(21) Wake up to another day

It was not easy for Michiru to make breakfast, especially since she could not use her injured arm at all. But she knew how to use the rice cooker, it only took longer than it normally would with her fighting one-armed with the chop sticks and the rice bag.

Only three more days till Christmas.

And a great Christmas it would be! Michiru woke up from the ringing phone and spent the next hour talking to an excited Usagi. She wanted to have a big celebration, of course, with all her friends. So she invited them to come. The sea beauty still had to smile when she remembered Usagi's happy voice and Chibiusa's loud one in the background, begging for a cookie. Usagi was munching on the phone and Michiru could imagine that she was eating the last cookie or that she was at least holding the cookie box tightly in her hands. Surely there broke out a fierce fight after Usagi hang up, including the both of them running like maniacs through the house, crashing into poor Mamoru or Usagi's mother.

It's hardly imaginable that this girl is our saviour, our future queen.

Michiru put the plates on the table and remained standing next to the window for a moment, watching the snow fall again. It would not melt away the coming days, maybe not even the coming weeks. It truly would be a perfect Christmas: Without any worries, but with snowball fights and with all of their friends alive and happy. With Hotaru being alive, not laying in hospital, but surely singing as wrongly as Haruka under a big Christmas tree.

Our pine tree will look great.

"How late is it?"

Michiru turned around as she heard her best friend's tired voice. Her grin widened as she saw the blonde leaning more asleep than awake at the fridge. She was still wearing her pyjamas and had wrapped the couch's blanket around her freezing body. Her hair was messed and her eyes were so tiny that Michiru shortly wondered if she saw her at all or if she assumed that she had to be in the kitchen since the rice cooker did work.

"Almost noon, sleepy head." She answered honestly.

"Oh…" Haruka rubbed her tired eyes and seemed to search for a coherent sentence in her still cloudy mind. "How did I end up on the couch?"

"The Muppets were too much for you." Michiru came over to her best friend and lead her over to a chair where she pushed her down gently. "You fell asleep and I did not want to wake you up."

She did not mention that she stayed on that couch, as well. There was a music show after the Muppets movie on TV, but she did not even see the half of it, because she fell also asleep, cuddling close to her best friend on the soft couch until Usagi's phone call woke her up. Of course her arm hurt even more after she had a unfavourable position during the night, but she already gulped her medicine and tried to ignore the dull pain.

"And now you're making a late breakfast, with your injury. You know that this should be my job to do." Haruka yawned and put her head in her hands. Her eyes were already closed again and Michiru wondered briefly if her best friend would fall asleep right here and now.

"Oh, it's not that hard, besides I like to have an eatable breakfast." Michiru giggled as Haruka showed her not very ceremonially her tongue, of course without opening her eyes. There was too much light in the kitchen to torture her sleepy mind.

"Do you want tea or coffee? The rice takes another ten minutes."

"Coffee. As thick as possible."

"Aye, aye, sir." Michiru saluted with her healthy hand giggled even more when Haruka stuck out her tongue again, only to yawn widely.

"A coffee as dark as the night. It's right on its way." The sea beauty fought for a moment with the filter and nearly jumped as Haruka stood suddenly behind her and took it out of her hand. The blanket hung over the now empty chair and she tried to feel more awake. She really tried, but did not really succeed. Half of the coffee powder landed on the ground and not in the filter and formed with the spilled water a small, brown puddle on the tiles. Michiru did not mind, she would clear that mess later on. Right now nothing could spoil her mood. There were only three days to go till Christmas, they were alive, Hotaru was fine and they were spending a peaceful breakfast with each other. Maybe the first real breakfast, since the last times they had sat at the table together, they had worried about their mission, about Mistress 9 and about their future. Now that all those fears gone, they suddenly had time. Time to eat a comfortable meal. A cosy one.

Michiru corrected the chopsticks before she sat down on the chair opposite to the blanket-covered one. Then she reached for the lighter and lighted two candles which a wood angel was holding in its hands. She had no other light burning in the kitchen and she immediately felt at home as she had never felt before. They moved into this apartment, because it belonged to the boarding school, it was cheaper than a motel or a room to rent somewhere else in Tokyo and it was a place to return to after their fights against youmas. To nurse their injuries. To plan their next step against Mistress 9. It had always been a stopover between their past and their destiny. Sometimes Michiru believed that she would not survive the final battle and never really allowed herself to get involved with the apartment. Her room was sterile, with no posters on the walls, no pictures on the desk. Haruka's room was the same, only that she was notoriously messy. The blonde had all her important things in a suitcase which she hid in her wardrobe. She never unpacked it.

Now, however, Michiru could imagine to make this apartment their home. A real home. The Christmas tree was a significant step towards that goal.

"I should take a shower and get dressed." Haruka switched on the coffee machine and glanced down at her crumbled pyjamas. Michiru already got dressed in a comfortable white tracksuit, thankful that she had not to wear her ugly school uniform again until next year. She only shook her head and pointed towards the blanked-covered chair.

"The rice will be ready soon, so sit down and eat something."

"But…"

"I don't mind. I want to eat breakfast with my best friend. Now. Shower can wait." Michiru shrugged her healthy shoulder and put sugar in her tea to stir it.

"If you're willing to bear me like that." Haruka put the first coffee quickly into a cup before she put the pot back under the coffee machine and sat down on her chair again. She wrapped the blanket around her freezing body and looked into the coffee as if it would make her wake up by merely staring at it.

"Always." Michiru grinned. "But I would recommend you to wear something else on Usagi's Christmas party. Although this outfit looks hot."

Haruka blinked and blushed deeply. But before she could say something, or find any reply at all, the rice cooker told them that the rice was ready. While the blonde was busy pulling the hot rice out of the cooker into a bowl, Michiru told her about Usagi's phone call and her invitation. Then they settled down and ate their breakfast. In peace. Slowly. During an entire hour talking about everything that got to their mind: Usagi, Hotaru, school, Haruka's race car, the Christmas tree and a new boy group the inner senshi liked to listened to so much.

It was their first breakfast after Mistress 9 was defeated and even after all those months of fighting together against evil youmas and crazy teachers, it was the first breakfast that felt like spending it with a family.