A/N- Hey guys long time no see! Sorry, so very sorry. As of now I am officially not a high school student anymore, and so my time has finally been cleared up well sorta...since I kinda have a job and stuff. But any way, I haven't forgotten about this story and here is some of what I've been working on. This is only half of the chapter really but I wanted to put something up so that you people wouldn't think that I died or something.

Special Thanks- I'll add my thanks when I update this chapter again. So to all of those who know that they reviewed I'll just give a general thanks to you all, you all will be specially thanked later k!

Disclaimer- refer to first chapter

Short Review of the Story thus far

So far, Hitomi and Van have had little to no break through in each of their hidden desires to become a couple. In their classes Millerna had been seperated from the groups and when left to her new class found a friend in the most unlikely of personsm pyrotechnic freak Dilandu. If there was anything else I can't remember right now, hope that helps though, or you could just go and real the whole thing over...which I'm sure none of you would want to do.

So that's it, On with the story.

Eye Contact

Chapter 7

Back in the Game

Darkness, seemingly infinite around me, I turn not sure if my eyes are opened or closed to "look" at the space surrounding me. There is nothing. A resounding feeling of emptiness fills me as I search for something to bring proof to my own existence. It is as if I'm standing in a void, not sure that I'm standing at all.

But then there is a warm glow, I feel it before I see it as it radiates to the right of me. Turning quickly, surprised by the change, my vision is impaired momentarily, eyes unaccustomed to the added color.

The light, its glow, brings perspective to the once darkened area, top and bottom now recognized. As I stare longer, not foolish enough to rush into what might be a trap, or a figment of my imagination, the light being produced from nothing more than my mind's need for change, I soon come to recognize within the glow a figure.

A sense of familiarity resonates from it, and I become curious of its origin and its actual being. I stare, and as if my eyes become the lenses of a well built camera the distance begins to lessen in frames as I stare on. As the form seemingly comes nearer, its features become clearer and my breathing stops.

Van. He stands there, far from my reach, standing in all his masculinity and wonder staring at……me! As I soon notice. My heart beat races and yet I am calm. Just as I am about to walk to him, before me, crowds of girls appear to block my way, their backs facing me. Now my once clear sight of my raven haired, wild eyed, dream Van is blocked and a sadness arises from within me.

My eyes downcast I find no reason to face the hopelessness that is now before me and I glance back into the darkness that had once surrounded me. Its void, and as I stare deep within, it begins to seem more comforting than the light facing me and its cold call, one that I had formally ran from began to seem more and more inviting, enticing even. Its emptiness similar to the coldness and loneliness felt deep within my chest.

I step towards the darkness, as if entranced, called by the mass of black within it. But as I make my way towards the place I once was I feel a warmth from behind and I turn my head to look. There in front of the crowds of girls I felt more than I saw, Van's stare still upon me. This time his glow was angrier than before, its warmth and light coming in waves of intensity.

Soon I find my breath leave me again, as he begins to walk forward, eyes never leaving my form. He soon comes to the first line of girls and I stare on as he makes his way. He……

Her eyes flash open, and her dream dissipates in a flash of bright light. It always happened like this. At 6:30 every morning her eyes open whether she likes it or not. That's what happens when your body is trained. Groaning as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling she thinks back to her dream, understanding immediately the statement that it was making. But what always perplexed her about dreams and what also kept her from ever taking to heart their hidden meanings is the fact that she had no idea if the dreams were fabrications of her love struck mind or actual signs sent from some greater being who knew all and saw all.

Deciding to drop the round about topic of "what is" she decided to just get her lazy self out of bed and do something.

She decides this, and in all her mind she knows she should do it, but her body seems to be rejecting her brain's commands. Move. Get up. You have to get ready for school. She tried to coax herself, but at the mention of school her body's will seemed to strengthen as the force at which she was held down seemed to greaten in power.

She openly sighed, having no more energy to argue her body's refusal of movement. Relaxing her head into her pillow she blinks slowly, just enjoying the quiet of her room, the darkness that surrounds her the brief period where there is nothing but time. Her eyes close one last time and she finds herself dreaming, where as she is in control of her dreams and immediately as her top lid meets the bottom the picture of her mind's torment flashes before her eyes. Van.

