wrt Mako/Michiru/Nehellenia as a thematic trio, you could potentially spin that Mako and Michiru are afraid of the future cause while their friends have dreams that easily lend themselves to their basic natures (Ami’s already smart, Haruka’s adventurous, etc.) Makoto and Michiru might feel like they’re fighting expectations of what they are/should be, and feel like they can’t break out of those hangups as easily.

KEET YOURE A GENIUS I LOVE THIS
I love that it keeps to the dream theme, and it’s so absolutely true for them. Everyone else has obstacles to their dreams, but for the two of them THEY are the obstacle. Mako has a ton of baggage around the way she presents and wanting softer things from life vs what she feels is expected of someone her size and strength, and Michiru I think more than anything wants to be free, and while that ostensibly means from expectations from parents/society/senshi life, SHE’S what really holds herself back.

Little ficlet to the tune of “What if Haruka was afraid of storms?” ~575 words

—-

A shock-white flash and a roar of thunder yanked Haruka out of sleep. Her heart raced ahead of her groggy brain and banged against the walls of her chest to get her moving. Quiet, quiet, up! Up! Who’s home? Who will hear you cry? Closet! Muffle! Go!

Haruka had her hand on the doorknob before she woke up enough to remember. She was safe. She was older now, out of that house, and too old to be afraid of storms.

Another sharp crack of thunder made her jump. Maybe that last bit wasn’t quite true.

She turned back to the empty bed. Where was Michiru?

Her stomach churned as she crept out to the living room. Would she be mad, if she knew? Would she think Haruka too childish? Maybe she just wouldn’t tell her. She’d just… claim hunger? Grab a snack and a kiss and hope it calmed the panic bubbling inside her? Maybe she should just go back to bed.

Thunder shook the house. Haruka yelped. Damn it.

“Haruka? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Haruka stuck her head around the corner. Michiru sat by the rain-splashed window, a cup of steaming tea on the table at her side. She rose, brow knotted.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, I just… I… I just wanted to see you.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to have left you alone. I like to watch the storms.” She glanced back to her vacated perch. “Would you like to join me?”

“Um…” Haruka jumped at another rumble.

“Haruka, are you—“

“I just got a chill, I’m fine. It’s fine.” She fought to stay still as a flash lit the room with a boom.

“Oh, love.” Michiru reached up to stroke her cheek. “It’s okay to be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid!”

She let out a small chuckled. “Haruka, dearest, you have far more transparency than you’d like to believe. There is little you could ever hide from me.”

“Well…” Her body betrayed her again with a wobbling lip. “It’s just very loud. And storms always meant everyone stayed inside.”

“Come here.”

Michiru led her gently to the couch and pulled her head into her lap. “I’m going to keep you safe, Haruka.” Her hand stroked back and forth through Haruka’s hair. “I love you, and I’m here when things get scary.”

“But you shouldn’t have to not watch the storm if you want to because I’m being a baby.”

“You’re not being a baby.” Michiru kneaded Haruka’s scalp with her fingertips. “We’re all afraid of things.”

“Not you.”

“Mmm.” Michiru looked out into the storm. “I have many fears, perhaps the biggest of which is letting you see I am afraid.” She bent over kiss Haruka’s forehead. “”You are the bravest person I know, Haruka.”

“Yeah sure,” Haruka scoffed. “So brave that I’m laid low by a little rain.”

“You were afraid and still came to me. I want to be that brave someday.”

The thunder crashed again. Haruka pressed herself deeper into the comfort of Michiru’s lap. “You’re really not mad I’m like this?”

“Not at all, love.” She rubbed her hand slowly along Haruka’s back. “I’d like you to stay here until the storm passes. I want to protect you.”

“I want you to protect me,” Haruka whispered. Michiru did not pull away. Her hands and body were warm and calming against Haruka’s skin. She drifted back to sleep slowly, the storm fading away under the strength of Michiru’s quiet.

Your Outers in PGSM was amazing! I had a thought. What if, to wrap a touch of R into S, *Michiru* was from the future? We never learn what the future is like or what happens, only that something went wrong? (And was it everything? Or was it *just* Haruka dying?) Most everything else stays the same, where Michiru is trying to save Haruka from herself and all that jazz. I actually had the thought when I saw your second part and hadn’t even seen the first yet but I think it could still fit.

