Disclaimer: Don't own Escaflowne. Never will. End of.
A/N: Hey guys. As you've probably noticed, this is not the latest chapter of Close Your Eyes, but please believe me when I say that I'm absolutely in no way giving up on it, so please persevere and the latest chapter should be out soon!
As for this rather surprising creation, it's an AU, on Earth actually, and the idea struck me literally when I got out of bed this morning and nagged at me incessantly until i'd managed to churn out a chapter of it. It's all still filled with VH goodness, don't you worry about that, and this one will no doubt be a little more racy in areas if i'm feeling daring enough.
It was strange writing it, strange in a good way of course, but i'm very concious of the fact that it's...well, just different. I don't know if you'll like it. God, I don't even know if I like it...
But anyway, the title means "Law" in Latin, becauseVan and Hitomi (as well as other characters) are lawyers here, since lawyers are obviously endless fun... :\
I seriously hope you enjoy this, but will not be surprised or in any way offended if you don't.
So yea...Enjoy!
...Hopefully :P
"Shutup and eat your sandwich."
"Why don't you shutup and eat yours?"
Hitomi frowned.
With direct and exaggerated precision, she forked up several lettuce leaves, green beans and olives from the small, transparent, salad-filled box in front of her.
"Firstly," She skewered a slice of egg, "I'm not eating a sandwich; this is a salad niçoise."
Van rolled his eyes and smiled as he reached for the bottle of coke they were sharing.
"And secondly," Bringing the fork to her awaiting lips, she noted his roguish grin, "You're the one who seems incapable of holding a conversation that isn't related to work."
She watched one ebony brow arch in surprise opposite her, and attempted to chew the ridiculously large amount of food she'd just piled into her mouth in order to make a point.
Putting down the bottle of coke, Van leant back on the sofa, his smile widening despite her words. After a moment of regarding her silently, he tutted.
"You put too much food in your mouth, didn't you?"
Hitomi blinked and stopped chewing for a second, and would have sighed exasperatedly, had her mouth not been overflowing with salad; instead she just ignored him, reaching for the bottle in the middle of the table.
Van let out a low chuckle, "Was making your point really worth the discomfort, Miss Kanzaki?"
Swallowing a rather disgusting mixture of coca-cola and semi-chewed salad, Hitomi nodded.
"Oh, definitely." She managed eventually, smiling herself as she looked up at his amused expression.
A year today.
His grin slowly diminished as their gazes locked.
One year ago. Today.
And now, now they were just staring at each other, because she wasn't smiling anymore either.
Does he even remember?
Hitomi swallowed thickly, and the bitter aftertaste of the disgusting concoction she'd downed a few moments before made her want to wretch. Van must have noticed the slight wrinkling of her nose, because he appeared to snap out of whatever it was he'd slipped into, and stood up abruptly.
"I'll get you some water." He said quickly, wiping his crumb-covered fingers on the trousers of his Armani suit before setting off in the direction of the water cooler.
Hitomi sighed quietly as she watched him walk to the other side of his enormous office, wondering how on earth someone who passively wiped things on Armani suits could be a partner in such a successful and renowned law firm.
Fanel & Fassa was known throughout the country as one of the best now, and charging seven hundred dollars an hour at the very least, you would expect them to be. Van's grandfather had founded the firm several decades ago with a friend and associate, and thus, the unwritten Fanel family rule that all male children who followed would undoubtedly work there, lawyer or no, was created. Indeed, it was a long-running family in-joke that Van's cousin, Chid, was head of catering in the very same building.
"I'll have to shoot off in a few minutes," Hitomi looked down at her watch, noting the full three hours she had to kill before the scheduled meeting she had with a senior partner. She worked at a fairly idiotically located, much smaller law firm down the street, Dornkirk, which survived simply by taking on clients who couldn't afford F & F's extortionate fees. She didn't know how well it was doing to be honest, but from the endless clientele who were always coming into the rather dilapidated office building, she figured it must be surviving well enough.
