Three. Unpredictable lightning
#Even if you're afraid to show it#

"I can't believe you actually did this!" Yukari's angry voice echoed within the empty living room at the Kanzaki's. "Or better to say that you did not do it! Are you crazy or what?!"

Hitomi remained silent, lying on the couch with her legs stretched out and her dull gaze directed at the ceiling, an unreadable expression on her face.

"I thought you had finally come to your senses and had quit that annoying habit of yours but no, I've obviously been wrong!" the redhead yelled but still got no reaction from the indifferent, green-eyed woman. "What's gotten into you? I bet you can't even explain it reasonably to yourself! And now, pick up that goddamn receiver! I know that you're there and I hate to yell at this machine, knowing that you're staring at the ceiling!"

With a sigh, Hitomi closed her blind eyes and reached up to grab the telephon that was placed on a fragile table, right beside the couch. All she could hear was a quiet, static noise when she pressed the cold receiver to her ear.

"Why?" Yukari's voice was quiet and tired, probably sore from all the screaming, but still carried this tone of determination which promised that she was not willing to give up; not now, not ever.

"Why what, Yukari?" the sandy-blonde asked flatly and got a screech of frustration in response.

"Don't give me that sh--" the redhead started, holding the backrest of the chair beside her in a death grip, but Hitomi interupted her.

"No swearing," she said courtly and Yukari gritted her teeth audibly, taking deep breaths and counting inwardly.

Slowly, the redhead sat down on the chair, an rested her head that seemed to weigh a ton in her free palm, brown eyes closed. "Fine," she pressed out. "I don't swear and you explain to me why you stood him up."

"Yukari–"

"Thank you, I know my name," the young woman interupted her friend, hissing like a snake that had been stepped on. "Explanation."

Hitomi sighed and put the hand to her forehead that had hung loosely over the egde of the couch up to that point, looking like a shot piece of clothing.

Yukari wanted an explanation. Great. How was she supposed to explain something to Yukari when she wasn't even able to explain it to herself? No matter how much she thought about this last Tuesday, she simply couldn't understand it. How could she explain Van? How could she explain the man who had fulfilled one of her most cherished wishes? Explain the man who had taken her in his car more than three hours across the country although he had only met her once before? It was not possible. And there was this one voice in her head which was telling her that she didn't want to explain it at all.

The man was like a lightening during a thunderstorm – absolutely unpredictable and able to burn the place where it hit the ground, followed by thunder. Her doing was no surprise then and didn't need any justification; she just hadn't wanted to get struck by that lightning.

"There is nothing to explain," she finally replied, her voice quiet and flat.

She got incoherent mumbling as response from the other end of the wire, Yukari tearing her hair in a desperate fashion. If she didn't tear them out, they would at least turn grey. "Yes, there is!" she stated loudly, her temper getting the better of her. "There is quite a lot to explain if you haven't noticed yet! I mean I simply don't understand you!"

"And that's exactly the problem, Yukari," Hitomi hastily interfered, running a hand through her short, honey-blond hair. "You don't understand me. You don't understand how I feel."

It was silent on the wire, the static sound in her ear and the monotonuous ticking of the wall clock the only noises around Yukari. She was staring at the fridge across the room, the door covered with photos and poems. "You're a damn hypocrite, you know," she said quietly, hurt audible in her voice, and Hitomi's green eyes snapped open.

"You walk around, expecting everybody to not treat you like a handicapped person but at the same time you treat yourself like one and justify your behavior with it!" she continued, the words not loud but hard like stone. "What Van did—"

"What Van did has nothing to do with this!" the blind woman sharply cut in, after she had slightly recovered from Yukari's harsh words. She felt a light pang in her chest.

"Oh yes, it has everything to do with this!" Yukari countered and slammed her fist on the table, shaking her head before she continued, "I don't know what you did to him when you first met him but if you had just seen the way he looked at you! He'd been watching you the whole time and if you had just seen his eyes!"

"I don't need to see it," Hitomi replied coldly, her blind gaze steadfastly directed on the ceiling. "I know it was pity."

