Dedication: To all those who have reviewed "Can't Leave You Alone" and "Truly Madly Deeply".
Chapter 10: Old Friends
Haruka glanced out the plane's window as they flew over the wide ocean below. She'd managed to get a window seat, something about viewing things from above having a calming effect on her senses. The plane was large, a Bowing 777, and had nice little perks scattered about. Currently Haruka wore a set of headphones and listened in on a channel, which the pilot and co-pilot spoke over. The two were joking happily, calling it the night shift and ignoring that their passengers saw it as an early morning flight.
The blonde took her eyes off the window to regard the small color monitor placed on the seat back in front of her. The image showed a green line trailing the plane's path and a broken red line showing the rest of the yet to be flown path. She hit a button and the monitor and audio changed, this time to a music video by some Chinese rapper. With a small wince Haruka changed the channel again, feeling like it was way too early for rap of any kind. The next channel was an in flight movie, a sappy romance that Haruka skipped right away. Finally, the last channel was playing instrumental music with the screen off. Haruka settled back, closing her teal eyes as she listened to the quiet piano notes in her mind.
Teal eyes opened again as someone lightly shook her shoulder. The blonde looked up, taking off the headphones, and noticed the flight attendant telling her to fasten her seat belt for landing. As she did, Haruka looked out the window and spotted the familiar Nevada countryside spread out below. She settled back in her seat, watching the seat belt and no smoking lights burn brightly. It took another forty minutes of circling before the plane actually landed and the passengers began to get off.
"Haruka, over here Raider!" Yelled a very enthusiastic voice from just beyond the security check area, seeming to startle a few security guards with the nickname. Haruka walked over to Thomas and returned the back slapping hug the man gave her with a grin. They stepped back and started toward baggage claim area together. "Have I said how very, very thankful I am that you came?"
"No but I have no doubt you will, a lot." Haruka half growled jokingly as they started looking for her suitcase. Thomas bounced around on the balls of his feet, seeming incapable of standing still at the time. Haruka shook a head at her male friend's antics and pulled her cell phone out even as she spotted her bag. Thanking the fact that she had the money to afford international coverage she dialed the number quickly as Thomas grabbed her suitcase and silently led her toward where his car was parked.
"Good evening, Haruka." Michiru's voice came through the phone and she sounded amused by something. Haruka glanced around at her surrounding, trying to remember the time difference and only realizing it was morning. She grinned as Thomas spotted her look and flashed three fingers at her.
"Hey there." Haruka said quietly even as she realized Thomas was listening in on her side. "My feet are safely back on the ground and if Tom can find his car we can get out of this airport."
"Hey! I'm not that scatter-brained." Thomas defended as he glanced around and marched off toward one end of the lot, then jokingly turned around and went the other way. Haruka chuckled a bit even as Michiru was laughing at Thomas' verbal out burst.
"I'm glad the plane got there safely." Michiru spoke warmly, another giggle being restrained and peaking the blonde's curiosity.
"Okay, what funny event am I missing?" Haruka asked with one blonde brow raised.
"Wind-chan took one of T-kun's smaller toys and they are chasing each other around the back yard." Michiru explained and Haruka swore she could hear the smile in the woman's voice. "Sometimes these two are just like kids."
"Don't suppose you have a video camera handy." Haruka joked as they reached Thomas' car. The man tossed the suitcase in the trunk of his green Dodge Viper and unlocked the doors, waiting inside for the blonde racer to finish. Haruka grinned at him and talked again. "I should get off the phone now, Michi. The faster I help Tom out the sooner I can get home."
"Alright." Michiru's voice fell just a bit but still sounded amused at the antics of her furry charges. Haruka thought to herself that she owed Wind and Triton both treats for keeping the artist occupied. "Take care of yourself, Ruka. Oh and tell Tom I said hi."
"I will dear. Bye." After the conversation was over Haruka climbed into the passenger side of the Viper and Thomas started to drive away. They were silent for a while before Thomas spoke.
"So, things going well with the charming miss Kaioh?" The man asked as he glanced at his friend from the corner of his eye.
"Things are incredible." Haruka commented with a bit of a far off look in her eyes as she watched scenery pass the window at high speed. "She said hi by the way."
"You two are really pretty serious, aren't you?" Thomas grinned at his friend's distraction even as the teal eyes came back to land on him. He stopped at a light and turned a bit to look at the blonde. "I know what you've been telling me on the phone, but just the look in your eyes gives it a whole new level Raider."
"Aren't we gathered to discuss your relationship, Tom?" Haruka spoke with a smirk as Thomas turned back to the wheel. The light turned green and the two were off again.
