Zoisite
I threw the slender knife with enough force to make it pass through the target and shatter against the stone wall on the far side of it. The pieces of the blade fell to the ground, joining a growing pile of metal shards and shafts. Cursing, I reached for another projectile, only to discover that I’d already broken them all.

“Chikuso!” I stamped my foot on the ground, the childish fit twisting my features into a pained growl. “It’s not fair,” I sniffed quietly, blinking back tears.

It just wasn’t worth blasting the remaining targets to bits.

Strangely, this was different from the last time Kunzite-sama had been away, if no less hurtful. Then, it had been loneliness and grief, simple and easily cured. I longed for his presence this time as well, so the loneliness remained, but it was mixed up with so much anger and frustration and confusion. I just didn’t understand what was up with us anymore.

And – at which thought I bit my lip in equal parts anger and shame – I’m too much of a coward to find out.

Teleporting to Neptune was not beyond my power. I could easily have sought him out anytime. But I never did. Partly, that was because a lot of things indicated that he wouldn’t want me to. Oh, I’d been worrying about that when he went to the Moon too, but that had been different, a child’s need for reassurance.

This wasn’t only apprehension about what he felt or thought, because I didn’t even know what I felt or thought anymore.

I wanted back what we’d used to have. I wanted something completely different. I just don’t know, darkness damn it all!

It was all contributing to making me behave so spoiled and insufferable that even I was disgusted and annoyed and could hardly stand my own company. That considered, I didn’t much blame anyone for avoiding me. In the case of Mamoru it wasn’t very obvious, because the prince and I never sought each other out without Jadeite pushing us to, but Jadeite himself was another matter entirely.

I’d never claim that we were best friends or anything, but we were socially dependent on each other. Unsurprisingly, given that the other Tennou and the princeling were the only real company there was. And since Kunzite-sama and Nephrite were so much older, Jadeite and I had inevitably spent a lot of time together. Or actually, that was true for him but not for me. Regardless of whether it was with any of my comrades or some random adult, I’d always been the little one, the cute child that everyone pampered and cuddled. I’d never had to be alone.

Anyway, my blonde fellow troublemaker currently spent a greater amount of time away from me than with me. That was probably the only thing saving our friendship. Even Nephrite mostly stayed out of my path, ever since that…embarrassing incident…in the Complex. Except a curt exhortation to the extent of ‘it was dumb, forget about it’, he’d hardly said two words to me.

While I would normally appreciate this, I now sorely missed the opportunity to blow off some steam fighting with him. I generally lost, but that wasn’t the point. At least it wasn’t the only point. I fisted my hands halfway unconsciously. It was absolutely infuriating to admit, but even if I didn’t, it was quite possible that Nephrite knew why Kunzite-sama had suddenly bolted off to the Outer Rim.

There were a number of different facets of Kunzite-sama, and whereas I was closest to one of them, I had practically no contact with some of the others. Kunzite-sama the adult. Kunzite-sama Nephrite’s friend. I’d always considered my Kunzite-sama to be the real person, but even if that was true, I wasn’t content with just a part of him anymore. Not when he was my everything.

“Zoisite?” called a familiar voice, and I turned to stand face to face with Nephrite.

Speak of the Devil… I thought wryly.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, not particularly hostile but still wishing I hadn’t already thrown all the knives away. He’d spanked me and he’d kissed me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop him, should he get any more weird ideas.

“I figured that we should probably talk,” he informed in the voice he had taken to using when trying to persuade someone, a smooth, mature tone.

“About what?”

“About what happened. I want to apologize.”

“Why?” I challenged. “You’ve never been sorry about bothering me before, and you didn’t seem overly sorry then either.”

His face set. “I’m not doing this for you, but for myself. I don’t want to sink to your level.”

“Oh?” I said with mock innocence. This was stupid, but I didn’t care. “Last time you lowered yourself pretty willingly.”

“Fine,” he said tightly. “If that’s how you prefer it.”

“No,” I surprised us both by saying. “I don’t know why the hell you did that, and I don’t care. It makes no difference now, so let’s just forget about it. After all, I guess I kind of invited you to.”

But it was odd – Jadeite or Kunzite-sama or pretty much anyone else wouldn’t have overly surprised me, but this was Nephrite, who normally would never willingly touch me. Right now, thought, it was more important that he stayed than why that had happened, because even his company was better than none. And, blushing, I could admit that maybe it hadn’t been entirely his fault. Sure, I hadn’t wanted him to kiss me, but I had been testing his reactions.