AHHH I LOVE THIS YOURE A GENIUS

I have this image of Haruka dying as the world’s about to end and Michiru just grabbing a time key off Pluto and running. And she’ll sacrifice Haruka knowing her to save her. (And if it saves the world too well, that’s fine but it’s hardly her goal)

Ok this one is a lame au but the Outers show up in pgsm.

THIS ISN’T LAME THIS IS WONDERFUL TERRITORY AND I WENT
TOTALLY OFF THE RAILS, THE ENDING IS DISAPPOINTING BUT CHRIST I WROTE WAY TOO
MUCH.

  • I’m going to come from the second season angle, with the
    special act never happening. Also, I think there’s no Chibs in the PGSM-verse,
    because of Sailor Luna and also working in a world without the security of
    Crystal Tokyo is interesting.
  • So that puts us with a Pluto who has not known friendship,
    who never fought or died for a sweet little girl. She becomes Setsuna and
    everything is new, she gets to be with people for the first time.
  • Also, she’s aged down a bit. Only a little older than our
    main cast. She is so eager to befriend them and she doesn’t know how. And she
    knows she is supposed to be there to warn them, but she wants so badly to be
    loved by them that she frets over her approach and dreads their impression of
    her being such a bad omen.
  • Minako notices her, and confronts her, thinking she might be
    a fan going to far, showing up places they hang out and always looking a little
    too long. Setsuna transforms to assure her that’s not the case. She explains
    that there may be a time when additional soldiers are needed to destroy bigger
    threats.
  • She also asks that Minako keep her a secret from the others.
  • Minako agrees, but she knows what it’s like to take on the
    burden of duty and memory alone, so she invites Setsuna along to hang out with
    them.
  • (And as monster attacks start cropping up again, she makes
    sure Setsuna is able to sneak away quietly instead of transforming. There’s not
    yet anything they can’t handle on their own yet anyway.)
  • There’s a nice little subplot of Rei getting jealous of this
    new, beautiful older girl Minako is suddenly chummy with.
  • She swears she’s not jealous, she explains to Ami one night,
    it’s just that she used to be the one person Minako connected to, and now
    Setsuna’s new and shiny and she feels forgetten.
  • That’s jealousy, Ami says (she knows the feeling all too
    well), but what did you say about premonitions of doom?
  • Rei says it’s probably nothing. Ami takes note while Rei is
    focused on her definitely-not-jealousy.
  • Usagi, meanwhile, is causing Mamoru some
    definitely-not-jealousy as she spends time with a handsome stranger she met in
    a candy shop.
  • He of course doesn’t SAY anything, of course, but Usagi sees
    something is wrong and mopes around the karaoke bar trying to figure it out.
  • Mako has NO PATIENCE for Mamoru’s shit, so she barges over
    to his place to find out what’s wrong. He caves and she’s just like YOU’RE
    STUPID USAGI LOVES YOU. Also, I think Haruka is about as threatening to you as
    a teddy bear, she cries over every animal video Usagi shows her.
  • Oh, is all Mamoru can say, and then he pulls his head out of
    his ass.
  • We then get just fun scenes of the girls (including
    Setsuna!) hanging out with Haruka, trying on sunglasses, complaining about
    school, all the usual stuff. She and Mako play basketball. A good time is had
    by all.
  • Meanwhile, tho, the viewers get insight into the Death
    Buster’s plans. Tomoe and Kaolintie (the baddies are streamlined a bit) hatch
    daimons from various objects. They whisper about building up to hatching the
    most powerful daimon of all.
  • The daimons get more and more powerful, the girls fight more
    and more. One day they get attacked while hanging out, and in order to protect
    Haruka, Setsuna is forced to reveal herself. And when she transforms, she
    recognizes the hidden power of Uranus in Haruka.
  • The girls are surprised in the aftermath, but not shocked.
    Usagi is elated that both her new friends are senshi. She offers her hand to
    Haruka, eager to see her transform for the first time…
  • And is blown away by a blast of power.
  • “That girl will not become a senshi,” says a voice from the shadows.
    “You will not lead her down this path.”
  • The audience sees a shot of green hair, a glint of a mirror.
  • “We need her to awaken the messiah, should the need arise.”
    Setsuna says. She touches the garnet orb on her staff.