"Are you blind or what?!" she shouted indignantly, almost jumping out of her seat.

"Yes, if you haven't noticed yet!" the green-eyed woman yelled back, straightening into a sitting position and sparkling, wheat-coloured tresses tumbling into her face.

What was Yukari's problem? The redhead was supposed to be on her side and not to accuse her as if she had blackmailed an orphanage. She was supposed to be an understanding friend, it was Hitomi's decission after all. Why didn't her friend accept it but rather turned it into a drama and full- grown argument?

"Fine, if you say so," Yukari finally snorted into the receiver, breaking the silence. "But don't come crying to me when you realize what an incredible mistake you made! To meet him was a gift, Hitomi, and you threw it away without even unwrapping it!"

"What do you expect from me?!" Hitomi replied, annoyed. "I don't know him, Yukari!"

"And?" she barked, spreading her free arm in despair. "And? Is this going to be your excuse for everything? You don't know him? Well, to tell you something new: you will never get to know him when you run away, all the time! Wake up! You're going to regret it, that I promise you!"

"Why are we arguing about that?" the young woman replied with a surrendering sigh, rubbing her left temple.

"Because I'm sick of watching you suffocate under the weight of these goddamn walls you built around yourself!" Yukari's voice rang in her ears, the redhead narrowing her eyes to slits.

"I'm very sorry you have to witness that but I feel comfortable and secure there!" Hitomi shot angrily back, her hand gripping the cushion tightly. "At least, I'm not getting hurt!"

"Yes, you are!" the brown-eyed woman replied exasperatedly and ran a hand through her shining, red hair. "But you're denying it! You're alone, Hitomi! Don't you feel as if something's missing? I know you've been hurt but don't you think that there can be something else but hurt? Gods, there is so much more and all you have to do is open your eyes."

There was no reply and Yukari was standing motionlessly in the center of her kitchen, waiting for Hitomi to counter. But there was nothing but silence.

"I'm tired and I can see no point in this anymore," the redhead said quietly, after Hitomi made no move to reply. "I never saw you as a coward, really. Think about what I said."

There was another pause, Yukari probably hoping for her to say something, but not for long. A soft click told Hitomi that her friend had hung up without even saying goodbye, a rhythmical tooting filling her ears, now.

#--#

"Hey, sis, where's that insane friend of yours?" Mamoru asked casually from his position on the small, round carpet that he had already marked as his, sitting in an unhealthy distance to the tv screen; if he leaned in just a bit, his nose would touch it.

"Hitomi, I asked where Yukari was," he repeated, after not having gotten any reply, still not bothering to turn away from the events on the screen and his large, brown eyes reflecting them.

His dark brows knitted violantly, his fingers hitting the buttons on the gamepad skillfully. Making his character perform a fluent and neck-breaking combination of various kicks and punchs, he sent his oppenent flying noisily through a stained glass window. With an angry grunt, the boy finally turned around when the words 'Winner' flashed across the screen.

"Are you deaf or --" he stopped instantly, his brows shooting up in surprise and confusion, finding his sister where he had left her more than half an hour ago, in order to devote himself to his Playstation. She was slumped on the couch, blind eyes staring absently at nothing.

Scratching the back of his head, he swiftly rose from the ground and walked over to the green-eyed woman. He loomed over her and cocked his head curiously to the side, watching her breathe. So, at least, she wasn't dead.

With a grin, he dismissed to wave a hand in front of her eyes – there were more fertile ways to catch his sisters' attention. Too bad that there wasn't any spider around.

Snickering quietly to himself, he leaned down. "WAKE UP!" he yelled into her ear, making her shriek in shock and bolt right from the couch.

Instantly, Hitomi whirled around with pure annoyance written across her angry features. "Mamoru!" she shouted and the dark-haired boy blinked innocently. "What was that for? Were you trying to kill me?"

"I just brought you back to life but you're welcome, of course," he drawled in reply and bowed deeply, earning a snarl.

"What do you want?" she barked and ran a hand over her face. "You could have asked me without making my heart stop beating."

