Chapter 3: The Beginning
„I think we should talk to her." Hotaru spoke, looking at her Setsuna-Mama with a worried expression. Setsuna shook her head no. "No, not yet. She needs to be alone now." Hotaru sighed and looked at the closed door that led to Harukas room. After her papa had returned from the mental asylum, she had vanished in her room and had refused to come out again. That had been three hours ago. "And what if Haruka-Papa…tries to hurt herself?" Hotaru finally spoke out the thought that bothered her ever since Haruka had returned home. Setsuna shook her head. "She won't." Hotaru finally gave up and accepted her mama's decision to leave her daddy alone for now. Sighing, the little girl pulled her gaze away from the door and followed her Setsuna-mama into the kitchen.
Haruka sat once more on the window bench, staring through the glass, but not really seeing anything. She had been in the same position for the last three hours, but right now, time meant nothing to the tall blonde. Haruka leaned her head against the cool glass of the window and closed her eyes, the slow beginning of Michirus paranoia and her own misery flashing up in front of her inner eye.
~*~ Flashback~*~
"HARUKA! HARUKA, HELP!" The tall blonde racer literally jumped out of bed at the voice of her best friend Setsuna, startled to no-end. Next to her, Michiru sat upright in bed, her eyes wide. "What the…" Haruka mumbled while she quickly put her bathrobe on and stormed out of the room. She found Setsuna in the kitchen – standing on a chair. "Huh?" The blonde blinked twice, her already raised fists falling back to her side. "Help me, Haruka." Setsuna whined. "With what?" Haruka asked, slightly annoyed. "Don't you know how to get down on the ground again, or what?" Setsuna glared down at her blonde friend. "Of course I know how to get down again! But I don't want to." She then informed the racer. Haruka sighed. "And why not?" she then asked sweetly. That was when she felt something hairy on her right foot. Setsuna screamed again, and Haruka looked down just in time to see a big, gray rat running away and underneath the kitchen desk. "The rat!" Setsuna screeched. "Catch it! Kill it! Get rid of it!" Haruka stared at her friend wide-eyed. "You are…you are scared of the rat?" she finally asked. Setsuna nodded, and Haruka covered her eyes with one hand. "Setsuna, you are the guardian of time and space…you are over 2000 years old…(A/N: Is that correct? O_o) you survived all enemies we had…and now you are scared of a small rat?" "It's not small, it's big." Setsuna pointed out. Haruka shook her head in defeat, then walked over to the chair, grabbed the green haired woman around the waist and pulled her down. Setsuna screeched again and clinged to Haruka as if her life depended on it. "Setsuna, let go of me!" Haruka demanded, prying the time guardians hands off her bathrobe. "I think we still have some rat poison in the cellar, I'll put some of it on the cheese we have and the rat will be gone soon." The blonde than tried to calm her friend down. Setsuna sighed and nodded. "Okay then. But I won't enter the kitchen anymore until the rat is dead!" Now it was Harukas turn to sigh, but she agreed. "Fine, whatever. I'll be right back." And with that, the blonde hurried down into the cellar to get the rat poison.
"It was my fault what happened to her." Haruka whispered to herself, closing her eyes. "After I put the rat poison on the cheese, the phone rang and I left…Hotaru didn't know about it all, and she put the cheese back into the fridge…where Michiru found it."
"Hotaru?" Michirus melodic voice drifted through the house, and soon after, her adopted daughter came running by. "Yes Mama?" she asked cutely, looking at Michiru. "Can you do me a favor and smell this cheese once?" the aqua haired girl asked, holding the cheese down to her daughter. Hotaru sniffed and made a face. "Eww, it smells odd. Oh wait, maybe it stood outside the fridge too long." Michiru frowned. "Outside the fridge?" she asked, and Hotaru nodded. "Haruka-Papa took the cheese out and put some stuff on it, then the phone rang and she left to answer it. I put the cheese back in the fridge, so it wouldn't start to smell funky. But I think I was to late." The last sentence was spoken in a sad voice, and Michiru patted Hotarus head. "Don't worry, it's not your fault. Hey, can you show me the stuff your papa put on the cheese?" "Sure!" Hotaru beamed, ran over to the cupboard and produced a small white box from it. She handed it to Michiru, who looked at it. "Rat poison." She read out loud, her eyes widening. Rat poison…deadly for humans as well…and Haruka had put it on her favorite cheese.
"Damn!" Haruka screamed, smashing her fist against the window in agony. Her still bandaged knuckles broke open again, and soon the white cloth was bloodstained. "Damn…" Haruka whispered, leaning her head against the glass once more. Shortly after Michiru had been sent to the mental asylum, Setsuna had tried to make it clear to the blonde that it hadn't been her fault what had happened to her lover. According to the doctor's statement, the base for paranoia had been in Michirus thoughts for a very long time already, and the cheese incident had been the thing that had made the base grow to a full, serious illness. And still Haruka couldn't stop blaming herself for what had happened to her lover. She cried silent tears while blood seeped out of the bandage and over her hand, deep inside wishing that it would've been her paranoia and not Michirus. Wishing that Michiru still was the same person, happy and carefree…and wishing that she herself was the one in the mental asylum.