Family afflictions

As the lead broke, Michiru rolled her eyes in annoyance. With her fingertips, she wiped the mess away, still grinding on the math problem underneath. Who could she fool? She struggled with algebra. All the numbers on the sheet were a chaotic assembly of nonsense.

Her mind wandered elsewhere and her eyes to the clock over the teacher's desk. The minute hand ticked in a slow pace forward. Leaning back in her chair, she observed the other students in the room. Everyone was intrigued in their work. The scribbling of pencils on paper generated an even sound in the background. But for the ears of the musician it was an unnerving scratching, that drove her mad. She couldn't concentrate on the subject anyway. Again her eyes wandered to the clock. The class was nearly over. The ongoing minute hand gave her hope. Michiru tried to pull herself together. She straightened her seating position and her gaze went back to the math book. But in the corner of the eye, she registered Haruka shuffling in her seat. The violinist laid her attention on her girlfriend, who propped her head on the palm of her hand, looking out of the window. Autumn leaves flew by, and the blond observed them while she blew strands of hair out of her face. A loving smile formed on Michiru's face.

Finally, the clock rescued her from the painful last school lesson for the week. With a sigh, she packed up her books and pencils to head out of the school building into the weekend. Since Monday, the hours felt like an eternity.

"Are you ready to go?" Michiru cringed as Haruka approached her. The voice of the racer sounded hollow. With a concerned expression on her face, the violinist rose from her chair. Haruka crossed her arms in front of her chest as her eyes met Michiru's.

"Do I have to ask?" The corner of Haruka's mouth twitched into a light smile. She shook her head, dropping her arms back to her sides. Michiru reached out to her girlfriend's hand, squeezing it tenderly.

"The bad feeling never left me through the day." The violinist nodded. The last night, the racer tossed in the sheets of their bed, until she woke up from a nightmare, covered in sweat. Massaging her temple with the hand that wasn't in Michiru's, she remembered the fragments of the dream she had. But no images of an apocalyptic future haunted her. It was the vision of a family meeting this Friday evening. After months of owning a shared flat, the couple found the time to invite their parents over, presenting them the new living situation. And they needed to talk to them about an important issue: their relationship status.

Nobody spoke a work on the short drive to the nearest convenience store. Michiru prepared herself with a shopping list she accidentally crumbled, brooding over the perfect rice for the curry. It was a simple meal. Their timespan between getting home from school and their guests arriving was too short for fancy shenanigans. Make it simple and solid. She repeated this mantra in her head. Meanwhile, Haruka stumbled through the aisles, randomly grabbing bags of food, like a bag of seaweed chips and oatmeal cookies. She held the packages tight to her body, while she stepped to Michiru, who scanned two packages of different rice brands.

"They are probably the same." Haruka spoke to her in a throaty voice. With an earnest expression on her face, she looked in the emotionless face of her girlfriend.

"But this one is cheaper, and I think it wouldn't make a difference at all to buy those." With a groan, Haruka rearranged the food packages in her hand and grabbed the expensive pack with her now free hand. Michiru placed the remaining rice back on the shelf. She didn't feel the need to complain about Haruka's behavior. Normally, it would bother her that the racer had no second thoughts when she spends money. This was the biggest discrepancy between them.

But they knew that they had to talk about this issue in order to not making their everyday life harder. Beating monsters while being threatened by death, and protecting a clumsy girl who was their leader. Michiru got more passionless about arguing over money.

"Do we have everything?" Michiru's eyes wandered between the shopping basket and her list. After she scanned every item, she fell deep in her thoughts. A coy smile formed on Haruka's lips while she observed her girlfriend. The violinist nibbled on her lower lip, tipping her pointer finger to her cheek.

"Yes. I think we… what is it?" With an irritated look, Michiru started to display her purchase on the counter. Routinized, the cashier scanned the products and named the price to them. In one smooth movement, the racer's hand was in the inside pocket of her red blazer, where she kept her wallet.

