Hate to post again so soon, but I was ENABLED.

[infinityviolin]

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Michiru is painting again, up on the roof of some building (a tall one, but she was spat into the Nexus again with supplies on her arm - she has no idea where she is, exactly, but she knows that she has a beautiful view of the city, and that's all that really matters.) No, if anything should surprise

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[earthvictorious]

He stares at the painting with something darker than anger in his eye. The endless swirl of memories has taken shape on that canvas as surely as in Zoisite's music. The endless swirl of memories that drove him from the most loyal soldier of the shitennou to this man resurrected solely as a servant to vengeance.

"What are you doing?" he asks coldly. His posture is tense with the effort of self-control not to simply cut the canvas into pieces.

[infinityviolin]

Michiru turns to face him, folding her arms neutrally across her chest. His face stirs something in her (dreams, Michiru, nothing but these dreams over and over, that's all) but she can't pinpoint it, so instead she just gives him a slightly challenging look.

"Painting."

[earthvictorious]

He doesn't strongly resemble the Kunzite of Michiru's world, but that shitennou uniform is unmistakable. That he is a warrior through and through is evident in every detail from that same uniform, to the warrior's topknot, to the sword at his side.

"Evidently," he says, lips parted in something between a sneer and a cold, humorless smirk. "Why this?"

[infinityviolin]

Michiru is unfazed by Kunzite's sneer. She is not easily intimidated, especially not by people she has never heard of before, though the uniform bothers her. She recognizes, why does she recognize it, and this is the only time in her life she can remember her dreams taking up so much headspace that processing conversation actually became difficult.

"Can't say I have a reason," she says, and pretends the lie is flawless. "Tragic scenes sell better."

[earthvictorious]

"Sells better?" Kunzite hisses angrily. He crosses the distance between them in a few short strides.

Your facetiousness is not wanted, here. If she were Zoisite at that thrice-cursed piano, the musician would already be in pain for an answer like that. For a moment, he has the distinct wish to give her a taste of just what a scene like what she's painted feels like.

"Your taste has yet to improve, Sailor Neptune," he remarks dryly.

[infinityviolin]

She juts her chin up as Kunzite closes the distance between them. The transformation pen is in her hand before she realizes it - a subconscious move, but one that's certainly saved her life before, and her expression is just as challenging as before as she looks up at the man.

Michiru is not afraid of a lot of things. This bitter man (familiar oh god why can't she remember) will have to do a little more than heavy steps and angry faces to ruffle her feathers.

"If you know who I am," she says cooly, "then you shouldn't have to ask why I paint a scene like this."

[earthvictorious]

Much of Kunzite's strength comes from his self-control, which he is certainly exerting now.

"Put away your toy," he tells the senshi. He's not here to attack her. It might disturb her even more to know they've fought together.

Fighting on his side does not exempt someone from his anger.

"No," he corrects her reasoning brusquely. "Those memories are unwanted. Do not stir them up."

[infinityviolin]

Normally, she would be handling this coyly, almost teasingly. Instead she runs her fingers through her hair and tucks the pen away, though she makes no apology for the painting or for her knee-jerk reaction. She knows nothing of him except that she maybe knew him somehow, in some world.

"Perhaps they're unwanted for you. If you don't like them, you don't have to look, but you will not tell me what to paint." Her words are quick, clipped.

[earthvictorious]

He makes a sound of amusement at Michiru's defiance, but the question he asks is serious: "What use is there in a dead past?"

It might be an ironic question for a man so driven by the past, but focusing on vengeance here and now is, in his view, different from brooding over the broken pieces and bodies of everything he ever once cared for, when he was still capable of such an emotion.

[infinityviolin]

"Enlightenment. Emotional reconciliation with past traumas. Learning how to keep from making the same mistakes over and over." She packs her brushes away now, before glancing at the painting again. "And sometimes, beauty."

[earthvictorious]

"No. Never beauty." And he thoroughly doubts it would help that foolish prince or his equally brainless princess learn anything at all. It actually may sound odd that a member of the (former?) Dark Kingdom is not claiming destruction is beautiful, but he's had more than enough of a taste of it.