#sittingoverheredreaming

“I know what it is!” Haruka spat. “I’m not fucking stupid!” 

It was just like popping a balloon, just a little bit of pressure, just a little bit of aim. 

“This manages to be both crass and childish, you know.” Yaten took a swirl of wine. Seiya’d forgotten anyone else was there. She was happy enough to keep acting like it was true. 

Seiya looked around. It was relatively peaceful in the bar, quiet except for the few people who were looking over occasionally at Haruka’s little outbursts. Haruka was clutching her beer close to her like a child with a bottle and for one instant, Seiya almost felt sorry for her. But why should she? She had MIchiru, who loved her, and who was rich, and so why should she give a single solitary shit about hurting Haruka’s feelings? 

“Oh please,” she took a swig of beer, “we all know Michiru’s uses for your tongue don’t involve intellectual stimulation. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a kept lover,” Yaten rolled her eyes and moved away from the table, Haruka’s face growing hot, “But you know, people get bored with--” 

That was enough. She hadn’t even finished. She had a whole bit about Haruka’s parents getting bored with her that she’d have to stick in a back pocket. 

Seiya had been expecting this, and Haruka still caught her across the jaw as they fell. She was long, and she was fast, and so Seiya knew she was at a distinct advantage in that way, but Haruka was also angry, and hurt, and these things turned her into a bull just waiting for a sword in its side. She managed to get a good one in the stomach and cuffed her in the ear before a group of men pulled Haruka off the top of her. 

If Seiya could have felt anything but a sense of cruel satisfaction, she might have felt bad, seeing Haruka get tossed out, her ear turning red, tipping her head up like that meant no one could see she was almost crying. Idiot. Seiya got up off the ground and dusted herself off, pulling a last swing out of her beer. It’d be stupid to go out the front, where Haruka was probably moping or slowly trudging her way home back to Michiru. If she were smart, she’d get some noodles or something and clean up a little first. MIchiru didn’t like it when Haruka got into fights. She might find herself as on the outs as Seiya. 

Maybe Seiya thought that was alright. 

She slipped out the back, leaving her yen on the table, and whistled as she headed back to the apartment. The pleasure of the victory began to slip away from her as she headed down the dark alleyway, small yellow lights of counters where they friend and grilled fish laid out in front of her. 

There was a very sudden and unexpected pain in her shoulder, and Seiya Kou quite rapidly found her face in close contact with a wall. She struggled to get out, but however she turned, the bright hot pain in her shoulder continued, or worsened. More humiliatingly, it felt like whoever it was wasn’t even trying. 

“Just stay the fuck still or I’ll fucking wrench it out of the socket.” 

Mina. Seiya didn’t often choose to clash with the leader of the Sol Senshi, who seemed to think her command extended to Seiya’s team and maybe the whole universe. People thought she was goofy. Seiya wasn’t so stupid as to fall for Mina’s trapdoor spider act. She knew cunning when she saw it, and so she avoided Mina when she could. 

Currently, she could not. 

“Fine. Fine! God.” 

“Leave her the fuck alone.” 

Seiya lifted her head up off the wall. “The fuck do you--” 

Her head slammed back against the wall as the hold tightened. “Did I fucking stutter, Seiya?” She leaned forward and hissed into Seiya’s ear. “If she gets arrested because of you, you’re gonna mess with me. You will not enjoy that.” 

She pushed Seiya against the wall one more time and backed up. Seiya whirled around to face her, wiping off her cheek. 

“It’s not my fault she--”

“Oh, we both know that’s bullshit. Take some fucking responsibility.” 

Seiya rubbed at her shoulder and shrugged. Mina shook her head and looked out toward the snack counters and smaller bars. 

“You think Usagi would love you for this? For poking at Haruka till she bleeds? For getting her thrown out? For making her cry? Don’t tell Haruka I said that, she likes to pretend she’s a rock and an island.” 

Seiya leaned against the wall, but said nothing. Usagi didn’t love her anyway. There was no point in trying to be the person Usagi could could love, because she was always just going to love that milquetoast rich boy because of destiny and fate and whatever. So who cared? 

“Haruka’s not competition for you, Seiya.” Mina was looking at her now, drilling into her soul with those sharp eyes. “She thinks Usagi’s like, twelve. She’s in love with Michiru. What’s your fucking angle here? You know what?” she tossed up a hand. “Don’t answer me, cause you don’t know. You fucking clown on Haruka for getting hurt and lashing out but what the fuck are you doing, exactly?”

