Neh, this fic happened right after the 2nd stage. That means w/ spoilers, mind you. So don't go around bugging me that I didn't warn you in the first place. I'm sorry if you think this is fic is lame and all, but it's my first time to write a Vandread fic. ^^

~sChiisai~ chii_sai@yahoo.com

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Confused Love

Chapter one

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"Dita!"

Dita, with tears in her eyes, looked back the the departing ship. Hibiki, held his arm out with a nervous grin, motioning her to come with them. The red haired girl coudn't imagine how surprised and happy she was, first she thought her world was going to fall apart, since Hibiki woudn't even say her name properly even if they were going to seperate. And now, he was motioning her to come with them.

"Come on!"

The whole crew of pirates surrounging them watched them, people like Jura and Misty had looks of disbelief on them, no one could actually imagine that Hibiki finally had the guts to show Dita he liked her, even though it was really obvious to everyone, Hibiki and Dita seemed to be the only ones who didn't notice the mysterious bond inbetween them.

"H,hai!" Dita yelled back, starting to pace herself and running towards the ship, preparing to jump as the moving bridge edged further from the ship.

Hibiki held his hand neared to Dita's and pulled her up on the ship, Dita, very happy embraced the boy who was infront of her, and Hibiki, in surprise, fell on the floor with a thump from the weight Dita had placed on him with her body.

"Ehem." Buzam motioned, as Dita and Hibiki broke apart, and edged away from eachother, each with scarlet faces. The crew on the deck were waving to all of them, some of them giggling, and some of them with a silent smirk on thier face, which was Meia by the way. Misty jumped up and down, actually happy for Dita, since she was trying to repay Dita's kindness by making her closer to Hibiki. Gascogne wore a grin, and was smirking at Hibiki, who was looking at the ground with an embarassed look, but nonetheless happy look. Jura, cheered and hang unto Barnette, embracing her close friend.

As the door to the ship closed, Bart and Duero went to the window, Bart waved to them, and Duero looked at them with a serious smile. Jura was waving to this two guys, and Parfet and Pai was smiling back to Duero. By now, Parfet and Pai had a hidden desire to stangle Jura, since she had embraced Duero. Parfet, whom since the first few weeks, had slowly gained a good friendship with Duero, had realized that it was more than friendship that she felt, and Pai, had also shown admiration to the doctor, and had blew his bangs away his hidden eyes, as Parfet watched curiously behind her. Duero, who coudn't understand why they had did this, brushed it off as glance at curiousity.

Meanwhile, at the ship, it became silent again, as Buzam, Duero and Bart looked curiously at Dita and Hibiki.

"It's nice that you're coming with us, Dita. I hope you like Taraaku." Buzam said, breaking the silence. Dita nodded. Hibiki, stood up and held out a hand at Dita yet again to help her get up, Dita grabbed hold onto it and stood up.

Duero started for the door, and was stopped by Bart. "Where are you going?"

"I want to explore the ship." Duero replied, and continued walking.

"Hmm... I guess I'll do just that too, hey! Wait!" Bart yelled at the doctor's back, and ran right after him.

Hibiki sat into a bench, and Dita sat beside him a good few inches away. Buzam, stared at them and sighed, then took out a piece of paper.

"The trip will take two days. And there are enough rooms to fit us, since the others are taken by the other crew onboard." Buzam reported. "Which makes it hard for me to figure out where you'll sleep, Dita."

"Oh..." Dita said, looking up with a confused face.

"Um..." Hibiki said, stammering, and also thinking of how he could construct his sentence. "S,she can sleep with me, neh?"

The red haired girl's eyes littened up, and waited for Buzam's reply.

"If that's how you want it," Buzam replied with a smirk. A while later, he tossed Hibiki the map. "Yours is room 213, I have a copy, you can have that. Bart and Duero's rooms are just nearby yours. You might want to deposit your stuff there first."

"Yeah, sure." Hibiki muttered, accepting the map and stuffing it into his pocket. He stood up and headed for the door.

"Wait, Uchuji-san." Dita called after him, and started walking along him to thier room.

"He's gained guts." Buzam thought to herself.

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Silence.

Dita and Hibiki sat on the bed together, each thinking of a conversation to start with.

"Neh," Dita started. "Why did Uchuji-san invite Dita along?"

"Um..." Hibiki mumbled, his face going red. He was thinking hard of an excuse that wouldn't make him utterly stupid. Why was it so hard for a guy like him to realize his feelings anyway?

"Eh?" Dita said, blinking.

"Damn, how could I say this..." Hibiki mummbled uncoherantly and looked up at the cieling. Dita blinked once more and giggled.

"Baka, what're you giggling for?!"

"Dita's name's not 'you', it's 'Dita'." Dita said statingly. "Is it really so hard to call Dita by her name? C'mon, call Dita by her name once more!"

"Baka, what's so thrilling to be called your name anyway, there's no difference!"

"It's better by bieng called Baka all the time.."

"Well, the same goes for the Uchuji-san crap." Hibiki replied.

"Fine, Dita will call Uchuji-san by his name if Uchuji-san will call Dita by her name." Dita said, giving Hibiki a cheerful smile.

"Yeah, sure." Hibiki mumbled, and went back to fiddling with his fingers.

'This is the first reason why I ddin't even want to go to her room when I made that damn promise, I can't think of a thing to say.' Hibiki thought to himself and sighed.

"Neh, Uchu-- I mean, Hibiki-san, what if all those men in Taraaku don't like me..." Dita said with a sigh, and drew circles on the bed with her finger.

"Eh?" Hibiki responded, quite thinking of a thing to say. "They will..."

"How can Hibiki-san know that?"

"I just do." The boy said, shrugging. 'coz I'll make them,' was what he wanted to say, but he refrained from saying that anyway.

Silence. Again.

'What's wrong with this girl, usually she has tons to say.' Hibiki thought to himself.

"Neh, Hibiki-san, aren't you hungry?" Dita asked. "Coz after that battle, Dita got very tired and hungry."

Hibiki shrugged. "I guess so, Let's go get something to eat."