Not This Year

-for-

Ten no Kasou

Chapter Four: Light in the Dark

Over the past week, Haruka had some of the best times of her life. Ever since she found Michiru in tears, they simply ignored their problems and soaked in what was happy about the holidays. It was hard at first but spending every waking moment of their day with each other was the remedy to the darkness that shrouded their life.

"Tenoh?" Michiru stopped playing almost in an abrupt matter, causing her single fan to question her motive. She stepped off the stage, deciding to sit with Haruka. After a couple seconds of silence, Michiru leaned into her friend in a playful manner. "I don't think I've ever felt this free in my life."

Haruka had been tossing a lemon up and down when she too, abruptly what she had been doing. It wasn't something she had to think about because she had felt the same way. "Me too." The blonde rested her head on Michiru's. 'This feels so unbelievably right… I only wish that she felt the same way.' Haruka's eyes had been wandering for quite some time before she noticed something out of the normal. 'Her ring…she never takes it off. Did she lose it?' A significant amount of worry encompassed Haruka. Michiru's ring was one of her most prized possessions and she knew that Michiru would never, never take it off. The sight of seeing it off of her finger made her stomach churn.

"Someone is thinking entirely too loud." Michiru giggled when she noticed that Haruka seemed to be held captive by a thought of hers.

"Sorry." Haruka laughed at her stubborn daze. "I didn't know you were paying so much attention to me." 'Not that I don't like it.'

"How could I not?"

"Because there are plenty of young men out in the park. Who knows. One of them might be Mr. Right." Haruka hated when she talked like that. It was almost like she was encouraging Michiru to do the one thing that she didn't want her to do.

'She must not like me if she's suggesting that I should like one of those guys.' Michiru took a deep breath to calm her thoughts. 'I shouldn't overreact. Haruka had never once told me that she had feelings for me. I'm going off assumptions.'

"Ah, touchy subject, Michiru?"

"Not at all." Michiru lied. 'I mean, what's so touchy about loving you and constantly worrying about whether or not you love me back?' "Have you spoken with any of your girlfriends this weekend?" Michiru teased.

"Well, I've talked to you, haven't I? So that counts as one. But you're the only important one, so…"

"There you go seducing your friends again." Michiru stood up, realizing she had to run some errands. "Did you still want to come with me?"

"Uh, I'm getting sick." Haruka faked a cough which provoked Michiru to roll her eyes. "Why don't you go on without me?"

"In other words, you have to meet up with a girl?"

"Ah, Michiru come on! Have more trust in me. I'm not meeting up with one, I'm meeting up with three." Haruka grinned as she waved to her friend. Watching her walk away was possibly one of the hardest things she had to experience. She spent every millisecond wishing that Michiru would turn around and run back to her. But, her fortune wasn't as she had hoped and she settled to do a little shopping of her own.

Haruka had been walking up and down the streets of Tokyo, trying to find a good gift for her love but none of them were perfect enough. The blonde sighed. There was no hope. At this rate, she would never find what she wanted. 'Hey, is that Setsuna?' Haruka took off running around the corner and found something almost as hard as a solid wall hit her.

"Hey, what where you are--"

"I'm so sorry." Haruka helped the lady up. When she felt something familiar on the older lady's hand, her eyes glanced over to the hand she had been holding. "Where did you get that?"

"What? Oh this?" The lady flashed a ring that was identical to Michiru's. "I got it from some girl. She wanted to make a trade for it." The woman suddenly was uninterested in the ring.

"Aren't you Haruka Tenoh?"

"Hai, I am." Haruka was fixated on the ring, trying to come up with ways to get it from this woman. Even if it wasn't Michiru's, she still couldn't risk the chance. "Say, what would a beautiful woman like you want for such a ring?"

The lady, clearly impressed by the compliment, had no interest in selling the ring… but there might be something else…

"I want a kiss, for my newspaper." The lady was ecstatic about the proposal.

"What?" Haruka was confused. What kind of half-baked request was that? "I don't understand. I was thinking I could pay you some sort of sum…"

"No, I want a kiss to go on the front page of Tokyo News. And I want that kiss to be between you and me. I want intimate pictures as well." The woman rubbed her hands together, thinking of how much her boss was going to love her after she turned in her story.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. I love someone else. And even if they don't love me in return, I still couldn't bring myself to do something as that." Haruka tried to think of other ways to compensate the woman but she was having a hard time.

"Well, if you don't want to. Then I suppose this ring will just have to go to my mother. She's always wanted one of these." The lady took it off her finger, inspecting it. "What do you know? It's been held in pretty good condition."

"Fine!" Haruka took the ring from the woman. "I'll do it." The blonde inspected the ring to make sure it was Michiru's and sure enough, her initials were imprinted on the inside. "When do we start?"

Haruka managed to trudge into the jewelers with a very, very, very, uninterested expression. She had spent the whole rest of her afternoon with a woman who nearly undressed her for a few pictures. Of course, she was exaggerating, but the woman made her do a few intimate poses that she was not comfortable doing.

"Hi, how can I help you today?"

The blonde focused her attention on the clerk. "Hi, my name is Haruka Tenoh. I was wondering if you could help me. I want to get this ring polished. If anything needs touching up, then please do so. But I'm also here to find out if the ring I ordered has arrived yet."

"No problem. Let me go check." The man came back. "No, I'm sorry. It hasn't come in yet. It's scheduled to come in the night before Christmas."

Haruka bit her lip. That was sure cutting it close to Christmas day but, she didn't have any other choice. "Okay, that's fine. How about I come back for both of these on that night? Please have these ready. These are important to me." Haruka felt reassured when the man smiled. "Thank you."