“Already forgotten,” Nephrite replied. “Seriously, perhaps we ought to try and get along.”

“Yeah, sure.” I licked my lips. “When do you think he’s coming back?” My question came out sounding more forlorn than I’d intended, giving away a vulnerability that I would normally have detested to show Nephrite. I still didn’t like it, but as almost-nice as he was being, I should take the chance to find out what I could.

“Don’t know.”

“If he had to go away, at least he could have chosen to stay with an uglier Senshi,” left my lips before I could stop myself. It was more than true – Michiru-san was much too pretty for my liking. And there had been rumors…No, I had better not think about those if I wanted to keep my emotions under some slender control.

Nephrite gave me an amused glance, quickly transforming it into a concerned one when I glared at him. It seemed he’d actually been serious about keeping our peace. Strange, but not altogether displeasing.

“By the way,” he said, “how come you didn’t tell him?”

“No way!” I exclaimed, cheeks burning. “I’d certainly never tell him anything like that, be it with you or Jadeite or anyone, or I’d die of embarrassment.” Then a thought struck me, and my mouth went off on me again, “Or do you think he’d be jealous?”

It was fortunate for whatever tentative armed truce we’d achieved that he kept from answering.

So, evidently, I’m uneasy with the thought of him spending time with Michiru, and I want/expect him to be jealous of me as well. At least that was sorted out, even if it only made the overall confusion worse. I continued to blush. I was such an idiot these days.

* * * * * * * *

Kunzite
I stared blankly out over the clear blue vista, absently taking in the row of darkcreature bodies turning to dust. Wondering what my life had come to that such a sight was now more an expected one.

I’d lost track of how long I’d been on Neptune – with nothing to separate them, the days had started to blur, and I didn’t care about it enough to consult a calendar. It wasn’t that the weeks had been unpleasant, it was just that any world was grey without Zoisite to light it up. I’d made my decision, though, and I would not back down on it. I couldn’t.

And so I killed darkcreatures and manufactured wards and studied magical sciences on this planet that I rather liked, often accompanied by its ruler, whom I had found I also rather liked. With the tranquil seas and beautiful, sensible people, I should have been happy.

Obviously I wasn’t, but then I hadn’t expected to be. At least I was content. It was not a bad existence. It just lacked real color. But you can be all right with such a life too, where you’re never really hurt and never really happy.

Undoubtedly, I was doing more good here than on Earth, where wards kept the greater demons out and mundane soldiers killed off the youma and occasional oni that managed to slip past. If only it hadn’t felt so meaningless.

It is, though, I admitted, frying another bunch of youma. I could have set up a planetary ward at the lines of those adorning the Inner planets, and all these little skirmishes would be over with. No one had asked me to do so, possibly because they believed it out of my abilities, and I hadn’t offered. I had no wish to be tied down to a single planet like that.

This is ludicrous. I’d thought I’d moved past the point of contemplating returning to Earth, but the concept had lost none of its appeal while staying locked up by what slender control I still executed over my thoughts. It’s not only for Zoisite, I tried to convince myself. It’d be nice even just to see Nephrite again. It’s just a bit of homesickness. Nothing more. It’s ridiculous not to cure it.

I was fairly good at lying to myself, but not skilled enough to pull this one off. Earth had never been home to me. It was just a place where I’d happened to spend an ample amount of time, not one to which I had any sentimental emotional bonds. Ironically, I might have considered Neptune home if I’d grown up here – it was a realm much more to my liking, with endless vistas and stable government. Moreover, I was welcome here in a sense that I’d never been on Earth, whose inhabitants hadn’t yet grown desperate enough to like anyone killing darkcreatures. In the Golden Kingdom, I was supposed to obey and do whatever magic I was told, so as to pay them back for letting me live there. Here, I was pampered and obeyed, so as to pay me back for protecting the planet. Even though we’d grown too big to be intimidated or pushed around in any realm, I did prefer the Neptunian alternative.

It’s easier to exert authority over people who haven’t changed your diapers or hurt you when you were little. Still, those sessions in the aching white light beneath the Complex hadn’t been that hard for me. My fear of being hurt emotionally had kept me from feeling anything much, and so it had been almost a relief to have some sort of feeling wash through me, even if it was one of pain.

