"And you take this daughter of a foreign land to be yours? To be as yours despite the calls of your own people?"
"I shall."
"And you? You would take this son of a foreign land to be yours? To be as yours despite the calls of your own people?"
"I shall."
Michiru was unsure as to why this was the particular line that stung her eyes. She felt such a promise to be true – if not in the halting assertions of her sister or her soon-to-be-brother-in-law – then in some other version of memory or premonition.
She thought: I understand this, this irrational assertion.
She thought: though I cannot make such a promise in this lifetime I know, I know, that I will. I feel – I anticipate – another life for myself.
One when I might make such terrible promises such as to forsake all others.
Although, this wasn't just a premonition; she saw the edge of such madness with the side of a face she must never touch again. The side of the face of the daughter or Uranus who would not turn back. Her fixed jaw. Her unwavering posture. Only look at me a moment. Only show me last night wasn't a fleeting dream.
She closed her eyes and imagined. Here she was before an aged promise taker. Here they both were. Except she would only really need this one woman.
"I will take you, forsaking all others." She would say this without prompting.
It would be the one place and time it would be acceptable.
My penance is to be forever prepared to lose her.
My weakness is that I can never let her leave without me.
So, stay.
Stay.
As long as you have life.
Stay in a world we may be together.
I don't know if you will ever understand…
but I can live with that.
Just… not without you.
She shook her head.
Her sister and brother-in-law were facing the gathered audience, blushing and smiling.
Perhaps this was the way of things. Perhaps this was how it was always…
Haruka looked over at her.
Such a look.
She forgot to…
No.
She looked down. She recounted the story from soothsayers: There would be a union between Neptune and Uranus. Such a story of love would be long remembered for lifetimes beyond imagining. Such a love as defied the constraints of space and time.
Now was neither the space nor the time that they should be.
And yet.
And Yet.
Haruka watched her for the entire procession from the Uranian side from the ceremony chambers. Michiru's eyes did not leave hers. It was the ceremony they could not have with each other. It was one they were promised by fate.
Yes, two girls.
Yes, two that must be kept separate.
Politics moved slower than philosophy. She knew – and her superiors knew – that the union of today was not the match foretold.
Oh, Haruka. Do you feel it?
Can't you notice any sooner?
X
I'm swimming.
No.
In a room.
No.
I'm trapped inside my mind; my mind has cast the room into obscurity. It is drowned in thick black. I can't open my eyes. I can't feel the world beyond. Your songs remind me of swimming. Had that been on the radio?
What was the next line?
What radio?
I am not alone, I find. I am – literally – beside myself. Or Neptune is. She is lying alongside me, matching my length, turning to look at me, but not ready to answer.
"Michiru." She says, and reaches for my hair.
"Are you leaving me?" I ask her.
"I don't know," she says. "Are you leaving me?"
"How could I?"
"Oh… you don't understand yet…"
"You mean if I die? Am I dying?"
"Do you want to?"
"I don't think so – no – where would that leave…?"
"Michiru."
"No, don't let me die."
"I can't control that. You were hurt very badly."
"Then… don't leave me. Please? I don't know who I am if I am split from you. I didn't know that you could ever be separate from me."
"Rebirth is such a messy thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Our souls travelled over a great distance, a great many life times. We don't simply enter into a single life to be reborn; we are like the coral that breaks down and salts the shores of every continent; we are like stardust: sprinkling and touching and being breathed in by those destined for the stars, and those destined for obscurity."
"You're talking in riddles."
"Riddles offer possibility. Possibility is the best you can hope for."
"You're unkind."
"Come here." She moves forward and pulls her white arms around me and I cannot help but mirror her. This is how it feels to embrace myself, I think. And I feel the generosity of her chest, and the fragility of her ribs and the bones of her back. I am so slight. Does Haruka feel me and find that I am…?
"Haruka!" I call like an objection. "Don't let me die. Don't let me be where she isn't."
"You feel she is alive?"
My eyes water. "I can't feel her at all. Don't abandon me."
"There is nothing to fear. If you die you will lose your memory of her. Be calm. Be still."
"My soul will remember her. Yours will. Even with without memories our souls will feel it. I am certain. A deep, inexplicable longing."
Neptune signs. She shimmers. She looks me in the eye. "I don't know who I am without you either. I would be less."
"Thank you." I say.
"I love her too." She says, "though it is difficult."
"It is difficult not to love her."
"Yes."
"Hold onto me?"
X
"Michiru…!" She awakens. She is in a chair and her neck hurts. She is not in – wait – she is not in her own room.
She is not in her own room and the room is empty.
The bandaged girl is gone.
The girl is gone that means the girl was taken that means the staff had entered that means the staff hadn't removed her because…
Well, they should have removed her unless…
No.
Unless she was entitled to be in this room…
… because she was 'next of kin'.