In animes she always thought it annoying how the love struck girls would always keep saying the name of the guy they liked, in seemingly useless situations. Nothing else, just say their name. Sometimes a whole scene would be about people sighing and calling someone else's name. But now that she really thought about it, she herself did the same thing. In her mind, in those little moment's reprieve, she always found her self sighing mentally and calling Van's name. This revelation she found quite sickening and wondered what type of power Van had, to hold such command over her.

Her eyes popping open once again, she stared at her clock to find it five minutes to seven. Seeing this, her eyes widen, and her body's lazy hold is quickly broken as she darts from her bed and into the shower.

As she showers she thinks to herself angrily, furiously scrubbing her short blond locks. She did this same stupid ness every morning, she would wake up in time, but then be too lazy to get up and so spent up to an hour just thinking about Van. She was seriously making herself sick with how mushy she acts about Van. And as she lets the shower's warm waters beat the tension and shampoo out of her hair she continues to mentally stab herself for her daily girly actions.

…………………………………

A beautiful morning, with hint of the sun's light seemingly painted amongst the scattered clouds, bringing warm color to the sky as it runs the last traces of night away. And with this wonderful scenery, that most rarely see because of late awakenings, one lone figure jogs steadily along the path of the school's track, his bouncing silhouette casting long shadows along the grassy field.

It might seem strange for a teenage boy to be up and about so early in the morning but this is no ordinary teenage boy. He is one with a mission, one with a plan, one that refuses to be acceptable and always aims to be great. And a part of being great is staying conditioned, thus the early start each morning. And luckily for him the school's locker rooms are open early for athletes who are willing to train, not a bad setup in his opinion.

As he finishes his last lap, slowly jogging to wind down from the long morning of training, his mind begins to drift off in an oh-so familiar direction, one leading to visions of dirty blondes and eyes of emerald. He sighs in frustration thinking on a past scene.

He couldn't believe himself. He had a perfectly good opportunity and he got scared and fled. Man! All he has to do is ask her a simple question. What's so different about this situation to cause him to feel such anxiety? The answer was obvious even to a guy as dense as he was.

As he talks comfortably with his friends, the teacher of the class out sick…or something, he has an inner battle on how to proceed. His eyes shoot over to the direction where a reading Hitomi sits quietly, an obvious contrast to the anarchy around her. Even her close friends were engaged in some sort of conversation. He smiled slightly, seemingly over something Dilandu had said, and finally decided to just get it over with.

Slowly he retracts himself from the conversation and makes his way towards his target. Within his mind a submarine passes slowly just beneath the cold waters of the artic as the chibi Van commander is given word of the current situation. "Target sighted!" one says adjusting the scope. "Good" The commander answers, "Course set! Move Forward!"

As he approaches he starts to rethink his reasoning. No, He reprimands himself. This was the same destructive path he took last time that lead to him missing a good opportunity to talk to Hitomi. This time he would not allow himself to sabotage…well himself.

Finally within range……um close to Hitomi, he resists the urge to stereotypically clear his throat in his shy state.

Once again he has to wonder what kind of magic Hitomi holds on him. To be able to make him lose all sense of the cool that he had spent so many years attaining, she was definitely something special.

So taking a position beside her he finally finds his voice and says…

"Hey" How intelligent…he thought to his self dully.

He tried not to look surprised when Hitomi quickly averted her eyes from the pages of her book to meet his own. Though his shoulders did twitch slightly in reaction to the shock, he prayed she hadn't noticed. One of the biggest rules in a cool guy's handbook is to never let a girl know of the power she has over you, if this rule is ever broken all is lost.

"Huh…Oh, Hey"

"Yea, um so you're in my house right?" Another brilliant line…

"No" Hitomi answered quickly, and went back to her reading. Van was taken aback by her abrupt answer to a question he had yet to ask.

"Do you know what I'm going to ask you?" he said slyly regaining a bit of his cool. And without looking up from her book Hitomi coolly answers back.

"You want me to enter the essay competition ne?" He didn't know what to say.

So after staying in an awkward silence (at least awkward for him), for a few seconds Van decides to leave silently. But just as he was about to slink off, seemingly unnoticed, Hitomi's voice stops him.