"This is on me. I made you buy this expensive rice, so I think I should pay. This time." She stretched the last words. Michiru's lips curled up into a warm smile, while the eyes of the cashier wandered between them, as he chewed unimpressed and loudly on a piece of gum.

The sun had disappeared behind the large buildings of the Juban district. Haruka's face shined pale in the dashboard lights. Michiru espied the rapid movement of the racer's eyes while she drove. Her left hand was glued to the shifting gear, while the other held the car steady. The violinist hated it when her girlfriend used the streets in the city as her personal racetrack. And Haruka respected this. However, the slow flow of the evening traffic scratched on her nerves. But she trained her patience like a muscle.

A loving smile formed on the violinist lips, feeling an urge to stretch out her hand, placing it on the gear, too. It was hard to hold back the intense desire. Maybe it was the stress or the knowing that they would reach another milestone of their relationship. Inducting the parents into this delicate truth made Michiru's palms sweaty. She rubbed them against the fabric of her skirt. Unconsciously, she started to pick the skin of her fingers. Suddenly, she felt Haruka's hand on hers. It got her off guard, and she pulled away harshly. "I am sorry." Her words sounded strange in the stillness of the car. Without looking away from the street, Haruka nodded with a smile and placed her hand for two seconds on Michiru's thigh, squeezing it gentle. "I am nervous, too." As they reached their home, Haruka drove her car into the underground garage of the building. After getting out of the trunk the school bags and the groceries, they walked in silence over to the elevator. The cheesy music in the cabin made the ride to their floor unintentionally comedic. To make the most of the awful situation, Haruka started so hum and sway to the awful tune. "Cheerful. Maybe we should get the record?" Michiru snorted. "Don't waste your money, when you have Japans highest ranked violinist by your side. I play it for you every morning if you want."

"You spoil me, Michiru." A bright smile appeared on Haruka's face. Michiru's knees got weak and she nearly dropped the grocery bag. That didn't pass the racer unnoticed. She observed the smaller girl worried. But she got her countenance back with the opening of the elevator doors.

"Is everything alright?" Michiru got in front of her girlfriend as they walked to their flat, turning around, beaming at the taller girl.

"Everything is fine. But your smile should come with a warning. I told you that." Haruka narrowed her eyes. Michiru stopped in her tracks and pinched the chest of the blond with her pointer finger.

"I mean this. Be carefully with these gifts of yours." With a laugh, Haruka shook her head. The tension in the air cleared out again. After they got into their flat and placed their purchases on the kitchen counter, they were reminded of all the work that had to be done.

"We should prepare the food first and shower later?" Haruka agreed with Michiru's suggestion. The curry tasted better after it simmered a bit longer on the stove. At least the racer followed this rule like a dogma. With a grave face, she checked the bubbling curry every two minutes.

"Do you think it gets faster when you monitor the pot like this?" Haruka blushed and closed the lid again. With a sigh, she turned around.

"I should better cool down a bit." Her shy confession was enough for Michiru to close the gap between them for a kiss. She blamed her flustered behavior later on the stress. Her hormones pushed her over the edge while she stood in the kitchen with the love of her life, on the verge to tell her parents that she had found her other half. It was the right kind of cheesiness she always wanted in her romantic life. The whole killing monsters and rescuing the world part was a little bummer. But she took it as it was.

"You're not helping." The words of the racer were mumbled between parting and recapturing the lips of her girlfriend.

"This isn't my intention. I am encouraging you." With a smile, Michiru leaned in for a final kiss, before she pushed her girlfriend in the direction of the bathroom. On the threshold, Haruka turned around with a troubled look on her face.

"Will you join me?" Michiru eyed her up with a mischievous smile, before she gestured the other girl to go. After the door closed behind Haruka, the violinist started to search for the pot for the rice. After an awful rattling of metal, she finally got the object of her desire. With a deep breath, she put the pot on the stove and grabbed the rice she washed earlier. This was the part she hated the most. For her, it was always a thing of luck to cook it right. Tenzin showed her a thousand times how she got the perfect condition. She failed embarrassingly often at this easy part. Since she lived with Haruka, there were some occasions she had to cook the rice on her own. But as she ruined it the first time, she panicked. Luckily, Haruka wasn't at home and her shame vanished without her ever noticing. Unfortunately, her pride stood in her way. The whole rice thing was a thorn in her proud. So she ran to the restaurant over the street and bought the cooked rice there from now on. After that incidence, she convinced Haruka to never eat at this particular restaurant, where she was already famous for her strange weekly order of cooked rice.

