Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Where the Sky meets the Ocean ❯ Explore Subteranean ( Chapter 3 )

Despite the wondrous technologies Neptune had to offer her curious senses, Haruka found herself not wanting to explore for the first time in her life. Desperately wrestling with her mind to achieve some state of interest or awareness, she came up short of feeling anything. She let her mind wander wherever it wanted to try and get it impelled to move for something, thinking about the basics for starters; eating, bathing, unpacking, none of that appealed to her. Moving on to other thoughts; exploring the subterranean halls, going back to introduce herself to the stumped priests, that beautiful girl…

She had said anything, right? Anything, including companionship and some reassurance that she wasn't as insane as she feared. They would have to grow to be close friends anyway, that's what the whole mission was about, at surface value, according to twisted policies of unkind men. But all of her wanted to find sanctuary in this newfound lady, and at least some part of her wanted to get out of that alone room. With as much grace as she could muster adjusting to the alien floor, and keeping her breathing as quiet and controlled as she could while feeding on the unknown airs, she crept ever so softly to the door and slipped it open. Standing just before her neighbors doorway, knuckles raised to knock, a sound began from within that she had never heard before. It began as a variety of tones going from low, to high, to rumbling low again, a series of vibrating moans, some of them very fluid and tender that then grew to desperate intensity as though pleading for some unseen release. It would then dip back to the deep, guttural vibrations like some meandering touch, before becoming a ragged crescendo to a high-pitched climax.

Haruka felt a flush of warmth creep up through her cheeks, and a fluster of summersaults in her lower belly, but before she could really take them into account another noise was emitted from the girl she knew was inside the room. A choked sob, and muffled halations that reminded her of her own pains. She carefully pushed open the door, and was greeted by the sight of the Neptunian priestess, whose back was to her, the folds of her dress and sea green hair rippling with the quivering of her slight frame. Without emotions hesitation, she rushed in and swept Michiru up into her arms, and effortlessly deposited her straddling her lap and crying into her shoulder. Haruka's arms were so firmly around her back, as though she would fall away. The dress was hiked up around her waist, and falling down over the fighters legs onto the floor as she sat with her knees to either side of her lap, but neither of them took much notice to their appearance. After what seemed like all time, the crying subsided, and Ruka instinctively rocked her back and forth, watching her quietly settle down, and smoothing down her wavy hair away from her face. She kissed her forehead, laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers up around her gently. Michiru didn't make a sound or move, just watching with eyes half open the motherly exchange. But as Ruka moved to leave as quietly as she had entered, she felt a delicate hand wrap around her wrist. She slowly turned and looked into the deep sea eyes that asked her to stay, beckoned her to stay forever, and as though it wasn't enough of a message, she said in a tear strained voice, “Please, don't go.” She let the hand guide her back to the bed and under the covers, and around the kind waist and her head against the warm chest, and they slept in serenity.

 

Her eyelashes took some effort to be fluttered apart, the dried tears pulling them tight together and not letting go. After a moment she realized that she was not alone in the bed, and she was in fact being held in a very intimate manner with someone's head up on her shoulder, and arm stretched across her abdomen and cupping her right breast, she became confused. Michiru struggled to remember who it was in her bed, and the scene of the previous night flashed before her eyes. Though she thought of it slightly more innocently, a new emotion came in place of the uneasiness, shame and embarrassment. She had become so vulnerable, so easily comforted, she feared she was giving the newcomer all the wrong messages, and worse that the messages were unwanted, and they had just ended up in that position during the night. Carefully separating herself from the lassie, and sliding out of the bed, she nearly tripped on her violin; which was not put away properly after she had played it and burst into tears. Putting it ever so quietly away, and folding up the dress she had evidently worn to bed, thoughts of embarrassment turned into insecurity and what ifs. As she put on a clean tunic and slacks, she thought of what a pushover she must seem, what a disgraceful weakling and sick person she must be for forcing the poor exchange lass to bed with her. What if it was her that had moved the sandy haired girls hand over her bosom unconsciously during the night, how horrible she would feel when she woke to find the pose that she wasn't responsible for. With a final sigh she resigned that emotions were ruling her head, regardless of what they were she would push them all away, fetch them both some breakfast, apologize, and then take a long meditation period…

 

