This chapter is dedicated to Jerry R. D. Born 1944 died of pancreatic cancer January 2005. Rest in peace Dad, we all miss you.
Chapter 5: The concert
Teal eyes again gazed up at a plain white ceiling. Haruka lay back in her gray sweats on the mattress as morning sun flittered into her bedroom drawing shadows of her furniture across the room. A phone was again pressed to her ear as Thomas Coffel babbled questions out at warp speed. Haruka did her best to keep up with the grown man turned excited teen girl.
"No, will yes Tom but yellow meant friendship." Haruka's brow knit together as she listened to the phone. "Yes I know it meant jealous too at one point, how did you know that? Stop calling me Kurama I'm not throwing these roses at Michiru, and who got you watching Anime all of the sudden? Jill? Why are you?" Haruka looked as if her jaw had gone completely slack and her eyes went wide as she stared at the ceiling with great surprise. "You what! No I don't have a problem with it, but weren't you the guy who once said he only dates straight women? Gay bar?"
"I don't want to hear the rest of that story, ever." Haruka said sounding very disturbed after a long pause, Tom laughed so hard that his voice carried across the line and into Haruka's bedroom. "Do the guys at the track know you were dancing with homosexual men? Oh it was a guy from the track, okay. Look, as fun as it is to have a friend question me like a junior high girl with a crush, I do have other things to do today. Sure Tom, you go do that. Take care man."
After hanging up Haruka stood and walked toward her kitchen, she shook her head and seemed to mutter a bit as she went. After a while she grinned at the image of Tom slow dancing with some guy and Jill taking pictures to blackmail the poor NASCAR scout. Stepping into her kitchen Haruka opened a large, wooden cabinet and grabbed a can of cat food, the she picked up Wind-chan's bowl from in front of the dramatically posed cat. She grinned at Wind's version of playing dead in front of the food and water dishes.
"Did Michiru feed you six times a day or something Wind-chan?" Haruka laughed when the cat looked up with a glare. Food was quickly placed in front of Wind, who pounced on the bowl with loud purring sounds. "Ravenousness." Haruka commented with one brow raised.
The phone ringing stopped her from getting her own breakfast and she jogged to grab the living room's cordless, sliding across the hard wood floor in her white socks and gray sweats. She grabbed it off its cradle as she continued to slide past the coffee table and let herself fall flat to the wooden floor by the glass doors. She grinned and pressed the talk button with out even glancing at the caller id.
"Moshi moshi." Haruka said cheerfully as she stared out onto the balcony. She grinned even more and sat up at the voice that responded. "Good morning Michiru. Meet you where? It is pretty last minute for a concert, isn't it? Oh a charity concert, okay I'll be there in an hour. Bye."
The phone hung up Haruka stared at the clouds floating across the sky. She was still not entirely sure about what was going to come next, but things were okay so far. She stood up and started to whistle as she walked off to her bedroom again knowing a quick shower was in order.
Two weeks later Haruka was in a backstage dressing room getting ready for the charity concert. She wore again the tux Michiru had bought her but this time without the jacket. She just finished buttoning the last button of her teal vest when a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in." Haruka called as she turned toward the door. Michiru stepped through the door in a long black evening gown and smiled at the tall blonde. She looked over Haruka with a critical eye, which the pianist was getting very used to by now, and shook her head.
"You always seem to be missing something, Haruka." She said, her voice still holding a pleasant teasing tone. She walked over to Haruka, something hidden behind her back as she approached. "Close your eyes please."
"You're not going to take my vest off like Vegas, are you?" Haruka asked, laughter in her voice as she closed her eyes and ignored the feeling of having done this before. The only response she got was gentle tugging on her vest, but it felt something was being placed there rather than Michiru was trying to remove it.
"Thank you for the orange roses in my dressing room, you can open your eyes now." Haruka grinned at Michiru as her eyes opened and looked down at her vest. Pinned to the front was a lavender rose. Haruka tried, with one eyebrow quirked, to remember the meaning behind lavender but it was escaping her at the time.
"Five minutes!" called the hurried voice of a stage assistant from outside the door. Michiru smiled and waved as she walked out, needing to retrieve her violin from her own dressing room. Haruka calmly walked over to one side of the curtain and waited.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the sixth annual Pancreatic Cancer Charity Concert. As you already know, all the ticket proceeds and the specially recorded CDs profits go directly to the World Cancer Awareness and Treatment Foundation." Said an upbeat, male announcer who wore a traditional black tux as he walked out to center stage. He smiled widely at the audience as he spoke into a microphone he held with one hand. "We had a few problems with our original group but we were lucky enough to get instead a semi new duet, one of whom I am sure any instrumental fan knows and loves. I am proud to present, recently back from an American tour, Kaioh Michiru on the violin." There was a pause as the audience applauded and Michiru stepped out from behind the curtain waiting just on stage. "And talented new comer to the classical and instrumental world, Ten'ou Haruka on the piano."