Michiru's traumatic memories of her cooking experiences were suddenly interrupted, as a loud noise from the bathroom let her jump. Curious, she looked over to the door, while she turned on the stove. Seconds later, a soaking wet Haruka stormed out of the bathroom. She cursed passionately while she ran into the hall. Michiru heard a suspicious hissing from behind the wall that slowly got quiet. After it stopped completely, Haruka reappeared in the kitchen. Michiru became a witness of a rare sight of the racer. She was heavily out of breath.

"What in the world…" The violinist wasn't able to finish her sentence because now Haruka stormed in her direction. Was she out of her mind? And why was she so wet?

Nonchalant, the racer pushed her girlfriend away from the stove like a maniac. But as Michiru saw what was going on behind her back, she was glad that Haruka had such sharp reflexes. She had accidentally turned on the wrong cooking plate and a cloth, she cleaned up the spilled water with, had cached fire. Without further thinking, Haruka threw the cloth in the pot with the rice and spilled the remaining half full package all over the floor in her rush. In between seconds, the panic in her face turned into a relaxed smile. But as her mind processed what she had done, her eyes widened.

"I am sorry, Michiru. The water. The shower. The fire. The shower exploded!" It took Michiru a minute to proceed all the things that happened in the last moments. Her gaze wandered from the pot to Haruka's frightened face and her wet shirt. Meanwhile, the smoke reached the fire alarm, which went on. They both placed their hands over the ears.

"Get the broom!" Michiru nodded in the direction of the hallway, but Haruka had other plans. With a painful expression on her face, she jumped on the kitchen counter and pushed on the button of the alarm.

"Haruka, what the hell is going on?" They looked at each other in confusion. Haruka rubbed through her hair, desperately searching for the right words to explain her distress. Michiru stepped closer and reached her hand out to touch the taller girl's shoulder. The posture of the racer stiffened, opening and closing her mouth. Searching for an answer around her, her view wandered and halted, as she looked down on the kitchen counter.

"There is blood." Her words were monoton. But Michiru was alarmed. She didn't cut herself, so it must be Haruka's blood. When she jumped on the counter, she got injured. Simultaneously, their eyes wandered down. A trail of blood transformed into a puddle under Haruka's foot.

"Fuck!" Haruka got her injured foot up and jumped over to a barstool at the counter. Michiru followed her, still in shock.

"I cut myself as the shower head smashed the glass wall." Michiru shook her head. Her eyes widened and looked over to the open bathroom door.

"What happened? The shower head did what?" Haruka grunted. But before she could explain everything, the phone rang. With a desperate outcry, the violinist marched over to the receiver, catching the call.

"Kaiou? Yes… No, thank you. We got this. Yes… alright. I tell her. Thank you! Goodbye." With a heavy sight, Michiru returned to Haruka, who looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"This was the concierge." Haruka furrowed her brow. In the last six months of living in this complex, they rarely saw the man, who had to repair their leaking shower for two weeks. Slowly, the pieces clicked in Michiru's mind. Deep in her thoughts, she started to nipple on the skin of her fingers again. Haruka would stop her doing this, but she was occupied with her bleeding foot.

"I need tweezers."

"Have you found the glass splinter?" Haruka nodded.

"Did he call because of the leaking shower? Well, we have a bigger problem now." Haruka's eyes widened as she spoke. With her fingers she picked on the edge of the splinter but lost her grip on it over and over. Michiru shook her head.

"The fire alarm has a direct connection to his office. But he wasn't there in time. And we have a problem with the water boiler." The look Haruka throw at Michiru was sharper than intended. With a loud groan, she pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. The violinist knew that her girlfriend could get a bad migraine.

