Author's Note: I was pretty sure that I was done with my first fiction, but with my friend's encouragement (Thanks JL!) and I kind of wanted to see HaruMichi hanging out with Hotaru after the ending, I brought myself to write a spinoff short story. Those who read the story will find this one easier to follow (Though not necessary – I'll try to provide more info). This one intends to make things a little humorous and show a silly side of Haruka.
Cover image: I decided to go with Michiru. Drew a "cute version" because this story supposes to be more lighthearted.
Disclaimer: I do not own any Sailor Moon characters in this story.
Mid December, Tokyo
Haruka and Michiru kept their promise and took their young friend, Hotaru, out for a Christmas date.
The couple was looking forward to the holiday time. It would be their first Christmas spent as a newly engaged couple, actually their first since they dated, or even their first since they met. It was only eight months after meeting each other at Infinity Academy the couple decided to become engaged. It was not a long time, but they both knew that their love for each other spoke louder than the count of days or months on the calendar.
The couple drove the red sports car to pick up Hotaru from Setsuna's apartment on the west side of the city.
"Nice car today." Michiru commented as the couple was on their way to meet Hotaru.
"Well, trying to be a little festive for the holiday. Plus, isn't it fun to drive a different car sometimes?" Haruka responded with a wink.
"It's definitely more fun to be in a different car," Michiru said, "So that makes me wonder, why do you always drive the same car when we go out? There are ten vehicles in your apartment's garage, but I only remember riding in the silver convertible, the yellow convertible, and the red touring motorcycle, once in each of them."
"Our."
"Huh?"
"Our apartment, our garage, and our cars. You keep forgetting that." Haruka corrected her.
Michiru smiled.
"Okay, so satisfy my curiosity my dear fiancée, why haven't we been driving our other cars?" Michiru asked sweetly.
"Because..." Haruka said, hesitating.
Haruka couldn't believe that she actually felt embarrassed from a question asked by the woman whom she called fiancée.
Michiru looked at her relaxingly, waiting for an answer.
She didn't expect that Michiru would be interested in her choice of cars, but she felt embarrassed to even admit the reason herself, since she started driving the midnight blue sports car as soon as she learned that Michiru's favorite color was marine blue, and out of all her vehicles the only one that resembled that shade of blue was the midnight blue sports car. She had no problem showing affections or even confessing her love for Michiru but she was pretty convinced that this reason would make her look silly.
"It's more convenient. You have a pair of comfortable shoes in the trunk in case you get tired from walking in your high heels shoes, and you even have some beauty products in the glove compartment." Haruka explained.
Michiru knew that the answers were not conclusive at all, as these were more likely the results of being in the same car all the time, but she smiled and let it go.
Ding Dong.
"Hi Michiru-san and Haruka-san!" Setsuna greeted the couple at the door. Michiru stepped forward.
"Nice to see you again Setsuna-san," Michiru said, giving Setsuna a warm hug.
"Likewise," Setsuna said, smiling.
Haruka held a long cake box with both hands.
"Merry Christmas. We made you a holiday dessert. Hope you and Hotaru will like it." Haruka said, handing it over to the tall, phthalo green-haired woman.
"Aww…thank you so much!" Setsuna said, peeking at the beautifully decorated dessert through the clear window of the cake box.
"Oh, we?" Michiru stared at Haruka and smiled slyly, without saying what was on her mind.
"Of course. We are a team now." Haruka returned the eye contact with a smile and a nod, without answering.
Michiru nodded, understanding the taller woman's answer.
"Remind me again, which part of the cake making process did you participate in?" Michiru asked silently with her eyes growing wider, still smiling.
"Look, I just delivered the cake. That's teamwork. Enough said." Haruka answered silently with her eyes glancing over at Setsuna who was still appreciating the cake.
"This is beautiful!" Setsuna said, while the couple quickly turned their attention towards her, "Bûche de Noël is actually Hotaru's favorite holiday cake, I'm sure she'll be excited!"
The tall woman put the cake box on the small console table next to her and gave Haruka a hug, then reached for a tin sitting on the same table, "and Merry Christmas to you both as well. Here's something from Hotaru and I – some gingerbread cookies. Hotaru helped decorating all the gingerbread men."
"Thank you! We can't wait to try them!" Michiru said gracefully.
Setsuna handed the tin over to Michiru. As the violinist received the metal box with both hands, the dark-haired woman couldn't help but notice an engagement ring on her ring finger.
