Enjoy it!
Frangar, non flectar
Medical Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
15 May
2008
The pencil ran quickly on the paper sheet painting the shapes of the figures sit on a bench in front of her.
She memorised their positions and their movements painting first just the shapes then she would have make them better. She also printed some trees and bunches near the bench and then went back on the figures.
"What are you doing?"
A warm breath said in her ear, and Michiru jumped because of the sudden apparition.
"Haruka! Tell the truth you wanna kill me?!" She said when she turned around and, crossing those green eyes, she read in them a hint of pure enjoyment, a childish one.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't resist." Said the other one putting her hands in her jeans pockets. "You were a prey too easy and I was also curious." She added sitting near to the doctor. Near, but not too much.
She took Michiru's sheets in her hand and she started looking at them, seeing there were others paintings. "So, you are even an artist, beside a musician."
Michiru smiled and took back her sheets. "I had to kill time until someone didn't finish its physiotherapist meeting."
"This is more than killing the time."
Commented Haruka, taking the folder from her hands and starting to flip through the sheets. Michiru let her do it without opposing, but inside she thanked the sky that she had decided to leave home the many sketchy sketches of the same night when, with the adrenaline of a thousand and after trying them all to be able to sleep, she had decided to channel that emotional tsunami into one of her arts. And since starting to play the violin would have been nothing short of inappropriate at three o'clock in the morning, the block of sketches was filled with long-limbed figures with intense emerald eyes. The words, but especially the gesture of Haruka, the day before, had left her disconcerted. Not only because that had opened as never happened, except for the moment at the piano, but also for her reaction to that game - had no other word to describe it - with which Tenou had put it to the test.
She, for sure, had shown her that she was not afraid to burn, even if she had the full confirmation of what Haruka had revealed to her: certainly the magnetism of the other could crash it. But do not bend it.
Frangar, not flectar, mentally told herself. And yet, having removed the strictly competitive component between them, how could one explain that subtle thrill of pleasure when she had believed that Tenou wanted to kiss her? That not to try to reject it, when she had imprisoned it against the wall with her body? What was really a well-crafted tactic that was shaking her sexuality? The voice of Tenou rescued her from that swarm of ruminations, which would then remain unanswered.
"As?"
"I asked you if there is-something-that-you do not know-do."
Chanted Haruka, as if talking to a mentally ill person.
"Sure-it-is." It was so slowly Michiru, removing her sketches from the hands of the other.
"I can not make myself respected by a certain person, who can influence me more than I would like." A smile was painted on Haruka's face.
"This hypothetical person has all my esteem." It was solemn, and Michiru sighed.
"You know, it's enough that this person always does two little things and lo and I can not deny anything."
Michiru could clearly see Tenou's ego bulge out of all proportion. And when she was sure that the other was convinced of her triumph, she rose from the bench, folder in hand, and hit her down.
"You know, that isn't you."
Haruka's smile suddenly disappeared.
"Ah no ?"
"No."
The doctor started waking toward the entrance of the hospital and soon she found Haruka near her.
"And who would that be?"
Michiru laughed. "It's true then the curiosity is female."
"You aren't funny." Said the other one hit, wounded in the proud.
They reached the hospital walking towards the lifts.
"By the way, you were talking about me." Haruka said after a moment of silence. Michiru shake her head, the last word had to be hers.
They were distracted by a quick step behind them, and they both turned to see Dr. Chiba approach them, bag in hand, the jacket still wearing and the sunglasses to cover their cobalt eyes."Ehy Michiru, Major Tenou." Greeted her the one, placing the glasses on his head and in turn waiting for the elevator."You ... are you coming now?" Michiru asked surprised, glancing at the clock, and the man sighed.
"Usako did not hear the alarm, so there was an escalation of delays and so I had to accompany Chibiusa in kindergarten." Michiru smiled, thinking of what was typical of Usagi.The sliding doors opened, and the unusual trio entered the elevator: Haruka leaned on the right corner, hands in pockets and legs crossed, while Michiru stood on the left side, ending up leaving Mamoru in the middle.
"Guess you started again your therapy." Said him pushing the key of their floor.
"We already got over our misunderstandings. True Haruka?"
"Of course." Smiled Haruka. Mamoru looked at them surprised. Then he shake his head.
