Feedback: ScriptAngel and everyone who reads this story - thank you. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own City Hunter or its characters.

SINCE I SAW HER STANDING THERE

Chapter: 10

'Any minute now'
Saki held on to the window frame and peered down through the glass. Her wait was over when a grey sedan (the latest model from Onoda MotoCorp, of course) drove in through the giant gates and stopped right before the residence's entrance. Onoda-san stepped out of the vehicle, shook hands with everyone, and walked towards the mansion. Saki took three deep breaths and walked out of their rooms to the top of the staircase. If Ryo's reputation was anything to go by, he would be here within five minutes.
'Maybe I should have waited for a day. Onoda-san just got home'
No. She had decided on the best course of action and she was going to stick with it. Before Madam Onoda could spring some more information on him, the truth had to be revealed.
"Welcome back, boy"
'Can't ever call him 'son', can you?', Saki thought ruefully.
Onoda-san raised his head from Madam Onoda's shoulder after hugging her and Saki almost regretted her plan. He looked too tired. There were hollows beneath his eyes and a crease on his ever-smooth brow. Moreover, she could see that from a distance of at least twenty feet. How could Madam Onoda not notice it, and if she did, why was she still gabbing to him about investing in one of her friends' new ventures?
'The man hasn't even sat down yet!'
Onoda-san nodded at Madam Onoda's words and told her to do what she saw fit.
'As always'
"Hello"
She could see he had put his best effort into the smile but it was still half-hearted and reeked of exhaustion. Onoda-san looked down at his wife's face, standing before her at the top of the stairs. Saki glanced once at Madam Onoda below, who was glowering at her.
"I missed you"
Wanting to spite Madam Onoda further and because she truly had missed him, Saki went on her tiptoes, pulled Onoda-san a little lower by the lapels of his coat and kissed him. She glanced at her stepmother-in-law's face and found it contorted like a bulldog's. Her husband's face, however, was lit up with amusement.
"You really did miss me"
She took him by the arm and led him to their rooms, hoping that Madam Onoda would figuratively burst into flames at that. What happened was even better. Bobby called from the bottom of the stairs,
"Onoda-sama?"
Onoda-sama looked back with a frown. Bobby said,
"A Mr. Ryo Saeba and company want to call upon you. Now"
"Usher them in"
Onoda-san looked at Saki but she was determined to betray no revelation till Saeba-san was before their eyes. Madam Onoda, in her silk negligee, was headed to her room but Saki called.
"Madam Onoda?"
The woman looked up at her with superiority and disdain. Saki bit back a smile,
"It is best that you stay a little longer"
As if on cue, two gagged men were thrown into the room and Ryo Saeba followed behind.

Madam Onoda stood still as a rock in her place while Onoda-san climbed down the stairs and asked,
"What is the meaning of this?"
"Good evening to you too", Ryo said in his usual manner, "Hey there, Saki-chan"
Saki came to her husband's side and waited. Ryo put one foot over the better-looking man of the two and said,
"This is Keomaki Inuta, or as he prefers to be called, Ken. And this four-eyed creep…"
He kicked the other one lightly,
"…is Jimmy Gouda – the man who photographed Saki-chan while Ken here was molesting her"
Saki didn't need to look at her husband's face to know he was fuming with rage. She held his hand before he could step forth and beat those two within mere inches of their life. Ryo went on,
"Jimmy and Ken were paid a hundred thousand yen each for doing this to Saki-chan. The whole chain of who-paid-who is quite long and it was purposefully done so since the original perpetrator did not want any traces leading to them. But when Saki-chan came to me yesterday, I did a thorough job of finding out who was behind this. Wait. I think I have a tree diagram drawn somewhere…"
He checked the pockets of his jacket and then pants. Ryo smiled brightly on finding the piece of paper and held it up,
"Aha! See for yourself, Onoda-san"
Saki kept a keen eye on her husband's face as he unfolded the paper and read. He ripped it in pieces and shoved those in his pocket. His voice was calm, except for a slight tremor at the end,
"My stepmother was behind all this. Do you want to press criminal charges?"
She knew what her answer was going to be before the question was asked.
"No"
"I won't stop you"
"I don't want to press any charges. I just wanted everyone to know the truth"
Saki exchanged a brief glance with Ryo when Onoda-san walked to his stepmother, who still held her head high. Onoda-san addressed Ryo,
"Could you wait a while with them in the drawing room? I will join you shortly"
Ryo picked them both up by their collars and followed Hina with a lascivious grin into the adjoining room. Saki watched Onoda-san and his stepmother closely. What she had assumed would be a sense of triumph actually turned out to be guilt. Her husband was standing with a defeated look on his face. His low, poignant voice hurt her even more.
"Is it true?"
To Saki's surprise, Madam Onoda did not lie. She wouldn't look at the man before her though.
"Did you do all this, Mother?"
"I was trying to protect you from her, Tsuyoshi. She is not fit to be your wife"
"I told you that I love her"
"She does not belong here!", she hissed.
Onoda-san marched right past Saki into their rooms and shut the door behind him. She turned to go after him, now believing that she had been the cause of his grief. Madam Onoda said through gritted teeth,
"You cheap trash slut"
Saki turned and faced the woman. The words were vehemently spoken,
"This is what you wanted – to create a reef between him and me. Oh, I underestimated you. I'll give you that"
"Listen carefully to what I say and engrave the words in your memory", Saki stepped down and looked her in the eye, "You or anyone in this world will have to go through this cheap trash slut before a finger can be laid on him. Never forget that"
"Futaba!"
Saki turned at the sound of his voice and rushed upstairs.

