So, after an excellent review of one history, I'm ready to get back to the saddle.
Thanks, Arkwitina, hopefully, you still believe the same after this one. ;).
This is a work in progress so; you'll have to be patient… and you can't kill me until it says finish, unless you really, really hate the story.
As usual, English is not my first language, if someone wants to beta it, you'll be welcomed. If someone wants to leave reviews with where I messed up, please do so. Being corrected is the only way to know that you failed.
Enough of me... here we go again... still don't own anything more than this computer and my cell phone. Everything else is still owned by its owner.
M.
Revised: 2017
Chapter 1
Alone in a sea of people
It was a beautiful Saturday morning, blue skies, shining sun, not too cold and not excessively warm either when after training I found myself with time to get reacquainted with old friends since I was never in town long enough for the past six years.
We agreed to meet in front of the fountain on one of the parks of the city, the one that was at a walking distance of many of the great food places and high-end fashion stores. And once we all got there, then it was fighting time since we agreed to wait for everyone before picking out a place to eat.
I ditched my bodyguard, after assuring him that I would be walking around in clothes so girly that even my mother would have issues saying that it was me. And then, he actually saw me wearing those.
That's how I ended up sitting with some of my friends mocking me in a park because of me using a form fitting dark blue jeans. And a tight white blouse with a yellow bow, some cleavage showing my boobs and I even put some lip gloss and earrings on and of course, low heeled girly boots.
"Hey, Haruk.." I send a death glance to my little cousin Usagi, and she stops. "Oh, yeah, sorry, Haru, so this is how you manage to run out of your fans?"
"Yeah, " I say
"It makes sense," her husband adds "They probably think you are your own twin."
"Or maybe all her fans get stuck at her boobs, and then they forget anything about a face, and that makes them impossible to suspect that you are… Well, you." Comes Rei's voice behind us. We still have to wait for Ami who was on call, and Mina to show up.
And looking at the time we all noticed that we would be waiting for another half an hour, so we were chatting and fooling around like many other groups around us, some threw some glances at us being mostly girls sitting together but in general no one noticed us.
There was a sea of people coming in and out stores, coffee shops, restaurants, lessons and all kinds of activities which were being held around the park.
No one noticed, no one in particular unless you were searching for someone. I wasn't, but I noticed her.
She was standing right across the fountain straight ahead from our bench, in the middle of them all, not belonging there. People passed around her, some saying something to her unmovable form.
Then it clicked.
I knew her from before… from another lifetime.
When I was just an eighteen-year-old student doing an internship, and she was my boss's extremely young wife. I never understood how a parent would allow an eighteen years old girl to be married to a man twenty-seven years older than her. Until my own parents had tried to sell me too.
Six years later, I still remember her face, her perfume… her... vividly.
She wasn't a friend, she wasn't a foe, but when I just arrived in this city, her husband and my boss, Kenta Oki, took me into their own home, as a favor to my father, Sora Tenoh. It was a winning situation for me, I would get to save money without paying for housing and breakfast and dinner and would have my father out of my hair for a while.
Kenta, I think he accepted because he wanted his wife to have a friend of her own age, but we never quite worked that friendship part much. She was busy with her own stuff; I knew because of him that she played the violin and painted, and those were the reason behind why she never took his last name, but whenever I was around the house (that wasn't much at all), she wouldn't normally be there.
There were many occasions where she took me around to know some place, shopping, or a far corner of the city considered a touristic attraction. Those few and far between days, we talked about nothing in particular and exchanged meaningless experiences of our young lives. Nothing profound or that would make us, particularly fond of each other.
I left their house at the end of the year when I saved enough to ditch the internship and go full time in pursuit of my own dreams which weren't those of my father; he disowned me for it by the way. But he didn't reject the check that I sent him with the same amount he was going the receive if he managed to marry me to the Ishiwaka older son.
The last time I saw her was at the farewell party, two weeks after I moved out of her home, and we never crossed paths over the last six years. Why would we? I dedicated my time to become an Engineer and to be the best professional car racer and she? Well, I don't know what was of her, she probably still plays the violin and paints on her home without sharing her abilities or lack of thereof with anyone else.
And now, seeing here there, trapped in the middle of a sea of people, stirred something in me I hadn't felt before. I looked at her looking so lost. She looked alone, surrounded by the world. She looked exactly the way I felt whenever I gave myself time to feel…
Without even notice it, I walked out to her, the "Haru, where are you going?" lost in the background with all the other people starting to surround me like it was surrounding her.
"Michiru?" I asked she looked at me, her eyes full of sadness. Her hair much like mine was short, but the aqua color was now a shade or two more profound than I remembered. My hand reached her face without daring to touch her. Her eyes bored into mine, and I couldn't separate them from mine even if I wanted
"Why?" She asked not more than a murmuring word; then she hugs me "Why does a man stop sleeping with a woman?" I move back to look at her raising my eyebrow, completely surprised by the question.
