Prompt: smmonthly at livejournal january theme, day 26 - Other Worlds
Notes: Takes place during the Silver Millennium. Apparently my muse is an "ai no lunatic" at the moment and as such I can only obey her and write to my heart's content. I quite like the feel of this ficlet. It's nothing special, but sweet. The first thing I've written from Haruka's point of view in a long time. Not betaed.
Borderline
She always returns. Not for the sake of her planet which, if truth be told, couldn't care less about its orbital neighbour. Neither does she return because she feels at home. She doesn't. The endless ocean of the sea planet is an element she is absurdly unfamiliar with. As such walking along the flimsy waterline, the waves never reaching her bare feet, is somewhat of an adventure every time she returns. And return she does. To the beaches of Kaiosei. Time and again.
Looking up at the sky stretching out above the rippled surface of water, as never-ending as the sea that mirrors it, she eyes her own planet far above her. It's what you could call beautiful. At least at a distance. Everything changes when you allow yourself to step back and observe it from a distance, she thinks, wondering if this might be the reason. The reason why she sometimes leaves Miranda Castle in the middle of the night. To come here.
"You're like a clockwork," an amused voice comments from somewhere behind her. She knows who the speaker is, of course. They've worked side by side for so long that she would be able to detect the woman's presence in an unlit room full of people.
"Always when the moon has disappeared below the horizon," Neptune comes to a halt beside her, raising her gaze to the many stars littered across the heavens. As she continues, her voice is a soft whisper. "Never at moonset, never at daytime. Always at night, Uranus."
"Daytime is preserved for other things," Uranus answers. It's the truth. During the day, she is dedicated to her own planet, to the Moon Kingdom and to the Alliance. At night… she can dedicate herself to something else. Someone else.
"I know." Neptune takes a couple of slow steps forward, crossing the boundary that divides the domain of the ocean from that of the sand, the water nibbling at her feet and soaking the border of her dress.
Over time, Uranus has learned that the lines are fine here on Kaiosei. Almost invisible. What is acceptable one moment, might not be acceptable the next. She finds it intriguing. When all comes down to it, she was born to defy limits. It's in her blood. In her element.
"Confinements," Neptune says, voicing Uranus' thoughts in a way that has ceased to surprise her, "can be liberating, you know." She turns around, the wind making her long hair dance. Uranus snorts and moves forward, letting herself be greeted by the waves as she stops next to their mistress.
"You make me sound like a spoiled child," she replies, well aware that Neptune is right.
"Aren't we all?" Neptune's voice hides a hint of mirth just below the surface. Like everything else on Kaiosei, its princess is made of borders not meant to be crossed. Uranus crosses them anyway and Neptune apparently finds it just as entertaining every time it happens.
They fall quiet, Uranus feeling the tide rise inch by inch up her legs.
"I shouldn't be here, and thus… here I am, ka?" she inquires, letting her eyes come to a rest on her own planet. A world of flat grassland where there's no horizon; begging her to never stop running. A land where the wind sings songs of freedom. Her kingdom has many legends and she knows them all by heart. Maybe that's why…
"We shouldn't be here, but here we are," Neptune agrees, her head coming to a rest on Uranus' shoulder without waiting for permission. Neither of them ever paid much respect to the rules they were meant to abide.
Uranus knows this is the true reason she always returns.