"We better keep an eye out for these Crimson Lance characters", Michiru commented early in the next morning, as Haruka and she got ready for their trip to the Arid Badlands; while she packed up a little tent, just big enough for the two of them, and her sleeping bag, Haruka nodded, sounding a bit dismayed when she replied.
"Indeed, we should", she agreed, finishing her preparations by clipping a canteen filled with fresh water to her belt, "I doubt they will just drop it now, they'll probably come after us again once we're not surrounded by people willing to help."
"I'm still surprised they did that", Michiru commented as she checked her weapons, "they don't know me at all, and the man who spoke up for me the loudest was the one whose cigarette I shot out of his mouth shortly after my arrival here."
"You impressed him", Haruka shrugged, "being good with weapons is one of the few things which quickly earns someone respect around here. Also, they know I work for you, and that I'll get my share of the vault's treasures, so they hope I'll be willing to share."
"Still, it was surprising", Michiru admitted, "to be honest, I was quite sure one of them would tell this Commander Steele."
"Nah", the blonde smirked, carefully putting her machine gun into its holster after making sure it was fully loaded, "they'd never rat anyone out to someone like Steele. That company she works for, they're responsible for a lot of people stranded here, with no way out."
The thought was enough to make Michiru shudder, the idea of having to spend her life on this dump of a planet, with no way to ever leave, making her stomach clench up; she didn't voice these thoughts though, knowing that, as long as they hadn't found the vault, Haruka was one of these people, stuck on Pandora without any other options, and the last thing she wanted was to offend her companion.
"Ready?" Haruka distracted her from those thoughts, making her nod as she slung her rifle onto her back; the taller woman gave her a brief smile, once again making her knees flutter, then led the way out of her small house and to the shed where she kept her car, Michiru holding back a sigh as she climbed the gunner's seat once more, silently hoping that they'd make it to their destination without incident.
The day was spent mostly in the car, with only a brief break for lunch and a few stops at small settlements to refill their water canteens; and as they stopped to make camp for the night, Michiru was more than grateful to get out of the gunner's seat, stretching excessively once she had climbed down to the ground, noticing the way Haruka eyed her as she did so.
"We made good progress today, didn't we?" she said, holding back a smile at the way the blonde's eyes followed her every move as she started removing her supplies for the night from the car, "do you think we'll make it to the Arid Badlands tomorrow?"
"Yeah", Haruka gave back after a few seconds, her belated reaction forcing Michiru to hold back yet another smirk, "unless we run into some ambush or something, we should make it there before noon."
Clearly in dire need to keep her hands busy, she quickly unpacked the tent and sleeping bags, then started putting the tent up while Michiru collected wood for a fire; they had decided to camp in a rather small space, but it was surrounded by rocks, and she hoped that there'd be enough stone to keep anyone from seeing the flickering flames, well aware of the fact that otherwise, their fire might be seen for miles, and most likely by people who wouldn't be exactly friendly.
"Should we keep watch?" Haruka wanted to know as she put up the tent, getting done rather quickly; glancing around, Michiru took in the empty landscape around them, made of nothing but rocks and withered bushes, then shook her head, smiling at the way the taller woman raised an eyebrow in response.
"I have a light sleep", she explained as she got done with building the fire, digging through her pockets until she found a small book of matches, using one of them to light the fire, "if anyone tries to sneak up on us, I'll wake up. Especially out here, on this empty, desolate plain."
"Okay", Haruka agreed after considering this for a moment, "I guess you know what you're talking about, and I trust you, so…"
This renewed declaration of trust made Michiru's smile widen, and the blonde smiled back at her; for a few moments, the two just stood there, smiling at each other, until Michiru snapped herself out of it and moved to the car again, rummaging through their supplies for food while Haruka finished preparations for the night by placing the sleeping bags in the tent, the thought of spending the whole night so close to the blonde making Michiru's heart beat faster, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.
The first thing Michiru noticed when she woke up in the next morning was that the night had been peaceful, nobody disturbing their little camp; and then, a bit belatedly, she realized that during the night, Haruka and she had moved closer together, despite their sleeping bags, the blonde snuggled up to her back as she laid on her side, one arm loosely draped over her waist.
Lying perfectly still, Michiru tried to figure out how to get out of the sleeping back without waking Haruka and letting her notice the position they were in; she had to admit to herself that it felt good, the taller woman's body so close to hers, only the sleeping bags keeping them from touching, and the way her warm breath seemed to almost caress her neck each time she breathed out.
As slowly and carefully as possible, she finally started disentangling by carefully removing Haruka's arm from her waist, working hard to ignore the pang this gave her heart; then, she scooted away a bit, only sitting up once she had put a safe distance between Haruka and herself, letting out a carefully controlled breath as she ran both hands through her hair.
"Haruka", she then said, once she could be sure her voice wouldn't waver and betray her, reaching out and touching her shoulder, "time to get up."
Haruka let out a somewhat adorable grunt in reply, the way she forced her eyes open making Michiru smile, amusement in her voice when she added "Good morning", earning another grunt from the blonde.
"I'm not good at early mornings", she then grumbled, sitting up and stretching, "but it's a good thing you woke me, I suppose."
