Enjoy the chapter! :-)

Black Holes

Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"

Portsmouth, Virginia

9 May 2008

Day 20

She sat on the bed, her head in her hands.

The sweat sticked her hair on her forehead, while that hot night gave her pain on her shoulder. She bit her lower lip when, while moving the shoulder, heard its cracking.

The nightmare that had awakened her had been nothing short of tremendous, but illuminating, in some respects. The cold under her feet was gone, the plants now used to the linoleum floor. She got up and, in the darkness, headed for her bedroom door. The light of the corridor swept over her, and oneiric fragments seized her mind overwhelmingly. "Major Tenou?" Called the night shift nurse cautiously. The image in her head dissolved, and she looked at the girl.

"I'm thirsty, what time is it?" She then asked, and the other raised the sleeve of the hospital uniform. "Quarter past three." She remained thoughtful for a moment, noticing a certain disturbance in the military.

"Do you want me to call you the doctor on duty?" But Haruka shook her head.

"No. I just want to drink something." She walked along the corridor, thinking about where the vending machine was. She rummaged in the pants of the suit she used to sleep, hoping to find some change, but the operation did not have the desired result. She passed in front of the baths, and considered that the tap water could be better than nothing. She pushed open the door of the men's, and entered: the row of washbasins, topped by mirrors, opened to her sight. She opened a faucet and leaned on the jet of water, wetting her lips and drinking greedily. She put both hands on the edge of the sink, remaining for a few moments to observe the flow of liquid. And when she raised her head, her image looked at her. She saw a face, by all accounts perfect, to which it was impossible to remain indifferent. She saw the tangled hair, the skin without imperfections, the severe eyes intent on that meticulous examination. But she saw. She saw beyond. She saw the rotten. Like Dorian Gray, and the portrait that aged but mostly rotten, taking upon herself the moral corruption of the young man, her vices and her debauchery, while that remained perfect. Very beautiful. Haruka wondered where her picture was. Because nobody could see how she was, in reality, terrible. She turned the tap to stop the flow of water. She closed her eyes, and the image of the nightmare came back violent. Those aquamarine hair, in the cell of the loculus, on the body poured out between blood and dust. She had to finish it. She had to prevent her from continuing to look for her, to reassure her. To touch her, as she always did. A contact to which she was getting used to, but who had to break, to break. With a clean cut, or it would have been even more painful. And to do it she had to hurt her, there was no other way. She had to move her away, or she would have done the end of everyone else. Even her reflection reopened her eyes to look at her: the disgust she felt for her own image exploded violently, all together. And without thinking, she punched the mirror, shattering it.

xdxdxdxdx

Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"

Portsmouth, Virginia

12 May 2008

Day 23

It was official: Haruka was avoiding her.

Michiru couldn't understand the because about Haruka's behaviour, unless she was doing anything she could to not be able to have her psychologist meetings.

First there was the request for shoulder physiotherapy, which Mamoru - snake in the bosom, to line up with the enemy - had granted her. Then the meetings with the therapist who followed the patients of the music therapy, although at the time it was absolutely impossible to play due to twelve stitches on the right hand, resulting in a quarrel with one of the bathroom mirrors, several nights before; and in spite of herself she had all the credentials to support a musical psychotherapy, but so be it. Initially she had thought it was fatigue that made her unhappy: between the hospital, the tests in Norfolk and Hotaru, she had very little time to recover her energy. And, after all, it could also be plausible - though decidedly unlikely - that Haruka would later ring, in those few days, a list of ailments ranging from headaches to flu. Leprosy and legionella were missing, and she would complete the album. She sat down in her office chair, holding a pen to her lips, and thought about the day she had seen her at the piano: that had been one of the highest peaks of their therapy, and yet that same night something had gone wild in Haruka, bringing it back to close in its cocoon when it was finally starting to see the butterfly.

