The Cupid Alliance Series part 1: The Trouble with Love

Title: Cupid Alliance Series 1: The Trouble with Love
Author: kazeko
Rating: PG
Chapters: 1
Series: Cupid Alliance Series
Timeline:
Couple: Haruka/Michiru
Time: Before Season 1

Disclaimer:I own the Cupid Alliance and all Cupids thereof, including any mention of Cupids in the Silver Millennium. I do not own Sailor Moon or Haruka and Michiru (though I really wouldn't mind so much). Enjoy!

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Cupid Number 557 Omicron, also known as Urakaze, sat on his cloud and sharpened his arrows, sighing every so often. The Omicron Group was currently in charge of Japan, a collection of about 4000 scattered islands off the east coast of Asia, filled with power and the reborn princesses of the Silver Millennium. The Omicron Group was entrusted with the lives and loves of the most powerful women on the planet, and he had finally been given an assignment concerning the last princesses of the Silver Millennium. And it wasn't the job he had anticipated. His best friend and former mentor, Cupid Number 374, Asakaze, joined him in a flurry of silky white feathers, her own quiver full. "What's wrong, Ura-kun?"

"Asa-chan, what would you say if I told you that I got an impossible assignment today?"

"Who is it, Ura-kun?"

Urakaze pulled out two pictures, one of a tall blonde man with powerful emerald eyes and a distant expression, and the other of a smaller woman with wavy aqua hair and sea-colored sapphire-teal eyes. Their ancient souls were evident even in the pictures, and Asakaze smiled as she realized that the Senshi were being assigned at last. "These two."

She was willing to play dumb for her former trainee, so she racked her brain for other information on the two. "Oh! I know the woman! She's that famous violinist, Kaiou Michiru. And the man here looks like that famous Junior F-1 racer, Ten'ou Haruka. But aren't they a little young to be falling in love?"

"Haruka's a woman, and no. Look." Urakaze waved his hand, and the two woman changed to Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, two of the Senshi reborn from ancient times and destined to protect the Earth. "See? I'm told that my predecessor, Cupid Number 169 Alpha, got them together in the Silver Millennium, but it took So long and she had to break so many rules. Remember that whole recombination of power lecture we had a few years ago? It was because of what these two did back then. She almost didn't make it before the Moon Kingdom fell. And now I must do it again. 169 went into retirement after that feat, and no one's seen her since Rome fell."

"She's your mother, right? Can't you go find her?"

"She won't talk to anyone about these two, and I fear that I may not be able to handle this assignment."

"They don't look so tough; I've had harder couples to bring together." Asakaze switched into lecture mode, her tone of voice so familiar to Urakaze that he looked up and listened carefully. His absent-minded nature often got him in trouble, but 374 had discovered when she was training the boy that certain tones of voice would keep his attention. "The first thing to do is get them to meet. I know that they've been dreaming about each other because of their past, and maybe you can use that to your advantage."

Urakaze sighed as he stood, filled his quiver, lifted his bow, and straightened the absolutely ridiculous white loincloth and pale blue sash that constituted his uniform. "Then I will try. Oh, when are you getting your next assignment?"

"Not for a while. I requested the Moon Princess and Earth Prince, and that pair isn't being handed out for a while, at least until Luna is awakened. So, I wait patiently and I'm sending them dreams about their past. Until their assigned, I can do everything possible to get them together short of shooting them with arrows, and I think I might try making them run into each other on a daily basis. That way they won't be able to ignore each other, and when the princess and prince awaken, they'll be that much more open to true love. When they are given out, the Council will see what lengths I've gone to in order to make them meet, and I will get the job."

"How long have you been planning this?"

Asakaze grinned. "Only since Tsukino Usagi was born. Good luck, Ura-kun."

"Same to you, Asa-chan."

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Urakaze sat on the top of Haruka's car, invisible to mortal eyes, watching as Michiru walked forward, dressed in her light blue school uniform, a sketchpad held before her. One of his most important lessons from his trainee days was that the first meeting was The Most Important one, with capitals and everything. Urakaze waited until Elza Gray stepped aside and Haruka had a clear view of her destiny. One well-placed arrow, and . . . Haruka swung her bag over her shoulder and walked away, telling Michiru that she had no desire to be painted. Urazake sighed and watched the racer leave, knowing that the sparkle in Michiru's sapphire eyes was the love he had implanted weeks ago while the aqua-haired beauty had been watching Haruka race. It had worked on Michiru, but Haruka seemed immune to the love arrow—nearly impossible, but not unheard-of. So Urakaze opened his wings and soared after the retreating blonde. This was going to work. He was old enough to know that there were many difficult cases but he was young enough to believe that everything would work out in the end.

