Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Knight for Neptune ❯ Chapter 2

Rating: PG

Notes/Foreword: I use one made-up character in the story, Taylor. Taylor's original appearance was in my first fanfic, "A Knight for Uranus." After that, he started making at least some appearances in most of my Sailor Moon stories. During Silver Millennium, Taylor was one of the guardians of Princess Uranus. They began to fall in love with each other, but the relationship was cut off when Taylor had to leave to protect Queen Serenity and Sailor Uranus was forbidden to leave her post. This was the last she saw of him until both of them were reborn in present time. Soon after meeting Haruka, Taylor recovered his memories and they fell in love once again. Taylor is carefree and easy-going when he's civilian (he usually lets Haruka have her way whenever she wants). As a fighter, he is highly determined and won't go down easy. His major purpose is to help Sailor Uranus upgrade, but this only works for short intervals, like when Super Sailor Moon used the grail to upgrade. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, and enjoys watching races (go figure,) reading, and fishing.

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A Knight for Neptune: Chapter 2
by Katrina Kadabra

The next morning Michiru awoke to a light rustling coming from just outside her room. She rubbed her eyes lazily to see Haruka packing up her schoolbag, hunched over like she was going on some secret mission, trying to be as quiet as she could. But of course, Michiru woke up anyway.

"Good morning, Haruka," she yawned. Haruka jumped a little.

"Good morning, Michi," she replied, picking up her bag. She looked over Michiru's tired eyes, the strands of blue-green hair flying out wildly around her head. "I tried not to wake you," Haruka muttered.

"But you did," said Michiru with a smile. "I guess I'm not used to you being up before me." She sat up and took the hairbrush she always kept at her bed stand, starting to work it through the knots that had accumulated over the night.

"Why don't you go back to sleep?" Haruka suggested. "I'm just going to school early for track practice, the bus won't be here for another hour." But Michiru only shook her head.

"Can't see you off if I'm asleep, can I?" she asked. "What did you have for breakfast?" Haruka looked sheepishly down at the floor.

"A vanilla Twinke," she admitted. Michiru giggled and got out of bed. Haruka could be so helpless sometimes.

"I'll make you some toast and jelly," she said.

After Haruka left for practice, the apartment was pretty quiet again. Not unusual, she had practice early everyday, except Friday. And then she usually had something going on, schoolwork or otherwise. But much to even Michiru's surprise, the silence did not upset her. At least not after she found a way to work it to her advantage. As soon as Michiru got dressed, she went to the closet and pulled out her precious canvas and paint and brushes. She found she usually got her inspiration best first thing in the morning, when the world was quiet and the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. Michiru had just finished a new painting a few days ago, so this canvas was blank. An opportunity to start fresh with something new and original. To correct the failures she made on her last work, and probably make new ones to correct on her next. Michiru pondered for a moment. For some reason, ideas were not rushing to her head this morning. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Michiru stared blankly out of the window for a few moments, hoping something would strike her. The rays of sunlight sifted through the windowpane, touching the white floor tiles. Michiru sighed. Well, she could always try... that painting again. But that one never worked out, even after she had tried three times. But the artist buried in Michiru's heart would not let her give up. She took out her pencil and began to sketch.

Michiru got so caught up in her work, she lost track of time and almost missed the bus that morning. Now there was something that didn't happen often. How embarrassing to get caught rushing up to the stop, her hair flying, and her violin case pulling her arm back, as she tightened her grip mumbling that it should hurry itself up. I must look like Usagi or Minako, Michiru thought to herself as she got on.

The school day was pretty uneventful and rather boring. But there was band practice third period; Michiru always looked forward to that. Well, except today when she stood to do her solo. The bow kept squeaking whenever it moved from the G string. An understandable error for anyone else in the band, but very unprofessional to Michiru's ears. She hadn't made mistakes like that in a long time. Nevertheless, her classmates applauded her, and with that, the bell rang, sounding the end of class. As Michiru packed up her instrument among the rush of students hurrying towards the door, the conductor motioned for her to come over and speak with him.

"I'm sorry about practice today," she said with an apologetic bow.

"Don't worry about it," her instructor replied. "Everyone has their off-days now and then, even you." The old man smiled, and Michiru tried to return to gesture, though it wasn't as genuine. "Actually," he continued. "I think I may have a job for you." He held out a white index card with a name and phone number scribbled down on the back in blue ink. Michiru looked over the card; the name on it was familiar. Aya Kanzaki, the student council president.

"Student council is hosting a school dance this Friday night," the conductor explained. "They have a DJ, but they really wanted a live performer to come in for a bit, so Aya asked me if you'd be interested." Michiru nodded and took the card.