What she had seen, in that mirror, so much so as to push her to pour into an undoubtedly long-suppressed anger, Michiru ignored him completely. She sighed, looking at her watch: quarter to eleven. Even that night Haruka had rested badly and asked her to let her sleep a little longer. This is why she was amazed when, approaching the window to open it, she could see her basking in the sun in the park, sitting on a bench. And above all, in company. Once the amazement was over, she was initially happy for the other. In all that time she had never received visits, and seeing a friendly face could only do them well. But all that altruism was subsequently swept away by a certain resentment, surfaced from a corner of the mind. Not only because she had made fun of her, but also because it was not fair that Tenou was out there chatting, while she was all intent on reasoning and why it was so obvious to avoid her.

'What are you thinking about?' She scolded herself sitting on her desk. She took her pen and one of the report she would have brought Mamoru.

She tried to concentrate on the reading, but after some tries she gave up.

She stood up and walked towards the door 'Go and stop their conversation' her mind kept saying. And after all, she was her doctor, so plunging her into a visit by a third party would have been entirely justified.

Once on the ground floor she headed for the park, and saw them again. Haruka had not changed her pose since she had seen her at the window; she had her legs crossed, with her elbow on the back of the bench. The mask of indifference that had resumed wearing in the last days slightly cracked by the corners of the lips just bent upwards. A girl sat in front of her, of whom Michiru could only see her back covered with a denim jacket. She had red hair gathered in a bun, and every so often her hands entered her field of vision, the result of gesticulating that in her story. Michiru approached with studied indifference, but saw the change of expression on the face of Tenou when she saw her: that slight smile disappeared, and Michiru was left with stone.

"Ehi, I was looking for you." Said to Haruka. The red-haired girl stopped her story, turning towards the doctor: Michiru crossed her gaze with the light blue of the girl and tried to hide a shocked face in from of the teenager's features of the girl, who now smiled. 'How old is she?' Michiru thought.

"Liar."

Haruka's voice distracted her from concerns about possible legal consequences for Tenou, if the girl there had been more than a friend. "I saw you looking at me from the window, you knew very well where I was."

"Actually, I thought you were sleeping," she pointed out, "since you asked me to postpone the session for your lack of sleep."

The red-haired girl looked worried. "Did I come at the wrong time?"

"Oh no, do not worry." Michiru reassured her, holding out her hand. "I'm Dr. Kaioh, Major Tenou's doctor, very pleased."

She jumped up and squeezed it in turn. "Hi, I'm Rebecca, but you can call me Becky, my pleasure."

Michiru could not help but associate Becky with a kind of elf, and smiled. Then she turned back to Haruka.

"How do you feel?"

"Before you arrived, I was fine." Michiru inclined her head.

"Did you leave kindness in your room, Haruka?" Sarcastic churches, and Becky laughed. "How's your shoulder?"

"It's okay."

"And the hand?"

"Jesus, how heavy you are." She scolded her, stretching her arms over her head.

"Come on, do not do that." Becky intervened. "The doctor is worried."

"Do not worry, Becky, if he does not complain, then he's not happy." Haruka snapped her lips in disappointment, and Michiru continued:

"Since I do not think you have other commitments, I wait for you in Room 4 when you are done." A loud snort was the only answer from the other.

"Hi Rebecca, I'll see you." The doctor took her leave, returning to the hospital. Both Haruka and Becky stood looking at her for a moment. "Wow." Then said the girl, turning to Tenou.

"If she's as good as she is beautiful, you're in good hands." The other did not disappear.

"Actually I'm thinking of making me change doctors." Becky looked amazed. "And why?" Haruka remained silent for a long moment. Then she preferred to ask how she was going to school.

x

Michiru looked disconsolately at the dark liquid in the plastic cup, waiting for the 'beep' of the machine to signal that her coffee - or the substitute that the company responsible for distributors continued to sell as 100% Arabica - was ready. Needless to say, Haruka did not show up in Room 4, so much so she could have a coffee and go out first to the hospital, to spend some time with Hotaru: she had no proof in Norfolk, and she could have totally devoted herself to her little angel .

"You should not be in session?" Mamoru's voice reached his ears as he reached out for his plastic cup.

"Where's Haruka?"

"There's the Washington Wizards game," Michiru told him, when he approached and typed the choice of his drink on the dispenser.

"Is she watching the NBA instead of talking to you?" "So it seems." The other was laconic. Mamoru remained silent, then smiled.

