Michiru had been expecting a lot of things when Haruka had told her that she knew of some man selling weapons in the general area of the Trash Coast; what she hadn't expected though was to end up on what only could be described as a junkyard, her scepticism clearly showing on her face when Haruka stopped the bike at the rusted gate and told her that they had arrived.
"Haruka", she voiced her doubts, looking at all the discarded stuff she could see past the rather sturdy fence, "this is a junkyard."
"Yup", Haruka agreed at once, earning a raised eyebrow from the sniper, "but don't let that fool you, the guy who lives here is a bit kooky, but one of the best weapon smiths on the planet. People bring him the weapons they don't need anymore and he repairs and improves them and sells them."
"Well, worth a look, I suppose", Michiru had to admit with a small sigh, eying the gate and the junk she could see left and right of it again, "and it's not like we have much of a choice, we do need weapons."
"He might surprise you", Haruka let her know, not managed to take her scepticism away; still not quite sure that this was a good idea, Michiru watched how the blonde moved over to the gate, only to flinch when the taller woman banged her fist against it several times and yelled to the man apparently living in the junkyard. "Hey, Earl! Open up, customers!"
For a while, nothing happened, making Michiru wonder if someone was actually there; then, a loud crunching broke the silence, and the gate slowly swung open, allowing them to enter the junkyard, Haruka taking the lead this time, the sniper close behind her, her hand automatically dropping to her hip, only to remind her of the fact that the weapon she had carried there for so long was gone.
"Enter", a scratchy voice Michiru immediately associated with "old man" came from somewhere within the mountains of junk; again, she wished for a weapon as Haruka led the way, manoeuvring through the mountains of junk with a certainty which told the sniper that it wasn't her first visit.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination, a small hut Michiru at the first glance almost didn't recognize at one, as it had been built from junk and blended into the surroundings; a tiny window was pushed open in the heavy steel door, and angry eyes glared at them, the same scratchy old-man-voice which had asked them to enter demanding to know what they wanted.
"We need weapons", Haruka replied, Michiru noticing that she kept a safe distance to the tiny window, making her wonder how sane this man exactly was, "and any other supplies you might sell, food, canteens for water and medical supplies."
"Do I look like a doctor to you", Earl screeched in reply, the unpleasant sound of his voice forcing Michiru to hold back a grimace, "you can look at guns but that's it! What do you need!"
"A machine gun for me", Haruka replied, "a sniper rifle, if you have one, for my companion here, and a pistol for her, too."
"Wait there", Earl gruffly gave back, then his face vanished from the tiny window; they heard him move around in his tiny shelter, a few clanks and bangs coming from it – before a hatch at the bottom of the door was flung open and he pushed out an assortment of weapons, telling them in his scratchy voice to take their pick.
Haruka quickly found a machine gun she liked, pointing it out to the elder man; Michiru took her time, weighing each of the three sniper rifles he had presented her with, testing the scope and picking random targets on the junkyard to get a feel for how they fired, if they shot straight and how strong the recoil was.
None of the rifles had the high quality she was used to, but at least one of them appeared to be made well enough to be acceptable; and to her relief, she found a handgun, as well, letting Earl know that she wanted to purchase both of those and a supply of ammo.
"You got cash?" he demanded to know in reply, "I can tell that you're from some fancy planet, you don't talk like the Pandorians, but I don't take no cards or other rich people crap. Cash or get the Hell off my junkyard."
It was fortunate, Michiru thought to herself, that neither Steele, nor her soldiers had bothered to search her for anything else than weapons and the vault key pieces; thanks to that oversight or lack of care, she still had money, reassuring Earl with cold politeness that she could pay, and demanding to know how much he wanted for the whole lot.
"Seven hundred and fifty for the three guns", he replied at once, "and twenty-five for each box of ammo."
Michiru knew that he was asking for much more than the guns were actually worth, but also was aware that they didn't have much of a choice – already for armed people, Pandora was dangerous, and travelling without any weapons was akin to suicide.
"Deal", she thus said, not bothering to haggle; if her immediate agreement surprised Earl, he didn't let it show through his voice, but simply told her to put the money on the flat board he had used to display the guns, the sniper counting out the amount and adding enough for three boxes of ammo for each gun.
The board was yanked back into the little house so harshly that Michiru almost expected the money to fly off, but thankfully, it made it inside safely; and then, a minute later, the board was pushed back on, the ammo now on it, accompanied by Earl gruffly telling them to get lost now.
"Guess we have to find food and medical supplies somewhere else", Haruka dryly commented while Michiru collected the boxes of ammo, then handed her those for her new machine gun; smirking, the sniper nodded, her relief to have weapons again too big to let her worry much about the lack of other supplies.
The handgun was a big too small to fit into the holster just right, but Michiru figured that it would do; having the gun on her hip already felt good, but strapping the sniper rifle to her back was even better, making her realize how strangely incomplete she had felt without any weapons.
Judging from the happy look on Haruka's face, she felt pretty much the same; just like Michiru's handgun, her machine gun didn't fit into her holster quite correctly, but she was bothered by this even less than the sniper, figuring that it didn't matter for as long as she could get it out quickly whenever it was needed.
"So", she said out loud, while she tucked the boxes of ammo into her pockets, "now that we got weapons again, we should look for someone to sell us some supplies and then try to get our stuff back from the Crimson Lance?"
"You wanna get killed, you do that", Earl found it necessary to add his opinion, clearly not caring that now, they knew he was eavesdropping, "what the Hell did the Lance take from you that you wanna take them on? Your favourite puppy? I got a skag when he was a little puppy, his name's Skrappy, he's my best friend!"
