(Hey guys! I'm sure that by now no one is reading this little fanfic...but I hope that this new chapter can appease you. I'll just get right into the thick of it without lame excuses for my loooooong silence. Hope you enjoy, and please review. I love hearing from you. Oh, and as to the question from aunie.black about what flames are, it is when a person insults a person or his/her works without any real redeeming value. When someone says 'no flames' I guess you could say it's like saying, "only constructive criticism" or "Only fawning praise"... but I kid.

All I own is the demented thoughts of my own head and a few OC's. Escaflowne and all of the original characters from the show are owned by Shoji Kawamori and his team. Dang it.)

XX

Hitomi could remember a day when she asked the cards if she would find true love. It had been a childish game then, a question asked by a fickle hearted young girl who couldn't see past her own cares. It seemed so long ago. Love to her was something tangible, explainable. Something she could feel if only she pulled the right card. The right fate. The best Destiny.

When did it all change?

She felt his hand slip into hers as she heard the rail car grind down to the platform. It felt warm. She swiped at her face with her free hand before the doors opened, averting her eyes from him.

Why just this? It's just his hand and yet I feel...so...

The doors opened and a steady stream of people poured out. Hitomi felt Van's grip on her hand tighten as she instinctively moved away. She could sense how tense he'd become.

As the tide ebbed, Hitomi stepped inside, half pulling Van in her wake to get on the car. Thankfully there wasn't many people in this one. Only a girl who looked about 13 and a small group of gothes chatting at the back of the car. She grabbed the hand strap above her head before the train started moving again. It was then she hazarded a look at Van.

He looked petrified.

His hand had somehow become slightly slick in the passage from the platform, and his face was grim. His entire body looked poised to spring the second Hitomi stopped moving. He was staring past her, toward the group in back.

She tried not to laugh as she said, "grab the strap, Van. We're about to move."

The moment he raised his free hand, Hitomi felt the lurch of the train leaving the platform. Van stumbled slightly before clutching the hand grip above him, surprised. She watched for a second as he regained his balance.

"Where are we going?" He asked when he had regained control over himself.

"Um..."

She hadn't thought about that. Her body had just acted on it's own, preforming it's regular actions at the end of the day, set in a routine from the first day she went to high school. At the end of the day, you go home.

"We're going to my house. We'll have to wait until morning to see what we're going to do next."

"Where will I stay? Do you have rooms to accommodate me?" Van said, his grim expression more comical as his raised arm came dangerously close to hitting his face as the train swayed and rocked.

"Nothing like you're used to."

They grew silent as the train moved on. Hitomi started to think as Van turned back to watch the gothes again.

What do I do now? How would her parents feel about her showing up with a guy with no place to stay? She wasn't even sure what day this was. Would they even remember her leaving this time? They didn't seem to remember her leaving the first time, but when she left with Van again and came back for what she thought was the last time, they had remembered.

She remembered her family's reaction to her returning home that day. Her mother had cried. Her father had laughed through his tears. Her brother had looked away and said, "What took you so long?"

She couldn't help laughing out loud at Hitsarugi's face when he said that. Defiant. Relieved.

"What?" Van said, redirecting his attention to Hitomi again. She was saved her reply when the train slowed to a stop at the next platform.

The girl quickly moved off the train, not even glancing at them as she exited. The Goth group from the back of the car moved forward to get off the train. They glanced at Hitomi as they got off, and the last boy, who looked like he was dressed in Kodona style lolita, glanced at Van as he exited the train. He couldn't hide his surprise when he saw Van's outfit and what he had at his side. The boy's eyes lingered on the sword too long. Van barked, "What are you doing?"

The boy jumped and tried to get off the train but the doors had closed right in front of him. He was now stuck between an angry Van and no exit. The train lurched into motion and the boy fell awkwardly toward Hitomi. She had to release her hold on Van's hand and instinctively grab the boy before he hit the guard rail in front of him. She asked, "Are you okay?"

Van forgot his unbalance as he grabbed the boy's arm to pull him away from Hitomi but thanks to Hitomi's other arm on his sleeve he was saved from falling again.

"What's your problem?!" The boy mumbled as he fought against their grips. "What are you doing, not getting off the...ship before the doors closed?" Van replied forcefully, glaring at the Kodona boy. "What's with you, calling a train a ship? What are you, foreign?" The boy managed to rip from Hitomi's grasp and now struggled against only Van. Hitomi felt a wave of panic at the boy's words. The fact that the boy could even understand Van was mystery she didn't want to solve at the moment, but what if he continued to provoke Van?

What if Van did something rash? He was already upset. Hitomi knew from past experiences what happened when Van was upset. She had to think fast.

"Yes he is," she said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, as if to calm his struggles, "and he'll let you go if you calm down." The boy didn't seem to get the message.

