235/A Portrait of Friendship

A Portrait of Friendship
Date of Scene:	14 August 2023
Location:	Michiru's Penthouse
Synopsis:	Michiru invites Hotaru over to her place in order to paint the younger girl's portrait. They get to know each other a little better, but then when Hotaru sees the painting, she has a rather surprising reaction.
Cast of Characters:	Michiru Kaiou, Hotaru Tomoe

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Michiru Kaiou has posed:
    It's been almost an entire month since Michiru and Hotaru encountered each other and exchanged phone numbers. Entire weeks without any follow up. They might have seen each other in passing on campus, but Michiru was always occupied with _something_, or surrounded by people. She so rarely gets time alone when she's in public. It would be very easy for the younger girl to think she'd been forgotten. But she was not.

    Early on Saturday morning, a text arrives on her phone.

    >>I am so sorry it has taken me this long to text you. My life has been a little hectic. I am hoping you're available today for that portrait we'd discussed.

    It is quickly followed by another text with her address, and an offer for her driver to come pick Hotaru up, if the younger girl wishes.

    Her home occupies the top two floors of a sleek, modern residential tower right in the heart of the city. It is entirely too much home for a single, teenaged girl, but it wasn't always that way. There used to be a constant stream of people streaming through the residence to talk business with her father, or attend parties arranged by her mother. Now, it is silent; a constant reminder of happier times.

    Michiru's art adorns nearly every wall: portraits and pastorals, still lifes and seascapes. She is clearly a prolific painter, even if most of her work has never left her home. Her painting of Radiant Heart Acadmy's main building hangs in her study, which is where she has set up her easel for painting.

    When Hotaru arrives, the security on the ground floor are expecting her. They show her to an elevator which has no buttons, and simply rises up to the top floor, opening up into an open living space. Michiru is standing just inside from the elevator doors with a smile on her face.

    "Tomoe-kun! I am so happy to see you. I'm sorry again it took me so long to arrange this," she says.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe glanced over at her phone and... put it down. Who? Must have been the wrong number. Then there was another message, an address? Her driver? Who'd ever want to--

Then, after a few minutes, it clicked. OH MY GOSH! Her eyes went wide and she squeaked. Well... it was saturday... so of course she was alone. Not like her parent would stay home today or anything...

She quickly texted back, 'The driver would be fine.' She'd then send a nearby street where she could be picked up. Street, not the address? Weird, that... but that was mostly because, well... she made a habit of hiding where they lived. Not because she feared Michiru...

But she got so few days where her father WAS home alone and DID have time for her. And... sometimes those times were ruined. Reporters, who knew who else? And... in the end... she... didn't want that to happen again.

Of course, she soon realized Michiru likely had a similiar issue. Well... not... entirely similar. Somewhat... but at least Hotaru had her dad.

She was in a simple, casual outfit. A dark blue outfit with a white and black oversized collar, with a cute lil red berret, a lighter blue undershirt.

When she walked through the house, she bit back the snarky comments that came to her mind. 'Gee, you really like your work, huh?' She suspected that wasn't the reason, though. The paintings were there... but an air of sadness and loneliness hung in the air. She couldn't help but imagine that every one of those paintings Michiru would gladly toss out into the trash if they could be replaced by the silliest doodles by someone who felt actually cared about her.

Sterile. That was what it was. It felt... sterile. Clean. Proper. Not... living.

Still, when she stepped out of the elevator, she smiled up at the other girl. "It's alright. Honestly, I'm surprised you remembered. As busy as you are, I'd have understood if you wanted to post pone it indefinitely." She'd walk with the other girl, glancing around as they walked. A private driver, security... she wondered if there would be anyone else. Maids. Servants... Friends, family? Cousins?

"You live alone, don't you?" she asked, before cringing.

Sterile in much the same way her home often felt. Alone. Nobody there... No laughter. No joy. Clean, yes. Orderly. But empty. She'd meant to ask 'does anyone else live here?' ... But... that was... an all too familiar feeling. She'd been unable to stop herself from asking.

Worse, though... there was that feeling still there. That feeling of familiarity. Like she had been here, once before. With Michiru. Around her. Seen her... like she was... family. Family that could be trusted to do the right thing. But...