"I'd be glad to," she said. "I'll let Aya know as soon as I see her." Her teacher smiled and nodded.

"She'll be thrilled to hear that," he said. "Good luck!"

"Thank you," Michiru replied as she walked out the door. A performance at the school dance sounded exciting. Maybe things were finally starting to go her way today.

Michiru actually saw Aya earlier that day than she thought. Last period she had chemistry, and as luck would have it, Aya was in the same class, along with Nathan, whom Michiru almost bumped into on her way into the room.

"H-hello, Miss Michiru," he said as soon as he looked up at the girl, so calm and graceful as usual.

"Hello, Nathan," she replied. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, but it's always good to see you," he said with a touch of pink to his cheeks. Michiru smiled. Nathan seemed like a kind person, she thought. A little shy perhaps, but kind. Unfortunately, their conversation didn't get very far. As soon as Aya saw that Michiru had entered the room, her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and she rushed over to where to two were standing, positioning herself between Nathan and Michiru. Nathan sighed and took his seat.

"Did you get my message?" Aya asked anxiously.

"Yes," Michiru replied. "And I'd be happy to perform at your dance on Friday."

"Yea!" Aya cheered, jumping into the air like a little cheerleader. "This is so great, oh thank you, Michiru! You don't have to play anything long, just half an hour if that's all you want to do. You have no idea how much this means to me!"

"Means to you?" Michiru thought. "It's only a dance, after all," But then again, she supposed, if one was hosting the dance that made the situation a little different. Everything had to be just right, because if one little thing failed, everyone would look to you, the person who's supposed to be in charge and have everything perfect. Michiru knew that feeling, perhaps a little too well.

After Aya had calmed down a bit from graciously thanking Michiru, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a ticket, handing it to Michiru.

"These are for you," she said. "Pick whatever selection of music you want. We'll see you there about 6:30. Okay?" Michiru looked down at the piece of light paperboard in her hand. As she fingered it, she was surprised to see it spread in half. There were two tickets.

"Excuse me," Michiru said to Aya. "But I think you gave me an extra ticket my mistake."

"What, you got three?" Aya asked.

"No, two," Michiru replied, holding them up for her to see.

"Oh no, they're both yours," Aya assured her. "Bring a date with you. My treat, okay? It's the least I can do since you're bailing us out here."

"But I..." Michiru was about to object, but just then, the chemistry teacher entered the room and began tapping the beaker on his desk with a stirring rob to get the students' attention. After that, the conversation quickly dissipated, including Aya and Michiru's The aqua-haired girl sighed and slipped the tickets into her pocket.

Class was pretty dull, the teacher spent more of time lecturing on safety equipment than the actual experiment they were supposed to perform next week. But it was just as well, Michiru thought, as the students were likely to forget most everything they heard that day over the weekend. When the bell finally sounded the end of class, Michiru was almost caught in the mad rush of students hurrying out the buses, following slowly behind. The Sailor Senshi were having a meeting at Rei's this afternoon, so there wasn't any point in going anywhere except home until it was time for the meeting to start.

It took Michiru a little over twenty minutes to arrive back at the apartment. She sighed as she walked in the living room and set her schoolbag down on the couch. As she did, she noticed that another, almost identical bag was sitting next to it.

"Haruka!" she exclaimed. Haruka must have come back early, Michiru thought as she rushed towards her room to greet her friend. Only Haruka's room was empty. All that was there was a note taped to the door. Michiru looked it over:

Hey there Michi! Had to go pick Usagi up after her cram school, see you at the meeting in a hour. Sorry about that. Don't get lonely while I'm gone, k?

-Haruka

"Lonely?" Michiru thought to herself. "How silly. I've actually got quite a bit of work to do, so I'm just as happy to have the time." Confident with that, Michiru went to her closet and pulled out the canvas from that morning.

Half an hour later, Michiru had her painting supplies spread all over her room. She looked carefully over the work she had done so far and shook her head in disappointment. The painting didn't look anything like it was supposed to. Of course, this was the opinion of a complete perfectionist, so it would never look quite the way she envisioned it. That was the problem with transferring the beautiful images Michiru saw in her mind to the canvas in front of her. That awkward tool, her hand, never quite lived up to her expectations.

Michiru sighed and put the brush down. Must be having an off day, she told herself. She packed up the tubes of paint and took the brushes to the sink to wash them off before the pigment stiffened the bristles beyond any use. As the water hit the metallic basin, Michiru could see her own reflection gazing back at her.

"Am I lonely?" she asked the perplexed-looking girl. "Maybe... just a bit." She glanced down at her watch. It was time to leave.