"This is it?" Minako wanted to know, sceptically eying the small object Michiru was holding up for her to see, "it looks so small. And unimportant."
"Well, it's just one of four parts", Haruka gave back, frowning at her lack of enthusiasm, "but hey, it's a start, we got the first one! And so quickly, too! This calls for a celebration!"
"You just want free drinks", Minako shot back at once, Michiru smiling slightly at how Haruka's face fell, a clear indicator that the younger blonde hadn't been far from the truth, "but you won't get those for one measly piece. Show me the whole key and you'll have free drinks all night."
"Fine", Haruka grumbled, "I'll pay, then. Gimme a beer. Michiru, you want one, too?"
"Just water", Michiru gave back at once, "I don't drink."
"Seven dollars", Minako announced as she put the bottle of beer and the bottle of water down onto counter; Haruka grumbled again, but paid, waving Michiru's protest about doing this for her drink as well aside with a careless gesture of one hand.
"Never mind that", she then declined verbally, as well, "you saved my butt when that Psycho attacked, so that is—"
"What", Minako interrupted her with a squawk, her eyes going wide, "you ran into a Psycho? Seriously? I didn't know good old Toesie had one of those."
"Well, he did", Michiru threw in, after a carefully small sip of her water, just to make sure that it was as fresh as it could be, "and he was quite adamant on stopping us. Thankfully though, he wasn't successful, even though he did manage to injure Haruka."
"So that's how you got that cut", Minako commented, eying said cut, the injury by now having been cleaned, "I thought you just were your usual clumsy self and ran into a door or something."
"I assure you that Haruka was far from clumsy", Michiru told her, frowning slightly, ready to defend her companion; then, she noticed the way Haruka was rolling her eyes, but smiled as she did so, and figured that this was some sort of joke between the two, momentarily feeling out of place and even a bit awkward, something she most definitely wasn't used to.
"Thank you, though", the taller woman either had picked up on this or just was grateful, smiling at her in a way that made her heart flutter – not that she allowed herself to acknowledge this for longer than a second, though -, "I only ran into a door once, years ago when I was drunk, but Minako's never gonna let me live that one down."
"At least not until you do something equally stupid", Minako smirked, making Michiru wonder if this way of talking to each other was normal in friendships as close as the one Haruka and Minako apparently shared; and she wondered what it said about her that she didn't know this, that never in her life, anyone had been close enough to her to deserve being called a friend.
"So", Minako distracted her from those ponderings, "you know where the other parts are? You gonna go look for them tomorrow?"
"We know about one", Michiru told her, glancing around, not comfortable giving out any more information than this with a bunch of patrons she didn't know in the bar, "and I suppose we will check this lead out tomorrow?"
At the last few words, she gave Haruka a questioning glance, smiling when immediately, the blonde nodded – before she took a long gulp of her beer bottle, then exclaimed that now, it was time to celebrate, her joy about the small step they were closer to their goal making Michiru's smile widen without the sniper even realizing it.
True to her words, Michiru stuck to water, while Haruka by now had made it to her fourth beer; the fact that she didn't appear drunk at all told the sniper that she wasn't exactly unused to alcohol, something which didn't surprise her though – on this dump of a plant, alcohol most likely was one of the few things which made life easier, and she was quite sure that she'd break her "no drinking" rule as well, if she'd be forced to live there for the rest of her days.
As long as she's not hung over tomorrow, she pondered to herself, taking another sip of her water, one never knows how this doctor the old man mentioned might react to us showing up there.
"Hey!" Haruka's happy voice distracted her from the thoughts of her quest, the blonde sidling up to her, with a fresh bottle of water and a smile on her face, "saw your drink's almost empty, so I got you a new one. Unless you don't want it, but want to go home and sleep, then I can give it back."
"No need to", Michiru reassured her, taking the bottle from her after quickly emptying the one she had been holding, "thank you, I didn't notice you were paying such close attention to my drink."
"I'm surprised you didn't", Haruka smirked, earning a raised eyebrow from the sniper, which prompted her to elaborate, "because you seem to notice everything else going on around you. Should I be insulted that you didn't notice me keeping an eye on you and your drink?"
"No", Michiru replied after thinking about this for a moment, smiling up at her, just for a second allowing herself to forget about her resolution that anything which was more than their business relationship would have to wait, "in fact, you should feel honoured. When my talent was discovered—"
A loud yell from her right cut her off, followed by the sound of glass breaking as one patron smashed his bottle on the head of another; briefly, she frowned, then nodded towards the door, figuring that talking would be rather impossible a few seconds from now and thus asking Haruka to walk with her.
Glancing at the men who had started to fight, Haruka made sure that Minako would be able to handle them without her help; once she had recognized the troublemakers as patrons who often started fights, and whom Minako had handled on her own quite a few times already, she nodded, leaving the bar with Michiru moments later, the sounds of fighting following them until they had moved quite a bit away.
"As I was saying", Michiru started over, making Haruka smirk slightly at the hint of annoyance in her tone, "when my family discovered my talent for guns in general, and sniper rifles in particular, they made sure I'm trained accordingly. Well, my father did, my mother wasn't very fond of the idea. My father hired another sniper to train me, a former vault hunter, and one of the first things she taught me was that a sniper always is aware of their surroundings, and everyone around them."
