"This is not… skag, is it", Michiru sceptically asked, eying the stew in front of her; had she been any less refined, she might have picked and poked at it with her fork, but being Michiru Kaioh, she just looked, trying to figure out what cooked skag might look like.
"No", Haruka reassured her, from her place across the table – not that there was much table to sit across, the piece of furniture being quite small, as everything in Haruka's home and the house as a whole, "it's Scythid, don't worry, I always make sure to get the non-poisonous ones."
"…okay", the sniper gave back, impaling a piece of meat on the fork and eying it critically; she had no idea what a Scythid was, and the thought that this curious creature came in variants of poisonous and non-poisonous made her a bit uneasy about eating this, but, on the other hand, she had been raised to always be polite when she was a guest somewhere – even if the somewhere in question was more a hovel than a house, in a town like Fyrestone.
"Skag's really good too, though", the blonde babbled on while Michiru carefully tasted the piece of meat, surprised to find that it was quite edible, a bit spicy, with a slightly sweet aftertaste, "but hey, when we get on the road to search for the vault, you'll probably get to taste it, I mean, we can't take that many provisions…"
She trailed off and fiddled with her fork for a moment, then almost hurriedly shovelled food in her mouth; momentarily, Michiru was taken aback, then forced to hold back a smile as she realized that, additionally to her babbling, Haruka was in constant motion, either playing with the fork or tapping one foot on the floor and shifting on her seat.
She's nervous, Michiru told herself, keeping a close eye on the blonde and her constant movements, I wonder why? Perhaps because she is not used to entertaining guests in her home, this… house, for lack of a better word, seems almost too small for her on her own.
She held back the urge to glance around the small building; it looked as if Haruka had built it on her own, simply by putting up four walls and a roof on top of them, the main room they sat in containing her kitchen and bed while a rather unstable looking wall with a door made of a corrugated metal sheet separated them from what Michiru thought was her bathroom.
Briefly, she wondered where Haruka thought she'd sleep – the taller woman had offered her to spend the night at her home instead of the top floor of Minako's bar, but from what she could see, there was only one bed, a clearly self-made construction, looking barely big enough for the blonde's tall frame, and surely not made to hold both of them.
Then, she decided to cross that bridge once it was time to go to sleep, and focused on her food again; it was far from the food she'd been used to back home, before the bankruptcy, a simple stew which probably could be best described as "throw it all in a pot and let it simmer", but it was quite tasty and filling, and by the time she emptied her plate, she was pleasantly full.
"Well, then", she stated once they both had finished, holding back the urge to wrinkle her nose when Haruka lit up a hand-rolled, crooked cigarette, bravely hiding her dismay even though it smelled as if the blonde was smoking horse's hair, "now that we have eaten, shall we talk business?"
"Not much to talk", Haruka shrugged, at least considerate enough to blow the smoke away from her, the sharp odour still reaching her though, "I'll help you find the vault and I'll get my share. Thirty percent for me, seventy for you?"
This surprised Michiru somewhat, since she had expected Haruka to go for fifty-fifty; and for once, she couldn't hide her emotions in time, the blonde clearly noticing her surprise, smirking slightly at the way the sniper blinked at her.
"What", she then stated, leaning comfortably into her seat, causing Michiru to briefly fear for her well-being as said chair didn't look all too stable, either, "you thought I'd try to rip you off? Did you take a look around? If the vault holds as much treasure as they say, just one third of it will be enough to grant both Minako and me a very comfortable life here."
"Minako and you?" Michiru repeated, trying hard to ignore the unexpected, but painful pang those words had caused in her chest; momentarily, Haruka looked taken aback, then seemed to figure out what the sniper was aiming for, her eyes widening almost comically before she hurriedly replied.
"Oh, no, no, nothing like that", she reassured the other woman, even though she wasn't quite sure why she wanted to make it crystal clear to Michiru that Minako and she weren't involved like that, "we're just partners. I mean, friends. Partners in her bar, sort of, I help her out and get drinks and stuff for free."
"Ah", Michiru let out, using years of training to hide how absurdly happy this was making her feel, "a working arrangement, then. I imagine there are quite a lot of those on a planet such as this one."
"Yeah, at least in the settlements, like here", Haruka shrugged, finishing her cigarette and getting up from the seat to dump the used plates into the bucket filled with water she apparently used to do her dishes, "I imagine you haven't seen much of Pandora yet, but it's not exactly the nicest place to live. We need to work together to survive."
The sniper nodded in response, thinking back to her first impression of the planet; it seemed a bit strange that she'd only arrived here twelve hours ago, but then again, she figured that she had made progress already, finding an ally who hadn't tried to rob her blind, a place to stay, and having impressed the locals with her skill.
"Alright, then", she interrupted her own train of thought, "thirty for you, seventy for me. Agreed."
They shook hands on the deal, both of them visibly glad that it had worked out so fast and well; and then, Michiru glanced around once more, deciding to be blunt about what else was on her mind, even though it might have been considered impolite.
"So", she said out loud, making the blonde look at her questioningly, "you offered your home to me, which was very kind of you, but… Correct me if I'm wrong, but you only appear to have a rather… small bed."
"Oh, yeah", Haruka agreed at once, yet again making the sniper wonder how she had imagined this arrangement to work, then, "you can have that for the night, it's no trouble. I'll just curl up with my sleeping bag."
"Oh", Michiru replied, not all too smart, having to admit that she hadn't expected this level of generosity – it wasn't the first dump-like planet she had ended up on, ever since she had begun hunting for treasure after her family's bankruptcy, and not the first time that she had allied up with someone, but it was the first time that someone she just had met and barely knew showed her such kindness.
"That's very generous of you", she added after a moment, smiling when Haruka looked slightly bashful in reply, to Michiru's amusement blushing just enough to let it be visible as she murmured that it really was no big deal.
"And, um, you might try to not move around too much during the night", the blonde then added, scratching the back of her head somewhat sheepishly, "cause I built that myself, and it's not all too… stable."
"I'm sure it will be just fine", Michiru reassured her, making her smile back, her blush slowly fading; the two just sat there for another moment, smiling at each other, then the sniper cleared her throat and reached for her rifle, remembering that she had fired it earlier that day and that thus, it had to be properly cleaned before she'd go to sleep.
Seeing her remove a bunch of cleaning tools from the small bag she carried apparently inspired Haruka to take care of her weapon, as well; and for a while, they sat opposite each other in complete silence, the only noises in the small house being the sounds they made as they cleaned their guns, Michiru smiling to herself as, for the first time in weeks, she felt content and suddenly sure that everything would work out just fine.