Part six of HaruMichi Beauty and the Beast! See the Masterpost for previous chapters

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Haruka lie awake in bed. Michiru was… weird. She was a weird strange monster with a weird strange aversion to telling Haruka anything that could help.

Haruka thought about what it would have been like, walking in the garden with her when she was normal. Human. Haruka might want to… well, if she wasn’t afraid to touch her, she might have held her hand. There was something Haruka felt fondness for, under the claws and scales. If only…

Mina would interject there, Haruka knew. If there’s a big exception in the ‘everything’ you like about her, buddy, you don’t really like her.

But this was different, surely. This wasn’t someone who talked down to her or was a vegan or any of the other things that Mina had correctly predicted as dealbreakers. This was a bad situation, that Michiru clearly wanted out of. Maybe she didn’t say it, but Haruka knew.

She jumped up from bed and began to pace. There had to be something she could do. Haruka was handy. Haruka fixed all sorts of things. And maybe those things were inanimate, engines and toilets and the occasional bike chain, but really, she’d had to learn to do all those things, mostly through sheer stubbornness, so she could surely figure out a curse.

Usually, things weren’t really broken, they were just stuck or off track and needed guidance. Haruka looked out the window in the starry night and pondered. Michiru couldn’t tell her what was wrong, but neither could an engine. You had to take what signs you could and follow them to the problem.

What did she know? Michiru was cursed long ago, having once been beautiful. Beautiful and high class. She became something monstrous, and seemed to feel it was appropriate.

That was it! Haruka smacked the side of her head for not realizing sooner. She dashed from her room.

When Haruka had realized who she was, a lesbian and a butch one at that, she’d been afraid. She’d felt, well, monstrous. Inhuman. If there had been any magic in her small town world, it might have made her feelings real. And for Michiru, it had. It was so simple. No wonder Usagi and Makoto wanted them to spend time together. Michiru just needed to see it was okay!

She paused at the stairs that led to Michiru’s chambers. Part of her recognized the boundary, that there was one thing she was told not to do and therefore she should not do it. But surely– Surely!– Michiru would not mind if it turned her back to normal. She bounded up the stairs two at a time.

“Michiru!” She called at the top. Nothing. Haruka followed the hall to the first open door.

Unease crept over her. It was a bedroom, and for all she joked that she’d never see a room in worse shape than Minako’s, this one took the cake. Claw marks marred the stone walls, the bed clothes were strewn across the floor, which was also littered with glass. The vanity against one wall had a shattered mirror, and the items that likely belonged on its surface were knocked aside, half broken.

Haruka’s every instinct told her to run. But her every instinct told her to run every time she saw Michiru, and it was crucial to not give in to that impulse. So she pressed on through the next door, to a small room with a balcony.

Curiously, the only decor here was upright and in tact— just a small table, bearing a hand mirror. Haruka picked it up. It did not show her face in the glass, but Mina’s. She was in their apartment, reaching into their fridge. She handed someone— no, Haruka recognized the outreaching hand as her own— a beer. The mirror made no sound, but Haruka could read Mina’s expression well enough. Don’t you ever scare me like that again.

“Do you show the future?”

The mirror did not change. Haruka chose to take that as a good sign.

“Can you show me breaking the curse?”

The image blurred. It showed Haruka’s hand again, this time reaching for Michiru’s claw. She gave a start at the contact, looked afraid, but then light washed over her. As it faded Haruka saw she’d changed to what she must have looked like before, soft and gentle where she had been angular and cold.

“What are you doing?” Came a hiss from the shadows.

“It showed me breaking the curse!” Haruka set the mirror aside, ready to embrace Michiru. “I came to try, see, I thought maybe you needed to know it’s okay if you like women, and I don’t know if that’s right, but I’m going to do it!” Michiru still did not come forward into the moonlight. “I saw it, I just have to—“

“The mirror only shows you what you want to see.” Michiru’s voice was low. Fear shocked through Haruka’s bones, but she fought it down. “The events it shows will never come to pass.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Haruka approached her slowly. She just had to take her claw in hand, and then… Her whole arm shook. “I just have to—“

Michiru rushed her as she had the first night, slamming her against the wall, one claw at her neck. “Do you think you know better than me? Do you think you are the first fool to think I could be something else?” Her claw wrapped around Haruka’s throat. “What, you saw a beautiful woman in the mirror,  and now you want her? You think I am something good, if only I did not scare you?”

She tossed Haruka to the floor.

“I will always scare you. It does not matter if I look like this or what you saw. I am not gentle and I am not kind. Those below me live on my mercy and I will not submit to anyone.” Michiru threw the mirror against the wall. It fell to the ground with a clatter, but did not so much as chip. “You will run, when you realize. I am not grateful for your efforts. I have loved and been loved and it does not matter.”

“But—“

“No.” Michiru struck the table aside. Haruka’s heart raced in her chest. “The people of the town turned against me because they knew what I was. I would not change for them or for love or for anything else. And I will not change for you.” She slithered back towards the door. “I have quite enjoyed your company, but I don’t wish to see you any longer. Keep out of my sight until you friend comes for you.”

Haruka lie on the floor, listening as she retreated. Panic gripped her too much to move. Panic, and pain.

“Oh Haruka,” came Usagi’s voice after a long while. “I told you not to come here.” She lifted Haruka gently, her cool touch easing the tender bruises before they fully formed.

“Have there been others like me?”

“Not many.” She pulled Haruka to lean against her body. It felt like a cloud. “You’ve done more than she expected. I don’t think any girl has tried this hard since she was human.”

“Can’t you tell me what you know?”

Usagi made a small, mournful hum. “Michiru thinks I’m stupid, and Mako tries not to, but she does too. But I can put things together pretty okay, so I know more than I’m supposed to.” She stroked Haruka’s hair with her fingers. “We were all pawns for her, to an extent. She’s genuinely fond of Mako and I, but we’re an anomaly. The townspeople, her suitors, everyone, she cared about only so far as what they could offer her. She wanted more than just a big house in a small town. And her family was so rich, she probably could have gotten it. But the town started to suspect she didn’t care about them, and times were changing. They elected a mayor, and he thought it would be strategic for Michiru to make a sign of goodwill. A marriage.” Usagi chuckled a little. “It’s strange the townspeople liked him, he was just as entitled as our lady. But she rejected him, very publically, and it was not wise to do so.”

“So he cursed her?’

“Oh no,” Usagi shook her head vigorously. “Don’t you know, curses are women’s work.”

“So then…” Haruka puzzled over it for a moment. “Who?”

“I pieced together the rest, so I’m missing details. But like I told you, I know all the places one might have a foray with a suitor in this house. And Michiru hand a small handful, all women.” Usagi tapped her fingers again the floor. “One had a brother, around Michiru’s age. I imagine she offered a marriage to him, to appease the town and so that they might stay together, lest MIchiru be driven out.”

“And Michiru turned her down?”

“Our lady would not think any common girl worth that sort of bargain, and she likely said as much.” Usagi sighed. “I want her to think you’re worth it. I don’t know if you can love her, but if she can love you… maybe it would be enough.”

“Will you be free, if she is?”

“I don’t know.” She became solid for a moment. Haruka felt comfort in the warmth of her skin. “I know, sometimes, that time has passed. I don’t know what’s left in the world for us. But I don’t want to stay here.” She faded again. “You can run away, if you want. I would, if I could.”

“I don’t think I could.” Haruka caught Usagi’s translucent hand in hers. “I don’t love her. I don’t know if I can. But sometimes, I kind of like her. And I like you. Someone should fight for you.”

Usagi squeezed her shoulders. “If anyone can fight for us, I think it’s you.”