Opening her eyes, Hitomi saw light streaming in her window. Her and Van were entangled on her bed. One of her legs was up high enough that he had a hand on the back of her thigh and the other on her lower back. Her face was buried in his chest and her arms folded in between them.

Not wanting to wake him, she stayed still and looked at him. His brown eyes were closed and he had locks of his dark hair falling onto his face. Hitomi brushed some of it away with a hand. Van stretched and pulled her in a little closer. Smiling to herself, she nestled her face into the crook of his neck.

There was a huge bang as the door to her room flew open. Hitomi sat up quickly, causing Van to wake up. He stretched himself out and struggled to sit. Rubbing his eyes, he looked towards the door. Hitomi's mother was standing there with an angry expression on her face.

"Van," she said sweetly, "would you mind going home, I got a call from your mother and I have to speak with Hitomi."

Van stood, stretching still, not wanting to leave. He knew what Hitomi's mom meant by needing to "speak" with her. Taking a step toward the window, he saw Hitomi shake her head.

"Use the front door!" she mouthed. Nodding almost inconspicuously, he left the room with a glance at Hitomi.

"What was he doing here?" Hitomi's mother's voice had lost all it's sweetness.

"We were hanging out and we fell asleep."

"That's not true. I know you're having sex you little wench. I hope you get pregnant! You won't get any help from me to raise your bastard-child. And that boy! He won't help you. You can raise it on your own! See what it's like you dirty slut."

Hitomi hung her head. "Mom, we weren't having sex."

Her mother took a step towards her and as the blows rained down on her, Hitomi did nothing to stop them. After nearly fifteen minutes of this, her mother seemed to tire and finally left the room. Left on the floor, bruised and crying, she didn't think she could have moved if she'd wanted to.

Finally there was a noise from the outside the window and Van hopped in saying, "Hey, I just came back to - Hitomi, are you alright?"

He ran over to her and helped her into a sitting position. Gently he ran a hand over all her limbs, checking for broken bones. Finding none, he wiped tears from her face and smoothed her hair.

"Help me," she cried.

"I'm here Hitomi, don't worry. I'm going to help you," he said.

She clutched his arms and Van brought her in close. "Help me. Please help me, Van."

"How can I help you Hitomi?" he asked. "Tell me what I need to do."

"Help me," she pleaded.

"How?" Van asked again.

"Kill me."

* * *

It was Monday and Van, Hitomi and Merle were walking down the hallway between second- and third-period. Van had an arm slung around Merle's shoulder and Hitomi caught the looks Merle was giving Van. If Hitomi didn't know Van so well she would have said they should go out. But she knew all that would happen is they would break up and the great friendship that they had would disappear.

"Anyways Merle, me and 'Tomi should go. We gotta get to class. Have fun with your spare. If we decide to cut class, we'll find you at your locker before the bell goes, okay?" With that said, Van grabbed Hitomi's hand and pulled her off in the direction of their classes. Hitomi waved over her shoulder as she let herself be pulled along.

Merle wandered off to her locker, knowing either Van, Hitomi, or both would be there soon. Van could never resist skipping class if someone had a spare. She was opening her lock when there was a tug on her short, pink hair and her head jerked back. Turning, her eyes settled on an extremely angry looking short girl with brown hair and hazel eyes. Her hair was pulled back in a complicated way and curls and waves fell from the back of her head.

"You whore!!!" she screamed. "Van is mine!"

"What are you talking about?" Merle asked and ducked as the girl, who clearly didn't know how to fight, swung at her. "Van isn't anyone's!"

The girl made a frustrated noise and swung at Merle again. She caught her arm and then realized who the girl was. Melanie. Van's ex-girlfriend who came before Yukari, Kathleen, and Tiffany. So they had dated almost a month ago. The relationship had lasted all of about four days.

While all this was rushing through Merle's head, Melanie took advantage of Merle's detachment and punched her in the stomach hard enough to get her attention. Just as Merle had started to go psycho on Melanie's ass, Van walked into view.

"Vanny, help me!" Melanie called.

A quizzical look flashed across Van's face until he reached down and picked Merle up off Melanie, who had clearly got the worst of the fight. She shoved Merle out of the way and flung herself on Van who tried to back out of the embrace. Her lip was swollen and her hair was in disarray. She flailed her arms and wailed in a child-like way.

"Van! She attacked me! She said that - that you were HERS! No matter how many times I told her we were together, she wouldn't listen to me! It was horrrible!"

Van held back his laughter as the hysterical girl in front of him started to howl and wave her arms like a windmill. He grabbed her shoulders and looked into Melanie's eyes.

"We're not together, Melanie. It was over a long time ago. You have to move on. Find some nice guy that you like. It's been over for almost a month." Van patted her shoulder and turned to walk away.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" There was a commotion as Melanie ran away with her hair flapping all over the place and her high shoes smacking the floor.

"Well that was harsh. But she's a wuss anyways," Merle muttered as she smoothed her hair. This time Van couldn't contain his laughter and they walked off laughing, Merle telling him the whole story from her perspective. "Poor girl, actually thought she had a chance with you. You're such a player, you know that Van?"

A lopsided grin crossed his face and he seemed to drift off for a second. "Yeah. But if I found the right girl, that would change. You know that, hey?"

"And who is the right girl?" Merle asked, staring intently at his face and not daring to let herself dream. "Have you found her yet?"

"If I had found her, would I still be fooling around with Yukari and all the other girls in this school? Naw, she's still hiding." He shrugged then, feeling uncomfortable with the subject. "What about you? Found that guy of your dreams?"

Merle gulped and let out a barely perceptible, "No."

"It's okay, you'll find him eventually," Van said with characteristic male blindness. Merle let out a sigh and Van grabbed her in a crushing half hug. "C'mon, let's go to the mall."

(A/N: Yay, just got back from camp and MMM MMM! Hot guys galore! This was a kinda short chapter ubt I didn't wanna add in stuff that I need to have in the next chapters like Van/Hitomi fluffer fluff. *Waves Fluff Flag* Haha, yes, I know you want me to rush into all the fluff but it won't come for another chapter or two. Wait for it! I said wait, dammit! Good job! Anywho, for those of you who want me to update quickly, REVIEW! I always write better after I read some nice things! And you guys have been the BEST of the BEST! I have to say it!)