I DID IT! I have actually succeeded in writing a fanfic that is less than ten pages long! I am SO proud of myself! Anyway, the inspiration for this little songfic is credited to Celine Dion and Luciano Pavaratti (assuming I spelled that right), which is only natural, considering the song (and the title) belongs to them. Well, they sing it, at any rate (absolutely BEAUTIFUL song, I might add...). ;-) Sailor Moon and friends does NOT belong to me, which I'm sure we all know by now. This is an alternate reality, set somewhere in the Doom Tree series (although the Doom Tree isn't actually mentioned here. It could be rated mostly PG, I'd say. Maybe a little PG13 in there somewhere. This is before Darien regains his memories. And look! I actually use Mina in the story! Sort of. Anyhow, since that's now out of the way, on with the show! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I Hate You then I Love You" by Stormlight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'd like to run away with you, but if I were to leave you, I would die. I'd like to break the chains you put around me, and yet I'll never try. No matter what you do, you drive me crazy! I'd rather be alone, but then I know my life would be so empty as soon as you had gone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "You're a klutz." "Shut up, Darien." "You're lazy as sin..." "Shut UP, Darien!" "You probably couldn't find your way out of a paper bag, you're so dumb..." Serena slapped her hands against the table she was sitting at and stood up, shoving her chair back so hard that it tipped over and hit the floor with a loud clatter. Raye and Mina, who were sitting with her, looked at each other in alarm. Darien had pushed things too far; it was rare that Serena lost her temper, but when she did it was like an erupting volcano. Heaven help the poor soul who was in the way... "Um...think we should intervene?" Mina whispered. "Nu-uh!" Raye replied with a feral smile. "Darien has it coming to him. Just 'cause he forgot who she is and what she means to him, doesn't mean he can go around acting like a bully just 'cause HE'S in a bad mood!" "But, Raye...YOU act like a bully to her all the time!" Mina pointed out. Raye sweatdropped. "That's different. She knows I don't mean it!" she sniffed haughtily. "Uh-huh. Sure, if you say so..." ~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile... ~~~~~~~~~~ "You...are the biggest jerk I've ever met in my life, Darien Chiba!" Serena yelled loudly, clenching her fists. "You have a heart of ice, and I don't know WHY I ever thought otherwise! Just 'cause you grew up in an orphanage and lost your memories doesn't mean you can treat people like dirt 'cause you're too scared to let them in!" Darien was stunned. **How the heck does she know about THAT?!** he thought numbly. It was a closely-guarded secret; Andrew was the only person he'd ever told. Was it possible that Andrew would betray his trust? It seemed inconceivable...and yet, somehow...SHE KNEW. "Who told you that?" he demanded harshly, grabbing Serena's arm in a rough grasp. "Who told you I was an orphan?!" Serena's eyes widened in alarm, sensing the dangerous turn this argument had suddenly taken. Too late, she remembered that since Darien had lost his memory of Tuxedo Mask and the Sailor Scouts and the Moon Princess in the fight with Queen Beryl, he wouldn't know that it was he himself who had told her about his past. "Uh...n-nobody," she stammered. "Nobody told me..." His eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you," he growled. "Did Andrew tell you?" When she remained silent he shook her a little. "Who TOLD you?!" His voice was close to a shout. "You did!" Serena cried suddenly, her eyes filling with tears. "You told me, only something terrible happened and now you don't remember ANY of it! And you'll never hold me or call me Bunny again or...or..." She broke off as a sob choked her words, tearing herself from Darien's grasp and racing from the arcade. "Serena, wait!" he called out, as stunned at her tears as he was at her words. "What do you mean?" Then, turning wildly on Raye and Mina, "What did she mean?!" The girls just looked at him, and their eyes were filled with a strange sadness that he had noticed had been appearing in them the past few weeks, although he could comprehend no good reason why. "That's something you'll have to discover for yourself," Raye told him quietly. Then she and Mina left the arcade and walked to Serena, who was standing at the window with her head bent and her hands covering her face, shoulders shaking gently with her sobs. Darien felt his heart wrench as he watched Raye and Mina put their arms around their friend. She seemed so...so SAD! Had his words really done that much damage? He felt a lump form in his throat as he watched the girls walk away, and hastily cleared it. **What do I care?** he told himself harshly, turning away. But even as he thought the words, his lips moved to form another word on their own. "Bunny..