Kiseki lay on her bed, eyes closed, breathing slowly. She had stitches that ran across her face where the broken glass had cut her. Other than that, her face had several purple bruises and a few smaller cuts and scratches. There was a sheet that started at her neck and ended at her hips because both of her legs were cast-covered and suspended in the air.
"Ki-chan," Haruka whispered. She closed her eyes and titled her head down. "I'm sorry."
Michiru looked at her wife in confusion. "Haruka, this isn't your fault." She took the blonde's hand and squeezed it to encourage her.
Kiseki heard her parents and felt relieved. At least she was still alive. "Daddy," she barely whispered.
Haruka lifted her head and looked at her daughter. She thought she had heard the girl say something but dismissed the thought. That is, until she heard her speak again.
"Daddy, this is my fault. I should've paid more attention," Kiseki said a bit louder. She tried to open her eyes but decided not to once she felt the pain of the stitches.
Haruka shook her head. "I never should have let you race." She said it out loud but it was meant just for her to hear.
Kiseki took a deep breath. "Daddy, stop it. This wasn't your fault. You couldn't have prevented it from happening. You never could have known that Takachi was going to do that." She wanted to see her parents so badly. She knew that her right eye was cut but she didn't think that there was anything wrong with the left one. She figured that it was just sore. Slowly, she opened her left eye only. It was difficult; she was so used to having both open at the same time. It took a moment for her eye to adjust to the bright lights of the room but she found her parents quickly. She noticed that her dad was close to crying and that her mother was pretty pissed off.
Michiru let go of Haruka's hand and turned towards the door. She walked out of the room before anyone could say anything to her. She made her way to the elevators, intending to leave and go to the Takachi residence.
Haruka didn't know whether to follow her wife or to let her be.
"Let her go," Kiseki said. "We both know that she won't actually do anything." She wanted to know the full extent of her injuries. "What happened to me?" she asked quietly.
Haruka sighed as she sat down in the lone chair that sat in the corner. "Do you really want to know?"
As Haruka explained the injuries that their daughter had gotten, Michiru sat in her car on the phone. "You weren't at the race, were you, Takachi-san?" she asked Yuikiazi's father. She didn't hate anyone or anything as much as she hated this man. "He almost killed my daughter today. We let all the other incidents slide but this time, he's gone too far." He told her that she couldn't do anything about it. "You're wrong, and you're going to find out just how wrong you are." With that, she hung up. Just as she set the phone on her passenger seat, it rang. It was Yuikazi's mother, Nashiko. She was apologizing and begging Michiru not to sue them over what had happened. She and Michiru had been good friends during high school and regularly kept in touch through much complaining from Kouta. "Nashiko, please calm down. I didn't want to sue you guys." Nashiko suggested two things: that Yuikazi pay for Kiseki's hospital bill and that he quits racing. "That sounds good to me, but you'll have to talk to Haruka about it." She didn't feel like dealing with it so she passed it on to her wife. "I'll have her call you about it later. I'm going back up to Kiseki's room. Bye." She hung up the phone and placed it back on the seat. Getting out of her car, she noticed a camera coming towards her. She instinctively knew what they wanted: an interview. Not from Michiru, the artist or the musician, but the mother of Kiseki. She turned to the hospital doors quickly and walked inside, ignoring the camera crews and news reporters that were shouting her name. They didn't stop following her until she was inside the doors. She put the event out of her mind as she made her way back up to Kiseki's room.
Kiseki had forgotten to breathe once her dad was finished explaining her injuries. She took a deep breath and let it our slowly. "I'm surprised that I'm still alive," she whispered.
Haruka watched as her daughter stared at the ceiling. "By all accounts, you shouldn't be," she started. "But we are so grateful that you are. Your mother and I wouldn't have been able to deal if you had died."
Kiseki looked at her dad and smiled. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon." She chuckled lightly then grimaced in pain. "Man, this sucks. I've got finals this week." She was referring to her final exams at her high school.
Haruka shook her head. "I don't think you'll be taking them. It's not like you need to anyway." Her child had Michiru's mind only about twenty times better.
Kiseki knew that she was smarter than just about everyone in her grade level but she never bragged about it with the other students. She did that in elementary school and lost a lot of friends. "Ok, forget about finals. What about the tournament in America? I definitely can't play football (soccer) with all this."
Football was Kiseki's life, even more than racing, and Haruka knew it. "That's not for another two and a half months. I'm sure you'll be fine by then."
"I better be," Kiseki said angrily. "There's more coaches and scouts that are going to be there than I originally knew of." She turned her head and looked at the door as her mother came back in. Looking back at her dad, she said, "I told you."
Michiru walked over to Kiseki's bed, bent over, and kissed her daughter's forehead. Standing back up, she looked at the teenager. "How do you feel?"
Kiseki closed her eye. "A little tired," she said after a brief pause. "And the morphine is starting to wear off."
Haruka stood up and walked over to her two girls. "You should sleep. You're going to need all your strength," she explained. "Do you want one of us to stay?"
Kiseki thought for a moment. "You don't have to. You guys can go home if you want but can you call Kenji and let him know that I'm all right? Please?"
Otooshi, Kenji was Kiseki's boyfriend of a year and a half now. They met during Kiseki's sophomore year. She was training with the boys' football team, of which Kenji was the senior captain. They met, more specifically, when she stole the ball from him and scored on their so-called "unbeatable" goalkeeper. They started dating a little less than two weeks after that and have been nearly inseparable ever since.
