It was 9:47 when Van woke up to his phone ringing. As soon as he opened his eyes, all the things that had happened the night before came back to him. Even before that really. There was no Hitomi lying beside him and his bed felt huge with her gone.

Groggily, he picked up his phone and mumbled, "Hello?" into it.

"Van Fanel! What have you done to her?"

"Humm? Done to who?"

"Hitomi, you ass!" Merle screamed in his ear.

Van moved the phone away from his ear for a second, looked at it, and put it back to his ear. "What do you mean, what have I done? Nothing, considering this has been the longest we've been apart in like three weeks. What happened to her? Is she alright?"

"No! She's not all right! And neither am I! I'm dead tired because I couldn't sleep at all last night because she couldn't sleep at all last night because she was crying because of you! She fell asleep about five minutes ago for the first time since she's been at my house. What happened between you two? Did you guys fight?"

"Yeah," Van said, his voice hoarse suddenly. "About... Mei. And Dilandau."

"What?" Merle asked. "What does Dilly have to do with you guys fighting?"

"Er - Mei made a move on me and well, 'Tomi saw it and it upset her -"

"Damn straight," Merle mumbled, cutting him off.

"Anyways, she ran off before I could talk to her. When I finally found her with Dilandau she was, well..." He trailed off. It was weird; suddenly he had lost his voice. Maybe it had to do with the something that was in his eye. Van brushed his hand quickly across his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Really? Did Dilandau kiss her or did she kiss him?"

"Uh... I guess I really don't know."

"It doesn't matter Van. He shouldn't have done it anyways." Merle's voice was soothing and it calmed his nerves slightly.

"Thanks Merle. Man, is she okay?" Van asked. Even though he had caused this whole thing, he put her before himself. It was just habit by then.

"She's... Actually I don't know. She's broken Van. Like literally broken. I've never heard of someone crying that long. I don't think she stopped for more than five minutes. That's a lot of crying. I think she passed out actually. I mean, honestly, she didn't seem to be stopping and then she just kinda fell asleep."

Van lowered his head and gripped his hair with one of his hands. "Tell her - tell her I'm sorry, okay Merle?"

Before he got a reply, he hung up and Merle was left with a dial tone. She shook her head and wandered back to her room. Hitomi was sleeping under several blankets. Her face was still slightly red and puffy from hours of crying.

"He is sorry, you know. And he really loves you; you can see it when you look at him. Please forgive him 'Tomi," Merle said quietly to her sleeping friend. She knew it would save both of them a lot of pain if they forgave each other quickly.

* * *

The week had been tough. Hell, it had been the worst week of Van's life. Every morning he had woken up to a bed with no Hitomi, only to go to school where he could see her but not touch or speak with her. Every night his dreams were filled with her crying face and the last words she had yelled at him. "Don't you come near me Van Fanel. Don't come near me ever again."

If Van's week had been hard, Hitomi's was just as bad, if not worse. Deep down she knew that Mei had been the one to kiss Van, she had seen it. But still she hadn't been able to speak to him. She had kissed Dilandau. It had been just as much her as him. Why, she asked herself every night, why had she walked away from Van? Would she ever be able to get what they had back?

On the morning a week after Mei's first party, Hitomi walked around a corner at school, her head down. Van had just been talking to Dryden and turned his head just in time to smack into her.

"Er... Sorry Van." A blush crept onto Hitomi's cheeks.

"It's fine," he said and brushed past her. She would have though him angry if at the last moment he hadn't put a hand on her shoulder in a soothing gesture.

* * *

"Allen, I don't know why I'm here honestly. After what happened last week..." Van trailed off.

"C'mon man, forget about it, have a drink. Mei won't bug you, she's found someone else to entertain her." Allen started talking to Millerna as soon as she entered the room. She tugged his hair lightly and he grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder. "You're going into the pool!" was all Van heard before they left the room.