Van returned to where she sat in the plush armchair, the cup in his hand almost overflowing due to his lack of concentration whilst pouring its contents. Still pretending to look at her watch, Hitomi thrust her hand out towards him expectantly. She didn't see the lopsided smile he gave her as he handed her the ice-cold water.
"Thanks."
She put it on the table before reaching into the decaying suitcase at her feet.
Van crossed his arms, unimpressed. "Well aren't you going to drink it?"
"I'll drink it in a minute, let me check my diary."
"I'm sure you have an opening for it, Hitomi."
"You'd be surprised," She joked quietly, looking up at him briefly before turning her head back to the creased pages of the notebook, "No, something's just struck me, that's all."
Van looked at his watch nonchalantly, "And that would be…?"
"Well…I have a meeting with a client today, and I was just…" Her finger stopped its path down the small page at the line labelled '4 o'clock:-'. She looked up, her brow creased in confusion. "How odd…"
"What's odd?"
Hitomi closed the diary, "Why has he arranged to see me when he knows I have a client at that time?"
"Who?"
"Dornkirk; big boss man." She tucked the diary back into the ancient bag and hefted it onto the glass table, narrowly missing her half-eaten salad.
Van ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. "He probably just didn't realise, I wouldn't w—"
"No, that's not like him. He's organised to an infuriating degree." Hitomi pulled her mobile out of the bag and scanned the screen hastily, "And he hasn't called or emailed either…"
She sighed before flipping the phone shut and resting her chin on its end pensively.
"I should go," She said after a silent moment, "I should really, really go."
Standing up before Van could make any sort of comment, Hitomi grabbed her case and made a move to leave.
"Man, do you know how many things I had to re-schedule to carve out this hour today?"
Hitomi turned to him, "I never asked you to, Van."
With the top two buttons of his crisp white shirt undone, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his jet black hair in a state of mild, endearing disarray, you wouldn't imagine Van Fanel as a serious and powerful lawyer. No, you wouldn't. See, he had that whole, "I'm laid back and easy-going, funny, attractive and obviously great in bed." thing going on; but underneath all that, what you didn't see unless you were the witness, the defense, the accusing or the jury, was a deadly, "Don't fuck with me." attitude that seemed to appear when necessary in the blink of an eye, and disappear just as swiftly.
He was a great lawyer, that much Hitomi knew, and intelligent in an admirable and infuriating sort of way. He'd never lost a case, to her knowledge, and was one of those people it was pointless to argue with.
God knows she knew that.
Van held her eyes intently with his own, dark, chocolate ones.
"Can't a friend see a friend on their birthday, Hitomi?" He asked after a moment, his voice low and surprisingly hushed.
Hitomi blinked, taken aback by the sudden change in tone, and looked sheepishly down at the worn out tips of her best black, pointed stilettos. They seemed to contrast quite beautifully with the off-white carpet, or atleast would have, had they been new and equally as expensive.
Van's question rang in her head, filling the silent room around her, mocking her with its gentle and unassuming words. She hated the way he'd phrased it, even though it had been a perfectly correct and…logical thing to ask.
Yes, a friend could see a friend on their birthday…but…
Oh god, she was making such a huge deal out of this. Who was she kidding, it had been fantastic seeing Van again after weeks of hearing nothing; she'd had a great time talking with him, catching up and laughing with him. It had made her feel all…nostalgic. Whether or not that was a good thing, she couldn't say.
Just be cool.
Be blasé!
"I guess." She managed as nonchalantly as she could, looking up at him and adding a shrug for effect.
Nicely done.
She could have sworn a look of mild bemusement passed over his features before he flashed her that achingly familiar, wicked grin.
"Good." He closed the space between them, his smile unwavering, his gaze steady, "Well then, don't you think a friend should take a friend out to dinner on their birthday too?"
Hitomi swallowed as he stopped rather too close to her.
"I..."
Blasé…? The pathetic voice rang inside her head.
Ok, so he obviously did remember what had happened this time last year.
How much he remembered though, was a different matter.
And so Hitomi was probably right in thinking she was the only one who recalled it as vividly as if it had been the night before.
God, it would be impossible to forget the way his lips had felt on her, and his hands, and…
"You what?"
Hitomi blinked.