"Congratulations on your engagement!" Setsuna said, and then looking over at Haruka as well.
"Thank you!" Michiru said with a warm smile.
Before the threesome continued, quick footsteps were heard running towards the door.
"Engagement? Who's engaged?" Hotaru asked excitedly, running out after overhearing the conversation.
"Hotaru-chan, please be more polite," Setsuna ordered, then she smiled and said, "Michiru-san and Haruka-san are engaged!"
Hotaru jumped after hearing the news!
"Yay! Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa are getting married!" Hotaru cheered.
The couple chuckled.
"Yes, mama and papa are getting married, you silly girl," Haruka said grinning. She stepped forward towards Hotaru and lowered herself down to the young lady's height.
Hotaru couldn't be more excited. She leapt into Haruka's arms and gave her a kiss on her cheek.
"I'm soo happy for you! Can I be your flower girl at the wedding? Can I?!"
Everyone laughed. The raven-haired girl was always one step ahead in planning everything.
The couple took Hotaru to see the Christmas tree, and then headed over to the Christmas market. The three of them spent a fun afternoon eating and shopping from vendors at the market.
Towards the evening, Hotaru suggested that they go ice-skating.
On the ice-skating rink, Hotaru excitedly made circles around the rink while Haruka held onto Michiru's waist and glided slowly.
"Come on Ruka, I'm really fine," Michiru said. "I know how to ice skate. You don't have to hold me like this."
Haruka refused to let go of her. Michiru injured her right shoulder and wrist three months ago, and even though her arm had a wide range of motions now, she still hadn't gained back much strength yet. She certainly could not afford another fall and re-injure herself again.
"How about this?" Michiru asked. She took Haruka's arm that was wrapped around her waist and clutched it with her arm instead.
"Okay," The racer approved, "But make sure you hold onto me and don't let go." She whispered in a flirtatious tone.
"Did I hear this somewhere before?" Michiru asked, she thought that line sounded familiar.
"Yep. Somewhere…only we know." Haruka replied with a wink.
Michiru giggled and gave her fiancée a playful punch.
"I'm not saying anything!" The racer defended, she then started humming the song with the same title, and going around the rink in circles with Michiru holding onto her arm.
"Ruka, stop ruining the song! I actually like it!" Michiru jokingly scolded.
"Of course, we actually made us love it!" Haruka countered with an implicit joke.
"Woohoo, look at me!" Hotaru excitedly shouted. Once the young lady got some warm-up on the ice, she started demonstrating some new moves that she acquired recently.
"Careful missy!" Haruka yelled after the little daredevil.
Hotaru was fast and agile on ice. And being the eight year old girl she was, she wasn't afraid of anything and was still keen on chasing speed and pursuing adventures like her idol Haruka-papa the racer. She just learned a more advanced Axel jump and couldn't wait to show it off to her "mama" and "papa".
"I'll show you my jump!" Hotaru exclaimed.
"Come on Hotaru! There are way too many people here for you to do this." Haruka yelled.
The raven-haired girl did not listen and performed it anyway. She gracefully skated into a position that prepared her for the jump, took off into the air and rotated elegantly, and finally landed backward for a beautiful finish.
"I did it! See? And I'm totally fine!" Hotaru proudly said.
"That was beautiful Hotaru-chan!" Michiru said, clapping her hands in knitted gloves.
"Thank you, thank you!" The raven-haired girl said, bowing gracefully.
"That was nice Hotaru-chan. Now maybe we can enjoy the ice instead of doing difficult moves?"
"Okay…what should we do then?" Hotaru hesitated. "Hey papa, since you're the racer why don't we do speed skating? I'm fast too!" the little girl challenged Haruka.
"No, there's no space to do it here." Haruka declined.
"Fine. We'll wait until it's quieter then!" Hotaru wouldn't give up.
Later into the night the rink was less crowded. The raven haired girl was still looking forward to race her idol and "papa". She challenge Haruka again. The blonde racer didn't want disappoint the young lady but she couldn't leave Michiru by herself.
Michiru insisted that she would stand by the rail to watch them.
"Are you sure?" Haruka asked.
"Of course. I can't fall just by standing here. I won't go anywhere unless I'm holding onto you." Michiru reassured.
Haruka hesitated a little, and then she finally agreed. Before leaving Michiru at the corner, she reminded the aqua -haired woman again that she could not skate on her own without holding onto her.
Once Haruka and Hotaru met at the end of the rink, the two immediately started going around in circles racing each other.
