Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

Remember Our Promise

Michiru bit her lip as she watched Mimet elegantly seat herself in front of her. "I glad that you accepted my invitation."

The young woman smiled sweetly at Michiru. "I couldn't decline."

Michiru forced a smile as she reached for the teapot placed on the center of the table. "Here, have some tea."

Haruka and Yaten watched the polite exchanges between the two women with nervous expressions on their face. Tense. The atmosphere was strangely tense as the two women chatted pleasantly. Even though the words exchanged were coated with sugar and their faces plastered with silky smiles, Haruka and Yaten both felt something else behind the masks.

"Haruka, would you like some tea?" Michiru asked politely, thrusting the teapot into Haruka's face.

"Er... sure." Haruka couldn't help but wince at the coolness in Michiru's voice.

"Sugar?"

"No thanks." Haruka blinked. It was so cold. They were never so polite to each other. Haruka pushed the teacup to the side. "Michiru-"

"Hey, don't I get any tea?"

Michiru raised an eyebrow at Yaten who was grumpily glaring at his empty teacup. "Can't you pour it yourself?"

"No, I want you to pour it for me just like you did for everyone else." Yaten said stubbornly, thrusting his teacup into Michiru's face -unfortunately, knocking over a plate of biscuits in the process.

Everyone at the table turned to stare at Yaten. A silence fell over the four people, as they looked at biscuits scattered messily across the table.

Then Michiru giggled. It was the first genuine smile Haruka had seen all afternoon. The atmosphere seemed to lighten significantly. Suddenly everything seemed much more pleasurable. The birds chirping around them seemed less annoying. The flowers and plants surrounding the table outside seemed more beautiful and even the buzzing of the insects seemed less annoying.

"Fine, laugh at me," Yaten grumbled. He picked himself off the chair and stomped off towards a bench on the other side of the garden. "I'm eating with the gophers."

"Careful, or they'll bite your finger off!" Haruka called over to her friend.

"Very funny."

Where had she heard this before? Haruka grinned, taking one of the crumbled biscuits and sticking it into her mouth. Yaten was really something.

"So... Princess Neptune," Mimet said, her words slow and even. "Why did you want me to come today?"

"Right..." Michiru's giggles ceased as she turned back to Mimet. Her expression became hard to read as her eyes locked with Mimet's. "I wanted to... apologize about yesterday."

Haruka saw a flash of anger spark in Michiru's usually calm eyes but decided not to comment on it. The blonde reached for another biscuit that lay scattered on the table.

"Hum... I overreacted." Mimet said, smiling at Michiru. "I hope you didn't take any offense in my words yesterday."

"No, of course not," Michiru said evenly.

"Here, it looks like you need some more tea," Mimet said as she reached for the teapot. Michiru raised her eyebrow, but decided not to comment on the fact that her teacup was still full.

"Hey! Stop it!" A familiar voice yelled. "Who do you think I am? Snow White?"

Haruka and Michiru turned towards a silver-haired adolescent as he stomped around the garden with a bunch of gophers trailing him.

"Do I look like a girl to you?" Yaten yelled, turning around and glaring at the gophers. The gophers grinned evilly at the silver-haired man, their eyes glinting brightly. "I swear if you come any closer, I'll..."

"Anyway..." Mimet smiled as she poured Michiru some tea. "I was wondering-"

"Ah! It bit my finger! You #$ gophers!" Yaten shouted at the top of his voice.

Taking a sip out of her tea, Mimet ignored the screams and continued with her conversation with Michiru. "I was wondering if your mother had any suitors for you?"

"Why do you want to know?" Michiru asked, her eyes narrowing. Both woman locked eyes once again.

Haruka frowned as she watched the two women stare at each other. The same coolness had settled over the table. Haruka didn't even notice Yaten run past the table, closely followed by an army of gophers.

Clink. Michiru blinked and looked away from Mimet to find her shattered teacup on the ground.

"Yaten, watch where you're going, you knocked over Michiru's teacup," Haruka said standing up from her chair. "I'll pick it up."

"Why don't you help me with these rabid gophers instead?" Yaten yelled.

Haruka laughed lightly. "What's wrong? Snow White loved little fuzzy animals, why are you running away from them?"

"I'm NOT Snow White!"

Everyone -including the gophers- stopped their yelling and spun around as they heard a loud clatter of dishes followed by a soft thud.

"Mimet!" Haruka called as the apricot-haired woman fell to the ground. Haruka rushed forward, scooping the pale woman into her arms. "Mimet!"

Yaten and Michiru were instantly by Haruka's side, worried for the young woman.

Worry was laced in Haruka's voice as she spoke. "Mimet, what is it? What's wrong?"

The apricot-haired woman focused on Haruka, as she struggled to stay conscience.

"Mimet!"

Before falling unconscious, Mimet turned to Michiru, her lips forming a frown. "There is ...poison in the tea."

AAA

"I swear, I don't know anything at all," a terrified maid squeaked.

"So you're suggestion the poison just walked into the tea?" the investigator snorted.

