Title: Perfect Strangers
Author: aquaxeyes
Rating: T for language
Full Description: It's been two years since Serena Moore has heard anything from her old high school crush, Darien Matthews. When he finally makes contact, she is forced to face his version of the truth and her feelings for someone she thought she knew. But will this long overdue confrontation prove they're perfect together or perfect strangers?

Author's Notes: It's me again, writing another story I might not finish!

Semi-regretfully, I will be using the American dub names and maybe some new characters, but I'm sure that it won't make too much of a difference since it's AU and all. I apologize for any coarse and vulgar language I may use; I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible.

Heehee, FYI: this fic was inspired by recent true events in collaboration with Emma Bunton's third solo album, "Life in Mono". In fact, the title of this fic is named after one of her songs. And it is true, I share this title with another talented author on FanFiction, but I want you ladies and gents to know I have no intention of using the same storyline, though it is quite similar. This is a story I have been working on at work (yeah, it gets pretty boring at a café, people) for two weeks and hasn't been influenced by FanFiction at all, so umm.. yeah.

Before you get to reading, please remember I'll be updating as fast as things happen in real life. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story.

Part One. The Message.

Serena sighed, staring at the screen and the message it displayed.

"Hey Serena...

Don't really know what to say, not sure on how the terms that we left off on are. Uncomfortable for me. But you were an awesome friend in high school and I would love to hear how you are doing.

Sorry if I built a wall instead of a bridge.

Darien."

She reread his carefully chosen words many times, until they didn't make sense anymore.

Then again, it didn't make sense. It had been two years since graduation, two years since she saw his very unforgettable face.

She had never been the sentimental type, so she hadn't stayed in contact with many people from high school. It wasn't until someone from college introduced her to Reunion, a dot-com networking site where high school alumni could keep in touch with those they had graduated with. Reluctantly, she joined, but she rarely checked her account.

Slowly, people from high school started to send her friend requests, people she never thought would remember her. After all, she wasn't a cheerleader or a class politician. She wasn't even the class geek. She was a nobody, a girl who blended fine with everybody but never really fit in anywhere.

Which brought her back to Darien. Darien Matthews, the cute boy every girl wanted to date. He was a full six inches taller than her, with dark, thick hair that curled just a bit at the ends. He had the perfect physique and the softest blue eyes which, with one swift glance, could make girls swoon. Serena laughed, remembering a fairly pitiable redhead by the name of Molly Sanders who would do just that.

His presence was intoxicating, his smile, devastating. He was flawless.

The one thing that had caught Serena, though, wasn't his smile, or his hair, or anything on a physical level for that matter. It was that fact that girls loved him and guys wanted to be him, and he was completely unaware of it. He either didn't notice, didn't care or simply chose to ignore it. But Serena noticed.

She had to admit, she was curious back then, or rather, futilely attracted to something--yes, something and not someone because in all actuality, she was merely attracted to the idea of him. What she came to find was that Darien was not what she imagined he'd be. He was human, with all sorts of quirks and worst of all, the capability to ruin the last three years of her high school career.

That was then.

Now, four years later, she was a matured, twenty-year-old version of the flat-chested blonde she'd been in high school. She'd forgotten all about her lonely life as a high school student, and the only thing that came as a shock, other than hearing from Darien after two whole years, was the fact that he was back in town for college.

She sat comfortably on her bed, staring at the twelve-inch screen of her laptop, fingers hovering over the keyboard. She was thinking of how to be cruel, how to call him "a selfish pig" and say "how dare you try to talk to me as if nothing happened".

An hour passed, and she got up, stretched her back and arms, stared at her response one more time, and went to make dinner.

"Hey no problem, I don't remember much about high school really, I hope I wasn't the reason we stopped talking..?

There's not much going on with me, just school and work to pass time. Didn't know you were at the community college, though. Hope you're doing good. Anyway, it was good to hear from you! Take care.

Serena."

Darien sighed, reading her reply. A thousand questions ran through his mind, and then he shook his head. "She doesn't mean it."

It took him months to gather all the courage he could to stop merely looking at her profile and actually send her a friend request, and she answered with some quick, perky message about how she didn't remember anything. He knew that it couldn't have been farther from the truth.

But that was just like Serena Moore, to be so nice even though she wanted to be so callous. She wore her heart on her sleeve and had every emotion written on her face. And no matter how painfully obvious it was, she always concealed what she felt.

