Chapter 14:
Once they arrived back at home, Haruka exited the car without a word and headed inside. Setsuna followed behind shortly after.
When she made it inside, she was met with a worried looking Hotaru and Michiru.
Before either of them could ask what was wrong with Haruka, Setsuna gestured for Michiru to step closer to her.
Once she stepped closer, Setsuna leaned in and whispered into her ear.
"Go be with her. She shouldn't be alone right now."
Michiru felt her worry for her lover skyrocket, and she quickly made her way upstairs.
Setsuna then turned her attention to Hotaru.
"Come with me into the living room. I have something very serious I need to discuss with you."
"Is it about Haruka-papa?"
Setsuna gave a solemn nod, then ushered Hotaru into the living room.
Meanwhile upstairs, Michiru was sitting next to a forlorn looking Haruka.
Seeing her love in such a state concerned Michiru greatly, and she just pulled Haruka into a tight embrace.
Haruka for her part didn't make any effort to return the embrace. She just sat there, allowing herself to be held by Michiru.
After a few minutes of silence, Michiru had finally decided to ask the question that had been plaguing her mind since Setsuna had instructed her to go be with Haruka.
"Haruka, Setsuna told me that you shouldn't be left alone. Any idea why she told me that?"
Haruka remained silent and wrapped her arms around Michiru, burying her face into her chest.
"I don't wanna talk about it. Can you please just hold me?"
Haruka was unable to hide the shakiness in her voice.
Michiru swallowed a lump in her throat. It pained her greatly to see her normally confident lover in such a vulnerable state.
She wanted desperately to get Haruka to talk about what was bothering her, but knew that trying to pry anything out of her would be futile. So she pulled Haruka onto her lap and began gently scratching her back.
After a bit more time had passed, Haruka slowly lifted her head up and looked into Michiru's eyes.
Michiru looked back into Haruka's and could feel her heart ache at the amount of pain she could see in them.
Michiru was about to speak, but was stopped by Haruka speaking first.
"Setsuna and I didn't run errands. She took me to the hospital."
Michiru looked at Haruka in shock.
"What? Why?"
"Because I had written some hurtful things on my arms and told her I didn't want to do this anymore."
"You don't want to do what anymore?"
"Live."
Michiru could feel her heart shatter at that single word.
"That must be why Setsuna told me she didn't want Haruka to be left alone."
Michiru thought.
"Why don't you want to live anymore?"
"Because I'm tired."
"What are you tired of?"
"Everything."
"Such as?"
Haruka pulled herself away from Michiru and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"I'm nothing more than a fat, stupid, ugly, useless waste of space, that's constantly letting everyone around her down. I can't go one fucking day without feeling like everything is just collapsing around me. I'm struggling to find the joy in things that once used to so easily bring me joy. I'm a terrible girlfriend, because all I do is make you worry about me. I honestly don't see what you see in me. I'll never be good enough for you and I don't understand why you bother to waste your time on someone like me."
By this point, Haruka had tears streaming down her face.
Her words had rendered Michiru speechless. Michiru knew Haruka was struggling, but had no idea just how bad things were.
"There's something else too."
"What is it?"
"There was a man at the hospital that I think knows my dad."
"What makes you think he knows your dad?"
"Because he told, well more like yelled at his daughter not to make him miss his meeting with someone that had the last name Tenou."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a coincidence?"
Haruka shook her head.
"I thought it could be at first, but when he looked at me I got this cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was looking at me like I reminded him of someone, but he couldn't quite place his finger on who. Plus the way he yelled at Yuiko reminded me so much of my dad."
"Who's Yuiko?"
"A girl I literally ran into at the hospital, who told me I was by far the cutest hallucination she had ever seen."
"Hallucination?"
Haruka shrugged.
"I guess she sees things that aren't really there, and thought I wasn't really there."
Michiru nodded her head in understanding.
"Did anything else happen?"
Haruka shook her head.
"Having that man stare at me though…I don't know. I guess it just made me paranoid or something. Like, what if on the off chance he does know my dad and tells him that he saw me?"
"Let's say hypothetically he does know your dad and mentions seeing you or at least thinks he saw you, what's the worst that could possibly happen?"
"You don't wanna know."
Haruka whispered, her eyes wide and her face pale.
"Ruka…what did your dad do to you?"
Haruka took a quick glance at Michiru then looked back down. She knew exactly what her girlfriend was asking. She wanted to know how just the mere thought of a single man had the power to incapacitate the normally confident racer.
Haruka clamped her eyes shut and shook her head. Trying to shake away any images or memories she had of her dad, that had decided to invade her mind at that moment.
She then began to slowly rock herself back and forth, while whispering "don't tell" and "no one can ever know" over and over again.
Michiru reached over and began rubbing her girlfriend's back, her worry for her rising steadily.
After about ten minutes had passed, Haruka had finally stopped rocking back and forth, and slowly opened her eyes.
"Can I have some time alone?"
Haruka asked, her voice devoid of any energy.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Please, Michi."
Haruka said, giving the aqua-haired beauty a pleading look.
Michiru felt torn. Her gut was telling her to not grant her lover's request, but her heart was telling her to trust the girl sitting next to her.
"I don't know, Ruka."
"I won't do anything, I promise."
Michiru looked into Haruka's eyes, and felt powerless to deny her.
"Leave the door open, okay?"
Haruka gave a nod.
Michiru then gave her a kiss on the forehead, then left to go see what Setsuna and Hotaru were up to.
End of chapter 14: