It had been another month since Hitomi had discovered she was pregnant. She was still working in the run down, dirty restaurant. One morning, she came upon a young, blonde man that reminded her of Allen. She was strangely attracted to him in a way she couldn't give a reason for; much like how she couldn't explain how men with dark black hair now made her feel ill.
As she delivered his order of steak and salad, he caught her eye and froze as he picked up his fork. Hitomi stopped all movement too as she tucked a piece of honey coloured hair behind her ear.
"Hi," the man said.
"Hi," Hitomi replied, dumbstruck.
"I'm Gabriel," he intoned, offering his hand and flashing perfect, white teeth.
"Hitomi."
"Nice to meet you, Hitomi. Now what is a nice girl like you doing working here?"
Hitomi laughed for the first time in several weeks. "How do you know if I'm a nice girl or not?" she teased.
He shrugged. "I guess I'm just going on first instinct here."
When Hitomi opened her mouth to speak, a voice came from her left. "Um, excuse me? Could we get more coffee over here, please?"
With a sigh, she turned to go. Gabriel grabbed her wrist gently. "When are you off work?" he asked.
Checking her watch, Hitomi replied, "In twenty minutes."
"Will you join me on a walk then?"
Swallowing, she nodded and wandered off to finish her shift.
* * *
"Here we are, darling," Mrs. Fanel said as she led her son into his old room. His bed was neatly made and there were some clothes piled on it. "You rest up now, you've had a long week." She still didn't mention Hitomi, for no one had been able to reach her. She hadn't gone to the city her and Van had planned on going to together. No one had heard from her since the night of Van's accident.
As his mother left the room, Van flopped onto his bed. When his back made contact with the sheets, he knew something had happened there. He could almost hear the moans and noises of the past. Clutching his hands to his head, he sat up.
"Hitomi, who are you?" he asked his empty room. There were pictures adorning the surfaces in his room and he looked at some of them. There was one of him and a short, slim girl embracing and smiling on a beach. He supposed this must be his Hitomi. There were traces of her everywhere in his life, yet he felt as if she was a friend of a friend; someone he heard of but had never met.
"Did I really love her? How could I forget someone I loved so much?"
A knock came on his door and he called for them to enter. Merle timidly stuck her head into his room and smiled. The smile faded off her face when she saw him holding the picture taken right before their graduation.
"Er, hey Van. Do you want me to leave?"
He shook his head. "No Merle, it's alright. I was just looking at some old stuff, trying to remember a bit more."
Merle went to sit beside her old friend. They made small talk for a while until Van started asking simple questions he should have known the answer to.
"How long have Allen and Millerna been dating?"
"I'm not sure, exactly. They got together right before we graduated."
"Oh." Van looked slightly baffled. "Was that before or after Hitomi and I got together?"
For a moment, Merle looked ecstatic. "You remember?"
"No."
"Oh... Well, it was after. You and Hitomi got together several months before grad. Did you know Dryden and 'Lerna dated too?"
"She told me. But he dumped her, right?" Merle nodded. "And what about you? Who have you dated from our little circle?"
An indistinguishable noise made its way out of Merle's mouth as she looked down, unconsciously rubbing her lower stomach.
"And what about Hitomi? Where is sh -" A knock on Van's door interrupted his question. His mother looked around the corner with the big, brown eyes her son had inherited.
"Van, deary, it's such a nice day. Why don't you and Merle go for a walk?"
He nodded and they left his house. They went several houses down when an older woman with light hair and teal eyes exited her house. She looked at Van. He stared back at her, unable to place her in his mind. "That's Hitomi's mother," Merle whispered, correctly interpreting his look. He nodded in the woman's direction and kept walking.
As they walked through the park talking, a football landed at Merle's feet. She picked it up, looking for someone to claim it. A blonde man came running up, grinning. When he saw Van, the smile disappeared from his face.
"Alex, dude, hurry it up!" a voice yelled from the distance.
He gave Van a dirty look and snatched the ball from Merle, running off. She looked confusedly at Van, half expecting him to remember something about the hate radiating off the other guy. Suddenly, as if on fast-forward, images flashed through Van's mind.
He was walking out onto a patio and seeing a pool. A tiny woman - Hitomi - laying on the ground underneath a big, blonde boy. The next second he saw the blonde lying sprawled on the ground while Hitomi was hugging him.
"Oh God. Oh God. He was - He was going to -"
"Shhhh, it's okay now. Please don't cry 'Tomi."
"I was so scared. I screamed and yelled and no one came. Oh God, Van, no one came. 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."
"I won't ever leave you Hitomi. Do you know why? Because I love you, alright? Nothing and no amount of time will change it. Oh God. I missed you so much this week. You'll come and stay with me again?"
He was snapped out of his reverie by Merle waving her hand in front of his face. Slightly annoyed, he swatted it away.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I was remembering."
* * *
Hitomi laughed as her and Gabriel walked down a boardwalk near the ocean. He was telling her a joke about a barber and she was laughing so hard she was pretty sure it wasn't good for her.
They stopped outside a bar and he gestured to it. "You wanna get a drink?"
Hitomi was about to say yes when she remembered the baby. "Uh - I can't."
Her newest friend raised an eyebrow. "Why not?" he asked.
"Well, uh... It's just that... Uh..."
"C'mon Hitomi, spit it out!"
"I'm kinda, y'know, uh, pregnant." She whispered the last word so quietly that Gabriel put his hand on her shoulder and leaned in closer to hear her.
"Oh, God! Sorry! I wouldn't have even offered if I had known! Gee, Hitomi, I'm really sorry." He sounded so concerned that she brushed him off.
"Don't worry about it! I haven't told anyone, that's all."
He led her over to a bench and they both sat down. "Do you - do you mind if I ask who the father is?" His voice shook a bit. "I didn't think you had a boyfriend. Or is it just a big secret?"
Hitomi took a deep breath, preparing herself to talk about something that she had tried to forget for the past couple months. "I - I did have a boyfriend. We were going to get - get married. He was working on an old building - it was his last day of work before we moved - and it - it fell. He was inside. I watched it fall. There was n-nothing anyone could do. He died. I couldn't stand staying in our apar-apartment or picking up the pieces with his f-family. I - I just needed to leave." By this time she was sobbing so hard that Gabriel had one arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her.
"Shhh," he soothed her. "You have every right to be upset! This is not an easy thing to get over!"
Hitomi wiped her streaming eyes helplessly. He reached over and used his thumb to brush a stray tear off her cheek.
"I'm sorry I asked," he said to her, quietly.
She hiccupped and rubbed her temples with her fingers. "Don't be. It's about time I told someone these things. It can't be too good for me or - or the baby." It felt good for her to finally say it out loud.
"Let me walk you home," Gabriel offered, standing and holding out his hand to help her up.
When they had gotten to the door of her apartment, she considered asking to come up to her room. Before she could open her mouth, he handed her a piece of paper with a number scrawled on it. She gripped it and he hugged her briefly before turning to go.
"Call me if you need me!" he called. "Hell, call me anyways!"
With a sad smile and a wave, Hitomi turned and walked up the stairs to her room, like she had so many times before. But unlike all those times, she wasn't completely alone this time.
(A/N: So yeah. Another chapter. Has anyone else noticed I pump out chapters so quickly at the beginning but by about the eleventh chapter I'm like, 'yeaaah, maybe I'll update within a year or five.'? I sure have and I think it's kinda funny, tee hee! Well, Review peoples cuz, y'know, I like it. It makes me happy. But not in the pants cuz that'd just be reeeaaally weird. *cringe*)