docholligay:

“Excuse me?” Haruka looked as if she were going to pop every blood vessel in her face, then and there.

Mina sighed. “Haruka, how long have you two been going at it? Doesn’t it ever get old?”

Haruka threw up her hands. “Why would it get old? It would only get old if she stopped being such a fucking….ass!”

Mina looked up at her. “Like, you realize Michiru’s not going to leave you for her? Or literally any better option.” There was a flash of hurt in Haruka’s eyes, and Mina patted her arm as they loped toward the park. “I’m kidding. You and Michiru are tailormade for each other, is my point, and Seiya’s not going to get in the way of that.”

“That’s not why i hate her!” Haruka snapped, indicating, to Mina, that it was very likely precisely why she hated her.

“Sure. Well, you don’t have to like her but you better get used to her.” Mina nodded at Haruka, more quietly. “Something big’s coming, Ruka. I think we all know it.” She looked at the sun, just new over the horizon. “And soon, too. We need everyone.”

Haruka ruffled the hair at the back of her neck. “Michiru’s been having dreams. She won’t tell me about what.”

The both paused at the entrance to the park, the morning dew filling the air with the fresh scent of possibility and newness. Mina looked off into the span of verdant green, her mind wandering.

“Everything is about to change.”

She said it with such simple, straightforward placidity that one could have been forgiven for not knowing it was Mina at all. Haruka got this from her, sometimes, this sort of plainspoken talk, stripped off all the glitz and shine that Mina generally offered with every single sentence. Haruka liked it, because she knew it meant Mina trusted her.

But it was hard now, where even Haruka could see the worry on her face, the uncertainty. She didn’t like it when Mina was uncertain. It seemed unnatural.

“We’ll be okay,” Haruka said, as much to herself as to Mina, “We’ve met with tough things before, and we always come out of it.” She stretched her leg behind her, pulling it up to her back. “God that feels good.”

Mina was not sure how to explain to Haruka a feeling she could not quite articulate to herself. She and Rei had whispered about it in the dark, under the covers, Rei still protesting about doing what they had already done, what they had already done a hundred times, each with Rei protesting. It seemed like part of the foreplay now. They had whispered about the darkness that lay ahead. How it felt like the end, in one way or another. A wave was coming, and it was going to take everything with it.

But in some ways, it didn’t make much sense to tell Haruka any of that before her morning run through the park, Mina on her way to some distraction, anything to keep away the feeling of creeping dread that grew stronger every day.

“Sometimes she wakes up screaming,” Haruka interrupted Mina’s thoughts, twisting her wedding ring on her finger. “She keeps asking me if I’m okay.”

Mina looked back at Haruka. I don’t want it to be anyone, but God of any religion who happens to be listening, Haruka’s be one of my last picks. She’s a good person. She tries. Don’t take her.

“We all know Michiru’s future telling’s pretty flexible, bud, it’s far off.” She waved in her hand in a casual way she did not feel.

“Yeah,” Haruka snorted, “she had a dream the other night that Usagi married SEIYA.”

“Glad to know, no matter the circumstances, your priorities never change, Haruka.” She clapped her on the shoulder. “Enjoy your run. I’m gonna head down to that tea shop downtown, I think. Want to meet up for lunch?”

“Sure.” She pulled a sweatband onto her forehead.

“You look incredibly stupid.”

Haruka scowled. “It keeps me from getting sweaty!”

Mina laughed and started down the street. ‘Later, loser. HAVE A NICE RUN, MUFFIN! I HOPE IT’S THE BEST RUN OF YOUR LIFE!”

As the parted ways, on a day that would come to be known as the Incident in the Square, a cloud gathered over the city.