Sky and Ocean (8.8.06)

[Nightshadow]

Title: Sky and Ocean

Author: NS

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: none that I can think of....

Category: Sailor Moon!

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Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Sailor Moon characters, nor do I own the song “Bad Boy”. Bad Boy is by Cascada. It will be used in the next or later chapter.

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Looking over at Michiru, I recalled how much we had been through together. Always together. Right up until Galaxia took our lives. She was beautiful. Kaioh Michiru was stunning on the inside and the outside. I remember, she trusted me to make that decision. The one where we willingly gave up our Star Seeds. She trusted in me that the plan would work.

It hadn’t.

She had shone me my destiny as Sailor Uranus, Senshi of the Sky and Wind. Defender of the Princess. We had fought the Death Busters with their maniac Daimonh Pods. We had stopped them from getting pure heart crystals. Of course, it ended up that they had wanted our pure hearts all along and the treasures they possessed. We had tried to stop the Silence by attempting to kill one Tomoe Hotaru. Our plans were stopped by Sailor Moon, who ended up saving the world by protecting the Senshi of Ruin, Sailor Saturn. Sailor Moon, my Koneko, had saved Hotaru-chan and then Setsuna took her and gave the child to us until we could leave her with her father.

I blinked and broke out of my reverie. After clearing my head and kissing Michi-chan lightly on the forehead, I got out of bed. It was one of those rare times when I got up earlier than she did. And by rare, I meant almost nonexistent. It was six-thirty in the morning. Strange time to get up…at least for me.

Anyway, we returned to Tokyo some time after challenging Usagi to a fight. Her against both of us. She won and gained our undying respect and loyalty. When we came back there was a new band called The Three Lights, a strange “shooting star shower”, and Usagi and the gang were in high school. She and Minako had become accustomed to being late to class together, since they were both tardy on a usual basis.

The shower of shooting stars was really shards of Neherenia’s mirror being shattered, and it made little strange Neherenia-shaped creatures. The damn things were hard to kill too. Neherenia caused a lot of trouble for us, so much so that Sailor Saturn was forced to awaken once more to help us. The evil witch stole Mamoru from Usagi, and she flew, literally, after him before we could follow. Hotaru reminded us of our number one purpose.

Protect the Princess at all costs.

So, we all transformed and went after her. Neherenia separated us into little groups. Mercury and I. Mars and Neptune. Pluto and Venus. Jupiter was alone. Chibi Moon and Saturn. She picked us off two by two and captured us in nightmare mirrors. Saturn and Chibi Moon were the only ones able to get to her. Chibi Moon faded away in her mother’s arms, devastating Usagi. But, that has been rectified. In the end, we defeated her, but that didn’t prepare us for Galaxia’s minions.

New Sailor Senshi appeared, both Galaxia’s senshi and the three Starlights. Galaxia’s hoard of victims, and they were victims, were girls like Sailor Iron Mouse, Sailor Tin Nyanko, Sailor Lead Crow and Sailor Aluminum Siren. All of them are dead, by the way.

The Three Starlights were a different story. They were good guys. They consisted of, first, the leader, Sailor Star Fighter. Second, the intellect, Sailor Star Maker. Third, the loner, Sailor Star Healer. They pretended to be an idol group so they could convey a message to find their princess, Kakyuu. Their actual names are Seiya, Taiki and Yaten Kou.

Seiya bugged me the most. He fell in love with Usagi and there was one time he was in Michiru’s dressing room. While they are actual female, they took the form of physically male on Earth, though their senshi fuku is very feminine. After the defeat of phages and, more importantly, Galaxia, they left with their princess to rebuild Kinmoku. We haven’t seen them since. Not that we expected to. Of course, there is still that lingering disgust with myself at betraying and killing Sailor Saturn and Pluto, just to convince the others and Galaxia that we had truly turned, just to get a shot at Galaxia. As I said before, it failed.

Back to Seiya. That time in Michiru’s dressing room, I promptly entered and tried to punch him out, snapping out things about him and saying he was a predator like a wolf and indiscriminately chased girls. Michiru wasn’t very happy about that and pulled me away. When he tried to get into a relationship with Usagi, I just had to intervene. I have to protect my princess after all. Yeah, Michiru wasn’t happy about that either. Remember that thing I said about Yaten being a loner? Scratch that, I just remembered that Yaten actually spent time with Luna.