Michiru stood at the corner watching them. She chuckled seeing her fiancée acted like an eight year old as well. As she observed the two closer, she could see some of Haruka's traits in Hotaru – intelligent, cheerful, carefree, competitive, and audacious. It was no surprise that the two clicked exceptionally well. She giggled, thinking that Haruka could really be Hotaru's papa given how similar they were.
As Michiru kept her eyes at the two, someone suddenly came out of nowhere, lost control, and ran towards her.
She did not see it at first as her eyes were fixated on Haruka and Hotaru, until she heard the source of the yelling getting closer to her. She finally turned her attention over and saw the danger coming her way.
She was trying to get herself away but the skater was coming too fast and she was cornered with a few people next to her on the left. He was about to run straight into her right arm.
Haruka turned around as she heard the commotions but realized that there was absolutely no way she would be able to prevent this. She was at the corner diagonally across from Michiru.
Michiru could not respond in any other way except to shut her eyes tightly as the impending accident was about to become a reality. Nothing felt worse than knowing that the beacon of hope to pick up her violin and paintbrush again soon was dimming...
Someone skated in a lightning speed from sideways and halted the skater just in time and stopped the collision a fraction of a second before it materialized.
For a few seconds Michiru did not know what happen, her eyes remained shut but she noticed that her arm wasn't in pain.
"Don't worry," Someone said next to Michiru, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, "I stopped him. You're safe now."
The voice was too familiar to Michiru. She slowly opened her eyes to the source of the voice. It did not take long before she realized that not only she knew her rescuer, she actually knew that person a little too well.
Her rescuer took off the shades, and Michiru was shocked to see the familiar face again.
"Michiru?" She heard.
"Sei…Seiya?" Michiru said.
"Michiru, I'm glad you weren't hurt. How have you been?" Seiya asked. She was excited to Michiru again, but then a frown appeared on her face and she looked genuinely concerned. "How are your shoulder and wrist recovering?"
"Fine. All fine." Michiru replied, looking away nervously. She obviously wasn't ready to see Seiya again.
The artist hadn't seen Seiya since their last confrontation at the hospital. She didn't know what to think of her anymore. The singer was someone who helped her, wanted to friends, wrote a song for her, confessed her love to her, bluffed about hurting Haruka, and worsened her injury; but now she was someone who helped her again and prevented her from getting re-injured.
"I-I'm so sorry," Seiya apologized, "Everything was my fault. I know I owe you more than an apology..."
The singer still had her hand on Michiru's shoulder. She probably never wanted to take it off unless she was forced to.
Michiru grew pensive. Trying to debate whether seeing Seiya again should bother her at all. Despite what happened, her relationship with Haruka came out stronger so she supposed she could let the hard feelings go.
Haruka caught the whole scene from the other side. She came up to them quickly, with Hotaru following her from behind. Seiya's removed her hand from Michiru's shoulder promptly when she sensed that someone was coming towards them.
"Michi, are you okay?" Haruka nervously asked, slipping her arm around Michiru's waist, "Were you hurt?"
"I'm fine." Michiru answered, looking up at the tall blonde with an assuring smile.
Haruka quickly glanced over at the person who helped Michiru, and her eyes grew wider at what she saw. She was boiling with anger and her jealousy was simmering again. She clenched the fist on her other arm immediately.
"Why can't you keep your dirty hand to yourself?!" Haruka growled at Seiya.
"Haruka-san, it's nice to see you again." Seiya responded calmly and politely instead, and offered her handshake as usual.
Haruka huffed angrily and ignored the gesture. She continued to stare at the bluish-blacked hair star with ire. She would never forgive what Seiya had done to Michiru.
Hotaru tried to observe the verbal exchanges and the body languages of the three adults but could not grasp what was going on.
Knowing the past confrontations between her fiancée and Seiya, Michiru was convinced that she had to step in before the rivalry duo escalated into another verbal or physical confrontation. She needed something to distract them.
"Long time no see. Haruka and I got engaged recently." Michiru broke the silence with an intentional news for Seiya. She smiled and put her left arm around Haruka's waist.
"Oh? Congratulations to you both!" The singer excitedly said. She grinned, trying to appear surprised and delighted, but there was a split second Seiya looked shocked and disappointed when she heard the news and Michiru caught that.
Haruka held onto Michiru's waist tightly, as if she would lose her to Seiya if she held her a bit looser.