"I can't follow you, I really can't. One day you go of love and agree, the day after you avoid each other-"
"You see doctor Chiba," started Haruka then looked at Michiru "May I tell to him?" Asked "May I tell him what happened?"
The doctor was actually surprised about the sudden request of a licence, as well as Haruka's sudden need to share such a personal speech as that of twenty-four hours earlier with Mamoru who, after all, did not know much; but he shrugged. "If you feel sure of that."
"It's ok, that's because of your insistence." On the serious features appeared a funny one. "The problem is that Michiru and me had sex, and I didn't call her the day after and she was disappointed."
Michiru saw Mamoru's eyes grow huge, and she thought that if that was the scene of a cartoon, Chiba's pupils would splash out of their sockets. Although, of course, her should not be less: in light of the facts of the previous day, certainly now had trouble understanding where Tenou crossed the boundary of joke.
"Ah-ah" said Michiru, trying not to blush. Frangar, non flectar she repeated herself mentally.
"In which of your dreams, exactly?"
"In the one where we did some numbers that you do not ever imag-"
"Ok I got it." Mamoru said putting a hand in front of her face. "I don't think I'd like to listen to the details."
Haruka tried to kill a laugh while Michiru smiled to her friend. "Don't mind her Mamoru. Haruka is just a big chatterbox." Said sighing.
"Oh oh, instead you to the chatter surely prefer the facts. But I can't blame you, I know I can be a great amateur."
Michiru laughed. "The curiosity is surely female, but the modesty is surely androgynous. And about what I know it has name and surname."
Mamoru listened to that dribble of jokes, shifting his gaze alternately from one to the other. And when the elevator doors opened, he coughed out.
"Well, certainly better like that than with long faces." He commented when those approached him, before his attention was captured by a couple of interiors that required immediate consultation: the absence of Chiba had aroused a bit 'all the department.They watched him walk away into the corridor, and since Haruka was still trying to stifle the laughter, Michiru turned to look at her.
"Stop that, how old are you? Two?"
"It's stronger than me. I just found a new hobbie: to piss you off."
Michiru rolled her yes.
"Anyway, you know they say: barking dog does not bite." And in her office she has the confirmation.
"Let me understand, you wanna be bit, doc?"
"You won't do that. You would run away like you did yesterday."
"That was an innocent game, Michiru."
Of course, a dream which didn't make me sleep the whole night
Thought Michiru.
A cough claimed their attentions, breaking the crossing of blue and green gazes.
"When you say you have timing, Dr. Foster." Haruka was ironic, and the other tried to mask his obvious hostility with a smile.
"As a good former quarterback, I can understand exactly when it is time to intervene in the dynamics of the game." That did not answer, an idea that was beginning to form in the head: if Kaioh wanted to be funny, she would have pushed it directly into the lion's jaws.
"Haruka, how about waiting for me in my office?" Michiru intervened,
"I'll be right there."
"No problem." She winked at her.
"Come on, it's your chance." She added, lowering her voice, but letting Foster understand perfectly.
Michiru looked at her, and Haruka exasperated a surprised expression.
"How, a second ago you told me that you hoped Doctor Foster would invite you out ..."
If she could, Michiru would have taken her by the neck and tightened until it rattled her pity.
She looked at her very serious slapping face, while Samuel tilted his head to one side.
"You certainly never made me understand it, Michiru."
"Oh, you know how women are made, doctor." Haruka said, and if she were in a different situation, Michiru would have laughed at the paradox between the sentence and the one who had spoken it. But then Tenou's hand hit the girl's ass with a noisy 'slap', and the doctor jumped straight up into Foster's arms, who welcomed him more than willingly: every trace of irony disappeared from Michiru's thoughts, while she watched Haruka move away towards her office: she was baffled, to say the least.
What an idiot!
"Major Tenou !!" Called Samuel, intent on defending Kaioh's honor.
"How do you allow it?" But Haruka turned slightly and moved a hand.
"You'll thank me later, Doctor." Once you reach the goal, if you understand what I mean, like a good former quarterback..."
With a last glance at Michiru's bruised face, she disappeared where the corridor made a corner.
