Sorry for the lateness, but the turkey I ate did not agree with me. Ah, well. Drama and truancy, beware!
Formula of Panda Kisses:
Michiru40angst x Haruka +/- Rei(40silly) - Amix(Makoto)(20drama).
Disclaimer still bloody stands.
Tears. Hot, wet, sticky tears. Similar enough to sweat to be confused with it; a result of fear, pain, even surprise, accompanied by lies and truths, a telltale sign of overload whether it be emotional or physical. Michiru thought about tears, but not so much into detail as this.
Instead she wondered why once they started, they refused to stop.
Michiru had finally come to a halt beside her locker. One hand furiously rubbed the tears away as she leaned against it, sniffling and feeling her breath hitch in her throat. As her sobs faded out and the shuddering had calmed down, Michiru looked down and found that her hands were still shaking. She placed them both on the surrounding lockers to steady her nerves and rested her head against her own. It worked; why, she didn't know. It would have been a better question to ask how she even got there in the first place. The tears had forced everything to dance blurrily across her vision, making it hard to see where she was going. But Michiru wasn't caring about that right now. She was just glad she had ended up at her locker, where a little piece of herself, of familiar comfort, was always waiting. After a few deep breaths, Michiru stepped away from the wall.
And just like that, the tentative control she had over herself slipped away and everything crashed down in one big unforgiving wave. Like any inexperianced surfer, she struggled to the surface and floundered in its wake, blinded by the salt and her own fear.
Her mind reeled. Lockers, posters, trophies behind their glass cases seemed to run into each other like candlewax to a make a indistinct, yet haunting mask with a whirlpool for a mouth that leered at her as it spun in a dizzing circle around her head. Dark, heavy thoughts of her failures and faults panged and throbbed and screamed so loud inside her mind that Michiru was half-afraid it would be heard in the deserted hallways, that it would echo and rebound off the walls like some sort of sinister pinball. She dropped to her knees and repressed the urge to be violently sick. Pressing her forehead to the cool tiles, she found with little surprise that she had a slight fever. Waves of nausea rolled by and smoothed out, and Michiru found the will to breathe again returning to her. When her stomach had settled down, the violinist gazed blearily out the window on the far wall. A sliver of blue sky was visible. Birds flitted by, warbling and singing happily in their clear, dulcet tones. The sight made her heart ache for a reason she did not know.
I've got to get out of here.
The idea struck akin to lightning through smog, clearing away the jumble of angry and confusing thoughts buzzing around in her head like a swarm of bees, offering a way out so possible and so simple it was almost painful. That could work. It would work, by God. She would go home. Yes, home. That was the safest option. But something nagged at her. What about that? Could she take that? After a few moments of careful consideration, in which her mind took the opportunity to protest and call her all sorts of names, Mchiru nodded. She would take that with her. Turning around and getting to her feet, Michiru brushed a lock of hair out of her face and bent over her locker door.
She couldn't see the combination numbers on her lock through the stubborn haze of tears, but that was all right. Her fingers remembered how to do it. Within seconds it clicked and the door swung open. Her violin case, long, smooth, and black, was wedged carefully into a crack between her textbooks and binders. What are you doing, you idiot? Don't hang around if you're going to skip school! Moron! Leave the stuff and beat it! The thoughts didn't stick this time either, and with a slam Michiru had locked her locker door and was running down the empty hallways again, the black oblong case clasped firmly to her chest. Her shoes beat a frantic tattoo on the tile floor that was just out of sync with her rapidly beating heart.
There was the entrance. There was her escape.
Suddenly, someone bumped shoulders with her, and Michiru spun in a half-circle and had to scramble for the ground under her feet to stay upright. "Sorry!" She shouted as an afterthought, as she caught her balance and continued running, not looking back to see who it was. Not bothering to slow down, the violinist kicked open the front doors, cleared the front steps in one giant leap, then hit the sidewalk and was soon out of sight. She could barely see where she was going; her eyes were almost all the way shut, narrow slits that clouded over with even more stupid, stubborn tears. But she didn't care. The wind was on her face. The smell of fall was sweet and heavenly. The thunderclouds had retreated from her bright blue sky. She was free.
Back at school, Rei had watched her go for a few more stunned, shocked seconds, then had turned around and run back the way she came.
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Haruka and Ami stormed down the hallways like tanks on a mission.
Well, Haruka did. Ami just followed with her nose in a book. Part of her had once wondered what her dear old mother would say if she knew that her daughter was skipping class. The aspiring doctor had consoled her guilty conscience with first the thought that it was all Haruka's fault, and then with the idea that Gym was the most useless subject known to mankind and that no one in their right mind would blame her for not wanting to take part in the absurdity. Heck, they really should be awarding her some type of medal for this particular brand of truancy. As the two were passing the Gym (Sneaking by actually, and close to the doors too, in case a coach came out at an unexpected and ultimately unwanted moment), there had been the sound of rubber balls slamming against linoleum floors, walls, and fellow students with much shrieking and yelling. Most of which sounded rather painful. Ami had only to imagine a few of them turning her into genius pate to effectively ignore the guilt picking at her from the back of her mind.
While her friend had chosen to distract herself with a book, Haruka had begun to take out her aggression on a nearby locker. Her foot connected with the metal and left a dent. It also unexpectedly made the racer's foot sore and Haruka ended up hopping around holding the injured appendage with much obscene words. For the second time that day, Ami felt her ears begin to burn. Haruka had a brief flashback of slamming her knee into the fender of her Ferrari, and wondered if she really was turning into some tall, unbearably sexy varient of Usagi. The thought both terrified and amused her.
