-Haruka-
It was barely nine o'clock in the morning, as the phone rang and woke her up.
Yawning, and with half opened eyes, she walked over to the phone and answered it.
"Hello?" she mumbled into the phone.
"Hello? Haruka?" a male voice responded.
"Yes, alive and speaking. Who is there and how may I be of assistance?" Haruka's voice dripped with sarcasm.
Unfazed by that, the voice on the phone continued: "Good morning. It's is me, Taiki. I tried your mobile phone but I couldn't get through." The brunette, who had been her right hand for the past years with all her business affairs, explained the call through the main line.
"Morning Taiki, sorry for not recognizing your voice right away. I turned it off last night to get some sleep. So what is the emergency?" Haruka responded slightly disinterested as she started to look for the whereabouts of her mobile phone.
"We have an urgent request from a client here, which would need your attention. Is it possible for you to come anytime soon?" Taiki asked her stoically.
"Sure, give me the details." Haruka sighed.
Taiki, went on a long, even voiced, monologue that Haruka occasionally interrupted with a 'hmmhmm' here and an 'aha' there, just to make sure he knew that she hadn't fallen back asleep. After she made some mental notes, Haruka hung up with a groan.
'Great', she thought to herself. The day had barely started and problems already found her.
She grabbed her mobile phone from under her pillow and switched it on. Watching the screen lighting up and ten missed calls from Taiki, three from Seiya and even one from the little hermit Yaten blinking on it, along with two dozens of unread messages, Haruka sighed.
Could it get worse? Of course it always could.
Was there no such thing as birth control for problems? The way they multiplied, they were even faster than germs spreading on a morsel of food after dropping it on the ground.
She made her way to the shower to wash off her close to non-existent sleep and got dressed. She needed food. Facing a day like this on an empty stomach would be a disaster in the making, but before she could make up her mind about what she was going to eat, her phone beeped again and a picture message from Seiya blinked on the screen: A full Japanese breakfast with all the trimmings was brightening Haruka's outlook of the day with the message: 'Day is going to be long. Don't worry. Didn't make it. Kyoko is swinging by to bring it.'
Haruka smirked. Maybe there would be even time and space for dessert as well.
-Michiru-
Michiru stood next to her mother filling the dishwasher with the dishes used during their lunch.
"So Michi-chan, is there someone waiting for you in Tokyo?" her mother asked casually while passing her the rice bowls.
Michiru tried hard to suppress a sigh. "Of course mum. We are very busy at the office at the moment. Taking a day off to spend it with you and dad was pretty hard. So the whole team will be waiting for me..." Michiru started to explain.
"That is not what I meant." Her mother interrupted her and looked her straight into her eyes.
"I know mum," Michiru nodded before she gave her mum a reassuring smile. "If things in that department ever change, you'll be the first whom I tell. I promise."
"I just want you to be taken care of…." her mother continued
"I know mum." Michiru nodded while she focused on the dishes
"…And grandchildren…." Her mother proceeded.
"I am quite aware" Michiru continued, slightly gritting her teeth.
"Hey princess, when does your train leave again?" her father interrupted them both.
'Not soon enough' Michiru thought to herself "I'm leaving after dinner dad" she informed him.
"If it's like that, would you mind helping me out with the camera?" her father asked casually.
Michiru looked at her mother, who just nodded "Go, I can do the rest on my own. Dinner will be ready by five so you won't miss your train. I know you two will forget time and space when you are working together." Her mother sighed.
Michiru kissed her mother on the cheek "Thanks mum."
And so, father and daughter left the kitchen together and headed towards the study.
Her father, Osamu Kaioh, was a very quiet man. To say that he was a man of few words wouldn't even come close to how little the words would amount to, which he shared with his surrounding when he worked. At home it was hardly different, unless it was important or pertinent to the current discussion, he wouldn't say much. His wife, Aiko Kaioh, Michiru's mother on the other hand could talk all day about all sorts of things, everything and nothing at the same time. Michiru always wondered how her father managed to put up with her mother's constant influx of words and thoughts.
They reached the study in a comfortable silence and Osamu headed straight to his desk on which a camera lay taken apart, all its individual parts neatly mapped out, on the desk.
He handed her a pair of gloves and a cleaning cloth.
"Thanks dad, I didn't know how much longer I could have taken it." She admitted while sitting down next to him, putting on the white cotton gloves. "How do you do it dad? How do you deal with mum's constant onslaught of words and questions?" Michiru asked him curiously.
Osamu chuckled. "Well, she is your mother. That's just how she is." He shrugged.
"But the constant current of words…." Michiru sighed as she picked up the outer lens and started to clean it as her father started to reassemble the camera. "How could a human being would want to talk so much about anything, really?" Michiru continued.
"She just wants you to know all that moves her." Her dad explained calmly.
"And you can just listen to all of it?" Michiru asked her dad incredulously.
Osamu looked concentrated through the magnifying lens in front of him as he fixed one miniscule screw after another.
"When you are in love, there is no such thing as 'too many words or too many thoughts' from the object of your affection." Her father said calmly with a hint of a smile on his lips.
"Along that logic, either mum doesn't love very you much, because she hardly gives you a chance to talk, or you are leaving her feeling quite unloved as well as starved of words and thoughts to listen to, considering how many she gets to hear from you." Michiru teased her father.
"That is just because you aren't around to hear all our conversations" he countered with a smirk.
-Haruka-
Haruka leaned over the billiard table and aimed for the red three ball.
Sunk.
It had been a really long day with mission planning, negotiations with various groups of clients and it was about to get even longer.