And the girl was left to accept Dr. Samuel Foster's dinner invitation on Friday.
x
Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
17 May, 2008
Day 28
Michiru watched the score, holding the pen between her lips, and Haruka was always uncomfortable whenever the doctor made the gesture. After a careful examination, the girl erased two notes and replaced them with as many of a semi-major tone.
"Try like this."Haruka put her hands on the piano keys, and resumed the melody from the previous line: when she arrived at the point where they had made the correction, she smiled satisfied, and continued that cheerful moderate.
"In fact it's much better." She told her when she broke off, and Michiru smiled at her too.
"Where did you take those scores on the piano?" Asked then, jerking up all the sheets on a near chair.
"Do not tell me you wrote them all."
The doctor shook her head, amused by the note of disbelief of the other.
"No, I borrowed them." Haruka frowned, looking at her, but Michiru did not tell her that if she had them brought to her by the Master with whom she would duet in the memorial for the Memorial Day, two weeks later, she was teaching piano at the conservatory.
The exhibition was still a mystery to Tenou, and Michiru wanted it to remain so: she was willing to give her the invitation only a couple of days before, trying so, for once, to surprise her.
The doctor stood up and went to the cello, pinching the strings thoughtfully, feeling the look of the other on her.
"Can you play it?" Michiru shrugged.
"I studied it a little at the conservatory, but the violin is my main instrument."
"Sin, I always found the cellists extremely sexy." Haruka smiled, and the other tilted her head.
"How many cellists would you meet, let's hear."
"More than you imagine." That was cryptic, and after a long moment of silence a slight laugh came out of her lips. Michiru raised her eyebrows. "Thing." Tenou composed herself, shaking her head. But the smile came back to overpowering her face, and the doctor folded her arms across his chest.
"Haruka, what?" Churches nervous, and she gestured with her hand.
"Anything." But Michiru knew very well what tickled the other's thoughts.
"And that I was thinking of Foster." She said then, laughing again, and the doctor snapped her lips to express her disappointment. Bingo, she thought.
"I believe that there is not one person in the hospital who does not know that you will go out with him, only that he goes on television like the President, to communicate it to the Nation."
"And whose merit, in your opinion?" Haruka tried again to make the laughter die.
"You had to see your face when I pushed you on him."
"Here, in this regard." She strode closer and gave her a small slap.
"Ow!" It was the other, surprised but still amused, and Michiru put her hands on her hips, leaning towards her.
"This is for touching my ass." "What a tragedy." Haruka dripped irony. "You mine can touch it whenever you want."
"I do not care, thank you." And that said, she collected the scores and put them in a folder.
"We have to go," she told her after a look at the clock.
"We had the room until three, and we have already gone in. And then there is the recovery of yesterday's therapy." Haruka stood up, a trail of a smile still bending her lips as she stretched her long arms.
"How come you did not come?"
"Some logistical problems." She answered her with that same cryptic air that was so dear to the other. When at lunchtime she had driven to Norfolk, she had learned that Jenny had a fever; at four o'clock, therefore, she had to return to take Hotaru in kindergarten. After all, however, she was not at all sorry to take that day off. They arrived in Room 4, and from the large window the glimpse of the sun-bathed Portsmouth Bay opened to them. Haruka approached the glass, shielding herself from the reverberation with her hand.
"Even from the house I bought, you can see the bay so well." Michiru sat down, crossing her legs.
"How did you end up living here in Portsmouth, from Washington?" Tenou did not answer immediately, as always; then she turned to look at her.
"It would have made no sense to go back there, and I needed to get away from the suffocating shadow of the General, to find my space: that was where I lived with my parents, soaked with memories of the last period - if not of happiness, at least serenity, before my mother's illness and death. "
Tenou sat down opposite Michiru, who listened without interfering. Even if the way the other had referred to her father had not escaped her.
"In the house in Washington, a Haruka lived that no longer exists."
"But why right Portsmouth?"
A sly smile played on Haruka's lips.
"Because my mother was from here."
Michiru didn't hide her surprise, while she laid her face on her hand. "Really?"
Haruka nodded. "You see, after West Point I've been a little time in the USA.