He watched Hitomi from across the room. Even though she looked happy enough and flipped her hair while she sipped a drink and talked to some big guy from the football team Van didn't know, he could tell she wasn't as happy as she looked. She swayed a bit on her feet into the guy who looked equally drunk. He grabbed her hand and wandered out of the room with her.

Van didn't want to follow. He knew he would seem desperate. But after several minutes he drifted into the next room and saw Hitomi talking to the guy on the porch through the glass door. She stumbled into him and he put an arm around her. They both laughed as they walked out of Van's view.

* * *

"Alex, I don't think I should have anything else to drink," Hitomi slurred, laughing as she stumbled into him. He put an arm around her and steadied her. Hitomi looked around her at the empty backyard. Mei's pool glittered from the light shining off of it.

Alex and her wandered away from the door closer to some bushes. Hitomi looked up at him laughing but stopped when she saw his serious expression. He forcefully put a hand on the back of her head and kissed her. She put both of her hands on his chest and shoved him, barely getting him to release her. Stumbling backwards, she fell into the pool and quickly resurfaced.

Her eyes were wide and all traces of her drunken laughter were gone. Hitomi clambered out of the pool, pulling her skirt down and starting to run for the door. Alex easily grabbed her wrist and pulled her back towards him. Once he got near the bushes, he shoved her down. She looked up frightened and he grabbed both her wrists again. She felt one of his hands on her legs and what he was trying to do finally got through to her.

"HELP! Someone, please help me!" Hitomi cried. Again Alex kissed her, but this time only to silence her. She bit his lip and spat on him. "Let me go! Please let me go!"

His hand went a little farther up her leg and started trying to push her skirt off. Hitomi struggled against the boy easily twice her weight. She kicked as she felt pressure on her inner thighs. Her eyes were closed and she prepared herself as best as anyone can to be violated in a way no one ever should be. Just as she stopped struggling for a moment, Hitomi heard a loud voice.

"Let go of my girlfriend you asshole."

She opened her eyes in time to see Van swing a well-aimed punch at Alex's head, knocking him out and onto Hitomi. Crying out in disgust, she writhed and tried to get out from under his massive body. Van came quickly to her side and shoved the unconscious guy off her. As soon as she stood, Hitomi flung her arms around Van and started to cry.

"Oh God. Oh God. He was - He was going to -"

"Shhhh, it's okay now. Please don't cry 'Tomi." Van brushed her hair out of her face and looked into her eyes.

"I was so scared. I screamed and yelled and no one came. Oh God, Van, no one came." Then she was kissing him. His cheeks and lips and face. "I love you Van. I love you so much. Never ever leave me again please. I missed you. I thought I was going to die. I wanted to but I couldn't ask you to forgive me because I knew I was wrong and I don't deserve you but I love you so much."

He let her ramble on as he made soothing sounds and stroked her hair. Her body felt so nice against his after a week. It made him appreciate her so much more than he ever had. Van looked at her face seriously.

"I won't ever leave you Hitomi. Do you know why?" She shook her head. "Because I love you, alright? Nothing and no amount of time will change it." Hitomi nodded as tears slowly ran down her face. "Oh God. I missed you so much this week. You'll come and stay with me again?"

She nodded and he kissed her, showing her without out words how lonely he had been. He took her hand and led her into the house. They sat on a couch in the middle of Mei's living room. People danced and yelled around them. Van squeezed her leg gently and she gritted her teeth for a moment. Both of them looked down at her thighs. Purple and yellow bruises dotted the inside of them just above the bottom of her skirt. She put a hand on his and squeezed it, almost to say, 'Don't worry, I'm okay.'

"I love you Van Fanel," she whispered then and many other times when he had taken her home. And he told her the same for most of the night. He just didn't use any words.

(A/N: Rape = BAD! Mmm hmm, thought I'd tell you that. Anywho, the dream team is together again, I know you all love it so much, as do we all. Yessss.... There's nothing for me to say. Have fun. Until next time my little Reviewers!!! [And that means, KEEP IT UP!])