Which meant she was probably very volatile at the moment.

He wasn't stupid, he knew he hurt her all those years ago. Worse yet, he knew that she had feelings for him and hurt her nonetheless. If he could graduate from high school, leave town and go to a different college, come back after two years and still be haunted about what he did, he wondered how she had been handling it.

He had considered that sending a vague message himself may not have been a good idea, but he wanted to know if she still begrudged him after all this time. And now, her answer had left him deprived and wanting more.

Fingers ready to tap away, he stopped. 'No,' he thought to himself, 'This is all wrong. Am I overstepping my bounds? After all, I did just message her out of the blue, and I'm expecting her to just forgive me?' He almost snorted at his arrogance.

They weren't in high school anymore. Serena wasn't going to forgive him just because he talked to her. He was actually going to have to try and make amends.. which he, of course, didn't know how to do.

'First things first,' he said, closing the internet browser and closing his laptop, 'She needs to open up to me first. Until then, I need to give her her space.. Damn.'

Two days passed before memories began to resurface from Serena's mind.

The first one came to her on the drive to school, about the first time she saw Darien. He was eating lunch with the only two people he ever hung around with at school, Lita and Melvin Wright. Cousins, Serena remembered, but complete opposites. Lita was a rambunctious, outspoken girl who was taller than most of the boys at school--save for Darien and his best friend Andrew--while Melvin was a quiet, reserved dork. It had only been a quick aversion of eyes, but it changed everything.

Serena shook her head then, trying to focus on the road. But the reminiscent feeling remained with her the rest of the day.

The second memory came to her in the shower after work, three days later. It was of the day she spoke to him for the first time, which had been a couple of months after that first glance. She didn't understand why she was so breathless, why her palms were sweating and her knees were shaking, just by talking to him. She hadn't understood that she was quickly falling in love with a stranger she created in her mind, a stranger who epitomized perfection.

Frustrated with those lingering feelings she cut her shower short and began to get ready for her second job, hoping that it would distract her from her current thoughts. She wound up ripping her comb through her hair so hard she practically lost patches.

Come Friday, a full week had passed, and she was more worn down by nostalgia than two jobs and school. Packing her bags, she drove to see her sister, Mina.

Mina was Serena's elder by a year and eleven months, but the two were so similar in looks and mannerisms that people confused them or thought they were twins. They were very close, but had to readjust to Mina's new job as a women's sports magazine intern in a city one hundred or so miles away. However, they decided to alternate visiting each other every other weekend, Mina going back home one week and Serena driving out to her apartment the next.

When she got there, Mina left a note on the kitchen counter, saying she was assisting her editor and friend, Ami Lier, with her front cover layout designs and would be back in a few hours.

With nothing else to do but surf the internet, Serena logged back on to Reunion and reread her and Darien's two-message conversation. It made her bury her head in her hands and groan, "Why does this bother me so much?"

The answer was clear. Darien Matthews was her high school crush. He was the first guy to ever break her heart. He also was an opportunist. Her reasoning? 'He had to message me when I've been over him for a long time.'

She furrowed her brow. "He's not going to get away with this."

And so she messaged him back.

"I've decided I'm not going to lie, I don't know why you remember me as such an 'awesome' friend since you talked bad about me. And if you wanted to message me expecting me to hate you or something, that's not the case. I probably shouldn't have told you it was okay in the first place, but I figured you needed to hear that for some peace of mind.

If there was something you needed to get off your chest, you might as well be up front about it. It's not like you could hurt my feelings now."

Satisfied, she logged off and left Mina's apartment in search of food. Yes, comfort food, for a stab in Serena's gut she knew she couldn't fill without his answers.

"Wow." That was all he could say. Serena pretty much laid everything in front of him, and he was just too overwhelmed.

Darien didn't know if he should've been flattered or thoroughly insulted. He knew she wasn't going to leave things like she did in her last message--he knew he wouldn't have had he been in her shoes--but he didn't expect her to be that straightforward. 'Since when was she ever direct?'

He threw his hands up at the last sentence. 'It's not like you could hurt my feelings now.'

Like her, he wasn't going to lie, he remembered the last time she tried to call him. It was after graduation, and he had already made sure she wouldn't approach him ever again. But his phone rang, sure enough, and it was her. He was with his backstabbing friends at the time, so he ignored her call.

