Solstice

Part One: Fascination

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Act One

It was crowded at the convention center, making Michiru want to curl into herself as she watched people whizzing by. She had no idea why she had agreed to all of this: coming out of her quiet, stable life, and into this... mess. A relaxing weekend was now transformed into a long four day period full of meetings, conferences, and sessions on how to get along with your coworkers. Pseudo important things dealing with the corporate world.

Then she remembered the reason: Minako had talked her into going because the convention was taking place in a city that was a prime vacationing spot. "Come on," the blonde had said, waving her hands in the air, "It'll be fun—I mean once the meetings are over and shit. And those'll be only a few hours a day!" Michiru could now hear that wretched blonde's voice almost shouting into her ear about it, nagging her until she broke down and agreed to come.

She took in a deep, heavy breath as she navigated through the crowd. People were dressed in their business best, and Michiru watched almost fascinated by the silk suits, the demure ties, the understated, form fitting black dresses, and six inch heals. She swaggered in her own pumps, fitting in with the rest. Maybe going to this thing would give her a leg up in the company, give her some credentials over some other employee.

The first of the sessions had just finished, and people milled all around her. Many stopped around each other in groups and talked pleasantly. The soft whispering sound of conversation and laughter tinkled in the air, almost making Michiru feel at ease with being around the large crowds. She stopped in the main hall and sat on one of the cold marble benches that faced the windows across the twenty foot wide hall. The sun was setting, and she was immediately reminded of how long her day actually was.

Michiru had arrived to the coastal city with her usual jet lag. She didn't like to travel often. Though she was bumped up to first class, she had asked for nonsmoking. That choice had strongly limited her access to the more luxurious facilities where smoking was a favorite past time. So during most of the trip she was forced to either pace the isles, or sit.

There was one positive thing during the ten hour trip: the conversation that she had had with another native Neptunian just before the jet had finally landed. It had been so long since she had spoken to anyone from her home world since the move to Earth. She thought that he looked handsome, his hair thick and a shade of blue—a large signifier of the sea-god planet. By the time she got off the large plane, she had his business card in a small pocket in her light traveling jacket. She was tempted to call him.

But so far that seemed to be the only positive part of the day. While on the crystalline highway on the way to the hotel, the engine of her rental began to sputter. Michiru felt the life of the electrical engine, as well as heard the hum, deaden. Her heart dropped as her eyes darted to the speedometer and watched with dread as the speed slowly began to taper off.

Fortunately, she was able to make it to the hotel and convention center by flooring the gas and squeezing out whatever charge was left from the motor. How often did that happen? By the time she slammed the compact into the parking deck, it finally went dead and she was left inside the car in the dark.

When she took a couple of deep breaths to calm her temper, she stepped out of the car and moved to the trunk where her luggage was contained. However, when she opened the hatch, the scent of her own perfume assaulted her nose, and she was barely able to breathe. As she lifted on of the carrier, she found that her bottle must have shattered during transport. The bottom of the bag dripped with the aromatic liquid.

Michiru stormed into the lobby, her anger bristling. She could feel the secretary eying her from the sides of the computer screens. As she filled out the paperwork and signed in, she caught the other stern woman sniffing daintily at her as if blatantly indicating that the scent was too strong. When she was being keyed into the system, someone grabbed her bags and carried them off to her awaiting room. Slowly the smell abated, and she felt her forehead dull from the oncoming headache.

Michiru barely had the time to shower and change into something decent before heading to the first meeting of the weekend. She hadn't realized that she was running so late.

"That's really good."

Michiru jumped. Instead of going out for a quick dinner between talks, she brought out her writing pad. Just before she started, she flipped through the yellow pages of thorough notes. As she often did when feeling agitated and fidgety, she began a doodle on the next available empty page. The marine blue haired woman didn't know how long she had been focused on the slowly forming drawing, the voices of people becoming a faint, meditative buzz in her ears. It was as if she was in some sort of trance.

She didn't even notice the people around her, let alone the one who had managed to sneak right up to her and look over her shoulder. Michiru looked up, wondering who would have such a voice. It was a deep, husky, and musical voice. Somehow it had managed to cut through her hostile feelings at being spied on. She relaxed her tense shoulders.

