Chapter 12:
Haruka could feel her nerves growing as Setsuna eyed her, seeming to study her.
"So, Haruka, mind telling me why you were in your room with the door locked and why you weren't answering."
Haruka remained silent, so Setsuna pressed on.
"Could it be because you were doing something you didn't want anyone else to see."
Haruka's silence remained.
"You know, you are going to have to answer me at some point."
Haruka looked down, unable to meet Setsuna's gaze.
"It's just as I said earlier. I just wanted some privacy."
"Why?"
"I just did, that's all."
Setsuna could sense that there was something Haruka wasn't telling her, but she was unsure how to get her to reveal what it was. However, she figured taking a gentle approach would be for the best.
"Haruka, you can tell me anything. You know that, don't you?"
Setsuna asked, gently taking hold of Haruka's hand.
Upon having her hand grabbed, Haruka shifted uncomfortably. This action did not go unnoticed by Setsuna.
"Is everything alright? You seem a bit uncomfortable."
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Setsuna picked up on a slight shake in Haruka's voice, and noticed that her eyes were fixated on her shirt sleeve.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Setsuna went to push Haruka's sleeve up, only to have the tall blonde rip her arm away.
"No! Don't!"
Panic was clear in Haruka's voice.
"Haruka, what are you hiding?"
"Nothing."
Haruka was now pulling on the sleeves of her shirt, as if she was trying to make them longer.
"Show me your arms."
Setsuna's voice was firm and a bit intimidating, but Haruka stood her ground.
"There's nothing to see. Now if you don't mind, I'm going for a walk."
Haruka then moved to go downstairs, but was stopped by Setsuna stepping in front of her.
"You claimed you weren't trying to hide anything. If that's true, why won't you show me your arms?"
Haruka chewed on her bottom lip, trying to come up with a good excuse.
"I…uh…because I…um."
"Well? I'm waiting."
Haruka sighed in defeat, realizing she wasn't going to be able to come up with a good excuse.
"Promise me you won't tell Hotaru or Michiru. Especially not Hotaru. I don't want her thinking that feeding me breakfast was the cause."
"I'm not making any promises until you show me your arms."
Setsuna's tone made it clear that there was no room for argument.
Being unable to do nothing other than accept her fate, Haruka rolled up her sleeves and showed Setsuna her arms.
Upon closer inspection, Setsuna discovered that Haruka had written various insults down her arms. Insults such as ugly, fat, useless, stupid, unlovable, and worthless were listed on Haruka's arms. There were even a few homophobic insults thrown in, which really took Setsuna by surprise.
"Come with me."
Setsuna said, taking Haruka by the arm and leading her to the bathroom. She then grabbed a washcloth and ran it under warm water, before using it to gently scrub the offensive words off of Haruka's arms.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully, Haruka. None of these words are true, and I don't want you ever believing for a second that they are."
Haruka gave no response. She just stood there with a blank expression on her face, as the words disappeared from her arms.
"What possessed you to write such things about yourself anyway?"
Once again Haruka gave no response, and her unresponsiveness was beginning to worry Setsuna.
"Haruka, talk to me. What's going through your head?"
Setsuna asked, having finished washing the words off of Haruka's arms.
"I don't want to do this anymore."
Haruka's voice sounded hollow.
"You don't want to do what anymore?"
"This."
Haruka vaguely gestured to herself and the air around her.
"Haruka, do you have something planned?"
"Not really."
Haruka's answer was enough to cause alarm bells to go off in Setsuna's head, and she immediately sprang into action.
"We're going to the hospital."
Setsuna then took Haruka by the hand and tried to lead her out of the bathroom, but was stopped by the blonde grabbing firmly onto the bathroom sink with her free hand.
"I don't need to go to the hospital, I'm fine."
"You most certainly are not fine, now let go of the sink."
Setsuna then tried to pull Haruka away from the sink, but she refused to budge.
"Let go of the sink, or so help me I'll take your car keys away for a week."
Haruka's jaw dropped at Setsuna's words.
"Did you just threaten to ground me?"
"I did."
Haruka rolled her eyes and let out a small chuckle.
"Good one, Sets."
"I'm not joking, Haruka. Now let go of the sink."
"You do realize you don't have the authority to ground me, right? Besides, I need my car to get to school. How will I get to school if I can't drive?"
"I'm the actual adult here in this situation, therefore I have the authority to ground you. As far as how you will get to school goes, either I will drive you or Michiru will."
"Have you seen Michiru when she drives? I swear that girl wrote the book on road safety. I once took off my seat belt as she was pulling into our driveway, and she acted like I was gonna fly through the windshield."
"She just cares about your safety. As do I, which is why I'm taking you to the hospital."
Setsuna then tried once again to pull Haruka away from the sink, but Haruka had managed to pull her other hand free from Setsuna's grip and was now holding tightly onto the sink with both hands.
"Haruka, release."
Setsuna commanded, pulling on the blonde's waist.
"Never!"
"You're being ridiculous, let go."
"No!"
"Listen, we can do this the hard way, the easy way, or the medium way."
Hearing Setsuna mention a medium way, Haruka turned her head to look at her. A look of confusion clear across her face.
"Or the semi-medium-easy-hard-way, or the sorta hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficulty-challenging way, or th-"
Haruka clamped her hands over Setsuna's mouth.
"Alright already, geez, I'll go to the hospital. Just please for the love of Neptune, stop whatever it is you're doing. Before I was depressed. Now I'm depressed, confused, and a little scared."
Setsuna gently removed Haruka's hands from her mouth and gave her a warm smile.
"Wonderful, let's get going then. We'll take my car."
Setsuna then made her way out of the bathroom, with Haruka following close behind.
End of chapter 12:
A/N: The part where Setsuna mentions doing things the hard way or easy way is actually a quote from a spongebob episode. The quote lives rent free in my head, so I wanted to use it.