"Ne, Van. Why don't you enter, you get good grades in Japanese right?" she said this putting down her book and looking up at Van flashing him a deadly cute smile.

Van fought down the blush that burned threateningly beneath his skin. In his mind a group of chibi Vans, now on a freighter boat, were skuttering around in a frenzy calling out "Mayday! Mayday! Abandon ship!" right before crashing into an ice burg, splitting in two and burning as it sunk to the bottom of the sea. Van finds himself speechless and extremely embarrassed for some reason and all in his mind the only thing he could think of was to escape. And escape he did.

"Naw…anyway, I'll go check some one else. See ya." And with that said he smoothly(and hastily) turned and walked back to his safety zone, his comfort…his friends. If he had maybe looked at Hitomi before he "escaped" he would have seen the obvious drop to sadness and evident disappointment that filled her eyes.

But he didn't look back.

Van dropped exasperatedly onto the dew dampened grass of the field, frustrated to death with himself. Why was it so hard. Why? He thought back to that moment and remembered how his heart had quickened when Hitomi had flashed him that smile. But why did he react so. He's made many cute girls, actually ones that were cuter than Hitomi by basic standards smile at him. He made them laugh and giggle easily with his wit and charm. But he can honestly say, that none of them, even the few that had been his girlfriend, had ever had such a strong effect on his body.

He closed his eyes and sighed long and loud, happy for the solitude of the empty field. He'd just have to try again. No man should let a woman control him, even if it was indirectly. So as he lay there, allowing the cool morning breeze to blow the sweat off his body, he allowed himself to freely wonder about the possibility of Hitomi.

…………………………………………

"God I just can't believe it!" Millerna exclaimed, seated comfortably and trying hard not to laugh uncontrollably.

"Shhh…." Celena tried to quiet her loud friend as the two sat alone waiting for the other members of their group to arrive. Trying to regain her composure, Millerna took a deep breath fanning the heat away from her face caused by laughter and then swallowed any last giggle that might have made its way up to prevent her from speaking.

"Ok, Ok. I'm calm now…But… Oh! My! God!" despite her previous attempts at calming herself she still ended by shouting the last few words in an excited squeal. She was quickly silenced by a glowing red Celena.

"Come on Millerna," Celena began in a whining voice, "can't you be a little more mature with this." Now at that comment Millerna had to stop herself.

"Now that was a first, Celena actually telling me to grow up. Wow, I must have really been acting immature."

"I'll ignore what you were trying to imply by that statement. And yes you are acting immature." Millerna smiled brightly.

"But come on, I think you can allow me to get away with it. I mean after learning what I learned can't you let me have my fun?"

"No." Celena's answer was quick and pointed. "Not when I'm the one being made fun of."

"Aww…You're so cute when you make your pouty embarrassed face."

"Whatever."

"Aww…Is Celena mad that I found out that she goes all Koo Koo for…"

"Millerna shut up!" Celena cut her off.

"Ok, ok, I'll stop I promise. I mean you already lost the bet I guess I shouldn't tease you."

"I didn't lose the bet. You just figured it out, so technically the bet was canceled."

"What ever." Millerna said while rolling her eyes, "Let's forget about that subject for now k?" Celena perked up at that suggestion. Getting into a comfortable position Millerna started to change the subject. Smiling she asked…

"So…Celena, how long have you been interested in Pyrotechnics?" Celena's face glowed red once more, but this time in anger.

A moment later Yukari and Hitomi strolled up to their tree to greet their friends when they found the two bubbling blonds strewn over the bench, Celena on top trying hard to seemingly stuff Millerna's mouth with her own hair, they figured to try prevent the long haired blond from laughing. Needless to say her attempt was futile but it did make for a pretty awkward position.

The two didn't stop in their fun even with their friends' presence. And not too long later the last member Amano came to the scene. He too was stopped in his tracks by the display but instead of questioning their sanity he tilted his head slightly to get a better angle of the two's fight. He is, after all a teenage male no matter how mature he acted.

After noticing the abrupt stop in Amano's hello the play fighting blonds finally realized their position and jumped up quickly to fix themselves. Hitomi and Yukari shook their heads while taking a seat on the bench while Amano silent thanked God for small mercies.

…………………..