Author's note: Etude means 'study', and yes - there's a specific style of music called an etude, made to practice a specific musical element. The french title for this fic means the study of the wind and sea. Brownie points to those who can figure out the reason why I called it that.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot bunnies. Everything else is owned by Naoko Takeuchi and the companies Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon is associated with over the years. Plot bunnies like review carrots. Please feed my plot bunnies so they grow big and strong!

First Study: The Sea

I never thought for a second that you'd feel for me the same way I did for you.

Even before you picked up that henshin stick, you were the embodiment of wind. Fast and free, forever running somewhere. Blowing whichever way you felt like, causing trouble or helping when you saw fit. I always admired that about you. It was a trait I certainly didn't have.

Despite passion running deep in me, moving me in ways others might never fathom, I was settled. Not stagnant - not by any stretch of the imagination - but settled. I liked having a home to go to, a family and a job that let me move around a bit, but was stable enough. You didn't seem to care much about whether you had a job - only that whatever you did, it would let you remain free.

It was why I refused to dream that one day you'd call anywhere I was 'home'. The wind shouldn't ever be tame, and if you tried to box it in, it would die instantly. I could never do that to you. And yet...

Yet somehow you let yourself. Without walls to hold you in, the wind descended to touch the sea. You lashed out at first, whipping against the currents below, as though knowing that yielding might kill you. Surrendering might change you forever, taking your very spirit and scattering it until it faded away into nothingness. And then something changed. Rather than rage against me, and your fate, instead you found a way to flow with me. The melding of sea and sky in something altogether new and wonderful.

You found a way to make it all work. Like tendrils of wind that danced over the surface of the sea, tossing the salty water around into brilliant whitecaps over the blue-green expanse. Untamed, yet at home with me. Running at my side, or to it after an adventure, always returning to tease and play.

I'm so afraid that something I'll do or say will chase you away, even now. Because love is a wonderful thing, but it isn't quite so steadfast as others might think. I know you'll always love me, just as I will always love you from the very depths of my being. But I still fear that it won't be enough one day. That I'll find you've left on an adventure I can't follow you to, that you can't return from. You always tease me that I drift into my own world, but can't you see that you've become my world? That seashell I lift to my ear lulls me into a trance, yes, but you alone can pull me away from it with a look, a smile, a soft caress or my name on your lips.

I've even told you how I feel, and you've laughed me off, near-dancing in front of me, my hands in yours as you reassure me that nothing would stop you from returning to my side. That I should rest assured in that fact. Yet I still can't even begin to decipher what it was that led you to me in the first place. Why did you choose to blow about me, rather than from me? It's a question I can't even dream of answering. I can only thank my lucky stars that somehow you did decide to run at my side, and hope that each time I look to see if you're still there, I can see your smiling lips and that glimmer in your eyes that few others get to see.

The joy that you claim only I can bring you.

Really?

It's more than I could ever have hoped for.

I'd have been happy with friendship. Ecstatic, really. To be friends with the wind itself? Who could claim that? But you've given me so much more.

You're standing out on the balcony, your element toying with your hair, tossing it this way and that as though it were something alive. Perhaps it is - I certainly feel the same about the sea. You're so beautiful, framed by starlight and bathed in moonlight, the gold-toned silk pajamas I bought you for your birthday whipping about your lithe form as the wind brought with it the scent of the sea. My own element.

I step out to join you, breathing in the ocean air deeply, and after a moment's pause, your eyes open and you turn to face me with that grin on your lips I've come to adore.

"It's nice," I comment quietly as you open an arm to me. I settle in without question, soaking in the warmth your body brings. I can feel your lips on the top of my head, and my eyes close for a moment to drink it all in. "No more battles. No more school or tours. Just us." You hum in agreement, but say nothing else for a long while, simply holding me - and I'm happy to stay in your arms as long as you want me there.

"Michi..." you murmur, catching my attention. I look up at you questioningly, and you laugh lightly at the face I make. "Who would have thought the sea would be the only thing the wind would ever need to feel complete?" My cheeks burn happily at the comment. Is that why you stay? Is that what pulls you back to me? Is that the reason why I, of all people, managed to lure you in?

I feel complete with you near me, too. A feeling no other has managed to stir within me.

Your arms tighten for a moment, then shift to pluck me off my feet, sweeping me up into a bridal carry as I gasp in surprise and you laugh at my reaction. "Only you." And you silence any thoughts or words I might have with a sweet kiss, carrying me into the bedroom.