The voice matched to a tall man—made taller mainly because he was standing and she was sitting. She decided that he wasn't bad looking at all. The stranger had thick blonde hair that seemed to move when he moved. His eyes were a blue color, and immediately she knew that this was his home planet. Earth. His eyes seemed to laugh at her as he looked down at her curiously. Encasing his lithe figure was a pinstriped black suit, and a spring green tie that didn't seem to match the occasion. She decided that she preferred his tie choice, something more energetic than what everyone else had chosen.

She looked over towards her right, seeing the barren bench, and a part of the blue-haired woman cringed inwardly. There was a part of her that hated when chatty strangers intruded in on her space without asking and sat next to her. So Michiru slowly stood up, never breaking eye contact with him as she still considered what she thought about him. His eyes and head moved with her, though his relaxed posture—leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets—never changed.

"Thank you," she said. She had never realized how deep her own voice was, though her own voice was very clearly female. And she realized how naked she felt under his gaze. Was he arrogant? "I don't like how you're looking at me," she added with an eyebrow arched.

The blonde man gave her a Cheshire smile, secret and playful. He finally moved from his leaning position with ease and into a fully standing position. "All right then," he said, "I'll leave."

Even though his statement sounded final, the raised eyebrow and the lilt of his voice indicated that he meant otherwise. The blue haired woman fumed inwardly as she watched him leave, her eyes greedily watching him as he flowed from one step and into the other.

Michiru finally arrived at her hotel room for the last time that night. She felt worn and stretched. After digging around around in her purse, she found her key card and slipped it into the lock. The rest of the conference went in a blur, and she hardly could remember what was said. Her notes became more and more sparse as the conference dragged on. She was tempted to finish the doodle that she had started.

It was finally all over and done with by ten. Minako and a group of her colleagues went out for a couple of drinks. Her best friend had tried to encourage her to come, but Michiru felt the soft sheets calling to her. The blonde gave her her usual pursed-lipped look when she turned down her offer, before sighing and moving on with the group out of the building. Michiru just wanted to crawl into bed.

Minutes later, she was doing just that, pulling down the sheets and comforter, sliding onto the mattress. She did it slowly, enjoying the feeling of her body finally tuning down, relaxing muscles she didn't realize she had been tensing. The bed was soft under her knee and gave a bit under her weight, and the sheets covering the mattress ruffled softly.

The room was large and spacious. On her right was a small sitting space with a cloud blue arm chair with wooden scrolls along with frame and little clawed feet, as well as a love seat done in a similar style. There was a window of the city just behind them. On her left was the cleaning area: sink and a large mirror with rounded edges and golden frame. Next to it was the exit to the hall, leading out to the other rooms. Quite a few feet from her bed was a viewing screen and below it was a desk made of heavy wood with the same clawed feet as the chairs.

She stretched her legs out, spreading out her toes between the fresh cool sheets. In the background the news played from the screen. On the bed stand she fingered the paperback, pausing for a moment. Even though she was alone in the room, she was still slightly embarrassed at the fact that the novel happened to be some trashy romance. Minako had suggested the idea and lent her the book. But it was still something that she had promised herself that she would never do. It seemed as if she was breaking a lot of promises she had made to herself. She was here at this convention after all.

Her eyes shot to her traveling coat which hung from a corner of the bed stand. Maybe if it was a weekend for breaking rules, then maybe she would give him a call. The card was still inside her breast pocket. Michiru tore her gaze away from the fabric and she picked up the borrowed novel to scan the pages. When she was at the cusp of falling asleep, she cut out the lamp, the book long forgotten.

AN: Hey guys! New story up- and with a completely different genre! I've wanted to write a "retro-futuristic" story for a long while now, so I'm going to try for it, and I hope that there are plenty of you for the ride. If you don't know what exactly that is, wiki might help you out a bit- it's a fun genre to play with. :) It's also my first hardcore romance (I'm kind of nervous, heh heh...) so a lot of input would be appreciated! I rewrote this chapter about three times, and I think I'm happy with it. Hope you are too! R&R