Like she was an intruder in her life. That even if she smiled at Michiru, even if she was invited this time... that this would be short lived. She would never truly be welcomed. No matter how much she desperately wanted to be. She wished she could understand why she had those feelings. What they meant. Why did she simultaneously want to run and hug Michiru and cry on her... while also wanting to walk forward, take her hand and promise things would be alright... while also turning around, apologizing and then just never darkening her doorstop again.

Feelings were weird.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru is, likewise, dressed in a simple, casual outfit. She is wearing a cerulean skater dress and black mary janes. Around her neck is a delicate silver chain with a small pendant shaped like a trident, and her ears are adorned with little blue crystals shaped like raindrops. Her aquamarine hair is tied up with a bow in the same cerulean as her dress. She's all so very coordinated.

"How could I forget, Tomoe-kun? I have been looking forward to this," Michiru says, her smile masking the heartbreak she feels at the girl's words. As she leads Hotaru through her home toward the study she wonders what the young girl's life must be like that she feels so easily forgotten and set aside.

"I have a staff, and they sometimes feel like family, but they do not live here, and it is not the same," Michiru answers, her voice quiet, and much less bright than her usual mood. "It gets very quiet here when they all go home."

When they arrive at the study, Michi holds the door open for Hotaru, and then gestures toward a stool that is across from the easel. "I had an idea for your portrait. In my mind you were standing, but I do not want to ask you to stand for the whole time, so I thought a nice compromise would be sitting here, with your legs down on the rungs." The stool is too tall for Hotaru's feet to reach the floor.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe was a little taken aback, her eyes going a little wide at that comment. "You... were looking forward to this?" she asked, the shock obvious in her voice. She wouldn't have imagined. After all, the only thing she was doing here was, well, getting her picture painted. That was literally it. She was a nobody. And here Michiru could have had a professional. Not... her. "I... I don't know what to say," she admitted.

She cringed at the comment about staff, though she nodded knowingly. "I... I understand. We... had a maid like that, for a bit. But... she left a few months back. Daddy has a team come in now every few weeks but... feels different," she said softly. "... I sometimes leave the radio on in the other rooms. Makes it feel less..." Lonely. Empty. Hollow. "Quiet." It hadn't been.... quite as bad since she now had Luminescent Titan and Yochu, but well... the former wasn't the smartest, merely an AI. The latter... well... she slept a lot.

"I don't mind standing if you need me to. I do a lot of sitting already, and I usually... sorry," Hotaru said, her cheeks turning red when she realized, in the end? Michiru was the professional. She shouldn't be second guessing her. She walks forward, climbing up onto the stool, moving so her feet were on the rungs. "How ummm... long does this usually take? N-not that I'm in a rush! I'm just curious. Daddy probably won't be home until late anyway."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru's heart breaks a little more when she hears that surprise in Hotaru's voice, but she doesn't let it show. No, she's bright and smiling. "Of course, I was looking forward to it, Tomoe-kun. I don't often get to paint portraits, and especially not of someone as special as you," she says. Hotaru _is_ special. She can _feel_ it. That same eerie familiarity she's felt with the others, though somehow different. She feels important and familiar, like someone Michiru should pay attention to. Someone Michiru should keep out of harm's way. Of course, that could just be how adorable she is.

"I'm sure we can get you home in time for dinner, but I was hoping we could get to know one another a little better," Michiru says with a smile. "I don't have very many friends." How can _Michiru Kaiou_ not have very many friends? She's immensely popular. Surely anybody would leap at the chance to befriend her.

Hotaru climbs up onto the stool and Michiru walks over to sit down on hers--a bit lower--at the easel. She looks at Hotaru for a moment and then gives her some direction. She directs the younger girl to place her hands just so, and to look at a particular point on the wall. Once everything is just right, she says, "Okay, now, don't move." Then a moment later, with a light laugh, she adds, "At least not too much. You can talk, of course." That is the point, after all.

