A/N: Hmm. . . ^^

DISCLAIMER: Now I'm SURE Naoko Takeuchi didn't mean for her wonderful characters to be. . . all wierd like I'm making them? ^^

What We Truly Are

(Before We Were Meant To Be)

Michiru wielded the sword that appeared in front of her out of nowhere, awkwardly guiding the currents into a haphazard submission.

The pool was in pretty much total chaos, and if Michiru hadn't been turned into a mermaid and a natural swimmer, she was pretty sure she would have drowned. Speaking of which. . .

"Kiroto-chan!"

Flipping her tail about her urgently, she sensed the water for the taller woman, but it was no use. With the pool's frame quaking about above and the water in defiance to her call, it was hopeless. She hoped Kiroto had found a way to safety.

Startled, Michiru turned when she felt something brush her shoulderblade. Seeing her partner's wry grin behind her, she smiled.

"Hey, I see you found a mirror. Want to trade it in for a sword?"

Michiru gestured to the sparkling gem in Haruka's hand, then to the half-formed sword in hers. They were magnificent pieces, but somehow, Michiru thought she'd be better paired off with that mirror than the sword she now held.

Some may have called that vain, but she could practically see the oceans within that glassy frame come to life and beckon to her. Handing the sword over to Haruka hilt-first, she grasped the pulsing mirror- and froze.

*Claim me once more, Neptune, and I shall do your bidding.*

The tingle she'd felt when she'd touched the door on the pool's bottom below morphed into a tsunami of unleashed emotion.

The sea.

The ocean.

They were calling her, she was going to drown, she needed submissionn and something to live for, be it important or not, taboos not on hold, society and their opinions of what she held dear be damned, she only lived once. . .

"H-Haruka!"

A dim cry.

And she was in Haruka's arms, and the pool's water had calmed.

The ocean was hers once again.

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Haruka practically roared when her fingertips brushed the sword's precious hilt, the weapon practically jumping into her open palm.

There had been a large gash in the sword's blade, and Haruka had almost cried when she saw it, the solid steel not something inhumane as it would be, but a gaping wound of a fellow comrade on the ground, something that could be healed with a tender touch and time.

Now formed into the magnificent blade it once was, gleaming and sharp with the knowledge it had gained Haruka back to it, it snuggled contentedly in her palm and seemed to vibrate and purr in amusement.

Sighing herself, she smiled at the soft feminine croon wounding around her, drawing her into a deep calm. She belonged. Right there, in this serene tranquility.

*Took you long enough to find me, Sky King.*

Haruka was about to retort back in a flirtatious manner, like she would usually, but then realized it was as if she were hitting on herself. The sword seemed to sense this and batted against her fingers in a laugh.

"H-Haruka!"

The laughter was ended, though, when Haruka heard her partner's cry, and she willed herself to dive over to a fighting Michiru. She gasped when she saw the slumbering dragon reflected in that dark mirror, but grit her teeth.

This was Michiru.

She would do anything for Michiru.

Hell, slaying a dragon wasn't much work, not when she had her long-lost limb of a sword in her hand. But. . .

*The dragon is her, Haruka. The sea will not strive if you harm it. Use your bond with her instead.*

Bond? What bond?

Then Haruka remembered the way they'd both sought comfort in one another, had both blushed like crazy when they'd first looked into each other's eyes. Michiru had let loose something inside her that she didn't even know was there, she didn't even feel or know was inside herself, and she wanted Michiru by her side until she was at her dying breath, even forever more after.

Drawing ever closer to Michiru, she took the mirror and watched as it flared an angry gray, then soothed down into a peaceful aquatic blue as she pulled it into her chest, embracing the dragon within and her love's hand wrapped around it.

Michiru soon followed, with a shuddered sigh, into her arms.

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Kiroto flinched as something hit her in the nose.

Rain. . .? How could rain get under the water and hit her while she was in the pool. . .? OH!

Kiroto lunged up and drew in a lungful of sweet air, then sobbed hysterically, clutching the first thing in front of her. Soft, silky, warm, PERFECT for a cry-pillow. A rumbled growl. She froze, then, and opened her eyes.

*Honestly, couldn't you be someone ELSE other than Beast Master? Jesul-san, do we HAVE to follow her?*

The whiny rasp belonged to a wolf. And not just ANY wolf. A humongo, all-over-the-place pelt, yellow-fanged, pupil-slitted, WOLF! Kiroto shivered under that hot gaze, staring straight into those golden-flecked eyes, and narrowed her own.

They looked so warm. . .

Tension, tension, then. . .

"I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE ANIMALS!"

Kiroto scrambled to her feet and did a little jig. Unbeknownst to her, many people who see a twenty-seven year old female trying to do the worm with a six-year-old's maturity by a churning pool due to unknown reasons and looking like a beached whale, get a kick out of life.

"H-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAahahahahaaaa!"

The blonde woman stopped abusing the eyes of many animals that had gathered around the pool's edge and looked to her right. She flushed.

A little girl squatted near her, a long scythe situated on the end of an overly-long staff, purple eyes large and smiling. Shoulder-length hair accentuated the freedom those shoulders felt, loose and curved, and Kiroto wondered dimly, who WAS this person?

She voiced her question and almost fell over and back into the pool.

Luckily, the large wolf she'd fallen in love with a moment ago lunged over and snapped her shirt by the collarbone, tugging her back to safety. Under normal circumstances, she would have wondered why the wolf hadn't just broke into her jugular vein and neck and killed her, but this was pretty dire in circumstance.

She now took the fact as something of a miracle. She was the BEAST MASTER!

Putting aside that little tidbit for later chewing on, Kiroto relayed the information in her head. This was something almost of a joke, but ever since she'd seen Haruka and Michiru go extreme rare awesome in transforming, she wasn't THAT surprised.

"You do pretty well in impersonating a crime master, and that worm was. . . unique. But you see, you're not the only one who has used my name and trashed it. Thank you for trying to find my 'crimes,' though, since it broke me out of my prison. You see. . . I'M the real 'Meijin Hanzai.' Hotaru Tomoe."

Kiroto looked into those young eyes, and age was not a factor there.

Hard and cold, they spoke of amusements a child would normally have in their life not tried, the loneliness and pain one had when they were absolutely genius. It wasn't this that attached her to the hurt little female hunched before her, hunched before her animals.

No, it was the reaction. . .

Her whole persona was transformed.

Gone was the hard-stared female, in place an adorable, giddy little girl.

"Do you want ice cream?"

"Oh, it's been so long. . .! Yesyesyeysyesysyeyseyseys! Yahooooooooooo!"

Kiroto smiled.

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A/N: Okay, this is for the chapter before this one- I'm sorry that I made Michiru punch the monkey. Maybe I should have had her push it or something. . . Still, I don't like animal abuse, no matter what animal, so please excuse that one thing.

Anyway! How's it going so far? ^^ (As usual, I'm writing down whatever pops into my mind.)