Her hand reached out but was greeted with empty sheets, which woke her with a start. Instantly feeling a pang of guilt that she had somehow taken advantage of the situation, and not done a sufficient job at comforting the soft spoken lassie. In her head the regrets swirled, dancing and prancing like wild pegasi, one thinking one insecurity, the other laughing the opposite. This fault, that fault, never good enough for anything, it was all she could do to keep from throwing up. Not knowing where to go, she threw off the covers and ran blindly through the hollow halls. Paintings, lights, wet rocks flying by her closed eyes, running and running until finally she collapsed to her knees. Panting and crying, she found herself alone near a room, from which there were the sounds of standing water. Having nowhere better to run, she went in quietly, planning to sprint back out again if it turned out to be inhabited. Within the dimly lit cave there were many intricately carved pools of water, being fed one droplet at a time by stalactites pulled down from the ceiling, as though by the very cores gravity. Just as all seems to be pulled to the rock bottom, stalagmites raised towards the sky have been carved into statues of goddesses and water beings, constantly being altered by the dripping elements. As she listened to the water's movement, she pictured all of her doubts being balled up in a drop of rain, and as it fell into the pool below the pains dissipated within the bigger joy. Setting aside her embarrassment at acting so childish, she traced her way back through the corridor, and managed to make it back to her room. With a sigh she decided to finally unpack her things, and as she got herself situated quiet footsteps in the hall told her that the priestess was coming back, and she quickly sketched out an apology and set of excuses in her head. But as she caught sight of the lass through the half open door, all of those thoughts were strewn away. She knocked lightly, and it took Ruka a moment to register that she should invite her in. “I'm terribly sorry about last night, I didn't mean to make you so uncomfortable when we barely know each other. My name is Michiru, and I am a priestess here, as I'm sure you have already gathered, I brought you some breakfast, forgive me for not feeding you yesterday, it was awfully selfish of me…” She said in a guilty tone, and set the tray on a carved marble table against the wall. Haruka wasn't sure if she should be more disappointed that the lady was sorry, or alienated by her taking all of the blame. “There's nothing to forgive, I wasn't really hungry… And it wasn't selfish at all, we all have our moments, I'm Haruka.” Michiru was looking down, refusing to meet her eyes as though humility would somehow remedy her feelings, and Haruka being an instinctive creature, slid off the bed where she sat and went over to her, lifting her chin up to meet her. Their eyes locked, and during that moment Michiru rediscovered the mutual helplessness that had lessened the tensions the day before, and tried to take comfort in the fact that the playing field was just as even as she thought it to be. She did her best to smile and loosen up, but there was still a discomfort that she couldn't quite place. As the fighter moved her hand away, she began to feel it worse, but tried to shrug it off. “Ill let you eat and get comfortable, just let me know when you figure out what you would like to do today…” “No, I mean, would you like to eat with me? That way we could talk it over, if you like.” She turned back and simply smiled, and nodded in agreement. “That would be lovely.”

 

Haruka did her very best; she really did, to focus on the priestess while pretending to enjoy the strange Neptune cuisine. She hadn't eaten much fish on her home planet, mostly birds and mountain game, and as for everything else other than grains and vegetables forget it! Assorted on the plate were various fruits and tubers, and there were no eggs, just what seemed to be potatoes with very odd seasonings, presumably sea salts and aquatic herbs of some kind. There was very strong tea to drink, and some kind of soymilk as well. “So, what kinds of things do you do for fun here?” She asked, desperately trying to evade attention from how much was left of her food. “Well, I spend nearly all of my time studying, but in my free time, I like to swim, and paint, and in the summer its fun to roam the beaches all day long collecting things that wash up, its just the end of spring now which is a really rainy and ugly outside, but once it clears its warm and calm for most of the season. Hm, what else for fun, well finding gemstones is fun sometimes, but if you do it for long enough they don't shimmer quite the same, and I sometimes practicing cooking, even though that's not my job it can be quite satisfying. Oh! I know just what we could do, I could take you to our Aquariums!” “Well that sounds like a plan! Maybe we could see the Aquariums, and then cook lunch together and plan what to do with the evening?” “It's settled! You may want to grab a cloak; some of the tank rooms have to be kept quiet cool, but it's worth it to see them. I'm not sure that we could get through the entire thing by lunch time, but since we have half a years flexibility, there's no need to rush!”

