· Author's note:
This chapter is mostly just dealing with Haruka and Michiru meeting. I plan for Chapter 2 to get a bit more complicated and dramatic. It's an alternate universe fic, so don't come crying to me when you don't see Elza Grey, okay?
· Disclaimer:
I don't own 'em. I'm poor. I don't think Takehashi will mind, but if Saban see this they can bite my ass.
Haruka always liked fall best. The air was crisp and fresh and as she stepped out the door that breezy September morning her thoughts were on two things, the smell of fresh bread and school. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she made her way to the bakery on the end of the street. They knew her here, a little, and were so used to her morning arrival she didn't need to speak an order.
She sat down at a booth by the window and leaned the side of her forehead on the glass. Her school uniform was a bit warm and she relaxed as she felt the cool of the glass and watched a small fog grow near her mouth. Some other girls from her school sat down in the booth behind her. The way she was sitting her right ear was angled towards them over the booth seat and she heard them speak.
"So did you hear about the new girl?"
"Yeah, a junior I think, but like nobody knows her or anything. She's really stuck up I guess."
"Maybe she's just shy."
"And maybe you're too nice for your own good."
Haruka recognized one of the voices, the first of the two, as Hatsiko a girl from the sophomore class. The other voice and the girl they were speaking of were foreign to her. Mugen, their school, did not accept many new students into the higher grades. You either get in and stay in from freshman year to senior year, or you didn't get in at all. This girl must be pretty special.
The man from the counter approached Haruka with a warm smile and set down a plate with a couple muffins and a cup of tea in front of her. Haruka smiled gratefully and began to eat, leaning back to eavesdrop on the conversation still taking place behind her.
"So yeah all I know is she's a violinist and a varsity swimmer."
"Oh that's cool," Hatsiko said with genuine enthusiasm, "She'll be on the team with us. Does she have a good record?"
"Yeah, she's a champion," the other girl said around her bagel, "I just hope she isn't an arrogant bitch."
"Marron!" Hatsiko chastised, "What crawled up your ass and died?"
Despite herself, Haruka chuckled at Hatsiko, now she remembered why she liked that girl. The other girl, presumably named Marron, just let out a loud frustrated sigh as Haruka stood up to pay. As she walked to the counter she heard the two of them whispering and watching her. Caught in their observation, Marron smiled a little while Hatsiko blushed. Haruka blinked a couple times, coughing politely, then walked out of the bakery.
She hadn't been listening for the past 10 minutes or so. School had only been in session a week and the teachers were already in the thick of it. Dragging their students kicking and screaming through a curriculum that was so boring it could almost be called "cruel and unusual punishment." Haruka was already dying of tedium when a gentle knock on the door of her math class interrupted the teacher in mid-sentence.
"Please say something in the school blew up and we have to go home." Haruka groaned in her head pleadingly.
The teacher opened the door a crack at first speaking to a couple people outside. Her tone changed to something less annoyed, as she understood what was going on. She opened the door a bit wider and an aqua haired girl stepped through with a shy smile on her lips.
"I take back the blowing up thing," Haruka said to herself, "this is way better." She looked around the class quickly to realize she was the only person with an empty seat at her desk. Haruka swallowed down a sudden rush of nervousness and cleared some room on the table for the girl.
The teacher smiled and addressed the class, "This is Michiru Kaioh. She'll be in our class from now on." The teacher paused as she looked around thoughtfully, smiling again as she saw the empty spot beside Haruka. She turned to Michiru and pointed, "You can sit there for right now, okay?" Michiru nodded politely as she too smiled and sat down beside Haruka.
Haruka and Michiru exchanged a quick glance as the teacher handed Michiru a book and continued with her lesson. "Wow," Michiru remarked quietly, "She doesn't waste any time, huh?" Haruka sighed and nodded, pulling out a pencil and scratching down some more notes.
It had been a couple weeks since Michiru had joined, and now she was rivaling Haruka for the top grades in several of her classes. Although Michiru was very cool and quiet, she'd made many friends – Haruka wasn't one of them – and was doing remarkably well on the swim team.
Haruka wasn't exactly popular. She was of course an infamously good racer, which brought her respect, reverie, and party invitations, but she was reserved. She had a few friends on the track team and a few people she knew as friends of her affluent family, but otherwise she kept to herself. Most people took this as aloofness and, privately of course, attacked her for it.
"Huh? Yeah I kind of know Haruka, we're in math together but she's very quiet."
"She's a good English student, don't worry, she makes a good partner on projects."
Michiru sighed and looked down at her notes. "I hope she's a fan of
Shakespeare then, I haven't had time to do much with this presentation yet."
