"…All around the world statues crumble for me; who knows how long I've loved you…"
:: Fly :: Sugar Ray ::
Chapter Two: HomecomingWith duffel bag firmly in tow and $39.82 left from the gleanings of mommy-dearest's purse earlier this on lovely Friday morning, your gorgeously beautiful heroine, AKA me, looked upon Daddy Dryden's beachside abode; a Victorian style white edifice standing out starkly against the dark blue ocean in the background.
"Welcome home." I mumbled, mounting the steps while trying to deny the pit of anxious emotions growing in stomach as the transportation of choice for the stylish runaway-- the taxi--- sped away, taking my last chance to chicken out and go back to Millerna's willingly with it.
With an ugly thud, I dropped my duffel unto the glossy white steps of the front porch; my eyes stinging slightly as I stooped down to tilt the flowerpot carefully so the potted dahlias wouldn't fall out. My fingers eagerly felt around the dirty underside of the pot.
Nothing.
I peered into the cobwebby undergrowth of the terracotta pot.
No familiar glint of a brass key met my eyes.
"Peachy… just peachy…" I groaned, rocking back so I was crouched on my heels.
From my keenly acute memory of last summer, I knew that the good ol' parental unit wouldn't be returning back to the beachside abode until 6:00-ish from the usual runabout of attorney work, which was another five hours or so of camping out on my own front porch like a unwanted dog. I wasn't keen on doing that, but sighing dejectedly, I collapsed on the front steps next to my duffel bag, knowing that I really didn't have much of a choice.
I felt like crying; my perfect escape plan, foiled by a mere piece of metal. I had no choice but to wait here on the front porch like a naughty little kid who had been caught with their hand in the cookies jar until Dryden came home, and hope that he was in a good mood for adopting random runaways.
The sane part of my mind wanted to call Dryden on my cell phone and have a lovely heart to heart moment in which I tell him that I've ran away from home and now was camped out on his front porch. But the nervous feeling growing inside of me wouldn't let me do it… maybe some things… like this, are better done tête-à-tête as the much disdained French say, or face-to-face.
So, I sat there on the front porch working on my tan for almost half an hour, watching the clouds and the expensive cars go by, feeling like I was going to decorate the pristine white porch of the front with the contents of my uneasy stomach.
Riiiiiiiiiing Riiiiiiiiing Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiing
"Crap…"
I scrambled towards my duffel, biting my lips nervously as I frantically searched through it for my cell phone. With numb fingers I pulled it out of my duffel, and punched the button.
"H-hello?"
"Hitomi? Hitomi is that you?" The man's voice seemed clipped and worried, and in the background I could vaguely make of the noises of the noontime traffic of a downtown road.
"Hi Daddy…" I half-whispered, my hand tightening round the cell phone.
"Where are you? Are you safe? What's going on?" Dryden's voice continued, rapid firing questions.
"I… ummm… I'm fine…" I swallowed hard, biting my lip almost hard enough to draw blood. "I'm fine, really."
Dryden sighed raggedly before continuing, "You're mother just called me… she's hysteric, said that she couldn't find you anywhere."
I almost dropped the phone in shock.
She noticed that I was gone? After failing to notice how stock raving miserable I had been for the past three years, she suddenly decided to be the mother of the year and notice that I had skipped school and was nowhere to be found?
Of course, she hadn't had the sense to actually call me on my cell phone, but to notice that I wasn't sulking in the corner dreaming about being anywhere but in New York, defiantly was a step up for Millerna.
"Hitomi Aston," Dryden's voice snapped me out of my pensive, "Where are you?"
"Kanzaki." I corrected listlessly, "Hitomi Kanzaki, not Hitomi Aston… I'm not my mother's daughter."
Dryden's voice softened, either at the mention of my mother's birth maiden name or at the broken sound in my voice at her mention.
"Honey, where are you?"
A seagull shrieked loudly above.
So much for breaking the news face-to-face.
"Weeeeeeelll…"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I numbly watched my father's sleek sports car pull into the driveway about half an hour later.
Despite all the mental encouragement that my plan foolproof, there still was that nagging little voice in the back of my mind that maybe… just maybe… Dryden didn't want to be a fulltime father figure to a 16 year-old runaway.
But I brushed it off, it's not like I had cooties or anything; I mean, I'm a good kid, up to date on all of my shoots, I didn't have any outstanding hygiene problems and even got, as a bonus, respectable markings in school.
All in all, I was a pretty good kid, apart from running away from home, skipping school today, gleaning from mommy-dearest's purse a fistful of stolen booty money, and a wee bit of credit card fraud… but other then that, I was a bright shining example of America's youth.
Dryden's tall form slide out of the driver's side door of the car, his brow furrowed with thought as he looked at me.
My father was one of the those people who never seemed to physically age; with his curly dark brown hair pulled back into a sophisticatedly masculine ponytail that he always wore while working, and those suave sunglasses sliding done the bridge of his nose, that as a child I'd always beg to wear, he looked the same at 37 as he did at 21 in his wedding photos.
He shook his head at me, a faintly pleased smile across his face.
"You, my dear, defiantly take after your old man and hence are in very big trouble."
