(A/N: If you are going to listen to music while reading this, make the song Angel by Sarah McLaughlin. Warning for this chapter: slightly graphic, includes darker adult themes.)
When Hitomi and Van finally walked into her house past midnight, they were laughing and talking.
"Did you see Dryden's face when you put your hand an inch up my skirt? He looked like he was going to die!" Hitomi gasped for air, reliving the experience from earlier that night.
"Did I do a good enough job for you?" Van asked, smirking, already knowing the answer.
Hitomi smiled at him. "You're a lifesaver."
As she headed up the stairs to change into pyjamas, Van wandered through the house, depositing his jacket on the back of a chair and loosening his tie and shirt. He went out the back door and quickly scaled the tree outside of Hitomi's window. When she came outside five minutes later looking for him, she found him staring at the moon with a look of utmost calm on his face.
"Van?" she called him. "What's going on? Come down from there, you'll hurt yourself."
As he jumped down from his branch, he laughed. "Even if I fell and broke my arm, it'd be fixed in about ten seconds, you know that, right?"
"Agh, yes, I know." There was a pause where he looked amused and she looked slightly irritated. Then Hitomi's face became softer and she said, "Are you going to bring your wings out again?"
She looked so hopeful that Van found he couldn't resist. Within seconds he had shed his shirt like another skin and was looking down at Hitomi thoughtfully. "Do you prefer me like this?" he asked. "Would you rather I be some wingless guy that you can feed and parade around to your friends?"
For a second Hitomi looked shocked. Then she looked sad. "Is that what you think? That'd I'd rather you not be an angel?"
Van smiled down at her then and closed his eyes for a moment. Three seconds later, his wings burst forth from his back, dazzling white and enormous. Loose feathers fell around them and Hitomi looked upwards as they twirled down from several feet above their heads.
When she turned back to look past Van's dark hair that covered his face, and into his eyes, she realized that his wings had curled around them and were surrounding them in what was like a small room of feathers.
"Let's go to sleep," she suggested.
Normally, Van slept on either the sofa or hide-a-way bed on the main level of Hitomi's house. But after the night they had spent together, neither of them seemed to find it odd when they both climbed into Hitomi's bed. Hitomi was astounded to see that Van just curled his wings up and slept as if they weren't there. In her hand, she held one long, white feather she had caught when they were falling.
On Monday afternoon, Dryden cornered Hitomi again in copying room. She smiled at him, satisfied that Van had warned him off the previous Friday. He sulkily grimaced back and slouched over to a machine on the opposite side of the room.
A moment later, Merle came in. She wandered over to Hitomi and started gushing over the banquet.
"I had no idea you had a new conquest. Where ever did you find him? He was so nice!" She sighed and her eyes glazed over. "I wish I could find a man like that."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll find your guardian angel sometime, Merle," Hitomi insisted, smiling lightly at what she had just said. "It took me a long time, but I finally did it."
Dryden shot an ugly look over his shoulder at the two women. Merle waved at him, then turned back to the conversation at hand. "Wow, he seems pretty bitter over the whole thing, doesn't he? Listen, Hitomi, Allen and I are going to some bar this week to watch a football game. You know, get drunk, and come to work with a killer hangover. Would you and Van be up for that?"
"Well, I'm not sure. I think Van just wants a quiet week at home, just the two of us."
Merle grinned knowingly and elbowed Hitomi lightly. "Oh yeah, I understand. I have to go finish this report for Mr MacDanel though, I'll see you later." She turned and a second later all that was visible was her strawberry blonde hair bobbing as she moved.
Hitomi was still at work when she called her house around 6:00 o'clock that night. She heard the phone be picked up, Bozo barking loudly, some yelling, and then finally Van's voice came onto the line.
"Hello?"
"What did I tell you about not answering the phone?" Hitomi asked him.
"But it was you calli -"
"Never mind, Van. Listen: I'm going to be home late tonight, all right? I won't be home until about 7:00 or 7:30. Make yourself whatever you want to eat, watch some TV or something, just don't get into trouble, okay?"
"Hitomi," his voice said seriously, "do you know who you're talking to? Do I ever make trouble?"