"Yeah, that we are." Thomas shook his head slightly. "So, how about we grab some food while we discuss things?"
The Denny's the two stopped at was fairly quiet with few customers at this early morning hour. Thomas and Haruka ordered their food before getting into the reason why they were gathered here. Thomas stared into his coffee cup as he poured more cream than needed just to put the conversation off a bit longer.
"Tom, come on." Haruka waited until the man looked up then grinned a bit while pointing at his coffee cup. "I think it's going to overflow that cup if you add any more cream."
"Oh, yeah." Thomas stopped and finally took a sip of the coffee, not really tasting it at all. He took a deep breath and met Haruka's teal gaze. "Do you think this is a bad idea?"
"Okay, first you should never ask the ex if it's a bad idea." Haruka joked as she took a drink of her tea. She paused for a moment, letting any joking tone or look fade before she addressed him again then asked seriously. "Do you think it's a mistake?"
"No." Thomas answered firmly as he leaned back in his seat. He shook his head as his eyes locked on the ceiling above them. "When you left I was just looking out for her, knowing you wouldn't want her to just be out there alone. Then I started to see the young woman you once met in things she did, like calling me for help to send your piano and other things to you. I almost thought I could see her as a sort of little sister, stand back and be proud of how well she had come along since everything went down."
"And then?" Haruka prompted, resting her chin on her right fist as her elbow was propped against the table. She watched her friend who seemed to be in some sort of dreamland at the moment.
"Then I started to realize there was more to her than a resurrection of that sixteen year old you introduced me to years ago." Thomas shook his head again as he looked back toward the blonde woman before him, he grinned in a weird and almost secretive manner. "I think it was the night we went to that club, the one I am forbidden to tell you about, that it all started. I started to realize I didn't know Jill near as well as I thought, and that she wasn't the same woman I knew in passing any more. We made a bet, Jill lost and I made her go out for dinner with me."
"Didn't you do something like that to a girl at the track when we were twenty?" Haruka questioned with a smirk, sitting up as their food arrived.
"I guess it's my trade mark move now." Thomas laughed.
"So, what do you need my help for? You seem to have things pretty well figured out." Haruka asked as she took another drink from her tea, his response nearly made her choke.
"Well I was hoping you'd be my best man if she says yes." Thomas regarded the obviously shocked blonde with a sadistic grin. "But I think that might be asking a bit much, and I am not that cruel. To be honest I am glad you were even willing to fly in for this part."
"Tom, you're my friend, though you nearly killed me just now." Haruka set her tea glass down carefully before regarding her friend. "I owe you for all your help when Jill and I split up, and for helping me to see what was going on in the first place. Regardless of the girl you ended up with I'm happy to help you out here."
"Just don't make you take on being best man." Thomas joked, he laughed as the blonde shook her head and grimaced at the thought. Haruka muttered something about a curse. "I hate to say it, Haruka, but I have no idea how to ask her. Romance isn't my department."
"If you'd told me that, I'd have brought Michiru. She's the artist after all." Haruka joked with a comical look.
"Ah, and once again miss Kaioh is on your mind." Thomas took a bite of his food and grinned wickedly. "Do you ever stop thinking about her?"
"I'm not even going to answer that." Haruka said dryly, but there was a smile on her face as she started to eat as well. "Have you at least got a ring?"
"I'm not that much of a dunce." Thomas defended even as Haruka gave him a skeptical look. "So, what ever happen with that whole mix-up anyway?"
"What mix-up?" Haruka stopped to completely regard him, confusion on her face and in her voice.
"You said once on the phone that you'd thought Michiru was with some guy, you had to get off to send her flowers because you felt bad about the whole thing. It was a little while back." Thomas clarified.
"Oh, I never told you any of that huh?" Haruka watched as he shook his head yet again then started to reluctantly explain. "Well, Michiru had a house guest I didn't know about and I jumped to conclusions. I went so far as to write her a note and was ready to leave but I saw the man in the parking garage of my apartment complex. When he left with out Michiru I decided I needed to know what was going on before I left."
"What did you put in the note?" Thomas regretted his question even as Haruka grimaced at the memory.
"It said: I thought I could trust you more than Jill, I seem to have been wrong. Good-bye Kaioh-san." Haruka repeated as she now stabbed at her food with her fork.
"Wow, that's harsh to say the least." Thomas muttered as he watched the blonde, her teal eyes now intent on her plate. "No wonder you were dead set on sending her flowers. What was the guy's story anyway?"
"Ex-boyfriend she ran into at the airport. He drove her home and she let him have a guest room so he didn't have to drive nearly asleep."