Since when had this room gotten so hot?
Snap out of it.
Blasé!
"I uh…I'm busy actually," She lied quickly, inching back from him and towards the door, "Yea, my…my brother's taking me out to some fancy restaurant he probably can't afford, so…looks like I'm…uh..."
"Busy."
"Yes, busy."
"I thought Mamoru was in China this month."
Shit!
"Oh…he…he came back!"
"He came back?" Van crossed his arms and raised an apprehensive eyebrow, "From China?"
Hitomi cursed inwardly. God she was stupid when she was under pressure – not a particularly admirable trait in a lawyer.
"Y-Yea…yea I guess he did." She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head as she pondered how on earth she was going to explain how, why and when her brother had done so.
Van bit his lip for a moment as he regarded her uneasy smile. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Right…" He said after a few long seconds.
Hitomi opened her mouth to convince him further when she saw the edge of his own twitch in amusement, but was abruptly silenced by a long finger upon her slightly parted lips and a soft "Sh."
Oh dear.
The contact drove her subconscious mind into overdrive.
She shivered.
"Next time, Hitomi," He moved forward before she could blink, dipping his head by her ear so she felt his warm breath reach the tiny, sensitive hairs on the back of her neck, "just say 'no'."
Her eyes widened, "Bu—"
He moved back, smile widening, "Happy Birthday, kid."
His finger left her lips and squashed the end of her nose lightly.
Hitomi scowled, "I'm one year younger than you!"
Moment successfully ruined.
"Exactly." He tapped the underside of her chin playfully before leaving her personal space very empty and surprisingly cold. She watched him in a sort of…trance as he walked away.
"I thought you were leaving." He said with his back to her, shuffling various papers about on his huge desk.
Hitomi swiftly snapped back to reality.
"Already gone." She turned to the large mahogany door.
"Say 'Hi' to Mamoru for me."
Hitomi smiled as she turned the handle.
"Right."
His soft, sensuous chuckle rang in her ears for the next hour.
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"F-Fired?!"
Charles Dornkirk downed the rest of his coffee in one very audible gulp, and only after placing the mug on the table carefully and straightening the pile of papers next to it did he look up at her, his face showing some kind of semi-compassionate expression.
"I think the term 'Letting go' is kinder, don't you?"
Hitomi frowned.
"I think it would be kinder if you actually gave me an explanation, Charles."
Dornkirk's bushy grey eyebrows drew together pensively, and he reached for his cup of coffee again, realising it empty only when he attempted to take a sip.
"Oh." He looked perplexedly into the vacant mug before looking perplexedly up at Hitomi, "Would you be a dear and get me…"
Noting her expression of outrage, he stopped and cleared his throat.
"…never mind."
The years had most certainly not been kind to poor Charles Dornkirk, physically amongst other things. He looked about seventy when he couldn't have been a day older than fifty five, and his mind…well, it wasn't the great one it used to be all those years ago. In fact, it seemed nowadays he was becoming a bit of a joke in lawyer circles; a "has-been" and an infinite source of comedy to those pretentious big-shots whose houses were filled with hundreds of gadgets they really had no idea how to use. Those emotionless suits, whose lives revolved around their next pay-check or promotion.
The type of people she couldn't stand.
The type of people Van associated with every day of his life.
Stop thinking about him you idiot.
"To cut a long story short, lay-offs are the only solution to the budget problems we've stumbled upon recently." The aging man seemed rather distracted, searching his jacket pockets unsubtly for what Hitomi assumed to be a cigarette packet.
Sitting down in the chair opposite him, Hitomi sighed and leant her head back on the tattered leather, closing her eyes, "So who else is out?"
Dornkirk halted mid-pat. He looked at her for a moment and opened his mouth before promptly closing it again.
"Well, presently it's uh…" He coughed, leaning forward to clasp his hands together in the centre of his immaculate desk. After a few seconds, he inhaled deeply.
"Well it's…it's just you really."
Hitomi's head snapped up.
"Why?!"
Dornkirk sighed, "Well, to put it bluntly Hitomi…you're losing your touch. Your last four cases—"
"Hey," She started defensively, "I was up against an F & F client every single time, and these lawyers they get are just…they're—"
"Tough?"
