She looked at the clock on her nightstand. 8 o’clock—time to get up. Carefully, she slipped out of her lover’s arms, put on her bathrobe, and headed downstairs to make herself some coffee.
Setsuna was surprised to see one of her housemates up before her—especially this one. “Good morning, Haruka. You’re up pretty early—don’t you usually sleep in when you don’t have school?”
Haruka was standing by the kitchen counter, sipping a cup of coffee. After pouring another for Setsuna, she answered. “Yeah, I do, but I didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep last night.”
Setsuna let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, Haruka, I tried to keep it down, but—”
“No, it’s not that. You and Ranma didn’t make any more noise than I expected—and if Hotaru can sleep through it, I can. I was awake for a different reason.”
“And that would be…?”
“Michiru and I had a fight last night.”
“Ah. And I gather that the resulting insights that were brought to light kept you from your usual slumber.”
“Uh, yeah, I guess. But, basically, what I want to say is… I’m sorry, Setsuna.”
“Sorry? For what?”
“Well, Michiru told me that you came out to her—you’re bisexual, right?”
Setsuna nodded warily in response.
“Then I’m sorry for being such a jerk at times, implying things about your sexual orientation that I thought weren’t true. You’ve got to understand, I never seriously thought that all my teasing might actually hurt someone—in fact, I thought it would improve things, show that I’m normal like everyone else, make it easier to talk about that kind of thing, you know. But instead it’s just resulted in turning a bunch of hormonal teenaged girls into hormonal and paranoid teenaged girls when I’m around. I suppose I should have accepted that, but to be honest, I never thought that you would be affected by it.”
Setsuna mulled things over for a few seconds before responding. “I accept your apology, Haruka, though I’m not sure why you’re apologizing to me.”
The blonde teenager didn’t know what to make of this. “But… but Michiru said that you were afraid to come out to me because of the way I needle others about homosexuality.”
Setsuna groaned and put her hands to her temples—she’d expected Michiru to tell her girlfriend about her sexual orientation, but she thought the violinist would have been a bit more careful in the way she used the information. “I think Michiru read a little too much into what I told her.” She sat down and motioned for her fellow Warrior of Love and Justice to do the same. “I said that I didn’t mention this to the Inners was because I’m not sure if they’re emotionally mature enough to handle the news. The reason I didn’t come out to you at that time was because somebody needed to distract Ranma while I was gone, and you were doing a reasonably good job.”
“So I got all worked up over nothing?!” Haruka’s face was beginning to twist in anger.
“No, Michiru’s point is valid. The way you act around the Inners is often way out of line. While it wasn’t the reason I avoided telling you that I was bisexual, it was a major part of the reason I didn’t tell the Inners—they’d probably be worried that I’d start acting like you, and until recently, we didn’t have time to deal with those sort of complications in our interpersonal relationships.”
Haruka looked a bit downtrodden—apparently she was at fault, even if Michiru was mistaken as to why. “So should I apologize to them and just give up the teasing?”
Setsuna smiled. “Haruka, I doubt you could really give it up—it’s such an integral part of your personality that you wouldn’t be the same person. What I’m saying is that you should consider the others’ feelings. It’s one thing when one of them actually does something mildly suggestive—for instance, Minako’s exploratory pokes at my husband’s bust last night. But when you do things like suggesting that one of them is dating another girl on the sly, or worse, that two of them are secretly sleeping together, that isn’t entertaining to anyone but you.”
“Yeah. Michiru pointed out that some of them might be in the closet…”
“Before you ask, yes, I do know whether or not any of them are attracted to women, and no, I’m not telling anyone. It might be all of them; it might be none of them; but that information is far too personal to share without their permission—and I can’t get that permission until they discover the truth on their own.”
Haruka nodded and finished her sentence. “…and she said I should try to avoid doing things that will keep them from being able to trust me on this.”
“Sound advice. Now then, would you make sure Michiru is awake before Ranma and I leave? I need to speak with her.”
“Sure. By the way, where are you two going?”
“Well, it’s pretty short notice, so I’ve just decided to take Ranma to nice, secluded cabin I own on the north part of Honshu—just for a few days, though. While I’m alone with Ranma it will be difficult for me to find time to leave to check the Time Gates, and I don’t want to be away from them for too long. I’m sure you’ll be able to handle things here.”
“Incidentally, have you told Ranma? About your preferences, I mean.”
“First off, I’m bisexual; I don’t have any gender preferences as far as the physical act of sex goes. But to answer your question, no, not yet—I’m trying to figure out the best way to tell him. He’s led a relatively sheltered life; his father tried to limit his exposure to anything not directly related to martial arts, so his experience with alternate sexuality is very limited. He knows that gays and lesbians exist, but I don’t think he’s ever tried to understand them—but then, until he met you and Michiru, he never had a reason to. Hopefully, our time alone on our honeymoon will give me a chance to bring the subject up.”
“Right. So, how about breakfast?”
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(Posted Sat, 24 Dec 2005 19:21)
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