  • “Then the need shall not arise,” says the mysterious
    soldier. “If she is with you, she is protected, is she not?”
  • Haruka wants to join the fight, but something holds her
    back. And when she asks, later, Minako is honest. Duty is hard. Duty is
    painful. Whoever the mysterious soldier is, she is not wrong. Whatever reasons
    she has for protecting Haruka may be valid.
  • Rei, meanwhile, is not content to be left wondering. She
    goes to her fires with a question, and they give her an answer. The next day
    she tracks down the young heiress Michiru Kaioh.
  • “I know who you are,” she says, but Michiru does not falter.
    “And I know who you are, Mars. I know what you have seen. Pluto is wrong. When
    we three awaken we bring destruction. I will not let that girl face that.”
  • “What is she to you?”
  • Michiru freezes. “Everything. But I am nothing to her.” And
    she takes her leave.
  • There’s several episodes of Haruka agonizing and the girls
    fighting and Neptune watching from the shadows and Rei being weird about
    Setsuna and Minako and trying to decide if she’s relieved or more threatened by
    the fact that she’s a soldier.
  • And finally one episode ends with a scared little girl looking
    into Tomoe’s laboratory, with more ominous talk of The Most Powerful Daimon.
  • We follow this little girl, Hotaru, next episode, see her go
    to school and be picked on for being sickly, see her avoid going home. She
    meets Haruka, who asks if she’s lost. She says no, but when Haruka asks if she’d
    like to be walked home because it’s getting dark, she nods and takes her hand.
  • Of course, a powerful daimon attacks them.
  • Neptune appears seemingly out of nowhere to fight it. “Run,”
    she spits, and Haruka picks up Hotaru and tries but a second daimon appears. “Forget
    the girl and run!”
  • Haruka, of course, cannot, and if she cannot run, she must
    fight.
  • The power explodes out of her and she transforms. Michiru
    watches in despair.
  • Uranus immediately kills the monster she faces with her
    sword, and turns to make sure Hotaru is okay.
  • But Hotaru’s glowing purple, and in a voice not her own she
    demands the third. Where is it? She needs the third.
  • Michiru drops her transformation, and yells at Haruka to do
    the same. Hotaru returns to normal with no memory of what happened.
  • “The three of us must never be transformed in the same
    place,” Michiru says quietly. “Lest the messiah of silence awaken.”
  • “You don’t have to be alone though,”Haruka says. (She
    carries Hotaru, who has fallen asleep, on her back.
  • Michiru insists it’s too risky. She would rather Haruka stay
    safe, but Haruka smiles and says she’s in this now. She asks why Michiru cares
    so much, and she avoids the question.
  • All the senshi, minus Michiru, have a meeting in the karaoke
    parlor. Rei states what she knows, and so does Haruka. The incident with Hotaru
    worries Pluto. She explains that the three of them are supposed to call forth
    the holy grail, which empowers Serenity.
  • Usagi quietly says that every power that can do good can do
    bad just as easily.
  • It silences them all for a long moment. Then Haruka suggests
    that Hotaru seems troubled, and maybe the best option would be to find out more
    about what might be going on.
  • They form a plan. Ami signs up to be a tutor at Hotaru’s
    elementary school. She meets Hotaru, but learns nothing. Hotaru is troubled by
    bullying, that is clear, but there’s something deeper Ami can see but can’t
    define.
  • Then, without notice because she’s not one to be behind the
    scenes, MINAKO AINO makes a surprise visit to the elementary school! All of the
    kids go nuts, asking for autographs and songs, but Hotaru hangs back. Ami takes
    her chance and asks Hotaru what’s wrong. She’s been bullied too, she assures
    her, and she won’t tell anyone anything Hotaru says.
  • Hotaru is painfully ready to trust people. She tells Ami her
    mother died, but now her father has brought home a woman and the woman won’t
    leave. Ami nods, thinking it’s a stepmother situation, but then Hotaru whispers
    that they spend all their time in the basement laboratory, saying things that
    scare her, and sometimes she wakes up at night sure someone has been in her
    room.
  • There’s whispers in her dreams, words she doesn’t understand.
    Daimons. Does Ami know what a daimon is?
  • Ami lies and says no. As soon as she can, she takes out her
    phone and makes a call.