She squirts some paints out onto her palette, picks a brush, and starts in on the work of painting a portrait. Hotaru can't see what she's doing, of course, being on the other side of the easel. So, she'll just have to wait and see the final piece.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe would never, ever get in danger. Truly. How could such a good, well behaved child get in danger? "I... am? I... I... thank you," she said softly, her cheeks burning. Strange, she'd been called 'Special' before. Usually in bad ways. Sometimes in good ways, from people like Kaolinite. Those she didn't trust. But Michiru... seemed believable. Like what Takashi said she was special. Like she could be trusted.

"Oh, don't worry about dinner. I was probably just going to re-heat the fish I made yesterday," she said... she... even prepared her own meals? Often. Or ordered take out. Kaolinite... had tried to make her dinner once. That didn't go over well.

She didn't comment on the friends, though. That, at least, she understood. It was easy to have 'friends'.... but actual friends was a lot harder. It was likely doubly hard for someone like Michiru, who had the world's eyes on her.

"What's your favorite thing to paint, Kaiou-senpai?" she asked nervously. Then mentally kicked herself. Such a silly thing to ask! But now that she was BEING painted, asking about painting was all she could think TO ask!

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Yes, you are. I could sense it about you from the moment we met. There's something about you that is special; precious," Michiru says as she paints, her words intoned with such serious conviction. Then she looks up and smiles, letting out a light laugh, "You are certainly one of the most adorable little kohai I've met at Radiant Heart."

Her process for a portrait is different than for the architectural painting, or so it seems. Michiru looks from the canvas to Hotaru time and time again, making a few brush strokes here and there, picking up different colors. Looking at her palette, she has the whole rainbow represented in little smears of pigmented oils. Some of that is for mixing, sure, but it so many colors. It's a very large palette.

"My favorite? I love to paint the sea," she answers. The artwork on the walls in her home confirms it. There may be portraits, pastorals, and still lifes; but seascapes dominate her work by quite a margin. "I feel most at home in the water, in the ocean. It's where I go when I need to think. It's where I go when I can't seem to center myself. There is nothing more joyful for me than sitting on a beach and painting the waves as they crash onto the sand at my feet."

After answering, she goes silent, once again focusing on the painting for a couple of minutes, before asking, "What brings you joy, Tomoe-kun?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe managed to get even redder in the face at that compliment, struggling to resist the urge to look away. "I-I... I don't think I'm anything like that. You're far, far prettier and more graceful than me. I'm just... I mean, there's a lot of cuter students, too, like ummm..." And yeah, she was definitely flustered, not used to being praised like this. Worse, now she couldn't think of any students. Well... she could think of one. But she didn't want to mention Fate now, because... well... She honestly always felt worried that mentioning she knew Fate might hurt the poor girl's reputation. And she suffered enough.

It was likely a bit... disheartening, the way Hotaru could just sit there. Like she was used to having to wait. Even if she got so embarrassed, she seemed to be very patient. How often had she been told over the years 'just sit here'?

Even so, though... she was, admittedly, starting to get bored. And struggling to resist the urge to start rocking in the chair. "The ocean... it's... beautiful, isn't it?" Admittedly... she'd only gone a few times. An inability to safely swim and all made the beach... mostly just sand.

Her eyes were starting to drift closed a bit while she waited. Patient or not, asking any child to just sit for too long was... difficult. She was doing better than most, but she was far from perfect. "Brings me... joy? Ummmm... I like board games. My... dolls." One doll in particular. "Daddy... ummmm..." Her senpais... Then she thought about someone else. A girl with twin blond hair who just... her smile made everything seem better. So much better... But she felt far too shy to mention that. "Being useful... Hey ummm... you... can call me... Hotaru, if you like. Y-you don't have to. But... it's okay. If you want to. Ummm... Kaiou-senpai... would you say... you're decisive? When you need to be? Do you know how to be?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Sitting still for so long is not easy for anybody, but certainly not for a child. Michiru knows this, so she's doing her best to paint quickly. But, she can only go so fast. She switches between brushes from time to time, even picking up a paint knife for making sharper lines on the canvas. It's really quite involved, this process, and it uses so many tools.