I stood up, dusting off my clingy designer denims and straightening out my dark green tee, returning his grin as I moved to hug him.
"I missed you too Daddy."
He affectionately rumpled my short hair, his arm around my shoulders as he took my duffel from me.
"C'mon, let's go get this entire thing sorted out."
I nodded, following him into the house, feeling like I had come home.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I sat out on the back porch with a bowl full of the fine cuisine; macaroni and cheese, looking out at the sunset on the ocean, eavesdropping on bits and pieces of Dryden's conversation with Millerna.
"Millerna… yes… I know… I know—"
"---But you can't deny the fact that she's been unhappy…"
"It kills me every time to put her back on the plane every summer…"
"Yes, I know she's your daughter too… but you can't humanly expect her to want to follow your footsteps—"
"…Sunday?"
"Fine… yes…"
"Do you want to talk to her?"
"…"
" Alright… talk to you then on Sunday…"
I nervously swirled my spoon through the pasta, my eyes blurred with tears as Dryden stepped through the screen door that led to the porch, collapsing into a wicker chair next to mine.
"Well?"
He ran a hand through his hair, "She's throwing a royal diva fit; but she said that you can stay."
Relief flooded through me as I sniffed, wiping my eyes.
"Thank you…"
He nodded, looking up at the sky, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
"There's only one catch."
I swallowed back a loo of unpleasant words.
"What is it?" I asked through clenched teeth.
I knew, if there was one thing that my mother didn't like; it was not having her own way.
Hence how I had spent the past three years trapped in a sailor style uniform while attending a Catholic girls-only private academy known for turning out some of society's finest young women since 1904, in hopes of refining my wild tom girlish appearance and spirits.
Dryden sighed tiredly; "She and Allen are flying out here on Sunday. They want to spend some family time together before the wedding."
Lovely.
Bonding time with mommy-dearest and the crazy blond man. The highlights of my childhood all over again.
A/N: Whew… Sorry it took so long to update, this has got to be the eighth draft of this chapter… I had originally planned out Hitomi's reunion with some of the gang to be in this chapter, but I was having some major problems with keeping Dilly and Van in character. I'll try again in the next chapter, which is defiantly gonna be longer. And include actual dialogue. Big stuff there. I haven't gotten much into actual conversations between characters yet because I've been trying to establish Hitomi's character in this, but I think after only having maybe a dozen spoken sentences, it's defiantly about time we move on to other things.
Alrighty, I got to that a bit in this chapter, but basically, Millerna changed her maiden surname to the more sophisticated sounding 'Aston' because it had a lot more star power then 'Millerna Kanzaki'. From my understanding, wanna-be actors and models do this all the time. And since Hitomi's relationship really isn't that great with her mother, Hitomi kept Kanzaki as her surname, instead following in her mother's footsteps and changing it to Aston, that little rebel, her.
But we'll get into that a little bit more as things go on
… Which will be sooner rather then later if you review…
R&R!
Grrl N: =^_^= I'm glad you liked it… and thanks for reviewing!
jossi-31: I'm gonna get into what happened during the divorce later on… Thanks for reviewing!
NOOOOOOOO: Post it. Go ahead. It really wouldn't bother me. Scout's honor.
Aya_chan: Thanks for reviewing, and I think I've found my inspiration.
Nightheart: Yeah… I usually don't read AUs either, unless it's by CxV or MaboroshiTsuki, because they're just awesome.
Onigiri Momoko: *cackle* I love Dryden; I think he would make one of the most awesome person to have as father from Escaflowne… Thanks for reviewing!
SabineballZ: =^_^= Yeah, Hitomi got her looks from Dryden's side of the family. I'll get more into that later, once Millerna joins the party. Thanks for reviewing!
Cyber1: Thanks for reviewing!
Savvy: Pirates of the Caribbean; was an awesome movie. I say 'savvy' all the time, no matter where or what fandom I'm in… non-PotC people look at me as if I'm crazy though… *sigh* Thanks for reviewing!
Lady Luna: Yeah… I'm thinking that she'll meet up with our lovely raven-haired boyo in the next chapter. How, I'm not too sure of, but I'm sure it will turn out great. Thanks for reviewing!
hitomi21: *points at author's notes* I hope that answers it for you. Thanks for reviewing!
MO: Oh my cow… your review was the greatest… Even though Hooked on Phonics is the evil spawn of the devil and the reason the only way that I could even write in English is by using the spell check every ten seconds because it screwed me over royally on teaching me how to spell, but that's another story. Thanks for reviewing!
dawnsama: =^_^= Even us idiots get lucky when picking realistic love triangles. Thanks for reviewing!
Neinna: ^_^ I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for reviewing!
ME: *points at author's notes* I hope that answers it for you. Thanks for reviewing!
snow blossoms: *nods* Yes, this will be a hardcore VxH fic because they are the best. Thanks for reviewing!
QM: Thank you so much fore reviewing! Mhmmm… Like you suggested, there will probably less of Hitomi's thoughts/comments from this point because I've pretty much established her character. Plus, I'm going to start introducing the rest of the characters so that will help out with evening things out.
Ava Lehn Sky
Sept 6, 2003
Version 1