That night, he saw that he had a voicemail from her. In it, Serena basically said that she thought he was a great friend, that she was sure he knew she had a crush on him and that she hoped things worked out for him in the future even though they weren't friends.

That should have been a wake-up call for him. It had only turned him off even more.

But back to her message, which was his main issue at hand. Maybe it made him feel restless that he no longer had any power over her. Maybe it made him feel less important and that she really thought so lowly of him. No matter, he was bothered by it.

For twelve minutes he worked on a message that was clear, concise, and just as hurtful as hers--depending on if she still cared to listen to him or not--and deleted it. 'Damn.' He was thinking along those lines a lot lately.

Serena successfully forgot about her Darien troubles for the weekend. With her sister's non-stop crazy life and a friend-slash-magazine-editor like Ami, Mina had proved to be a fun distraction for her. By the time Serena came back into town, she was calm and collected and on the verge of forgetting about Darien Matthews for the second time post-graduation.. when she received a response that Friday.

"Serena,

I have nothing to get off my chest. I wrote you knowing you weren't the one that had done wrong. I wrote you hoping to be able to apologize. In high school all of my relationships were guarded and about the interpretation of things not said. I don't know what else I can say other than sorry.

I am sorry. I know it took a long time, but now I do care about what I did with your feelings. A lot changed when I got to college. Convenience is not my motive in friendship now. That is why I wrote.

I want to be a friend to you for the first time now. But I can't prove that with any amount of words. We should meet up sometime.

Darien."

'What the hell does all of this mean?' She wanted to yell. Before she got carried away, she noticed something he said in the middle of his rant.

"Convenience is not my motive in friendship now."

She read that sentence aloud, wondering where she heard something like that before. Scrolling in her public comment history with some friends, she caught it.

"Friends just seem to be there when it's convenient, and when you're really grasping for straws they're looking the other way and still trying to find their own fun. It's hard because when you're trying to be serious, nobody seems to like it."

That's what she said to another old high school alumni the day after she sent Darien that new message. She scrolled to the latest public comments on that girl's page and made a face; Darien was the last person to leave a comment. 'Umm.. can someone say STALKER?!'

She wanted to smile at the fact that he was reading what she said. At the same time, she couldn't help like he was throwing what she said in her face. That, and she didn't know if she could take him seriously.

"What the hell does all of this mean?"

"That's what I'm wondering.. Gah!" Serena jumped upon seeing Mina peering over her shoulder. "Mina!"

Mina appeared to be unfazed by Serena's near-death shock. With a stern look she began. "Serena Jane Moore, do not tell me you're tracking that jerk, Darien Matthews, down!"

"Ummm," Serena said, trying to understand what her sister was saying, "That's not what's going on here--"

"Explain," Mina said, crossing her arms and watching her sister with narrowed eyes.

"Mina Faith Moore, if you do not stop looking at me like that I swear I'll--"

"Explain."

Serena sighed. Mina could be more stubborn and adamant than a mule. "Okay, you fruitfly. Darien tracked me down."

"What?"

"Yeah, you heard me. Darien found me and sent me a message," Serena said smugly, feeling like she was gaining the upper hand for the first time in the conversation.

Mina's eyes widened and like magic, she was excited Mina again. "Let's see, let's see," she said, practically clapping her hands in pleasure.

"Dork," Serena muttered, but showed Mina the online messages.

Two minutes revealed a smirking Mina. "What?" Serena sighed, weary of her sisters varying expressions.

"I knew he'd come crawling back," she said, then giggled maniacally.

Serena arched her brow. "I doubt that. Very much so."

"Oh, nevermind that," Mina said, clicking on Darien's profile and going through his pictures, "What do you think?"

"Honestly?"

"Obviously."

Serena crossed her arms, staring at Darien's matured face. He no longer was a cute boy. He had morphed into a handsome young man with the same albeit matured features. "Ugh," she groaned, locking her arms over stomach, "Why did he still have to look good after all this time?"

Mina laughed. "Oh, dear. She's getting it bad."

Serena hmph'd and moved around Mina to get back to what she was planning on doing, which was writing to Darien. "That couldn't be further from the truth."

"I don't think either of us are at fault for things that happened a long time ago. There will always be things we'd wish we could have handled differently.