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Impossible to live with you, but I could never live without you. For whatever you do I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darien found himself standing in a wide field filled with flowers, staring up at a balcony of white marble that shone brilliantly in the light of a full moon. Surprised, not to mention more than a little confused (after all, the last thing he recalled doing was reading his advanced physics book back in his apartment), he looked around, noting that he stood in a garden of sorts, and that the balcony was attached to a very large palace that seemed somehow familiar to him. **What's going on?** he wondered. **Where the heck am I, and why does it look so familiar?** And then...a woman appeared. A beautiful young woman--hardly more than a girl, really--who was wearing a flowing gown of purest white, with her hair streaming behind her in two pale, silken ribbons that looked nearly silver in the moonlight. She was exquisitely beautiful, although how Darien knew that was beyond his guess; after all, in the shadows, from that distance, her features were little more than a blur to him. But he could see her eyes, as clearly as though she was standing right before him, and they were beautiful eyes, indeed, he noted with awe. They were large, and glittered with the light of the stars, as clear and blue as the purest summer sky, filled with the innocence of every child in the world, and all the wisdom of the Universe. At the moment, those eyes were staring down straight into his own, and suddenly he realized...that he KNEW this woman! And then the princess (for that was what she was, he knew to the depths of his soul) spoke. "Prince Darien! You've come!" she cried elatedly, gathering her skirts and running gracefully down the flight of stairs that descended from the balcony. "I've missed you so much, my love!" **Huh? PRINCE Darien? My LOVE?! Who IS this woman?!" Darien wondered, stunned, as the princess threw herself into him and held on tight. On instinct, his arms came up to hold her, wrapping around her uncertainly, and suddenly that feeling of deja vu was sweeping over him again. **I...I KNOW her,** he thought. **It's as though...she's a part of my past that I've...forgotten...** Aloud, he whispered, "Who are you?" She stirred in his arms, and slowly lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him, and for the first time, he could clearly see her face... "SERENA?!" She smiled at him; a sweet, enchanting smile, and then leaned forward to brush her lips across his own in an achingly tender kiss that left him weak in the knees. "Remember me..." she whispered softly, gazing up at him with love glowing in her eyes. And then... He woke up. Sitting bolt-upright, gasping for air, he stared blindly into the darkness, his entire body shaking. **A dream,** he thought. **A dream...but it was so...so REAL!** He felt despair creep into him, at the realization that it WAS only a dream, and viciously shoved it aside as he scrubbed his hands over his face. **It's all that Meatball Head's fault! All her fault, with her tears and her weird words. She's driving me crazy!** he thought bitterly. Him, the master of self-control, and here she was, ripping it to shreds. A mere child! It was almost laughable...only he didn't feel much like laughing at the moment... The image of her sad little face flashed into his mind, making him wince as a feeling of guilt began to nag at his heart. No matter how strange SHE was acting, he knew that he was the reason she'd started crying in the first place. As mean as he'd been, she had never CRIED before! If only he'd kept his big mouth shut for once...but he just couldn't seem to help himself! He hadn't been in the best mood yesterday (due to an argument with one of his professors), and she was there...and was so...so HAPPY! It wasn't fair, that she should be so cheerful when he felt so rotten... And then it hit him...he had really MEANT to hurt her. He had deliberately tried to make her unhappy, just because HE was in a foul mood, and was jealous of the way nothing ever seemed to phase her. So he'd unconsciously wanted to make her cry, get mad, do ANYTHING that would wipe that smile from her face. Well, apparently he had succeeded. He suddenly felt about as low as the dust she walked on... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You make me sad. You make me strong. You make me mad. You make me long for you. You make me live. You make me die. You make me laugh. You make me cry for you. I hate you, then I love you. I love you, then I hate you, then I love you more. For whatever you do I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She was sitting on a bench in the park, feeding bread to some baby ducks. Darien stood half behind a tree and watched as she giggled at the ducklings' antics. She looked so perfectly happy, sitting there with the afternoon sunlight streaming over her in a golden waterfall, making her hair glow. It was as though yesterday's tears had never existed. "Now, now, ducky. Let your brothers and sisters have some, too," she playfully admonished a particularly hungry baby. The little black duckling squeaked in annoyance when Serena nudged it back with her foot, and she giggled again, leaning over to pick it up in her hand. Darien's eyebrows shot up, and he looked around for the baby's mother. Surely no wild duck would allow anybody handle her babies without flying into a frenzied panic. Sure enough, there was the mother, rooting around at the edge of the lake. She looked up when she heard her baby squeak, quacking softly, but she didn't seem particularly alarmed. In fact, she merely shook her feathers and then went right on rooting. **Well, how about that,** Darien thought in amazement, stepping closer to Serena's bench. **Heh. Must be a tame duck.** "What are YOU doing here?!" He jerked his attention back to Serena, who had finally noticed him and was now staring at him with a sort of dread in her eyes. This irritated him; what did she think he was going to do to her THIS time?! "Just watching you play with those ducks," he replied shortly. "Never saw a tame duck around here before, though." Serena bristled. "These aren't tame!" she protested. "The mother just knows that I would never hurt one of her babies, is all!" "Yeah, right, Meatball Head!" he snorted. "They're all tame! I'll prove it!" She smirked. "Yeah? How are ya gonna do THAT?" she challenged, crossing her arms defiantly and sticking her nose in the air. He raised an eyebrow. "Easy!" he replied, and bent over to scoop one of the ducklings into his hands. Serena suddenly looked nervous. "Uh...Darien, I wouldn't if I was you..." she warned. Of course he ignored her. Male ego ALWAYS rules out over common sense when it came to stuff like impressing girls. It's an unwritten Law of Nature. "See?" he smirked, standing up with a duck cradled in his hands. "It's perfectly-" He was abruptly cut off when an explosion of feathers and beaks suddenly appeared in his line of vision. He yelped, dodging as the furious mother beat at his head with her wings, dropping the duckling in the process, who immediately scampered to safety. But Mother Duck still wasn't finished. In fact, she even found help when Papa Duck decided to jump into the fray (Hey, they were his kids, too, after all). They continued to scold furiously, pecking with their beaks as Darien was forced to retreat...right toward the lake. What happened next was something straight out of a movie. One minute, he was feebly brushing aside enraged waterfowl, and in the next he found himself submerged up to his head in the lake. Well...he was there. Might as well make the most of it and stay there until his attackers forgot about him and went their own way... When he finally emerged, gasping for air, the duck family had, indeed, left, herding the squeaking babies into the lake and swimming off to some less insane area of the park. Papa Duck tossed a few last quacks over his shoulder as he left, no doubt threatening to beat that fool human within an inch of his life if he ever dared to touch his kids again. Male egotism ran rampant, it seems... Darien slowly stood up, mustering as much dignity as he could, and pushed back his sopping hair from his eyes in a gesture designed to look cool and collected. A startled frog that had apparently decided Darien's head was, in actuality, a fuzzy rock, leaped into the water with an offended croak and swam away, taking pretty much every last shred of dignity Darien might have had left to muster with it. Darien watched it go, slightly bemused. Well, there went THAT idea... And that was when Serena lost it. She had run to the edge of the lake in a panic when Darien didn't surface right away, but as soon as Darien's head had appeared, complete with frog, her worry faded quickly to amusement. She sat down at the edge of the lake and burst into laughter, holding her sides and closing her eyes, her entire body shaking. His glare was a little waterlogged, but she tried to stop, for his sake; shook her head at him when she couldn't. Grumbling, he slogged out of the water, spitefully wringing out his green jacket onto a hysterical Serena, which of course had no affect on her whatsoever. So he sat down beside her with a scowl and waited for her to calm down. "I-I did warn you!" she gasped through her giggles. "Oh, Darien...you looked...so...Fu-FUNNY!" "Go ahead and yuk it up," he muttered, shaking water from his hair, but the sound of her laughter was doing strange things to his insides, and it kept making a smile want to crawl onto his face. He held it back as long as possible, but it was no good, and finally he relaxed and let the smile come. "Well, I was a little warm, anyway," he said wryly, chuckling a little. Serena shook her head, still giggling as she laid back on the grass, tucking her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. "Oh, Darien. I love