"I tried," Mamoru replied dryly with a suspiciously raised brow. "Where is Yukari?"

"Not here," she stated flatly, after a brief moment of hesitation, and sat down on the couch again. Feeling a light nudge at her tigh, she stretched out her hand and patted Tiara on the head who had just awoken from a nap.

"Oh really? I didn't notice that!" her younger brother countered sarcastically and frowned down at her. "She said she wanted to come over and take revenge for the last hundred lost fights against me."

"She won't be coming over, today," Hitomi told him quietly and absently ran her fingers through her dog's thick fur, Tiara yawning noisily. "We've had some differences earlier."

"You had a fight?" Mamoru asked in surprise and sat down on the couch beside his sister, the cushion bending under his weight. "What about?"

"Nothing of your interest," Hitomi replied, her blind eyes directed on everything else but him. "Why are you so hellbent on playing with her anyway? She's no challenge for you. She's even worse than the computer itself."

"But the computer doesn't complain like her," he replied and Hitomi heard the huge grin on his face, his eyes sparkling mischievously. "It's not the same without those famous outbursts of her."

The corners of her lips twitched lightly. "I swear, the both of you are going to end up together, one day," she told him with a faked sigh of exhaustion, not able to hide the smirk.

"Ugh, never!" Mamoru exclaimed vividly, pulling a face. "You know how old she is? She could be my—"

"Be careful what you say, young man," Hitomi interupted him, before he could finish the sentence for which he probably would have earned a bruise or two, glaring threatingly at him.

"She could be my older sister," he finished sweetly and hastily backed away in order to escape that terribly unerring smack of hers.

Cackling to himself, he rose and Hitomi followed the noise of his footsteps with her eyes. "Now, care to tell me what was wrong with you?" he spoke, marching into the kitchen and her glare turned into a frown.

"There was nothing wrong with me," she replied quietly and listened to Tiara's regular breaths that were the only noises in the empty living room, sunlight warming her bare arms.

There was a short bark of laugh until Mamoru's muffled voice reached her from the kitchen. "Well, I'm no doctor here but spacing out for thirty minutes quite means that there is something wrong," he stated and carefully fished for a soda in the fridge. "If I didn't know you that well, I'd say it was because of a guy."

Hitomi's hand on Tiara's furred head stopped, eyes emotionless.

Seems as if he doesn't know you that well after all, a voice whispered and she wanted to scream in frustration.

No matter how hard she tried to ignore it but she simply couldn't forget him, couldn't chase his deep and warm laugh from her mind. And nor could she ignore that she felt guilty; guilty for standing him up. Not that it had been the first time for her, it was her usual way to tell a guy that she was not interested but never before had someone haunted her thoughts like that – and she didn't know why.

There wasn't anything she had to feel guilty about, was there? But why then did her thoughts always drift back to him, back to his voice, back to the way he had made her feel?

"You're doing it again," Mamoru suddenly whispered and made her snap out of her thoughts, standing right in front of her with an unreadable expression on his face.

He was just about to open his mouth and continue when Tiara gave a short bark, followed by the doorbell ringing.

"Why do we have a doorbell at all?" Mamoru questioned nobody in particular and took Tiara by her collar, dragging the excited dog towards the kitchen who had just attempted to rush to the front door, the tag clinking softly.

Blinking, Hitomi rose and slowly walked over to the door. She didn't even need to count her steps or anything like that for the ground plan of her house had been burned into her memory over the years.

Grabbing the cold knob, she paused. "Who's there?" she asked suspiciously, her head tilted to the ground and turned slightly so that she could hear clearer, sunlight dancing in her honey-blond tresses.

"A delivery for miss Hitomi Kanzaki," an unfamiliar voice replied and the young woman opened the door with a deep frown on her forehead. She felt the sun beat down on her skin by the moment she stepped outside, a wave of warmth swepping against her and flooding her with the scent of warm earth and the noise of cicades.

"I'm not expecting any delivery," Hitomi stated and unconsciously crossed her bare arms in front of her chest, a light breeze dishevelling her hair that carried the laughter of children who were playing in a garden across the street.

