Author's Notes:

Phew, finally finished this story! Hope you'll like this last chapter. Thanks for reading and sticking with this story. My other 'fic "Separate Ways" will be continued soon.
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Love Insurance
by Phantasy Star
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Chapter Seven: Love Insurance
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"Come in."

"Hey, Mr. C," Serena said cheerfully as she walked into the hospital room of her boss.
"I brought you some-"

She stopped when she saw that Mr. Collins already had a visitor. Darien sat in a
chair beside him, a deck of cards in his hand that he was dealing when she
interrupted.

"Serena," Darien said politely, "It's nice to see you."

It wasn't often that she had seen him outside of the office, without his suit and
tie. He wore a black T-shirt which highlighted his broad shoulders and a pair of
dark blue jeans.

Serena forced a smile, "You too. I brought you some congee, Mr. C."

The older man groaned, "Again? I thought I asked you to sneak in a steak for me
next time you visited."

"Sorry, Mr. C," Serena said with a smile. "You know what the doctors said. Besides,
you don't pay me enough to buy steak dinners."

"Always out to get a raise," Mr. Collins muttered playfully.

"You know me," Serena said playfully, "Well, I'm going to go then. I won't keep you
from your card game."

"We were just wishing we had one more player for Texas Hold'em," Mr. Collins said
wistfully, "Come on, Miss Tsukino, grab a seat."

Serena looked doubtful, "I don't know... I'm not much of a card player."

"We won't be playing for money," the old man said, "Come sit, come sit. Unless
you two really can't stand to even be in the same room."

Serena sighed, then shrugged in defeat, "All right, but you'd better go easy on me."

- - - - -

"Royal flush," Serena said, revealing her hand.

"You've got to be kidding!" Darien exclaimed, "I thought you were bluffing!"

She smiled sweetly, "I've never been known to mislead people in any way."

"Except for in the last game," Darien scoffed, "Well, I'm out of chips."

"So am I," Mr. Collins said, pushing the rest of them to Serena.

"Cool, looks like I won again," Serena exclaimed.

"One more round," Mr. Collins pleaded.

"I wish I can, but I'm supposed to meet Amy for lunch... I'll see you at work
tomorrow, Mr. Chiba. Bye Mr. C."

Mr. Collins chuckled as he turned to look at Darien, his eyes still lingering at the
door after Serena had walked out, "My, you seem to be staring at Miss Tsukino a lot,
wouldn't you agree?"

Darien immediately looked down and began dividing up the chips, "I don't know what
you're talking about."

"And," the old man said as he shuffled the cards expertly, "Knowing how rash you are,
I'd say you already told her and, since I haven't heard rumours of any office
romance in Tokyo I., I'd say she rejected you."

Darien frowned, "What are you, a mind reader?"

"Come on, Mr. Chiba..." Mr. Collins grinned, "You're a businessman, and an insurance
sales representative, no less. You can talk anybody into anything."

Darien almost laughed, "Even into being my girlfriend?"

Mr. Collins leaned forward and caught his eyes, "Even that."

- - - - -

"Amy," Serena said into the intercom, "I need the renewed contracts I gave you-"

Amy burst through the door carrying the folders and Serena jumped, clutching her chest
in fear of a heart attack.

"Oh geez, Amy, when are you going to stop doing that?" Serena exclaimed, "You don't
have to wait by the door until I buzz you in asking for whatever I need, okay? You
can just bring them right in."

"I wouldn't want to interrupt you," Amy said, dropping the folders on her desk and
then an extra folder in red, "Mr. Chiba wanted you to take a look at this. He asked
me not to brief it and to give it to you directly."

"Thanks, Amy," Serena said and her blue-haired secretary walked out of her office.

A few minutes later, she had finished typing up the contract she needed and
she remembered the red folder Amy had delivered from Darien. She opened it
curiously. It was empty.

With a frown, she went to Darien's office.

- - - - -

Darien tapped his pencil against the desk nervously.

His coffee sat untouched at the end of the table. A pile of paperwork was in front of
him but he hadn't done any work all day.

He looked at the clock again. Amy took his contract to Serena's office fifteen minutes
ago. Why hadn't he heard back yet?

A knock came at his door.

"Come in," he croaked, finding his voice dry and clearing it quickly, "I mean, come in."

Serena walked in and Darien stared up at her.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Er... hey..." she said, trying to avoid his intense gaze, "Darien, you're creeping me
out."

"You opened the folder, right?" he said nervously, "So... is... is it a yes?"

Serena frowned at him, "Yes what? That red folder you gave me was empty. There was
nothing inside."

"That's impossible," Darien stood up, frowning, "I knew I put it in there. Oh, maybe I-"

His face paled visibly.

Just then, the fax machine began to print the daily bulletin.

"I... I think accidentally put what I was supposed to give you into the bulletin pile.
Darien said in horror, then began spouting out a long string of elaborate curse words.

"Why? What did you send me?" Serena said, taking the top fax page out of the machine.

