Disclaimer: Trust me, if this was mine, I'd be traumatizing people with this fluff in the manga.

Strawberry Love


Haruka had a problem. For her, it was a miserable sort of problem, like most problems are. No, it was not love, she couldn't care less about love, that was the least of her worries, but it was a heart problem. After one of her most important races, she could hardly breathe. Her heart thumped slowly in her chest, and she was trying hard not to black out in front of fans and friends. But when she went to the doctor with Michiru, they told her she had something wrong with her body, mainly her heart. She could have told him that, which she did with arrogance in her voice.

And he told her he could no longer race.

In fact, as the months wore on, she could hardly walk around the house without having trouble breathing.

She was in distress. Having nothing to do except stare out the window everyday was not her idea of life.

She couldn't fight as Sailor Uranus, either. She would definitely die.

One Saturday, she leaned back, and looked at Michiru. Michiru smiled sympathetically.

'Don't smile at me like that...I don't need anyone's worrying looks...'

"I have to go to the store, okay? You promise not to get up?"

Haruka frowned.

"Haruka, promise me. You know what happens when you do." stated Michiru, firmly. "Promise?"

Haruka glared, sighed, and then nodded. "Promise."

Michiru smiled. "Great! I'll be back in a few hours, okay?"

"That's fine."

"And smile for once!" she called, over her shoulder. The apartment door slammed, and Haruka was left alone. Easy for Michi to say...she could walk!

The silence was getting louder and louder, and she found all she could do was hum to make it go away. But it always returned with force...and out of nowhere, came a knock on the door.

Well, she couldn't just leave whoever was knocking, right? She quickly got up, happy to have a reason to move, and swung open the apartment door.

It was the last person she wanted to see.

"What do you want?" she asked, arrogantly.

Haruka glared, and forgot for one blissful moment she even had a problem.

"Actually, Haruka, I didn't come to fight with you. I wanted to see if Michiru was home. There was some concert stuff I forgot to give her, and she will be performing with us, after all."

Haruka grasped her chest, trying to look natural, as if she were grabbing her necklace, but Seiya knew her to well to know she didn't even own a necklace. Her heart was beginning to feel strange.

"No, she's not here, Seiya. Try some other time," she snapped.

Seiya shot her a smug look, trying to cover his deep concern, noticing her strange movements which might have been invisible to others, even Michiru.

Why would he notice them?

"Haruka? Are you okay?" he finally asked.

Haruka nodded. "I'm," she began, gasping and desperately trying not to make it obvious. "I'm fine." She let go of the door, and headed inside, intending to close it, but Seiya stopped her.

"Are you sure?" he prodded. Haruka couldn't answer, but she nodded, praying in her mind to let him leave, not letting him see her like this...

Seiya set the papers on the table next to the door, and led her to her chair that she was sitting in before he came.

"I don't need your help!" she protested, and would have tried to shake him off, but the pain was begining to get worse, and the last thing she wanted to do was to die in the arms of *this* jerk.

"Sit." he commanded. She did, not having a choice. Her hand reached out, and grabbed the chair support. Her breathing was slowing down. Seiya observed her with concern.

"No. This isn't going to work." Seiya decided out loud, shaking his head. He then picked her up with both his arms, and headed towards her bedroom. He then laid her on the bed.

She tried to struggle, but her actions were worthless. She felt angry and scared and she wanted to shout at him to leave her alone, but something stopped her.

"I want you to lay there until Michiru comes back. When is she due?"

Haruka fought him, struggling to her elbows. "In a few hours." she said, with hatred in her voice. "Now go away!"

He noticed her breathing was getting worse and worse. Her eye lids fluttered, but he could see she was struggling to stay awake. Either that, or alive. He hurried over, and visibly refrained from sitting with her.

"Haruka, I want you to stay awake, got it?"

She answered only with a glare. "Haruka! I'm telling you to stay awake. Do you want to die? If you don't do-" he said, but was cut short.

"I don't care if I die! Now get the HELL out of MY apartment!" He sighed, trying to keep back his own pain. His pain of making sure she was okay. After all, she...

She laid back onto her pillows, not sure if this was the right thing to do. She coughed softly, and tried not look frantic.

"Okay. What's the doctor you go to? Forget it...911." he said to himself, picking up the phone.

She shook her head, propping herself up and grabbing the phone from his hand, throwing in out her open window, hearing the crack when it hit the cement below.

"They might find out-" she gasped, trying to explain her point. "That I'm..." She breathed deeply. "Sailor Ura-" She fell back down again.

His arms surrounded her, and he put his finger to her lips. He forgot his cruel mask he put on every time he was near her. "Don't say anything. It'll only get worse. Haruka, we *have* to get you some help. Do you take medicine? Do you eat something, or...something? What do you do when this happens?"

Haruka shrugged helplessly. "My medicine is supposed to come in the mail in a few days. They had to order it from America."

He could now hear her struggle for breath beside just seeing it. He began to panic worse. She coughed, and she suddenly felt very safe with him. No. No, she wasn't safe...she was...

"Haruka!?" He was practically dying with worry. She fell back and closed her eyes.

"She's dead. God...she's dead. She would never do this, she would struggle, she's dead..." he muttered, panicking.