"Maybe it is better when we cancel the dinner." They both observed the mess they made. Again, Haruka let out a groan.

"No. Now it couldn't get any worse, I think." Her lips curled up into a smile, and Michiru thought the racer lost her mind. But she was right. What could go wrong from now on?

"I get the first aid kit, and then we can clean up this mess. And I know who can help us with our shower problem." Haruka crocked her head. There was no chance that a plumber would come over on a Friday evening.

"Better?" Michiru looked up from the freshly wrapped wound. They smiled at each other in a short moment of tranquility.

"Almost." The expression on Michiru's face shifted. Without any further explanation, Haruka bent down, cupping the violinist chin pulling it up for a kiss.

"Now I am fine."

"I see. But we have to clean up all this." Haruka stood up and walked weakly to the bathroom door. There were little red dots from her blood on the floor.

"I wipe the water and the blood away and make a bath ready. We should hurry." Michiru nodded and handed her the mop, a bucket and pipe tongs. With a small, lipped smile, the racer nodded and got her hands on the work. The violinist turned around and threw the rice away. This wasn't her time to shine. She sighed and started to clean up the kitchen. They needed a plan. In one and a half hour, their parents would show up at the door. Her eyes wandered up to the clock on the living room wall and then down to the phone underneath. Slowly, she walked over and picked up the receiver. For a second she thought if it was a good idea to call the one number she knew without thinking twice. Hesitant, her fingers pushed the buttons and then the dial tune was audible. It took a while until someone picket up the line.

"Kaiou?" Michiru's respired as she heard her brother's voice answering her call.

"Hi, Tenzin. Here is Michiru. I need you…"

After she put the receiver back on the cradle, she ran her hand through her hair. The rice was ordered and Tenzin only had to pick it up. Hopefully, he would be there in time without crashing his motorbike. Worried, she looked down on the phone again. Should she call back and tell him she can handle this on her own? She shook her head. He was her big brother and always there for her. Whenever a shower leaked or a weird amount of rice for a dinner party had to be bought. She trusted him. And he must be already on his way.

Without further thinking, she turned around and headed to the bathroom. On her way over, she buttoned down her school uniform and opened up her skirt. As she walked through the door, her eyes descried Haruka in the bath tub. Her injured foot dangled out of the water. Michiru bit her button lip. Eyes remaining on the relaxed face of her girlfriend, the violinist peeled herself out of her clothes.

"How inviting." Haruka opened up one eye as Michiru stood naked in front of the tub. With a grin, she moved to make room for the other girl. But as Michiru reached her foot out to step into the water, she dragged her toes away in surprise. The water was cold. An apologetic impression formed on Haruka's face.

"The boiler." Michiru nodded and closed her eyes as she overcame the awfulness of not having hot water. Carefully, she let herself down between Haruka's legs.

"I have an idea to heat the water up." She let her body sink, placing her hands on the racer's shoulders. Leaning in for a kiss, Haruka cached up with the idea Michiru had. They needed a distraction from the stressful events of the evening. But as their movements weren't as in unison as usual, the violinist pushed herself away gently. She sensed that there was something that bothered the blond.

"Your mind is busy, Haruka." The corner of the racer's mouth twitched. She knew there was no use in lying to the psychic girl. Deep in her thoughts, she took her hands away from Michiru's skin and placed them on the rim of the bath tub. But the smaller girl noticed the pain in Haruka's gaze, as she scanned her naked body. The desire killed her inside.

"I think, we should wait with this." With an understanding smile, Michiru laid her hand on top of Haruka's.

"It is not, that I don't want you, but…" With the shaking of her head, she interrupted the racer. The longing for the touch of her girlfriend was overwhelmingly, but the violinist got herself together.

"You're right. We should wait." With a loving smile, she leaned down for a last quick kiss before they continued with the preparation for the evening. Their lips hoovered in the sphere of each other, as they were disturbed again. A loud bang made them cringe and look up to the bathroom door.