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Haruka had no idea why she was on the cruise, but when she saw that Michiru was going to be playing on the ship, she felt an irresistible urge to hear her. She listened to the violin song and the people talking around her, wondering why Michiru had no friends. She suddenly saw a very different scene, one where she sat at a crystal piano in an exquisite suit and Michiru sat on the top, her long dress whispering every time she moved, her violin in her hands and a look of true tranquility on her delicate features. She wondered if they really had ever played duet, and she looked up at Michiru, wondering why she had no friends, no partner in music, no partner in love. But, deep in her heart, she already knew. Michiru was the senshi from her dreams, Sailor Neptune, and that kind of destiny didn't leave any time for a social life. Suddenly annoyed, Haruka left the dining room.

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Michiru opened her eyes, looking up just in time to see Haruka leave. A voice in the back of her mind—or maybe right next to her ear—whispered, "go after her," and she obeyed.

She found Haruka looking at her painting of the end of the world, and she smiled, wondering if she should tell Haruka that she was falling for her. But the conversation didn't lead there, it lead to Michiru telling Haruka that they had responsibilities as Senshi, the responsibility to stop the Silence. She wanted Haruka to understand that they were partners, that they were the only ones who could stop the end of the world, but the blonde was too determined to lead a normal life to listen.

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"I'm losing her," Urakaze growled. Pulling out his bow, he grabbed two arrows and let them fly, right into Haruka's back. She flinched, just noticeably, and the fire in her green eyes flared to fury. She stalked away, leaving Michiru alone on the stairs, and Cupid Number 557 sighed. He settled onto the landing beside Michiru and let his warmth flow over her, soothing shattered nerves. "It's okay," he whispered, letting the mortal hear him. "Everything will be alright."

Michiru laid her head on her arms and cried.

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Haruka zipped up her riding jacket, grabbing her bag and heading back into the building. She paused when she heard someone crying for help, and she stopped inside the room as a boy morphed into a red monster covered in tentacles. She backed away, afraid for the first time in her life, and a blue glowing stick appeared in front of her, just before the monster attacked her. She reached out to take it, a siren song of a better life and a planet far, far away filling her mind, but a voice from the door stopped her.

"If you take that, you will never again live a normal life." Michiru stood in the light from the door, a stick held in her own hand. Her voice, when she cried out her henshin phrase, was filled with pain and resignation and maybe tears. "Neptune Planet Power Make Up!" And Sailor Neptune from Haruka's dreams stood there, ready to battle.

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Urakaze watched as Neptune saved Haruka, throwing herself between the blonde and the monster to save the racer's life. She finished off the monster, laying in Haruka's arms, blood welling up from the deep gashes on her arms and back. Haruka listened as Michiru admitted that she had been watching the racer, wanting to ride in her car along the beach, and Haruka looked at her henshin stick. That would make her Sailor Uranus, Neptune's partner for as long as they lived, and she hesitated. Growling his annoyance, Urakaze let three arrows fly into the reluctant blonde, and Haruka finally responded to the urge. She took the stick, determined to stay by Michiru's side, and Urakaze realized why these two were so difficult to get together. They were afraid to ruin their mission with love.

Cupid Number 557 sat on thin air just under the ceiling, thinking. 374 appeared beside him, watching Haruka pick Michiru up as the drained senshi detransformed and lost consciousness. "So, Ura-kun, are you going to tell me this big plan or am I supposed to guess? Because right now your idea seems to be backfiring."

Urakaze grinned. "This could take some time, Asa-chan. Ten'ou Haruka is a tough target. The Cupid arrows have already worked wonders on Kaiou Michiru, but both of them are afraid of letting their love ruin their mission. They have to stop the Silence, and they won't let their emotions interfere. They don't know that they are two of the three owners of the Talismans, and they won't relax until they find out. They do love each other, but I won't be able to make them say anything until they are ready."

Cupid Number 169 Alpha appeared, no longer carrying a bow and quiver, wearing a gold dress and sandals instead of the white the Cupid job required. "Well, you finally figured it out, Urakaze."

"I was wondering if you would come, Mother."

169, also known as Yuriko, smiled as she leaned back and watched her favorite couple leave. "They'll fall in love, I promise. All you have to do now is nudge them in the right direction. And Haruka is not immune to our arrows, just excessively resistant. This is not an impossible mission. Besides, you, my young son, did finally learn the most important lesson of being a Cupid."

"Yep. The problem with love is not that the arrows don't work; the problem with love is the lovers."

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End