Chapter 3: Morning People
Haruka quietly opened and closed the door, doing her best to be silent in the dim early morning light. The blonde's brightly colored leather jacket was unzipped now, blue black and white leather restricting her movements a little as she breathed a sigh of relief, teal eyes still on the now locked kitchen door.
"I suppose it's too much to expect the two of you to behave for such a short time." Maiko's voice broke the silence in a stern and very irate tone. Haruka, her grandmother swore, jumped nearly two feet as she spun to face the elder Tenoh.
"Good morning Grandma." Haruka smiled uneasily and bowed, lamenting that her stealth was hurting from living alone.
"Good night Haruka." Maiko's gray eyes glared pointedly at her granddaughter and the blonde sighed in defeat.
"Good night." Haruka turned from the storm waiting in her grandmother's eyes to face the door leading to the hall. She paused when her grandmother called her name lightly and looked back. The older woman shook her head, clearly at a loss for what to do about her grandchildren.
"What is it about nighttime that attracts you two so much?" Maiko waved away whatever response Haruka had been about to speak and turned back to her bowl of cereal. "Never mind, I have a doctor's appointment this morning and I don't need you raising my blood pressure. Bed, now young lady."
Haruka stepped into the hall and nearly walked right into Michiru, catching the violin player as she started to fall backward. Haruka felt herself pause, years of hiding her gender left it as a natural act but now she felt ice settle in her veins for a split second.
"I'm sorry Michiru-san. Are you okay?" Haruka stabilized the shorter woman and sighed as she was met with a bright smile. The blonde forgot the ice in her veins and looked off toward the nearby staircase. "Why are you down here so early?"
"I heard voices and was wondering who was awake." Michiru shrugged at the odd look this earned her and waved a hand toward a nearby portrait of the Tenoh family just after Haruka's birth. "I woke early so I came down to look at some of the paintings."
"Well, trust me when I say Miss Kaiou that you do not want to disturb my Grandmother before breakfast." Haruka had dropped her voice to a whisper, guiding Michiru back toward the staircase and throwing her a conspiratorial smirk. "We Tenohs are nearly famous for our lack of being morning people, though Grandma tries to deny it."
"You seem to be in a good mood Haruka-san." Michiru commented to the blonde as Haruka led her back to her room. She did not realize the blonde had been gently holding her arm until Haruka let her hand fall away. The violin player turned and fully faced the blonde, blue eyes sliding up and down the racer once before she smiled and shook her head at the blonde. "You haven't slept at all have you?"
"I am a creature of the night; you'd better be careful around me Michiru-san." Haruka smirked and turned away, walking off toward a seeming dead end in the hallway.
"I think we may have a few things in common." Michiru said lightly, turning toward her own door and opening it. She walked in and had just shut the door, wondering mildly where Haruka had been walking, when she heard a soft thud sound followed by a creak and a second thud. Michiru swung her room's door open again but found that the tall blonde had disappeared completely.
SMCsmcSmCSMcsmcSMCSmcsmc
Hiroshi Tenoh yawned as he trudged down to breakfast some two hours later. The dark-haired young man would much rather still be in bed had Ichiro not come in and threatened to dump in entire bucket of cold water over his head. Hiroshi cursed the man mentally, tugging at the fresh though slightly wrinkled shirt he wore. Normally he did not change just for breakfast, but he had to win over the Kaiou family somehow. With a sigh he entered the dining room and plopped down in the first chair he found.
"Forgot to shave?" Suguru commented, his smile suggesting it was a good-natured tease toward the younger man. Hiroshi winced and rubbed his jaw with another mental curse. Suguru took a sip of his coffee as a maid set a plate and cup down in front of Hiroshi. "I guess the number of night shifts you've been working is taking its toll."
"I can't remember having breakfast before noon much these last few months." Hiroshi agreed, seeing a way out of the simple mistake. Before he could get his sleep addled brain to supply anything resembling conversation Haruka all but jogged into the dining room. The blonde bowed and apologized as she took a seat next to a somewhat sleepy looking Michiru.
"I see at least one of you is used to shaving in the morning." Suguru commented and was confused when Haruka choked on some water she had been drinking. Hiroshi rolled his eyes and grimaced for what felt like the millionth time this morning.
'Not like she needs to shave.' The young doctor thought this sourly as Haruka seemed to catch up to things.
"I'm getting used to early meetings with sponsors sir." Haruka responded, nodding her thanks to the maid who set a plate before her. It so happened that Haruka's chair was between Michiru and Hiroshi. Hiroshi took a few bites of his scrambled eggs and thought to himself how much of yin and yang they had become. Haruka, so much lighter in appearance, seemed to embrace all the careers he would never have been allowed to pursue. Her favorite things seemed to involve a good deal of risk to life and limb, yet the dear golden boy of the Tenoh family was patted on the back for it.
"I was thinking, I have to go in for a swing shift today and I was wondering if you'd like a tour of the hospital." Hiroshi addressed the older two Kaious as he began to remember why he was awake so early today. "I don't think the board gets to walk the halls very much, it'd be a chance to see where all the money really goes."
"That sounds very interesting." Saki spoke up, Michiru suppressed a laugh as her father did not look as keen as her mother. For Saki this was a chance to check up on her investments, but for Suguru who worked with medical supplies it would likely be just a reminder of the work he was taking time off from.
"It sounds like we may have a family field trip on our hands." Suguru commented, forcing enthusiasm into his voice. Michiru smiled, knowing only she and her mother had caught how unexcited her father was with the idea.
"Actually, I have to meet with my agent today." Michiru caught a look in her father's eye that was a mix of traitor and take me with you. Saki looked toward her daughter and raised an eyebrow.