"Do not let the situation get out of hand." He told her then, taking his long coffee.

"The only thing that escapes me, more than the situation, is Haruka, she's avoiding me." "Yet a few days ago-"

"A few days ago she even punched the mirrors of the men's bathroom, did you know that?" The man nodded.

"From time, Michiru... Tenou ..." he lowered his voice, "she's not used to opening herself like that with people, and she may have started seeing something very similar to a friend in you, and she must get used to it."

Michiru sighed. "I would just like to help her, Mamoru, if she rejects me, like-" she stopped when she saw someone beyond his friend's shoulders. She turned, too, and the outline of a tawny-haired girl entered her field of vision.

"Rebecca!" Called Michiru, and she turned to the source of the voice, then smiling at the doctor when she recognized her. Michiru quickly greeted Mamoru and approached the girl.

"I thought you'd been gone for a while, since Haruka is upstairs watching the game." Becky shook her head.

"Actually I do not have a car, I'm waiting for a friend of mine to pick me up, so I thought I'd take a ride." A thought crossed Michiru's mind. Becky was there, at her disposal; a link between her and Haruka's life before she knew her. It was an unmissable opportunity. "Rebecca ..."

"Becky." The other corrected her. "Call me Becky."

"All right, Becky, would you give me a minute?" She asked her gently.

"I'd like to talk to you about a couple of things about Haruka." The concern veiled the young man's gaze.

"Why, is there something wrong?"

"Absolutely no." She hastened to reassure her. "It is that Haruka has never received visits so far, so I would like to have a chat with someone who-" She paused, considering how to turn to Tenou. She went for the most obvious and less risky.

"That knows him a little better."

"It's not that I know him so well," said the other on the defensive, and Michiru knew from that sentence that, in fact, the young woman in front of her ignored the true sex of Haruka.

"I only steal you a few minutes, come on in. Let's go to my office." She took her arm in arm, and the other allowed himself to be taken to the elevator and to Kaioh's office. "How old are you, Becky?" The churches, when they were seated in the room. "Eighteen," was the other, and Michiru could not prevent the same bewilderment of when she had seen her for the first time, a few hours before, back. Haruka, what are you doing? "And you study? Works?"

"I'm finishing high school, and I do some chores to put money aside for the University."

"But you're really smart," Michiru complimented, and the other just blushed, looking down. "Where do you work?"

"Now I work in a Virginia Beach restaurant called Bella Italia, it's right on the beach, very nice."

She remained thoughtful for a few moments. "And they say the pay is good, even if I do not know yet, since I started working on it last weekend." Michiru smiled, then thought a second about Becky working at Virginia Beach. "Even your previous job was in those parts?" Becky looked at her in amazement. "Well yes, I thought you knew." Michiru answered in amazement with amazement. "Actually, no, why should I have known?"

"I thought Haruka had told you about the bar." The doctor linked those words to the police report and photos of those two guys beaten by Tenou. "Did you work in the bar where Haruka was involved in the fight?" Becky frowned, nodding. "Seriously he did not tell you anything?" She then asked her, almost murmuring. Michiru gave a negative answer.

"Haruka is not exactly what one can call a logorroic, Becky, so I'm asking you to help me out." The young woman remained silent, then after a long sigh she began to tell her of the somersaults made to be able to track down the military. And from there, like a river in flood, she told her about the Virginia Beach Bar, Michael Papadakis, Johnatan Brown and the circumstances in which she had met Major Haruka Tenou.

And while that was talking, a horrible thought began to form in Michiru's mind.

x

An ovation greeted the basket from three of the Wizards' pivots in the Refreshment Hall, and Haruka merely nodded as a wheelchair-bound lieutenant - hospitalized for surgery at the dock, following an incident in Afghanistan - did nothing but say how good was that purchase in the draft at the beginning of the season. The game had already resumed and the quiet was back when Michiru entered the room; Haruka only noticed when her visionaries began to greet Dr. Kaioh.

"Can you come with me, please?" She asked her in a whisper.

Tenou immediately realized something was wrong, and glancing at her doctor confirmed it.