"No, they're—"
"Wise?"
"No! They're just—"
"Cleverer than you?"
"Charles, they're not human!" Hitomi stood up angrily, running a hand through her unkempt, boyish hair, "These people are just…robots trained in the art of…of—"
"Law?"
"Stop that!" She shouted to him, "And it's not law! How can it be classed as justice when they're lying and sending innocent people to prison!"
A bird landed on the window ledge next to her, obviously unperturbed by the noise emanating from the room. She glanced towards it irritably, and stared angrily into its beady black eyes for a moment before it turned away and ruffled its snowy plumage. She let out a mental, bitter laugh at the fact that even a bird wasn't interested in what she had to offer, and looked back to the man who was, essentially, ruining her life.
Dornkirk frowned, and the action made the lines in his face stand out as if they'd been drawn on by a restless child. Steepling his hands, he rested his chin on his slim fingers.
"Hitomi," He said gently, "you must remember this is what you signed up for."
Letting out a heavy breath, she crossed her arms in a faintly immature way.
"Yes, but I signed up to beat them, Charles."
Hitomi heard the bird fly away.
Dornkirk rose unsteadily from his chair and hobbled over to where she stood a few metres away.
"And you will," He put a skinny hand on her shoulder, reminding her of a rather clichéd grandfather, "but you can't expect to best them until you can think like them, and it's the same with any one of us."
Throwing her hands up in exasperation, Hitomi rolled her eyes at the old man, "And how on earth am I supposed to manage that?!"
To her surprise, Dornkirk merely smiled as he reached for her hand to shake it.
"You'll find a way."
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It was quite simple really.
Quite straightforward to press the call button and talk to an old friend on her birthday about her crappy, crappy life.
Yet she had been trying to do so for the past twenty-two and a half minutes now, and had been completely and utterly unsuccessful.
'VAN - MOBILE' stared up at her from the multi-coloured screen she held, and every time she read it, the words made less and less sense to her. In fact, the whole task of phoning him made less and less sense to her with every long minute that dragged past unmercifully.
She was thirty today.
Thirty.
And how was she celebrating?
Well, she wasn't.
What a birthday, huh? Turning down a date with your attractive, sexy, loaded family friend because you slept with him exactly a year beforehand and you're scared you'll do it again even though you want to do it again…and then getting fired.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Hitomi sighed, snapping her cell-phone closed and throwing it to the other end of the sofa before reaching for the ice-cream she'd placed on the coffee table in front of her.
Happy birthday.
Atleast last year she'd been drunk for most of it.
And then atleast she'd got some—
She almost fell off the couch when the house phone started ringing abruptly.
"Christ!" She put a hand to her heart as she reached for the receiver. Glancing towards the clock, she noted the late hour.
Eleven thirty-two.
Well, late for her anyway.
"Hitomi Kanzaki speaking..." She said automatically, putting the phone to her ear as she somehow managed to open the ice-cream.
"Hey you," The rich, deep voice made her breath catch, "Mamoru decided to go back to China yet?"
Hitomi let go of the ice-cream and smiled.
Van.
"Yea," She grinned, "It um…it turns out he didn't want to take me out after all. I told you he couldn't afford it."
"Hm," Came the warm, amused voice again, "How inconsiderate of him."
"I thought so."
A companionable silence settled between them for a few seconds before he spoke again.
"So I take it you're free tonight then?"
Hitomi bit her lip.
Am I?
"Well…"
"Well…?"
"Well technically yes, but…"
"Good. I'll pick you up in twenty minutes then."
"What?! Van—"
"Dress up—"
"Van—!"
"I'm thinking something leggy, maybe red?"
"You're—"
"Twenty minutes!"
And then she heard the dial tone.
…
He's joking…
She looked up at the clock.
Eleven thirty-four.
…right?
You know, I honestly don't know why I do this to myself lol
Have I ever liked a chapter of anything I've ever written?
Probably not.
Tell me if you think it's worth another. Be honest!
Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read! I love you all ridiculous amounts!