"And in the rare periods of license granted to me, it was enough for me to lean on some barracks, or to reserve a hotel room. Or pass- "She did not utter the last option." Let's leave it alone, "she murmured, and Michiru did not inquire." Then in 2006 there was a longer license than usual, and I began to think about taking a home. A place that I could feel mine. Any place would have been better than Washington, and Portsmouth flashed through my mind. I moved the residence here, and bought a small apartment in a Bay Street residential complex. "
"Near the marina," agreed Michiru, mentally locating the area. Tenou sighed.
"I lived there just a couple of weeks, then I left, and I never came back."
"Since 2006 do not you put foot in your house?"
"I can not really call it that, Michiru, and I'm afraid I'll never be able to feel at home, outside ..." she paused.
"Outside of Iraq." She said after a long silence. Michiru looked at her for several moments, then smiled at her.
"It will take time, but we will succeed, Haruka. "A leaf in the wind will no longer find its tree." She told her melodramatically, but a note of sadness in her voice told the doctor that Tenou really believed her.
"But let me tell you, you're not a leaf lost in the wind at all." Tenou inclined her head. "And what would I be, in your opinion?" Michiru thought for a moment about the peculiarities of the girl sitting in front of her, then a smile was painted on her face.
"You are the wind, Haruka."
x
Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
19 May, 2008
Day 30
The water was beating on every part of her body, weighing down her sweat suit in West Point. The mud moved away and approached from her face with every bending of her arms, while she bit her lips to avoid answering his superior, standing next to her, he was punctuating with numbers the progress of the bending. "Twenty-five more, Tenou!" Sergeant Lloyd shouted into her ears, crouching down.
"So we'll see if you still want to be arrogant with me."
" 'Fuck." It was his tight-lipped answer, but he heard it.
"As you said?" He shouted to overpower the sound of the rain.
"What do you want to do with another thirty?" He groaned, cursing his idiocy, as he felt Lloyd's gaze on her, who had begun to turn around her.
"I'll be your worst nightmare, because I'm fucking your daddy!" He told her, throwing mud in her face with the amphibian.
"At any hour of the day, and of the night, I will come and get you and I will submit you to the most exhausting tests, until I will bend you until you break, Tenou." He continued to overthrow them with threats and insults, until he collapsed in the last bending, worn by the pains in the muscles of her arms and chest. "Standing, soldier!" Lloyd ordered, and not without effort rose up, then stood at attention: the limbs trembled from the effort.
"You can go, Tenou, but I would not sleep if I were you."
"Down from the cot, Tenou!" Haruka opened her eyes wide and jumped up, finding herself in a moment at attention beside her bed. But she soon realized that this was not her room at West Point, and it was not Sergeant Lloyd who shouted the order. Michiru raised an eyebrow, and looked at her with great admiration.
"Wow, is that what you teach at the military academy?" She then asked, sitting down.
"I take a life to get up." Haruka dropped onto the bed, and put her head in her hands.
"Jesus Christ, Doc. Do you want to make me a heart attack?"
"You deserve it." She scolded the other, and she snorted.
"How long will you reproach me?"
"For all that Samuel will feel encouraged to invite me out, believing that I'm attracted to him." Haruka smiled.
"How you're biased, I'll bet you'll thank me after tonight."
"Not even in a million years." The girl made to slip under the sheets, but Michiru was quick to get up and grab her wrists.
"What are you doing, are you going to sleep?"
"Are you leaving?" The other snorted, exasperated. "I am sleepy!"
"Do you know what day it is today?" Tenou returned to a sitting position, and her shoulder was rubbed and her face was that too.
"Apart from the day of your date?" "Exactly." "Enlighten me." Michiru sat on the bed next to her.
"It's May 19th." That spread her arms. "IS...?"
"And today is a month that we know each other." The other did not make a fold.
"I still do not understand the reason for all this enthusiasm."
"Because you behaved well." Michiru explained to her.
"You've been rather collaborative, even from the point of view of musical psychotherapy, and considering how you were a month ago, I can say that your behavior is no longer considered socially dangerous."
"Yuu-uh." Haruka said flatly, waving her fist in the air. Michiru smiled.
"I'm saying you can go home, Haruka."
"Mamoru agrees with me, today we'll sign the discharge sheets.
"Forty days of hospitalization are more than enough." Tenou remained thoughtful.
"Chiba agrees?" She then asked, as if zhe had made that statement only at that moment. Michiru nodded.