"Oh, it had been payed already," the young man in the brown UPS uniform explained and ran a hand through his short, blond hair, before adjusting his cap again, shading his intense eyes from the sun. "You only have to sign this."

The green-eyed woman hesitated a moment, a foreboding feeling crawling through her, making her feel as if a snake was winding its way through her innards. "What is it?" she questioned warily.

"Well," the delivery man answered, squinting his blue eyes against the sun, and she could hear the smile in his voice. He fished a biro from out of the pocket of his shirt and held it out to Hitomi together with a sheet of paper. "It is definitely something different. I've never delivered anything like that before."

The young woman rubbed her arms and finally stretched them out in front of her. "Where do I have to sign?"

The blond-haired man grinned and handed her the paper, leading her hand to the thin line where she had to put her name. "Thank you, miss Kanzaki," he said when she finished and turned around with a light nod of his head, one hand tapping his cap. "Have a nice day."

"Wait!" she called out, surprised and slightly confused, taking a step ahead. "Where is it?"

"Leaning right beside you at the wall," she heard him call over his shoulder, blue eyes twinkling. "Good luck!"

The back doors of the dark-brown car in their driveway was slammed shut and the young man wound his way across the cargo hold room to his seat behind the steering wheel, the engine roaring when he turned the ignition. White pebbles crunched under the tires when the transporter was reversed but she didn't hear anything of it. She just stared, wide-eyed, at the spot beside her.

"A promise," a familiar and deep baritone suddenly spoke calmly beside her, making her jump slightly. "A promise is a written or spoken declaration that one will definitely give or do or not do something. Definition according to the Fanelia Advanced Learner's Dictionary."

Hitomi couldn't see him. She couldn't see that he was leaning casually with his back against the white-washed wall of her house but she guessed it. His loose, red shirt swayed lazily in the warm summer breeze, one tanned hand in the pocket of his pants, the other one holding a thick book, the pages moving slightly. His eyes were focused on the book, pitch-black strands of unruly hair tumbling into his view and she jerked violantly when he slammed the book shut.

"I don't know what you understand by 'promise'," he stated, looking up at her and she heard the accusation swing with the words as if he was spelling it for her. "But here, you can read yourself."

The old boards of the porch creaked when he moved, gracefully pushing himself off of the wall, and she felt the book being pressed into her hands. Her fingers instinctively tightened around it. "Van..." she breathed and looked up, sensing his looming presence right in front of her.

"Yeah, me," he grunted in reply and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his pants, looking like a lost puppy at a bus stop.

"You dispatched yourself by post?" Hitomi asked in disbelief, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes darting around, indicating her nervousness. And she knew that he noticed it.

"Would you have opened the door if I had been the one who knocked?" Van countered, his eyes firmly focused on her and his voice dangerously calm, just like the sea right before a storm.

"No...I don't think so..." she replied slowly, the words only a whisper when she turned her head away, honey-blond strands tumbling over her eyes.

"Why did you do it?" A simple question, this time without the lightest bit of accusation and though she pressed her lips to a thin line as if he was convicting her of murder. Well, she hadn't actually expected him to do this. To be exact, she had even thought she would never meet him again. That was the second time he had proved her wrong. Good she didn't bet.

"Van, look this has nothing to do with--" she started, slowly looking up but never came to finish the senctence.

"Damn, Hitomi!" the raven-haired man barked and she cringed at the sound. For once, she could be glad to be blind for she would have cowered under his gaze. Right now, his eyes were more like glowing steel that one had held into the fire for too long, flashing with anger. "It wasn't as if I asked for you to be my wife or anything! All I wanted was a date! Only a nice, little date! A few hours with you, nothing more!"

He ran a desperate hand through his unruly hair and looked down at her, sighing at the sight of her staring at the ground and pressing the book to her chest while biting on her lower lip. "I don't know what I did that you detest me so much that you even break a promise," he sighed, his voice quiet again and his eyes softer. "But tell me one coherent reason for standing me up yesterday evening and I'll be out of your life forever."