She seemed troubled, and if she initially wanted to reply that the second quarter had just begun and the Wizards were winning, thus continuing her strategy of indifference, seeing her like that made her change her mind. And she got nervous, not only because she could not explain the reason, but also because in doing so she frustrated her efforts in ignoring her completely.

The boy in a wheelchair nudged her.

"Oh, if you do not want to go, I'll gladly go, eh!" Haruka did not even answer him, and slowly got up to bring Michiru closer. The doctor walked towards the corridor, in silence, followed by an equally silent Haruka. Once inside the office, Michiru let the girl in and turned the latch to lock - realizing only after the uselessness of that gesture, since the lock was still broken. Then she leaned against the door. Haruka sat on the edge of the desk, crossing her legs and arms across her chest. "So I bet on that pa-"

"What did they do to you in Iraq, Haruka?" Tenou's eyes widened at the question shot at point-blank range. Michiru did not move from where she was.

"What did they do to you in those two weeks when you were a Militia prisoner?"

"Like," Haruka said, after a moment needed to absorb the words. "How did it happen to you?"

"Do not answer me with another question." Silence filled the room, and Michiru did not know if she would be able to support it.

"I'm not going to talk about it." The other was dry after a long moment.

"You've avoided me enough, now answer me."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"I spoke to Becky." Haruka realized the implication of that phrase, and looked at her bewildered.

"She told me everything." Michiru broke away from the door, approaching the other.

"She told me about how the two of them had not done anything but to bother her for the whole evening, inside the bar, and they told me how once they finished the shift they waited her out, and tried to abuse her."

Haruka swallowed, and closed her eyes. The loculus, which had so struggled to keep away, filled her mind again.

Like that evening, in the alley behind the bar, when she heard Becky's requests for help. The alcohol in her body was immediately vaporized, in the seething of her blood.

And she was back there. Cut me this fucking throat!

"She told me how you intervened to save her, letting her escape while you were there to beat them."

Michiru's voice was extremely close now. "Watch me." She opened her eyes to that request, driving away the images of her worst nightmare.

Michiru was there, just a few steps away from her. A safe harbor, where it could not land. Or she would have destroyed it.

"On the police report there is written that the fight had sprung from futile reasons, and I always assumed that the violent behavior had been amplified by alcohol and PTSD." She explained.

"How could she not file a complaint?"

"The owner of the place pressured her to not do it, to avoid problems, and I was not exactly in a position to explain to the police why I wanted to kill those two disgusting creeps." Haruka told her, without looking at her.

"She was very scared, I told her to run away, and she did not have to repeat it twice."

"You were brave."

"What should I have done?" She just raised her tone of voice, planting the emerald irises in the heavenly ones of Kaioh.

"Let those make their comfortable?"

"How did they do with you?" Michiru's voice shook slightly as she spoke that phrase, and Haruka knew how far the mind of that woman had worked.

"You reacted like that because-"

"You're off-road, doc. Totally." The other interrupted her, shaking her head.

"Did they know you're a woman?"

"No." The other was dry.

"They only noticed it at the end, during the blitz that freed me." That answer did not give her any comfort. Michiru sighed, and repeated the initial question again.

"What did they do there, Haruka?"

"They did not do anything to me."

"If you do not tell me, I will order a gynecological examination." Haruka tilted her head. "And how will you justify it, uh? I remind you that for most people, I am a man."

"We'll go to another hospital, I'll take you there if necessary. Tell me what they did to you."

The other stood up, moving away from Michiru.

"But what language do I have to tell you? They did not do anything to me, damn it! NOTHING!" Haruka almost shouted that last word, and the doctor tried not to be overwhelmed by that reaction. She understood that she was touching a very painful point, but she needed to know: the only thought that Haruka had reacted so violently to rescue Becky because in Iraq, while she was a prisoner, she had the same fate, made her physically ill.

But she also wanted to help Tenou get rid of the terrible weight that she had realized, had to be the period of imprisonment; an event, the one on which the Haruka annihilation process lay for the most part. In response, Michiru followed the girl, approaching her and holding out a hand to touch her face, but Haruka pushed her head away so violently that the doctor was afraid she could break off her neck.

Now she looked at her with that cold and empty gaze: the mask was firmly back in place.