"You're doing so well, Hotaru," she says, after a moment, shifting seamlessly into using the girl's first name. That friendly intimacy is just the thing she wanted from this. "I know it gets so boring just sitting there, but I promise you're going to love this piece. I am already loving how it's coming together."

She looks thoughtful when Hotaru asks her that last question, pausing in her painting for a moment to consider the young girl through a different lens. And then she laughs lightly. "I'd say so, yes. My father was certainly a very decisive man, and he tried to instill that quality in me. What decisions is it that you are struggling with?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe was definitely drifting the longer this went. She wanted a breeeeeak. But, she didn't want to disappoint Michiru. So she stayed as still as she could as long as she could. And the smile on her face got massive when she was rewarded with what she craved most. PRAISE!

"Sometimes, I just... do you ever have to make a choice and... you know it won't make everyone happy, but you know it's the right thing? Like... you get a girl at school a cute pair of mittens for her birthday, but then two other girls you meet want them as well. The store doesn't have any more, and you could give them to one of the girls, and the other girl would be sad, but what about the girl who's birthday it was? Do you get her something else? And like... how do you make choices, when you know someone else might be hurt by them, or won't understand? Or like... you find stray kittens, and someone wants them, but you know this person won't take good care of them and it'll do the kitten harm if you leave it with them rather than take it somewhere safe, but... if you take the kitten, are you any better, even if it is to keep it safe?" It was hard to... truly... get what she was asking. Hotaru doubted she was being at all clear. After all, it wasn't like she could jsut TELL Michiru 'Hey, I'm a magical girl and I want to know how to be good, even if I have to do bad things sometimes.'

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Secret identities are not very effective if you don't keep them secret. And so it is that two magical girls are sitting here talking about anything _but_ the thing they don't even know they have in common. Except that's not entirely true. Hotaru is not the only person with whom Michiru has felt this peculiar sense of familiarity. She felt it with the school's nurse, Setsuna Meiou, and it turns out _she_ is Sailor Pluto. So, she has an inkling about her kohai, but she can't say a word because she can't reveal her own secrets.

Radiant Heart Academy really takes the school drama to an entirely new level.

"My mother always used to tell me that we cannot hold ourselves responsible for other people's feelings," Michiru says as she picks some more paint up off the palette with yet another brush--she has so many, each of them different sizes and shapes--and starts to apply it to the canvas. "In my experience, decisiveness is found in the the strength of your convictions. When you know what you are doing is right, set aside your concern for what others will think of it."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded, giving a small smile. "T-thanks. I'll... I'll try. It's... just... hard. Sometimes. When you do things and have to fi--argue with people you'd jsut rather be friends with? When you know what your doing is better for them. Better for... everyone. But no matter how much you explain it, they never listen to you. Nobody ever listens to me," she mumbled softly. Then cringed. "A-at school, I mean. Well... and with daddy... just because I'm a kid... kids... know things too. We see a lot of things that adults don't."

And then she was no longer smiling. Now she was making the most adorable pouting, annoyed face. Her cheeks puffed up slightly. Her hands tightly squeezing together. Being a petty little child.

"Your... mom sounded really nice. And smart. You know... that's... the kind of stuff my senpai has been telling me lately. That I... worry too much about what others think. That I should trust myself more. Well. Except when I disagree with him. Though he hasn't actually said that was wrong. I just know it annoyed him."

But, seriously. That vacuum youma. It *sucked.*

"Sometimes... it's scary doing the right thing, though. When you know other people will get mad at you over it. But... it's... better to do what you have to for the good of more people, right?" she asked. It was weird moments like that, though, where she didn't... seem quite as child-like as her small stature suggested.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru looks up from the canvas, brush in hand, and smiles at Hotaru. "It's hard being a kid, and I'm convinced most adults forget that. Puberty brings on all these _feelings_ and they're just _so much_ and they feel like they're out of our control. I can tell you that it does get easier with time and practice. My feelings are still as big as they were when I was your age, Hotaru, but I've learned how to live with them, how to process them, how to _feel_ them. You will too."