Haruka nodded. "I'll call him when we get home." She took Michiru's hand and glanced at her quickly.
Michiru didn't want to leave her daughter's side. "Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay with you?"
"Yeah," said Kiseki. "Don't worry about me, mom. It's not like I can get hurt anymore than I already am. Now, go home." She didn't mean to sound like she was telling her parents what to do, but that's just how it came out.
Michiru admired Kiseki's ability to keep a sense of humor about this situation. "Ok. I'll see you tomorrow." She bent over and kissed her child's forehead again.
Haruka smiled. It never failed to amaze her just how protective Michiru was of Kiseki. She chuckled quietly and shook her head. "Come on, Michi. She'll be ok." She watched as her wife stood up and looked at her. "Bye, okami."
Kiseki didn't say anything. She just tried to relax and go to sleep. The morphine that the nurse had given her a while ago had just about completely worn off now but she ignored as much of the pain as she could. After a little while, she finally fell asleep.
As Haruka and Michiru were walking towards the doors of the hospital, Michiru noticed that about twenty more camera crews had shown up in the short amount of time that she was with Kiseki. "Ruka, can you deal with them? I've got a headache," she pleaded.
Haruka gave her wife a sympathetic look. "Don't worry about it, honey. I'll meet you at the car in a few," she said, then kissed her.
They exited the doors together but Haruka stopped to talk to the people while Michiru took off, heading for her car. She sat in the car by herself for only a few minutes before her phone rang yet again. Feeling rather annoyed with it, she was going to just turn it off. That is, until she seen that it was Setsuna calling. She answered it quickly.
Haruka stood in the center of a ring of cameras and microphones, being asked a hundred questions all at once. She answered as many as she could before she broke through the throng of people and machines, walking away from them and looking for Michiru's car. Once she spotted it, she walked to it quickly, opening the door and getting in before one of the cameras could be shoved into the vehicle. That was when she realized why Michiru had gotten extra tint on her windows. She sighed heavily as she attempted to relax in her seat.
Michiru hung up her phone just as the blonde got in the car. Before throwing it in the back seat, she turned it off. "That was Setsuna. She and the others were at the palace watching the race. They've, uh, been trying to call your cell but you've got it turned off."
Haruka gave her a confused look. "No I don't," she said as she unclipped her phone from her belt. She looked at it and felt a little embarrassed. "Um, that's because my battery's dead." She had to laugh at herself. "I guess it died after I called you."
Michiru chuckled and shook her head. "You forgot to charge your battery last night and didn't have time to this morning because you were late, right?" She knew that Haruka and Kiseki were out late last night with Kenji, Makoto, Minako, and Rei for Makoto's birthday. She couldn't go because she had been invited to play a charity concert. One other thing that she knew was that Kiseki would never be late for anything. "She probably had one of her team members pick her up since she knew that her dad wouldn't be on schedule," she thought.
"Yeah," Haruka said. "I was a little late." She shook her head again. "Anyway, what else did Sets say?"
Michiru shrugged. "They want us to stay there tonight. Usagi figured that it would be easier since the palace is closer than the house."
Haruka clipped her phone back onto her belt and nodded. "Let's go then."
Michiru nodded and started the engine. She waited until everyone had moved out of her way before she started moving forward.
They drove in silence. At the palace gate, they were let through with no questions, as usual.
Michiru couldn't help but feel like she was abandoning Kiseki. She put the car in park and looked over at Haruka.
The blonde could tell what was on her wife's mind. "You shouldn't worry so much. She's in good hands."
Michiru exhaled deeply and nodded. After she and the racer left the car, they walked hand-in-hand into the palace and into the main hall. The first person they seen was their king and princess Rini.
Out of habit, the two senshi bowed and Chibi-usa laughed at them. "You guys just don't get it," she said as she walked over to them, hugging them both. She looked around with a puzzled look when they separated. "Where's Kiseki?"
Mamoru placed a hand on Chibi-usa's shoulder. "Chibi-usa, can you go and tell your mother and the others that they're here, please?" He watched as his daughter nodded and walked away, clearly confused. He looked back at the girls and shrugged. "She didn't see the race. Actually, she just got back about fifteen minutes ago."
Haruka nodded. "Today's her birthday. She was with the other girls at the fair, right?"
Mamoru nodded. "She wanted Kiseki to go with them but," he stopped short when he seen Michiru squeeze the other girl's hand. "I'm sorry."
Michiru waved with her other hand. "Don't worry about it."
They all stood there, saying nothing for what seemed like eternity until they heard the sounds of footsteps. Many footsteps, loud and fast. It would be hard to sneak up on someone in the palace as the floors amplified almost every single step, no matter what kind of footwear you were wearing.
Usagi led the way as she and the other senshi, and their partners and children, walked quickly to where Mamoru and the two girls stood. "I'm so sorry," the queen said as she pulled them both into a hug before they had the slightest chance to bow.
When Usagi let them go, they exchanged hugs with the other senshi and the children that knew them.
Even Kenji was there. He had become best friends with Setsuna's son, Daisuke during his senior year, meeting him through Kiseki, and had gone with the other boy to watch his girlfriend's race. Since Daisuke had to work in the morning, he left before the race was over. The accident had Kenji freaking out and threatening to kill Takachi. "Is she all right?" he asked urgently.
AN: Thanks for the reviews so far. The next chapter for this one should be up pretty soon seeing as I have nothing to do right now. I think that I'll update my first section before then though. Only seems right. Well, I guess I could go work on that now. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review. Ja!