Not quite sure how to reply to this, Michiru raised an eyebrow at Haruka; the blonde just shrugged in reply, then raised her voice so Earl would hear, giving him an answer she knew wouldn't satisfy him, but not really caring, not after they had gotten what they had wanted from him.
"None of your business", she let him know, her snippy tone forcing Michiru to hold back a smirk, "and, since you can't sell us food or medical supplies, our business is done here. Have a good day."
"You a vault hunter, aren't you", Earl demanded to know in response, completely ignoring what Haruka had said, "maybe I can help you. You lookin for the key pieces? That what the Crimson Lance took from you?"
"What do you know about the vault", Michiru was the one to answer this time, raising an eyebrow even though he hadn't bothered to open the little window again and thus probably couldn't see her, "I'll pay you for any useful information you might give us."
"I've seen one of them key piece thingies", Earl told her, "around the neck of a bandit boss, they have their camp not far from here and buy ammo from me. Says it's a good luck charm, I don't think he knows what it really is."
"Where is this bandit camp?" the sniper inquired, hearing a low chuckle from the man, his voice smug when he responded, telling her he wouldn't say another word until they'd paid him for the information.
"Three-hundred should do", he added, "or, you know, with you being so pretty, maybe if you're… a bit nice to me, I'll tell you for free."
At this, Michiru raised an eyebrow, not even willing to dignify this with an answer; apparently, Haruka had other ideas though, surprising the sniper with the low growl she let out – before she marched over to the door, removing her machine gun from the holster as she did so, a startled a cry coming from Earl when she used it moments later to blast out the lock, then kicked the door open, several cries of protest coming from the man when she grabbed his collar next and pulled him out of his little house quite roughly.
"No, no, stop!" he cried, quite the pathetic figure, Michiru thought to herself, a scrawny old man with a few wisps of hair on his head and dirt on his wrinkled clothes, "I wasn't serious, I was kidding! Skrappy defend me!"
Once more glad that she had a gun again, Michiru let her hand drop onto it, ready to draw and shoot the moment the skag Earl had mentioned would show itself; nothing happened though, and after a few moments, Haruka decided that the alleged pet skag of the man was no threat and shook Earl a bit, just to get her point across.
"I see you have a few teeth left", she then snarled, her sudden anger just as surprising to the sniper as her initial rather violent reaction; she had to admit though that she enjoyed this sudden display of possessiveness, feeling a familiar tingle in certain areas of her body when the blonde kept talking, "so if you don't want me to knock them out, you will first apologize and then tell us where that camp is, and who that leader is."
"Okay, okay!" Earl cried, making Michiru wonder how he could do business with bandits if he apparently was that scared of violence, "I'm sorry, okay? Don't let her hit me, jeez!"
"Accepted", Michiru replied, before Haruka really could get the idea to start knocking out teeth; in response, the blonde shook the frightened man once more, and he hurriedly continued, eager for her to calm down.
"North of here", he let her know, looking at the sniper pleadingly, as if hoping that she would speak up on his behalf, "he's called Big Boris, he's freakin huge, okay, he'll rip you apart with his bare hands."
"I doubt he'll get close enough", Michiru smiled, gesturing at her new sniper rifle, "but thank you for the warning. Haruka, I think you can let go of him now."
Haruka grumbled, but did as the sniper had suggested; Earl slumped down in response, wiping sweat off his brow, sounding insecure when he asked them if they would leave him alone now, far from the smug tone he had used before, unable to hide his relief when Michiru nodded.
"Thanks for your help", she then sweetly said, focusing on the blonde afterwards, "shall we, Haruka?"
"Yeah", Haruka gruffly gave back, with another baleful glare at Earl; he gulped visibly, then scurried back into his house the moment the taller woman had turned her back on him, grumbling under his breath about the ruined door, not daring to address the issue directly with the two women though.
"North, he said", Michiru mused the moment he had pulled the door close and they could hear him rummage around inside, probably in an attempt to block the now unlockable door, "but he didn't say how far. Good thing we still have the bike though, do you know if there's any other trader around where we can get food?"
"Unfortunately not", Haruka sighed, then brightened up, her anger at Earl apparently forgotten, "but if we go to kick bandit ass, they will have some stuff we can salvage."
"Good point", Michiru nodded, remembering the supplies they had gotten from other abandoned camps; gesturing vaguely at the junkyard's exit, she asked if they should get moving, then, Haruka nodding at once, the sniper making sure that they had moved far away enough from the little house that Earl couldn't hear them anymore before she spoke up again.
"You know", she murmured, stopping her walk and turning to face Haruka, placing one hand on her chest, so that she could feel her heartbeat, "it was quite… exciting how possessive and angry you got at the outlandish suggestion this man dared to make. I think that is the first time in my life someone defended me like this."
"The people you've been hanging out with are jerks, then", Haruka replied at once, making her smile again, "cause no one talks to my girl that way, and gets away with it."
At hearing Haruka call her "my girl", a strange mixture of emotions flooded the sniper; a pleasant tingle ran down her spine while her heart clenched up, as she simultaneously was touched by the ease with which Haruka had practically claimed her as hers, and had been reminded that she wouldn't stay on Pandora forever, the thought of leaving Haruka behind once they'd found the vault paining her more each time she allowed it to surface.
Again, Haruka didn't let it show if she had similar thoughts, but just kept holding her gaze, with warmth and affection in her eyes; and after a moment, Michiru decided to forget about the future for now and focus on the moment, pulling the taller woman down for a tender kiss, focusing on how good kissing Haruka made her feel instead of on what the future might hold for them, even though she could never push the thoughts out of her mind completely.