"Tell me what happened to you." Churches for the umpteenth time. "My problem is not Iraq, Michiru." She heard herself answer after a long silence. "My problem is you." The doctor was not astonished at that statement, even though she felt deeply wounded.

One thing was to have understood it from her attitudes, quite another to hear it without many preambles.

"Me, as a Haruka person? As a woman?" She asked her then, giving herself a tone. "Or is the problem the friendship I am trying to offer you, and which you refuse? Haruka did not answer and murmured something, then tried to scratch her head with her bandaged hand.

"Do you want to know what happened to me in Iraq, Michiru?" She finally asked her, looking her straight in the eye. She knew that she would not give in easily, and realized it was time to hit low. To hurt her, for her sake.

"You want tales from Iraq, uh ... Okay, you'll have them, but then let's start from the beginning, right?" Michiru did not find the tone of challenge in the words of the other encouraging, and listened to her continue.

"Now I'll tell you something really strange that happened to me, let's see a little," she pretended thoughtfully, bringing her healthy hand to her chin. "Right, it was 2004. The year they moved me from Mosul to Tikrit." She paused studied.

"Do you know what I commanded in Mosul?" She saw Kaioh's face just lose color, and tried not to be influenced.

"The 100th Battalion, 442th Infantry, which, if I did not know, is the department where all the American-Japanese soldiers are gathered in the army, but you know that very well, Michiru." The doctor swallowed, supporting Tenou's gaze.

"I did not ask you this."

"But the patient is me, so I decide what to tell." Shut her up Haruka, before resuming her story.

"So, I was saying, it was 2004, and from the Pentagon they ordered me to go to the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, in a much warmer area, if you understand what I mean." She snapped her lips and shook his head, emphasizing a disbelief that she did not feel at all.

"When fate is said, Michiru: A few days after my transfer, kamikaze attacked the base of Mosul. Haruka was silent for a few moments, studying Michiru's reactions. Reactions that did not seem to come.

"But there is something really curious, doc. Just the day I left, one of my men came to me to get me to sign the permission to lice-"

"Haruka, stop it." The other interrupted her, now livid in the face. Haruka realized she had hit the parathy. Now she had to sink it.

"Do not interrupt me." She said, "he was a pretty young boy."

"A Sergeant, I think. He did not stop telling me that he had recently married and - "

"Stop that." Michiru punctuated the simple word with an icy tone, but Haruka noticed that the girl's eyes had become clear.

"Why do I have to stop, uh?" She asked her, raising her chin, challenging her.

"Because I know you lied to me, when I asked you if there was a Kaioh in the army, Michiru, I know it's there, or at least it was." They looked at each other for an interminable moment, then Michiru turned on her heels and headed for the door. When she tried to open it, Haruka closed it violently, slamming her healthy hand over it and preventing her from going out. "Let me out, or I'll tie you back to bed."

"Did he die that day in Mosul?" Haruka urged her as she pulled the door toward her.

"Sergeant Kaioh is dead, Michiru?"

"Let me out!" She intimated her, clinging to the handle. "Answer me!"

"You do not know a shit about me!" Michiru shouted at that point, pointing at her index finger.

"Stop it, do you understand? You have to stop it because you do not know a shit!" Haruka saw the tears fill the doctor's eyes, and after a long moment broke away from the door, letting the other escape like a fury. She remained alone in Kaioh's office, and threw her head back, looking at the ceiling. That was all she wanted: to be happy. After all moving away from Michiru was what she wanted.

x

The ramp seemed endless, as she climbed the stairs two by two. She could not wait for the elevator to arrive, it would take too long. She saw the landing, and some of the waiting neighbors.

"Miss Michiru!" Called one, relieved, as soon as he saw her.

"We have already warned the police, they are coming." Said another, middle-aged. She pushed the key of the apartment into the lock with a trembling hand, while from beyond the door she could hear Hotaru's crying, so violent that it became convulsive.

When she opened it, the first thing that struck her was the smell.

"Mitsuo!" She called, but received no answer. She crossed the spacious living room, and when she reached the sleeping area, she saw blood flowing from the bathroom to the middle of the corridor. As if in a trance, she took a few steps back, finding herself facing a door with the plastic shape of Snow White hanging on it, and under the words 'Hotaru' in ideograms.