"He was a little perplexed in the light of your mirror quarrel, about ten days ago, but I explained to him that I know the motivations behind that gesture, and that it was an unconscious, and therefore isolated action." Haruka looked at her, but said nothing. "Obviously the end of the hospitalization does not mean the end of therapy." The doctor added. "You'll have to keep coming every day for psychoanalysis, and taking your medications." Tenou just nodded.
"I would also like to talk to you about another matter." Michiru said after a long silence, approaching a little and noticing how her movement Haruka had adjusted her posture, moving away.
"At the moment you are on temporary leave from military service, but for cases of Post Traumatic Disorder, the procedure involves submitting a request for permanent leave." The other looked at her without emotion.
"Permanent leave ..." she repeated then.
"It means that if I am reformed I will not be able to leave anymore, is it so?"
"If it will be accepted, yes." A bitter smile bent her lips upward.
"Your ingenuity is almost tender, doc." He told her. "You already know that it will never be accepted, will you?"
"This is not about changing 'F' into 'M', Haruka." She had thought about it, and he had also thought that General Tenou could intervene in this choice. "Here we are talking about medical records that talk about an extremely delicate psychic condition very delicated.
"Here we are talking about medical records that talk about an extremely delicate psychic condition, and about a medical staff that certifies it: your father should bribe all the Dewenish, to reject it."Haruka became serious. "I would not joke it too much."Michiru tilted her head, then patted her covered sheet.
"Come on, get dressed, I'll wait for you in my office, to sign the resignation." She got out of bed and took the door, glancing at Haruka who had been sitting on the bed and now staring at an undefined point in the ceiling, her head toppled backwards. As she used to do, Michiru had learned, when she reflected, hiding from something.
x
"Seriously, it was not necessary, I could have taken a taxi." Michiru put the arrow and slowed, waiting for the right moment to cross the road and slip into the gate that led to the private parking of an elegant condominium in Port Bay.
"Stop it, just imagine if I made you go home alone, and then I told you, I was glad to go with you." Haruka grunted something as she pushed the Ray Ban toward her forehead, sinking even further into the seat of Kaioh's Lexus RX400. Once in the private area, the SUV parked near the front door. "Anyway, nice car."
"Thank you." Michiru answered in a smile. "Do you like cars?" A slight smile was painted on Haruka's face. "A bit'." It was her only answer, coming down.
"Good for you, I do not understand anything about it instead."
"Women and engines ..." She began ironically, but the other interrupted her. "Women and engines a cabbage, you're a woman as much as me." Michiru scolded her piqued, provoking the girl's laughter. Haruka took the bag with her personal effects from the back seat and put it on her shoulder, and Michiru approached her after a quick blink of the four arrows signaled the closing of the car and the activation of the alarm. She watched her, dressed in a white shirt and the usual jeans, taking a firm step toward the entrance. And she could not help thinking how much they gave her sunglasses, making her more charming than usual. As if she needed it, she thought. The door was closed, of course, and Haruka glanced at the push-button panel to the side.
"Shit." She said touching herself. Then she turned to Michiru. "It takes either the code or the key."
"And I bet you do not have either one, right?"
"Of course, who did you take me for?" She joked Haruka, and the other smiled. Then she dropped the bag and took off her glasses, hanging them on the first button of her shirt; scratching the back of her head, she forced herself to remember. But the intercom placed under the keyboard crackled, and a voice intervened to get them out of that impasse: Michiru speculated that beyond the mirrored glass, which now reflected their image by not seeing the inside, there was the goalkeeper of the building that he must have observed their approaches. 'Good morning. Would you? '
"We want to come in. I live here." Haruka announced, knocking on the glass, having accomplished the same reasoning as Michiru. 'Can you tell me your name, please? So I can check. "
"Major Tenou Haruka." 'Wait a moment'. From the intercom came three long 'Beep' that silenced the voice of the goalkeeper. Haruka sighed. "And let's wait ..." Michiru watched her slip her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, and thought about how she was wearing her heels, she was taller than she was about half her head. "How tall are you, Haruka?" The question came out without thinking, and the other looked at her in amazement.
"Sic feet, centimeter plus, centimeter less." She remained thoughtful for a moment.
"It could not be otherwise, since the General is almost seven feet."
