Le Disko

Hitomi scowled, trying to look as irritated as one could be while suffering from a massive headache and sipping at a nauseatingly bitter hangover remedy.

"What'd you put into this, Yukari?" She muttered, taking another gulp and wincing as the acrid concoction burned her throat.

The two had settled down in Van's bedroom, Hitomi to drink the potion Yukari had made her, and Yukari to explain what exactly was going on.

The red-head sitting at the end of the bed beamed, fixing the overlarge sweat pants that were in danger of riding very low on her hips. A pair of dull blue flannel pants and a sweatshirt were placed alongside her. Those were Hitomi's, she had explained. Van, (being the amazing guy that he is) realized that their dance-club outfits probably weren't the most comfortable or warm, so he had lent some of his smaller articles of clothing. It was winter-time, after all.

"The best stuff that Van's kitchen could offer!" Yukari was more than eager to name off the ingredients, counting off on her fingers, "Coffee, and tea, and cough syrup, and lemon juice, and vinegar, and-" With a disgusted splutter, Hitomi hastily set aside the rest of the drink.

"I regret asking..." The track-star made a disgusted face, scraping the top of her tongue with her teeth in an attempt to rid herself of the taste. She then grabbed the glass of water she had poured herself earlier, draining it in one gulp to drown out the aftertaste.

Yukari pouted, tossing Van's extra clothes into her friend's lap. "Aw, c'mon, it wasn't that bad! And here, put these on. I'm sure you don't want to be wandering around in that cute mini-skirt and top. Although Van probably wouldn't mind..."

At the mention of Van's name in that context, Hitomi blushed brightly. With an indignant grab at the spare clothes, she stood to change, albeit slowly in order to accommodate her hangover. Ignoring Yukari's knowing grin, she changed the topic, "Oh, so you're on first name terms with him, huh?"

"We-ell..." Yukari put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "When he told me his name, I did call him Fanel-sama. But he just laughed and said that it made him sound too much like an adult, so he told me to just call him Van..."

Hitomi "hmm"-ed in response, peeling off the tight tank top with a bit of difficulty. She was more than happy to change out of her current clothes. "How Yukari managed to squeeze me into something so tight is still beyond me... I miss my track suits..."

Still seated on the bed, the red head watched amusedly as her friend changed. "He's a senior, y'know. Last year of college..." She sighed, running a hand through her locks, "He's so cute, too. I swear, of all the people you could've chosen to pass out on, you got the hottest guy in the club. I don't know how you managed it."

"We've... met briefly." Hitomi disclosed hesitatively, slipping into the black sweatshirt that smelled familiar and pleasant. Van's smell. The sleeves went just past the tips of her fingers, and the bottom of the garment stopped about half-way to her thighs, but it was soft and warm, so she supposed she could deal.

"You have?" Yukari shrieked in a scandalized tone, sitting up straight as Hitomi winced in pain. "Wait! Hold on a minute! You told me you danced with a guy before you went over to the bar! The one whose name you didn't know!" She lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper. "Was that him?"

Hitomi Kanzaki took one look at the girl's wide, curious eyes before tugging down her skirt and tossing it into a pile with her shirt. "Yeah. That was him. Except now I know his name is Van Fanel and that I made a completely idiot of myself in front of him..."

With a soft sigh, she proceeded to pull on the comfy pants, securely tying the drawstring so that they wouldn't slip past her hips. "... so now it's your time to spill. Why are we staying at Van's instead of heading back to our dorm? We have classes tomorrow."

The wicked grin remained plastered on Yukari's face as she rose to her feet and walked over to the curtained, ceiling to floor windows on the far side of the room. With a firm yank, she shoved the crimson drapes to either ends of the wall, revealing the outside view. "That's why."

Hitomi's mouth dropped as slowly, in a very jerky fashion, she moved to stand beside her companion and stare at the world outside.

Everything was covered in a thick, flurry blanket of white. Snow. And it was still snowing heavily, smothering everything in its utter whiteness. A blizzard. Hitomi moaned, leaning forward to rest her forehead against the cold glass of the window. "The fates hate me."

Yukari, on the other hand, seemed to be completely ecstatic about the situation. "Isn't it great? Van said that since we're snowed in, we can stay here as long as we have to. Classes are probably gonna be canceled tomorrow, anyway..."

But the words had little effect on Hitomi's frazzled brain. In her opinion, thing couldn't be any worse. She was not completely stuck in an apartment with the guy who had danced with her at the club. He even kissed her. And how had she repaid him? By passing out on him, stone-drunk. Not only that, but she had continued to throw up all over the place in his bathroom, sleep in his bed, wear his nice-smelling clothes and be a constant presence in his home.