"Here you go," Taiki handed her a glass of fine whisky.
"Thanks" Haruka took a sip and savoured its smooth taste.
"Do you think it was a good idea to take on that job for tonight?" Taiki asked as he leaned back on the wall behind him watching her making her next move.
Haruka passed her glass to Yaten who put it on the table next him as she walked around the table, weighing her options.
"The client paid, didn't they?" she said, eyes not leaving the billiard table.
"Yes, a pretty sum, for such a petty job" Yaten stated with an even voice.
"Top prices for top performance" Haruka corrected him, "There is no such thing as a petty job. All are equally important, some just more difficult than others. That's all." Haruka explained calmly as she focused on a possible next move.
"And some are more fun than others" Seiya chimed in from behind the bar where he made Yaten and himself other drinks.
Haruka evaluated the position of the yellow one ball.
"Are you sure you want to do it on your own though?" Taiki enquired.
"I won't be really alone, will I, Yaten?" Haruka stated evenly without averting her gaze from her target.
"Of course not." Yaten answered.
"See Taiki, nothing to worry about." She aimed and hit the cue ball.
"The head of the Red Dragon gang agreed to give you safe passage, but you know he doesn't have all his men under control." Taiki reminded the blonde.
The yellow ball hit the barrier hard and missed the pocket.
"I am well aware of those rogues." Haruka confirmed as she stepped back from the table and reached for her Whiskey.
Taiki stepped up and aimed for the blue ten ball.
Sunk.
"And are you planning to do anything about them?" Taiki asked as he aimed for the red eleven ball.
Sunk.
"Not really." Haruka replied calmly. "No one is paying us to get rid of them and if anything happens, I got you to send them the bill to." Haruka chuckled.
Taiki aimed for the purple twelve and missed.
Haruka stepped back up to the table with a wide grin on her face.
"Not everything needs to be influenced directly Taiki-kun" Haruka smirked confidently."Sometimes, you must make the best of what has been given to you..."
As she said that he realised his mistake and groaned.
With a smooth aim for the orange five ball she sank her remaining balls followed by the black eight ball.
"...and then some things just fall into place." Haruka said with a victorious grin on her face.
"Yes, with careful planning though." Taiki frowned.
"Not everything can be planned, but I trust you to have my back, nonetheless, if anything were to happen." Haruka said easily as she put the cue stick back to its holder.
"Always." Taiki confirmed unwavering.
"So there is nothing to worry about." She finished her drink with one gulp.
"I am off to pick up the package and will be sure to make a safe delivery. You boys be safe when you do your parts and no scratches on the Roadster, Seiya, I mean it." Haruka reminded the black haired man who just grinned sheepishly behind the bar.
-Michiru-
Michiru had finally arrived back in Tokyo and stepped out of the train with her small suitcase.
She looked around habitually after she had disembarked the train.
Not many people were around catching the last trains out of Tokyo. A couple of older salarymen and, what seemed to be, a young couple having a quite passionate goodbye on the platform just opposite of her. The girl seemed rather distressed to having to leave her partner, but the blonde seemed pretty nonchalant with his hands in his pants' pockets as he watched her boarding the train and the train leaving the station.
As he turned around to walk towards the exit their eyes met. For a moment serious blues locked with mischievous teal ones and as sudden as the moment came, it passed. The blonde turned around and rushed out of the station with a speed, as if the devil himself was chasing him.
Michiru looked after him for a few more moments, savouring the image in front of her, before she looked down at her watch.
'Great, I won't make the last metro home...' she thought to herself.
She made her way out of the station at a leisurely pace since there was no point in haste. As she arrived a few minutes later outside, she saw him, the mysterious blonde, again as he helping some unconscious looking men into the last taxi at the station and giving the driver detailed instructions before passing him some money.
Michiru looked down at her watch again and sighed. First she had missed the last metro and now she had just missed out on the last taxi.
The blonde seemed to have heard her and turned around.
He, or now that Michiru had a closer look, she, smiled apologetically and asked "Seems I just sent off your ride. May I give you a lift instead Miss?" The blonde asked nonchalant.
There was mischievous smile on the blonde's lips that never reached her mysterious eyes.
"Wouldn't your girlfriend mind?" Michiru replied in a rather icy tone.
"Girlfriend? Oh, her. She isn't my girlfriend. I was just her driver for the night." The blonde responded easily as she put her hands back into her pockets.
"You must be one hell of a driver then." Michiru stated sceptically with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, you can tell me how it was after I gave you a ride." The blonde smirked.
"Who said, I would ride with you and what makes you think I would enjoy your driving skills? Besides, I don't know about your parents, but mine always told me not to go along with strangers." Michiru replied with defiant tone.
"Oh, right. Where are my manners? Well ojou-sama, let me humbly introduce myself. My name is Alex and what is yours?" the blonde replied with a spark of mischief in her eyes.
"Michelle" Michiru replied unfazed.
Both could clearly read the deception in the other's eyes and yet still played along this charade with unperturbed demeanour.
Michiru felt no danger coming from the blonde and at the same time something made her feel intrigued about her counterpart.
"Well, Michelle-san, would you like a ride home, or would you accept me paying for a hotel room for the night? Because I couldn't, in good conscience, leave such a refined lady as yourself here at this hour of the night." The blonde's voice was husky and her eyes twinkled mysteriously.
"Will you pay for room service as well?" Michiru didn't know where this sudden playfulness came from and it positively thrilled her.
"If you like me to..." The blonde said leaning closer.
"Well then, Alex-san, for breakfast, I like my eggs sunny side up" Michiru whispered seductively into the blonde's ear.
