For the next week, Merle and Allen tried to tempt Hitomi out of her newfound silence and solitude by offering her chocolate or trying to take her out. She said nothing to them about why she was so withdrawn though they asked. Van was the only one who she could stand to be around without an awkward silence ensuing.
She had never felt as much comfort at home. Her whole life, the office had been the most familiar place; the place where she could concentrate on what needed to be done. Now, every time she stepped into the more formal atmosphere of her work, she shuddered and cringed, very aware that Dryden worked just across the room.
One morning, she was trying, and failing, to focus on typing out an important memo. Every time she would come back to earth and type out a couple words, something would remind her of what had happened and she'd have to spend several minutes regaining her composure. Her boss walked up to her with someone in tow. Immediately noticing him, Hitomi snapped back to work, typing quickly to make up for her lost time.
Mr MacDanel chuckled loudly at his clearly frazzled secretary. "Miss Kanzaki!" he boomed. "I'd like you to meet your newest co-worker!" Hitomi looked up to see Mr MacDanel pushing a smooth looking, blonde man forward towards her. "If you don't mind, I'd like if you spent the morning getting him acquainted with our up-to-date technology here at the office."
Realizing she really had no choice, Hitomi opened her started, "That's fine, Mr MacDanel, but then the memo will -"
"The memo can be put off until tomorrow! Now go!" He grabbed her arm in a firm hold and pulled her to her feet. "I expect that this tour will take no longer than an hour, Miss Kanzaki! Mr Albatou, get acquainted quickly or our little secretary will be in trouble." And with that, he strutted off in the direction of his office. Hitomi could hear him yelling loudly at her associates and cringed a little.
"Hi," she said, turning to face the blonde man, and sticking out her hand, "I'm Hitomi Kanzaki."
A smile graced the face of the man in front of her and she felt herself swoon a little. Trying to control herself and stay focussed, she barely heard him say in a confident voice, "I'm Dilandau. Albatou, if you didn't catch that."
"Oh... Okay, let's, uh, get you up-to-date with what we've got here at the office."
When Hitomi walked into her house late that night, as usual, Van noticed that she was in a different mood than normal, after spending a day in Dryden's presence. He paced around her as she hurried around the kitchen, trying to make toast for both of them.
"Okay, I give up," Van said, "what's different?"
They both knew he could find out easily if he wanted, just by touching her, but he was putting off doing that.
"Nothing, Van." She brushed him away as she opened the bread bag and moved to put some bread into the toaster. "I just had a better day than normal."
"Well, I can tell that, but why was it so much better?"
"There was just this... man at the office. He's new, and I got to spend most of my day familiarizing him with the machinery at work. We got along well, that's all." Hitomi sighed softly.
"Oh. How well?" Van ignored her as she tried to brush his wing away from the jam jar she had in her hand.
"Quite well. I haven't had such a good day since... Well, since."
Van nodded. "Yeah, I understand."
Hitomi put two pieces of toast on a plate for herself and three on a plate for her angel and wandered to her couch and turned on the TV. Behind her, Van made a face before loudly clanging his cutlery around as he buttered his toast.
"What's the problem, Van?" Hitomi asked finally, after he had almost flung the butter back into the fridge. "Bad day?"
"No," he said sharply, and said nothing to her for the rest of the night, sleeping on the couch for the first time in the past few weeks.
Hitomi opened the drawer of her desk and found a Hershey's Kiss sitting there. She smiled, knowing it was from Dilandau. He'd been leaving her little candies since the day after his orientation. She'd found them in her desk, folders, filing cabinet, and once even in one of her shoes.
From across the room, he was watching her and he smiled when she looked up, chocolate in hand, and waved at him in thanks. He started making his way across the room to her, and her heart jumped a little, as it always did. Once he was almost at her desk, her attention was directed elsewhere.
There was a dark-haired man asking blonde, leggy Millerna something. Hitomi watched as the man flashed a grin at her co-worker. She recognized that smile. Dilandau arrived at her desk with no acknowledgement from her. She was too focussed on watching Van come walking towards her desk, smiling at her cheekily.
"Um, hi, Dilandau," she stammered out, a second later, trying to focus solely on the blonde man. "Um... Do you think you could come back in a while, I'm a little busy right n-"
"Hitomi! Baby! I came to visit you at work!"
