Michiru/Death ficlet
No, I don't know what happened. Bear with me, my Michiru characterisation is a bit rusty.
Title: Ai to Shi no Rondo [The Dance of Love and Death]
Fandom: Sailor Moon/Elisabeth
Pairing(s): Michiru/Haruka, Michiru/Death
Rating: PG-13 for the hint of kissing.
Warnings: Here be het.
Summary: Michiru doesn't fear death.
_____
She has never feared death. There is no reason to, after all. Better than most, Michiru knows that death is a fixed point of reality, a horizon one will always have to consider if wishing to paint the true colours of living onto the canvas of life itself. You cannot live fully, truthfully, unless you are aware that to every aspect of light shadow is attached. To every breath the possibility of end. Michiru is painfully aware. Haruka and she have balanced on the thin blade of existence too often for her to be blind to the possibility of dying.
Surely, such knowledge would have turned many into pessimists - but if asked, Michiru would politely decline such a label. “Pessimist holds too many grave insinuations, don’t you agree?” - and the conversation would come to an end. Like that. She would not, wouldn’t wish to, indulge you in the fact that “cynical optimist” would be her own term of choice. Unless, of course, you were a tall woman with blonde hair that smells like freedom and eyes the same colour as the sky after a downpour. In that case, she might just be benevolent and let you in on her little secret, if only to observe the sceptical expression on your face.
No, Kaioh Michiru is not a woman who is afraid of dying. Dying is a matter of fact - the only factors of interest are the questions attached to the unavoidable. The how, the when and most importantly, the why. Michiru can think of many things (but only few people) that would be worth giving up your life for.
Thus, it comes as no surprise to her, when she finds herself falling. Falling in no particular direction, only down, wet mud and hard ground greeting her. Uranus is shouting, her voice taking on an edge of dusk and storm. Her eyes, when she drops to her knees next to Neptune’s crumbling shape, hold the promise of rain in the near future.
All questions have been asked and answered, so Michiru fears nothing. Her last conscious thought has to do with gentle arms embracing her from behind early in the morning.
***
He has been waiting for her. Patiently. She can tell. Not that he holds an infinite amount of patience, but he is a being of another kind than her which makes him unable to respond to emotions and impressions in the same manner that others would. Something about him distinctively reminds her of Pluto, but she does not linger at the parallel.
Who would have thought death would be like this? Every time, she lets herself be surprised once more.
Michiru takes a step forward. The silk of the dress she is wearing produces a sound not much unlike a waterfall. The warm fabric of Princess Neptune’s gown envelopes her body. It has come out of nowhere, stealing away her fuku, her civilian identity and stripping her to her historical core.
His eyes never leave her face. Raising her head, she meets his gaze unwaveringly. It is deeper than the ocean and reaches beyond the borders of the living world.
“Most mortals would be scared.”
It’s not a question. It’s a conclusion. To Michiru it tells a vivid story of the many people in whose footsteps she’s walking. He has a husky voice, not unlike Haruka’s, but with a quality of hoarseness unknown in the blonde. Shadowy. Smoky. He is of a texture that can break apart and come together in the ounce of a second. A smile form on her lips, steel-edged.
“I find nothing to be afraid of,” she replies. If her words cause a reaction in him, it’s not a visible one. His features remain a marble mask of something others would categorize as boredom, though the word is lacking. Boredom requires interest. The man, the being, in front of her has no particular interest in those presented to him. His interest has been exhausted for centuries. Like she did moments before, he now steps forward, striding towards her with the confidence of gods. His cape rustles, like leaves in autumn.
Death seems an astounding blend of the greatest strength and utmost vulnerability. A blend well-known to her. Michiru cocks her head to the side. Curiously.
“I am here to take your life, Kaioh Michiru - and to welcome you to the world of the dead.”
A blend of ice and fire. Technically impossible, but Michiru is not unfamiliar with how technicality can be stripped of meaning in practice. Technically speaking, sky and sea should never be able to meet, always separated by a black border where the earth bends. Haruka and she, however, were never far apart.
“You cannot take something,” Michiru tells him when he comes to a halt in front of her, towering over her, but somehow remaining on eye level, “that is only for you to borrow for a short while.”
He doesn’t ask her what she means. He doesn’t need to. He is Death and being who he is, he acknowledges that death is only another aspect of life. It is no secret to either of them that she has lived many lives prior to this instance and suffered an identical amount of deaths. What comes after this one is no man’s land, but it is his no more than hers. It’s an act of balance, but the result is one of equality.
Michiru has never released her firm hold of herself as a person. She will not do so in death either.
“I will kiss you now,” he simply answers, his hands like claws as they grip her face, “and you will go to sleep. She’ll be waiting for you there.”
Michiru closes her eyes. “Thank you” is a wholly unnecessary response. He, too, loved once. He has felt on his own heart the powers of this exact force, pulling her in and out of a never-ending circle. The two of them are destined to meet in the same manner Neptune is destined to reunite with Uranus - on the other side.
Against her mouth, his lips taste like freedom and behind her closed eyelids she finds herself standing on the flat plains of Tenohsei, the wind playing with her hair and a gentle pair of arms hugging her in against a lean body.
All questions have been asked and answered, so Michiru fears nothing.