"Thank you," Michiru said reservedly, "Hope you're doing well."
"I'm okay," Seiya replied, "The three of us withdrew from school to focus on our career. Meanwhile I've been working on a solo-" she immediately stopped talking after seeing Haruka's facial expression.
Haruka still had rage in her eyes, probably from the lingering anger from their previous confrontations or the renewed fury from Seiya placing her hand on Michiru's shoulder. Regardless of the reason, it was clear that she was ready to take this out on the singer.
"Michi, I've got some unfinished business to take care of here. Would you and Hotaru step off the rink and wait for me outside?" Haruka requested. Her glare was still at the singer.
But Michiru shook her head.
"I can't Ruka, you said I can't skate on ice without holding onto you." Michiru responded matter-of-factly.
Haruka's comment only sounded heroic and chivalrous for a few seconds, until Michiru called her out on her contradictory and made her sound like an idiot instead. Feeling imbecile, Haruka just wanted to crack the ice and bury her head in it.
There was a cunning, come-and-get-me smile coming from Seiya that only Haruka could see. The blonde racer could not take it anymore. She clenched her fist tighter and was determined that she would just have to do something about it right there, even if Michiru and Hotaru were watching.
"Okay. Stay here then." She said.
"Seiya Kou!" She hissed at the singer and drew closer to her.
Before she threw her fist towards the singer, Hotaru stepped into the adults' circle and disrupted the imminent confrontation.
"Seiya? You're Seiya from the Three Lights?!" Hotaru excitedly asked.
The tall blonde immediately loosened her fist while Seiya turned her attention to the little girl.
The singer lowered herself to Hotaru's height.
"Yes young lady. I am Seiya Kou from the Three Lights." Seiya said and gave the little girl a warm smile.
"I'm such a huge fan of yours!" The raven-haired girl exclaimed.
Haruka secretly made a not-impressed face. Come on now Hotaru! How could you be a fan of both me and her? The racer thought.
"Thank you, but shhh..." Seiya said quietly, "I don't want to draw extra attention here."
"It's not like anyone will care." Haruka said in a sarcastic tone, huffing.
"I understand." Seiya responded politely in her signature, stage-ready mannerism.
Haruka raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, you do? It's a shame that talentless band like you guys are still around."
There were worse things she could have said, such as disclosing Seiya's gender, but she bit her tongue and tried to remain civil in front of Hotaru.
But Hotaru was confused. She looked up at the racer.
"Haruka-papa, I can see that you don't care for popular men." Hotaru innocently commented.
There was a dead silence, until Michiru started giggling and Hotaru started laughing. Seiya looked away and smiled, trying to hold back her laughter and remained in her polite façade.
"Hotaru, I don't know where you got that from, but that doesn't make sense at all." Haruka said seriously. Her face started to turn red.
The racer's comment did not stop the rest from laughing.
"Well, I'm sorry for the interruption." Seiya said, getting back on her feet. "Glad to know that you're all doing well. Congratulations again. Take care." She put her shades back on and skated away.
"Bye!" Hotaru said, waving to the singer.
"Come on, Hotaru, it's getting late now. Let's take you home." Haruka said.
The couple headed back home after dropping off Hotaru. There was an unusual silence in the car. The appearance of Seiya, and the popular-men comment from Hotaru and Michiru laughing about it made things a little awkward between them. Haruka certainly did not want to come off as a jealous fiancée but she couldn't help it – especially when it came to Seiya.
"Want some music?" Haruka broke the silence, glancing over at Michiru quickly.
"Sure." Michiru answered.
Haruka tuned to the classical channel, thinking that she could use some soothing and calming music, and could perhaps relieve this awkward air in a tight space.
Beautiful violin playing was heard from the car stereo. Haruka thought the melody was great.
"Do you like this?" The racer asked.
Michiru sighed softly. It was a song from the latest bestselling soundtrack. That was Michiru's first string arrangement project during her injury. Every song with string arrangements from that album was written by her. The song reminded her of the toughest time in her life and how hurtful it was to create music for others when she couldn't play herself. She still remembered that painful experience seeing another violinist played her work in front of her.
She looked outside the window.
"Are you okay?" Haruka asked.
"That was my first project," she said sadly.
"Sorry Michi," Haruka said, feeling ignorant and guilty. "Let's switch to something else."
The racer quickly turned to the pop channel, hoping that there'd be some cheerful music to lighten up the mood.