In any other case, Hitomi might have screamed in frustration and horror, but at this point, all she could manage was a deep, calming sigh. "So why are we here, and not at our dorm?"

Yukari looked like she had been waiting to hear that question all along.

"Funny you should ask that! Ok, well, I had just caught up to you when you conked out, and Van seemed to be totally cool with that... I told him to just help me take you outside so I could call a cab, 'cause, y'know, Amano wasn't expecting us that early..." She paused briefly to grin at the mention of Amano before continuing, "But when we got outside, it started out snow! Who could've seen that coming?"

"To think, snow in the middle of January." Hitomi interrupted, smirking.

"Oh, shush. So in any case, Van said that he could drive us home, but if the weather kept up, we might not reach it in time, because they were starting to close down some streets because it was so dangerous. And while you were moaning and looking ready to throw up, Van came up with the great idea of going to his apartment, which was just a few blocks down. And by then, the snow was really coming down and I was freezing!"

Hitomi snorted under her breath. She herself had warned Yukari that going out in such little clothing wouldn't be a good idea and that bringing coats would be wise. Yukari, of course, had screamed about being late and dragged Hitomi out the door into the crisp evening. Snow hadn't really been in the forecast, after all.

"But who can trust the weather man these days, anyway?" Hitomi thought sourly, watching her breath fog up the window as Yukari wrapped up her story.

"Van drove us here. It was already, like, 4:00 in the morning, so he carried you to his bed and I got to sleep in his roommate's bed. Van said something about him not being back until afternoon the next day... and now, here we are! Totally trapped in your hot guy's apartment, and dressed in his clothes, no less. Maybe his roommate is cute...?"

"What do you mean, my hot guy?" Hitomi frowned, pushing away from the window to go and fold her clothes from the other night. Yukari followed after her, giggling.

"Well, he seems to really like you. You should've seen him carry you into bed! It was so cute..." Yukari's mouth split into a smile as she watched a pink color spread through the track-runner's cheeks. "And it seems that you really like him, too!"

Unbidden memories sprang into her head of Van pinning her against the wall, pressing his lips to hers. Flushing, she tossed the neatly folded skirt and shirt onto the edge of the bed before threading her fingers through her hair. "Y-yeah, um, anyway..."

Snickering at Hitomi's lame attempt to change the subject, Yukari grabbed her friend's wrist and dragged her out of the room. "C'mon, I'll give you the tour!"

Hitomi had no choice but to shuffle after the red-head, ignoring the faint headache that still remained as a reminder of her antics from the previous night. As soon as she stepped out of the apartment, however, she realized that this was nothing compared to her college dorm. The floors were wood, and expensive looking, no less, and the walls were decorated with assorted tasteful art, although a lot of it appeared to be Japanese wood block prints.

That was all Hitomi got to catch a glimpse of, however. Yukari continued to drag them down the hallway. "The kitchen's over there... and that's Van's roommate's room. If you keep walking down the hall, that's the front door... and here's the living room!"

With a final step, the two girls appeared in the doorway of the spacious living room, and as it turned out, they were not alone. Two pairs of eyes turn to blink at them.

"Hi, Van! I was just giving Hitomi the tour." Yukari quipped, her voice cheerful as she met the raven-haired boy's eyes.

"Good to see that she's up amongst the living already." Van grinned, losing the surprised look as he turned his attention away from the homework spread on the flat surface of the table where he was sitting. At the same time, his slim fingers came up to slide off the reading glasses that had been perched on his nose.

His deep brown eyes turned to meet hers, but the track runner quickly looked away, flushing and nodding her hello tentatively. "Van looks hot, even with glasses..."

"Aw, c'mon, Fanel, not gonna introduce me?" The second person in the room chuckled softly in a deep voice.

That's when Hitomi noticed the second person in the room. He had been sitting across from Van, his back to the girls, but now he turned to get a better look at them. Even Yukari's happy disposition was taken down a notch as her eyes flicked to the stranger.

He was currently in the process of tying his lengthy blonde hair into a high pony tail. His lons bangs, however, remained to fall down and frame his face. It all happened as if he was in slow motion. Languidly, the blonde turned his head to look at the two girls with the brightest blue eyes they had ever seen. And then he smiled. At that point, there was a melting ooze of Yukari next to Hitomi.