But then they started hurting him, and everything changed. Zoisite was the one person whom I never managed to cut myself off from, however much I tried. Nephrite in pain was uncomfortable, Jadeite pitiful, but I’d never held either of them when they cried.

It was always worst the days he woke up happy, because that meant seeing that brilliant smile pale into a white face with shivering lips and eyes wide and empty like those of a doll. It began when he was five and I ten, and during the three years that followed, his knees grew only bonier where they dug into my thighs, his death-grip around my neck only tighter and more desperate.

And so in the end I told them that I’d kill them if they ever touched him again.

I never said they couldn’t continue with the rest of us, that it was Zoisite who deserved something better, but obviously they never realized that I wouldn’t have protested it on anyone else’s account. Nephrite and Jadeite could take care of their own decisions, and I was satisfied as long as Zoisite was safe from whatever convoluted plans they’d had for him. However, even though I was old enough by then to see some of the necessity of getting used to pain in order to control the magic, I wasn’t quite enough of a masochist to get tortured on my free will, so in the end none of us went back there.

Most of the people who had conducted the experiments disappeared shortly thereafter, and the few I saw wouldn’t look at me, presumably fearing retribution. One or the other might even have felt guilty about torturing a pack of little children. You can do a lot of things when you think you have to, though, and both war and desire for knowledge are persuasive causes. I doubt they regretted it.

I’d done rather similar things myself, even if it wasn’t on humans. You don’t have to be that to experience pain, but I still didn’t feel too bad about it. Being able to shut off most of your emotions can be really handy sometimes. Quite often, actually.

Endymion had never mentioned anything about what he had us subjected to, perhaps because he genuinely didn’t know much about it. He’d always tried to keep away from us as much as he reasonably could. Still, the uncomfortable manner in which he’d turned his gaze away from bruises and cuts spoke not of ignorance. Relisiana, who was probably the one telling Endymion which papers to sign, had never talked about it either, though she was not one to look away from uncomfortable truths like injured faces or limps.

Usually they healed us if we suffered physical damage, but when performing that kind of training, it would have been stupid never to teach the aches and inconveniences of slow, natural mending. Isila-san had spotted cuts on my chest once, when I forgot myself in her over-heated room and opened the uppermost buttons of my shirt. It was all I could do to hinder her from taking the piece of clothing off entirely and discover the rest of the wounds, most of which much worse than the scratches so unfortunately reviled to her. I told her some wild story about having fallen of a horse and landing in a rose bush and then being too embarrassed about it to alert a healer. Because she really had no other choice, she chose to believe the single actual lie I’d ever told her.

That, if anything, showed how very little she knew of me. It was not as though I could just take a ride at my leisure, not when it might mean parting for even a little while from their watchful eyes. And it was not as though I would have done it even if I could have. I didn’t even like horses. They were a pitifully primitive method of transport at best, and mean creatures at that. Zoisite liked them, though.

And so the circle was closed and I was thinking about him yet again. Fortunately, my attention was ripped from its object of obsession by a voice that had become familiar.

“Kunzite-san? Since this appears to have been the last wave, I’m going back to the palace. Would you care to join me?”

“Certainly, Michiru-san.”

I teleported both of us in what she called a chivalrous fashion. We landed just outside the more private dining hall that Michiru-san preferred to use when not entertaining guests. I discovered the thought with a startle – since when was I anything but a guest myself?

On the other hand, I’d been here for more than half a year, and I didn’t represent anyone but myself. Possibly she regarded me as a person and nothing else. That’d be a first. And a highly unlikely first at that. Michiru-san was sharp. It was not in her nature to forget little things such as power and destiny.

Favoring me with that typical small, secret smile of hers, she detransformed in a shower of glowing droplets of energy. Having seen everything there was to see countless times before, I didn’t care to avert my eyes. Practical as she was, Michiru-san had put on her dinner get-up before we went out to fight youma this morning, hence she was already dressed and ready. She was quite lovely.

“Ready?” I asked, offering her my arm and reaching out with the other hand to push the door open.

“Oh, I am.”

I gave my usual grey uniform a quizzical look. “I didn’t think I stained it today.”

“Considering how much the Councilors are sure to gossip about us, I’d rather wish you put on something more formal and flashy.”

She had a point. Regardless of how little ceremonial the Outer realms employed compared to the Inner ones, it was still a necessary part of being royalty. And with all the countless rumors there already were about us, it’d be the last straw if I escorted her in such a plain fashion.