"No. She was about the same as you." Haruka leaned her head against the glass, trying in vain to peek into the hall.
"But how long does it take, that idiot?" She stopped when she felt Michiru's fingers touch a lock that fell next to her eye, and then take it in her hands.
"Your hair is getting longer ..." she told her absorbed, almost as if it were a personal consideration.
"Michiru." She called her attention, even if she really did not want to. She had understood that this was the girl's way of doing things, and she could not do anything about it. But she could not even let the other take too much freedom. That was collected, leaving the lock immediately. "Sorry."
"It 'does not matter."
'Major Tenou?' The intercom resumed croaking. 'Forgive the wait, I had to make some calls. I open them immediately. '. The door opened in a 'clack', and Michiru waited until Haruka took the bag before entering.
"I'll fix them as soon as I have time, and a pair of scissors." She heard the doctor say as they approached the porter's lodge, realizing that his observation had not only aroused hostility. A boy in a shirt and a tie went to meet them.
"Major Tenou, must apologize, but try to understand me: I've been working here for a year and a half and I've never seen it before."
"Excuse me, can I have my keys now?"
"Sure!" He spilled her another.
"Follow me, please, I have several things for you."
"I'll wait here." Michiru told her, starting to look around. The place was really nice, and certainly elegant. The floor was in white marble, and black and white lithographs hung on the walls. To the left of the porter's lodge were the stairs, while to the right was the sliding elevator door: from the numbers above that, Michiru understood that the condominium - which, to be honest, looked like a luxury hotel - had twelve floors.
"But you treat yourself well." She said to Haruka when she saw her return to her, holding a yellow paper envelope over the keys. The other shrugged.
"When I do something, I do it well."
Inside the elevator, Tenou pushed the key on which the number '12' stood, and the silence accompanied the short climb. When the landing opened to their sight, Michiru saw a large space, and a single entrance door.
"Is there only your apartment up here?" Haruka nodded.
"I told you, I'm not Miss Company." She turned all the door open and pushed open the armored door: the smell of the closed invested in full, while the gaze was lost in the dark. Michiru waited for Haruka to take a step, but that did not move in the doorway; then she put her hand on her back.
"It's all right." She murmured.
"Is it your house."
"It's strange."
"I know, but you'll get used to it. She exerted a slight pressure, and Haruka decided to enter. She dropped the bag, and headed for where she remembered there must have been a window: she pressed a button and the blind began to rise, letting the light flood the house. Michiru saw a large living room, almost empty, except for something piled up in the middle and covered with semitransparent plastic sheeting. She felt fresh air tickling her neck, and sensed that the other had opened the shutters. She continued to look around: Haruka stood in a large space devoid of any furniture, and behind her opened a room that Michiru could see through the door left wide open, and that he recognized as the kitchen. At the height of the cadastre of furniture there was another door, which he thought should give in the night of the house. Michiru could not avoid making comparisons, and considered that only entry and stay were as big as her apartment. Haruka strode over the distance separating her from the other window, and repeated the operation with the first one. "Good." Michiru burst out, unbuttoning her trench coat and bringing her hands to her hips, when the room was fully illuminated. "Where do we start?"
"Nowhere." Haruka dismounted her.
"Here we have to settle down, I have to clean and paint, first of all."
"And then you need furniture, but a bed, at least, do you have it?" A grin was printed on the face of that.
"Mmh, right away to the hard doc, uh?" "Who's having an appointment tonight?" Haruka shrugged.
"Touché." Michiru smiled.
"Okay, we'll face the home factor when the time comes. Did you pick up your medicine from the hospital pharmacy?"
"Yes mom."
"Now you need a phone, are we going to buy it?"
"Go easy, doc, or you will be overloaded." Haruka's lips bent upward.
"I have to send all my bank documents, I have no money, I can not do anything for today." The doctor approached her.
"It will mean that I will give you a gift."
"Is not it against professional ethics?" Haruka asked ironically, before putting her hands on her shoulders.
"Listen, Michiru, you were incredibly kind today, but now I'd like to be alone." Michiru understood that this was a way, not even very veiled, to put her at the door.
"I need to recalibrate myself to this new situation." The other nodded.
"All right," she said then, trying to mask a certain disappointment. Then she rummaged in her bag, pulling out a diary and a pen, and starting to write something. "In any case, this is my number." She handed her the piece of paper she had torn, and Tenou smiled.