She opened her mouth but closed it again, right after she had noticed that no words were coming out of it. One coherent reason and he would be out of her life. Wasn't that exactly what she wanted him to do? At least, she thought so but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't completely fight down this voice in the back of her head which was telling her that she didn't.

"Just accept that I couldn't go out with you," she replied quietly and if the wind had blown just a little stronger Van wouldn't have been able to understand her for the feather-light words would have simply been carried away from her lips.

"Why not?" he asked incredulously, spreading his arms in despair. "I don't bite!"

Her hard, green eyes were directed on the wooden boards and she seemed to fight about if she should answer that question or not. Hitomi even forgot to blink. She had already told Yukari, she could tell him as well.

"Because," she began and slowly looked up again, her blind eyes finding his auburn ones as if knowing that he was directly standing in front of her, his head tilted to the side to study her features with that intense sparkle filling his unfathomable orbs. "I promised myself not to let anyone come close to me again."

"You're afraid." It was not a question but a statement.

"I'm not afraid!" she replied defensively and lifted her chin, causing the shadow of a smile to linger on his lips for a brief moment. "But I know that it was pity what brought you here! That it is pity what makes you want to see me again! It is always pity!"

At once, his black brows knitted and destroyed the soft expression that had occupied his handsome features, anger flashing within his darkened eyes. "And you know that for sure?" Van asked, not in the least trying to keep his voice quiet. "Are you a mind-reader or what? Do you know what's going on in my mind? I don't intend to offend your amazing abilities but you don't know a thing about what I think or feel! You don't know me enough to do so!"

"It's not easy, you know?!" she shouted back at him, her grip around the book tightening so much that her knuckles stuck out white. Maybe talking to Yukari earlier hadn't helped to calm her down. All the frustration about her friend's lack of understanding resurfaced and Van was unfortunately the only one around, right now. "I can't see them but I can feel their uncomfortableness when they look at me, thinking 'Oh look, the poor thing, all blind and helpless'!"

"Did you ever bother to ask?" the young man countered, obviously annoyed by her stubborness. "I promise you that you'll experience a whole new side of the world if you just ask and allow other people to come close to you!"

"I did, just to inform you, and I was being disappointed by this people I had allowed to come close to me!" Hitomi barked angrily and the frown on Van's forehead vanished.

He was quiet for a few seconds, his gaze never leaving her face and a warm breeze rustling lazily through his pitch-black hair, unruly strands dancing across his view. "Well, when this is your opinion about me, I have nothing to lose then," Van finally said and a grin tugged tentatively at the corners of his lips. "I'll show you what you're missing out."

"And that would be?" the honey-blonde asked, her voice not wavering, jutting out her chin stubbornly.

"What a rainbow feels like," he replied in a voice she had never heard on him before, the words like the rustling of velvet in a warm breeze and she could feel him lean in, her heart skipping a beat.

Her first instinct was to run; turn around and run. But it was impossible for his arm slipped immediately around her, holding her close. In order to free herself, she raised her arms but stopped by the moment he took hold of her chin, leaning down without hesitating and suffocating any attempt of escape. Her bright green eyes widened to a stormy sea by the moment his lips ever so gently touched her ones, feeling her heart leap into her throat.

She stiffened instantly and felt Van grin against her lips when the book slipped out of her grasp, hitting the ground with a hollow thud.

Her heart was hammering that she thought it was already doing the heartbeats for the next two years when the young man began to caress her in a way that set her nerve-endings on fire and turned her mind into a heap of useless mush, her skin burning where he touched her tenderly as if afraid to break her.

Van was teasing her with the softness of his lips, vigorously silencing the voices in her head and chasing away all coherent thoughts from her mind. She didn't respond but neither was he prodding nor pressing but devoted himself to her with the patience and perfection of a painter who wanted his work to burn itself in the mind of those who looked at it. She was left to something new, feeling as if she stood in icy-cold water with the sun beating down on her. It was when a tidal wave of the most different and contradicting feelings flooded her, filling her with contentment and fear, and it was like colours that did not match – like the colours of a rainbow.