I understand that you may be sorry, but you don't have to prove it to me. I take your word for it. I just didn't want this to happen, to hear from you and have high school brought up again. Everything was very forgettable, but now I'm starting to remember why I was so upset.

I never got to ask you if what Andrew said was true, that you only talked to me in the first place because of a bet or something like that. It sounds logical, even though it came from him, but it would explain a few things.

I never really understood you, only tried to understand the things you did, but if you answered that, at least we wouldn't be perfect strangers."

Darien's face was grim. It stayed that way as he typed.

Did he know what and who she was talking about? Yes. Andrew Prince, his best friend. The boy who won Serena's heart, at least for a little while. He was blonde, he was cute, and he had a way with the ladies. But he only wanted Serena.

Darien remembered when Serena tried to talk to him for the first time. She approached him after school in the hallway, with only a few people lingering behind. He was bored with her, itching to get back to Andrew to have a quick snack before soccer practice. She wouldn't leave for another ten minutes or so, but when he spotted Andrew and began to complain about a strange blonde girl that tried to hit on him, Andrew's eyes were on her.

"She's gorgeous."

Darien scoffed. "Dude, she's creepy. I tried playing annoyed but she didn't get it."

"You're a hard guy to get," Andrew simply said, still starting at her. Twenty seconds later, he spoke again. "Her smile is beautiful."

He looked over and caught Serena mid-laugh with a girl who could've been her sister. The sound was like a light tinkling of bells, he'd give her that, but he didn't know why Andrew was so quickly fascinated with her. She was a nobody--the only reason he remembered her face was because she was in one of his classes.

"Whatever."

"Would you mind talking to her again?" Andrew blurted.

"What?" Darien was afraid his eyes would bug right out of their sockets.

"Only for a minute or something, enough time for me to join in the conversation and introduce myself," the blonde said, finally turning his head to raise his brows in anticipation.

Of course he had caved, he was a friend-pleaser and not his own person back then. And although he didn't talk to her because Andrew bet him to, he still didn't want the truth to slip.

To top it off, it sounded like any chance of apologizing to her in person would go down the drain if he didn't tell her. Therein, was the problem. 'What do I do? I don't want to hurt her feelings again, even if she said I couldn't.'

"So did he answer yet?" Mina's voice demanded over the phone after two days.

"Hold on, I still have to log on," she replied.

Ten seconds passed. "So?"

"Hold on, fruitfly!"

"Don't call me that!"

Serena pulled the phone away from her ear, wincing. "Do you even know what I mean by that?"

"No."

She chuckled, looking at her new comments. "A fruitfly can't survive without flying over the top and getting in someone's face, pretty much making said person go crazy and asking to get smacked in the face."

Silence. "I suppose that's a little funny."

Serena would've laughed again had she not seen a new message in her inbox. Darien. Silently she opened it and began to read.

"It sounds logical... but even then I wouldn't have talked to someone based on a bet. I didn't understand much then either, especially about me. But now that I have started to figure that out, I understand what I didn't understand then, that I caused a lot of hurt.

Once again you have no reason to believe me, not from all you know, not from my actions then. But you can give me a chance now."

"What did he say?" Mina perceptively asked.

Sobered, she read what he wrote aloud.

"Sounds like bullshit to me--"

"My sentiments exactly--"

"--is what I would say, obviously to make you feel better," Mina finished.

"Mina!"

Serena heard crinkling on the phone, Mina trying to suppress her laughter she imagined. Next, she heard, "Are you going to "give him a chance now"?"

"No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Mina," Serena almost yelled, exasperated, "I don't need another so-called friend to add to the total stressors in my life. Darien Matthews is trying to bring all this shit from high school up because he's going through some sort of epiphany. He just wants to see me to get every little wrong he's ever done off of his guilty conscience. I'd be doing him the favor."

"And you'd find resolution in whatever he decides to tell you."

"It's likely."

"Then does it matter what happens when you see him? You're not in high school anymore, Serena, he's not going to get to tell any of his little friends."

Serena clicked on Darien's profile, finding the picture she decided was her favorite--ahem, highly preferred--of him and stared into his midnight blue eyes.

"I'll sleep on it."

"Being friends sounds nice, but what will it accomplish? We haven't seen or talked to each other in two years.. we'd be going out of our way to do both.

And because of recent events, I guess I'm just not in the mood to invest trust in anyone. I think that in messaging me you were being very sincere, but I can't do this again."