She sat on the bed after he bade her to sit for a while. This was not how she had wanted things to turn out. Futaba and Chiemi were packing as Onoda-san had instructed them to. Ryo had taken the two hoodlums with him after a private conversation with her husband. She didn't even get to thank him for his help.
Onoda-san was talking on the phone,
"The movers can come tomorrow. I'll send some of the house staff to clean the apartment. Yes. As soon as possible"
He set the receiver down and sat next to her. They were alone in the bedroom now.
"We are leaving", he reached over and held her hand, "You will come with me?"
"Of course"
This apartment he had spoken off to Ashitaka on the phone was heard of often by Saki. It was bought completely out of the money Onoda-san received as his salary, not a penny from elsewhere. Everyone who knew about it called it 'The Apartment'. But she had reservations about living there.
"Are we going to live in the Apartment?"
"Yes. Do you mind?"
"Well, it's quite far from the institute and from your office too"
"I will find another place soon"
"No, that's not what I meant"
He did not look offended that she had probably insulted his precious bachelor pad, thank goodness. The Apartment or any apartment was not her idea of 'home'. Even this marbled and filthily expensive mansion had come to be 'home' to her. Her perfect home, however, was still a place by the beach, with traditional architecture, with sea breeze wafting through the house at all hours.
"Onoda-san!"
He raised an eyebrow at her. She realized that she shouldn't have sounded so chirpy, but the prospect was too exciting despite of the situation.
"Can't we go live at my grandparents' place?"
He did not dismiss her suggestion immediately. And she loved that he took his time to reply.
"The place hasn't been occupied for months"
"I'll take care of the cleaning. And it's big enough for two people to live. There's the upper floor as well. I think it is the perfect place for us"
Onoda-san looked ahead of them and seemed to ponder over the matter. He looked back at her just once and Saki tried to convince him with telepathy.
'Please say 'yes'. Please, please'
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"
"As you wish then"
She would have thanked him in her joy but he phoned Ashitaka and started giving precise instructions. Futaba and Chiemi came from his study and stood in the door. Chiemi said to Saki,
"Saki-san, everything is packed"
Onoda-san ended his call and looked at his wife,
"Shall we?"
She walked by his side out of their rooms, wondering how empty her study would look by tomorrow. Madam Onoda stopped them when they were about to walk out of the mansion doors. Saki was sad to see that the woman looked repentant.
"Tsuyoshi, don't do this. What will I tell Tadashi when he comes back?"
Onoda-san didn't waver. She clutched his arm and pleaded,
"Please, boy, don't"
He gently pulled her hands off him and said,
"I will not spend another minute in a house where Miss Saki is unwelcome. Goodbye, Mother"
Their two trunks were loaded into the back of the Bentley by the time they reached the car. Onoda-san held the door to the passenger seat open, looking at Tana and Hiroshi. Tana got into the backseat and Hiroshi followed. Hina came meekly towards Onoda-san and he shook her hand.
"Take care of yourself", he said.
Hina nodded. Even in the grim darkness of the evening, Saki could see that Hina had been crying. She nearly cried herself when Hina hugged her tightly and wouldn't let go.
"Come on", Onoda-san said.
Then did Hina let go and smiled at Saki, who was soon looking back at the farewell gathering outside the mansion even when Onoda-san had driven the car into the distance.