Hatsiko nodded, the straw from her milkshake bobbing up and down comically, "I don't know, I just know she always does well with that stuff. So are you meeting her here today?"
"No, we're not working on it till Monday."
Hatsiko grinned, "Awesome, 'cause we're going to a party tonight!"
Michiru smirked, "You know I'm not a big party person."
Hatsiko rolled her eyes, "It's not a big drinking thing. It's just something my parents are throwing. It'll just be like dinner and dancing and stuff. Look, usually these things bore me out of my mind so please come and save me."
Michiru chuckled, "Alright, alright, I'll come."
Haruka still didn't know why she'd come. Her parents had dragged her to this thing. She pulled at the silk black bowtie a little, loosening it as she sat back in her chair. The Tennangawa family certainly had thrown a grand affair. Their gigantic ballroom was beautiful. On either side of a large dance floor were rows of tables with bright white linen tablecloths, shining silverware, candles, and prattling guests.
Haruka's parents were gently waltzing in the sea of other dancers. The humble quartet at the back of the ballroom switched to a livelier tune and couples paired up again for a country-dance. One of Haruka's friends, Jack, sat down beside her and frowned from over his glass of champagne.
"You should dance." He says thoughtfully.
Haruka chuckled and knocked back half a glass of champagne, "Oh? With who?"
"Well," Jack started, leaning over the table with a conspiratorial tone of voice, "Hatsiko's been staring at you off and on all night – and her friend… oh what's her name? Michiru?"
"Yeah, Michiru."
"She hasn't danced with anyone tonight and she's been watching you, too. Maybe you should grace her with the honor of the champion racer's hand, huh?"
Haruka laughed at Jack, "I don't think so."
It took Jack a few minutes of constant badgering, but eventually Haruka caved and stood as one dance was ending, crossing the dance floor with Jack to the two girls at the other side. Jack smiled while Haruka hung behind him, looking totally uninterested.
Jack nudged her in the ribs as he spoke, "I'm Jack Thornton and this is my friend Haruka Ten'ou."
Hatsiko blushed happily and looked over at Haruka expectantly. Michiru, a bit offended by Haruka's coldness looked over at Jack. Jack for his part was completely oblivious to the tension and offered his hand to Hatsiko, "May I have this dance?"
Hatsiko's heart sank but she forced a smile anyway and gracefully accepted Jack, making her way with him onto the dance floor. She frowned over her shoulder at Michiru who turned to see Haruka staring at her.
"May I?" Haruka said quietly, her hand extended down to Michiru.
Michiru gingerly accepted and rose to dance with Haruka. "So," Michiru said as they danced, "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself."
Haruka blinked but didn't respond. Michiru sighed and decided to try again, "How is school going for you?"
Haruka hadn't been expecting conversation. She wasn't unwilling, necessarily, but she was nervous. "Well enough."
"She speaks!" Michiru said with mock astonishment. Haruka couldn't stand to be ridiculed like this. She was nervous and didn't gab on endlessly, wasn't that a good thing? She shook her head in sorrowful disbelief, dropped Michiru's hand in mid-sway of the dance, and walked out of the ballroom.
There was then a quiet murmur of shock at Haruka's rude behavior, but for the most part the dance continued on without incident. As soon as it was over though Hatsiko demanded to know what'd happened. It was becoming painfully obvious to Michiru that Hatsiko liked Haruka. "Well," thought Michiru, "She can have her. Jack is infinitely more a gentlemen – in more ways than one." She chuckled to herself.
Hatsiko felt "obligated" to seek out Haruka and apologize on Michiru's account, leaving Jack and Michiru to sit together and speak at a table. The more she spoke with him the more she liked his nature. Hatsiko returned a bit later and revealed she hadn't been able to find Haruka and presumed she'd left.
Monday rolled around and to Michiru's frustration, Haruka wasn't anywhere to be found. Their project was due Wednesday and not yet half finished. By Tuesday Michiru had given up on getting Haruka's help until she received a phone call. Well, she hadn't received it really, her mother had and it had only been long enough to leave a message. Haruka had called to say she'd handled the project on her own.
Michiru was annoyed at Haruka's presumption to do the project without her, but she couldn't complain really, she'd had to study for an important chemistry test as it was. Despite herself, she was actually quite thankful that the mysterious Haruka had done it all on her own. Not only had she done it all on her own, Michiru found out the next day, but she'd done an incredible job on it. "So maybe she does have a nice side," Michiru thought to herself.
Haruka had no idea what to do. She knew better than to deny that she was falling for Michiru, but it made no sense. Michiru obviously liked Jack, disliked her, and on top of that Haruka found it hard to speak within fifty feet of Michiru. In fact, she found it hard to do much of anything around Michiru. Days would pass and Haruka's most humiliating moments were those spent around Michiru.
