Enjoy it!
Nicknames
Operation "Iraqi Freedom"
4th infantry Division Headquarter,
Tikrit,
Iraq,
2007
Haruka was on the step above impatient, sitting on the military jeep driver's seat. Puffing she got out from the vehicle, covering the distance that separated the exit of the camp from the tent into which the simple soldier Richard Banks had disappeared more than ten minutes ago.
"Banks, do you still have it for long?" She asked getting in the building, just to see the guy taking something from his rucksack.
"No, I'm done Major!" He answered her jerking up and putting the rucksack on his shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"I bought some candies." Richard said smiling, and Haruka shook her head, getting on her jeep.
"What do you think you can do for them bringing them candies?"
The guy just struggled. "They are babies, Major. Babies who live in a terrible situation. I know it doesn't help at all, yet even the thought of bringing them an happy moment in their lives is very important to me."
Haruka didn't answer. That was just a palliative, giving them candy when they had nothing else. And to allow children, some of them very young, to become attached to someone who did not belong to that world, that maybe in a few months would have returned to their home, from their family, was something that could not be shared. But Richard seemed enthusiastic every time he went to the set of tensile structures that was the reception center for orphan children in Tikrit, run by several associations under the direct control of Unicef: there they were given the opportunity to play and above all study, waiting for the future to light up a bit.
He knew that Richard loved children, but he was not so sure that all that enthusiasm came only from the kids.
"Major, have I ever told you about my nephew-"
"Just a thousand time." Haruka stopped him: Banks literally loved his two-year-old niece, daughter of his sister, who kept a sample of photographs near the cot. But hearing about it once again telling the adventures could become a real attack on her nervous system. Richard laughed, knowing full well how long he might be in some situations, then he sighed.
"My sister is pregnant."
Haruka stopped looking ahead her as she turned to the guy beside her.
"I was sent the letter, with an ultrasound. She is going to give birth in January."
"Best wishes." Haruka genuinely said and the other one smiled. A bitter smile.
"Sometimes I'm afraid I will never have my own family, Major. Something beautiful, as Susan is doing. Or as my mother and father did."
"It's not said that family is a synonymous of beauty."
Richard looked at her, titling his head.
"When you say like that I'm afraid of asking about your family."
"Don't ask then, and we all are happy."
Said Haruka, in a flat tune.
Banks did not investigate further, knowing full well how heavy the surname the other wore was. He was not interested in it, but for someone - like several of his comrades - General Tenou was an authentic myth. Evidently, being the daughter should not be so mythical: after all, which father with a shred of sensitivity would have forced the only daughter to hide her identity, to embark on a career, albeit brilliant, in the army?Silence fell on them, and everyone lost their thoughts for most of the journey. Until a realization hit Richard, and he felt the need to externalize it to his superior.
"You know Major, I'd like to have a baby." Said looking at her.
Haruka did not make a turn, but when she noticed from the corner of her eye that Banks stared at her, she slowed slightly and turned to the boy.
"Well? You want to have it with me?"
He understood the giant gaffe he had just made and blushed furiously. "What did you understand?! No!!!"
"Then stop staring at me."
"It's you and me, whom should I stare at?"
"You can't stare at me when you say you want to have a child." Said Haruka, and Richard crossed his arm on his chest; jerking his chin, a false offensive face.
"It was a personal consideration I was sharing with you. You should feel honoured."
"Of course I am, is it evident enough?" Tenou couldn't mask her irony, while she smiled.
"And me Who wanted to invite you at the baptism in New York, to introduce you to my family."
Haruka did not answer, as she saw in the distance the outline of the 'Oasis' tensile structures, as was called in the code between their departments.
"Why did she come too today?" Asked Banks understanding that for today he won't receive any
'Thanks for the invitation I'll surely come.'
I have to talk to the 'Oasis' responsible, about a project I have in my mind."
Richard smiled.
"Samira will be happy to see you, she always asks me about you." Again, no answer. Richard sighed, accepting the defeat by letting himself fall on the back of the jeep, and they crossed that last short stretch of road without speaking. Haruka stopped the vehicle not far from one of the larger structures, attracting the attention of some children playing football: those ran to meet them, and shortly after others came out of the same tent towards which the two soldiers were heading, attracted by clamor of the first. Nearly everyone surrounded Banks, who was laughing and calling for calm and had started to put his hands inside the backpack, pulling out handfuls of fruit candy. Haruka watched the amused scene, her arms crossed over her chest, and realized why Richard had so much fun: he himself was a great baby. She did not immediately notice the small group of daredevils who had approached her. She realized it only when a little hand pulled her by the edge of the camouflage jacket, and found herself looking into two dark eyes, in a round face framed by a small chador.
"He's the good one, he's got candy." She said seriously, pointing to Banks. She did not know how to handle children, much less how to behave in their presence, ending up being uncomfortable. But the baby - and the other two kids who were with her - seemed more interested in ... Haruka smiled, understanding what had caught their attention. She pulled the bar of her Ray Ban out of her pocket and, after opening them, put them to the child: they were huge and extremely funny, but on her face a smile was so disarmingly drawn that Haruka could not help but laugh. She stroked her head, then started toward the tensile structure, leaving Banks at the mercy of the little monsters. And for a moment she understood what the boy meant, when he told her in the jeep how he felt about giving even a moment of comfort to those children. She crossed the large tent, where some volunteers were arranging several boxes, and going through a covered passage reached another, smaller one.
"May I come in?" She announced herself, opening a flap, and when her interlocutor saw her, a smile lits up her face.
"Hello, Colleen."
Colleen McKenzie, the coordinator of the Oasis, got up from her desk to meet them. "This is a surprise!" She told her without hiding her enthusiasm, holding out her hand. Then she remained thoughtful for a moment, and raised her arms.
"Oh, fuck the label, come here!" Haruka nearly choked when the woman hugged her, and held back a laugh.
"It's nice to see you again, Colleen."
"Jesus, Major, you are always a charm." She told her, loosening her embrace, looking at her from head to toe. Then she shook her head.
"Stop Colleen, he could be your son." Haruka smiled, tilting her head: she looked at the rather long-limbed physique of the other - despite having just passed her fifties, her tanned legs and arms left uncovered by a pair of brown shorts and a military green tank top.
