Chapter Seven

"You really want to know what I think? Do you?" Michiru asked, showing the smallest possible trace of her cute pink tongue against her bottom lip, grinning at Haruka playfully by light of the candle. Gracefully she set her chopsticks down, laying them across the side of her empty plate and swirling the last half-swallow of red wine around in her glass.

Haruka grimaced at herself, running her calloused hand over her messy, nearly-tangled goldenrod locks. With a sigh she used her free hand to pick at the collar of her white blouse, pulling her black tie loose so that it hung sloppily around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry about the vase already," she said, pouting. "I'll try to be more careful, but at least I didn't break it." She tilted her head back so that it seemed to hang by hinges on her neck, and led her wine glass up until she drained it completely.

"No, no, I'm not worried about the vase," Michiru half-whispered, getting up and walking so slowly, so cat-like and seductive, toward her partner. "I haven't even thought about it since I watched you fumble with it this morning. Right now I am thinking something totally different."

"And what's that?"

Michiru bent over her so that her waving aqua hair curtained Haruka's face and her own. Her navy dress, cut low in the front, formed a tiny canopy that revealed the outline of a lacy beige bra, such a pretty, classy image all put together with the string of pearls around her neck. Haruka felt Michiru's knee slide against her hip, and the smaller lady leaned her weight on Haruka's chair.

"I think you've done a terrific job getting things together in such a short length of time. I think you should be rewarded. I think you and I should relax a little…."

Haruka had a faint hope deep in her soul that it wasn't just the sauce at dinner that made Michiru lick at the corner of her lips.

"Would—would this have anything to do with you being dressed up for some mysterious reason tonight?" she asked her hoarsely, feeling her throat dry in bewilderment.

"Perhaps. How would you like to meet me up on the roof, right under the overhang, and play a song or two?"

"Will you be bringing your violin?"

"No," Michiru replied firmly in a sultry whisper, resting her hand on Haruka's knee and squeezing affectionately. "I'll be watching you."

"Then I'm afraid you're just going to end up on top of the piano again," Haruka said, forming an entertained, boyish smile, and letting her eyes narrow in an almost sinister fashion.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

Michiru stood up and caressed Haruka's cheek with her fingertips, withdrawing a little so that she could masterfully undo the clasp of her necklace. Her shoulders shifted slightly so that the low neck of her dress would inch its way down, and feigning an accidental sigh, Michiru skillfully ran her string of pearls over one plump, smooth breast, dipped it teasingly low into her cleavage and then up over the other. Involuntarily Haruka's eyebrows arched higher and higher up onto her forehead, and as if hypnotized by the woman's beauty, she leaned forward and seized Michiru by the waist—

"Hello? Hello? Are you two home or what?"

Michiru's eyes darted to the front door, and Haruka sustained a deep growl in her throat as she patted Michiru's shoulders and went up to answer the impatient knocks and the whining voices at their door.

"I swear, this must be a new record or something. Haven't been in the house three days and already someone's found me. I had a hard enough time explaining you to the press, but now here's someone who just won't take it," Haruka complained loudly to Michiru.

"Haruka! You open the door right now!" rang out a firm, reprimanding feminine voice. As soon as it all clicked together, Haruka winced in embarrassment and her partner stifled a giggle.

"See, that's what happens," Michiru said.

"Sorry about that, Setsuna. We didn't think it was you. Hey, kiddo." Haruka smiled warmly at the tall, green-haired woman and the blossoming teenager who had been standing out there with suitcases for several minutes by now.

"You've arrived!" Michiru exclaimed happily, assisting the two of them with their luggage. "We've missed you two. You look so pretty and grown up, Hotaru."

"Setsuna and I have been waiting out here for ages," Hotaru said, doing a poor job at pretending to be angry. "You better be glad that we still love you, 'cause we came all this way, and we're hungry."

"Then you'll just have to join us at the table, won't you?" Michiru smiled, kissing the black-haired teen's cheek and rubbing her shoulders. "Haruka, darling, I think we might still have another bottle of wine for Setsuna, and I'll make some tea for Hotaru."

Haruka nodded and turned to Setsuna. "Flight okay?"

"Yes, it was relaxing," Setsuna replied with a polite nod, her crimson eyes twinkling from the lone candle burning on the kitchen table. "I hope you weren't too, ah, busy with dinner."

"No, we do this kind of thing every night. Please, have some wine with us…. And the Gates of Time?"

"Perfectly under control. Of course, I'll always feel uneasy about it, because even during times of peace you can't risk too much, and I couldn't begin to tell you about the second thoughts I've been having about coming here, but I promised Hotaru. And I've missed you, both of you. This is a beautiful house you have." Setsuna blinked in awe at how spacious the place was. So huge, with so many rooms upstairs that she was so sure neither of them would ever need. "Though it's kind of hard to accept it as a retirement home when you guys are so young."

"I like to call it a sort of extended vacation," Haruka commented mischievously. "You never know… Michiru and I might be running off again within a few months from now. We always find something to keep ourselves busy."

"A person would think that you two are constantly running away from something."

"Nah, not really."

"I saw the piano up on the roof," Hotaru chimed in, hunched over a cup of green tea, underneath Michiru's admiring gaze. "You've really picked out a beautiful place!"

"We were just thinking of making our way up there when you two showed up. You know what? Bring your food up there. Setsuna, you too. I understand you've been singing in musicals lately at your school, young lady, and if I don't get to hear your voice it just might break my heart," Michiru cooed lovingly.

"Alrighty! Sounds fun. There's just something about that night sky over here that's sort of… different…."

Setsuna watched the three of them slink up the dark stairway, with a solemn expression on her face and a deep cough rising in her chest.

"You coming or what?" Haruka turned around and asked.

"Yes, yes of course…."