Well, that’s beside the point. The thing is, Sailor Moon continuously comes through for everyone. Her senshi, friends, and the world. I hate to think that Michi-chan and I attacked her on more than one occasion.

I winced at the recollection of a few of those attacks before getting up and grabbing a glass of water. Now it was seven-ten in the morning. Michiru had had a tough day yesterday. She deserved a good rest.

I took a drink of my water and stared out the window, still thinking. On a different subject, it always struck me as odd that no one ever made the connection from us to Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. I asked Pluto about it once, and she said that it was because of magical protection. That protection applied to all Sailor Senshi, whether they were good or misguided or just plain evil.

And yet, Michiru seemed to know that I was Uranus right off the bat, even before I knew I was. We had a connection, she knew it, and I denied it even though I felt it as well.

“Ruka-chan?”

I didn’t need to turn to see her. Her voice was always soft and warm, though sometimes I found her to be annoyingly cheerful in the morning. Usually, I’m not a morning person, but today I was in a reasonably good mood, if not a little tired from running all day yesterday. She came up behind me and put her arms around my neck, kissing me on the cheek.

“What are you doing up at this time? Why didn’t you wake me?” Michiru asked, sounding curious.

“Morning to you too, Michi.” I said, smiling slightly. “Anyway, you worked hard on that painting yesterday, and you had that show to do, autographs to sign. I know you were tired, so I thought you deserved to sleep for as long as you needed.”

“That’s so sweet, Ruka.” Michiru cooed as I scrunched up my face. I didn’t particularly like being called sweet, but I tolerated it when Michi said it. She laughed at the look on my face, let go of my neck and started making breakfast.

For a reason I can’t fathom, I just started thinking of one of our earlier encounters. It was after we became partners, after I accepted being a Senshi. I wasn’t very fond of Michiru, or of the whole predestined thing. I tried to hurt her and make her go away in any way possible.

I knew she was in love with me from the very moment she set eyes on me, as was I with her. It was mutual love that I desperately wanted to fight off. I’d flirt with other girls right in front of her, set up dates, and ignore her as she tried to connect with me on any level she could. I was afraid of what was happening, she wasn’t.

We shared an apartment when I finally accepted my duties as a senshi. I went out and left her alone for a lot of nights. I barely said a word when I got back at strange hours of the night or even the early morning. In the beginning, she waited up for me, but, after a couple of months, she gave up on that tactic.

She tried coming to watch my racing and track practices, but she was swallowed up by the hordes of my other fans. Sometimes the girls would gang up and bully her, forcing her out of the crowd with snide, holier-than-thou glances and cruel comments and joking at her expense.

Her few friends would gather around her if they happened to be there, to try and protect her from the scathing remarks. We were complete opposites. She was the outcast of sorts, I was the popular one. She was an artist, I was a jock. She had very few friends; I was surrounded by people all the time. She was very girly, I was...am very masculine.

But, we left that all behind, obviously. That was when we were only sixteen. Only four years ago, and I can’t imagine my life without her. I can’t imagine a future without her. It’s literally painful to think about it.

In the end, opposites attracted.

[Nightshadow]

“Leave me alone, Kaioh.” Her tone was cold and harsh. Haruka had never spoken to me like that before. Actually, Haruka did everything she could to avoid talking to me. So, this was one of those rare occasions she had acknowledged me.

Let me start from when I first came here.

My senshi duties had led me here, to Tokyo, to this school. I wanted to find my destined partner, Sailor Uranus. In my visions, she was tall, slender and absolutely beautiful. So, when I had the inkling to move here, I did so. My parents didn’t complain. They just sent me on my way as usual.

I bought a nice apartment close enough to drive to the beach when I felt the need. After arranging all that, I started attending the high school. Well, I wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. My classmates glared at me as Ayame-sensei told me to choose a seat. There were mutterings and snide giggles as I passed through the desks to an empty one in the back. A girl was whispering to the occupant of the desk next to me, a sandy-haired youth with piercing green eyes.