"Well, look at you, you always look like a little girl." The woman moved her long, blonde hair, streaked with white, like a diva. "You know what women want to hear." Maybe because I'm a woman too, Haruka thought amused, shrugging.
"But do not tempt me too much, we Irish are pretty sanguine, but please, please."
They sat on the desk and Coleen put her elbows on it.
"You should come here sometime more. Since last time it has been six months."
"I have a lot to do." Haruka replied, crossing one leg.
"Anyway, you know you can always count on me when you need help with the aid convoys."
"I will remember." She smiled at the other, who then narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"I figured you were gravitating around here."
"Do not tell me." Haruka was ironic. "They told me about the girl you wanted to free me-"
"I did not want to free myself." She pointed out Tenou.
"She kept coming to the camp, she would get into serious trouble, I thought she could take her time here in something useful, and that's what happened." Colleen nodded, thinking about how they'd started teaching English to Samira, and how fast that was learning.
"And then there is that one of your soldiers ..."
"Oh, Richard."
" I remember him from the last time I saw you together, during the transfers from Baghdad to here. "
"Banks adore children, he is at ease at the Oasis."
"As far as I know, it's not the only thing he loves, in here." Colleen informed her, tilting her head. Haruka smiled.
"You do not tell me anything new. I figured Richard had some interest in Samira. "
"But you know what the funny thing is, that those two speak and speak, and eventually end up talking about you." Tenou did not answer.
"Well, I can not do anything about it." She then said.
"But I did not come here to gossip about a non-existent love triangle."
"Ah, no, what a pity." Joked Colleen, and Haruka spoke again.
"How are you put, with the main structures?" The woman sighed, leaning back in her chair.
"As you wish we are put: very bad." She rubbed her face before continuing. "Expenses are rising and money is getting cheaper." The aid we receive just covers the exits, and at the end of each month the budget has more flaws than the Titanic. " A bitter smile curved Colleen's lips.
"The children are more and more, and I'm not complaining about the tents, even if they almost fall apart ... We need a real building, Major, but the draw is long and-"
"I can give it to you, Colleen." The woman was displaced by that statement.
"And how?" Churches amazed. "I've been thinking about it for a while." She began to explain Haruka.
"I can unblock the seizure of an old Iraqi army barracks, which is under my jurisdiction, and I will let them be assigned to the Oasis."
"But the bureaucracy!" Colleen was base. "There are procedures for the assignment an-"
"Sometimes you just have to say 'Tenou' to open doors to places you do not imagine, Colleen." The woman was shocked with happiness.
"Because?" Haruka shrugged. "There's no reason why I want to do it, and that's it, but I'm only asking you one thing in return." Colleen nearly climbed the desk to get closer. "If you really do it, anything you want."
"The building will have to become a school, and if you believe that Samira can be able to, I'd like you to become one of your volunteers." The other looked at her puzzled. "It is not said that she wants it." "Then you will have to convince her." Colleen smiled.
"Why do you care so much for that girl, Major?" Then a thought struck her. "Then it is-"
"It's nothing like what you think." Haruka interrupted her, and it was true. She tried to think of a reason why she was so worried about Samira; why she had immediately felt she had to do something for the girl. Perhaps because she was very young. Or maybe because she was alone, just like her. "I rescued it from the bottom of the abyss, Colleen." She said then, after a few moments.
"And that day I swore to myself that I would helped her." Tenou stood up, indicating that the conversation had come to an end. The other also rose from the chair.
"So, bargain?" The churches, holding out her hand. Colleen squeezed it tightly. "Done deal."
They remained silent, and after loosening the woman, she turned around the desk. "Come on, I'll take you to her." They left the tent and Haruka walked backwards through the covered passage she had made in the first leg, finding herself again in the large tensile structure from which she had entered. But this time they crossed the perimeter of the wide tent, slipping into a further covered passage that Haruka had not noticed. They ended up in another little tent where there were a couple of single desks, and there they found Samira, dressed in white and with the usual chador on her head, talking tightly with Banks. The girl noticed the movement at the entrance to the tent, and gave a little cry of joy as soon as she recognized the familiar figure of Haruka.
"Ruka!" She said, splashing to her feet, and both Richard and Haruka themselves looked at her, perplexed, not only by the reaction, but also by the nickname with which she had called the woman. At those looks Samira realized that she had done something wrong and put her hands to her mouth, sitting down quickly: Colleen laughed, while Richard too took on an amused look.
"Well, Major, I told you she would be happy to see you."
"Mmh, yeah." Grunted Haruka, noting that the young woman's interest in her was not diminished as she had hoped, indeed. But now the other spoke a little English, and would be able to interact without using Banks as a link. And then have the opportunity to highlight certain things, for the good of the girl.
"So, how're we doing so far, Samira?" She then asked her slowly, making herself as understandable as possible, turning a chair opposite to Samira and sitting astride her, resting her arms on the back.
"Good." It was her, blushing. "Thank you, Ru ... Major." Both Haruka and Richard smiled at the correction made by the running girl. "Oh, very nice, your English is fucking awesome, Samira."
"And that means I'll be totally useless very soon," Banks sighed. "I look to you today, missy." Joked Colleen, and Samira blushed again.
"What do you think about our Major, Samira?" She did not therefore know how to refrain from asking. The girl looked at the ground, avoiding anyone's eyes.
"I think is very beautiful."
"Ehy, and what about me?" Richard asked fakely offended, and a shy smile appeared on the girl's lips.
"I think you're beautiful, too." Haruka smiled, and Colleen approached the girl, resting her hand on her shoulder. "Be careful, Samira: You know, it would be better to use 'beautiful' for females and 'handsome' for males, but that's fine, missy, you're doing great." Samira nodded, and when Colleen had moved away-recalled by one of her coworkers' arrival at the entrance to the tent, Richard approached her ear.
"Speaking about Major Tenou, 'beautiful' is perfectly fine." He murmured, pulling a smile from her. "How old are you, Samira?" Then asked Haruka, starting to satisfy his curiosity.
