I just spent all day sucking another one of my friends into the world of anime! Ooh hohohohohoho! I'm so evil. They can only resist for so long, and they always come back to me, begging for more. Silly little simpletons! Okay...um...maybe I should just write.

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In The Arms of The Angel

Part 3

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I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to lose
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light
And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

-Sarah McLachlan I Will Remember You

"I hate my life." Hitomi sighed sadly as she changed into her pajamas. "No friends, no one close to me. If I died, I doubt even my boss would notice." She was in one of her depressed moods again. Stupidly, she'd gone out to the movies alone, just to be saddened by the sight of so many happy couples and groups of friends alienating her with their social behavior. "Why can't I just be normal?" she asked, feeling a few tears leave her eyes as she shut off the lights, glancing at her digital clock. 9:58. If she was normal, she'd still be up with her friends, or out on a date. Instead, she was crying like a baby as she crawled into bed.

"I wish I could go to sleep and just never wake up." she cried, letting the tears stream down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut and lay in her bed. "My life is a waste."

"No it isn't." a soft, warm voice answered her. Hitomi yelped in surprise, her eyes flying open to stare at a shadowy figure standing beside her bed.

"Who's there?" she scrambled out of the opposite side of her bed, stumbling on her way to turn on the lights.

"It's me, don't you remember?" he asked her. "Please don't turn them on, or I'll have to leave."

"You..." Hitomi froze as something clicked home. "You saved me...from those men three weeks ago."

"Yes." he answered. "Do you remember?"

"You said...I knew you." Hitomi moved toward him slowly, trying to make out his hidden features. "I can't see you though...who are you?"

"You've forgotten, then?" he asked, sounding severely disappointed. "Or maybe I've changed more than I thought. No matter." He moved to hand her something. "Here, take this. You loaned it to me once long ago."

"What..." Hitomi took the proffered object, something small and hard as stone, but strangely warm. She'd felt a stone like that only once before. "My pendant!" she held it up, feeling the chain that it was attached to and placing the long missed weight around her neck. "But...then you...how'd you get that?"

"You gave it to me." he insisted. "Don't you remember?"

"Oh...gods...Van?" Hitomi trembled as she reached out to feel the face under her fingers, to see if touch could confirm this unbelievable development. "But...you were on Gaea."

"I died." he told her. "And now I come here."

"You...come here?" Hitomi was confused.

"When you're in danger, I'm there." he explained. "And every night, for one hour, I come to make sure you're all right."

"Why only one hour?" she asked.

"I suppose it's because I'm dead, so I'm not allowed much time to pretend I'm alive." Van was smiling, she could tell. A kind of ironic, humorless smile that you could hear better than you could see.

"But I've never seen you except that one night." Hitomi was confused. "Do you always come when I'm asleep?"

"Yes, always at the same time." Van confirmed. "I stand and I stare at your sleeping face."

"At...my face?" Hitomi blushed at that.

"I still love you, Hitomi. That's why I come." Van told her, reaching out to brush his fingers over her face.

"You do?" Hitomi gaped in surprise. Was this just a dream?

"Do...you?" he asked in return.

"I can't forget you." She answered. "And nothing seems to be able to fill your space."

"Hitomi...I missed you so." Van lunged forward, crushing her into a hug. Any doubts that this was really Van fled as her nostrils filled with his familiar scent. "I thought I'd die, I missed you so."

"Van...I'm sorry I left you. I never should have done that." Hitomi began to cry again, burying her face in his chest. Suddenly, she stopped, pulling a bit away from him. "You're warm."

"So?" he asked, confused.

"I thought you were dead." she explained. "Shouldn't you be cold?"

"I am whatever you want." he answered. "I'm here for your sake and yours alone."

"Van...don't ever leave." she pleaded. "Just stay with me forever. We can stay like this for the rest of our lives."

"Hitomi...I'm dead." he reminded her.

"I know...I saw it." Hitomi admitted.

"You still have those visions?" Van cringed, pulling her closer. "I'm sorry if it caused you suffering."

"Why did I leave Gaea? Life could have been so perfect." Hitomi sighed sadly.

"Why did I let you go?" Van asked in return. "If I could do everything over, I'd change two things about our past."

"What's the second thing?" Hitomi looked up in confusion.

"This." Van lowered his head, pressing his lips to hers firmly, passionately, pouring out all the built up emotions from all those years ago, from all the time apart. And she returned it all to him as they both remembered a love they had let lay unused and dormant when their different lives had torn them apart. After they broke, he held her until his hour was up, and he disappeared.

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"Here's that report you wanted, Lydia!" Hitomi cheerfully entered the older woman's office, placing the large file folder on her startled boss's desk.

"You seem unusually perky this morning, Hitomi." Lydia raised an auburn eyebrow at the strange behavior. "You must have had a nice weekend."

"Wonderful." Hitomi verified, thinking happily of her nights spent staying up late to see Van, to speak to him and feel truly important as he really listened to her. It was the first time in a long time that she'd felt as though she really mattered to anyone.

"I insist we go out to dinner tonight and you tell me all about it." Lydia smiled at the other woman. Ever since Hitomi first came to the company, she had tried without success to draw her out, to make friends with her. It seemed impossible to her that someone as skilled at advertising as Ms. Kanzaki could be so completely withdrawn. There had been glimmers of a happier person before, but the girl in front of her desk was like a brand new Hitomi.

"Well...there's not that much to tell, really." Hitomi blushed and shied away from the suggestion. She couldn't possibly explain this to her boss. What would she say? Oh, nothing really, Mrs. Ashman, it's just that my first love who lives on a different planet died and is now coming to visit me every night as a ghost! That would go over really well. She'd probably file a report against Hitomi, declaring her legally insane and totally incapable of her job.

"Oh, fine, be secretive." Lydia shrugged, "But say you'll go out to dinner with me anyway. Come on, we'll say that it's a business meeting and charge it to the company. We can go to some totally ritzy restaurant and pretend we're rich! It'll be fun."

"Mrs. Ashman, that isn't very ethical, is it?" Hitomi shook her head at her boss, then burst into laughter, surprising the other woman. "But how could I say no! I'll get the most expensive thing on the menu and then send it back ten times, saying it's not good enough and that my personal cook does a much better job."

"All right! It's settled then." Lydia clapped her hands, excited at this. Hitomi had always politely declined before, and it hurt Lydia's feelings to think that perhaps the girl really just didn't want to be friends with her. "You'll have to get all dressed up. Do you have anything appropriate?"

"I'll dig something up." Hitomi winked at her. "Pick me up at seven?"

"It's a date." Lydia nodded, extremely pleased to finally be breaking through Hitomi's barrier. She insisted on making friends with all the people she worked with, and now she was finally making progress with the new girl.

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The End (Of Part 3, That Is)