The small baby babbled excited and hit her mother with a toy dolphin. Blue eyes shone happily up into a proud mother's face.
"Konnichiwa, Mizuno-san." Another woman entered the waiting room and bowed before she sat down. She hold a smaller baby in her arms. Fluffy blonde hairs covered a tiny head and it laughed happily as her mother corrected her golden baby pyjama.
"Konnichiwa, Aino-san."
"It must be strange to see the world from the other side."
"Oh, only two more months and I'll be on work again. I love it to be a doctor and Ami-chan's now almost one year old. So I can take her with me to work. Here in the hospital we have a special kindergarten for colleagues with small children."
"That sounds great."
"And how old is your daughter now? Her name was Minako, wasn't it?"
"Hai. She's now five months, two weeks and three days old."
The two women laughed and talked a lot about their daughters while they waited that it was their turn to see the doctor.
The two girls smiled shyly at each other and leaned forward in their mother's arms. Two pairs of blue shinning eyes sparkled knowing as the small fingers touched.
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"Look! Birds!" screamed the small girl of three years and stumbled with unsure steps over the warm underground. Her mother chased her and she laughed loudly as the young woman took her carefully into her arms and swirled around with her.
"See, now you can fly with those birds, Usagi-chan." Declared the woman and her face was redden. The small girl spread her arms and her tiny blonde plaids swung in the air as she turned her head towards the sun.
"Now I've got to tell you a big secret." Said the young woman as she took her daughter again in her arms and looked very important down to her. The small girl looked very important in return up to her.
"S'cret?" she asked and her blue eyes grew wide.
"Hai? I love you, my small princess!" laughed the woman and danced again with her daughter over the warm sand. The birds screamed high above and it was a nice, cloudless summer day.
"Luve ya!" screamed the girl and giggled as her mother kissed tenderly her cheeks.
"Luve ya!"
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It was a nice cradle. Made of dark wood. With white curtains that showed small stars and moons all over.
The young woman stood in front of the shop window and sighed slightly while she placed her hands on her huge belly. It were only two or three more weeks until her child would be born. A girl, as the doctors told her some weeks ago when she was too curious to wait until the birth.
"Do you like it?" asked her husband and embraced her from behind. Tenderly he kissed her neck and laughed as she shivered. Then he rose his hands and stroke over the huge belly. To greet his daughter.
"Hai, but you know, your mother already wants to give us a cradle." She said and he could see dark eyes looking yearning at the cradle. They sparkled in the shop window's reflection and he smiled automatically.
"If you want it, then take it. My mother can buy us something else." He declared and turned her around so that he could see directly into shinning dark eyes.
"I love you, Rumi-chan." He whispered and kissed her tenderly. Embraced her again and felt the huge belly pressed against his slim one. Felt the light prickle as the child kicked wildly inside his wife's belly.
"Love you, too." Giggled the young woman and looked again to the cradle. "Maybe you're right..."
"Of course I am right. I am a doctor and doctors are always right, aren't they?" he teased and kissed her again. Then he took her hand and they walked slowly into the shop. Very slowly, because it was hot outside and he was concerned about his wife being very well advanced in pregnancy. There were only a few weeks left and he didn't want to harm the child nor his wife. His only love. His one and only woman.
"Did you think about a name for her?" he opened the door and looked curiously into a now happy shinning face.
"Of course." Smiled his wife and placed again her hands over her huge belly under her wide clothes. Her dark hairs hang over her shoulder and suddenly she looked like an angel. His angel.
"What do you think about Hotaru?"
"Little glow worm?" Deep he looked into loving dark eyes and couldn't help to embrace her again. To kiss her again. To tell her again how much he loved her. "I'd like that name."
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"Ready?"
She took her place and raised her head.
"Steady?"
Shortly she touched her amulet under her top and prayed a short prayer – as she did before every race.
"Go!"
She started and ran over the sandy underground of the arena. She was fast and she knew it. But another girl was almost as fast as her. Shortly she looked back and saw how a red haired girl chased her. With a determined expression on her face.
No, they won't get me!
She shook her head and ran even faster. She felt the wind playing with her slim body, heard the birds screaming above her. Wild and free. Independent.
They won't get me again. Never again. Now I am as fast as the wind and no one will ever reach me again!
She smiled and closed her eyes.
Here I AM the wind!
The audience yelled as she crossed the finish line – as the winner.
"Congratulations!" gasped the red haired girl as she finally arrived. "You're really the fastest girl I ever met. They're right when they say you resemble the wind." She smiled and shortly they shook hands.
"Haruka?"
The tall girl turned around as the red haired girl hold her back.
"What's up, Elza?" asked Haruka a little bit annoyed. She wanted to get her medal, her price money and to get home. To take her motor bike and to race along the beach. To think over her life. And to understand the nightmares that were haunting her down every night since two months now.
To remember the sea green haired beauty she saw every night in those dreams.
"There's someone who wants to meet you." Said Elza and before Haruka could react, she had grabbed the sleeve of her sport's shirt and pulled her with her.
"This is Kaioh Michiru. We go to the same music school, but I guess she's a little bit more talented than me." Invited Elza and stepped aside.
Haruka's dark green eyes grew wide as she saw the smaller woman. She wore a nice white summer's dress and her small shoulders were covered with sea green curls.