"Nineteen." "Is there a boyfriend? A husband, somewhere out there?" Samira shook her head.
"I was married. My husband dead. " Richard looked for her.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not sorry." The other was dry. "He was a good boy, but," Samira thought about the words to use. "But no love." Richard was about to ask her something, when Colleen called her attention.
"Richard, you speak Arabic, right?" He nodded, and the woman invited him to approach her, asking for clarifications on a dispatch that held the tall brunette girl next to her, and who were having trouble translating. Both Samira and Haruka watched the scene.
"You know, I think Richard has a crush on you." Suddenly Tenou told her. The other did not seem to understand.
"Crush?"
"He likes you." The girl did not answer, looking down. "He's a good guy, Samira, He's smart, quite handsome"
"He's not you." Samira said it with such conviction that Haruka understood that it was worse than expected.
"I'm not a guy, first of all." She said softly, approaching her.
"I do not mind."
"You should." Her tone was hard. "Do not misread your feelings." And this is what you're doing. "
"I know what I feel."
"What you feel it's called 'gratitude'." Haruka explained slowly. "I can help you, and I'm more than happy to do that, but you do not like me, Samira. This is just a phase."
When she saw the other one shaking her head she added: "one day you'll find you way, Samira. You deserve to find someone who's going to take care of you. Someone who will marry you, give you a family and make you happy."
Samira looked at her with her deep dark eyes.
"I marry you."
Haruka then answered "you cannot marry me, Samira. You know that, do you?"
But she smiled. "I marry you."
They looked at each other for a while. Then Haruka laughed. "You are do fucking stubborn, missy."
The girl titled her head. "... fucking?"
"Oh, don't listen to me." Said moving her hand. "I have a potty mouth."
Samira didn't understand what she said again, yet she had to laugh.
x
Portsmouth, Virginia
22 May,2008
Day 33
Michiru tapped '12' on the keyboard near the entrance, then she pushed the key on which there was the shape of a bell. She waited, a minute later the door opened and she saw ahead her the hall of Haruka's flat.
"Good morning." The keeper greeted her and she answered the same way, and when his doors flew open she saw a man coming out dirty of paint.
She arrived at the last floor soon and she noticed Haruka's door opened and, above all, that there was a rather animated housing, she saw the floor covered with plastic tarpaulins and two men climbing ladders, intent on passing hands of white paint on the walls. One, younger, saw her as she turned absently to remove a brush from the large bristles from a side pocket of the pants, returning immediately to her work. But then Michiru saw him stop and turn back in her direction, definitely impressed.
"Hello." She said, stepping towards him, but then he spoke
"Stop! Don't do it, or you'll become dirty, miss." He was a middle age man, curly hair covered by a baseball hat.
"Is Major Tenou here, isn't him?" Asked then them and the guy leaned back on the stairs shaking his head.
"No, he is down in the garage."
Michiru arched an eyebrow, wondering what was Haruka doing in the garage, while they were painting her home. Unless...
She came back near the lift and pushed the key -1:
after a quick descent, the elevator doors opened wide on a long covered avenue, flanked on the right and on the left by light shutters that bounded the personal boxes. The road was a curve at the back, and Michiru could see the light of that sunny day reflected on the last shutter, a sign that the overhead door to the garage was open. And as she started to walk toward the light source, she heard a rather powerful roar, which disappeared as it had come. Michiru smiled, knowing exactly what she would find: just outside the garage Haruka was bent over the hood of a black sports car, dressed in a t-shirt the same color as the middle and a pair of sweatpants. Her lips moved in those that - Michiru was more than certain - had to be colored curses. Yet, as she approached the car, and having a way of observing its extremely aerodynamic shape, the wide wheels and the lateral air intakes, she could not prevent a feeling of uneasiness from digging them into a corner of her mind.
"What's this, a rocket or a car?" Haruka just jumped, then smiled at the visit not entirely unexpected.
"I would say the first one." She was sly, rising from the bonnet and wiping her hands cleanly on a rag.
"I'll introduce you to my baby." She tapped the side. "Viper SRT-10. Six hundred horses of pure power."
"That shouldn't have been an easy deliver." Joked Michiru coming closer her.
"Not at all. I had to request it directly from the Dodge, and I spent whole days on the phone. "
The doctor tilted her head, staring at the car. "And I sense that the child here does not do exactly thirty miles an hour." "Officially, the maximum speed is 315 kilometers per hour, with a reaction time of about four seconds from zero to one hundred, but it really takes a little longer." Haruka turned to look at the girl, who had a shocked face.
"Does it comfort you to know that I've never been able to do more than three hundred?" "Oh my God, Haruka, no that does not console me!" Shouted the other, parandosele in front of her.
"You'll kill yourself! A normal person can not drive such a deal without crashing!" "And who tells you that I'm a normal person?" Michiru did not know what to answer, so on two feet. That Haruka was a person out of the ordinary already thought, but he certainly could not tell her. And certainly the fact that she had so strongly insinuated her thoughts, even imagining kissing her, was a more than valid confirmation. She watched her smile, then close the hood and head toward the passenger door, opening it.
"Come on, jump on."
"I do not get into the air ground missile."
"I just want to show you the insides." The girl thought about it for a moment, then sat on the black leather seat. Or better, almost laying on it.
"Wow." Was the only thing she could say, looking at its insides.
"Not bad, ne?" The other one asked after a long moment. "It's quite another thing compared at your hybrid SUV, uh?"
"You said you liked my car."
Haruka struggles. "In fact I like it objectively. But it's not my kind of car, as you can see."
"When did you buy that one?"
"When I bought the flat. And I decided to make me two presents else." Michiru leaned her elbow on the seat.
"If one of those is the second, what's the third?"
Haruka shook her head, a grin on her feature. " you'll find out later. You, rather. " she leaned a little towards the other, before continuing. "Do you have anything to tell me? "
"You're the one in therapy, not me."
"But you're the one who had a fiery weekend, or not?" Michiru recalled the events of the previous Friday, and sighed. "Let's say you were right. Samuel did not want the Playstation Hall key from me. " Haruka laughed.
"And did he have the key he wanted?" The other remained silent, considering whether to lie and see the reaction or be honest, obviously omitting certain details. She opted for the second one. "No."