Van eventually broke the strange spell for Hitomi and smirked, motioning towards the blonde. "This is Allen Schezar. He's my roommate."

Allen's smile widened, looking quite aware that the pair of girls were staring. Or, at least, Yukari still was. "It's a pleasure. Come sit down."

The red-head, almost mechanically, strode forward to sit next to Allen, leaving Hitomi with no choice but to move and settle down by Van's side, which she did with a bright blush. Allen looked curiously at the two of them, eventually settling his gaze on the brunette across from him.

"So you must be Hitomi." He grinned, propping his elbows on the table and perching his chin on his clasped hands.

Squirming slightly in the blonde's piercing gaze, Hitomi managed a weak grin. Her hands unconsciously moved to curl up in her lap as she avoided turning her head to look at Van. "Y-yeah, that's me. Hitomi Kanzaki."

"And you must be the one who spent the night in my room." Allen quirked an elegant eyebrow at Yukari, who now broke out of her trance and grinned.

"Yup! I'm Yukari Uchida."

Van spoke again, leaning back in his chair. "I guess we'll have to get out the pull-out bed from the couch tonight, Allen. The girls need a place to sleep, after all..."

"Oh, no, you don't have to do that!" Hitomi quickly protested, finally turning to meet Van's eyes. Green collided with brown, but the two only stared at each other for a moment before hurriedly turning away with Kanzaki going into another light reddening.

Yukari also wasn't pleased with Van's suggestion. "We wouldn't want to be intruding on your hospitality. After all, we really shouldn't even be here right now... Hitomi and I can sleep on the couch."

"But you're our guests! We can't have you two just sleeping on the couch, it'd be impolite." Fanel laughed softly, one hand coming up to rake through the unruly dark hair of his.

"Well, yes, but-"

"Y'know..." Allen interrupted, shutting Yukari up immediately, "We could argue about this all day, or we can just decide what to do when the time comes. It's barely past noon, anyway."

"That's a good idea..." Hitomi agreed softly with a nod.

Pleased, Allen grinned and imitated Van by leaning back in his chair as well. "It's decided then. So! Tell us a little bit about yourselves, Yukari and Hitomi."

"We-ell..." Exchanging looks with Yukari, Hitomi couldn't help but grin. Already, she was relaxing in the presence of the two boys as a result of the comfortable atmosphere that had been established between them. "Yukari and I both go to the same local college here in Tokyo. I haven't really decided on a major yet, but I've been really into track since high school, so I'm hoping to go somewhere with that. Plus, I'm taking psychiatry and English."

"'Cause all the best track programs are in America!" Yukari cut in with a grin, "Now, I'm actually Hitomi's manager for track, but my major is journalism. What about you two?"

The conversation had taken a turn into college courses, obviously.

"Hmm." Van closed his eyes in thought, tucking his hands behind his head. "I'm majoring in Fine and Studio Art, although I have some other art minors. I'm actually taking English and psychiatry, too."

Hitomi started, failing to hide her surprise at the similar minors, but said nothing. "It's almost shocking that we have something in common... I didn't even think he was still in college before Yukari told me!"

Allen, meanwhile, idly brushed some of his bangs back, only to have them fall into place again. "I'm actually majoring in languages. Mostly romance. French, Italian, but I've also dabbled in English and Russian."

Yukari gasped, turning her body to completely face the blonde. "Tu parle français?"

"Eh, oui ,un peu." Allen chuckled, showing the girl the cover of the book he had been reading before the girls had come in. It was a French textbook. "Mais, je préfére italien. Français est un peu difficile. Et tu?"

"Oui, français est difficile, mais j'adore français quand même. C'est trés beau!" She continued to babble excitedly in the foreign language, looking almost overjoyed at finding another who spoke French.

A grin spread along Allen's face. "Peut-etre, tu peux aider moi avec mes devoirs pour français?"

"J'aimerais bien!" Yukari beamed. "Allons-y!"

"Oui, bonne idée." Allen stood and immediately moved to help the red-head up with one hand, the other scrabbling to pick up his partially finished homework. "We'll see you later, guys."

With a cheery wave, Yukari mouthed 'good luck' to Hitomi before following Allen out of the room, leaving Van and Hitomi in silence to exchange identically perplexed looks before bursting into laughter.

Van wiped away tears of mirth. "Who would've known that Allen would find a kindred spirit in your friend?"

"And in French, no less." Hitomi giggled, sitting back in her seat and covering her mouth with her hand while she snickered. The excess sleeve of the sweatshirt wobbled gently as she shook with laughter.