"If we want to reach this doctor before noon, then yes", Michiru smiled, earning a wry smirk; she took a moment to smile back, then moved out of the tent, Haruka following suit half a minute later.
They sat in content silence as they had a quick, but filling breakfast, consisting of the canned food Haruka had brought along; and to Michiru's relief, the blonde apparently had noticed nothing of their position during the night, the sniper figuring that, if she had, she surely would have mentioned it by now.
Again, she thought about how good it had felt as she ate, none of those thoughts and the emotions they caused showing on her face though; and again, she reminded herself that she couldn't do this, that she didn't have time for it and that it would be a terribly unfair thing to do to Haruka, both of them knowing that her time on this planet was limited.
Both of them finishing breakfast put an end to these thoughts, and she grimaced as she realized that, once had packed up their little camp, it'd be time for another ride in the gunner seat; Haruka, having noticed her expression and guessing correctly what it mean, chuckled slightly, smirking and shrugging at the eyebrow Michiru raised at her in response.
"I'd offer to take the seat", she then told the smaller woman while she began taking down the tent, "but, well, you don't know where we have to go, so…"
"I'll be fine", Michiru bravely replied, making Haruka smirk at her again; and this time, after a few moments, she smiled back, then moved to help her, giving her best to ignore the way her skin tingled whenever their hands accidentally touched, over and over reminding herself that she couldn't do this.
"Not far anymore now", Haruka called up to her two hours later, to her great relief; sitting up in the gunner seat was an adventure already on what passed for a normal street on this planet, an on the rough terrain the blonde was driving on, it was even worse, Michiru feeling as if her butt would never stop being sore again.
"Thank goodness", she thus called back, not hearing the blonde chuckle in response, but still being oddly sure that Haruka had done just that; she held back a dismayed sigh, then kept glancing around to make sure she wouldn't miss anyone pursuing them, feeling slightly better when she couldn't spot any other cars.
At least, she then thought, as Haruka drove up to a narrow path, leading into the mountains up ahead, her companion had been accurate when she had said it wasn't far anymore; the path was too narrow to let them drive any further, and even though she didn't know how far they might have to walk, she was glad to get out of the gunner seat, once more noticing how Haruka watched her closely when she stretched after climbing down to the ground.
"I know next to nothing about this doctor", the blonde told her as they started walking, Michiru keeping her hand close to her gun, just in case, well aware of the aggressive wildlife on Pandora by now, "only that she has a lab up there, and that she used to work for Dahl, the mining company."
"Let's hope she won't be hostile", Michiru gave back, glad that she was in good shape as the path led up and up, becoming quite a bit steeper the farther they walked, "and that she'll hand over her part of the key without much of a fuss. Do you know if she's been actively looking for the other ones?"
"Not as far as I know", Haruka told her, "I'm not quite sure what she is doing with the part she has. Probably studies it, she is a doctor after—"
The sound of gunshots interrupted her, and she fell silent, looking stunned for a few seconds – before she exchanged one glance with Michiru and both of them started to run, rushing up the path, until it led them to a plateau, the lab Haruka had mentioned before right in the middle of it, and a bunch of soldiers in crimson armour fanned out in front of it, aiming at the door and windows, for the moment though not firing again.
"Them", Michiru stated in a low voice, her eyes narrowing; Haruka nodded, a gesture she repeated when the sniper pointed to the left, the two of them splitting up moments later, finding cover behind rocks large enough before they both started firing.
Her sniper rifle wasn't much use to her, not with the soldiers standing relatively close; thus, Michiru relied on her revolver, but she was as good with that as she was with the rifle, and quickly, she found her focus, nothing in the world mattering anymore as she took aim and fired, fully in what her mentor had called "the zone", anticipating the return fire moments before it came and always taking cover in time.
She heard other shots, as well, from a machine gun, then the blast of a shotgun; thanks to their failure about keeping the path guarded, the soldiers now were trapped between whoever was shooting from the lab and Michiru and Haruka, and it didn't take long until one of the sniper's bullets took down the last one standing, silence and the smell of gunpowder filling the air, the sudden lack of weapons being fired tearing Michiru out of the near trance she had been in.
She smiled as she holstered her gun again, glancing briefly at the lab to make sure that the person who had supported them wouldn't try to shoot her now; and then, as she turned to look at Haruka, the smile vanished within a second, her eyes briefly widening and her heart suddenly hammering up to her throat.
A few feet away, halfway behind the rock she had been using for cover, Haruka laid flat on her back, her machine gun having fallen from her hands; her eyes were closed, but all these details registered belatedly on Michiru's mind as she couldn't take her eyes of the blood, all the blood, so much that she couldn't even tell where it was coming from.
"Haruka", she brought out in a weak, breathless voice; somewhere to her right, a door opened and someone called out to her, but she didn't even register it fully, completely focused on Haruka as she finally managed to snap out of her reverie and ran to her, all possible danger forgotten, her companion, this woman who meant so much to her already, so much more than she had been willing to admit to herself, and the tiny hope that she wasn't fatally wounded or even already dead the only thing she could focus on.