"No?" The girl looked dismayed. "Did you send it blank?"
"Exactly."
"God, what a bitch you are!" Tenou exclaimed, shaking her head, and on the face of Michiru she painted an amused expression. "I am a girl full of resources." "Yes, no, Vallo to tell Foster." Michiru laughed, and Haruka stood up.
"Let me park the beast, and then go up. Have you seen the workers? " That nodded, getting out of the car.
"They will finish by noon, and at that time two of a cleaning company will come to give us elbow grease."
"In all this, when are you going to come to the hospital for therapy?"
"Come on, Doc, I have a house to fix." Haruka got into the car, putting the rag on the steering wheel to avoid dirtying it with greasy hands.
"And then, are not we already doing it?" The Viper started in a rumble, and followed a couple of frowns. "Exhibitionist." Michiru scolded her, and the other smiled from inside the cockpit.
"Are you sure you do not want to go up, not even from here at the box?" And in the negative response of that, Haruka made a small reverse and then slowly walked to one of the shutters near the elevator, which was already opening automatically.
"You're quite sure that the spaceship can safely turn down the road, uh?" Asked Michiru as soon as the other came out of their parking space, snatching a smile.
"And a car like many others, Michiru."
"A car like any other does not do 315 kilometers per hour." She pointed out the girl.
"Could not you buy something a little more, how to say, human?"
"I know my business, doc. Relax, or hyperventilate." The elevator doors swung open, and Haruka leaned against the wall after pressing the button on her floor.
"It seems to me that we have passed the self-destructive phase." Michiru continued, ignoring the comment of the other who, in response, looked at her amused.
"What is self-destructive in loving speed?" Michiru was about to reply when she saw Haruka stretch her arms in her direction, then taking her face in her hands; the thumb began to gently caress her cheek. "Do you know you're really adorable when you worry?" Michiru tried to figure out what she was saying and at the same time to clear her mind, especially to slow the heartbeat and - even more important - to avoid thinking of the feeling of Haruka's hands on her face. They stood in silence for a long moment, then Haruka approached her: the heart began to have an irregular rhythm, and Michiru felt the moment of the passing extremely close. Until one smile spread over the other's face.
"But how can you be fooled like that, every time?" She asked her, holding back the laughter, taking her hands from her cheeks and showing them to the girl: the black palms of fat opened at the sight of the doctor, who realized the reason for so much sudden expansiveness on the part of the other.
"What kind of ..." She did not finish the sentence, and groaned when, after touching her face, she found herself on the fingers of the black spots.
"You look like a rugby player." She watched Tenou, still smiling, and when Michiru raised an arm to hit her, she jumped out of the elevator, striding toward the entrance to the apartment. She greeted the two intentions to whiten the walls, to which a third had been added, and when she heard the doctor behind her, she entered the corridor of the sleeping quarters.
"There is a bathroom there." She said, pointing to a door at the back, stifling the last laugh, then Michiru saw her disappear into the room they had just passed. The bathroom was perhaps - along with the kitchen - the only furnished room in the house, and it was completely impersonal. The white tiles were barely covered with dust, with the marks of some prints that Michiru imagined were workers. Here and there there were droplets of water, and the shower cubicle had been used recently, as evidenced by the striations on the glass. Opposite was the sink, with a large rectangular mirror above it, and some spotlights to create one of the light spots in the room. Michiru saw the toothbrush left on the edge, the only sign of Haruka's presence, together with an ocher-colored towel badly abandoned on a steel tubing that served as a towel holder. She rinsed her face, thinking back to how the other had fun testing the resistance of her coronary vessels. Finding nothing more than the towel that was to be Haruka, she brought it to his face: the first thing he recorded was the girl's scent invading her nostrils. Stop that. Stop it immediately, thought Michiru, distancing herself from the sensations that had emerged in her mind. She quickly put the towel down, folding it and putting it back in place, and returned to the corridor, exploring that part of the apartment unknown to her. Next to the bathroom two more doors opened, while later was the one beyond which Haruka had disappeared. She peeked into each of the rooms, astonished to find them already whitewashed and ready, but dominated by absolute emptiness: she understood why Tenou could not feel her home.
"Where did the furniture I saw the other day go?" She started when she found herself in the same room as Haruka. The other looked up from the sheet she was reading, while on the unmade bed were scattered documents, keys, several bank cards and a small cell phone. "I threw them in. And, ah," Haruka reached out and pulled a card from under the phone. "This is my number." Michiru smiled, and sitting down next to her, she put the piece of paper in her purse.
"This part of the house is ready," she then observed, and she nodded.
"They also worked on the weekend."
"But how did you convince the company?"
"I told them that a fascinating psychologist would be pleased to offer sexual services." Haruka replied without taking her eyes off the paper. The girl arched an eyebrow.
"I hope you are joking."
"Look, Welcome Pack sends the American Express strong."
"Haruka." The other smiled, letting the sheet fall onto the bed.
"Come on, of course I'm joking, of course you're a pretty gullible, you, huh?"
"Do you think it's easy to keep up with you when you talk?" Tenou did not answer, then took the credit card out of the box in which it was sent, and raised other papers to which papers were attached.
"Today I was about to go shopping, some ideas to furnish a house from scratch?" Michiru remained thoughtful.
"Do you have the measurements of the apartment?" Haruka slipped out of the yellow envelope - which Michiru identified as being delivered by the doorman the day they arrived - another sheet folded in two: she opened it, revealing the map of the house, with handwritten digits at the bottom.
"Yes, I took them tonight." The doctor looked at her puzzled.
"Do you have trouble sleeping again?"
"Let's say I've had problems with settling in. Nothing serious, anyway, I did not have to bang my head against the wall or stuff like that." Michiru continued to watch her, worried, wondering if getting her out of the hospital was not a mistake. The words of the other received it from their thoughts.
"I do not know where to start."
"Think that this house will have to reflect you, your style."
"Mmh, you make it easy."
"We should go around a bit, look for something you like."
"You do not have to come with me." Pointed out Haruka, but the other took on a stern expression.