She turned to leave, and looked back one last time. 

“She’ll never love you. Get your shit together and accept it.” 

Now it was Seiya’s turn to tip her head, and turn back into the darkness. 

Haruka never left her vision again, staring at her intensely with those green eyes that she knew couldn’t be real but somehow had never felt more alive, the lips that she knew could not be there, and yet she could feel when they brushed against her head, her hand, her cheek.  The pain as her wounds knitted back into place was nothing compared to the searing agony in her chest, each beat of her traitorously living heart a reminder that she had ruined everything to save Haruka, to save the woman that she loved, and she had not even succeeded in that effort.

Once she was settled at home the others left her room, Rei doing so only after instructing her gently to get some sleep.  Hotaru offered to stay and provide healing, but Michiru asked to have some time alone - except she wasn’t really alone, Haruka was sitting on the bottom of the bed - and Hotaru did not push further.  The heavy wooden door shut and Michiru turned to the phantom of her lover, not wanting to say the words aloud but knowing that she needed to in order for them to become true.

“You are not really here.  My Haruka is dead.”  The sentence came out in a whisper that turned into a strangled, choking sob, her weakness on full display as tears ran openly down her face, dotting the hospital gown she still wore with markers of her own incompetence.

Haruka - not Haruka, she corrected internally, some manifestation of my own subconscious - shrugged in that same casual way she had a thousand times, her shoulders lifting slightly before relaxing again.  “I’m as here as you want me to be, Michi.”  She flipped herself onto her knees and crawled closer, and Michiru could swear that she felt weight and heat from where Haruka’s body covered her own.  “I’m as real as you need me to be.”  She kissed her again, less gently this time, a hand winding through Michiru’s hair in a familiar caress. 

“This isn’t real,” Michiru whispered between kisses, shaking her head.

Haruka smirked devilishly, her free hand wandering downwards, Michiru gasping softly.  “I’ll make it feel real.”  Michiru bit her lip, knowing that the touches weren’t really happening but unable to deny their effect on her regardless.  “Does this feel real to you?”  She let out a soft whimper under the familiar caresses, Haruka’s practiced hands knowing exactly what she wanted.

Haruka drew back suddenly, ceasing her touches, and Michiru nearly groaned with frustration.  “Do you want me to go away, Michi?  Just tell me to leave, and I’m not real any more.”  The sparkle in her eyes and the growing, almost predatory smile on her face indicated that she already knew the response, and as Michiru leaned forward to press her lips against her lover’s, she tasted of apples.

--

At the Shrine across town, Mercury pored over her handheld computer and studied the flashing symbols on the screen with ferocity.  The knowledge of how to unlock the hidden data from the days of the Silver Millenium had been gifted to her when she remembered the ancient, long-dead language that had been used then, its characters foreign to all living eyes but hers now.  She smiled at the thought that she was the last person with such knowledge, her lips pressed together in a thin line.

“How are we progressing, Mercury?”

Mercury jumped internally as the cool voice washed over her like a wave, whipping around and falling to a knee as instinctively as she breathed, the motion just as effortless and necessary.  “My Queen,” she responded, the air in front of her lips fogging just slightly, her element showing itself more in the presence of its mistress.  Her eyes stared at the hem of the white gown in front of her, everything else in the room dim and dull by comparison of its pearlescent shine.

“‘Princess’; I am not Queen as of yet,” she corrected, and Mercury felt a trickle of sweat freeze to the skin on her back, icing over.  “Stand, Mercury, and give me a report.”  A pause - then, as an afterthought: “Please.”  The last word sounded out of place with the others, a switch from her natural cadence to an attempt to pronounce a concept from a newly-learned foreign language.  Mercury stood and raised her eyes to the face of her ruler, though never high enough to make eye contact, her gaze resting on the flawless porcelain cheekbones.

“Princess,” Mercury forced out with mild effort, which she endured because she could not fathom the thought of disobedience, “As you are aware, Jupiter expended her energies greatly during the battle.  She was left in a comatose state.  You chose to revive me -” revive seemed the wrong word somehow; she had never been dead, just slumbering beneath the surface of a weak-willed teenage girl, one whose favor of kindness over science disgusted her - “two days ago, and have been resting your energies since then.”  

