Haruka's birthday present
The massive double doors opened with magicked ease to reveal the dashing young Sword fighting professor, blonde hair rakishly askew and her tall, lean form clothed in blues and grays.
‘Yes,’ Michiru thought with an appreciative eye, ‘The woman most assuredly looked fine anything.’
Haruka’s blue tones gave an artistic contrast to Michiru’s own red ensemble: a red-maroon fitted jacket and a patterned scarf that brushed down to a long skirt, covering her legs in a elegant shade darker than red wine. She stood there, her hair flowing free around her face, a red flower amidst the light dusting of snow on the wide pathway leading to the Academy.
Haruka strode casually to the other woman, deliberately taking her time to reach her and, equally as deliberate, stopping right before Michiru, their bodies lightly touching. “You sent for me?” came the deep murmur.
Michiru needed only to lift her chin to taste the teasing smile on those lips. And that she did, spending a long moment to indulge in the warmth of the other.
She buried herself into Haruka’s taller form when they parted, content to let Haruka's strength surround her. "Tanjoubi omedetou," she said in greeting, her lips light against Haruka's neck.
A gentle kiss at her temple answered her. “Were those the last 5 kisses?” Haruka asked, the soft amused tone spoken into her ear. She was referring to the Hershey kisses Michiru had been leaving her in various places throughout that day. The last count had been 20.
Michiru smiled at Haruka’s intuition. “Actually,” Michiru conceded, “The last of them are with your present.”
“Oh?” Michiru didn't need to look up to see the blonde eyebrow quirk with that teasing tone. Then Haruka began to press her hands against Michiru’s body, searching for said chocolates.
“Not me, baka,” Michiru giggled, wiggling away from those long fingers. "Not yet, at least," leaving a teasing kiss on Haruka's lips. Then she turned around, facing the empty pathway. She felt Haruka’s questioning gaze, but Michiru just smiled and squeezed the other woman’s hand. Speaking a soft phrase, she lifted the charm of invisibility she had placed.
And there, in what had just been an empty pathway, appeared a beautiful Hyperion blue colored sports car.*
Haruka’s jaw went slack as she watched the car of her dreams seemingly appear out of thin air. Coherent thought was something she was definitely not capable of at that moment. She slowly went to the car, her emerald eyes taking in the sight of it, her fingers, nearly shaking, taking in the touch of its contours.
'Holy crap ... how did she know...?'
“Do you remember what you told me the first time we met?” Michiru asked softly, as if hearing Haruka's internal questions. “You said that you wished you'd been a racecar driver and that this was the car you wanted.”
Haruka turned back to face Michiru and the aqua-haired woman chuckled at the complete amazement in Haruka’s expression. ‘I suppose she likes it,” Michiru giggled proudly to herself. She reached into her pockets and tossed the keys to the stunned blonde, who instinctively caught them in mid-air. “Don’t you want to try it out?” she drawled, the answer obvious with the look on Haruka’s face.
A fierce grin appeared on Haruka’s face, but instead of going to the car as Michiru had expected, she went to Michiru. Long fingers gently cupped the woman’s face, tracing fine eyebrows and lightly blushed cheeks. 'Do you know?' Haruka wondered silently, 'Do you know how much you mean to me?' She kissed Michiru’s forehead, eyes, cheeks, hoping that Michiru would understand what she could not say with words. Finally, she pressed a lingering kiss on her lips. “Aishiteru,” Haruka whispered when they finally parted, her voice deep with emotion.
To Haruka, it was more than just the car that sparked such a deep reaction within her. She remembered the first time she had laid eyes on such a car, a small, scrawny tomboy of 6 years, her grimy face pressed up against the chain link fence as she literally felt the cars roar on the racetrack. But she knew that she had a ghost of a chance in ever having such a thing.
There were a lot of things she thought she never would have. But somehow, Michiru managed, time and time again, to make her believe otherwise.
Sliding her hands into aqua curls, Haruka held Michiru tight in her arms, breathing in her scent and relishing in the tangibility of their love.
(*OOC: I think Haruka’s favorite car is the Ferrari 512M… Anyone know for sure?)
Haruka looked like she was four years old, the way her eyes were shining and her face was gleaming. Of course, four year olds didn’t drive Ferraris, but that the point was Haruka was happy and that, of course, made Michiru happy.