"Are you kidding and giving up the opportunity to play dolls on a scale one by one?" Haruka frowned. "Doll's house to what?"
"Come on, it was to say." Michiru answered, before getting out of bed. "Come on, prepare, you need everything here, and maybe in our wanderings you will find something that will allow you to express yourself to the fullest." Tenou stretched her arms and legs, yawning.
"Okay, I'll have a shower and then let's go." "Obviously we will go with my car." She emphasized Michiru, and Haruka frowned: she looked like a child who had just taken off a new game.
"Reason, where will we put all purchases?" "How many things do you want me to buy, exactly?" Haruka inquired, and the other smiled.
"You have an Amex platinum, Haruka, what are you worried about?" She joked, pointing to the silver paper next to the girl, who smiled.
"I knew you were only interested in my money, but you never will." She replied to her back, with drama.
"Go get this shower, Major, and hurry up."Haruka smiled, getting out of bed.
"I like it when you're authoritarian." She said as she passed her, and Michiru pushed her away with both hands on her back, laughing and shaking her head.
x
"I want to do it never again."
Michiru laughed at the shocked face of Haruka, while they carried inside the apartment the heavy sacks full of home stuffs.
"Stop it. We took a lot of things."
Haruka uttered one of her distinctive grunts, and once inside the doctor finally had full view of the apartment where Tenou lived, uncluttered by workers, painted and polished. She noticed for the first time that the wall to her right was occupied by a window and a large sliding window that looked out onto a balcony. And that from here you could see the Portsmouth Bay very well, just as Haruka had told her. "When you have finished contemplation, can you give me a hand?" Churches Haruka ironic, calling the attention of the girl, before going out again and reappear with a large flat box, with 'DVD Recorder' written on it. Michiru headed for the elevator and lifted the three bags of the supermarket - because the other seemed to have forgotten that she also needed food from time to time - and headed for the kitchen. Even that, like the bathroom, was totally impersonal: it was modern in style, with drawers and sideboards in steel and an island table in the middle. The fridge was open and disconnected from the electric current; she bent over to connect it to the socket, and then began to arrange the provisions. A long moment of quiet followed, and Michiru imagined that the other had come downstairs to recover the rest of their purchases. It had been a beautiful day, she assessed. She had learned more about Haruka than she ever could with her psychoanalysis sessions: she had learned her impatience at shopping, even though she had shown a completely feminine indecision in front of two lithographs depicting Steve McQueen in 'The Great Escape' , who had ended up buying both. She had seen her choose modern pieces, with a minimal, simple and functional style. And she had surprised her by asking her for more than one piece of advice, thus making her participate in the furnishing of her home. She smiled at the idea that Haruka was accepting her as a person who was becoming part of her life, beyond the professional help she had to undergo. That she was accepting her as a friend, albeit always maintaining a certain detachment on an emotional and emotional level. She heard the other go back and forth from the apartment, and when she faced the entrance, she found it filled with boxes and boxes of all sizes. She glanced at the clock, then picked up the bag from the island in the kitchen.
"Well, have fun." Michiru greeted her, taking the door. Haruka looked at her puzzled.
"Will not you be going?"
"I have something to do." It was twenty minutes to four, and since it was clear she would not go to the hospital that day, while Haruka was in the shower, she called Jenny to tell her that she would take Hotaru in kindergarten. Haruka put her hands on her hips.
"A moment, when we passed my American Express in readers, where was your engagement?" Michiru smiled.
"I did not think we were so late."
"You can not go!" Sub tended the other. "There's all this stuff to do, and in an hour they give me the room and the living room." "Haruka, I would be more than willing." She said softly, pulling away from the door and approaching her.
"But I really have to run away, see you tomorrow." The other remained silent and Michiru went out, moving towards the elevator. She repeatedly pressed the button to call it on the floor ... then she found herself looking at the floor.
"Haruka! Put me down immediately!" She screamed blushing, feeling the other's grip around her thighs and her waist: Tenou had put it in a sack of potatoes on her shoulder, and was striding towards the door of the house.
"Absolutely not, it's easy to leave like that, leaving all the work to do." Michiru laughed, but tried to assert her authority as a doctor. Although it was not really easy, in the position where it was. She found herself again in the entrance to the apartment, and she hit the girl in the back.
"Put me down, Ruka!" She made the mistake at the same instant in which the nickname, with which she often referred to Tenou in her own thoughts, left her lips. Haruka stopped and bending her knees made her get her feet back on the ground; scrutinizing the expression, Michiru understood that the serene and carefree mood that had accompanied the other until then had completely dissolved, as well as the color from her cheeks.
"Do not call me that anymore." The tone was cold, as much as the emerald gaze. Michiru tried not to be intimidated. "Because?" She then asked her, but that did not answer. "Do not call me ... More." She repeated peremptory, after a long moment, articulating every word. Michiru cursed herself for being so stupid.
"I'm sorry." She told her sincerely, and Haruka did not even look at her.
"But it would help me to know why it bothers you so much." Still the silence in which Tenou loved to entrench herself in her worst moments. Michiru watched her lean over a box, and start opening it. She glanced at the clock, and realized the extreme delay in which she found herself reflected an act on the situation, and how to remedy it: she did not think of anything else but to show Haruka confidence, letting her enter a part of her life that she still did not know.
In her mind the words spoken to Samuel returned: but Haruka was a friend, certainly not a relationship. And with the conviction that she was doing the right thing, she silenced the little voice that, in a corner of her mind, warned her of the risks involved in such a gesture.
"Would you like to come with me?"
"No." Michiru smiled at the speed with which the other had replied.
"Come on, I can not be late, there's a person waiting for me." Haruka raised her head to look at her, and the doctor saw the spark of a certain curiosity warm her hard eyes, before returning to pay her attention to the box.
"A person called me that." She told her after several moments of silence, and Michiru approached her.
"A person I loved."
"Who was it, Haruka?" She asked her, placing a hand on her back. The other, as always, stiffened at the contact.
"Was it Richard Banks?" She watched her shake her head slowly, and start staring at an undefined spot on the floor. Michiru understood that Haruka was slipping away from her eyes in front of her.