 

As they set out on the long journey through the tunnels to the Aquariums,

Haruka's thoughts wandered to that fact she had brought up again. Half a years stay in this strange place, not that her own treacherous home was any better, but there was something very unsettling about the unfamiliar noises echoing all around her, making her fighters reflexes jittery and spastic. Trying to calm herself down, she looked over at Michiru, whose peaceful complexion always seemed to bring her back to the lulling gravity of the watery world. It was obvious she had been born in tune with it, Haruka had been around air ships all her life but she imagined they must be nothing like the ships that traveled this world. Airsickness made one feel empty, but seasickness it seemed made you overwhelmingly full. She equated it with their dispositions, her so lacking emotion and cause, and Michiru so full of life and faith. Maybe her stay here could help her fill that gap in her heart, she thought to herself as she unconsciously matched her footsteps to those of her companion. Little did she know, that Michiru had actually been trying to match her steps to hers…

 

“Here we are, the great entrance of the ancient Aquariums, one of the first marvels of this city, it began with the capture of a rare seahorse that was coveted and protected in the very first tank, but his captor wanted so much more. He collected samples of every fish known to my people, and slowly that knowledge grew and expanded to nearly every creature that could be in the ocean. That seahorse survived by the magick of the priests until the day I was born, and so I was said to be the incarnate of their most sacred beast, and I was taught the ways of priestess hood from the very beginning. It did have offspring though, after another like it was found, and their generations have been preserved, and as I grew up I watched them.” She began the “tour” of sorts with the first exhibit, the cherished seahorses. The label beneath the tank read “Starbrowed Seahorse”, and as she looked into the blue-lit tank she saw a herd of them, each having a jewel like mark on their foreheads, and beautiful fins that flowed behind them like plumage. She looked at all the details put into the tank, the runes inscribed to the right of the tank, the bubbles swirling and dancing in the indigo shadows, the rocks and jewels that lined the bed of the large container that reflected the same ghostly light. The room itself was very dimly lit, only the colored light from each cage poured out onto the floor, with a few scattered lantern gems to direct them into the other rooms. The creatures mystified Haruka, she had never seen anything besides mammals and dragons, and the fluid motion that each one presented so uniquely fascinated her. Though there was a distinct breed standard, each one seemed to stand out against the next as an individual entity, and she could almost feel the slick water as each one dipped and dove through the illuminated liquid. They passed jellyfish, and manta rays, eels, crustaceans, fish of all sizes and shapes, and the sharks, which left the greatest impression on her. As they moved into what would have been the third room, though she was far too engrossed to notice, there were much bigger tanks, not that the others weren't already a grand size, but this room could only contain one of these on each side. At first, Haruka was drawn to the orange gold toned light, but saw nothing in the great expanse of water, but out of the corner of her eye she caught movement. She tried to track it, but a smaller feeder fish moved in front of the glass before her and distracted her. Trying to go back and catch it again came up fruitless, but as she gave up and turned her head back to the feeder a huge set of teeth came crashing down before her eyes. She yelped and flung herself away from the cage as the shark swallowed the half of a fish and swooped around to snatch the other. Michiru came up and held her from behind, and she noticed the lassie shaking violently in her arms, eyes wide as she watched the golden hue bounce off the ragged fins and crystal sharp teeth, and flicker in and out of its monstrous eyes. She finally turned away as it went back, only to be greeted on the opposite side with a troop of pointy barracudas, which were about the same size as the shark, only much sharper and limited. The priestess took her by the hand and tried to comfort her by leading her away, and into a room of luminous fish that glowed their own colors, but her heart was still beating a million miles an hour. “Dd ddo those, those shark, things, are they in the water where you play in the summer time?” She asked very anxiously. “They live in very deep water, there's nothing to worry about! I'm sorry I didn't warn you, I've grown so used to them not, no, it's very rare that anyone is attacked by one, they keep to themselves, far, far from the beech.” She replied in a calming tone, and her voice had an instant effect on Ruka's disposition. “That's good…”

By the time they had gotten to the sea turtle exhibits, the growling of their stomachs was bouncing off the rock and glass, and they decided to hit the kitchen. They had to pass through some of the colder rooms, and when Haruka began to shiver, Michi wrapped her arms around her in a friendly gesture, which warmed her up more than it normally would have. One of the private kitchens was conveniently close by to the Aquarium, and they passed a few people in the hall who had just eaten and were chattering about a whole spectrum of odd topics. It reminded Haruka of the busy streets of her hometown, only a lot cleaner language… The kitchen already smelled of oils and salts, and fish of some kind or another. After seeing the exhibits, she wasn't so sure she could prepare a fish, but since Michiru obviously got along just fine she did the best she could to follow along with her and the odd recipes. Though she struggled with some of the techniques for preparing the various fishes, the end result was a sashimi type dish, which she found very agreeable, and Michi seemed pleased with the company. They talked about odd bits of Neptunian life, and when they had finished it was decided that they would go swimming…