I blushed when the boy looked over at me and winked, before turning back to face sensei as she spoke. For the rest of the class period, I silently took notes and avoided everyone’s eyes. I wasn’t used to being hated on the spot. No, I was used to people growing to consider me an outcast, as usual, as the year progressed.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, I jotted down the homework, grabbed my stuff and hurried out of the classroom, head ducked so no one would notice me. I quickly walked to my locker and opened it. I had gotten to school rather late, and it was lunch this period. As I closed my locker door, I started and blushed. The boy who had winked at me in class was leaning against the locker beside mine.

“You’re Kaioh Michiru, right?” His voice was pleasant and amused at the blush on my face. Oh no, not another guy who was going to hit on me all year.

“Hai.”

That was one of my main problems in school. Wherever I went, I seemed to attract the guy that every girl was after, which made me envied and then hated when I turned him down, because I always did.

He held out his hand, “Tenoh Haruka.” He smiled brilliantly, green eyes shining with mischief and charm. “Listen, would you like to-”

“Haruka-chan!” He closed his eyes, exhaled slowly, and then opened his eyes once more as he looked towards the hall behind me. Two girls were walking towards us. One of them kept her cold on me the entire way down the hall until they were right in front of us.

“Haruka-chan, you said you would eat with us today!” He opened his mouth to say something, but she started dragging him off before he could. Haruka gave me a brief, apologetic wave good-bye, before being pulled out the doors and out of sight.

I sighed and took out my lunch. I’d be eating alone...again. It always happened, the first week or so I would be forced to retreat away from the others to eat by myself during lunch period.

In any case, that was my first and second encounter with Tenoh Haruka. There were so many more to come.

The week after that, I was in the locker room, changing for PE class. I always tried to be the first one in and the first changed. But on this particular occasion, someone else was with me. I heard him enter moments after I had taken off my blouse to change into the PE shirt.

I watched, silent and confused, as Haruka opened a locker and started changing. Why wasn’t he changing in the boys’ locker room? And then…I was staring until I saw it. Or, rather, them.

Two very clear signs that Haruka was, indeed, not male. He was, in fact, female. I gaped, my face and neck turning red. Hastily I pulled on my shirt and adjusted my shorts. Everything was neat. So, of course, I rushed out of the locker room, still beet red from embarrassment.

A girl had been hitting on me? Not that it bothered me very much. It would be strange if it did, considering my sexual orientation. Just the fact that she was so open about flirting with other girls surprised me. I was always very low key when it came to my few relationships.

On top of that, nobody seemed to care that she was a blatant lesbian. In fact, they fawned over and adored her. The girls wanted to be with her and the boys wanted to be her. Sure, I had heard jealous, cruel mutterings in the hallways as I passed envious boys talking about Haruka. But, most of the student body looked up to her, even a fair few of the older students.

I was alone in the gym for only about five minutes, and then my classmates and teacher came in, filling the large room with laughter and excited talking. I waited for class to start on the bleachers, keeping my eyes on the ground once more. It was a habit by now. Avoid people’s eyes and avoid confrontation.

“Hey.”

I looked up, and, what do you know, I blushed again. Haruka was sitting right beside me with a scrutinizing expression. “So, you figured it out?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, that I’m a girl. I knew you would sooner or later.” She said, matter-of-factly. Before she could get another word out, the jealous girl from my first day, a girl named Inoue Leiko. She was reasonably good looking, black hair and brown eyes. But, she also had it out for me since Tenoh-san started showing interest.

“Haruka-chan! Tanaka-san is telling us about volleyball. Then he’s going to let us choose our practice groups. Come on, let’s go join everyone else!”

“Demo-” Leiko ignored her protests and, again, dragged her off. Haruka was frowning as she leaned down a bit to say something to the girl.

I returned my gaze to the ground once more before standing to join the rest of the class. This time, something was different. A girl broke away to actually stand beside me. I was surprised, but didn’t say anything. Maybe she was there to make another cold-hearted joke about me, as most of the girls did.

“Your in my art class.” She stated in a quiet voice, her pale blue eyes on my face. “I’ve seen your paintings. They’re absolutely amazing. And then I thought that I recognized your work. You actually paint professionally. You are Kaioh Michiru, right?”

I looked up. So she was there to talk to me. I hesitated and then smiled, partly out of relief. “Hai.”

“I knew it! I love your paintings. I’m Maeda Sasame. It’s such an honor to meet you, Kaioh-san.” I blinked in yet more shock as she I shook her hand. An honor? Me? No one at my schools had ever told me that.