"Call me if you have any problem - day, night, when you want, okay?"
"Even if I had to feel so alone in my cold and empty bed?" Michiru rolled her eyes. "For that there are the video stores for adults." Haruka smiled.
"I met people who would have killed to know these figures." She communicated it waving the piece of paper.
"Then let's make this our little secret." Michiru approached the door.
"Michiru." When she turned around, Tenou was in front of her.
"Thanks for everything." The girl stroked her face. This and more, she thought, but she did not let those words descend from her mind to her lips.
x
She looked at the phone for the umpteenth time, while the lights of the city flowed past the window of Samuel's Jeep. No call, neither by Jenny, nor anyone else.
"Are you all right, Michiru?" Samuel asked, loosening his tie a little and unbuttoning the vest he wore over his shirt, looking for the girl's gaze.
"You seemed distracted all evening." Michiru smiled at him, and thought it was very true, but she certainly could not tell him.
"I was thinking of Hotaru, that's all ... I'm always sorry to leave her with the baby sitter in the evening." Samuel smiled.
"She must be a fantastic child."
"She is," she murmured softly, thinking of her angel. She saw the familiar shape of the condominium in which she lived, and Samuel slowed down to enter the private area. They had not found traffic, coming back from Virginia Beach, and it took a little less than twenty minutes to return to Portsmouth; they had dinner at Bella Italia, the restaurant where Rebecca worked, which had been full of care for the whole evening, even making a couple of more bottles of wine arrive at one point. At the expense of the restaurant.
"It was a nice evening." Samuel told her, when the car was stationary.
"I would like to repeat it." Michiru remained silent.
"Samuel ..." she began, willing to tell him that she was not there, and never would have been, space for him in his life; but that leaned forward, kissing her. Taken by surprise, she did not react immediately. And that gesture led her to reflect: she thought about how many upheavals she had suffered her existence in that last month and, above all, in general; to the solitude he had chosen and which on some days became unbearable. How Foster had always died behind her, and how easy and convenient it would be to let herself go into Samuel's arms. It would have been enough so little, to definitely do it fall. And she would have someone close to her, even for Hotaru ... But when she felt the boy's tongue brush her lips, asking permission to explore her mouth, and at that very instant in her eyes Samuel's short hair became blonde, Michiru put her hands on the other's chest, and pushed him Street. "Samuel, no."
"Why not?" He asked with a tone that Michiru could not define but frustrated.
"I can not ... I'm sorry."
"You have to start thinking a little bit about you too." He told her, hard. But she shook her head.
"I can not let anyone in my life come in, Samuel, because it would also mean entering into Hotaru's life, and I can not allow him to become attached to someone of whom-" she paused, searching for the right words.
"Of which I'm not sure."
"But sooner or later you will have to do it, Michiru."
"I know, but not now, I do not feel like it." Michiru reached out to caress the shaven face of the other, his gray eyes full of resignation.
"You are a wonderful person, you deserve something better." He turned and kissed her hands.
"I will not give up easily. But she shook her head.
"I do not want to hurt you any more than I've probably already done." She withdrew her hand, and without saying anything else got out of the car and went towards the entrance to the condominium. She passed the card on the magnetic reader and the sliding doors opened, allowing them to quickly reach the elevator. Once inside, she slid down the wall until she sat on the floor, oblivious to the cream-colored dress she wore, while the elevator went up to the chosen floor. In the silence, she touched her lips: Samuel's kiss had left her nothing. An absolute nothing compared to the overload of emotions that a non-kiss had given her, a few days before. And thinking of that, she trembled at the image that had formed in her mind when another face had been superimposed on Foster's face: of features, typology, but above all different sexes. She understood at that moment that her efforts would have been in vain. Which, like Don Quixote, was a fight against windmills. "You're bending me, Haruka." She murmured, as the elevator doors reopened on her usual life.
Author's notes: ok, I'm sorry for the little late, but I have been very busy those days!
But here we are, chapter 8! FRANGAR, NON FLECTAR is a latin phrase and means to break not to fold, or something like that ;X
More about HXM relationship, I laughed a lot writing this chapter, hope you too liked this one. Until next time this is Milla23 ;)