Eventually, their laughs died down to a quiet mood while in the background, far down the hall, they could hear Allen and Yukari enter one of the rooms and close the door behind them. Thus, the two remaining in the living area were rendered isolated. Still, the snow continued to fall outside.

Hitomi's hands, which at one point had relaxed and settled to rest on the table, were quick to return to her lap, the fingers curled in towards the palm.

Van Fanel caught the motion, however. As the corners of his lips tugged upward slightly in a smile, he kept the pleasure of noting one of the girl's nervous habits to himself. Meanwhile, Hitomi stood and headed over to the nearby window of the living room with the thought of looking at how much it had snowed so far.

A particular picture on the nearby shelf, though, caught her eyes before she even made it to her destination. Her steps slowed as the track runner stopped to stare at the photograph. "This is..."

It was a class picture of her psychiatry class from last year, when they had taken a field trip to the local zoo to "investigate animalistic behaviors." In the end, all of the students had ended up goofing off, but the three professors that taught the subject had insisted on a group picture before they left. Behind all of the grinning young adults was a huge mural of zoo animals. Smiling fondly in remembrance, Hitomi quickly managed to pick out herself and Amano, who were kneeling in the front with cheesy grins and making the "peace" sign with their hands to boot.

"That was a great trip."

Hitomi squeaked in surprise. During her mental musings, Van had managed to sneak over and stand next to her, his shoulder nudging gently against hers. Gulping, and hoping that he hadn't heard, the girl voiced her curiosity. "You came on that?"

"Yeah. Last year, wasn't it? All of the psychiatry classes from the grades went. See, there I am." Van pointed himself out. He was in the back row of students, just barely smirking.

Hitomi stared at the image, eyes wide. "It's so hard to imagine that this guy, who I just met last night, is even real... not only that, but he goes to my college! Geez, what'd I get myself into...?"

"And there's Dilandau, too, now that I think about it..."

Hitomi glanced up at the boy beside her. His voice had grown darker at those words. Blinking, she looked back to the picture and identified the one named Dilandau. He wasn't even smiling, but was in the process of rolling his eyes. A few sudden memories rushed back to the girl. "Hey, I remember him! The stupid albino! He was the one that was trying to yell at the monkeys and get them all to fight!"

Fanel snorted, unimpressed. "That's him. We used to be great friends, until he went practically crazy. Starting turning into a pyro and getting obsessed with people worshipping him. Idiot."

For some reason, Hitomi found herself wanting to cheer Van up, so she sought out another picture on the shelf. Eventually, she settled on a posing ... cat girl?

Hitomi pointed at the framed photograph. "Who's that?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's Merle. My sister." Van's furrowed brows seemed to ease at the change of subject as he directed his attention at the new photo.

"And, uh... why is she dressed like a cat?"

The topic seemed to amuse the dark-haired teen. He grinned, reaching out to pick up the frame. "She's an anime nerd, so she dragged me along to one of those conventions they have. And that year, she decided to dress up as a cat girl. She even dyed her hair that pink color to match the character and sewed the whole outfit herself. Although, we did buy those ears for her..."

Hitomi couldn't help but smile as well. "So what'd you dress up as?" Van groaned, shaking his head.

"I actually have no idea. Some swordsman guy with wings. I think he was actually a king or something." He took out the back of the frame and peeled away the photograph where it had stuck to the glass. As it turned out, the photograph was folded so that only Merle was shown. Now, Van pulled back the rest of the picture to reveal himself.

"Oh, that's not so bad." Hitomi laughed, looking at the figure. Van was moodily standing beside his sister, his bangs still as long as they were now, falling conveniently over his eyes. The loose-fitting red shirt and brown pants weren't as extravagant in appearance as his sibling's. But to add to the costume, the "swordsman" was carrying a sword over his shoulder and large, white feathered wings appeared to be growing out of his back.

"The wings suit you." She grinned, surprised that the blushes that usually came on at moments like these had died down. Maybe he was growing on her?

Van didn't look so convinced. "Yeah, Merle said the same thing." Nevertheless, when he replaced the photograph into its frame, he didn't bend the picture back, but kept it as it was.

Once again, no one spoke. The pair stood side-by-side, staring at the picture for a moment longer. The girl could feel the heat from Van's body, they were standing so close. How is it that even though they barely knew each other, she could feel so comfortable around him? Now the flush returned. Hands shaking, Hitomi abruptly shifted to finally move to the window and look outside. "It's, uh... still snowing pretty heavily outside."

