As you may expect from the title, this is a little dark, although not as much as some of my other work. It is also unedited because I am super late as it is, so please excuse me attempting to write in a slightly different style without, y’know, actually editing it to make sure that it’s sensible. Just over 2000 words.
Michiru awoke
slowly, leisurely, for once unhurried to rise.
It was becoming rarer and rarer for her to not be abruptly yanked from
sleep by a vision, so she allowed her body to arise piece by piece; her eyes
slowly took in the light of the room, her ears heard naught but her own steady
breaths, her hands reached forward and touched only soft sheets. She opened her lids and confirmed that she
was alone in the bed, the other side left untidy and wrinkled by her absent
partner. It was odd for Haruka to rise
before her, but not completely unheard of, so she paid the instance no mind.
Stretching
languidly, like a cat rising from a deep nap, she decided that she had slept in
enough and rose from the bed to begin her usual routine. The wooden floor was pleasantly warm on her
feet even without her slippers, so she found herself clad only in her silken
nightdress in front of the large gilded mirror on her dresser. Deft
fingers plucked the silver brush from its place and began to run it through her
hair gently, brushing out a few errant tangles in the curling waves. She found herself quite at peace, and even
began humming the base melody to a new piece that she had been experimenting
with—the bridge wasn’t coming together, and sometimes she found that the music
would flow easier when she wasn’t paying too much mind to its patterns. The
reflection of a blue light in the mirror caught her eye, and she absentmindedly
glanced towards the clock on their nightstand. She did a double-take at the time; for some reason, the clock read 00:00.
ofc i didnt draw this all on my own i just thought it would b fun to do one of those traceovers w anime charas!!! keep in mind that i am not at all good at anatomy so i just had to kinda guess where and how some things looked hahaha ;;;
but i drew haruka and michiru kissin it up ₍՞◌′ᵕ‵ू◌₎♡
Imagine: Michiru gets roped into an art exhibit at the last moment. There isn’t enough time to paint enough pieces from scratch, and she isn’t really happy with anything she managed to finish in a while. She forces herself to choose several, then looks at them again, and rejects at least half. Then drags herself through choosing again. Then rejects at least half again. The pattern repeats until she’s either so frustrated or so time-pressed that she enlists help from her family.
Setsuna really wants to say something nice. The most encouraging words that come to her mind are “this one reminds me of the time when I fought a lizard-monster who manipulated time to make itself move faster or to slow its enemies down”. She can’t explain why it reminds her of the lizard-monster. Setsuna stays silent.
Haruka has never felt more out of place than in that moment. All she manages for the longest time is a weak gesture towards one piece and “Michiru, what even is that?”
She expects a coy look and an explanation that stops making sense halfway through. But with Michiru at the end of her wits, all that she receives is: “I don’t know. I was drunk.”
Haruka attempts to process, and judging from the look on her face, she’s not doing well. And then Hotaru clears her throat.
“This piece is called A Study of Evanescent Fortune. The strokes of ochre and charcoal speak of the hardships all of us are faced with, while the swirls of russet and Prussian blue bring to mind the grim reality that we only enjoy our blessings for as long as fate sees fit to bestow them upon us. The golden light permeating the foreground, however, represents the inevitably coming turn of the wheel of fortune, akin to the myth of Pandora; after misfortunes and plague, Hope spreads its delicate wings to soar among the humankind.”
The trio of her parents stare. Haruka tries to find a difference between what Hotaru just said and what the art critics do. Setsuna wonders who taught this child to bullshit so smoothly. And Michiru just bursts out laughing.
Then Hotaru moves to the next piece.
“This one is henceforth titled Temporal Barrier, and represents the ephemeral nature of the illusionary walls separating human hearts.”
By the time she’s finished that sentence, Michiru is wiping tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes. She had painted it in the middle of the night, opting to paint by moonlight instead of a lamp, and woken everyone up when she realized she had used dark blue paint instead of dark red. Hotaru had learned so many swear words that morning. Just, so many.
“This one is called The Gateway of Sealing. The clear divide between its upper and lower part symbollizes the path of life itself, while the halves shaped like elaborate doors form seal on the scroll in which our fate has been written. It is, quite clearly, a marvellous study of paradox.”
Michiru can’t breathe. A more truthful title would be “I Put The Canvas Upside Down And Noticed Too Late”. She can’t stop laughing for long enough to say that.
Temporal Barrier sells for an unspeakable amount of money. A Study of Evanescent Fortune sells for twice that. There is a flood of press articles praising the philosophical depth of Michiru’s art.
From that day onwards, Michiru enlists Hotaru’s help every time she has trouble naming her paintings, and buys her a lamp every time a piece sells.
Mako wins. Mako wins even if all she was allowed to use in her bread is pickles and spam. Mako wins if she can only cook with her left hand. Mako wins if her oven catches fire.
Mako wins.
Mina doesn’t even go on the show with the idea that she’s going to win, she goes in with the idea that she’s going to be a LEGEND. She has a series of right outfits and quick quips set up, and she outshines even the hosts, everyone loves her, and she goes on to get her own talk show.
She goes home in week one because she can’t fucking cook.
Hotaru is that person who always comes up with technically perfect bakes but no one can really remember her because she keeps to herself and slowly wills her popovers to rise.
Rei declares that she’s going to be the ultimate winner, and she has some amazing tricks up her sleeve. Apparently that ‘amazing trick’ is ‘box cake mix’ but she makes Paul Hollywood cry once when he criticizes her.
Pluto burns everything because she has no concept of time.
Michiru comes in, sets a box from a cake shop on the work bench, walks over to the shelf of liquors for baking, pours herself a measuring cup full, and drinks it while everyone bakes. She serves the cake in its original box.
She stays until week three because her family owns the studio.
Usagi ends up most gif’s but it’s just a reaction gif of her bursting into explosive tears and dramatically flopping onto the floor when her souffle falls.
Haruka is the girl all of tumblr ends up thirsting for and there are entire tumblrs dedicated to her loud shirts and hair flips. She bakes literally everything in a 9 inch round cake pan.
She stays until the finale, because Michiru’s family owns the studio.
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