"I'm fine. I don't need your help." Her voice was small and thin, but it was still there, while she turned her head away from him... trying to avoid his worried gaze...

"Haruka, stay with me here, you can't die just yet, all right?" he whispered, turning her over to him and pressing her against his warm body. She didn't say anything, only closed her eyes tightly.

He figured he had to keep talking to make her stay awake. That's what he read somewhere. He looked down at her face. "There's nothing to worry about..." he said to her, in a soothing voice.

You couldn't hear her gasp for breath so loudly anymore...

She grunted. Finally, seeing her arms tremble a little with weakness, her strength from her seemingly long gone fighting days drained from her... She was a little better than Hotaru used to be.

She felt so weird. Was this was a dream...? No, it wasn't. He was really helping her without ridicule, and not only that...but it felt kind of nice, to... he was being nice. He was there for her today.

He smiled down on her, and he himself sighed with relief. She would be all right... she was curled up, facing him, on the bed. She looked almost peaceful with him, almost happy.

He couldn't help himself.

He kissed her forehead. Then her cheek. Then her eyes...they were hot, strawberry kisses. She let out a noise that was between a groan and a croak.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, scared but relaxed in some strange way...

"I'm sorry," he whispered back. Silence. "You’re not cold, are you? Can I get you anything?"

"No."

"I guess I'll go then. I'll -er- talk with Michiru later, I suppose."

He got neither a encouragement to go or to stay. He decided, after his kissing attack, that he'd better leave.

"Good-bye." He bent down and gave her one more kiss, knowing he had probably already pushed his luck with the first one. She opened her eyes, and looked at him.

"I thought you were sorry. I thought you wouldn't do it again."

His voice was choked. She hated him..."I won't."

She felt a hot tear on her hand, and she looked up at him, wishing...Wishing what? For him to kiss her again?

Yes.

For him to kiss her again...He was at the door. He turned at smiled at her weakly. "See you later, then. Be careful."

She coughed, and he looked back, but didn't go back. He stared. Stay? Go? Go.

He turned, but was only stopped when her voice was audible to his ears. "Waitaminute."

He paused, and turned to her. "Hm?"

"..."

Okay, so much for continuing...

"What is it, Haruka?" he asked, softly. "What is it that you want?" He walked over. "What is it that you need?" His voice was seductive, but soft and caring.

She prayed for words to come to her, but she remained silent. His face was so close to hers...his lips were-

She moved forwards, and kissed him. Haruka wasn't shy, but her kiss was. Alarms were going off in both of their heads, but they ignored them.

The kiss was seductive like his voice, with the hint of strawberries, like before. It was fiery and wanting. Her stomach was doing somersaults. He broke it.

He made eye contact. "You wanted to kiss me?"

She finally found her lost voice. "...Yes."

He smiled. "I wanted to kiss you, too. But I suppose you guessed that already." Her cheeks began to turn pink. He kissed her again, finding her to wonderful for just mere words. She was-

The door burst open, and the joy was no more. 11 faces and 3 smuggled in cats poked their head around the door.

"Haruka, I'm early! Guess who I found-" began Michiru, but stopped. Seiya stopped immediately, and brought himself up.

"Haruka! What is this?!" screeched Usagi. "What were you doing with Seiya, Haruka?" asked Chibiusa, as the questions filled through the room.

Michiru ran over angrily. "Seiya!" she hissed. "What were you doing to her? Did she want you to-"

"Seiya, you, of all people-" began Rei, but he was saved.

"Stop it."

Her voice was shocking and crisp. "Leave Seiya alone, Michiru." Haruka ordered, getting up.

"I was having another attack. And Seiya was here to help. He did help me."

That shut everyone up, because they knew what she meant.

"She- couldn't breathe?" asked Minako and Makoto at the same time, while Yaten and Taiki just stared.

No one bothered to answer.

"Haruka?" asked Ami, looking at Haruka. "Are you all right?"

"Yes."

Setsuna then cleared her throat. Noise. Needed noise.

"Here you go, Haruka. Hotaru...?" She handed the flowers to Hotaru who ran up and gave them to Haruka. "Thanks, Hotaru." said Haruka brightly. Too brightly. She got up, and headed towards the kitchen to put them in some water.

Michiru stopped her, a little bit of jealousy on her face. "Oh, no you don't. *I'll* put them in some water. *You* lie back down." Haruka clutched the flowers to her chest.

“I'm going to put them in water-"

"That's not good for you!"

"I'm fine now! Michi, would you let me put my own flowers in some water?"

Michiru grabbed the flowers. "Nope. Now, lay back down."

"Michiru, I told you-" But Michiru had already left.

The others followed suit, leaving the two alone. Knowing they needed to be alone.

Seiya stood up, looking rather uncomfortable. "I- well..." Seiya began.

Silence. But they looked at each other, and understood. Words were sometimes meaningless, and just got in the way. Sometimes the soul just needed to speak, and that's what was happening.

He smiled. "I'll be back tomorrow, then. Rest well."

And for the first time, she smiled back. "I will."


A/T: Ah...this didn't make you any smarter, but it made you happier! You may thank me by R and R.