It seemed my sense of appropriate clothing was improving – I only had to transform my uniform half a dozen times before she was satisfied. I led her into the room dressed in what still looked vaguely like a military uniform, though nobody who actually expected to do battle would choose white as main color or decorate with all these flaps and straps. Well, it was still better than the normal court attire, and less frilly than what the army commanders of the Council wore.

We had dinner with five of them, three men and two women, all with graying hair. Surprisingly, it seemed some of them had actually been chosen for their competence. I listened to their plans with a limited interest – I much rather wished Michiru-san would let me in on meetings with different subjects, thus giving me a better idea of how governing a planet really worked, but that wasn’t likely. However close we might be in some aspects, those aspects were limited. That was the freedom of being with her – my secrets were safe and buried, because she had as many of her own. We were both the sort of people who preferred to keep private thoughts private. I could never have stayed here this long if that had not been the case, and she probably wouldn’t have wanted me to.

I was welcome to any strategy meeting I cared to attend, which was hardly surprising, considering how big a part I’d come to play in the defense system. This particular discussion wasn’t long, but came to a closure before we’d even finished the food. Not too terribly unexpected, since their main goal was to use me as much as possible while I was there, and for that they didn’t need any elaborate strategies.

Hence it wasn’t long before all of us retired, Michiru-san and I making our way to her quarters, where, or so she claimed, she wanted to pick out what to wear for the ball later on. I would supposedly be making comments. In reality, of course, she would simply choose what she preferred and have me redesigned my outfit until we made a perfect fit.

No, it was not strange that there were such a number of rumors about us, especially as neither of us, to my knowledge, had attempted to quench the gossip. Not strange at all, as I was in her private rooms and she in mine, as we were both young and plausible to fall in love. One nobleman in particular, a certain Kuno, was especially convinced of our supposed romantic relationship, something that Michiru-san and her sister seemed to find very amusing. Well, if she’d actually read through all his pathetic attempts at love letters, I could see why she enjoyed getting a little revenge.

But it was rather surprising, when one thought about it, how little substance there really was beyond all that gossip. Smiling wryly, I gave the tableau hanging on the far wall a glance. The lovely portrait of her younger sister Laura, which Michiru-san had finished shortly after my arrival, betrayed a certain fondness for the lines of a female body. In the very beginning, it had made me wonder… but I respected her too much to believe that she’d spend time with me if she didn’t derive some sort of enjoyment from it. She was a dedicated warrior, would doubtlessly have done much worse to save her planet if push come to show – but I wasn’t here because of her, and she certainly knew that.

As for me – I liked her, I respected her, I was even fairly attracted to her. I’d tried so hard to blot out the image of Zoisite with the picture of Michiru-san. Not with much result, unfortunately.

“I think I’m decided,” Michiru-san announced, turning to me with a possibly suggestive smile. Taking the hint, I leaned down to kiss her.

Maybe this time her eyes won’t turn green on me.

They did. They always did.

Fortunately or otherwise, the kiss was soon broken. Instead, she took hold of my hand, not hard, but with a certain firmness.

“I would like to show you something,” she said, a hesitantly feverish look in her blue eyes. “Come?”

At my nod, she proceeded to lead me through an uncountable number of palace corridors. I wondered once more why I was seemingly the only one who remembered how to teleport.

At long length we reached our destination, which turned out to be a rather humble music room, unexceptional save for the enormous white piano that resided in it. I sat down on its stool as Michiru-san rescued her violin from its cage, closing her eyes as she placed it against her neck and began to play. I’d heard her perform variations of the nameless song before, but those notes had never been trembling with quite the searing beauty that these ones expressed.

As the piece drew to a close, I found myself touching the instrument in front of me. Letting a searching finger stroke over the smooth surface, I discovered that it wasn’t made of tree, as I’d expected, but rather of stone. I lowered my hand to press one of the tangents.

“Don’t!” Michiru-san cried, and I looked up in surprise as she forcefully slapped my fingers from the piano. I continued to gaze at her questioningly, and she uncertainly brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “I apologize. I just… Never mind.”

She didn’t have to bow very deeply to reach my lips. Her eyes weren’t green this time – she was a beautiful girl with blue eyes and sea-colored hair and we kissed and it was so wrong. There was nothing in the world but the void of longing and missing and anger and frustration and love. Zoisite, Zoisite, Zoisite. Nothing else in the world than him and my feelings for him.