Second Study: The Wind

From day one, there was something about you. Maybe it was because of the element you were born in. Born as. Others might claim to love the sea, but Michiru - you are the sea. Its depths echo in your eyes, its soul rests in your heart, its mysteries are your own. Like a moth to flame, you lured me in, even as I railed against the idea. Try to tell the wind it needs to go in any direction other than the one it wishes to blow in, and you'll have a fight on your hands, after all.

Yet somehow I still ended up taken in by you.

You never forced me, and perhaps that was part of how you drew me in. When I fought, you relinquished any claim you might have had on me. You even warned me, to save me from being bound to you in any way. Like you knew, instinctively, how utter wild I was and respected it. You tried to sacrifice what you knew would make you happy all for my own sake. Later, you would tell me it was for selfish reasons - that you knew you could never be happy if you knew I wasn't. But we both know that, while that might have been true, the deeper motivation was simply because that was who you were. Who you are. Your nature is one of quiet acceptance - of a deeper change than one forced on me. You would wait, like the sea when it wishes to wear down the land - slowly working at it until it acquiesces over time.

And it worked, without you knowing it. Without you actively seeking me, I came to you, entranced by who you were.

You screamed at me not to pick up that damned stick. The one that would forever trap me on my destined path. But I couldn't deny it - or you - any longer. When my fingers closed around the cool metal, it felt right. Not like I was boxed in or channeled, but more that it'd just freed me to explore even more. That it had opened the door to a path I was meant to take. I suppose it's true, too - it brought me closer to you, after all.

Even now, standing on our balcony, I can feel the siren call of the sea, carried to me on my beloved element. The scent that permeates the world we've chosen for ourselves. Your scent. It whips around me, cutting through the silk I'm wearing and cutting into my very core. I belong here. I'm whole here. True, I could go wherever the wind took me if I wished - but it would always lead me back here, back to your arms. Home.

I sense you, rather than hear you as you step out with me, and I hesitate to open my eyes, knowing you're going to take my breath away. When I do, I realize that taking my breath away was the least of my worries. You look ethereal. The garment your wearing, rather than your usual cotton pajama suit, is a satin slip of a thing in a pale seafoam, its hem licking at your pale thighs as the wind teases us both some more. I bought you the little thing just two months ago for your birthday, knowing it would make you blush but unable to help myself. And now I'm far more grateful I did than I ever have been. You're a goddess, Michiru.

"It's nice," you utter, not only referring to the night - the clear sky and sea-kissed wind.

My arm extends of it's own accord, beckoning you close - and you come to me without even thinking. It's just how we are. As soon as you're near, both arms wrap around you almost protectively. You're a little chilled, but after a few moments together, we're both pleasantly warm. "No more battles. No more school or tours. Just us." Your voice is melodic as you recount the reasons we should both be grateful for this moment in time, and I can't help but make a soft, agreeing noise. Anything that keeps me near this woman - the only person in the world I can call my everything - is something I'm grateful for.

"Michi," I finally work out, and I can't help but chuckle - you're so cute when you look at me like that. But there's something on my mind. Something I need to tell you. You've asked me so many times why I stay with you, why I don't just follow my heart somewhere new. Well.. I finally have the words to explain it, where they'd failed me so many times before. "Who would have thought the sea would be the only thing the wind would ever need to feel complete?"

Your blush, my Michiru, is enough to know that you understand what I was trying to say. You still gaze at me, questions lingering in your aquamarine eyes. I can see them as clearly as we can both see the stars tonight. But one by one those questions appear to gain answers, your lips tugging into a smile without you likely even realizing it. I can't help myself any longer. With a grin in response, I move quickly, scooping you up into my arms the way I hope to one day do when we pledge ourselves under the cherry blossoms with god and our family as witnesses. One day soon. You gasp, and I can't help but laugh. You're adorable. Only you could have drawn me in like this, without even lifting a finger to do so. And I whisper those two first words - only you. Only you, Michiru - because the wind won't accept anyone else. Your lips part only a fraction, as though about to utter some response, but now isn't the time to talk.

I kiss you, sweet and fierce, carrying you into the bedroom we share. Let me show you how the wind now listens to you, how it loves you.

How I love you.

Fin. Review, please, even if only to correct something.