"Damn it! Where is Rei? I wanted to show her this trick I found out about the dispenser by the teacher's lounge."
"Really?" Ami asked, looking up from her book and interested in spite of herself. The candy machine of which her racing friend was talking about had a unfortunate habit of refusing to give up the packages of gooey chocolate to any students, and giving away too much to any teachers. It was a conspiracy that annoyed many and pleased few. Like any schoolgirl with a secret penchant for sweet things, Ami was willing to hear more.
"I found a way to make it give you free candy..."
"HARUKA! AMI!"
Ami nearly jumped out of her skin, and Haruka almost fell over. Their friend, Rei, was running towards them, waving up a storm. "Haruka! Ami! I...I...I SAW...!" She staggered to a halt, put her hands on her knees, and tried not to faint. "I saw...I...I," she gasped out, her face turning the color of a three-day old bruise. Ami quickly saw that the black haired girl was in danger of passing out on the floor and tried to think of anything to keep her friend from talking and then suffocating. Needless to say, she got an idea.
"Rei, if you faint, I'll make Haruka do CPR."
That worked. Rei shut her mouth and breathed in through her nose in a deep, calming rhythm. Slowly, once her face had faded back into a color more like her original pallor and less like one of an exploding tomato, she straightened up and looked at Haruka.
"Haruka! I gotta tell you something! I saw--" Rei's violet eyes were suddenly drawn to the glaring dent in her locker. They narrowed in a mix of understanding and exasperation. "Wait a minute, why were you beating the crap out of my locker?" Haruka blinked in surprise and looked at the locker as if she had never noticed it before.
"This is your locker?"
"Yes."
Haruka blinked again, in a trance of otherworldy surprise and shock. Ami had to smack her in the head to snap her out of it.
"Oh. Wait, why aren't you in Gym?"
Rei put her hands on her hips and gave Haruka her most patronizing look.
"Why aren't you?"
Haruka blew air out though her nose like a ticked off bull. Ami and Rei imagined her with a giant golden nose ring and had to fight back the laughter.
"Bite me, Rei."
"No thanks. Unlike you, I am not some rabid beast. Besides, I bet you would taste icky."
Haruka rolled her eyes and pouted, eyeing her hand thoughtfully. What did Rei know anyway? She probably tasted delicious! The blonde glanced back down at her hand again. After a minute, she gave into the desire and nibbled it.
"Hnn, I taste like pancakes. With syrup. Weird. When was the last time I had a frickin' pancake?"
"Blackberry or maple?" Ami asked unexpectedly.
"Blueberry."
Rei stuck out her tongue while Ami face-faulted behind her. "Haruka, this is no time for your silliness. I just saw something happen that might get you in a lot of trouble. So shut up before I forget what it is!" Rei proclaimed, pointing at the blonde like a detective accusing a criminal of heinous misdeeds. Haruka snorted and crossed her arms, but shut her mouth all the same.
"I saw Michiru run out the front door at breakneck speed. She's skipping, Haruka, but that's not the half of it." Rei paused for a minute, and when she spoke again her voice was much softer, much lower than it had been before. "I only got one look, but...I'm pretty confident that she was crying. And when I bumped into her, she almost fell down and I nearly spun into a wall, she was going so fast. But even then, she just kept running like the devil was on her tail. When she reached the doors, she...she kicked them open, not even daring to slow down. Haruka, I don't know what happened to make her so upset, but Michiru is my friend too and I think that you need to talk with her. She trusts you."
No more words needed to be said. Rei had gotten the point across clear enough, but that didn't mean it stung any less. Ami was visibly upset, but she kept quiet. She knew that this was something Haruka needed to resolve on her own.
"Oh God."
"Oh, oh God."
Speaking more to herself than her companions, the racer looked down at her hands. Hands that had gripped the handles of a motorcycle. Had caught the photocard that had started this whole thing so skillfully. Had known the exquisite texture of Michiru's hair and face and skin. Fire rippled inside her heart as her chest contracted painfully. Visions of Michiru hurt, of her crying, of her suffering like when she passed out of that stupid "uppercrust" party exploded in her mind's eye. And it hurt. Oh, how it hurt. There was a rush of wind as Haruka shot past, a blur of sandy blonde, ruffling Rei's long black hair and sending the pages of Ami's book aflutter. Within seconds she had turned a corner and was out of sight. Ami watched her go, tears shimmering in her eyes, before turning back to Rei.
"Um, Rei? I love what Haruka is doing for Michiru, don't get me wrong, but I don't understand what you meant when you said that this would get Haruka in trouble."
Rei jerked a thumb at the spot where the track star had been a few minutes ago. "That's why. I've been watching those two, and I think that I've figured at least this out; if Michiru skips, Haruka skips. That blonde is just like a lovesick puppy."
A big and slow smirk lit up the miko's face and she leaned in closer to the genius and poked her forehead in a playful manner. "Speaking of "lovesick puppies", I hear tell that you had a little rendezous with a secret lover. Is that right?" Ami started gasping for air after two minutes of stuttering and babbling in a futile attempt to deny her friend's claims. She looked like a fish out of water, so Rei did the honorable thing by giving her a little push back into her depths. "State capitals, Ami! Go!" Instantly, Ami calmed down and began to recite with almost machine-like precision and creepiness.
"Montgomery! Juneau! Phoenix!"
"Preach it, sistah!"
"Little Rock! SACRAMENTO!"
"Aww, yeah!"