I don’t know which one of us who said, “This isn’t working.” I meant it if it was I who’d spoken, could do nothing but agree if it was she, and it seemed she had come to the same conclusion.

“You’re in love with someone,” she said, proving that she knew me rather well after all. Since we had already established that it wasn’t her, the “else” went without saying.

“So are you,” I retorted softly in a rare flash of perception.

“Maybe so,” she allowed. Then, “I take it you are going back.”

I nodded. I had no other choice anymore. And maybe this time it’ll be all right. Maybe this time we can just be close innocently. We would have to be.

“Sumimasen, Michiru-san,” I said, uncertain myself if I meant it as “thank you” or “I’m sorry”.

* * * * * * * *

Michiru
I stared unseeingly at the smooth, unyielding surface of the wall, absently fingering a scratch on my arm. I hadn’t noticed it before stripping in preparation of my bath, or it would be healed. I’d thought of passing by a healer, but decided that it wasn’t worth it, not for such a small mark.

It was disgraceful to get hurt in battle with mere youma. Tired from usage of the Aqua Mirror or not, there should be no unexpected angels of attack against me. I was supposed to feel that kind of thing. But there was a different sensation expressed by the sea that had occupied my mind lately – a huge wave, but a good one, driven by the wind.

Besides, we’d all grown sloppy with Kunzite-san around. No one else had really needed to do much while he was here, and even this long after his departure the darkcreatures were fewer and the evil energy weaker than had used to be the case before he arrived.

Pity that he’d left, for more reasons than just his effectiveness as magician. We were compatible, and his presence had even had the nice effect of scaring Kuno off. If I’d been of a mind to marry for political reasons…but no, I’d made my choice when I slapped his hand from the piano tangents. He had no part in the song, and nothing else would ever be played on that instrument.

I smiled inwardly, because regardless of my intentions, he’d been truly happy exactly once during his time here, and that was when he stepped through the doorway that would take him back to Earth. He’d looked unexpectedly boyish in his tightly restrained excitement, and I momentarily wondered whom the person was that could make Kunzite-san fall desperately in love.

You’re in love with someone.

So are you.

Maybe so.

If the person who could play the other voice of the song existed, why yes, then I was indeed in love with him or her. If that person existed.

I closed my eyes with a thin, wry smile etched on my lips, raising the violin once more and letting the music come forth. I felt the wave wash burning through me as I let the music out into the air, enchanting tones sparkling for an instant before falling back into the nothingness from which I’d summoned them. Indeed, whatever it was that had been making the sea so stormy lately would surface soon.

And then it did. I could sense the water break gradually away to reveal it as it retreated up on the shore, coming steadily closer. It went through the palace, light and golden, to hesitate in the doorway for barely a moment. I kept my eyes closed and my face calm and serene as I continued to play.

I heard the distinct sound of steady, determined footsteps through the tones of my violin. The piano’s stool emitted a low creak, presumably adjusting to someone’s weight. A moment of silence – and then unskilled but talented fingers played over the tangents, the doubly pronounced notes shivering with the sharp beauty of a destined star’s perfection.

* * * * * * * *

Haruka
It’s kind of funny, when you think about it. That I went to Neptune, I mean.

Michiru always said it was fate, but I’ve never believed in such things. You do what you have to in order to make your life work, and if that happens to go along with what some destiny has planned for you, that’s mere coincidence. If I believed that any gods actually existed, I’d be furious about what a lousy job they’re doing – wouldn’t hesitate in the least to use the Space Sword to convince them of the necessity of retirement.

Fate or not, it’s still a funny coincidence. I always had been of the mind that one should solve one’s problems oneself, not run to others for protection. Traveling wasn’t my greatest priority.

The Inner planets offered little of interest – no, that was a lie. They offered a lot of interest, but nothing of definite use. Our worlds were too far apart. As for Saturn, I knew that Tomoe Hotaru was a girl-child – since I was certain that I would one day have to fight and hopefully destroy the Warrior of Ruin and her Silence Glaive, I preferred not to meet her.

It might have been a coward’s decision, but it was a wise one as well. I knew what I had to do. You can’t always afford to have a conscience.

But with Neptune, all of that was different, for some reason. Ever since I was little, I’d felt a certain pull from that particular planet, an urge to visit the endless stormy seas. I knew I could walk on them – they weren’t hostile, so the wind could carry me. A childish idea, but an appealing one all the same.