They had set out of the Academy grounds, going from 0 to 60 mph in less than a heartbeat, cruising at an easy 90 mph when Michiru began to give Haruka directions. At first, the blonde pseudo-racer thought nothing of it, gamely following Michiru’s seemingly off-hand instructions. But then Haruka noticed the unfamiliarity of their surroundings - the green that blurred past them was of a place she had not seen before. “Where are we going?” she asked lightly, shifting as she navigated through a rather steep turn, pulling the car into a drift and quite smoothly pulling back into gear and forward unto the trail.
"You'll see," was the response. So Haruka shrugged and kept going, happy enough to be breaking her new car and having her beautiful woman beside her. It was only when they were coming upon a dead end marked by a dense mass of trees that Haruka began to be concerned. “Ah, Michiru …”
Michiru effected not to notice Haruka’s nervousness. “Keep going straight,” she answered matter-of-factly. If Haruka had been able to look closer, she would have noticed the mischievous sparkle in those ocean shade eyes.
But Haruka did not catch that sparkle and became more and more worried as they neared the line of trees. She tried to gauge the distances between the individual trees, hoping that there was some opening she wasn’t seeing where the car could pass through. But she couldn’t see one. ‘She buys me the car in order to total it?!?!’ Haruka thought frantically. 'And not only that, but with us inside??
“Ano … Michiru … love …” Trying to keep her voice level, but the nervousness was clear in the tightness of her speech.
The woman in question was powdering her nose. “Do you remember those instruments you were asking about?”
Haruka was sure millions of her brain cells had exploded by then. “No,” she all but yelled, frustrated and appalled with Michiru’s lack of concern and the seeming lack of relation the question had with their current state.
Michiru smirked, reaching over to gently pry Haruka’s white knuckled left hand from the steering wheel to touch a button on the instrument panel. “Do you feel that button? Now don’t push it until I tell you, okay?” She smiled and kissed Haruka’s cheek before settling back to fix her hair.
Haruka blinked. ‘I’ve fallen in love with a crazy woman,’ she realized dazedly. ‘God, what have I done to deserve this? I mean sure, I’m not exactly heaven material but you know, you could’ve just sent me an email…’
They were getting frighteningly close now and Haruka accelerated with all she had, hoping that maybe they’d break through the trees and into some kind of clearing.
So tense was she in bracing for the inevitable impact that she was nearly shocked out of breath when car and occupants passed through the trees unscathed. Brown and green wavered in her vision and in her stunned state she realized that it had just been an illusion.
‘Well, that’s good…’
And just as suddenly she felt the car lose traction, feeling not the solidity of ground beneath them and seeing not the blur of illusory foliage.
Instead, she saw the sky and the very horizon below them. Below them.
‘THIS IS NOT GOOD AT ALL!!!’
A million expletives were on the tip of her tongue, effecting to curse and damn everything from the heavens they were suspended in to the ground they were heading towards, all of which beginning with the obligatory "ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod." And then Michiru broke through that stream in that infuriatingly calm voice: “You can press the button now.”
Haruka nearly took out the whole panel in her panic stricken haste to follow those directions. Punching the button, she closed her eyes, expecting some ejection to take place, their seats to be thrown clear of the death car and parachutes opening above them to let them float downwards to earth as she watched her prized car crash into oblivion …
“Haruka, open your eyes.”
'But I don't wanna!' Haruka's four year old self whined, but a touch at her hand pried a reluctant emerald eye open. Then both eyes were wide and blinking, shocked at the view of not the ever-closer ground as she had frantically feared but of the sky and its clouds, the soft horizon and the setting sun slowly turning in. The compartment had changed, resembling that - no, having transformed into that of a cockpit. She looked out the window. Fixed wings. She settled back and blinked.
‘… What?!?!?’
Michiru’s laugh shook her from her daze, realization dawning as she watched Michiru’s form shake with laughter. Haruka glared at her, poking the woman and causing her to squirm. “You planned this all along, you minx! You scared the living shit out of me, you know that??” she growled. ‘Making me think we were going to crash, goddamn …’ But she couldn’t really be angry. Already a smile was creeping into her glaring features. Michiru had gotten her, and she had gotten her good. 'Serves me right after all the crap I've done to her,' Haruka thought ruefully, running her hands over the new instrumentation.
“Where did you get this?” she asked when Michiru’s laughter turned to an amused sigh.
A sly look answered her. “A woman never tells.”
Haruka smirked. “Even after some … persuasion …?”
“It depends on the kind of persuasion.”
Silence.
An elegant eyebrow arched. “It takes more than one kiss to persuade me.”
“Who said I was done?” came the amused response. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you go tonight.”