"Haruka." She called her, carrying her hand from back to shoulder and clenching slightly, but Haruka did not react. Then she put her other hand on her chin and forced her to turn around.
"Haruka look at me, look at me." She looked for the look off, emptied of something she could not know, present only in the mind of Tenou.
"If you want to go back there, this time you have to take me with you." She spoke firmly. And that seemed finally to be redeemed. She blinked repeatedly, then rubbed her face.
"Shit." She murmured, without meeting Michiru's gaze.
"Where were you, this time?" The churches, worried by that scary humoral peak. But Haruka did not answer, and when she did, ahe did not say what she expected.
"You'll be late, doc."
"We'll be late, you come with me."
"I do not want to go out."
"You need to distract yourself, it will do you good," Michiru told her in a smile, standing up.
"When I'm down, she's able to give me a good mood." Haruka tilted her head. "She?" The girl just nodded, without ceasing to smile.
x
They walked along the tree-lined driveway, Michiru slightly ahead of Haruka, approaching the low sand-colored building at the back. Haruka still felt troubled by what had happened just before. Feeling again the nickname that first Samira had given her had unleashed in something that was not able to define, not only for the wave of memories, for the loculus and imprisonment. But also for the realization that Michiru had made her way to call her. And this was not good. It was not good at all: the doctor was too bound to her, looking for friendship in any way. And she realized that a part of guilt was also her own, because she teased her, made fun of her. Because she wanted her close. Or do you want it? She found herself thinking. They entered the building, and Haruka felt a shiver down her spine, although the temperature was quite high: the long corridor was dotted to the right and left by several doors; in the middle, on the walls hung designs and works created by decidedly childish hands. The memories of the Oasis, Colleen, and the children of Tikrit all swarmed her together.
"Wait me here." Michiru told her, pointing to some plastic chairs and then moving towards the end of the corridor. Haruka sat down, and watched the elegant gait, that graceful walk that - despite her heels - made it seem like she was almost floating, rather than walking. She wondered if Michiru was aware of the fact that she oozed refinement, without particular effort, in the eyes of third parties. And she could not explain why, but she remembered the fairy tale of the Little Mermaid, where the protagonist became human to pursue her love on the mainland: a mermaid princess, with aquamarine hair, looking for her prince. Haruka shook her head, then toppled her backwards. A prince, Haruka, she thought, while her lips curled in a bitter smile. Not a lesbian surrogate. She drove those thoughts back into oblivion when she recognized Michiru's step again, this time flanked by a trotting to say the least. She bent her head back to look back in front of him, and saw her doctor holding a little girl by the raven-haired, long hair to the shoulders, cut into a bob. The little girl wore a stuffed bunny to her breast, and jumped cheerfully under the girl's loving gaze, but when she saw her she stopped jumping, taking a normal gait. She saw her pointing it out and asking Michiru something, that after looking at her, she gave her an answer that Haruka could not hear. When they were close Tenou laid her arms on her knees, intertwining her hands, and smiled.
"Hey, Snow White did not have seven, dwarfs?" Michiru rolled her eyes, while a bright little voice answered to Tenou.
"I'm not a septenan, I'm Hotaru!" Haruka raised an eyebrow, scanning the little girl who looked at her with two purple eyes and a smile from ear to ear.
"Are you a mother's friend?" Mom. She processed that word in the indifference of the facade. Of course, it was obvious. And she realized she was dealing with a more subtle person than she had imagined. She thought back to the provocation in Kaioh's office, to the joke with Foster, to the Music Therapy room: she had evidently pushed too far with her toys and Michiru had thought to stop her, slamming her full heterosexuality in the figure of her own. daughter. As if to say, there is no tripe for cats.
"Meet Haruka, Hotaru." Said Michiru, then looking for the look of Tenou who, in spite of the internal turmoil, outside did not make a fold.
"Hi Hotaru." It was the other, looking at the girl. "She is Luna!" The little girl exclaimed, raising the rag bunny in front of Haruka, who instinctively stepped back into her chair, surprised.
"Luna is offended if not the greetings." Michiru communicated that information with a disarming seriousness, and the other looked at her perplexed.
"She's a puppet."
"No!" Hotaru snapped. "He's not a puppet !! It's Luna!" Haruka looked alternately at one and then the other, then sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Hi, Luna." Michiru smiled, and Haruka stood up.
"And so you have a daughter." She told the doctor, who nodded.
"You never told me."
"You never asked me." Haruka remained pensive. "So, you were talking about her that day, in the hospital." Michiru looked at her confused.
"When I thought I was talking about me, not being respected and all that." The girl smiled, remembering the speech in the Dewenish park, then nodded.
"A road accident?" Then asked Haruka after a long silence, not without irony, and Michiru's eyes veiled with sadness.
"It's a very long story." That I do not think I want to hear, added mentally Tenou, before the gaze fell on Hotaru: the girl had her head back, to be able to see from where that came, and stared at her open-mouthed.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Churches, and Michiru smiled. "Hotaru has a kind of height fixation, I do not know why, and so far the highest person I've ever dealt with is Mamoru." Haruka did not answer, looking at Hotaru who did not stop staring at her. Then, to her dismay, she saw her raise her arms to her, and place herself on her toes.
"Do not think about it." She warned her, stepping back.
"Michiru, intervene."
"Honey, you can not go to Haruka's arms." She murmured, raising her in her arms, and Hotaru pouted.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm unpleasant." The girl informed her, and Michiru gave Tenou a questioning look.
"Take me home, please?" She then added, after they had started to leave the school. "The furniture is coming soon." The doctor nodded, and once outside she let off Hotaru, who ran to the slide followed by Michiru's careful glance.
"I'm sorry I can not help you today." The girl told her, without losing sight of the girl. That did not disappear.
"Imagine, I understand now." She could not swear, but in the flat tone used by the other she seemed to hear a note of resentment. "Why did you use the masculine first?" She asked then. "She asked me if I was your friend, she is small, why confuse it with explanations that go against something obvious in her eyes?" The reasoning did not make a turn, but Michiru bothered that Hotaru believed Haruka a man.
"How old is she?" Tenou's question took her by surprise.
"Almost three and a half." The corners of Haruka's lips bent slightly upward, following the girl with her gaze.
