Edited 6-1-08

Chapter 02: Paint

"I would have expected them to have a bit more control." Michiru sighed, glaring at the little people around her.

"They do, they just want to see where your limits are."

"Please, don't do that" she said, speaking to her newly acquainted shadow.

Marth smirked the moment she saw Minako pulling out painting supplies. After continuous begging on James's part, he'd finally annoyed her enough to let them paint.

"When's nap time again?" Michiru asked. She could see the cogs in Marth's head turning.

"After painting."

"I think I'll go lock myself in Minako's room."

"Michiru do you mind helping the children? After all this is your point of expertise," Minako's voice was heartening. "I need a little nap before I can go on."

"You're going to leave me here with them?" Michiru held back curses.

"All I need it for them to say is they got such words form me, I would never hear the end of it." She thought to herself.

"No, you wouldn't," Michiru said.

""I'll even take the terrible two…If, "Minako smiled uneasily.

"If?"

"James can stay,"

"Don't take the deal, you can handle them." Michiru heard her new conscious tell her.

"Get out of my head,"

"Just don't do it," Elijah told her.

"Deal," Michiru said.

She almost regretted it when she saw how happy Minako looked to be rid of Mister Sinister for a small period.

"You are an idiot," Elijah told her frankly.

"Marth, Irvine." Minako called "Early nap lets go."

"We're too old for naps, Mina-Chan," Irvine said smiling happily.

"Nice try," Minako said, motioning for the twins to follow her.

"We'll get you for this lady," Irvine whispered loud enough for Michiru to hear.

"I'm leaving at three so I can go home to Haruka." Michiru smiled.

"Does this make you wish had listened to her?" Elijah asked.

"No, I won't give her the satisfaction of saying, 'I told you so.'" Michiru sighed running her fingers through her hair. "When did Setsuna's twins become so horrid?"

"They're not horrid. They just know that you barely have experience with children and are feeding off of the fear that you'll do something wrong or they'll hurt you." Elijah said.

"How would you explain you?"

"Stop asking about me," she said, walking away.

Michiru sat down one of the benches as the children started to draw whatever came to mind. Her mind drifted off to the thought of Haruka, who was probably out to lunch with Setsuna like they did every Wednesday.

"Hey lady," Michiru looked up at James "you got Marth and Irvine in trouble!"

"I did not,"

He picked up a small can of red paint.

"I wonder what you look like in red…" he said, dipping his hands in it.

Michiru looked around the room aside from the children on the bench, everyone else was dipping his or her hands in different colors of paint.

"Where are you when I need you?" Michiru thought to her "conscious".

"I'm in Minako's room; I'm sure what ever it is you can handle it." She replied.

"Lets play tag," Jenny suggested.

"Let's play it backwards. Who ever is 'it' is tagged by every one else. Oldest is it." Katy said with a grin as she tagged Michiru with green paint first.

"That's an awesome idea Katy," James said grinning.

Michiru looked around at the wet paint covered hands.

"We can play as long as that doesn't get in my hair."

"Even if we get it in your hair we're going to play," James snapped.

"Tag!"

Michiru dogged their hands and ran for the nearest room with a lock.

"Oh no, you don't." Kailey said, jumping out and tacking her. The young girl wrapped her arms around Michiru's waist and locked her legs around Michiru's ankles.

Fighting off a pack of kids was harder than it looked. She felt paint the paint soaking through her clothes.

James took a large pail of gold paint of the closet.

"Hey isn't this Speedy's favorite color?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's it." One of the kids answered. Michiru couldn't place a face with the voice.

Michiru laughed, "That tickles!"

Suddenly they all scurried away from Michiru as James finished climbing on to one of the upper levels that the older kids used to paint their collages on the space near the ceiling.

"What are you doing?" Michiru asked the other kids suspiciously.

The smallest child Alan, pointed just as James poured the pail of gold paint over the sides of the railing and onto Michiru.

The other kids, which was barely possible, moved further away as James stood there hunched over laughing at the angered Michiru.

Elijah and Keitaru emerged from Minako's room with the twins in tow.

"What are you guys doing!" he yelled at them. "You just wait till Mina-Chan wakes up. She'll have all our hinds like the time we spray painted Artemis's tail."

"She said it was alright, just not her hair." Alan said.

"James poured the gold!" Kailey was the first person to rat him out.

"Shut up" he ordered.

"What will your mothers say when they hear of this nonsense." Elijah asked shamefully.

"I know a good way to get paint out of your hair…" Keitaru said quietly to Michiru.

"It's alright. I was willing to play as long as they followed that one rule. They could not even do that. I am going to take a bath, and then I am going home," She walked out toward the washroom. A trail of gold paint trailed behind her.

"You just had to ruin the fun didn't you?" Katy said hitting James.