  • Haruka, luckily, knows where Hotaru’s house is from walking
    her home. The two of them expect to do a stealth attack (figuring there is no
    time to gether the others), but Kaolinite knows Hotaru has talked. She meets
    them at the door and announces they are too late.
  • She turns and shoves Hotaru forward, announcing the most
    powerful daimon is complete.
  • The wind rises around Hotaru. Haruka whispers that this isn’t
    how she went strange before.
  • Michiru runs past everyone, untransformed. As she is about
    to throw herself on Hotaru, Haruka grabs her arm. “What are you doing?”
  • “Killing the girl will save us all.”
  • “How can you say that? She’s a child.”
  • The fight is cut short by Hotaru hatching into Mistress
    Nine.
  • The being that was once the little girl Hotaru looks at her
    hands, shrieking with laughter at the joy of being alive. The sky darkens above
    her. She smiles before lashing out.
  • Michiru shields Haruka from the blow, looking so small in
    comparision to tall, transformed Uranus.
  • Mistress Nine knocks back Mercury, declaring them not worth
    the fight. She calls for Tomoe and Kaolinite, declaring that they must protect
    her, they’ve brought her into a body still to frail to handle her power. She
    cannot yet call Pharoh 90.
  • And then Hotaru collapses, a girl once again. Tomoe and
    Kaolinite take her up and disappear.
  • There’s a few quieter episodes. Haruka visits Michiru in the
    hospital, and Michiru confesses everything. How her visions had led her to
    Haruka, and while she’d already planned on stopping her from awakening, the
    more she watched, the more she wanted to protect Haruka’s smile. It wouldn’t be
    fair if Haruka had to face a soldier’s life. She never wanted Haruka to face
    down killing a little girl for the sake of the world.
  • Once she’s out, everyone comes together. Setsuna somberly
    announces her thoughts—based on what Haruka saw, Hotaru bears the soul of
    Saturn, the soldier of destruction. Michiru agrees, stating the extent of her
    visions. She’s seen that they are between a rock and a hard place—destruction by
    Saturn or destruction by Pharoh 90.
  • Setsuna sees things differently. Saturn’s power razes the earth
    as a fire might raze a crop, ensuring the soil is renewed so that it can grow
    back stronger. Destruction by the likes of Pharoh 90 is a plague, poisoning the
    earth so that nothing shall rise up in its wake.
  • They should awaken Saturn to force out Mistress Nine.
  • Minako agrees. Rei very emphatically does not. They have
    fought for their lives. This life. She’s not prepared to sacrifice it. She and
    Minako fall into old patterns of subordination and accusations of being bad
    soldiers.
  • Usagi stops them. They will awaken Saturn. But she will stop
    the destruction. She will not hear that it’s not how it works.
  • They draw out Mistress Nine once more, and this time she is successful
    in calling to her master. Pharoh 90 appears in the sky, slowly descending to
    consume the earth.
  • The soldiers worry they are too late, but they follow the
    plan.
  • The Outers all transform, and Mistress Nine begins to morph.
    There is a war inside Hotaru’s body, and Saturn wins.
  • She raises her glaive to reset, but Princess Sailor Moon
    steps up, blocking the glaive with her sword.
  • “I will not allow destruction of things I love.”
  • “You are too late. I will birth this world anew. I am
    destruction incarnate.”
  • “So was I, once.” Usagi fades into her regular Sailor Moon
    form. The Holy Grail appears before her, and she takes it. “We don’t have to be
    the things we were made for.” The grail opens and light washes over her. She
    has become Super Sailor Moon. “I destroyed my kingdom in pain, and I was wrong.”
  • “I am not motivated by pain, only duty.”
  • “A very good friend of mine felt the same, once. But she
    found out duty isn’t all there is.”
  • “There’s nothing else for me!” Saturn yells, sounding much
    more like Hotaru. “This is something I can do, this is the only thing that’s
    right!”
  • “No, we can do something else, together.” Usagi holds out her
    hand, and Hotaru takes it, just as she took Haruka’s hand before. Together they
    face Pharoh 90, the power of Super Sailor Moon lifting them up to meet him. They
    disappear to fight him from the inside.
  • Usagi emerges, the holy grail cracked in two at her feet,
    and Hotaru, once again an ordinary little girl, in her arms.