"What?" I ask
"You heard me," She says, moving her head slightly to the right and we set in a staring match. Then I sigh, remembering having this conversation a couple of months ago with a friend when I was trying to understand one of the several relationships that Mina tended to immerse into. There's light answer for it, so I hug her again and respond in the same way the question was posed, whispering it straight to her ear.
"I'm not an expert, Michiru; I'm bad at relationships myself. But I asked the same to a male friend not so long ago. He told me there were four reasons. First, if it is just a new thing, and it doesn't happen often, or if he is under a lot of stress, he is probably just tired. The second was that the guy was or too old so it doesn't work anymore or too gay. The third one, was if all of the sudden the encounters were less without any apparent reason, but they still occurred, in that case, he's having an affair," I stop.
"It doesn't fit… what's the fourth one?" she whispers; I can feel some of her tears in her voice.
"The fourth one," I sigh, "he said to me it happens from one day to the next, and the man won't even touch you if you were the last woman alive…" she gasped, I knew. "I'm sorry, " I tell her before going on, I feel her nod against my shoulder, her arms tighten on my body as trying to get some strength out of me. I hope she does.
"Just tell me, " she whispers, and for some reason, I find myself being the one tightening the embrace.
"He just fell in love with someone else," and then for the first time in all this weird encounter, I felt a lone tear on my shoulder.
A lone tear, just like I would allow me to cry if I was hurt by someone else. After my parents, no one else deserved my tears. No one else deserves anybody's tears.
A lone tear, is for yourself, to help you understand, to make it real.
She takes a step back and smiles sadly; she's going to be okay, I know. I can see myself reflected in those beautiful eyes of hers. Before I can stop it, I find myself asking her
"Hey, if you don't want to be alone right now, my friends and I were about to pick a place to eat?" I said, scratching the back of my head and pointing to the group that is back to mock themselves and now finally is complete. She nods but doesn't take a step forward either. "Don't worry, they won't ask… not with you there and they won't ask me either, they will wait until either you or I tell them if we ever want to."
"Thanks," she said, and we walk to the group.
"Let's see, Usagi is my cousin and her husband Mamoru was my classmate, still don't know how the hell they ended up together. I met Mina on an arcade place, we used to meet once a week, so I could pretend to lose against her. Ami, don't let her fool you, she is a brainiac she was mine and Mamoru classmate for Engineering, she got the degree before than us, kids used to push her around, so we took her in, and that ended there, she's now a Doctor. Makoto comes from my city, we used to go to the same school, so when she wrote she wanted to move here, I took her in. And we met Rei when visiting her shrine; we used to go often to do some training there, I'm still amazed that we continue to stick together after all these years. This is Michiru; I used to live at her home when I just moved here."
"You know, that makes you basically the lost souls gatherer," Ami says
"I'm not a lost soul gatherer," I defend myself, and I know what comes next… the chanting.
"Haru is a lost soul gatherer, Haru is a lost soul gatherer."
"Oh come on girls, if you don't stop. I will pick the restaurant," and that makes it.
"Ow, I want pizza!"
"Pizza, you fat ass? I want some Italian!"
"I'm not a fat ass, am I honey?" Usagi pouts
"I want sushi," Ami says
"Sushi? We ate that yesterday, what about some burgers?" Michiru laughs, and I just shrug
"You know, if you close your eyes you can pretend they are ten years old," Mamoru tells us
"Yeah, who would think that twenty-three years old ladies could still fight like kids."
"Are they always like this?" she asks crooking her head.
"Every time that dumb head here says 'let's meet then pick the place'" he says, slapping the back of my head, " but don't worry, Ami will come around soon enough."
"Can we draw sticks; shorter stick picks the place?" Ami says next. They all agree, except Michiru, who softly says
"Why won't we just go to a food court where everyone can pick whatever they want?" They all look at her dumbfounded and smile sheepishly afterward.
"It's too public," Ami says after a few moments, "and you two are too famous to be sitting in a crowded place."
"I know a food court that's not too public if you are interested?"
"You do?"
"Yes, I used to go there every time I wanted something public but not too fancy."
"So you are famous?" I ask, she smiles and nods
"You?" she says, and I nod. Usagi is about to blurt it all out when Mamoru gets to her and puts his hand over her mouth.
"We are in a too public place right now, honey, they don't need you screaming who exactly they are."
"Ok then, we need to go four blocks in that direction first," Michiru says, and we start walking, the girls start telling funny stories from their weeks as Michiru, and I walk ahead. I take her hand in mine, noticing how perfectly they fit, and then I press her hand slightly
"Are you ok?" I ask softly; she looks at me for a quick second
"I'm not." she says, and before I can say something she crooks her head and looks at me smiling "But I will be"
And something inside me fills.
She lets my hand go to point to a building that I always noticed, but I never went in, and she says, "we are going there, to the 12th floor."
So I guess my friendly lunch plus one will be more interesting that I first thought.