Haruka was shocked to hear her name announced followed by loud applauding from the audience and had to grin as Michiru smiled from the opposite side of the stage even as Haruka stepped from behind the curtain as well. Though Haruka knew her name was going to be announced it was still a new feeling to be more than the anonymous pianist. The announcer walked off as the two walked to the center stage. They bowed and Michiru spoke into the microphone, which was set in the center of the stage while Haruka walked over to the grand piano.
"Thank you for your enthusiasm." Michiru looked back toward Haruka and nodded receiving a wink from the blonde.
"We are both honored to play at this concert." Haruka spoke in her somewhat deep husky voice. She gave the audience a cocky smile as a number of females went dreamy eyed. "Tonight we will be playing some of Kaioh-san's music from her latest CD, and one new composition which she finished writing in the weeks before this concert."
With that said Michiru adjusted the height of the microphone and placed the expensive glass violin to her shoulder. Light sparkled from the violin as the first notes of a well-known tune drifted across the speakers and acoustics of the concert hall. After a moment the slow violin notes were joined by Haruka's grand piano and the two mixed into a seamless tune. Haruka's mind drifted a bit, turning again in her head to the meaning of a lavender rose. It wasn't fascination that was what the orange ones she'd had delivered to Michiru meant. Her thoughts continued through several pieces until they came to the final piece.
"This last piece is called 'First Sight'." Michiru said quietly into the microphone. She looked back toward Haruka and that was when it finally clicked in the blondes mind. Lavender was love at first sight. Haruka smiled a bit at Michiru as they started into the new piece. It was a somewhat haunting tune, incorporating the melody, which Michiru had played that night at the beach. The sound of the violin brought to mind waves gently washing on shore under the moon light, while the piano notes seemed to remind one of the wind whispering across those waves and running chills up your spine.
As the piece ended Haruka stood and walked over to Michiru, the two taking a moment to bow to the loudly applauding audience. Haruka held out her left hand and Michiru lightly placed her hand in that of the blonde. They walked off the stage and Haruka pulled her gently back to the dressing rooms. Once the door was shut behind them Haruka grinned as she turned to Michiru.
"You're good, it was so unexpected I didn't understand it until the last song." Haruka spoke in her husky voice, teal eyes dancing again with mischief and amusement. "If it means what it is supposed to, you held your thoughts for nearly a year."
"It wouldn't have been right to say anything when we first met." Michiru said quietly as her blue eyes locked on the floor of the small room. She didn't look up as Haruka stepped closer to her but her voice held a small note of teasing. "Besides, you are not the only one who can express things with more subtle means, such as flowers."
"Look up, Michiru." Haruka whispered near the aqua haired woman's ear. Michiru's head rose slowly as she shuddered a little from Haruka's nearness. She was met with bright teal eyes and a sly smile as her eyes landed on Haruka's face. Haruka lightly caressed Michiru's left cheek and looked into the shorter woman's eyes. The blonde paused as she looked for words but found none. Finally she gave up and leaned in to kiss the other young woman. Michiru nearly dropped her violin as she reached her arms again around the taller woman's shoulders. The kiss deepened and Michiru felt as if she were floating above the floor, she felt as if she could drown in this feeling.
"I can't say it, not yet Michiru but." Haruka started as they finally parted, short of breath from the drawn out kiss. She was stopped as Michiru placed one finger of her free hand to Haruka's lips. Teal eyes almost crossed in a comical gesture as the soft finger was laid across her lips.
"I understand, Haruka, and I can wait." She smiled, as the blonde seemed to relax a bit more. She removed her finger from the blonde's lips and instead ran the fingers of her now free hand through the short blonde locks of her hair. "You know where I stand, take as much time as you need."
"You know." Haruka started as she leaned her forehead against Michiru's and gazed into the deep blue eyes. She quirked a playful smile and brought her lips with in a hair's breath of Michiru's own. "I think you may be the most understanding women I've ever met."
Anything Michiru would have said in reply was cut off as Haruka's lips once again met hers. The two women were soon oblivious to the world around them, all thoughts pushed aside for the moment. Seconds later their manager poked his head into the room and stopped. He watched the young couple for a moment, blinking just once before shaking his head with a smile and quietly shutting the door. Business could wait until tomorrow, he decided as he walked away from the door.