"She's pretty, and very smart, for her age." Michiru did not answer, displaced by the compliment to Hotaru. They remained silent for an interminable moment, before Haruka spoke again.
"She's very lucky to have you." She said that as she put her hands in her pockets and started for the driveway, towards the car, leaving Michiru pink from the doubt that, with that gesture, had accentuated the sense of solitude of the other.
x
Military Hospital "Edward Dewenish VA Medical Centre"
Portsmouth, Virginia
24 May 2008
Day 35
"Well then, the great day is coming closer."
Mamoru sipped his coffee, relaxed against the back of the comfortable office chair. "How do you feel?"
"Quiet, for the moment." Michiru did not look away from the window as she answered.
"I'm just tired, now the trials are more intense." Chiba nodded, placing the plastic cup on the desk. Then he smiled at the restlessness of the other.
"She did not arrive?" The girl nodded.
"No. She will make me die, sooner or later." Mamoru shook her head, then crossed his hands and rested his chin on it.
"You have grown fond of her, are not you?" The other broke away from the window, sitting in front of her friend.
"She's a very interesting person, she's made several steps forward in the last period and-"
"Do not talk to me on the clinical level, I know your situation very well, I speak on a personal level, Michiru." She remained silent for a long moment.
"You were right, Mamoru, taking care of Haruka is not only stimulating, but also therapy in therapy, seeing her progress is helping me a lot, staying close to her and helping her as much as I am." Chiba smiled. "I'm glad, but it's interesting to see how you keep it." He then added, tilting his head. "Oh, well." Michiru blushed slightly.
"Haruka needs her head to stay in. If you let her take over, she can do anything."
"I noticed." The man agreed.
"But after all, from someone like that, the first thing you expect is a certain charisma." Michiru nodded.
"A charisma that unfortunately, you see in a distorted way, even if I still can not manage it."
"Did you manage to get yourself to say anything about imprisonment?" The girl shook her head.
"No. She was pretty quiet these days, but she had a noteworthy humoral peak while we were at her house, she mentioned a person she never mentioned in this month." Chiba became thoughtful. "Do you think it was a good idea to get her out?"
"We certainly could not let her stay in the hospital forever." He looked at Michiru.
"And anyway, her sudden mood swings are now more like stand-bys: they suddenly go out, and she disappears, losing herself in her own personal world, which is probably dominated by something horrible." The girl sighed and remained silent.
"Her aggressiveness is now curbed." She resumed explaining.
"I would not have brought her with me if I had not been more than sure." Mamoru looked curious. "Flow where?" "Kindergarten, to get Hotaru."
"Did you introduce her to Hotaru?" The man was perplexed, and wondered if Michiru's affection for Tenou was not moving toward dangerous boundaries.
"I do not see why not, Haruka needs to dive into normal life contexts." After a moment of silence Mamoru sighed, and decided to express his concern.
"Michiru, you ..." The words seemed to weigh. "You always know that Haruka is a woman, is not she?" The other smiled.
"Of course, what's that got to do with this?" "You seem very taken in. That's all." Michiru shook her head, but avoided meeting her friend's eyes.
"I admit that my interest in her is no longer just professional. You said so too, Haruka started seeing me as a friend, and I feel like that too. " she failed to tell him what had happened in her office, and what had happened with Samuel. But she was frightened at the realization brought by Mamoru's words, or that it was easy for an external observer to read in her behavior no longer just a nascent friendship, but also a certain attraction towards Tenou.
"I'm just afraid you can misrepresent your actions, Michiru." It was Mamoru, serious. "May you think that you-"
"For Haruka, I'm a game, Mamoru." She interrupted him, pushing away those thoughts.
"She likes to provoke me, but as I have already explained to you, it's just a chatter, even though she once touched my ass." She revealed him, provoking the laughter of the other. She pulled the cell phone out of her bag and dialed Haruka's number again, but the operator's pre-recorded voice was still there to answer.
"Listen, I'm going." Michiru announced, putting the phone down.
"She had to be here an hour ago and she does not even answer the phone, I'm starting to get worried."
"Keep me informed." The girl nodded and went to the door, unable to drive away the discomfort that that conversation with Mamoru had brought with her.
x
Michiru's index was glued to the doorbell of Tenou's apartment for about twenty seconds, producing a high-pitched trill. The doorman had told her he had not seen the Major come out that morning, and so he had to be at home. Come on, Haruka, open, he thought, leaving the button, and resting his palms on the door.
"Haruka!" She called, knocking on the surface, and a tremendous deja-vu seized his thoughts. Hotaru's crying. The pungent smell of blood. Mitsuo. She closed her eyes, and her breath choked in her throat. She leaned back against the door, thinking if she should call the porter to be opened, and it was there that she noticed a door ajar near the elevator, which she had probably noticed before but had not remembered. She approached the little door, which once opened revealed a narrow line of stairs that ended in a further door more or less above his head. She climbed it quickly, and opening that strange door she found himself on the roof of the building, a large flat surface covered for most of the beams that held solar panels. At the back, on an elevated structure, Michiru saw satellite dishes for satellite signal reception and TV antennas, as well as a wireless repeater. She walked in the shade of the panels, capturing the sun of that day, and when she emerged from that sort of corridor, a light breeze crept through the aquamarine foliage. She scanned the space in front of her, and saw a dark jacket thrown badly on the ground near the edge of the roof: Michiru felt faint. I pray you. Oh, please, no .. "Haruka ..." She picked up her jacket and did not find the courage to look beyond the parapet.
"I did not throw myself downstairs, doc." The voice, hoarse from the hours of sleep and from several 10-year-old Bourbons, reached her ears from an indefinite point behind her, and almost a blow came to her. Turning around, she saw a pair of bent legs sprouting from where the block that held the antennas and the parabola created a kind of tooth, where the door to the electrical panels was, and ran the distance between herself and Haruka almost running : she found the girl sitting with her back to the wall, her head hidden between her knees and her arms folded, her hands clasped behind her nape.
"Holy Jesus, Haruka, what did you think of?" She almost shouted at her, kneeling in front of the other. "Do not answer the phone, I come here and I find you ... on the roof! What's in that head?"