"Before I know it
you came along
When I felt despair
you gave me hope"
Sounds familiar, Haruka thought. But she couldn't tell where she heard it from. Michiru looked over at the taller woman, wondering if she recognized the song.
"Your beautiful violin touched my heart
Your wonderful smile gave me courage
You brought me back to my feet
So let me catch you when you fall
I'll take you in my arms and never let go
My teal-haired lady…"
No, no, no to the nth power! Why is Seiya's love song for Michiru playing at this time!
"Ugh," Haruka groaned, "Only that disgusting Seiya can come up with shameless stuff like this!"
Michiru was indifferent about it. She was upset when she heard the song for the first time, but at this point the song didn't matter to her anymore. She actually thought it was more amusing to watch Haruka getting jealous.
Haruka immediately switched the channel again. She tuned into the holiday station. She thought that it had to be safe – Michiru did not arrange strings for Christmas music and there'd be no Seiya's love song.
"I'll give it to someone special…"
Okay, not bad. Haruka admitted to herself. Except that the voice sounded eerily familiar…wait, wasn't that the same voice as the last song?! Haruka glanced over at the screen, and of course it showed "Three Lights – Christmas album". The lyrics that followed seem to make everything sound even worse:
"Once bitten, and twice shy. I keep my distance but you still catch my eyes. Tell me, baby, do you recognize me?"
Darn it, why did it have to be annoying Seiya again?!
"Why isn't there any good music at this time?!" Haruka yelled.
Michiru giggled. She couldn't believe that Haruka managed to get jealous over a Christmas song too.
Just then, Haruka's manager was calling.
"Pardon me, it's Manuel. I have to take this," Haruka said. She thought this would be the perfect reason to turn off the music.
She put her manager on speakerphone.
"What's up Manuel?" The racer answered.
"Hey Haruka! I've got some news for you!" Manuel said. Her tireless manager was always in an excited tone. "Is this a good time?"
"Sure."
"I got a call from a luxury retail label. They wanted to have a chat with you over an endorsement deal. Are you available to meet with them next Wednesday at 9am?"
Haruka tried to recall her schedule on that day, and then glanced over at Michiru, trying to make sure that the artist didn't have physical therapy appointment at that time.
Michiru shook her head.
"Okay," the blonde woman responded. "I'll be there."
"Sweet! Hey I'm surprised that I don't need to convince or beg you this time."
"Consider yourself lucky then."
"Hmm…did you change your mind and decide to get a new car now?" Manuel was in a good mood and decided to tease Haruka anyway.
"Did I say I need a new car?" Haruka asked perfunctorily, without thinking twice about their previous conversation. Then she suddenly realized that her response invited her manager to carry on further and that was the last thing she wanted to do right now.
Shut up Manuel! She thought.
But of course her manager wasn't going to let this chance go.
"Oh that's right," Manuel continued to tease her, "You'll only drive that one car because dark blue is someone's favorite color."
Haruka could feel her body temperature rising quickly from embarrassment.
"Manuel, say another word and you're going to have to beg me to go," Haruka snapped at her manager, while Michiru looked outside the window, giggling quietly.
After Haruka hung up with Manuel, she took a quick glance at Michiru. She could clearly see the artist's facial expression reflected on the tinted window.
She knew that she had some explanations to do.
"That's your favorite color." Haruka finally admitted as the couple walked out from the apartment's parking garage, "Michi, when you came to watch my race, when you told me that your favorite color was marine blue, I started driving the midnight blue sports car. I wanted to be with you so I tried to do everything to please you."
The violinist giggled into her hand while Haruka's face flushed.
"I know - I didn't even know you well at that time," Haruka said, lowering her head.
"We." Michiru stopped her footsteps but held onto Haruka's hand.
"Huh?" Haruka stopped as well, she turned around and stood face to face with the violinist.
"We didn't know each other well at that time, but we wanted to be together, so we tried to do everything to please each other." Michiru explained, smiling. "And that's why we werealways driving the midnight blue sports car – because that's our favorite color."
Haruka chuckled at the 'we-instead-of-I-or-you' rhetoric that they had been playing. She was glad that at least Michiru didn't think she was silly or desperate.
"Ruka, to tell you the truth," Michiru said softly, wrapping her arms around Haruka's waist. "I felt the same at that time."
A smile appeared on Haruka's face as the aqua-haired woman's words warmed her heart.
Then she laughed. Maybe she was silly or even desperate, but at least she wasn't the only one.
Happy Holidays everyone!