"So, how about those Dodgers?" Thomas suddenly asked, using a running joke to change the topic. Teal eyes shot up with a confused look until Haruka remembered the question everyone at the track used to avoid topics. She grinned at him before starting to eat again.
Haruka pulled her cell phone out again as she settled into a hotel that night. The tall blonde flopped backward onto the decent sized bed as the ringing sounded from her phone. She stared up at the ceiling of the room, which happened to be pure white. She set the cell phone down on the nightstand and hit a button, its tiny speakerphone filling the room with light sound.
"Hello Haruka." Michiru's voice replaced the ringing after a moment. The blonde smiled at her girl friend's disembodied voice. "How'd your first day go?"
"It was fine, Tom nearly made me drown in a glass of tea and we didn't get anything done today, but then the sun isn't up yet." Haruka grinned widely when Michiru laughed at the tea comment. The artist, it seemed, knew better than to ask how she almost drown in a glass of tea. "Actually you may want to think about buying a new dress."
"Why is that?" Michiru asked, her voice curious at the seemingly unrelated topic.
"Well, if Jill says yes to him I need a date to their wedding." Haruka commented mildly and waited for a reaction. She heard a dull thud and a bit of a clatter. With one blonde brow raised when no other sound came she spoke again. "Are you okay, Michi?"
"Oh, you just kind of surprised me." Michiru's voice was a mixture of surprise, awe and what sounded like shock. "I dropped one of my paints. I realize this isn't quite as fast as it seems, but you did only tell me they were dating the other night."
"I only found out myself that day." Haruka said warmly. She placed her hands behind her head as her eyes roamed the ceiling, missing the now familiar image of Uranus that graced her bedroom. "Tom wants my help coming up with a romantic way to propose to her."
"Are you sure you're okay with this, Ruka?" The concern in the woman's voice didn't escape Haruka's notice and she looked over at the phone.
"I'm fine, dear." The blonde said seriously as she again looked toward the ceiling. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I'm glad Tom is finally trying to settle down, and I hope he is right about Jill."
"And you'll be okay helping him?" Michiru prompted again.
"Yeah, in fact it's good to get to pay him back for how he helped me." Haruka's grin returned to her face. "I told him if he'd warned me he needed a romance expert I'd have brought you."
"Oh, I don't know." Michiru's voice became playful as she spoke. "I don't think it ever occurred to me use roses to express my feelings, or to go out and find a very expensive glass instrument to give to someone on a moonlit beach. Maybe you aren't giving yourself enough credit, Ten'ou-san."
"Oh, but that wasn't me trying to be romantic." Haruka smiled slyly even though she knew Michiru couldn't see her. "You just inspired that, my dear."
"Now you just have to find out what Jill inspires in Tom, oh great romance expert." Michiru said in a logical tone. "I'm sure he has to have something he wants to do, but he may not want to say it."
"You've got a point." Haruka commented as she thought over her old friend. "Even if he had an idea some part of him would probably tell him it was stupid or wouldn't work and he end up never mentioning it."
"Then you're problem isn't being romantic, it's getting Tom to speak up."
"Why do you sound like you've taken a psychology course?" Haruka asked, one eyebrow raised above the other.
"You never know, do you?" Michiru giggled over the phone before she paused. "When are you meeting Tom tomorrow?"
"10 AM, why?" Haruka glanced at a clock and realized why Michiru had asked. "Oh, I guess I should get some sleep. Actually you should too."
"Good night, Ruka." Michiru said, that warm tone back in her voice.
"Good night, Michi." Haruka stopped for a moment then decided to speak again. The blonde hopped the artist hadn't hung up yet. "Michiru?"
"Yes." Michiru's voice came back through the speaker. Haruka took a deep breath to steady her nerves and let it out slowly. Then she took another.
"I love you." After that the blonde hit the end button to cut off any response her girl friend could have made.
Standing in the middle of her art room in Tokyo, at past midnight, Michiru blinked at the phone. She smiled as she processed the words Haruka had just blurted before hanging up and realized that must have taken a lot for the blonde to say.
"I love you too, Haruka." Michiru whispered to herself as she placed the phone back on its charger. With a content smile the violin player left the room and headed toward her bedroom.
AN.
Please forgive me for the unromantic way Haruka ended up confessing her feelings, it just seemed to fit a bit. There was a lot more mathematics to the time zones than I had anticipated. If I got it right, thanks to a very nice recruiter giving me a time zone map, there is roughly a seventeen-hour difference between Tokyo and Las Vegas. To top that off I had to try to figure out how long the flight was and I will say it was slightly unrealistic. While I had Haruka's arrival time fairly realistic I left her asleep somewhere part way into a fourteen hour flight, and I'm not sure but I think they most likely would have landed in LAX and either refueled or switched planes. Just thought I let you all know these odd little facts while I had the chance. Oh, and 777s exist. I was a passenger on one in 2003 and it had that cool little TV I described, though I feel asleep listening to the pilots talk. Thank you again to all the readers and reviewers for your support.