She whirled on the angel, who had propped himself on the edge of her desk. "Van, not now."
"Hi, I'm Van," he said, completely ignoring her. He stuck out his hand to Dilandau. "I'm her boyfriend."
Hitomi's mouth dropped open at this point. Dilandau raised his eyebrows, but otherwise kept his composure. "Dilandau, co-worker," he replied, shaking hands with Van.
"Charming!" the angel replied loudly. "Now, honey, do you think you could spare a moment, I came to talk to you about something very important." Hitomi almost slapped him, for sounding so suggestive.
Dilandau started looking awkward. "Erm, Hitomi, I can come back later and we'll discuss the problem with the newest, uh, thing."
Hitomi just nodded and Van gave a loud, enthusiastic "Good-bye Dilandau, nice meeting you!"
He smiled down at the shorter-haired woman sitting, defeated in her desk. "Hi Hitomi. How's it going?"
"Van," she replied, voice low and threatening, "get out of here now. I don't want to be near you right now."
Taking the hint, Van, having the decency to look ashamed of himself, got up and left her office quietly.
She found him in her backyard, up in the tree, when she arrived home that night. Standing at the base, she yelled up into the leaves. "Get down here right now, Van. We need to talk."
He fluttered down beside her, looking curious. "Yes? What about?"
Hitomi took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. "You. I can't believe you would embarrass me like that at my work. I need to command a certain amount of respect there, and whatever amount I had earned of that is now gone because everyone thinks I have a loud, obnoxious boyfriend! Why on earth would you even say you were my boyfriend? You're absolutely out of your mind!"
Van opened his mouth, probably to explain, but Hitomi cut him off.
"You know what? You're the most selfish huma- person, I have ever met! You were sent here - if that wasn't a lie too - to help me. Instead, you embarrass and ridicule me in front of other people! If you had a problem with me being happier at work after what happened, you should have brought it up at home, not come to my office to scare off the person that's made work worth going to again!"
She looked at him, trying to read his face. He looked harmless, sheepish, angry, and sorry all at once.
"I'm sick of you looking so innocent, Van. You need to start doing something around here, or leave. It's your choice."
After saying that, Hitomi turned to walk back into the house. She had taken three steps before he was in front of her, looking more menacing than she had seen him since the night she had been raped. He gripped her arms and pushed her back the three steps she had taken.
"And you need to stop talking so much, Hitomi. Don't tell me I haven't done anything around here; you couldn't say that without lying to both of us. And don't, don't ever tell me I'm out of my mind. I have reason for everything I do; better reason to do the smallest things than any human being can even comprehend.
"Did you ever think that I realized what was wrong? That I figured out what was missing? Did it once occur to you that I was ecstatic when you looked happy after coming home from work? Did you not wonder why I would come to your work and claim you?"
Hitomi just stared into the dark brown eyes that were looking down at her in frustration.
"Jesus Christ, Hitomi!" he cried, and she jumped as one of the large branches fell from her tree while Van didn't even bat an eye. "Do you not understand what I'm trying to tell you here!"
She just looked at him until he grabbed her roughly and pressed his mouth to hers. A wind started blowing, whipping her hair around her face and several feathers out of Van's wings. And all the while, she was oblivious, standing near a newly crippled tree in her backyard, kissing her angel.
Van broke the kiss after several moments and, still roughly, he smoothed her hair from her face, holding her head in his hands. "I know what you were missing Hitomi! You were missing the thing that every human - every being needs. But you're not going to be needing it anymore, because I think I've brought it to you."
He kissed her again, his mouth pleading with her to kiss him back. When she finally opened her mouth and let him tentatively deepen the kiss, Hitomi felt Van's back arch and wings jerk suddenly. She lurched and opened her eyes, finding them several feet from the ground.
Clutching him, Hitomi laughed nervously, putting her forehead to his. "Okay, angel, you have my attention. What am I missing?" she asked.
He brought his head up from where he had been feverishly kissing her neck and shoulder. Looking at her seriously, he whispered, "Love," before engaging her in another kiss.
(A/N: Sorry for the lack of updating. Review?)