"Heh, yeah. And here I am, stuck doing English homework. Not that I have anything better to do."

Kanzaki turned around to see that the brown-eyed teen had returned to his seat and was now staring at the spread out worksheets with a hint of disgruntlement in his expression. "Want me to help?"

She didn't wait for an answer, moving to stand by Van's chair and look over the papers. Although she would never admit it, Hitomi loved to help with homework. Especially when she knew the subject perfectly well, and as it so happened, English was one of her best classes.

Van looked up and a gentle smile nearly made Hitomi swoon. His next words threw Hitomi completely for a loop. "You look adorable."

"I-I-what?" Not used to such blatant comments, the girl immediately became flustered and self-aware of the large sweatshirt that was close to falling off of one shoulder and the extremely loose pants. Still, the clean Van smell that was coming from the clothes really was intoxicating. "Not as good as the real thing, though."

"You should really wear my clothes more often..." The other murmured, the tone in his voice bordering on husky.

"Fanel-sama, I-"

Her frantic gibbering was cut short with a gasp as a pair of strong arms snuck around her waist and pulled her down. Blinking, she found herself in Van's lap, with Van's face, as it was, frighteningly close to hers. He was grinning, but the expression was soft.

"Call me Van, Hitomi."

Hitomi found that she had no breath in her body, so she simply nodded. Heat spread along her cheeks as she stared into the auburn depths of Van's eyes, frozen in place. It wasn't until the older teen pressed a soft kiss to her lips that she found the voice needed to speak.

She was lucky to get her words out even in a whisper. "Van, what are you doing?"

He stared at her for the longest time before answering. "Dance with me."

"D-dance with you?" She was so startled that the blushing and stuttering were practically flowing from her. Nevertheless, she allowed Van to pull her to her feet. Walking out into an empty space, near the window, the dark-eyed student pulled Hitomi close, lacing his arms back around her waist.

If Amano had tried that, Hitomi would've smacked him. But for whatever reason she couldn't understand, the track runner couldn't convince herself to pull away. The warmth of being held close to Van like that... "Feels so nice." Perhaps it was because of last night. Of their intimate dancing at the club. Maybe.

Instead, she shyly wound her arms around the taller boy's neck, burying her bright pink face in his shoulder. "But there's no music."

Even with the words being spoken into his shirt, Van heard. He began gently swaying from side to side, keeping Hitomi close. "We don't need music."

So for a few minutes, the pair continued to sway from side to side. It may have appeared ridiculous or silly. Two seeming strangers slow dancing in a silent room while outside, a blizzard muffled the city in white. Eventually, Hitomi turned her face to the side to look past the glass at the snow. "So why did you do it?"

The question was a bit vague, to be sure. "Hmm?"

"Why did you dance with me last night? Why did you kiss me? And bring me and Yukari to your apartment? Why are we doing this?" All of the thoughts swirling her mind came pouring out at the same time. She didn't bother to put a stopper to the streams of words.

Laughter tickled her ear. "Why are you asking so many questions?"

"... I want to know. We're strangers, we barely know each other." Hitomi answered softly, her eyes lowering to half-mast as she leaned on Van.

"What if I told you that this is fate?" Van said suddenly.

Kanzaki hadn't been expecting anything like that. A faint frown pulled at her lips as they continued to sway. "Fate?"

"What if I told you that it's supposed to be like this?"

"Van, I don't-"

"What if-"

A loud voice broke through their serene moment. "Hey guys, Yukari's agreed to make lunch so-ah! I'll, uh... come back later."

The dancing came to an abrupt stop as the two watched Allen's ponytail bounce out of the view of the doorframe. Hitomi continued to stare at it blankly until Van pulled her back to reality, cupping her face gently in his hands.

"What if I told you that I love you?"

Marimo almost wishes she could get drunk, just so she could taste Yukari's hangover remedy.

Note: Japan's legal drinking age is 20, in case there was any confusion on that part. So Hitomi is 20, but she's a sophomore in college. Van's a senior, 22. I kinda incorporated bits of both Japan and American customs into this fic, as I live in America, but wanted to add a Japanese tone to this. I honestly have no idea how colleges work in Japan.

Phew boy. Long chapter. Took me forever to write. Took me forever to update, too, now that I think about it. Ah well! Lotsa Van/Hitomi goodness for you all to enjoy!

Van, as you notice, is a tad OOC in this fic. But that's ok. We're all a bit OOC when we're in lurve xD

Yeah, that was lame. As is Dilandau and his ebil army of monkeys.

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