Chapter 3: Confession
„I can't believe I'm actually doing that." Haruka mumbled to herself while she kept driving down the road, hoping that the policemen wouldn't get the idea to follow them. Michiru shot her an odd look. "Doing what?" the aqua haired girl finally asked. "Taking you with me." The blonde replied, glaring at her. "I should stop right here and now and throw you out." "I'm hurt." Michiru sulked. "Why would you want to throw me out?" Haruka glared at her, flames in her eyes. "Hello! Earth to Michiru! You're sitting here with a bank robber who kidnapped you, for Heaven's sake! And who, as if that wouldn't be enough, is also wanted dead from the Yakuza." The blonde added after a few moments of silence. "Why are they trying to kill you?" Michiru asked, not bothering to make any comment about the other things Haruka had said. "None of your business." The blonde replied, her voice not all too friendly. Michiru went into sulking mode again, but that didn't really impress the other one. "Aww, come on, tell me!" the aqua haired girl begged after a few moments of silence. Haruka just shook her head and pretended that she was concentrating on the road too hard for talking. Sighing, Michiru decided to leave the blonde alone for now and turned the radio on. Static noises emerged from it, and she frowned before she started to search for one of the countless radio stations Japan had. After almost two minutes, she found one of them, just in time to hear the news. "…as Police Inspector Cloud van Dyk just informed us, the bank robber escaped with his hostage and is now probably leaving town. Here's a description of the man…" Haruka stared at the radio in horror, her eyes so big that they nearly fell out of their sockets. "Great!" she then groaned, covering her eyes with one hand – much to Michirus horror. "Oh my God, oh my God, look on the street!" she cried out, causing the other woman to take her hand away again and concentrate on the road once more. "Now the whole fucking country knows what I look like!" the blonde complained while stepping down on the gas pedal harder, increasing the speed of the car. Michiru quickly put her seatbelt on while she kept a fearful eye on the tachometer. Slowly, the needle which marked the current speed reached the number 100, causing the aqua haired girl to become even more nervous. "Haruka, please slow down a little bit." She begged, but the blonde simply ignored her and hit the gas pedal even harder, soon going with more then 120 miles per hour. Michiru cringed in her seat, clinging to her seatbelt as if her life would depend on it. "Stop worrying." Haruka mumbled, shooting a short glance over to the aqua haired girl. "I know what I'm doing." "You're driving way too fast!" Michiru shot back, her eyes still glued to the tachometer. "We'll crash if you continue like that." "Nope. I used to be a racer, I know how to drive at high speed." Haruka replied. When Michiru didn't say anything, the blonde looked over to her for a second, only to find out – much to her amusement – that Michiru stared at her wide-eyed and with her mouth hanging open. "I knew that I have heard your name before!" the aqua haired girl suddenly cried out, scaring Haruka to no-end. "For God's sake, woman, don't scream like that!" the blonde yelled angered as soon as she had calmed down a little again. Michiru gave her a sheepish little grin before she explained her outburst: "You were the number one racer of Japan, right? That's why your name sounded so familiar to me." Haruka shrugged and nodded. "Yep, true." Michiru gave her another odd look. "And then you quit. Because of …" "Because of the fact that someone smuggled cocaine into my locker." Haruka interrupted her. "I never did that stuff. Never. Understand?" That sudden outburst shocked Michiru, and she stared at Haruka for a while before she asked: "So…you want to say that somebody tricked you, right?" Receiving a nod as an answer didn't satisfy the aqua haired girl. "And you have no clue who?" Haruka shook her head, sighing. "It doesn't matter anymore. The cocaine they found was enough proof for them that I was a drug addict, and that ended my career." The blonde let out another sigh and stopped talking, thinking that the topic was finished with her last statement, but Michiru shocked her again when she asked another unexpected question. "And after the end of your career you started to drink, right? You're an alcoholic." Haruka hit the break pedal so hard that the tires produced an ugly screeching noise before the car stood still, in the middle of the street. "What makes you think that?" she barked, glaring at her companion with fire in her eyes. Michiru gave her an understanding look. "The glint in your eyes when you brought the whisky bottle into the bedroom. And the way you drank from it. My father was an alcoholic when I was born, I recognize one when I see one. All alcoholics have one thing in common, they have a pretty well trained technique of drinking directly from a bottle." Haruka didn't make any comment; she just stared at the steering wheel, her hands shaking. "You're right." The blonde finally spoke, lifting her gaze to look into Michirus eyes. "I'm an alcoholic." After her confession, she let out a short bitter laugh. "An unemployed alcoholic who spends his days with drinking, watching TV, drinking, and robbing banks. Oh, and did I mention drinking?" Michiru reached out and gently took the blondes hand into hers, causing Haruka to give her a surprised look. "Don't talk about yourself like that." The aqua haired girl softly spoke. "You're more than that." Haruka just snorted at that and turned on the engine again, which had died off after her unexpected brake hit. "You don't know me too well, do you?" the blonde spoke while the car slowly drove on again. "So stop trying to tell me that I'm more than what I am." Michiru stayed silent; she just leaned back in her seat, with a hurt expression in her eyes.