"No. No. No." Pure horror was written all over Tenzin's face. Out of reflex, Michiru pushed herself back from Haruka's body with widened eyes. Tenzin stumbled backwards out of the room, while Michiru hurried to get out of the tub and into her bathrobe to follow her outraged brother. The racer grimaced in pain at the whole scene. A loud groan escaped her, as she leaned her head back. This evening was a disaster.

"Tenzin! Please, stop!" The musician roamed through the living room area of the flat. He scratched his head and avoided his sister's sight. Michiru crossed her arms. Without saying anything further, her gaze burned through the leather jacket of her brother. Cracking an eyebrow, she inflated her cheeks to hold her anger back.

After a few moments, Tenzin stopped in his tracks and found finally the courage to look up. He opened and closed his mouth several times until he had an idea what to say about the situation he found himself in.

"This is hard." His mumble was barely audible. After a deep breath, Michiru let her arms sink to her sides and reduced the space between her brother and her. Seeing a family member in a delicate situation like this could unsettle the best.

"Are you alright?" The musician rubbed his hands over his face.

"I… you… you are my precious little sister." Michiru's stone-cold expression stared back into Tenzin's disturbed face. She knew that he had way more experience in such intimate things than her. But she had no intentions to discuss this topic further.

"Yes, and I am an adult, so can we take this aside, please?" Tenzin nodded shyly. It was for the best to bury this topic into the ground. Everyone would have had their own nightmares this night. They needed no more fuel.

Wet footsteps announced Haruka's appearance behind Michiru. Hands deep in the pockets of her bathrobe, she minded staying away a bit from her girlfriend. Tenzin hold up his hands.

"Hello, Tenzin." Haruka greeted the musician with all the calmness she could apply to her dry voice. He answered with a small, lipped smile. With a gasp, Michiru remembered that she had no chance to tell Haruka, that she called her brother. Embarrassed, she rubbed the back of her hand.

"I called Tenzin to help us with our little shower problem."

"And I bought some rice for the dinner. Besides, I should send you some greetings from the guys in the restaurant." Michiru blushed and Haruka raised an eyebrow, giving the shorter girl a sour side glance. Then her eyes wandered to the clock on the wall. Their parents would arrive in thirty minutes. There was no time left to argue.

"Alright!" Tenzin clapped in his hands and pointed to the kitchen counter where white food containers stood.

"I brought my tools. Let me check this ugly shower thing." With an insane laughter, he grabbed his bag from the floor. Still a bit weak on his knees, he teetered to the bathroom. Haruka let out a groan, looking up to the ceiling.

"Michiru?"

"Yes?"

"Where are the bad monsters, when we need them?"

Haruka struggled to get into her midnight blue dinner jacket, while she entered the bathroom. With narrowed eyes, Tenzin checked the repaired shower head in front of him.

"I think this can work. You are lucky that we had the spare one at home." He turned his head around to the racer, who still had just one arm in her jacket. She observed the repaired shower. Replacing the broken glass was by far the bigger problem. With a warm smile, she thanked the musician, who stretched his back.

"If you don't mind, I would like to use your toilet before I head out." The racer finally got her second arm into her jacket and turned around to leave. On the doorstep, she remembered an important thing she needed to tell Tenzin before he closed the bathroom door.

"Tenzin, don't lock the closer, it is…"

"… broken?" Loud cursing came through the door while the musician rattled on the handle. The rent was clearly too high for this hellhole of a flat. With a frightful expression, Michiru appeared behind the racer.

"What happened?" With a grim smile, Haruka turned half around to face her worried girlfriend. Her finger pointed to the lock.

"It broke." Everything fell out of Michiru's face. This was madness. But there was no time to think about this, because the doorbell rang.

"Everything is alright."

"We need to call the concierge." A shuffling sound could be heard behind the closed door.

"Don't scare our mom. Just say the bathroom is out of order." Haruka closed her eyes and laid her head back. Luckily, they had a second bathroom next to Michiru's bedroom.