Her gaze drifted past Serenity to the bed behind her where Jupiter lay, Sleeping Beauty tucked between Rei’s anime-themed sheets, still and unresponsive as a fairytale illustration.  “There has been no change in Jupiter’s status.  I remain unable to wake her, and it is only through your daily energy sharing that she continues to exist in this state.”  The knowledge of her failure hung greatly over her head, and she resisted the urge to drop to her knees and beg forgiveness, if only because her Princess would not stand groveling from her soldiers.

“Scan me.  I would know the probability of a successful revival at my current energy levels.”  Mercury nodded and took a step backwards, raising the computer and tapping a few buttons to bring up the proper display.  Data scrolled across her visor and screen simultaneously as she allowed the computer to work, a few moments of silence passing as the calculations were completed.

“The probability of success at this time would be approximately 86.83%, Princess.  There is a 8.49% chance that she would improve slightly but not wake; a 3.14% chance that no change would occur, and a 1.54% chance that you would extend your own energies too greatly and damage yourself.  Given these values, I believe that you could safely awaken her at this time.”

The Princess-Queen glanced over at Jupiter in the bed, still and fragile and somehow looking so small, despite being taller than either of the other women.  Serenity nodded sharply.  “Very well, Mercury.  Your diligence is noted and appreciated.”  She frowned even as Mercury bent at the waist slightly, a thanks for the compliment that her body performed naturally.  “Will I need to recharge so long before waking Uranus?  And what of Pluto?”

Mercury shook her head lightly, ice-blue hair sweeping out of her eyes.  “No, my Q- Princess,” she corrected hastily, “your powers were much more significantly depleted from your own transformation, eliminating the opposing army, and purifying myself.  Awakening Jupiter will use a large amount of your energy, but it should recharge significantly faster.  I estimate that you will be able to revive Uranus within 24 hours.”

Serenity’s rose-petal lips curled into a tiny smile, so minute and controlled that a less observant party could have assumed it was a trick of the lighting; but Mercury was nothing if not an efficient tool for data intake, and so she catalogued the discrepancy as she continued to speak.  “Pluto’s body has yet to be discovered.  As the area has been thoroughly canvassed, my current theory is that she dematerialized and was instantly reincarnated at the Time Gate, as is typical of her position.  We do not currently possess a means of reaching the Time Gate to confirm this hypothesis.  My recommendation is to classify Pluto as a lost asset.”

The rose of Serenity’s lips wilted, and the thorns of her perfectly white teeth poked out from underneath the small curl of disgust.  “That is...disappointing, indeed.”  Pluto had been one of the stronger defensive Senshi, and Mercury knew that from a tactical standpoint the loss of her power was not insignificant.  “Still,” Serenity continued, taking small, gliding steps towards the bed where Jupiter lay.  “We will have the rest back soon.  Beginning with her.”

She stopped at the bedside, pale hand reaching out somewhat tenderly to brush back the bangs from Jupiter’s forehead.  Serenity’s eyes, as blue and as cold as the most rare of sapphires, closed as she touched a single finger to the center of the prone woman’s forehead.  The golden moon on her face began to glow, its aura traveling downwards over her unearthly pale skin from her neck, to her arm, to that extended finger, and finally onto Jupiter before disappearing into her forehead.  Serenity’s brow creased slightly as the light increased in strength, crescendoing until there was a single bright flash of white light that forced Mercury’s eyes to squint shut, unable to withstand the intensity.

When she reopened her eyes, Serenity looked slightly less radiant than she had a few moments prior - her sapphire eyes were fogged over as though in need of a polish, and the subtle sparkle that her skin always seemed to hold now was emphasized by the light layer of sweat that crossed her chest.  The woman in the bed looked much the same, except that her hair had lightened a few shades, a more medium-brown at the roots fading into a tan shade towards the bottom.  Her eyes opened to reveal the other change in Jupiter’s appearance, the bright yellow irises seeming to crackle with electricity.  

She sat up quickly, a near-predatory smile on her face as she cracked her neck, then her knuckles, the second causing small sparks to fly from her hands as she did so.  Jupiter rose from the bed, steady as though she hadn’t just been in a coma moments ago, and knelt at Serenity’s feet.  Mercury knew chastising her for such strain would get nowhere - Jupiter had never been one to listen to reason - and so chose to put her energy into performing a basic vitals scan, just to ensure that all had gone as it should have.

“My Queen,” came Jupiter’s voice, rumbling and sure.

This time, Serenity did not correct the title.  “Rise, Jupiter.  There is much work to be done if we are to enact Crystal Tokyo.”