Harumichi flower shop AU

  • Okay so, backstory: Haruka and Mako met in foster care.
  • They were briefly sisters, and kept in touch. They
    understood each other, both considered delinquents, both a little too quick to
    throw a punch, both full of good intent. Mako had a knack for growing things,
    and Haruka liked to learn to do things with her hands.
  • They got through their teenage years planning how they could
    open a flower shop, saving money from weekend jobs and change found under
    couches, and it’s really Mako’s small inheritance from her parents that she can
    legally use at 18 that lets them buy a little place and get started, but they
    still feel proud. Haruka is handy enough to get their fixer upper in working
    shape, and then they’re on their feet and their combined talents mean they get
    by.
  • They build their reputation for years. Mako’s got a green
    thumb, and no matter the conditions they have beautiful blooms. (And if their clientele
    skews largely into the gay community it doesn’t hurt, they don’t advertise themselves
    as a gay shop but they’re a lesbian and a bi woman and people are comfortable
    and are you telling me you wouldn’t shop there?)
  • And once they book a few events, they get on the radar of
    higher class buyers.
  • That is how Michiru Kaioh comes through the door one day.
  • She is, perhaps unfortunately, looking for a break up
    flower. Something that conveys, “You’re getting too attached, so I want to cut
    things off cleanly, but not too cleanly because I want to keep you as an option
    and an occasional late night romp.”
  • But then Haruka turns from tending the soil to greet her and
    wipes her brow and Michiru knows she is not going to say any of that.
  • She makes up some reason to be there, she’d heard about the
    shop from their work at the gala, which was true, but doesn’t give her a reason
    to buy something.
  • But Michiru is not one to be defeated so easily. She has
    Haruka show her the most beautiful flower in the shop. She decides will buy it
    and give it to Haruka, and Haruka will be charmed and then Michiru will spirit
    her away to a night on the town, and they will have red wine and explore each other’s
    bodies and—
  • And Haruka works in a flower shop, Michiru realizes, and has
    no use for a flower of her own growing.
  • So when Haruka asks if she would like it wrapped, Michiru
    says yes, and with Haruka’s back turned she takes her leave before she can
    embarrass herself.
  • Haruka is left holding a rose and wondering about the
    strange, beautiful girl she met.
  • She looks for her at every event she and Mako do flowers
    for. (Not that there’s much chance, they’re in and out before anything starts.)
  • But one day, they’re commissioned to do flower accents for
    an art show, and who should the artist turn out to be?
  • She was hoping Haruka would forget and she could have a
    second chance to make a good impression. But Haruka remembers, and there’s a
    good bit of very awkward attempts at small talk, but then
  • BUT THEN
  • Haruka manages to choke out something resembling an
    invitation to get drinks sometime to learn more about each other, and Michiru
    manages some polite approximation of acceptance.
  • (Mako, on the other side of the room, loudly announces that
    It’s fine, she can do the arrangements on her own, no need to do your job
    Haruka just keep flirting)

Senshi crime AU

Michiru is the head of a high crime empire. Her personal interest is art theft, both for the thrill and because the masses do no deserve what only a true artist can appreciate.

Usagi is her secretary who is utterly clueless the business she works for is a front. Michiru has stopped expecting her to figure it out and counts it as a brilliant stroke of luck.

Ami was recruited after she was expelled from the medical community for extensive insurance fraud. While she can sometimes tend towards righteous, her hacking skills are invaluable to Michiru’s operation.

Michiru’s current recruitment target is Minako— a brilliant con artist it’s taken months to track.