Hitomi released the breath she had been holding when he pulled away, the noise of her blood thundering in her ears like the roaring of the sea at a fissured coast.

"And there are rainbows even more intense," he whispered against her motionless lips, touching them with every syllable and sending shivers down her spine. His thumb was slowly stroking her cheeks as if to soothe her, rusty-coloured eyes now dark, glowing with something she wouldn't have been able to read even if she had had her eyesight, and his onyx-coloured strands brushed over her skin like silk.

Her body still frozen, he kissed her once more, slowly, and she could feel her knees buckle underneath her as if the added weight of his lips was too much for her to bear, before he pulled completely away, leaving her aching for more. To her own surprise and horror, she was hardly able to stop the moan of protest from passing her lips.

Hitomi felt the young man retreat, the quietly squeaking boards of the porch giving away his position, and he uncompromisingly took the warmth he had surrounded her with away with him as well as his faint, summer-like scent. He didn't leave the slightest trace but his taste and an oddly tingling feeling on her lips together with the rememberance.

"You can keep the book," he said over his shoulder when he walked towards the street, hands casually in the pockets of his pants and the wind tearing at his raven-black hair and red shirt. "I bought it for you."

He was long gone when Hitomi finally moved, tugging a strand of honey-blond hair behind her ear and stooping to pick up the book she had dropped when he had kissed her. Unconsciously, she reached up to touch her lips that were still tingling while grooping for the book with the other one. It was opened, the pages rustling in the wind and she traced them with sensitive fingers. Her eyes widened when she felt the little bumps that covered the sheets of paper. He had bought her a book in the braille code, the writing of blind people.

Who could have known that one could be struck by lightning without even noticing it?

I have never felt thunder
And lightning like this
I have never been struck by
A wonder like this

Tbc...

#--#

Niffer: Hey there, as well! I'm so happy you like it!!! jumps around Hope you liked it again and hey, are there dictionaries in the braille code? Didn't know that! Thanks again for the review and your explanations!!!!!

Spirit0: puffs chest Me fast :P Yup, believe it or not but there is such a thing as cinnamon icecream! But only in winter becoz of Christmas and all that...wouldn't mind cinnamon in summer though :P Thanks a ton!!!!

blonde-hitomi: gives you high five I know this cutting-reviews-and-making- readers-turn-red-with-rage-attitude of ff.net nods vigorously and pats your back Lol, and you liked it, I see!! So, an idea about Van's past, eh?! :P Will reveal it soon and then, you'll see!! Bwahaha!! Thankiez!!!!!!!

Kitsune's Girl370: sweatdrops I really wish it usually were only three weeks!! But wow, 5 days!! I do feel honoured! Though I don't know when I'll update the other ones...finals arrived..

raigne: grins that her skull splits Thanks!!!!!!!!!!

SabineballZ: Alle geschockt hier von meinen Lichtgeschwindigkeits- updates...bin ich wirklich so schlimm?? :P Und ich weiß, isser nich einfach zum Knuddeln?? sich Van grabsch und tot-knuddel Wie hat der Knirps nochmal Bogus zum Leben erweckt...wär echt praktisch :P Danke!!!!!!!!!!!!

ponchita: Glad you like it!! Thanks!!

saphir kitsune youkai girl: blushs like mad Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

f-zelda: bows Here is the update :P Though the story is still not finished!

Namesake: blushs beyond red Can only say thanks!!!!!!

Kya77: grins Glad you like it all and for the past...well, you'll have to wait a bit longer!! Thank you!!!

azncopycat: Lol, thanks!!

jaguar-kally7: Wow, so I say, lucky you? Wished there was, at least, a guy in my life mutters under her breath Thanks!!!!!

A/N: Here you go Muahahaha!!! I've nothing to say but that I don't know if you can dispatch yourself by UPS...honestly, I never tried :P Oh hey, btw, I don't own UPS!! Damn, could earn a lot of money if I did...oh well. And I also don't own the song though I already said that last time snorts Anyways, you go have a wonderful day and review :P See you next time!!!

Dariel