Disclaimer: vroooooom vrooooooom!
A/N: I really have no life? Do I? *shrugs* Anyhool, here's the next chapter. And that reminds me, someone complained about the chapter length. *big grin* Here ya go, 3 pages worth of chapter!
Between Dreams
chapter 5
The sky was a perfect shade of blue. Not so blue that it looked like early night or early morning, and not so bright that it looked almost white. No, it was like looking up through water; the farther you looked, the bluer it got. Occasional whisps of cloud lazed about the sky, bird or kites slipping innocently through them every so often that the view didn't seem surreal.
There was just one problem with it.
Hitomi sighed and folded her hands behind her head, crossing her ankles and turning her eyes almost instinctively to a wide expanse of empty blue. Part of her said that the problem was that she couldn't see Gaea or that world she and Van had been on the other night.
Another part of her protested that the problem was that she even knew they existed at all.
She stretched languidly, relishing the early Saturday morning silence. No one was driving to work, teenagers were still sleeping, and children had been parked in front of televisions for the last hour at least and would continue to be so for another.
She had the park to herself, and, essentially, all of the world.
Sitting up, she stretched again and stood, bouncing on the balls of her feet and stretching her arms towards the heavens.
Satisfied and feeling limber, she ducked back into her sweatshirt and started jogging along the sidewalk. It had been two days since she'd shared that dream with Van. She'd slept like a baby for the last two nights, almost certain that she could feel him knocking strands of hair from her face as she drifted off.
The sound of a motorcycle cut through her quiet moment, and as she glanced over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of Yukari's little Yamaha, the little yellow bike slowing and coasting along side of her.
"Hey, Hitomi!" Yukari laughed over the purr of her bike, pushing up the visor of her helmet. "You're out early."
Hitomi just turned jade-green eyes to her and smiled.
Something flashed in Yukari's eyes, something warm and friendly.
"Looks like I've finally found a way to keep pace with you," she laughed.
Hitomi darted her eyes at her best friend, her face cracking into a wide grin. "Last one to the shore buys breakfast," she laughed, before sprinting ahead, her long legs eating up the pavement. Behind her, she heard Yukari rev the engine of the bike, followed by a "Ha!" from Yukari.
Yukari pulled back out onto the road and roared past her in a sharp right turn.
With a pant, Hitomi grinned madly. Yukari may have the advantage of wheels, but she also had the hindrance of roads and speed limits.
Hitomi didn't.
She darted across the street and into a stand of trees. Her strides grew longer, more focused. She leaned forward into the wind as the path turned downhill, zipping through the trees and hurdling over logs. Breaking through the other side into the sunlight, she saw Yukari rounding the corner, having had to go all the way around the block. Veering sharply left and dashing across the street at an angle, Hitomi cut through the market, dancing and twirling around and past sellers, stands, and buyers. People laughed at her, old friends or acquaintances calling out salutations as she passed.
Finally breaking through onto the pavement of a favorite seaside restaurant, she saw Yukari sitting triumphantly on her bike.
"I win, Hitomi!" she called, her eyes sparkling, part of her wondering why her friend had suddenly shot forward with an extra burst of speed rather than slow.
"Not yet! I said the shore, not the parking lot!" Hitomi half-yelled, half-panted as she darted past.
Desperately, Yukari fought to get off the bike, stuffing her keys in her pocket and started floundering through the sand after her. "Wait! Hitomi!"
But Hitomi had already reached the grassy knoll of the cliff, and stood waving at her.
"You really do love that bike, don't you."
Yukari laughed. "Can you blame me?" She paused, and then, "Hitomi? What's gotten into you to make you so spunky all of a sudden?"
She turned her head to look at Yukari, who sat perched indian-style next to her.
She shrugged and set her head back onto her hands, swinging her feet in the air as she lay on her stomach, looking out over the edge of the cliff at the blue water below.
"I dunno, I don't feel especially happy or anything compared to any other day."
Yukari looked down at her, her warm, pinkish brown-eyes smiling.
Hitomi was so naïve. She preferred her that way. After she had come back, all those years ago, she had been happy, yes, but her eyes held a light, a flicker from having seen too much. But after a few months, Hitomi's eyes had lost that flicker and she had started to laugh again, even though there was always that small hint there.
But now that hint was practically gone.
Yukari laughed. "True, you just seem to be more yourself than usual lately."
Hitomi blinked, then laughed. "How can I seem more myself that usual? Wouldn't who I usually am be who I am?"
The two friends laughed.
"I just haven't seen you so perky since you came back, I guess,"
Yukari told her as their laughter subsided.
Hitomi let out a mental sigh as she rolled over onto her back, folding her hands under her head and propping one leg up.
"I told you what happened while I was there, Yukari. I told you about the war and about everybody I left behind to come home." Yukari nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but Hitomi continued. "I guess, when it all comes down to it, I didn't really have a chance to sit down and come to terms with the fact that maybe I was a little insane when I got back, and that I did choose to come home rather than stay there. But since school's ended, and since I've made up all of those credits I missed last year at college, I have had a chance. And I've decided that I really don't care that I'm here or that I'm not there. Either way, part of me will always want to be where I'm not. If I were ever given a chance to do that over again, to choose where I'd want to stay, if Van or Allen or Merle, any of them, if a single one of them asked me to stay, I probably would. Either way, I'm leaving behind the most precious people in my life."
Yukari smiled. "Personally, from what you've told me about that Van guy, you should have stayed there. I mean, I saw him; he was a cutie." Hitomi laughed, but looked up at her strangely. Yukari rolled her eyes and looked out over the ocean. "I'm just saying that you deserve to be happy Hitomi, and that I saw your face when he showed up on that white dragon."
Hitomi sighed and sat up. "Yukari…"
"Hitomi, I just want you to be happy. And if you ever get the chance to go back, take it, if you can be happy there. With him."
Hitomi sat up and pushed herself closer to the rock, setting her head against Yukari's thigh. She didn't dare tell her that she didn't need to go back to Gaea to be with "him". Yukari only barely believed the reason she'd been gone, and only because she'd seen that pillar of light engulf her and "the boy"…twice. "I am happy here, Yukari," she said, leaning her head into the worn denim of Yukari's jeans to look up at her best friend's face. "I don't need the illustrious 'him' beside me to keep me happy."
Yukari looked down and smiled.
"You're stronger than I am, Hitomi. You're stronger that I am." The two sat there for another moment before Yukari stood. "I, on the other hand, am starving. And you owe me breakfast."
"What?" Hitomi cried. "I do not!"
"I'm afraid you do, my friend," Yukari called over her shoulder as she started down the knoll. "You may have said the shore, but that's not where you went. At least the parking lot belonged to The Shore."
Hitomi kicked at the grass in mock anger and started down the hill, smiling.
A/N: Just to let all of you know, right here and right now, I'm known for infamously short chapters. But also know that I'll usually come out of nowhere with an insanely long one. But yeah. Review if ya gots anything ta say. Good, bad, I wanna hear it.
-Belle
www.angelfire.com/anime4/angelica