And one stormy night I stood gazing out the window, trying to spot the soft blue glow in the distance.

“Haruka-sama.”

“Mmh.” Turning my head just a little, I discovered the Council Secretary, a balding man in the usual robe of my advisors. Not that I generally cared to listen to much of what they said. But, unfortunately, I did have to sign a certain number of documents for the government to function, and he was, hardly surprisingly, carrying a thick stack of papers, hugging them to his chest like a baby.

“Haruka-sama, if you would look at these…”

“I’m going to Neptune,” I cut him off abruptly, deciding in an instant and almost startling myself by saying it aloud.

“That sounds ni – what?” He fiddled with his glasses for a second. “Excuse me, Haruka-sama – would you be kind enough to repeat yourself?”

“I’m going to Neptune,” I said again, firmly to avoid protests, but with an undeniable undertone of amusement. He wouldn’t take it for unkind, or at least I hoped he wouldn’t. I rather liked him, actually, at least for being one of the Councilors. “Inform everyone you want to. I’ll be back in a couple of days at the most.”

“As you say, Haruka-sama.” I winced as he bowed – I’d told him countless times that he didn’t have to, sympathizing with his old, creaking bones. I’d contemplated ordering him to stop it, but considering that this was the only one of my decrees that he executed less than perfectly, I had refrained. It was his choice.

I closed my eyes briefly, calling the Space Sword to my hand. Only when I already held its hilt in a steady grip did I transform. Even though the fuku was rudimentarily warded against cold, it was damn embarrassing to walk around in that freakishly short and frilly skirt. I’d used slacks and shirts when I was a commoner – I could perfectly well wear it now.

Still, the transformation was a necessary means to accomplish a teleport. As I had no previous experience in the field and as this was not what the power had been designed to do, it was actually rather straining. I was sweaty and panting when I eventually landed on Neptune. Pushing myself to my feet gradually, I curiously examined my surroundings.

I had landed on a beach, the deafening waves breaking only meters away from me. I was sure as hell lucky not to land in that. Maybe I really should start thinking ahead. I banished the thought with a shake of my head – froze in mid-motion as I heard something other than the wind and the water and my own breathing.

I flashed an apologetic grin at the Space Sword, then proceeded to use it as a walking stick while making my way towards the sound and/or the castle from which it came. The building was too small to be a proper palace, but a beautiful one all the same, poised dramatically over the sea.

By the time I was within sight from the guards at the port, I was feeling steady enough on my own two feet to raise the tip of the Space Sword from the ground. I also detransformed – the talisman should be enough evidence of who I was, and, as mentioned, I didn’t like showing up in the sailorfuku when I didn’t have to. It was different when I was actually doing something as Sailoruranus, because then there was a reason, but just walking around in it on my leisure…nah.

I could hear the sound clearly when I entered the castle, and almost froze up again. That song! The music that had erupted the very first time I transformed, that still played teasingly through my mind at odd hours of the day. It was here, and it was real, actual tones, coming from an equally real, physical source.

Rudely pushing the servants out of my way as I went, I sprinted towards it on legs that were suddenly wobbly. It felt like it was an eternity before I reached the little music room, but even with the extra time spent going in the wrong direction, it probably wasn’t more than a few minutes.

And then I did freeze again, at the sight of her. Blue-green hair and white housecoat and perfect face, crying out to me through the violin she played.

I saw the piano, then, and suddenly knew where my footsteps were taking me. I’d hardly ever played before, but this one melody I knew by heart. And I did have the long, slender fingers one would associate with a pianist.

I realized when we played that I’d only ever heard an echo of this music – that I’d only ever seen weak reflections of this girl whom I thought but didn’t know to be Kaioh Michiru alias Sailorneptune.

She finally opened her eyes as the last shimmering tone faded, revealing the truest blue color I’d ever seen. She put her violin down on top of the piano, then moved to stand in front of me. “Michiru,” she said, offering her hand.

“Haruka,” I replied, shaking it. None of us let go. For a split second, I wanted to, because all this emotion frightened me terribly, but the fear was just a little part of it, and in the end I tugged her gently down into my lap.

“Haruka,” she said, touching a fingertip to my face.

“Michiru,” I said, encircling her waist with one arm.

We held each other companionably in the afterglow.