- - - - - - -

TOKYO INSURANCE
CONTRACT TERMS

PROPOSAL: LOVE INSURANCE

- - - - - - -

Her eyes were filled with confusion as she turned to him, "Darien, what is this?"

- - - - - - -

Licensee/Company: Tokyo Insurance

Effective Date: Date of delivery of the Contract to You.

ENTITLEMENT FOR SERENA TSUKINO

License Term: Permanent (Not subject to termination under the TIA)

Licensed Unit: Chiba to Tsukino

Licensed unit Count: Unlimited

Conditions:

1) Chiba shall never set sights on any other girl, effective immediately, not expirable.

2) Chiba shall answer to all of Tsukino's wants and needs, whether implied or explicit...

- - - - -

Mina burst out laughing, "Oh you guys, look at number 6!"

"Oh, hahahahaha!" Raye said, "That could be so easily misinterpreted as being dirty!"

"Oh, you guys have to got to read 12, it's sooo romantic..." Lita groaned.

"Guys, we shouldn't be reading this..." Amy said hesitantly, her face growing red.

"Mr. Chiba SENT it to us!" Raye argued.

"Obviously not on purpose!" Amy argued.

"Oh, number 14, number 14!" Mina screamed with laughter, "That one is so corny! Oh,
I think I'm gonna die, I really do!"

Just then, Darien's office door opened, and everyone froze.

Serena walked out, followed by a red-faced Darien.

"Come on, Miss Tsukino, sign it!" Raye chided, the first to speak up.

"Yeah, according to this, you can get Mr. Chiba to do pretty much anything you want!"
Lita joked, "Just look at 10 through 14!"

Serena, stifling a giggle, held up the last printed page, with her signature clearly
on the entrustee line.

The office burst into cheers.

"This wasn't how I planned to do this," Darien said wearily, turning to his new
girlfriend.

"Then how come this is the best way I could have imagined it being done?" Serena
whispered jokingly and let him kiss her.

At this, the others got up and surrounded the new couple, clapping.

When they broke apart, Serena's eyes sparkled.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, "I just had an interesting idea!"

- - - - -

One month later...

"Come on, I want to switch over to Tokyo Insurance."

"I don't want to fill in all those forms again, Ann," the young man said to his
girlfriend, exasperated.

"But as a promotion, they're giving away free 'Love Insurance' contracts along with
another package we buy... And I want one, it's so cute!"

"It'll cost us money to switch!"

"Hey!" the girl said angrily, "Are you saying you don't want to sign a 'Love Insurance'
contract with me? Is it because you're not really serious about our relationship?"

"Fine, fine, fine," the guy said, annoyed, "We'll stop by Tokyo Insurance on the way
home."

"Thanks sweetie!"

- - - - -

Darien stood solemnly at the front of the meeting table.

"Well," he said, "I think it's pretty clear that last month, our sales have improved
significantly. As to how significantly, well, Miss Tsukino?"

Serena smiled as she opened her folder to the sales figures page, "Platinum package, 288.
Gold package, 351. Basic life insurance, 520."

She closed her folder, "Overall, we made more than enough to meet even with our previous
deficit, and Tokyo Insurance is definitely staying in business!"

After the cheers had died down, Serena grinned as she stood up and walked over to Darien.

"And Mr. Chiba here," she said with a huge smile, "will be taking all of us out for dinner,
and he's treating!"

Darien turned to her, bewildered, "What?"

"Contract term number 2, sweetie," she whispered.

He sighed.

"Where do you guys want to go?"

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EPILOGUE

"I think these are our seats," Serena said.

Serena and Darien shuffled into the aisle of the dark movie theatre.

"This is so cool," Serena whispered, "I've never been to a movie premiere before."

"I kind of wish we weren't late though," Darien said.

"Sorry my phone call with Amy lasted a little longer than I expected," Serena said, "I still
can't believe Peace Insurance is going out of business. I can't help feeling a little bad
for Alex."

"I heard on the news that Mr. Montgomery is threatening to cut his ties with his son,"
Darien said, "Might be just a rumour, who knows?"

"Speaking of rumours..." Serena said, "When Yulia called me to let me know about these
tickets, she said that the office gossip about you and her were just that - rumours."

Darien sighed, "Now do you believe me?"

"I never doubted you," Serena said, "I just didn't know back then, that's all."

After focusing on the movie for a moment, Serena whispered, "This film is pretty slow..."

"I know..." Darien said, "We haven't even seen Yulia yet."

He grinned and turned to her, "Well, you know what people do at boring movies..."

Serena smiled as he took her hand in his, "Making out at movies? That is so cliche..."

As he leaned over, he stopped and stared deep into her eyes.

"Hey... You... you know how serious I am about this, right? About you and me?"

She nodded, "I do."

"I... I care more about you than I've cared about anyone or anything in my life," he
said, then smiled nervously as if he had just given a huge secret away.

"That wasn't in the contract," she whispered.

"I know," he answered, "I'm saying it."

"Then I believe you."

And he kissed her.

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THE END