"Okay", Haruka gave back, not quite sure why the fact that Michiru hadn't watched her meant that she should feel honoured then; picking up on her confusion, the smaller woman smiled, a smile which made Haruka's heart skip a beat, giving her an explanation moments later.
"I keep my eyes on strangers, and on people I don't trust", she let the blonde know, "so…"
"…so that you didn't keep them on me means you trust me?" Haruka finished for her, oddly touched, "um, thanks, I guess…? And, uh, not that this is a bad thing, but… that was kind of quick."
"It was", Michiru agreed, earning a smile from the taller woman with her next words, "but something does tell me that I can trust you. This happens rarely, but so far, my instincts were right every time."
"Well, if it helps", Haruka gave back, making the sniper's knees feel decidedly weaker when she stepped closer to her, until their bodies were almost touching, "I trust you, too. How could I not, after how well we've worked together so far?"
"Indeed", Michiru replied, mortified at the slightly breathless sound of her voice; deciding to blame how close Haruka was to her, she cleared her throat, torn between taking a step back and remaining right where she was… or perhaps even taking that final step which would bring her as close as it was possible to Haruka, the way the blonde now seemed focused on her lips telling her that, if she'd do this, Haruka would surely kiss her.
It frightened her how much she wanted this, after knowing her for not even half a week; she told herself again that she couldn't let this happen, that she didn't have time for this, but she didn't step back, a shiver running down her spine when she realized that, even if she wouldn't step closer, Haruka would do that for her any moment now.
No, she scolded herself, still not stepping back though, you can't. You know you can't. Even if you forget about your quest for a moment, what can you offer her? A short-lived fling which will end once you completed the key, open the vault and go back home.
Surely, she told herself, Haruka knew this, as well; still the blonde looked as if she was working up the nerve to kiss her though, and Michiru knew that she wouldn't stop her… which was why she felt oddly grateful when she heard the sound of engines approach and noticed how Haruka stiffened, making it clear that this wasn't an everyday occurrence.
"What the…" the blonde now said, as if to underline this impression; and then, the sound grew impossibly loud, coming from all around them, lights appearing as the vehicles which had approached in the cover of darkness activated their headlights and let them realize that what could be called the town's main square had been surrounded.
"You know these guys?" Michiru murmured to Haruka while the noise brought more people out of the bar and their homes, the sniper not surprised to see that most of them were armed; then, Haruka nodded, distracting her from these observations, the taller woman keeping her voice low when she replied.
"Crimson Lance", she murmured, a name Michiru found rather uncreative, even though it explained why all the vehicles had been painted with just this colour, "private army of one of the corporations which used to mine here, Atlas, I think. Not sure why they are still here."
As if they had heard her, one of the riders stood up, the armoured man in the vehicle right next to theirs illuminating the tall figure, allowing them all to see that it was a woman in her late thirties, hair so blonde that it was almost white dangling down her back in a tight braid, the way her voice carried when she addressed the group which by now had formed telling Michiru that she was used to giving commands and to having them heard.
"Commander Steele, of the Crimson Lance", she was polite enough to introduce herself, even though her next words made the people around grumble and growl, "we know that a piece of the vault key is in this town! Hand it over now, and this can be resolved peacefully!"
Someone's going to tell her, Michiru suddenly was sure, her heart speeding up and her mouth going dry as she took in the number of soldiers Steele had brought along; she was good, but she knew she wasn't good enough to take all of them out before they'd realize what was happening and would start shooting back.
They have no reason to keep quiet, the treacherously frightened part of her brain went on, no matter how hard she tried to shut it up, they'll tell her, and then she'll take the piece from you, and it will all have been for nothing…
"We don't know nothin' about a key", a male voice called out, surprising her, an emotion she hid well though, not wanting to give herself away, "you came to the wrong town with your lil army!"
"I doubt it", Steele replied, her voice cold, "we know for a fact that a vault hunter is in your town."
Michiru had a second to hope that this was all they knew, and no further details; then, the commander made a short, sharp gesture with one hand, and within seconds, the sniper found herself in the spotlight as several vehicles trained their lights on her, illuminating Haruka and her perfectly against the night sky.
"Miss Kaioh", Steele smiled, a smile which was as hard and cold as her voice, "hand over the key, please, and no one will get hurt."
"Leave 'er alone!" another man called out, Michiru's surprise about this unexpected display of solidarity reaching new heights when she recognized him as the one she had humiliated shortly after her arrival in this town, "you mess with 'er, you mess with all of us!"
To Michiru's endless astonishment, these words apparently were taken as some sort of signal, all of the men and women who had amassed outside forming a protective cluster around Haruka and her; her hand fell to her gun as Steele's gaze darkened at the sight, and she had a moment to wonder if all these people, so willing to help someone who was a stranger to them would now pay with their lives once Steele would tell her soldiers to open fire… and then, the commander gave a sharp shake of her head, and the engines of their cars revved to life again, Steele levelling a baleful glare the sniper's way before she and her soldiers sped back into the night, leaving her to think that, while this confrontation had been won, all of this was far from over.