With that little motivational speech out of the way, she turns her attention back to the canvas. Of course, the painting was mostly a pretext for conversation, although Michi absolutely did want to capture Hotaru's cuteness on canvas. "Doing the right thing is quite often difficult and scary, yes. That's the insidious thing about evil, it's _easy_."

She makes a few final, almost dramatic strokes with her brush, and then leans back on her seat to inspect the canvas. She smiles. "Yes, yes, I think this is it. Do you want to come see?"

The painting is quite stylized, like a stained glass window primarily made in blues and purples. Situated in the middle is Hotaru, but not dressed as she is. Instead she's wearing a purple shift dress with a flared bottom and spaghetti straps. She has on purple gloves that go up over her elbows and a delicate gold chain around her neck with a teardrop pendant, and a purple choker. Behind her streaks of color--eight in all--shoot out in a fan: blue, yellow, red, green, purple, teal, cerulean, and black.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "Y-yeah. It... really does. There's just.... so many, inside me. At any time. It's almost like.... there's multiple people inside me or something. It feels so overwhelming, like I just... can't... stop it. Or control it. O-or anything. Like... like... it's going to wash over me i na flood or... something," she said gently. "but... just because of that... it doesn't mean I'm wrong," she said softly.

She gave a small smile after being told 'evil was easy'. At least that meant she was doing the right thing. Many days... being with Obsidian was very, very hard.

She hopped off the seat... and crashed, her legs giving out and making her yelp. "S-sorry, they... they do that sometimes," she said, shaking her head and quickly getting up again. They hadn't fallen asleep, she'd just been sitting so long that.... she got ahead of herself. She ran over to see it...

And then went entirely still. She just... stared at it. Deep, deep inside her she felt something shake. Quiver. And the look on her face was shock. Followed by... despair. As if Michiru had just hugged her... and then stabbed her. Tears started to fall down her face and she couldn't stop staring. She didn't even know why. Something... about it. It was like.... something inside her just snapped. As if it was... Slowly, she crumbled to her knees, staring at it.

Why? Why did it hurt so much? Why couldn't she... she hold it in? Tears kept falling, but whiule she'd tried to suppress it, she soon began to full on bawl. No longer silently crying. Instead sobbing like a, well... a child. A hurt, wounded, aching child.

Worst of all? "I-I don't... I don't k-know why... W-why am I... I even c-crying? I don't... I..." It didn't make sense? So why, why did this image trigger so much... *pain*?

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru did not expect this response, but it doesn't matter. Her kohai needs her. She immediately gets down off her own stool and kneels down on the floor next to Hotaru, wrapping her arms around the younger girl in a hug. "I don't know why, Hotaru-chan. But if you let yourself _feel_ these feelings, maybe it will begin to make sense," she says. Her arms squeeze just a little more tightly. "Let the tears out. You're safe here with me."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe reached out and just clutched the other girl. Holding on as if she was the only lifeline in the ocean's storm. Ironically enough. She didn't get it. She didn't know why she felt like this. Alone. Scared. Despair.

So terribly lonely. As if there wasn't someone in the room with her right now.

She just wanted to curl up and sob, cry, scream, yell at the world for being unfair. For being cruel. She wanted to sit down and just take it, accept it...

And none of it made *any* sense. She--

And then, for the moment... she wanted to hurt her. Hotaru looked up... and that arm tightened around Michiru's throat. Just for a moment. But Michiru would feel... danger. And then it was gone. That hand holding her around the neck? Just hugging, just sobbing. Just clutching. As Hotaru managed to, barely, suppress that dark side of her that lashed out whenever she was hurt... Then, slowly, the tears stopped falling and she looked up. "I-I don't... know... w-why I... I was crying. It... it m-must be a r-really... really g-good picture... y-you're really t-talented, M-Michiru-senpai..."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Her first instinct was to comfort and console, but as Hotaru wraps her arms around Michiru's neck, the Guardian of the Deep Sea is overcome with a feeling of dread. For just the briefest of moments it feels almost as if she's being pulled down to the depths by the powerful tentacles of a kraken. And then it's gone, and she's just kneeling on the floor with a broken, lonely little girl crying in her arms.