Minako sleepily emerged from her room. Stretching she stopped frozen in place by the sight of the mess in from of her.

"What happened in here?" she said looking around.

"Tag," Katy said.

"We messed up big time momma" four-year-old Fawn looked down at her feet.

"Whoa," Minako looked around. "Where's Michiru?"

"She's in the bath," Alanna replied. "Washing paint off."

"How did she get paint on her?" Minako said, now tapping her foot out of impatience.

"James…" Alan trailed off as James gave him the death glare.

Alanna picked up and finished telling Minako what happened.

"I can't believe you," Minako frowned. Turning to Keitaru. "Where were you?"

"In your room with Elijah and the twins." He said.

"So let me get this straight, the only four people other than me who can control them even a little were off playing where they shouldn't have been leaving poor Michiru out here defenseless against them." She said with a glare towards the guilty.

They all nodded.

"At least we didn't do what Marth planned." James spoke up hoping Marth would get in trouble also.

"It doesn't matter what was planned." She said turning the glare on him. "All of you get cleaning materials. We will not leave here until every speck of this paint is cleaned up. Do you understand me?"

They nodded

Michiru grabbed her cell out from her pants pocket. Saying Haruka's name the phone auto dialed the number.

"Michi?"

"Hey"

"What's up?"

"I'm having a bad day today can I have a massage when I get home?"

"Of course you can, what happened?" Haruka asked concern in her voice.

"Nothing really I'm just having a bad day" Michiru lied.

"Well, when you get home I want to know all the details this "nothing" you say happened." Haruka replied.

"Alright," Michiru whispered, as built up stress escaped her, knowing that at least her love cared to know the details of her days.

"It sounds pretty bad," Haruka said hanging up.

"I wonder if it was Marci and Irvine." Setsuna said.

"It sounds much worse to me."

"James…" They coursed with a sigh.

"Looking at him you would never believe he's Ami's son." Setsuna said.

"He's such an angel when she's around though" Haruka laughed. "I remember the day I set him straight, talking to me like I was his slave."

"Alright Speedy let's go home"

Minako walked into the washroom. A fresh pile of clothes in hand.

"They don't normally act like this, they must really like you," Minako said, as she set them down on the bench.

"This is how they show they like someone?" Michiru skeptically.

"Well not James. That boy needs help." Minako laughed. "The twins like you. They say you've got guts."

"That's surprising," Michiru said, dunking her head in the hot water.

"I'll help you get the rest of the paint out, it's easier when it's dry," Minako said putting shampoo on her hands.

"James was the gold paint culprit?"

"Yeah" Michiru sighed, as Minako's expert hands washed and massaged her scalp.

"The twins want you to come back tomorrow."

"I don't think I'm ready for this," Michiru said, submerging into the water once again.

"If you could have children like one of them, which one would you take?" Minako asked curiously.

"Elijah, Keitaru, the twins, or Alanna" she replied, after a moments hesitation.

"All five of them?"

"Not at the same time. The twins aren't that bad, just creative."

"Call it what you like." They both laughed.

"I learned the hard way to never try and prove my husband wrong." Minako said, wrapping Michiru's hair in a towel.

"Why?"

"Well, it just seemed to prove him right." Minako said with a light smile. "When I was pregnant with Fawn, I thought I would be a bad parent. For the first year he stayed home with me because of my fear I might hurt her or do something wrong that might damage her forever or something." Minako laughed. "Silly as is sounds now, but every mother has those fears."

"Haruka had them, when we first adopted Hotaru." Michiru sighed. "She wouldn't go near her."

"Not to mention every chance Hotaru got, she pulled a prank on Haruka."

"Yeah" Michiru giggled. "What are they doing?"

"They're cleaning up the paint. And any other mess in the nursery."

"You're not going to tell on them are you?" Michiru asked.

"I was going to…" Minako replied.

"Don't, they shouldn't all get in trouble for one of them breaking the rule."

"Come on, I've got some good books I recommended everyone to read."

After a few more minutes, Minako left.

"We're done" Alan said, stacking the rest of the blocks.

"We'll James isn't," Keitaru pointed out.

"He poured the gold paint. He will clean it up." Elijah said.

"Shut up." James spat.

"Don't talk to her that way, she's right." Minako said

"Are you leaving?" Kailey asked Michiru as she walked out of the washroom.

"Not yet." Michiru said, sitting down on a near by bench.

"Are you leaving later?" Alan asked.

"Yes."

"After mommy comes?"

"Not that much later."

"Can we play tag again? Without the paint?" Katy asked, hopefully.

"And without James." Jenny mumbled.

"Not right now, it's naps for you all." Minako pointed toward the nap area.

"Are you going to be here when we wake up?" Irvine asked yawning. "Marth and I still got to go throw with our revenge."

