darker.  Estelle had mentioned the day before to Serenity 
how "concerned" she was about the Beryl-situation.  She 
had a perfect right to be worried -- if Serena wed Bruce 
then that provided a link to Lerence that Beryl and her 
armies could easily take advantage of.  Though at first 
glance everyone had agreed that the armies of their solar 
system combined with the mighty droves of Lerence, 
(which was a kingdom majorly obsessed with military) 
would certainly beat Beryl, as time passed the situation 
was looking worse and worse.  Beryl not only had contacts 
on Earth:  these contacts were branching out to other 
planets as well.
     Serenity did not blame Estelle, but she had to 
make her friend see things differently.  Perhaps meeting 
with Celia and Aaron, as well as their son, would calm 
her senses.  After all, Earth was dealing with Beryl 
and her phenomena first hand, and knew better than anyone 
her secrets.
     And of course Serenity wanted to keep the betrothal.   
Not only would it be in her daughter's best interests, 
but it would get Serena safely out of the kingdom, secure 
to have an heir and to carry on the throne if need be.  
With Serena safe in Lerence married to Bruce, Serenity 
could devote her worries elsewhere.
     But for some reason...  "Why do I have a bad feeling 
about tonight?"  Serenity asked herself as she rose from 
the chair and walked unsteadily to the intercom on the 
other side of the room.  Why was she getting the feeling 
that there was something going on under her nose that for 
the life of her she could not see?
     Her delicate, white hand grazed over the row of neat, 
colored and marked buttons that when pressed would connect 
the intercom to another in a different part of the castle.  
Guest rooms, the princess' rooms, the servants 
quarters...Serena's bed chambers....  She pressed the pink 
tab gently, and spoke into the microphone.  "Serena 
darling, are you awake yet?"
     After a few moments the crackled response came.  
"Good morning, Mother, yes, I have been up for hours."  
This was punctuated by a stifled yawn that disproved 
the previous statement.  "Ah, um, what's the matter?"
     Serenity took a deep breath.  "Nothing is wrong, 
exactly, I just wanted to let you know that tonight 
we're going to be hosting a very special dinner, and 
I wanted to make sure that you have something to wear.  
If you don't, that's quite all right, we can send for 
something...."
     "What's going on tonight?"
     "Well," the queen coughed, "as I said we are going 
to be hosting a dinner.  It's so Estelle and Bruce can 
meet Aaron and Celia and Darien...they have yet to be 
introduced, you know.  And Bruce is without any male 
companions here of his own age...perhaps he and Darien can 
strike up a friendship for the duration of his time in our 
kingdom."
     There was a plausible silence then, that lasted for 
a few seconds.  Then, just before her mother could prompt 
her to answer, Serena replied in squeaky voice, "Darien??"
     "Yes.  Now, Serena, I really don't want to get into 
it --"
     "You mean he'll be in the same room with me, and 
Bruce, and me, and...and..."
     "Do you have a problem with it, Serena?  Perhaps 
I should go up there are we can speak about it in person...
but I really don't have time for hysterics, I am taking 
Estelle and Bruce on a tour of Mercury this afternoon, 
Bruce is interested in seeing the Mariner Castle...."
     Serena cut into her mother's words with a voice that 
reminded Serenity of a knife, clear and silver, but thin 
with a slight edge.  "Why...why would I have a problem 
with, um, me, and Darien, in the same room, together, 
as Bruce...ah, heh heh...um..."
     "It's just a delicate situation, I mean, it's no 
secret the sort of relationship you and Darien share...."  
Was it her imagination or did Serena audibly gasp in 
surprise.  "Dear?"
     "A delicate situation...I don't know how you could 
possibly know..."  There was some low muttering that 
Serenity could not make out.  Then in a louder voice 
her daughter continued.  "I thought that we had done 
a good job at keeping the whole thing secret, and I 
just want you to know Mother that I have the whole 
thing under control, and you should probably let me 
explain before you get upset...maybe you should hear 
Darien's side as well...and trust me, Raye and the 
others didn't know a thing about it, but now that you 
know how I feel about him --"
     If Serenity didn't already have her mind on the 
dinner plans and how Serena would take them, she would 
have caught onto the fact that her daughter was obviously 
nervous about something.  But of course the queen never 
picked up on the princess' urgent voice.  "Dear, I don't 
know what you're talking about, because you know as well 
as I do that the entire galaxy knows about your hatred 
for the prince.  I just do not want it to come up at 
dinner tonight.  I wish everything from here on in to 
run as smooth as crystal."
     Just as the queen had not noticed the babbling 
she did not notice the sigh of relief coming from the 
opposite end of the intercom.  "Thank good -- I mean, 
all right, yes, I guess I can TRY my HARDEST to be 
nice to that jerk.  For you.  And for Bruce."
     Serenity smiled.  "Good girl.  Now, I'll let you 
go, the Inner Princesses have already been informed of 
tonight's engagements.  Would you rather I extend the 
invitation to Prince Darien, or would you like to do 
it in person."
     "Um, no, no, I'll do it.  I guess we have to 
start somewhere, right?"
     "Right."
     "Okay, ta ta, Mother...have fun on Mercury!!"
     Serenity smiled even wider as she wished her 
daughter farewell and turned the com off.  Though 
as she turned to leave the room she still could not 
quite shake the feeling that something was going on....





So, it was a boring chapter.  And a shorter one, too, in 
comparison to some of the others anyway.  There is much 
more to look forward to in the next chapter anyway, more
excitement.  The dinner, may I mention again, was one of 
my favorite scenes to write!
     Next time in Chapter 9, Serena starts to plan how she
will behave in the presence of Bruce, her mother, and her
friends, while with Darien...maybe part of the dinner itself
I'll have to see how things work out.
     E-mail SlrUnico@aol.com to comment!!!
~~~Ali~~~