She swallowed, then put her hand on the handle and pushed open the door.

"Mom..." Michiru suddenly opened her eyes, and tears slipped down her cheeks, deprived of the lid of her eyelids. With a short breath she sat up, holding one hand on her chest. Hotaru looked at her puzzled. "Mom ... are you crying?" Churches widening the purple eyes. The girl looked at her for a long moment, the vagaries of her still newborn to fill her ears. With a quick movement, she stretched out her arms and held the little girl to herself, letting the tears wash away from her eyes the images of that memory, which had become a nightmare.

x

She could not drive away that feeling of uneasiness. The more she tried, the more teary Kaioh's face returned to her head, leaving her dismayed. She had done it for her, to protect her, she told herself. But she could not draw the consolation she had imagined at the beginning, when she had decided to behave in that petty way.

She looked at the starry sky above her, and let a sigh fall in the fresh May air.

Evading the surveillance was all too easy, it was enough for the nurse of the night shift to be able to sneak out.

She smiled at the thought that if Chiba had known it, he probably would have blown some heads.

She wondered what Michiru would do, to know about it at night outside the hospital, lying on one of the park benches. She had thought about it all evening, preventing her from getting to sleep.

And no matter how much she had achieved her purpose, she now realized she wanted her near. As dangerous as it may be, her monstrous selfishness now demanded the friendship of Kaioh.

Because she was the link to a normality that she had lost, a social interaction without falsehood or preconceived schemes. For her it was simply Haruka, without rank, without uniform.

Michiru was warmth, something she could not believe could be granted again. Not after what she had seen. Not after what she had done. She surrendered, finally, to the discomfort that accompanied the memory of her actions in the doctor's office, and was aware of the fact that, to get rid of it, she would have to face Michiru again. But she was not sure if Kaioh would offer her another chance now.

x

Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"

14 May 2008

Day 25

Michiru stood up from the desk, and dragged a stool in front of the bookcase. The lower floors no longer had room for that new binder, and so she climbed the little footstool to reach the top shelf.

"Come on," she said, when she heard a knock. She thought it must be Samuel, who came to bring her coffee, so she kept her back to the door.

"Excuse me for a second Samuel," she was saying, poised on the stool, when a hand that had two large patches on the back and several abrasions and abrasions on the knuckles appeared in her field of view, helping to push the large file on the shelf. Michiru looked down, crossing the emerald color of Haruka, and a slight exclamation left the doctor's lips.

"Do you have a minute?" Asked her Haruka, taking her hands and helping her get off the stool.

They stood opposite each other, and Michiru recalled the targeted wickedness of the previous days. At the words that he had addressed, and the nightmares that had triggered.

She wondered what brought her there, whether the will of a new fight or something else, and considered that avoiding it would be the same as doing her game.

"Of course I have a minute." Finally she told her in a smile.

"I'm here for you." Haruka scratched the back of her head and lowered her eyes. Despite everything, Michiru was welcoming her with open arms.

"I ..." She began, not really sure what to say. She opted for sincerity.

"I am a black hole, Michiru." The other inclined her head, intrigued by that statement.

"I draw people around me." Tenou explained, without crossing her gaze.

"It's something that always happened to me, it's my curse."

"It's called charm," Michiru enlightened her. "And there's nothing wrong with having charm, indeed."

"It's more than that." Haruka sighed, and the doctor caught a note of suffering in the words of the other.

"You see, Michiru ... I have done things I do not pride myself in. I do not pride myself in anything, and clearly I had to be punished for my actions." She found the courage to look at Kaioh, who listened attentively.

"I can not keep anyone around me tied up, be it for friendship, for love, or for a whole range of other feelings, including hate, but punctually these people end up sucked, and inexorably destroyed." She paused, before resuming.

"I'm sorry for how I behaved, but I did it to protect you." Michiru was surprised by that admission.

"I'm fine with you, I'm comfortable and it's something that does not happen to me often, I can be myself, and this is a new situation for me, Michiru." The other did not know what to answer to that total stripped of Tenou's feelings.