Monday she'd strolled into a column at school while watching Michiru walk with Hatsiko. Tuesday she'd dropped her math book on her food while trying to explain a quadratic to Michiru. Wednesday she'd tripped coming into English class because she was trying to listen to Michiru and Hatsiko talk. Thursday she'd spilled milk all over her new school khakis after one of her friends mentioned how hot Michiru was in a swimsuit.
And Friday, well, that was today. Amazingly, she hadn't done anything to injure herself in Michiru's presence all day. She'd been invited to the school swim meet though and almost feared she'd die of a nosebleed watching Michiru in something that so closely resembled underwear. But she let out a sigh of determination, put on her mask of stoic disinterest, and soon found herself on the risers at the side of the school pool.
Hatsiko, Marron, and Michiru were sitting on the bench in green bathrobes over their team swimsuits. Hatsiko and Marron hopped up to swim a race, Hatsiko glancing over at Haruka several times as she took off her robe. Marron nudged her and whispered something while Michiru watched on with curiosity.
Following Marron's line of sight to a pair of intense teal eyes on the bandstand, Michiru felt herself blush as she realized Haruka's stare was on her. She looked back over to Hatsiko who was now glaring at her with some jealousy and stretching, getting in position for her race. When Michiru glanced back to Haruka she saw, with some relief, that Haruka's eyes were now on the race.
Suddenly Jack appeared and climbed up the stand, sitting with Haruka, smirking and pointing at various girls. Michiru watched Haruka's eyebrow rise as she blushed a little and looked down at her feet. "What are they talking about that could possibly embarrass Haruka?"
When it was Michiru's turn for her dives she immediately felt Haruka's eyes on her as she removed her robe. Somehow the thought of Haruka scrutinizing her body made her feel both anxious and excited. After completely several incredible dives she returned to the bench looking over to see Haruka watching her. Jack had his eyes on Hatsiko, although Hatsiko wished for none of his attention.
After the meet the girls stood outside talking about their win. Jack came up to Hatsiko, at first she was cold and dismissive, but probably to make Haruka jealous she suddenly gave Jack her full cheerful attention. Haruka was oblivious to Hatsiko's immature antics however. As Michiru spoke to Marron's parents about their win she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Marron's parents moved to speak with Marron as Michiru turned to see Haruka behind her.
"You dove very well." Haruka said quietly.
"Thank you." Michiru said, blushing. She had no idea what to say.
Haruka's brow furrowed slightly as she let out a little sigh. "Uh, yeah, tell Hatsiko she did well, too."
"I will."
Haruka turned to leave, putting her coat over her shoulder. Michiru suddenly felt possessed to say something, anything.
"I'm coming to your race tomorrow."
Haruka looked over her shoulder, her mouthed opened as if to say something but she suddenly got a distant look in her eye, gave a very small but sincere smile and then turned to go.
Michiru couldn't sleep well that night. She had no idea where this nervous pit in her stomach had come from. This feeling had come from nowhere. At first she'd thought she was falling for Jack – friendly, open, happy Jack – but now she found herself so intrigued by Haruka – mysterious, cold, silent Haruka – that she couldn't resist her feelings. Maybe behind that layer of somber quiet there was some passion, some kindness in Haruka?
Although she was usually completely calm on race days, today Haruka found herself incredibly nervous. Eventually she slipped into her racecar, put the visor of her helmet down, and as she revved the engine only then did she relax. While she roared around the track, in first place of course, Michiru was watching with anxious astonishment at every lap.
When Haruka won Michiru felt an immense sense of pride and happiness, cheering with the rest of the crowd. As Haruka stepped out of her vehicle and looked up into the crowd she saw Michiru and a smile crept onto her face before one of her crewmembers doused her in champagne. Michiru pushed through the crowd as she watched Haruka laugh and search for her in the crowd again.
Michiru leaned over the edge of the bandstand and reached out her hand to Haruka who was walking towards the lockers. Haruka grabbed a railing, hoisted herself up, and held Michiru's hand for a moment. She shouted over the crowd, "I'll give you a ride home, okay?" Michiru smiled ruefully, "As long as you don't drive as fast as you did out there." Haruka smiled and hopped back down on the ground.
Michiru waited patiently outside for Haruka. She saw Haruka dodge some fans and jog over to her. Without exchanging words Michiru followed Haruka to her car, a sleek silver Aston Martin. Michiru slid her had reverently over the body of the car before opening the door and sitting down inside. Haruka smiled, "Where to?"