With a laugh, Hitomi said goodbye and hung up the phone. For another hour, she worked mercilessly at her task at hand. Finally somewhat satisfied, she tidied her desk, grabbed her purse and made her way through the hallways to the main exit of the building. Her car, since she was so high up in the company, was parked fairly close to the door.
She had just taken out her keys out of her purse and was trying to shove them into the locks on her car when she felt a hand on her wrist. Spinning quickly, Hitomi saw Dryden silhouetted in the light from the only lamp in the parking lot.
"Oh, Dryden! You scared me!"
He smiled tensely at her. "Hitomi," was all he said. Circling around her, he studied her eerily, like a predator stalking its prey.
Hitomi smiled uneasily at him. "Dryden, you're, uh, making me kind of nervous. Is everything alright?"
He laughed and grasped her wrist tightly with one hand, causing her keys to fall to the ground. Her eyes widened as she saw the look on his face. He looked positively feral, looking down at her like he was to eat her. She swung her purse at him roughly and cried out when it didn't even connect, for he grabbed her arm before it could come close.
"Please, Dryden," she whimpered. "We work together. Please. Don't do this."
He bent her arms backwards until she was kneeling on the ground with her arms above her head, still in his grasp. She pleaded with him, hoping without actual hope that someone would come along and stop what he was about to do.
Dryden fished her keys from the ground and opened the back door of her car. Shoving her roughly inside, he followed, pinning her with his body. Hitomi stared out the window, the one lamp shining through her tears as she experience the thing that no one ever should.
It was past 8:00 when Hitomi finally walked into her house. She dropped her keys on the floor beside her purse, ignoring Van's calls from the kitchen area. Trudging up the stairs, she headed for her bathroom and turned on the shower, scalding hot.
When she had emerged from her long shower, her skin was pink from the heat. She cleared some condensation off of her mirror and stared at herself. There was a faint bruise on her shoulder from Dryden hitting her when she had tried to escape. Her wrists were purple in colour from the furious grip that had encased them for almost an hour.
Wrapping herself in a towel and walking into her room for her pyjamas, Hitomi saw Van already seated on her bed with a tray full of food.
"Hi," he said gently. "Rough day at work?"
Hitomi nodded, smiling so as not to cry.
"There's something wrong, what's going on Hitomi?" Van had stood up and was now circling her, searching her face for clues. "What happened today?"
"Nothing," she whispered, doing exactly what Dryden had told her to do. Tell no one.
"If I were human, I might believe you. But I'm not. Hitomi, if anyone can help you, you have to know it will be me."
He stood behind her now. She could feel his gaze on her shoulders. His fingers were light as they touched the bruise that was turning a sickly yellow colour.
"Please tell me," he begged her, coming closer. "I will know, but I prefer I hear it from you."
Hitomi said nothing, just standing there as he put a hand over her bruise. Images started flashing through her mind: her keys lying on the ground, the silhouette of Dryden, being forced into the car, staring at the lamp as Dryden fulfilled his desires.
When Van let go of her a moment later, his breathing was fast and hard. He turned Hitomi to look into her face. "When did this happen? Today?"
She said nothing, but her eyes were broken as they stared at him. He grabbed her lightly and pulled her to him. His wings encased them both in a small space of feathers. When he released her, he brought her clothes and slowly took her towel from her. It only took him minutes to dress her, and when he had, he layed her on her bed and covered her with a comforter.
He crawled into her bed with her and closed her in his arms. Hitomi started to sob as the shock started wearing off and all the feelings from earlier hit her hard. She turned to bury her face in Van's shoulder but he caught her by the chin before she could.
Looking seriously into her face he said, "I swear I will take it all away, Hitomi. I swear." He leaned in and kissed her gently on the mouth and then released her so she could move where she was comfortable. She felt the calming effect of his kiss, and in the arms of her angel, she fell asleep.
(A/N: I love this story. Out of all the ones that I am writing at this time, this one is, by far, my favorite. I'm sorry for my lack of updating in all my other stories; I am actually working on new chapters for them. Please be patient with me and Review to inspire me to keep on truckin'.)