What Michiru doesn’t know is Mina has no interest in crime that benefits the wealthy. She’s running a small Robin-Hood style operation (sometimes, she is the poor they are helping, but a girl’s gotta eat) with two bleeding hearts, ex-Yakuza Makoto and petty thief/street racer Haruka (the latter of whom she may have met while they were both running from the cops, Haruka had luckily been willing to take a passenger and had modified her car well enough that the police couldn’t catch them)

Meanwhile Rei is a fresh investigative journalist determined to make her name by blowing open Michiru’s operation, and she’s willing to cut a deal with the likes of Mina to do it

Quick light HaruMichi fluff piece, 700 words

———————————-

Michiru’s mother had always been a hard woman, and over the years Michiru had watched that stiffness become literal. The slow progression of stony maintenance, chiseling away each flaw as it manifested so that she might become a statue of the woman Michiru saw in her parent’s wedding photos. When she had last seen her mother, she could not raise her eyebrows again yet, and she asked if Michiru had considered starting ‘getting work.’

She’d been appalled at the suggestion, she’d always promised herself she would be different from her parents in so many ways, bult as she leaned into the mirror now…

Michiru had thought it would happen so much later. But the lines around her eyes extended like a dozen little liner wings, and creases on her forehead would not dissipate no matter how she relaxed the muscles beneath them. The bones of her shoulders, elbows, knees, the lines of her neck, they had all grown more pronounced, seemingly overnight.

She opened her phone to look through pictures. When had it began? Wasn’t she still so young? Her mother hadn’t… but how was she to know when things began for her mother? She was nearing sixty, and Michiru had never seen as much as a gray hair appear unchecked. Perhaps she had the right of it. It was the only way, surely, turn to stone to bear the weight of age. Michiru would have to make some calls, and then—

“Michi?”

She straightened, smoothed her dress, fixed her hair. “Yes?”

“You’re taking awhile, the show…”

“Oh, yes.” Michiru looked in the mirror again. She had not even begun her makeup, and she needed it now more than ever. “Perhaps you could go ahead of me, I’m going a bit slow today.”

“I’m not going without you.” Haruka cracked the bathroom door. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, love.” She grabbed her foundation and unscrewed the cap in a hurry. “I merely got distracted.”

“Michiru.” She opened the door further and stepped inside. “I know you. You can talk to me.”

It wasn’t fair—Haruka was every bit as handsome as the day they’d met, while she… while she…

Michiru faced her reflection. “I’m old.”

Haruka’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“I’m old.”

Haruka laughed, though not unkindly.  “If we’re old now, we’re gonna be ancient in a few years.”

“I will. You’ll be fine.”

“What?” Another laugh, this time with the slightest edge. “I look older than you.”

Michiru could not find the words respond. Haruka stuck her face in the mirror beside her.

“Soon I won’t even be able to call myself blonde.” She gave her hair a good-natured shake. “And Mina likes to say I’ve begun the slow morph from butch noodle to ravioli.”

Michiru met her eyes in the mirror. It was all true, in a strict sense, and yet…

“But it’s handsome on you. You look just as good, better even, than before. And I…”

“You’re beautiful, Michu.” Haruka took her gently by the shoulders and turned her so they faced each other. “You’re the most beautiful woman to ever live.” She smiled sheepishly. “I kinda like see you get older. For a long time I thought I wouldn’t get to.”

“Oh, Haruka.”

“I know, I know, but really.” She stroked her face with her thumb. “I wouldn’t want you looking younger. This is where we are now, and I like it.”

“You don’t think…” Michiru glanced back to the mirror. “You wouldn’t have me get anything?”

“God no.” Haruka kissed her on the forehead. “You’re perfect, Michu. And you won’t ever not be.”

“You’re very sweet,” she said, but she felt her spirits lift. “I’m sorry I’ve made us so late.”

“It’s okay, I was gonna sleep through most the show anyway. I’m so old, you know, I can’t stay awake anymore.”

Michiru laughed. “You’ve been old a very long time then.”

“I suppose I have.” Haruka grinned. “Though you know, if you’re worried about being late, we could go now. You’re more than beautiful enough already…”

“I’m going to put on my makeup, Haruka.”

“I figured as much, but it was worth a try. Someday you’ll believe me on that front, too.”

She kissed Michiru’s cheek and let her be. Michiru selected a lipstick with a lightness in her heart, a feeling that could never turn to stone.