"There's always a bit of wind up here, I like it." She revealed them without changing her position, the slightly kneaded voice muffled by her limbs.
"And then stop screaming, I have a hangover, a headache and it's really not a good time to do psychoanalysis." Michiru sat down next to her.
"Did you get drunk?"
"Uhly is a euphemism." The doctor sighed, shaking her head. She looked at the other's crumpled shirt, and noticed something in the portion of the neck that her arms could not hide.
"What is this?" Churches, stretching a finger to touch a purple stain on the skin of Tenou. In the silence of the other, Michiru could not help but smile.
"You see yourself with someone."
"I've seen more than one, if you really want to know." The doctor felt a hint of resentment veiling her thoughts.
"Well, it's a good thing." She told her after a few moments, and indeed as far as the clinical aspect was concerned, it was true. Personally, however, the idea of Haruka clinging to a girl did not completely excite her, but tried again to drive away that thought. Haruka moaned something that Michiru interpreted as a need to stomach, just lifting her head. And he noticed a further detail.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses?"
"Why is the sun, maybe?" Tenou was ironic. But Michiru saw a purple tinge come out from under the drop-shaped lens of the other Ray Ban, and stiffened. She held out her hands to take off her glasses, and Haruka resisted that gesture, initially. Then she let her do it, and at the sight of the girl the black eye of the other opened, accompanied by a cut on the cheekbone.
"What happened to you?" Michiru asked her worried, as Haruka leaned her head against the wall behind her.
"Anything."
"Did you get a black eye like that, for autogenesis?" A slight smile curved Tenou's lips.
"A jealous boyfriend." She revealed them after a moment of silence.
"Nothing, I have not even reacted, you should be proud of it."
"Fair? You look for rogne and I should be proud of it?" Michiru was incredulous.
"Do not make me regret getting you out of the hospital-"
"I want to go back there." Michiru was interrupted, and that sentence left her stunned. "As?" "Temporary leave, permanent leave, they are all bullshit." Haruka's tone had become hard. "Write a nice statement where you say I'm fine, Michiru, then give me a stamp and send me back there. I want to go back to Iraq."
"How can you ask me something like this, Haruka?" Just to me, then, she added mentally. Haruka snapped her lips, then shook her head.
"I left home at the age of fifteen, Michiru, I was eighteen with NATO in Kosovo, twenty-one in Afghanistan, twenty-three in Iraq, I'm twenty-eight, including thirteen years in the military academy and war fronts. doc I just know that I want to go back there. "
"You can not go back to Iraq, Haruka."
"You do not understand, you doctors can never understand."
"And what would you like to understand, over there, huh?" A sigh full of pain came from the girl's lips, which then bent her head to meet the doctor's eyes. "I have to pay, Michiru, I have to go back to Iraq to remedy a profound injustice."
"What injustice are you responsible for?" Haruka remained silent for a long moment.
"To be alive, doc." The girl was struck by that statement.
"I do not want to hear that kind of idiocy anymore." She then said to her, hardly, after a long moment. "We've already talked about it, we'll have to work on it, but I can not help you if you give up at the start." "You have other things to do, Michiru, than take care of my problems." The other was banned, not immediately understanding what Haruka was referring to. Then she took the reference to Hotaru. "You say, because I have to keep up with you as a little girl, so I do not see big differences." That joke managed to tear a smile at Haruka, and Michiru sighed with relief, happy to be able to soften the tone. Suddenly the need came to embrace her, and after doing so she rested her chin on her shoulder to look at her. Haruka moaned, shaking her head.
"My God, do not do that."
"As well as?"
"So!" Broke the other, as if Michiru did not see the obvious. And the doctor considered taking a little revenge.
"You mean so ... so?" She asked softly, tightening even more to Tenou, who grabbed her wrists trying to detach her.
"Get out." Haruka told her.
"Absolutely not." "I feel like throwing up."
"It will mean that I will keep your forehead." Haruka rolled her eyes, moaning exasperatedly, and Michiru could not help but laugh.
"Stop being stuck to me!" The doctor fully enjoyed the discomfort of that, after the countless times they had found themselves in reverse parts.
"I'll leave you alone if you promise me that you will not say nonsense like the one you used to." She did not realize that she had just given her a handhold: she saw Haruka's green eyes sparkle, and her mouth curled into a smile. The hands of the other left her wrists and slid down to life.
"I promise you if you give me a kiss." Michiru tried to hide the surprise at that request. Then, knowing well who she was dealing with, she inclined her head.
"Okay, okay." Haruka's eyes widened when she saw Michiru bring her lips close to hers, and she swerved her head back.
"What the fuck are you doing?" She exclaimed, looking at her in dismay, arousing the laughter of the other.
"I do what you asked me." Tenou looked at her puzzled, and the other broke away without ceasing to laugh.
"See, you're all talk." Michiru teased her, and she pouted.
"And if I did not know you were more than straight, I would have said that I was hiding something." They sat in silence, then Michiru brushed Tenou's swollen cheek, getting a hissed grunt in response.
"You know, it will be a problem, this thing here."
"A problem for what?" Michiru reached into her bag and handed her a cream-colored envelope. Haruka opened it, and began to read the contents printed on the precious paper.
"A concert at the Norfolk Opera House?" Churches did not understand the connection, and the other nodded.
"You wanted to hear me play, did not you?" Haruka looked for her, then returned to the invitation.
"It's for two people, like this," Michiru gestured in the direction of the dummy. "You can bring someone with you." Tenou held back a laugh.
"I do not even remember her name." Michiru felt a strange relief invading her stomach. Then she saw Haruka stop, and put a hand to her mouth. "Haruka?" But that one shot up and ran away: the implacable hangover was not even saving Major Haruka Tenou.
Author's notes: Hello! I'm finally back! I'm sorry but I just had tonight to write since my exams didn't leave me time. I'm glad that you guys are liking my ff, I appreciate it. Now on the plot will become more interesting and intense. Thanks to one of my reviewers who let me know about the grammatical errors and stuff like that, I already corrected them during this days ;). As always, leave a review if you have any doubt, or sent me a PM. Until next time this is Milla23 ;0