With a sigh, Haruka answered the door while Michiru called the concierge back. But he wasn't in his office. After a few moments, Michiru put the receiver back on the cradle. Internally, she screamed, closing her eyes and picking the skin on her fingers again.

"Michiru! Let it go." The violinist flinched and looked in the angry face of her mother. She hated the nervous tick of her daughter. Without replying to the outcry, she took the older woman in her arms.

"Hello mom. Good to see you. I hope you got here well?" Nagasi Kaiou pushed her daughter some inches away. With an intense glare, she scanned the violinist.

"Yes, yes." She put a soft smile on and rubbed the arms of the girl in a motherly manner. "Where are Haruka's parents?" They were another doorbell rang away.

Describing the situation at the dining table as tense, would be an understatement. For long periods of time, the clicking of the chopsticks was the only sound in the room. Zelda and Nagasi tried to keep a short talk about fashion up. But after exchanging compliments, the flow came to a hold. Haruto and Minato glanced shyly at each other, but couldn't start a conversation. After asking the kids how their time at the Mugen Academy was, the table went completely silent.

"The curry is… good." Zelda's words sounded odd in the tranquility of the room. Michiru gulped the food in her mouth down and thanked her for the compliment.

"And the interior is very… modern." Haruka knew that her mother was no fan of the minimalistic furniture, but she nodded with a small, lipped smile. And it was better that her mother thought they were invested in a modern design than being too busy to furnish their flat.

"And this is the cue for our gift, your father and I bought you, Michiru." Their eyes went to Nagasi, who got up from her chair and walked into the hallway. After a few seconds, she came back with a plant in her hand. A bright smile formed on her face. Haruka and Michiru exchanged an embarrassed side glance. It was one of the ugliest plants Michiru had ever seen in her life. The combination of purple and green with red thorns was too much for the sensitive eye of the artist.

"Thank you." Michiru's mom placed the plant in front of the pair. Her father noticed the concerned look on his daughter's face. With the clearing of his throat, he stood up.

"Where is the bathroom?"

"You just go through Michiru's room. The door on the left."

"Michiru's room", he muttered and turned around. His voice sounded questioning and he looked confused. Then he faced the table again, pointing at the plant.

"I can water it for-" But he couldn't finish his sentence. As he grabbed the pot, lightning struck and the plant grew into a monster. Haruka had to be careful with the things she wished for.

"What in the little shop of horrors…" Michiru was interrupted by her girlfriend that dragged her away from the dangerous creature. It swung her tendrils like tentacles and destroyed the dinnerware.

Zelda screamed and ran with Haruto behind her in the kitchen area to hide behind the counter. Before going down on the floor, her husband fished the bag of sea chips from the top. The designer scolded Haruto in a hissed voice. Michiru nearly laughed at this surreal situation. But they had to do something. The plant would steal the heart of her father, when they didn't turn into their sailor form. With all the people in the same room, this was a difficult task. And Michiru's mom was not out of sight. She dragged her unconscious husband over the floor in the direction of the violinist bedroom. Then there heard a loud banging noise behind them. Tenzin crashed the door and stood with a shocked impression in the middle of the chaos.

"Tenzin!" The scream of her mother brought Michiru back to reality. She had to get her transformation stick, but the tendrils were everywhere. Tangled up in the arms of this monster, she couldn't help anyone.

"We can't transform here." Haruka spoke to her through gritted teeth while she looked around in a panic. Then a cup crashed on one of the tendrils in front of them. With widened eyes, Michiru's gaze wandered from the shattered ceramic up to her angry brother. That move had no impact, besides the violinist growing rage.

"Tenzin, can you just…" But her words were disrupted by glowing lightning and the voice of a young girl, Michiru and Haruka knew very well.

"What the…" Haruka's word faded as Sailor Moon placed her final attack and destroyed the plant monster. The chaos was gone and silence crawled over the whole room.

Perplex, the young couple observed their destroyed flat. The dishes were shattered; food lay on the floor, and their guest blinked in disbelieve. The evening went wrong beyond their imagination. How was it even possible to explain all this to the insurance company, when they could not process what happened right in everyone's eyesight.