The dear clock, which her grandfather had brought home when her father still lived, reminded Saki that it was quite late. 10:00 pm and they hadn't had dinner yet. She stood looking around at the drawing room – floorboards and furniture wiped clean, pillows dusted out, the TV and vase glossy on the surface, and her favorite smell of peppermint tea coming from the kitchen. Saki untied her headscarf and put all three brooms and cleaning equipment in the broom closet outside what had once been the girls' bathroom. Onoda-san was out in the front yard with Ashitaka, going over some documents and also, she assumed, supplying everyone with his new correspondence address. He had offered to help with the cleaning but Hiroshi and Tana looked horrified at the thought. So Saki had made him stay outside for the past hour while she supervised and participated in the cleaning. After washing her hands up to her elbows, she sent Hiroshi with the tea for Onoda-san and Ashitaka, while she sat down to have some herself with Tana.
"Has the food arrived yet?", she handed a teacup on a saucer to Hiroshi.
He sat next to Tana after accepting it,
"Thank you. No, madam. It should be here soon though"
Saki relaxed a bit and tried to lean against the wall behind her. A mild popping sound made her grimace. Her back was as stiff as the Rosetta Stone.
'I thought I would be forty by the time my bones formed their own orchestra'
Dinner came soon. Mr. and Mrs. Onoda (nominally, Mrs. Saki Makimura) forced Ashitaka, Hiroshi and Tana to have dinner with them. Ashitaka promised to drop the other two back at the mansion. By the time they were gone, Saki sat in her backyard in the rocking chair. Thankfully, that old girl was still rocking smoothly. She gazed at the ocean with a profound sense of contentment, and hoped that the breeze was whispering, "Welcome home".
When Saki walked back into the house, she found Onoda-san to be in what used to be the boys' bedroom. He was bent over the table, connecting modems and cables to his computer. Saki stared at his butt to her heart's content and then cleared her throat. He looked back at her and went around to the back of the CPU.
"Almost done"
"It's past 11 o'clock. You have work tomorrow"
"Don't you?"
"No, I will take the day off, clean the rooms upstairs"
He straightened up, done with the computer, and said,
"I would like to stay and help"
"No need", she smiled, "I used to clean the whole house within an hour every morning at 4:00"
"Still..."
"I will manage, I assure you"
"Your books will be here tomorrow. You'll need help setting them up"
"I'll call my friends. They could use some physical exercise"
"Do you have enough bookshelves?"
"No. Actually, I might need your help in that matter after all", she said, "We'll need to go bookshelf shopping"
"How about day after tomorrow? I have to get this..."
"Okay"
He gave her a brief smile,
"Good"
This smile reminded her of the wary one he had given her back at the mansion. Saki felt guilty no longer but still sympathized with the betrayal he had to face at Madam Onoda's hands.
"Listen. About what happened with your stepmother..."
"If it is not a problem to you, I would appreciate that we did not broach that subject. I am not indifferent to what she did to you and you have my word that that two-yen piece of trash which calls itself a newspaper will be declaring a public apology to you first thing in the morning, it's just..."
He paused and almost whispered the next words,
"I am sorry you had to go through that. All because of me"
"It was not because of you"
"If it weren't for me..."
"Hush", she flicked off a tiny dust cloud from his sleeve, "We will not talk about it anymore. Do you understand?"
"Yes", he said and gave a little nod, "Thank you"
Saki smiled and would have given him a hug if she wasn't afraid her back would pop and crackle.
"You need some sleep. Come"
She led him to the bedroom after turning off the lights in what was now his study. Saki confirmed that she had finally reached the dreaded middle-age when the prospect of being alone in the room with a starched-shirt-wearing and emotionally-vulnerable-at-the-moment Onoda-san was not enough to make her forgo a few hours of sleep. She was physically tired after such a long time. That was why, she had personally dusted out the mattress with an oar from the tool-shed. All she wanted was to jump onto her princess mattress and doze off.
'Mattress. Shit'
Onoda-san and Saki lay on the mattress, looking up at the ceiling, with their elbows touching. Neither would admit there was no space for movement. Onoda-san said,
"We should get a new bed"
"Yep"