you," she murmured, a sweet smile hovering on her lips. "Say WHAT?!" Darien sat bolt-upright, his eyes opening wide. Serena's own eyes opened slightly, peeking out through long lashes to see him staring down at her, looking stunned. She frowned slightly, wondering what the problem was. "What?" "Serena..." He faltered a little. "Don't you even realize what you just said?" She frowned again. "Sure. I said I lov-" Abruptly she was sitting up, both hands clapped over her mouth as her eyes widened in horror. "Oh no!" she squealed, her voice muffled. "I forgot! You don't...you don't remember!" "Remember WHAT, Serena?!" Darien's tone was frustrated as he gripped her arms, staring intently into her eyes. "WHAT don't I remember?" He wanted to shake her, yell at her, do SOMETHING to make her tell him the truth...because she was right. There WAS something he felt he should remember...something important and life-altering...and he knew that she was the key to unlocking the mystery. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You treat me wrong, you treat me right, you let me be, you make me fight with you. You make me high, you bring me down, you set me free...you hold me bound to you. I hate you, then I love you. I love you, then I hate you. Then I love you more. For whatever you do I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Serena gazed at Darien through tear-filled eyes, not knowing what to do. Luna had warned her that it was best to let Darien's memories return on their own; that nothing she said would make him remember before it was time. But...he was so close to discovering the truth. The memories were there, just waiting to escape. Surely...a little help would not... "Princess Serenity," she breathed. "Do you remember her? And the Moon Kingdom? Do you remember...that you were once Prince Darien? Oh, Darien! TRY to remember!" Darien started. Those names...particularly the last one...they were so familiar to him. The princess in his dream who looked so much like Serena--Princess Serenity?--had called him Prince Darien. She had begged him to remember her, in much the same way that Serena was doing now. It was too much of a coincidence. "I...dreamed of you," he whispered, a hand reaching up to touch her face with trembling fingers before darting away again. "You were dressed like a princess. You called me...Prince Darien..." Hope instantly flared in Serena's eyes. "What else did I tell you?" she breathed. "Y-you told me to remember you." "And do you...remember?" "I-I'm not sure..." He was staring intently at her lips with an expression that made her shiver. Hunger shone in his deep sapphire eyes, and she stepped closer to him, her heart pounding with hope and excitement and something more. "Remember, Darien!" she pleaded. "For us! For everything we went through to find each other again...for the fut-" She was silenced abruptly when Darien took the final step to close the distance between them, angling his head to claim her lips in a fierce, almost desperate kiss. His arms surrounded her, engulfed her, and she felt like she was flying. As for Darien, no sooner did he feel the touch of Serena's soft lips against his own, then the memories came pouring into him. Images of himself, as Prince Darien, and Princess Serenity, a thousand years ago, each the heir to two mighty kingdoms. Scenes of himself and Serena from only months ago, arguing with each other. Pictures of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, fighting side by side. And the final, fated battle as his Princess stood alone before Queen Beryl, holding the Imperial Silver Crystal before her as the spirits of her Scouts rallied around her. And then...nothing... He released her with a gasp, stumbling back as his eyes flew open, staring blindly at nothing. He stood, trembling, as his thoughts slowly settled, and blinked several times before focusing on Serena's worried little face. His beloved Serena... "D-Darien?" she whispered, looking very young and uncertain, almost ready to burst into tears. He smiled at her, a tender, gentle smile that was filled with all the love he ever held for a small, meatball-headed princess. "Hello, Bunny," he whispered. "I've missed you..." For a moment, she merely stood there, her beautiful eyes sparkling with unshed tears. Then, with a brilliant smile, she hurled herself into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head in his chest as she let her tears come. His own arms came around her and held on tight, his lips brushing her hair. When she raised her head to look at him, he pressed soft kisses over her face, making her laugh. "Bunny..." he murmured, his voice catching slightly as he lowered his mouth to her own. "I love you..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I never, never, never. I never, never, never want to be in love with anyone but you. But you... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, what do you think? Not too bad for my first song-fic, I think. Email me peoples!