Leaning against the wall outside of the room where the maid was being interrogated, Haruka listened carefully to the interrogation. The blonde sighed as the maid continued to ramble on about how she was innocent. There didn't seem to be anything interesting coming up. Haruka took the moment to wearily stretch her arms and legs. The princess had been there for half the day, watching as cooks, maids, and gardeners traveled in and out of the room, hoping to be able to find out what had been bothering her. There was something missing. There was something that Haruka should know, but she couldn't piece it together.

Haruka frowned as she recalled the conversations she had heard. It didn't make any sense at all. From the bits and pieces of information she had gathered, Haruka had found out that only Mimet's tea had been poisoned. Apparently, the tea in the teapot was completely fine. But then, did that mean that the poison was in Mimet's cup? If that was indeed true, how did the person know that the cup would go to his or her intended victim? The only people in the particular area today were Mimet, Yaten, Michiru and her. Then, there was also the possibility that Mimet wasn't the intended victim, but then why would someone go through all the trouble just to end up poisoning the wrong person?

Haruka shook her head and focused her attention back on the conversation in the room.

"I really don't know anything," the maid insisted. "Princess Neptune had told me to bring tea and biscuits and I did just that. Nothing else, honest."

Haruka heard one of the investigators sigh heavily.

"Doesn't Princess Neptune usually eat in the dining hall?" A man asked suddenly, shuffling through a pile of papers. Haruka strained to hear the maid's words through the ruffling of the sheets of paper.

"Yes, but she wanted to apologize to Mimet for the fight they had the day before," the maid said quietly.

There was a long silence as the investigators digested the information.

"She fought with Mimet?"

Haruka found herself clenching her fists as she continued to eavesdrop on the conversation. Haruka ignored the stinging as her nails dug into her palms. They surely weren't suspecting Michiru, were they?

"... but I'm sure it was only an accident," the maid whispered as she finished the story.

Another loud silence stretched across the room.

"Alright, you can go," one of the men grunted, pushing his chair back.

Haruka watched as the terrified maid quickly fled the room, not noticing her standing by the doorway. Frowning slightly, Haruka tilted her head to the side to listen to the lowered voices inside the room.

"Princess Neptune is the only person who appears to have a reason to want to poison Mimet," a coarse voice stated.

"But she is a princess..."

A large thump echoed around the room as the first man slammed his fist onto the table. "I know that, but this is an attempted murder. Princess or not, this is serious. We need to finish this case before Queen Pluto returns from her trip. We'll look through the information we have now and bring in the Princess for questioning tomorrow."

Haruka closed her eyes as she leaned her head against the wall. Something didn't fit together. Michiru...

"Haruka?"

Her eyes snapping open, the blonde spun around to meet a pair of lime-green eyes looking back at her. "Yaten? What are you doing here?"

Raising an eyebrow, the silver-haired adolescent reached into his pocket and drew out a sandwich wrapped neatly in a handkerchief. "You weren't in the dining hall for dinner."

Haruka's eyes softened as she reached out for the sandwich. "Thanks."

Sitting down on the floor, the blonde took a bite out of the sandwich. Neatly folding his legs, Yaten joined Haruka on the floor.

"How are you feeling?" Yaten inquired gently, peering curiously at Haruka. His eyes traveled to Haruka's hands, the palms bleeding slightly. He scowled, but made no comment. "Did you find anything out after standing out here for six hours?"

The blonde stared at her sandwich, her eyes suddenly stormy. "They... think Michiru did it."

Yaten turned to gaze curiously at his friend. "What do you think of this Haruka?"

"I... Michiru couldn't have done it. The Michiru I know would never do such a thing," Haruka whispered. Yet, the Michiru she knew would have never pushed Mimet into the canal. The Michiru she knew wouldn't be treating her so coldly. The Michiru she knew wouldn't have ignored her when she said she wanted to talk to her. Did she know Michiru at all anymore? Haruka cast her eyes down. "How is... Mimet?"

"She... she's recovering in the infirmary," Yaten replied, his eyes still glued on Haruka. "It was a good thing she didn't drink a lot of the tea, or else she would have died. They won't let anyone see her though."

"You'll probably find a way to see her though," Haruka said, grinning.

"Yes, I probably will," Yaten said haughtily.

Haruka turned so that she was facing Yaten. Her dark green suddenly eyes blazed angrily. "Yaten, why do you think anyone would do such a thing? The poison was strong enough to kill someone. To take a life away, that is truly-"

Yaten put a finger on Haruka's lips and shook his head. Though his expression looked the same as usual, Yaten's eyes looked weary. Haruka could tell that her friend was deeply troubled.

"Yaten..."

Haruka blinked in surprise as she suddenly felt Yaten's lips on hers. The kiss was soft and chaste, but lingering. Hesitantly, the silver-haired adolescent broke the innocent kiss and turned away from Haruka.

Slightly out of breath, as if she had run a long race, Haruka placed a finger on her lips. Her emotions were a whirl; similar to the last time that Yaten had kissed her.

"Haruka, do you still remember out promise?" Yaten asked suddenly, causing the blonde to break away from her thoughts.

"Which one?"

"The one where we said that we would be friends forever no matter what happens," Yaten replied, his back still turned away from the blonde.

"Yes, why?"

"No reason." Yaten whispered, wiping away the tears on his face.