"Damn, man," a handsome brunette turned and said to a somber Darien.

"What do I do, Melvin?" the raven-haired man asked, expectantly.

"Man, what can you do? She doesn't want anything to do with you," he said, plopping on Darien's couch and stretching out.

That struck a nerve in him. For some reason, he couldn't bear to hear that Serena would hate to see or talk to him ever again.

"Shouldn't I.. I don't know.. try to change her mind?"

Melvin tilted his head and made a face. "I don't know how you'd do that," he shrugged, "After all, this is Serena Moore we're talking about. She's always been headstrong."

Darien shook his head. "Not with me."

The brunette raised a brow to a provoking height. "There's a reason for that. At least, there was."

'Damn, he's right.' Serena didn't like him anymore, not as a boy, friend, or person. She didn't need him if she didn't want him. 'She's lived two years without you.. come on! You're being arrogant again, not to mention selfish.'

"I just can't believe that's her," Melvin said, now at his side, checking Serena's profile picture out. "You'd think someone like her couldn't have wound up looking like that," he added with a low whistle.

While typing up his shortest response ever, Darien replied, "You should've heard what people said about you."

"Okay. I understand."

"That's all he said?" a dirty, short-haired blonde asked Serena.

"Yeah," she said blankly, her mind traveling in all sorts of directions.

"How long ago?" the girl asked.

"Three days, at oh-two-hundred hours Tenou-san," Serena said and saluted.

The girl known as Tenou-san nudged her in irritation. "You dork."

Serena laughed. Haruka Tenou was one of two people she spoke to at school. She met the Japanese foreign exchange student during her freshman year of college. They were in three of the four classes they had that semester--both were business majors. Serena, at the time, was a social butterfly, mixing with all sorts of people, but eventually those "friends" showed their true colors. After a scandalous summer, she wound up sharing another two classes with Haruka, and their friendship bloomed.

The only other person she talked to was Haruka's girlfriend Michiru Kaiou, another Japanese native and a music major.

That day, Serena dropped by their apartment to return a book she borrowed from Haruka, only to spill the story about Darien to her and Michiru. Unfortunately, Michiru had class, so she had to leave, but Haruka demanded she show her what she was talking about.

"I don't know what to think now," Serena said, ignoring the other blonde's comment.

Haruka smirked. "Don't pop a blood vessel over three words."

"Ha, very funny," she said, sending a glare the girl's way.

"Hey, don't magnum glare me, I just think you should've met up with him."

"Ugh!" Serena said, throwing her hands up in the air. "What is with you and Mina? "Just go meet him and get it over with." But you're both forgetting I don't want to see him!"

Haruka remained serene. "What's so horrible about it?"

"Well, for one, I've forgotten half of the reasons why I hated him. I don't hate him now, I'm just over it. And that's when he wants to rehash this shit with me," Serena said, standing up and pacing across the living room.

Haruka stood up, waited for Serena to come closer, then stopped her. She made sure to catch Serena's cornflower blue eyes before speaking. "Let's get one thing straight, although I'm not," she began and Serena let out a giggle. "You do want to see Darien--"

"No--"

"Yes, you do. You're just worried that you might actually get answers, get to know him, and actually develop real feelings for him."

The blue-eyed blonde shook her head vigorously. "I could never feel anything real when it came to him. I doubt that could happen now."

Darien almost leapt out of his seat when he found a message from Serena in his inbox.

"Name a place and time next week and I'll see what my work schedule's like."

"Did she write back?" Melvin's voice wafted from the living room.

"Yeah," he called back while typing, "How did you know?"

"You're not talking."

Darien rolled his eyes, sending his message out. "I need a new roommate," he muttered out loud.

"Does the Silver Moon at seven on Wednesday sound good?"

After he received confirmation that the note was sent, Darien responded to six new comments left on his profile--all from girls--before noticing he had a new message.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be there."

He thought twice about writing back with his number, but realized she didn't leave hers either. 'Well, I'm not going to give her mine so that she can call and cancel on me.'

A lazy grin spread across his face. 'I'm going to see her soon.'

End Part One.

A glimpse at the next chapter. Part Two. The Meeting.

His palms were starting to get a little clammy. 'Relax, man, it's just Serena.'

At least that's the train of thought he had before she walked in.