“Split into groups!”

“Kaioh-san, come be in our group.” Without giving me any choice in the matter, Sasame pulled me over to three other girls, all of who were watching me. “This is Kaioh Michiru. Remember those paintings we were talking about in art class yesterday? Kai-sensei didn’t mention her name in class so it wouldn’t bring unwanted attention to her.” For the first time, those girls stared at me in awe as Sasame went off to collect a volleyball.

“Wow, Kaioh-san…” I cut the girl off. Enough of this awed –san stuff.

“Please, call me Michiru.”

“M-Michiru, wow,” The blonde girl finally collected herself and promptly introduced herself as Hamidake Kaiya. The second, a rather short brunette with big brown eyes, stated her name as Takahashi Machiko. The last one, a rather tall, willowy girl with black hair and dark, dark brown eyes, named Ito Satoko.

Those were my first four friends at that school. Almost a month after that, I found myself spending most of my time with Sasame, Satoko, Kaiya, and Machiko. Anyway, my next strange encounter with Haruka was in early November. I was walking home from school, and I passed by a racetrack. There was a group of girls from school there, all crowded by the fence.

I was curious, so I went to check it out. Someone was riding around the track on a motorcycle. The driver was clad in helmet and purple racing jumpsuit. This is what the big fuss was about? I wasn’t all that impressed. It didn’t look very unique to be. The driver didn’t seem to have any blatant, above and beyond talent.

The girls were watching and whispering among themselves excitedly from where they stood. This was a waste of time, but I had to see whom they were fawning over. The motorbike or the driver?

The rider suddenly stopped near the fence, observing the crowd there. The deep voice asked, “What’re all you kids doing here?”

The person got off the bike, wheeled it away, shaking their head and vanished into the garage. Almost ten minutes later, the driver came back out, accompanied by a motorcyclist in a green jumpsuit.

That’s when the uproar started. The girls all suddenly started clamoring for the attention of the second driver. The first took his helmet off, and was revealed to be a gruff looking male, watching the crowd with distaste.

He leaned over and muttered something in the second driver’s ear. The green clad driver shook his head, before heading back into the garage. The driver came back out with his own bike.

After watching the second racer ride for a good forty-five minutes straight, I knew what the big deal was about. Now this one had obvious talent. I stood among the crowd of those I knew hated me, and yet we were admiring the same person.

When the racer stopped and got of his bike, he sighed and took of his…her helmet, looking over at the crowd with subtly annoyed green eyes. Haruka was a motocross racer? I felt the blush creeping up my neck, rapidly spreading across my face, when Haruka caught my eye. Was it me, or did she just jerk her head in the direction of the garage?

As she left to reach the calmer atmosphere of the garage, I decided I’d go for it. After all, why not? If I was wrong, it was a simple mistake.

I quietly and swiftly made my way out of the crowd and headed for the garage. After all, no point in being indirect since no one ever paid attention to me unless they liked me, and no one in this crowd liked me.

As I entered through the back door of the garage, the smell of gasoline hit me like an iron. It was strong, but, it only made sense. After all, they needed gasoline for the motorcycles and cars.

“Kaioh.”

Haruka stood behind me, her sandy hair flattened against her head from sweat and her helmet. I thought it made her look…cute. Her green eyes were bright and still carried the calm that she had gained from her riding.

“I wasn’t sure if you saw me.” She said, her helmet under her arm. My stomach fluttered with anxiety. I knew something was different about Haruka. I could sense our connection. Could she? “I’m glad you came…and without anyone noticing. I’m impressed.”

“I don’t stand out very much.” I mumbled, turning red. Haruka laughed and surprised me by saying, “Are you kidding? For me, it’s a relief not to have you fawning all over me. You’re my new calm before the storm of other girls.”

Was she hitting on me, or merely being sweet? I couldn’t tell, but I turned an even deeper shade of red. Her voice spoke to me again and I lifted my gaze to her face.

“I’ve been trying to ask you for a while, but Leiko always seems to find a way to butt in right when I’m getting to it.” Haruka started as she led me over to a more secluded area of the garage. A couple of mechanics had been grinning and watching us. “Do you want to go to dinner with me some time?”