Okay, now I need to drink some green tea (the habit my family thinks is odd) and try to get rid of this headache. B-) My co-workers, all younger than me, seem to think I am "cool". In spite of that I still managed to smack my head on one of the shelves so hard someone heard it across the store the other day and it made my vision go blurry. A number of my co-workers tried to get me to leave early after that. Only side effect after some rest is a nice little headache. Thanks again for the reviews.
Review responses:
Riva van Dyk: Okay, I didn't get very in depth with the why Haruka would do this part. Part of it is that Thomas really helped her when she needed it in "Can't Leave You Alone", even going so far as to risk Haruka's wrath in order to make sure she knew what was going on. But the main thing is this; Thomas is and has been Haruka's friend for years. Truth be told, I wasn't good at showing it, but he is probably Haruka's best friend from her time in the US and they are both willing to do things for each other that they wouldn't for just anyone else. He isn't trying to be cruel; it's more the fact of wanting to involve his best friend. I actually feel bad for the spot I wrote him into. Hopefully I have shown at least part of this in the chapter above.
Moonjava: Thanks for the encouragement. I've actually now got two chapters of that new story worked up but I am still reworking some things a bit. I tested one of the scenes I have in mind on three people and they were laughing for a while. I have been told my strengths lie in humor and romance, so this next story is going to be morbid humor and maybe a bit of romance. The later is hard with one main character already dead. Thank you again for the review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Knight of the Wolf: Don't worry about taking a while to review; my last three chapters came kind of rapid fire to be honest. About chapter eight: Yes Ryu should have backed off, but few guys I know with the personality I wanted him to have would. He isn't a bad guy, so much as the type that thinks he can do anything and everything and that any problems are someone else's fault. Kind of the same reason that he wants to know why Michiru would like Haruka and rather than assume Haruka might have any qualities she likes more than his, he starts talking about cars and money. He does have, in my mind, some other bad traits that have yet to be shown but I wont reveal those just yet. Also, I'm glad you enjoyed the dedication of the chapter. B-) You've been a big source of encouragement and the information you provided about roses spawned interesting ideas.
About chapter nine: I hope this chapter answered what Thomas was up to. B-) And I am glad you like that I gave the two their privacy. I couldn't imagine it another way I guess. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for another great review. B-)
Moon-Daisuke: B-) Glad you liked it, (chuckles a bit) and that you have a vivid enough imagination not to kill me for omitting that scene. I think I re-wrote the scene on the beach three times before I got Michiru's words the way I wanted them. I'll do my best to keep it up, thank you again for encouraging me.
Jeannie: Fans pushy? Never! (Grinning widely) It's you folks that keep me writing when I am tired or starting to question my skills (Which I do a lot of). Sorry about being so evil, but it wasn't in me to write that portion of Haruka and Michiru's night, I think if they were real and I did so they'd kill me (Laughs as she imagines trying to run away from to angry sailor scouts). Sad to say but no Jill didn't hire Thomas to pretend. That would have made a dramatic, if soap opera twist though). I have to thank you because two things weren't worked out in my mind correctly. I had intended to have him ask Haruka to be his best man but then mentally pictured Haruka sitting in the audience of any wedding. Your comment about best man made me think about that, and so we have Haruka playing the not quite best man role. You have to remember when you think about Jill's sway over Thomas, that the man is Haruka's friend. Thank you for the review and I am more than happy to get the "pushy" ones asking for quick updates.
On a last note:
About chapter nine: Part of it falls to the way I decide how to rate my stories. If you look you'll notice that they are probably all at least at the T rating. When I rate them I think about something very important to me: Would my sister let my nephews read this? One is seven, and one is four. So if my stories contain anything (same gender relations included) that they aren't yet allowed to read and really learn about it gets at least a T. If it's something that triggers too much into very emotional or painful things, example: "Coward's Way Out", I rate it M and hope that those who read it are mature enough to handle the material contained. By this same token, if it's something that I can't ever see them reading with out my sister being very disappointed or angry (even once they are older) I often don't write it. This basically means that the chances of me writing a lemon are up there with my chances of visiting the planet Uranus. B-) If I felt it necessary to the story, though once again very low chance, it would have been left in. But hey, if you are wondering why I left it out, you probably are old enough to realize what you think would have happened next and don't truly need it. Now that I have rambled about this, I will stop. Good night all and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.