Sixteen years old, and she owns more things than most people manage to earn in a lifetime. Not alone, of course, never alone. Being able to pool her resources with Michiru's has helped, especially at the level both of them do things. Haruka's never worked retail, or food services, or any of the things that most teens use to get by. She doesn't think she'd know what to do with a cash register if she was handed one, but as long as she has a vehicle and someplace to put her hands, she'll never need one.

If it runs, she can drive it. She's driven cars and bikes, both racing and road-ready, and she's piloted a helicopter. Their garage has three cars in it, and she owns another at the track, and a motorcycle, and a dirt bike, and her 'copter is on the launch pad at the top of the building, out of sight from what her skylight can see.

Haruka thinks: I would never have bought most of these on my own.

It's all Michiru's doing, really. "What do we have money for, but doing what we want with it?" she'd said. Haruka had the racecar and one to drive and her own two feet to run on, and that would have been enough to get by. She'd been thinking she'd die, had vague ideas of killing herself when everything was over, or perhaps just turning herself in. She thought they'd have to kill someone to do their job, and how could she live with herself after that?

Haruka's not like Michiru. She knows this, knows she thinks about these things too hard. Haruka's smart, but it's not the type of smarts Michiru has. Michiru has learned to trust herself. Michiru has learned to make her decisions and stick to them.

She's watching the skylight, and sighs, pushes the bedsheets out. Michiru's not there, and so she's most likely in the pool. Three rooms over, and carpet turns to tile, and Michiru is swimming, lazy laps around the pool.

Naked, Haruka sits on the edge, dips her feet in. Michiru pauses, flips herself upright, treads water.

"I was thinking," Haruka says, and Michiru laughs, a clear, free sound. "...shut up, you," Haruka adds, then continues: "I was thinking how stupid people are sometimes."

"But endearing for all that?" Michiru asks, amusement in her voice. She swims closer, feet kicking, hair darkened to algae-green from the water.

Haruka shrugs. "I guess. Just. About us."

Michiru folds her arms on the edge of the pool, by Haruka's knees, and peers up at her. "About us?"

"The way they think I have some sort of power over you." Haruka scowls as Michiru starts to laugh again. "No, not like th-- well, like that too, probably, but dammit, even our friends think that I call the shots around here, and I have to wonder how well they know us."

"You call some of the shots," Michiru protests, amused.

"Name one."

"You quite decisively said you wanted Cheetos for dinner," Michiru says, dryly. Haruka had, too, and tickled Michiru until she couldn't talk anymore when Michiru had teased her.

Haruka bends at the waist, brings her face down close to Michiru, and snorts. "No. I mean, important things."

Michiru had been the one to turn Haruka into Sailor Uranus, had given her the transformation wand and her mission, had stayed by her side, had pointed out (sharply) that she wasn't alone when Haruka had mourned her destiny -- Haruka had wanted to be a race car driver, Michiru had wanted to be an artist and a violinist. It isn't for them, whatever they wanted. Michiru had never left.

It had been Michiru who had initiated things between them. They'd known it'd happen, of course, but Haruka hadn't been willing to risk it. Flirting, and knowing, and desire, and one or two snuck kisses, but Haruka had said, no, their mission. They couldn't chance a budding relationship getting in the way of their professional relationship. And Michiru had waited, and when their mission was done, over, when they could take a break, and they'd gone to take a holiday, Michiru had made her move.

She'd had to lure Haruka into bed, curled naked on the bedsheets. Haruka had seen her naked before, of course; they'd been living and working together long enough to occassionally catch glimpses, and their transformations left little to the imagination. But it was different, limbs soft and inviting, light dim, bedsheets soft. Even then, Michiru had needed to encourage her with soft voice and gestures. "It's all right," she'd said. "It's all right, Haruka. Stop thinking about what you could lose. Start thinking about what you could gain. I've been here, waiting, all this time."

"Cheetos are important," Michiru tells her.

Haruka laughs; she can't help herself, though the sound is a little rueful.

"I've always loved your hands," she'd said once, and held them as Haruka agonized over the thought of spilling blood with them. And, when given the choice between risking the entire world and knowing she'd lose Haruka, "A world without Haruka isn't worth saving."

Michiru reaches up while Haruka is still laughing and snags her, tumbles her into the water. Haruka hits it flat-sided, the slap and sting of the water not-quite-painful compared to all she's gone through. She manages to stop laughing in time to not inhale water, though as she surfaces, she has to gasp for air, slopping long wet blond bangs out of her eyes.

There's a spark of life in Michiru's eyes as she smirks, splashing at Haruka while Haruka squirms and protests, and fights to grab Michiru's hands, take her weapon away. Between the two of them, Haruka's the stronger, built tall and muscular and without Michiru's delicate artist hands, and she manages to hold Michiru's wrists up in the air.

"Besides," Michiru says, smiling, planting her feet against Haruka's legs and trusting Haruka to keep them afloat. "We both have as much power as the other lets us have. What we do with that's our business, not theirs."

Sixteen years old, Haruka thinks with no small amount of awe, and she's already figured out things that most people don't realize in their entire lifetime.

"Haruka?"

"I was just thinking," Haruka says, kicking the water. "About how smart you are, sometimes."

Michiru's brows wing. "Only sometimes?"

"Well, you know," Haruka says, then dunks her and flees, laughing.