The colors were bright and practically exploded across the canvas with mirth. Haruka loved to look at them, they felt alive and filled with joy. The flowers bloomed across the canvas, fish somehow swimming through the grass. This was her favorite exhibit so far, and that put her in mind of the soreness of her body.
"Hey," She called softly to her daughter, who walked over, a toddler balanced on her shoulder. "I gotta sit down awhile, my joints are killing me."
"Are you okay, Pop?" She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, concerned.
"Fine, fine, just old." She laughed. "I like the pictures in here, so I figured it'd be as good a place as any." She eyed a plush chair, unoccupied in the corner, "and that has my name on it."
She kissed her Papa on the cheek, "Come get you in twenty minutes?"
"Sounds great."
She limped over to the chair and sank into it, sighing contently as she stretched her leg out straight in front of her. It was a cheerful place to be—she'd always loved the art museum anyway, even if she didn't quite have the vocabulary to discuss it with people—but this room was a visiting artist's, and she found herself a bit sad that it wouldn't always be there.
She almost missed it. Just barely on the edge of her vision, a motion she recognized from long ago. But there was no way it could be. It had been, what now? 30-odd years? Coming up on 40, my god.
But it had to be, her heart insisted, and so her voice called out, too loud for the venue. "Michiru? Michiru Kaioh?"
She turned and her smile was immediate as she recognized Haruka. She clipped quickly across the floor of the space. "Haruka? Can it really be? My lord, it's been ages."
Haruka moved to stand, pushing herself slowly out of the chair, but Michiru sat on the cushioned bench next to her in one swift motion and took her elbow delicately. "No, please sit." She moved on quickly to spare Haruka explanation. 'Whatever are you doing here?"
"I love the art museum!" She smiled, leaning back and folding her hands in her lap. 'I have a pass here, you know. Ever since I retired, I gotta have something to do."
Michiru crossed one leg over the other and smiled. "So young, even."
"Well, t's only been a few months, you know, you work for the college 30 years and you get a pension. Mina covers the rest, she's a big deal now," she inclined her head to Michiru, as if she were unsure of whether to mention it or not, "The money you folks gave me paid for her school, you know. And now she's married and everything."
She passed by the memory of that day in the hospital room. "I have seen that. She wrote a book, I believe?"
"Yeah but," she waved a hand, "I don't believe all that psychobabble. But it pays the bills, and I don't have to work, so I guess I don't hate it. That was the deal, I'd take care of her until she could take care of me."
"Well, it seems to have worked well."
"I think," She chuckled, "I may have gotten the raw end of the deal. My body's beat to shit anymore, which is why I'm sitting here by myself."
Michiru touched her arm. "I'm so grateful for your misfortune."
"And you? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well." She leaned in toward Haruka, "You see, this is my exhibit."
Haruka looked around. The fish. The flowers. Of course it was hers. "This is what I get for not reading." She shifted in the chair and looked over at Michiru. "They're beautiful. That's why I decided to sit here, you know."
Michiru teasingly smacked her shoulder. "Don't flatter me, we're far too old."
"No, really! Ask my kid, when she comes back."
Michiru unconsciously straightened her skirt. "Ah, you've had children?"
Haruka dug out her wallet. "Three. And I'm starting to get grandchildren, too!" She pulled out a few pictures, "Aren't they cute?"
She studied the picture carefully. "Lovely. Just precious," She handed it back to Haruka, who tucked it safely in her wallet. "And Tani?"
Haruka's smile faded. "She died about five years ago. Drunk driver."
"Oh Haruka, I'm so sorry."
"We had a good life." She nodded. "You?"
"No, I never married." She felt a little embarrassed to be admitting it, though she wasn't sure why. "Never found anyone."
"Well, more loss to them, not finding you." She smiled kindly. "I wasn't sure you'd recognize me, after all these years."
She gazed kindly at Haruka's faded gold hair, the smile lines forming around her eyes, and the slightly swollen joints in her hands. And then at her smile, and the way her patterned green cardigan half-hung off her shoulder, and how she slumped in a chair. She had thought of those things for years, in the quiet moments of her life. "No, I believe it would be impossible for me to mistake you anywhere. Though I must look a fright."
"Oh no, you're beautiful. You always were. Beauty like yours doesn't fade." She indicated around the room. "Besides, who cares? Look at this exhibit!" Her excitability was, always, catching.
"Yes, I've been so lucky."
Haruka waved across the room, her family at the doorway.
"I suppose I shouldn't keep you." Michiru took her bag off the bench.
"Naw, come on and meet them!"
And tell them what, Haruka, that I was the girl who mistreated you horrendously and drove you into the arms of their mother? I don't even know that girl anymore. "Oh, I couldn't possibly." She stood up, but looked back at Haruka, steeling herself. "I have to go to a reception for this exhibit tonight, and I, well this is so embarrassing, I find myself without a date. Someone to accompany me, rather." She took a breath, as if she needed to blow out all the words in seconds. "I know it will be frightfully boring, but the cuisine is often good, and the wine is free, and it's been so long since I've seen you, I thought it might be a chance to catch up. If you'd like." She quickly extended her card to Haruka.
Haruka leaned forward and smiled, taking the card. "Are you asking me on a date?"
"Well, of course, it doesn't have to be, no, just, catching up." She blushed, and Haruka found the effect pleasing. She'd never seen it before.
"Well then, it's a date. A second first date, kinda." She laughed and winked at Michiru.
Michiru smiled full, her eyes crinkling in the sun