"I thought we'd agreed no work during your visit?" Saki reminded her daughter in a tone showing that this was a dangerous topic right now.
"We did mother, but I need to sign a few apology letters for concerts I canceled to come home and a contract for the release of the last concert's CD." Michiru gave an innocent look and turned to look toward Hiroshi. "Maybe I can join you another time Hiroshi-san."
"Right." Hiroshi stood, his plate empty and nodded toward those around the table and smiled politely toward Michiru's parents. "Well I should go shave. If you'd still like to come, we will need to leave around 11 am."
SMCsmcSmCSMcsmcSMCSmcsmc
Haruka was halfway up the stairs when she heard a light voice call her name. The sleepy blonde turned and waited as Michiru caught up to her. The other young woman smiled and took the blonde's arm, this time guiding the sleepy young racer on her way up. Teal eyes, which had bluffed well after a quick shower, now wished to get another few hours of rest.
"I was wondering if you have any plans this afternoon Haruka-san." Michiru began as they reached the hall and started down it. Haruka paused and looked into blue eyes that were much clearer than her own teal now. Michiru could now see the truth in Haruka's previous statement about not being a morning person. The blonde just shook her head a little in answer. "I wanted you to come with me to see my agent."
"Sure." Haruka yawned widely as Michiru giggled at her. The violin player decided the young racer was cute this way, but the moment was completely broken as Michiru's mother called to her from somewhere down the staircase.
"Thank you, Haruka-san, we should leave around three." Michiru, without thinking, kissed the blonde's cheek and jogged back the way they had come. Haruka, for her part, blinked for a moment before a smirk lit her face. The blonde decided that getting a kiss on the cheek from her rather cute future in-law was not a bad thing. In fact, she felt guilty that her Grandmother was hoping to pawn Hiroshi off on the Kaiou family.
It was two thirty when a freshly showered and rested Haruka knocked on the door to Michiru's guest room. The blonde blinked when for the second time in two days the violin player answered it in nothing but a bathrobe. She blinked again then said she would wait in the car, and so there she sat in a golden convertible waiting in the afternoon sun. A pair of sunglasses protected her teal eyes as she debated a nap. Haruka, though she was female, never understood what took women so long to dress. The blonde smirked though, seeing Michiru emerge from the mansion just past three and noting she was at least faster than Hiroshi had ever been.
In a few minutes time they were out on the streets cruising toward Tokyo and making decent time. Michiru brushed some hair from her face and noticed that her blonde companion seemed to be at home behind the wheel, resting one hand lightly on the stick shift as the other confidently controlled the car. Teal eyes were hidden behind a pair of reflective lenses and the blonde wore another suit. This one looked to be a sort of brown or tan color, her inner shirt was a black button down and the blonde had skipped wearing a tie. On her wrist the gold Rolex had been replaced by a nice watch that looked like it and its band were made of steel.
"Haruka-san, I was wondering, how much do you know about why my parents and I have come to visit?" Michiru saw what she thought may have been a small wince crossing the blonde's face, but it was gone too fast to tell.
"Our parents arranged a marriage before we were born, when Hiroshi was very young." Haruka expertly made a left turn before continuing. "Now with the time that they agreed to getting this close, our families decided it'd be a good time to finally tell all of us so everyone can get to know each other. After all, if they want you to marry Hiroshi. . ."
"You assume my parents will choose Hiroshi." Michiru could not help the playful tone. Something about the cross-dressing blonde made her feel more relaxed about the situation.
"I'm not an option; I'm just here for show." Haruka said this, then the blonde seemed to rethink her own statement as they pulled into the parking structure of an expensive building. "Hiroshi is the one this deal was really made for."
"I hope I'm not wrong to say this, but you don't sound very excited about the prospect." Michiru watched as Haruka neither confirmed nor denied the statement. The violin player knew there were things about the Tenoh family, just from Haruka's reluctance to speak, that her parents did not know. "I didn't agree to this, it's all too old fashioned. I don't intend to marry your brother; I don't even know him."
"So, if you don't intend to go through with this, not that I can blame you, why did you come with your parents?" Haruka had just shut off the car, turning a bit in her seat to regard her passenger.
"Why did you come to the mansion just to be the equivalent of a human decoration?" Michiru countered the blonde with her own question. A moment of silence followed before the two seemed to smile almost in unison and the violin player spoke what they were both thinking. "To keep peace with the people who raised us, no matter how wrong we feel they may be."
"Which just leaves the question of why you're telling me any of this?" Haruka pointed out, tapping the younger woman's nose lightly with her finger.
"I was hoping to sway you into helping me find a way out of this mess." Michiru saw the blonde turn away, thinking at first, she had somehow upset the blonde. The young racer, however, just got out of her seat and strode around the car to open Michiru's door for her. She bowed in a comical way and Michiru giggled as she stood.
"Miss Kaiou, you would ask me to plot to foil the plans of my family? Ask me to go against the wishes of my dear departed parents?" Haruka spoke over dramatically as she shut the door behind the other young woman. The blonde decided she liked hearing Michiru giggle; it was almost an addictive sound.
"Do you agree with this?" Michiru asked as she began to sober a bit and looked at teal eyes being revealed as Haruka's glasses slid down her nose a bit.
"I shouldn't be saying this, but no I don't agree with what they are trying to do." There was a pause in which Haruka pushed her glasses back up. A few seconds time wherein the blonde seemed to pull herself back from the playful person she had just been to a more restrained form of herself. She offered her arm to Michiru, the two starting toward an elevator as Haruka said something that caught Michiru truly off guard. "I'd never wish Hiroshi on anyone for a lifetime."
SMCsmcSmCSMcsmcSMCSmcsmc
Published 2007
Edited November 2020