"Most likely not," Michiru smiled. "What do you know of revenge? You're only five."

"I looked it up in the dictionary. Like big people do," he said, walking away with his sister in tow.

"Now this is different," Minako said, smiling at Michiru. "They're normally overjoyed when someone leaves."

"Now you cut that out, trying to make me feel guilty about leaving." Michiru laughed. "You're just as bad as they are."

Michiru grabbed the bag with her clothes in it.

"I'll be back tomorrow anyway," she stuck her tongue out. "But I still don't want children."

"Michiru?" Haruka called out.

"I'm upstairs,"

Haruka smiled and jogged up the stairs and into the music room where her love sat on the balcony, violin in hand.

Michiru stood to embrace her.

Haruka cupped Michiru's face in her hands and kissed her. "Hungry?"

"Before you got here I was thinking about starving myself, but now that you ask." Michiru grinned. "Where are we going?"

"Yesterday Minako asked if we would join her at the nursery for dinner." Haruka almost burst out laughing when she saw the look on Michiru's face.

"I think I'll starve," Michiru turned to leave.

"I was only kidding" Haruka said. "I was thinking about going to Tony's on the Pier, but it seems like you're not hungry any more."

"Tony's is fine," Michiru said, returning her violin back to its case.

"You can tell me all about your day over dinner," Haruka said shuffling through her casual clothing for something to wear.

"What do you think of this?" Michiru asked walking out of the bathroom in a blue skirt down to her ankles and a long sleeve button up white shirt.

"Simple, but sophisticated. I like" Haruka said giving Michiru a quick glance.

"Thanks" Michiru said grabbing a coat and taking a shirt out of the closet for Haruka. "Here that one doesn't go with that pant."

"Any thing goes with black," Haruka retorted, taking the shirt from Michiru.

"You can't wear a Lay-around-the-house shirt, with slacks." Michiru giggled. "But then again, you look good in any thing"

"I thought so," Haruka said picking up her wallet and sticking it into her back pocket.

She followed Michiru downstairs.

'Is that gold?' Haruka thought, inspecting Michiru's hair hoping she would not notice. 'Maybe it a new hair gel, although Michiru doesn't wear gel.'

"Who's driving?" Michiru asked as they approached the door.

"Who's paying?" Haruka smiled as Michiru handed her the keys.

"I paid last time," she said, typing in the code for them alarm.

Once they arrived at Tony's Haruka, like a perfect gentleman, got out of the car, and opened the door for Michiru.

As they entered Tony's Michiru smiled. As Haruka gave their name.

"How'd lunch with Setsuna go?" Michiru asked.

"It was entertaining enough; I think I gained ten pounds from the meal alone." Haruka smiled patting her stomach.

"I thought you looked fatter," Michiru laughed as Haruka's face dropped.

"Tenou," the waiter showed the two women their table.

"I was reconsidering what you said about adopting children." Haruka said flipping through the menu. "I think it's a great idea. Thinking about on how fun, it is at the nursery and raising Hotaru was. I think together we can handle it. "

"No" Michiru said, setting down the menu. "I wasn't thinking logically yesterday, I'd rather catch phenomena."

"Awe, come on Michi. You're not afraid are you?"

"No, I just got rid of the Pepsi. It has mind control powers." Michiru said inwardly laughing at how stupid that sounded.

"Alright fine," Haruka pouted.

"You're just like a child anyway."

"So how was your day?" Haruka asked, shrugging of the insult while looking through the salad section of the menu.

"It was interesting." Michiru responded.

"How so?"

"Well, despite of what you said yesterday. I went to the nursery anyway." Michiru set down the menu. "It was kind of fun until James dumped gold paint on me."

'So it was gold paint I saw' Haruka thought.

"I got balls thrown at me, I was picked on by the twins, and tagged by every one else. I had to clean up the bathroom where Irvine missed. Not to mention I didn't eat or get my nap in like everyone else." Michiru sat complaining; not paying attention to Haruka's smiling face.

"Well Michiru, I won't say I told you so. But I'm glad this once you tried it for yourself by going against my better judgment."

"You're not allowed to hang out with Setsuna any more." Michiru mumbled.

"Why not?" Haruka frowned.

"You're starting to sound just like her."

"I can't believe you would raise my ranks so high, thank you highness." Haruka mocked.

"Well since you're so high up above me as far as ranks go, maybe you should date her instead." Michiru joked.

"Joel would kill me if I ever made a move on Setsuna. No when they get divorced I'll take you up on that offer." Haruka went along.

"I can't believe you're real."

"Just wait until later and I'll show you just how real I am." Haruka smirked, knowing Michiru understood perfectly.

"I hope it won't be too late, I might not be awake."