Just like in my nightmares.
Haruka swallowed hard.
Just like on the picture...
"Guess this is yours." Haruka reached under her shirt and took a small locket out. It shimmered golden in the summer's sun. Her hands trembled as she gave it to the smaller woman.
To the sea goddess.
She frowned but couldn't define where that thought came from.
My sea goddess.
Michiru shook her head, but she was too curious. So she opened the jewellery and gasped as she saw a small picture of a happy family. Of a tall man with a turban who embraced his wife who wore white silk and a long veil that covered her sea green hairs. They both laughed as they looked down to their daughter. A small baby with fluffy dark hairs.
There was a strange sign next to the picture and Michiru swallowed hard.
"What does it mean?" she asked, but knew that this sign didn't belong to a language she knew.
Maybe it isn't an earth language.
"It means desert rose ." Answered Haruka and her voice was very calm.
Michiru raised her head and suddenly smiled at the tall woman in front of her.
"And you think it belongs to me?"
Haruka nodded and blushed as Michiru took her hands tenderly in her own ones and looked deep into her dreamy green ones.
I love those blue eyes. They're like the endless sea. I feel like I could drown in them.
But suddenly she knew that this woman would never let her drown.
"Hai..." she whispered and simply followed the smaller woman as Michiru pulled her with her. They reached the exit of the arena from where you could oversee the near beach and the sand. Michiru laughed and suddenly embraced Haruka who embraced her in return – still not knowing why.
Normally she trusted no one. But the longer she looked into a tenderly smiling face, the longer she wanted desperately to be a good friend of the sea beauty. A good friend and so much more.
For more than only three months.
"Guess you're right, Ruka."
A ball suddenly hit Haruka's head and she blinked before she stumbled some steps back. With disbelieve she stared at the purple ball in her hands, then over to a giggling Michiru.
"This is my ball!" declared a high voice and they both turned around. "I wanna my ball!" There stood a small girl of maybe five or six years. Her dark, messy hairs fell over her shoulders as she ran over to them. Her pants were covered with green and brown spots and her mouth looked as if she had just eaten a chocolate ice cream.
"Please!" Dark eyes looked pleading up into green eyes while the little girl ran. Haruka frowned. She knew those eyes. She had seen them a lot. Every time she felt lonely. Every time she was on her own in her narrow room at the athletics team and couldn't sleep because of the nightmares haunting her down. First about her childhood and her father. Later about the end of the world and about a sea green beauty.
The baby on the picture...
Haruka winced as the girl oversaw a stone and fell down on the hard underground. Immediately she started to cry.
"Hey, small princess. That's not so bad, is it? You're a strong girl, aren't you?" Haruka tried to give her the ball back, but the small girl cried even louder.
Where the hell is her mother?
"It's okay. Hush, little darling." Whispered Michiru and went on her knees. Carefully she took the girl in her arms and hold her loving tight. Rocked her comforting.
"Everything's alright, little darling. As long as we're with you."
The girl crept on her lap and buried her face in her shoulder. Then she embraced her neck and it didn't seem as if she ever wanted to let go again.
"Where's your mother?" asked Michiru, but the little girl didn't answer.
Here.
Haruka frowned, but she didn't know where that thought came from.
"How's your name?"
"'taru." It was nothing more than a whisper and the crying decreased. The girl felt comfortable in her arms and Michiru knew that she was falling asleep within the next minutes. "You feel like my mommy." Whispered the little girl and yawned. Then she closed her eyes and was fast asleep.
"Better we'll look for her parents." Michiru hold the girl tighter and rose carefully. She didn't want to wake her up.
"Hai." answered Haruka very silently, still holding the ball tight. She leaned forward without knowing why and kissed softly on the small forehead.
"She looks cute." Declared Michiru and felt suddenly very happy. The golden locket sparkled in the sun's light as they slowly left the arena.
"Hai, really cute." Admitted Haruka and her voice was full with deep feelings. Feelings she had never thought that she would be able to feel.
Our small princess.
Both smiled knowing at each other.
For love.
Forever.
End
Hope you liked it. It was (again, just like "Break the silence") an idea I got during my vacations. When I drove along the highway and listened to the song "Desert Rose", it caught me.
If anyone has problems to imagine Uranus as a desert planet, just listen to that song. It'll explain everything -.
Hope it worked out fine, especially with the end and Sailor Saturn. I know that the queen was a loving person in the manga. I know that Uranus is too far away from the sun to be a desert planet. And I guess that dragon's never behaved like loving dogs (at least not in the would OUTSIDE the discworld, heheheh!). But this is my story and I changed it a bit.
The Silver Millennium. This could be a way how it all looked. How it all was like. How it all ended...
This story is for Adri-chan, who showed me with her great story that it is possible to write about the Silver Millennium without destroying reality. It IS another time, but I still think that they all had been normal people, living on planets, having the same problems and joys as we have today (well, at least similar. I'd beg for an ill dog, but not for an ill dragon -).
The main idea of this story is that Haruka and Michiru simply belong to each other. In the Silver Millennium. Today. In the future.
Thanks for reading again such a long story (I tried to cut it, but it was so funny at the wedding and a party without Minako and her karaoke singing? Can't imagine such a sad party -).
April Eagle
19th November 2000. – 02nd December.2000