"Michiru." She whispers to the dancing curtain.
"Michiru!" She stands and already the footsteps are hurrying for her. But the awfulness shoots through her. Her head pounds; the lights dim; she falls. Her knees are… there's pain but…
"Ms Tenoh…!"
They tell her it was only minutes that she was out. They are worried about a superficial cut on her leg. She is trying not to yell at them. She is trying to breathe properly.
"Where is she?"
"Ms Tenoh, if you could just – "
"WHERE IS SHE?!"
"Please, if you push yourself – "
"Damnit! Goddamnit! Can you get away from me and give me a real answer?"
The nurses look between each other for confirmation.
"Kaioh Michiru, OK? I remember her. And who she is to me. And that I have RIGHTS to information. If you can't say anything, can you damn well get someone who will?"
"I'll go." One scampered.
She breathed, focusing on a spot on the floor that didn't make her want to throw a punch in its direction.
"Ms Tenoh, will you let me look at that knee. I think we may need stitches."
"I don't care about my knee."
"It's my job to care about you knee."
"Then you're fired." She scowled at the nurse who had two hands on her left calf.
"Ironically, you don't have that authority."
"Ironi – ow!"
"I'm just going to disinfect it first."
It's hard to recall, sometimes, the order of things that go into important events. But the doctor had arrived with reasonable haste; had told her there was – had been - a surgery. An unexpected event in the night. Ms Kaioh had gone into cardiac arrest. Would she be fine? It was hard to say. But she would make it? They expected her to make it, right? The situation was delicate. They would keep her updated. They would? Even if it meant waking her? Even if it meant interrupting a – Yes, they would.
Nothing more to say then.
Nothing to confirm.
X
Setsuna arrived with Hotaru. She was still shaking, doubled over in tears when they stood at her door. Her visitors looked shocked. She wasn't sure how she looked in return.
"Hime-chan." She managed.
On cue her usually shy daughter ran over, leapt up and clambered onto her lap.
"You remember me now?" She murmured into her neck.
It choked Haruka again. She felt her spine, her lungs spasm with terrible regret. She wept soundlessly and the forgiving child in her arms remained.
"I'm sorry I forgot you… you are so, so precious to me. Do you know?"
"I know." She said looking up seriously. "I missed you a lot."
She breathed in shakily. "Thank you for waiting."
"You're welcome." She said, comically automatically.
Haruka laughed. Setsuna interjected, "Good manners, Hotaru."
Haruka looked up to the other blurry adult in the room.
"Setsuna… I don't know how to…"
"Oh, if you want to apologise for implying that you and I had been…"
"…Been what?"
"Wait. You don't remember?"
"I remember. I just wanted to hear you say it." She grinned slowly.
"…"
"Do you think Setsuna-mama is blushing?" She asked Hotaru.
Hotaru nodded and giggled.
"Hey, two on one isn't fair. This argument is lopsided without…"
They were without.
"Yes…" Haruka looked out of the window. "And if I had left earlier or if there had been a cab… if we'd reached that spot two minutes later…"
"You cannot conquer time." Setsuna said. And at the beginnings of a pleading look from Haruka, "Nor can I. You know that."
X
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'
But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.
"How did you come by these words?" She asked.
The daughter of Neptune had found her after the ceremony. Michiru. Once again she had embraced her and transported them both to a strange new location. They were quite alone. Her boots sunk into white sand. It was a cove, one overlooked by severe black cliffs and fringed with a violently frothing tide.
"My people will occasionally scavenge treasures from Plutonians."
"They are poets?"
"They have Time Pirates. I suspect a great many of our architectural designs have originally been illegal acquisitions."
"I don't understand."
"Really, Haruka…there is an aspect of you that is so honest… it makes it difficult not to kiss you."
The waves crashed disconsolately. The light was dying. Could I not conquer time? Could I not bargain for another day few hours?
"You're calling me naïve."
"I am."
"Then educate me."
Michiru folded at the knee and reached for her hand as instruction to do the same. The beach was cool. The sand was fine and fell through her fingers quite quickly. She would be leaving that evening. She didn't want it confirmed that this would be the last chance to…
"There are rebel factions from Pluto who disobey the laws of time travel.' Michiru looked out to the water. "They steal examples of future designs from cities that are thousands of years ahead."
Certainly not. Unregulated time travel? Haruka snapped from her distraction. "But the penalty for breaking the laws of…"
"The rewards are compelling, too. Future designs are highly valuable. They can make the difference between winning a war or… not."
"You're quite serious."
"I am."
"Then we should change the law…!"
Michiru smiled and lay back. Her hair spread around her. The deeper sky did an injustice to the true blue of her eyes. She laughed. As though it were still open to either of them, "I really do want to kiss you."
"I don't know why I put up with your insults," Haruka dipped her head.