She is masterful in her control of her mask, not letting on for a moment what she felt. Instead, she squeezes her arms around Hotaru tightly--not quite so tight as Hotaru did--and just holds her kohai close, but she files that feeling away for later. None of the _other_ girls felt like _that_.

"Thank you, Hotaru-chan," Michiru says, softly, one hand coming up to gently pet the younger girl's hair in an attempt to soothe her. "It's very easy to paint a beautiful portrait of a subject such as you."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe was held. Was consoled. And... comforted. And it was... nice. It felt, in many ways, like her mother was there with her again. Like she wasn't alone. And just for a little bit, that voice inside her quieted down.

But something had awoken there. Something... she wouldn't understand for a long, long, long time.

Slowly, she began to pull away. "T-thank... thank you. It's... it's a truly l-lovely p-portrait. I... I hope it'll b-bring you all the j-joy you deserve." Perhaps, one day, it would even serve as a reminder for her. Of her duty. Of her tasks. Of what they represented.

"Should... I... go now? Is... t-there anything else I can do?" she asked softly.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
As soon as Hotaru starts to pull away, Michiru's arms loosen and let her go. Hugs are only good when they're wanted, after all. There's a brief look of confusion on her face, at the younger girl's words, though. She has not painted very many portraits, but she has usually sent them home with their subjects. It just so happens that most of her subjects were her family, so they ended up here in _her_ home.

She leans back and looks at Hotaru, searching the younger girl's face for some clue as to what is going on inside her mind. "I thought you might like to take it with you, Hotaru-chan."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe blinked. "R-really? You'd let me keep it? B-but you painted it and--" Then she stopped and imagined it... at home.

With Kaolinite. Others... and she looked a little frustrated. She didn't want to explain it to them. Explain it to... But there was one person she could give it to. "If... you don't mind. I... I think I'd like to give it to a friend of mine? I don't think it'd be a good idea to have it at my house."

Aaaaand then her phone rang. "Err, one second..." she said before picking it up and... she could juuuuuust make out what she was saying. "Senpai? I-I'm fine. What? Oh... I... I did. Just for a moment. B-but nobody got hurt this time. I-I'm fine. No, I didn't pass out or anything. No seizure. It was just for a second. Huh? No. W-what? It's not... I don't need to... I... I think I can... I don't need to come... I... I'll be down in a few minutes," she mumbled softly, sadly...

Then turned off her phone and gave Michiru a small, sad smile. "I... should go. My senpai came to make sure I was okay since my medical device went off for a minute. They're a bit... over protective... kind of...."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Based on everything Hotaru has let slip about her home life, Michiru is sadly unsurprised to hear her say that the painting would not be welcome at her home. She is about to say something, but then Hotaru's phone rings. Michiru listens as Hotaru answers the questions of her senpai over the phone. The timing of the call along with 'just for a second' is all she needs to know this is about whatever it was she felt when they were hugging just moments before.

How peculiar.

Michiru nods at the younger girl's declaration of needing to go. "I understand, Hotaru-chan. The painting is still drying, so I think I will go ahead and keep it here. At least, for now." She effortlessly rises up to her feet. One might get the idea she was a dancer, too, on top of everything else, with how graceful she moves. "I'll find the perfect place for it."

She holds her hand out for Hotaru to grab hold of, to help her up to her feet. "I hope you are okay. Please give your senpai my best, and thank him for me for taking such good care of you. I'll show you the way back to the elevator."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded, looking relieved at the mention of the painting being left here. She wanted it to remain a... reminder for her. That she'd been here. She glanced back at it again. Slowly her arms reached up, hugging herself a little. Feeling her arms, where... on the painting, they were bare. In reality, she didn't dare.

No, someone like her didn't truly belong around someone like Michiru. Still... For now, it was enjoyable to pretend. She reached out and took Michiru's hand. "T-thank you," she said gently. Letting herself be guided towards the elevator...

Now, more than ever, though... it was likely apparent. Just how cold Hotaru's hands were. As if they were hollow, bloodless things.

Hotaru, though, was thinking just one thing... For a moment, that desire inside her had flaired up again. The urge to hurt. Could she have hurt her? Truly hurt her? Maybe... it was best if she left with Takashi after all...