"But at the same time, during the therapy, I realized that you were not immune, you were fond of it and I was sucking you, like all the others, so I had to get away from you."

Michiru remained silent for a long moment. "It's true," she said. "Attract those close to you, for your appearance, of course, but also for that way of doing 'I do not care what happens around me.' There are people in here who would sell the soul to the devil to know what goes inside that head when you're all absorbed, lost in your thoughts. " 'And I'm one of those', she found herself thinking.

Haruka looked distressed. "Do not help me if you say that."

"Then hope you will never find yourself in the nurses' room." The other looked at her in surprise, then smiled. Michiru resumed talking.

"Your charisma, your having ascendancy over others It is your being Haruka, not a punishment, nor is your appearance." "Those around me die, Michiru, how should I interpret it?"

"Like the extreme context in which you have lived so far." The doctor replied, but the other shook her head.

"Well, my mother did not live in an extreme context."

"You did not have power over your illness, you could not do anything about it." Tenou did not answer, and Michiru let her think. "The fact that you came here instead, how should I interpret it?" She asked her then.

"I told you, I'm sorry for how I behaved." The girl read sincere repentance in the words of Tenou. "I will not ask you anything more, on the subject." To hurt you made me worse off than I thought. "

Michiru smiled at her. "And I'm really grateful, Haruka."

Then she approached her. "So you will let me gravitate around you, will you let me continue to grow fond of you?" She looked at her sideways.

"I'd rather you do not, but I certainly can not stop you." Much to her surprise, Michiru hugged her, placing her head on her shoulder. The girl felt the other not respond to the embrace, and indeed had the doubt that Haruka had even stopped breathing. "Inspire, Exhale." Joked Michiru, without breaking her embrace.

"You're afraid of this, Haruka, you're scared because you no longer know what it is to relate to people in a situation easy and normal. "She raised her head, looking for her gaze.

" We turn the black hole into a supernova, Major Tenou. "She said to her gently, and a slight smile bent her lips to the other.

"The more I hurt you, the more you want to be my friend, and then I'm crazy."

"Well, what can I tell you? In my opinion, you'd better be my friend."

"Ah, seriously?" Tenou replied ironically, and Michiru nodded, literally freeing her from the hug and taking a step away.

"Yes, because I have something that everyone wants, but I do not give to anyone." Haruka bowed her head, taunted by the blatant double meaning.

"And it would be?" She saw Michiru carry a hand in her pocket, extracting a colored key.

"The key to the Playstation Room, in Orthopedics." Tenou did not answer immediately, looking at her in the slightest. Then she laughed.

"You know, I do not think Foster wants the key to the Playstation Hall from you."

"But I think you're a bit 'too naughty."

"What were you thinking, huh? "

Haruka shook her head, and to Michiru's surprise she approached her until she invaded her personal space.

She stretched out her hands, resting her palms on the wall, on the sides of the other's face: now Michiru was imprisoned by the body and the arms of Haruka, who stood in front of her. But she did not feel uncomfortable.

Rather... Tenou leaned toward her.

"Michiru, Michiru, you're joking with fire, knowing that you're doing it."

"Interesting." She murmured in an extremely low voice, looking for her gaze.

"But what will you do if the fire decides to burn you?"

"Test me, do not you?" She challenged her, raising her chin. Tenou did not have to repeat it twice, and bent over the doctor's lips.

Michiru's eyes widened, surprised. She could not react, or even concretely realize that action. She felt only the warm breath of Haruka a few millimeters from her mouth, and her heart beat so hard that she was afraid to splash out of her ribcage.

The other stopped, without breaking eye contact.

"What is hidden under this angel's face, doc?" She then murmured, without moving, the emerald gaze of an unbearable intensity. Then, after an interminable instant, Haruka detached herself from the wall, shaking her head.

"I can not destroy you too." She turned away from her and without another word came out, leaving Michiru dismayed. But above all, confused.

x

Author's notes: ok, I did it today too! Hope you'll like this chap, here something more about the relationship HXM, and a small space about Michiru's past. Step by step we are coming closer to the truth about their past! Wait and read to find out! Until next time!

Milla23;)