"Hello!" The shrill voice of Sailor Moon got them back into the horror of their reality. Michiru's mom stepped up to them.

"What in the world? And who are you?" She addressed the blond, jovial girl that inspected the surrounding destruction.

"Oh, we followed you from the flower shop, where you bought this ugly plant."

"Who is 'we'?" Sailor Moon scratched her head with a shy laugh. Then she pointed to the door, where Sailor Pluto appeared. The tall woman crossed her arms with a serious expression on her face.

"We thought the woman with the tile hair was you. We were concerned that you got a plant from Telulu. And we were confused of this older man in your company." Nagasi sighed and her daughter grimaced.

"Told you, mom. You need a makeover." Tenzin grinned while he got up with his nearly unconscious father he held up. With an audible breath, she stepped to the other side of her husband to help her son, dragging him to the sofa.

"Maybe, you're right. No one wants to look like their mother." Michiru gave Nagasi a sympathetic side glance.

"I can help you with this!" Zelda's call was followed by the significant sound of a wine bottle being opened. Haruka chuckled.

"It's fun to have the family over", the racer mumbled to her girlfriend with a toothy smile. Michiru blew a strain out of her face.

"Are you sure?"

"We should prohibit buying plants for us." Tenzin cleared his throat and put on a hurtful face.

"But you can invite the whole family the next time." Michiru groaned. That remark remembered her why they invited their parents in the first place. While Haruto and Zelda walked slowly over to join the rest of the group, the violinist searched for the right way to tell them the important news.

"Well, we have kind of a hidden agenda in mind." Zelda took a sip from her wine glass, giving her husband a side glances with a crocked eyebrow.

"Michiru, just tell us. After this fuzz." Nagasi's view wandered between her daughter and Zelda, forth and back. It was strange that the violinist, who stood on big stages and fought against many monsters, lost her courage at this moment. Even the little nudge from Haruka couldn't help. So the racer opened her mouth, impatient.

"I think, we have to get one thing straight with you."

"You are not", shouted Tenzin annoyed from the couch. His mother gave him a smack on the thigh.

"Tenzin! Let your sister and her girlfriend tell the story." The musician rolled his eyes. With a grumpy face, he leaned back while his eyes locked with the gaze of Pluto. The two blushed. Michiru and Haruka stand there motionless, mouths agape.

"I think at this point everyone knew." Sailor Moon came nearer with her fingers on her chin, getting the evidence together. The corner of Michiru's lip twitched. Then she felt the warm hand of Haruka on her shoulder.

"That or they think you have an affair with an older man." Everyone started to laugh. Everything they planned out went down the drain that hopefully wasn't broken anymore.

Exhausted, Haruka slumped between the cushions of the couch. Yawing, she laid her arm around Michiru's shoulders, who tried to relax with shut eyes. Their faces were illuminated by the advertisement boards and lights of the streets under their window.

"What a day." The voice of the racer sounded raspy. Michiru opened her eyes a bit and turned her head to face the other girl. Tenzin was the last one who left them, only a few minutes ago. They were alone. Finally, thought Michiru, and stretched her hand out to caress the cheek of her counterpart.

"I love the way the shadows play with your features. I should draw you." Haruka snorted. Rubbing her lids, she turned around.

"Again? Aren't you tired of my face?" A shadow went over the smaller girl's face. Cocking her head, she came nearer to have a better look. Haruka's lip flinched. As far as Michiru could say it in the gloomy light, she could tell that something insecure hid behind the racer's eyes.

"How could I." In a flowing movement, the violinist flung her legs over Haruka's lap, placing her hands on the shoulders of the girl underneath her. She saw her throat gulping. Slowly, she moved her face closer, so their lips were about to touch.

"And now I can savor every inch of you. Uninterrupted."

"Well not really."

"Tenzin!" With a wide grin, the musician smashed on the light and grabbed his tool back. Waving them goodbye, he turned around, forgot to turn the light off and hushed out of the door. Maybe, they should call it a day.