Author's Note:
First let me say, as far as I am aware the "World Cancer Awareness and Treatment Foundation" does not exist, I made it up because I thought it would be odd to have the "American Cancer Foundation" fund raising in Japan. Second, according to information provided by Knight-of-the-wolf, thank you, orange roses mean "fascination" and lavender are "love at first sight". When Knight-of-the-wolf left me that information I just felt the need to se it somehow. Feel free to check out that information on the review page.
I have a special thought pattern related to pancreatic cancer since January and that is why I chose this form of it to mention. Honestly though, there are a high number of cancer cases each year and still no real cure. My best wishes go out to all cancer patients and survivors. Please forgive the morbid dedication but I found it appropriate with the reason for the charity concert in this chapter.
Oh, and the mention of the "gay bar" was meant to allude back to chapter nine of "Can't Leave You Alone". If anyone is curious enough I might be willing to write a short story involving Tom and Jill at said bar, but only if anyone wants to see it.
On that note let me also say, I am extremely thankful for all the reviews I have received. If you aren't in these responses I apologize, these are only those from June 30 2005 and before. I smile every time I get a review and have been truly thankful for the amount of support shown for these two stories. Now that I've said my piece, here are the review responses that I am long over due to give.
Knight-of-the-wolf, you far from bored me. In fact I found the information about roses so interesting I had to put it to use. Thank you for that, and for reading and reviewing all of my stories so far. I am really glad you like the detail, I always feel like I am summarizing too much and fear that there isn't enough detail. I like to be able to clearly see what I read so I try my best to make things clear for the imaginations of those who read my stories. B-)
Riva van Dyk, I am glad you liked what Haruka did. B-) If I knew you in real life I'd do that for your birthday, though I am not the greatest dancer. Thank you for the reviews, I think you've hit each chapter of this story so far. (Hands Riva a dark and a light pink rose.) Look in Knight-of-the-wolf's review on June 30 if you wonder why the dark and light pink, or email me.
Moon-Daisuke, I am glad you liked the conversations with Tom and the date that Haruka took Michiru on. As for Haruka café dance, to be honest that came up because I did it in a burger place. My brother had just graduated and we were is this empty little place when a good slow song came on, so I hoped up and tried to get a friend to dance with me. The only other female wouldn't but two of my male friends did. Of course we got funny looks because I have short spiked hair and kind of dress like Haruka. (Grins) But it was fun so I put it in the story. You'd be surprised how often something my friends and I do ends up in here.
Tigon-ookami, jealousy was always what I was told yellow was but I've been told at some point the meaning was changed. Now everything I find says yellow is friendship. It had me a bit confused but I went with it. Flowers aren't my specialty, even though I sell them on holidays.
Since you asked about why I am depressed I'll tell you. My mother died eleven years ago on June 30th and ever I was small it get a bit depressed this time of year. This year it just feels harder because I lost my father in January so I don't have him to talk to about it. In fact, since I lost him I've come to realize just how much I did tell him. Right now I just miss them both.
Moonjava, I'm honored to hear you like my writing so much. I only got back into Sailor Moon this year myself so I am really honored to have an effect on others. These reviews from you and the others keep me writing to be honest. I like to have the facts when I can, meaning that I usually write what I know or can learn. My friend, kitsune-of-death helps a lot. I can just sort of mutter a random thought and she'll pop up with an answer. She has been a huge help with my fan fiction and my original stories. If your read A World Apart I am working on the BASIC part right now and having problems with knowing too much. To be honest, I've been to BASIC training so I am going back and forth figuring out what I can and can't include. Thanks for your reviews and support; you always put a smile on my face.
Kiaba-queen, Thank you for mentioning that mistake in chapter three. Also thank you for the reviews and support.
Starlit warrior, Thank you for the support you have given each chapter.
Saun, Thanks for the encouragement. B-) I will do my best to keep it up.
Jem, I'm glad you like it. I can't even begin to guess how few or how many more chapters this story will go, but I hope that you like the upcoming ones. Thank you for the review.
Shinn, Nice to hear from you again. I didn't take any chapters down, I just posted the sequel, as it's own story. I hope you have enjoyed it and thank you for all the reviews for Can't Leave You Alone as well as this story.
Haruka-Chan 212, Thank you for the review. I'll do my best to keep it up. By the way, I like your stories as well. B-)
Peach-fan14, Glad you liked the start. I hope I have kept up with it.
Shinta arctic assain, Thank you for the review. Sorry my updates haven't been as fast as Can't Leave You Alone was but I hope the story has been worth the wait so far.