The FINALE of HaruMichi BatB is here! I hope you enjoy, please comment if you do! (Masterpost)

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Sunlight, dappled by the patterns of soft lace curtains, danced around Haruka’s bedside. She could not place where she was. Her body ached, though she was comforted by strong smells of breakfast food, sweet cinnamon sugar and bacon grease and coffee. This was not a place she’d ever been. Minako’s breakfast of choice was cold pizza, and Michiru…

She shot up, head spinning from the motion. Michiru!

“Take it easy, buddy.” Minako sat in a chair on the other side of the bed, natural dark circles replacing her usual makeup. “We don’t know how well you’ve healed.”

Haruka leaned back against the headboard. “But… what happened? I thought I found her, but…”

“Everyone’s fine, but back it up there a bit. I have to yell at you still.” Mina stood, chest puffed and ready to go, but then her face crumpled and she slid onto the bed and threw her arms around Haruka. “I thought you were dead so many times.”

“I’m sorry, Mina. I’m alright. I’m alright.”

Mina pulled away and sniffed. “I’m going to find a way to adopt you, just so I can ground you.” She jabbed a finger into Haruka’s chest. “You are not going anywhere without me, young lady.”

Haruka ruffled her hair. “You’ve never seemed the maternal type.”

“If you keep finding new ways to put yourself in danger, I’ll fucking do it.” She looped her arm around Haruka’s shoulders. “We are buying you at least five external phone chargers. And you’re going to buy me something nice for all my troubles.”

“I’m really sorry, Mina.”

“You should be.” She paused. “I’m not. Maybe you think I should be, but I’m not. Presented with all the same evidence again, I’d do the exact same thing.”

“Mina…”

“I know you think she changed, or is good deep down, but that doesn’t matter. She hurt you, and I had to protect you. And god knows you’re going to be stupid about this, and try and keep something going with her–”

“She made it out, then?”

Mina rolled her eyes. “See? Stupid.” But she rubbed her shoulders. “But we had a lot of things wrong, so maybe we’re all a little stupid. The stories said she cursed herself out of hatred for other people.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Yeah, we got an earful from a couple of former ghosts for that one. It doesn’t excuse anything.” Mina looked at Haruka with just enough guilt, though, that made it clear it was complicated to her. “I can’t stop any of this. But if she ever so much as raises her voice at you…”

“God, I missed you.”

Mina smiled. “I missed you too, buddy.” She patted her back. “Now, there’s breakfast waiting, and a few people very eager to see you.”

Haruka followed her nose towards the kitchen, met halfway by a rosy-cheeked, breathless Usagi. “Haruka! You’re awake!” She danced over to hug her, feet loud and heavy even against the carpeted floor. “I want you to meet my family.”

She pulled Haruka into a dining room, where a handful of women, including Makoto, sat around the table. Usagi went first to an older woman with tear rimmed eyes. “This is my granddaughter.” Usagi teared as well as she said it. “Setsuna.” The older woman squeezed her hand with a smile. Together, their hands made the mismatch of ages all too clear– Usagi’s was smooth, Setsuna’s boney and arthritic.

“And this,” Usagi said, flinging herself towards a younger woman who, remarkably, bore a trace of resemblance to her. “Is my great-great granddaughter. She was named after me.”

The second Usagi grinned. “Call me Teenie, though, or it’ll get confusing.”

“And this is her girlfriend, Hotaru! I’ll get to attend their wedding!”

Hotaru looked deeply uncomfortable. Haruka could not be sure if it was because they were not engaged, or because Haruka recognized her as the first woman who’d shot Michiru. She could not think on it long, because Usagi once again threw her arms around her and began to sob. “Thank you, Haruka. I finally get to meet them.”

“I didn’t do anything, Usagi.”

“You did.”

Makoto stood and wrapped them both in a hug. “Michiru is outside, if you wish to see her,” she whispered in Haruka’s ear.

It filled Haruka with more nerves than she expected. She’d seen, for just a moment in the fire, that Michiru had changed. She hadn’t trusted what she saw, but Makoto and Usagi were proof, weren’t they? And if the curse had broken, would Michiru want anything to do with Haruka?

Haruka found her on the front lawn, curled up in a patio chair in the sun. Her hair now fell in soft waves down her back. She had delicate shoulders beneath the sleeves of an oversized borrowed shirt, and delicate hands crossed over her lap. She was stunning. Haruka was painfully out of her depth.

Michiru turned, then, and met her eyes. “The sun’s nice, on my skin.”

“Oh, uh, yeah.”

She gave a polite half smile. “I am of a mind to tell you you have no further obligation to me, with the curse broken, and yet I feel that’s not what I was supposed to learn.”

“What… I mean, how…” Haruka could not seem to make her brain connect with her mouth. There was too much to say, and she felt exposed without the weight of the curse between them.

“How did the curse break, you mean?” She turned back towards the sun and closed her eyes. “Well, it was my own misery, naturally. You provided the missing piece.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s what I needed. I lied to you, when I said that I had loved and been loved. The former is true only in the crudest sense.” She took a deep breath. “The woman who cursed me said I would feel as bad as I made others feel, and then worse. And she had loved me. I had never considered that she loved me.”

Haruka felt warm, and could not pretend it was from the morning sun. “So… you’re saying… are you saying…” She swallowed hard. “That… that…”

“Yes, Haruka, I love you, and you need not think anything of it.”

“But you’re beautiful now. I mean, you kind of were before, in a weird way, but you were also, you know, not, and now… now you’re just beautiful.”

Michiru turned back to her, sliding her legs around the side of her chair. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Well, you could have anyone now.”

Michiru gave a slight chuckle. “We certainly don’t have to worry that we have nothing in common, do we?” She stood. Haruka saw for the first time how small she was, only a few inches taller than Usagi and Teenie. “You are, of course, free to do as you wish. But I would like to give you flowers again, many times, if you would allow it.”

“I have nothing to offer you.”

“Nor I you. My dowry would be quite worthless now, even were it not burned to ash.”

Haruka could not help but smile. “You’ve got so much to learn.”

“Perhaps you could teach me.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” Their eyes met. “You know, there’s something I wanted to do last night, before everything went to shit. Could I maybe…”

Somehow, Michiru looked as scared now as she had then. But she nodded, and Haruka stepped in close, and then it was Michiru who closed the gap. For a moment their fears didn’t matter, nor their shortcomings. The world narrowed to two pairs of petal-soft lips, to desire and hope and belief that change was not the breaking of a curse but the decision to be brave and open, to work for worthiness rather than resign to its absence.

And when the kiss broke, the world did not return to how it had been before. Haruka looked into Michiru’s eyes and knew it never would.