"Get off me!" the boy cried, shrugging the hand off his shoulder and fighting harder for release. "Calm down boy!" Van shouted, suddenly releasing his grip on the boy's arm. The Kodona boy fell forward, but managed to grip the rail in front of him to stop from hitting his head on it. "What's your deal?" He replied harshly as he stood up again, still gripping the rail.

"What we you doing, looking at my sword?" Van answered, not bothered by the boy's tone or the rocking of the train. The boy answered quickly,"what are you doing having one?" turning a deviant face to the angry Van. "What I carry is my concern and no one else's. You have no right attacking me for what I carry, boy, and no right touching Hitomi."

The boy moved away, past the length of the guard rail and Hitomi. "What the hell are you talking about? You attacked me! All I was trying to do was get off the train and you and her attacked me! Thanks to you I missed my stop!" "If you hadn't been staring at me you wouldn't have missed it!"

Hitomi could see that Van's patience was wearing thin but she had no idea how to calm down the source of the problem; the defiant Kodona boy that couldn't see the danger he was in. All she could think of was to try to get out of the situation. "Let's move over here," she said to Van, "to get out of the way of traffic." She put her hand on Van's tense arm and tugged him toward a seat.

The boy glared at Van warily as he backed away to the end of the train. There was a tense silence surrounding them as the train went along. Hitomi didn't remove her hand from Van's arm until the train slowed to a stop at the next platform. She was thankful that the boy seemed to want to get off at the stop. He moved past them with his eyes averted from Hitomi's gaze, but she heard him mumble "freak" as he walked past Van to get off. Thankfully Van didn't respond, but she felt rather than saw Van put a hand on the sword hilt at his side.

The doors closed soon after the boy left, no fellow passengers entered after him. Hitomi breathed a sigh of relief, hoping she would never see the boy again.

"This place is filled with rude people," Van growled as the train rumbled on. "They dress appallingly to match."

Hitomi hazarded a smile that she turned to Van. "Not everyone is like that. You just scared him, that's all." She paused, picturing the boy again, who was dressed in a dark suit jacket with red ribbon tied around his neck and matching knee length red shorts connected to chains on his sides. She laughed.

"I can say I agree with the other statement though." She felt Van's arm loosen under her hand as he smiled slowly down at her.

"Was it like this for you too, Hitomi?"

"You have no idea."

They were quiet again until the next stop. Hitomi got up with Van and they stepped off the train into the gathering nighttime, and she led him to the steps leading up away from the platform. She watched Van look up to the dusk sky, a wistful, strange look on his face. Almost sad. She led him up the stairs.

XX

It had been only a day. He had seen her leave and was worrying about her all the next day. His mother didn't worry. His father didn't know. He had to tell them something. They had both believed she was staying over at Yukari's last night and had gone straight to school today. But what was he supposed to say now?

As he watched the sun sink below the house line, Hitsarugi breathed a sigh. The air was growing cool, and a small wind picked up, rustling his brownish hair. He tried to fight a since of apprehension. He felt as if things were about to change. He hoped it would be for the better.

He stood up from the chair by the window in Hitomi's room and stretched. He knew that Hitomi would never allow him to sit in here when she was home, but he found it... oddly soothing to sit here and watch the sun set when she wasn't here. He couldn't place his desire to do it; he never did it when he was sure Hitomi was coming home. But sometimes...

"Hitsarugi!"

He jumped. His father was calling him. "Coming dad!"

He ran out of Hitomi's room onto the landing and down the stairs. "What is it?"

His father was waiting at the foot of the stairs. "Go help your mother in the kitchen. We want the dinner on the table before Hitomi gets home. I expect that she'll be home soon. Set an extra place, because Yukari will probably be with her." Normally Hitsarugi would have rolled his eyes at the remarks of his father, but instead he grunted noncommittally and walked past the living room into the kitchen, where his mother was making hamburg steak with white rice and onions. She gestured to the table and didn't stop patting out the hamburger meat. Hitsarugi saw the plates stacked on the table and turned to get the forks and knives from the drawer to his mother's right.

"How was your day, mom?" he asked as he walked away with the cutlery in his hand. "Tiring. Yours?" "The same." He set the silverware down and started setting the plates.

There was a silence. Hitsarugi heard his father laugh in the other room, the television blaring something incomprehensible at full volume.

He didn't look up to his mother, but he couldn't help asking, "Does dad know?" He almost whispered it despite the noise in the other room.

His mother set the last of the patties down and started cutting onions while the oil heated up. "About what?"

Hitsarugi almost dropped the plate he was holding. "About Hitomi! Aren't we going to tell him she isn't coming home?" His mother scolded him for almost dropping the plate and went back to cutting the onions and breading them. "She'll be home today," she said when she turned her back.

"How can you be so sure?" He hadn't felt this frustrated before. The fact that she was gone, that she had left willingly and had made no mention of a return worried him. He couldn't understand his father ignorance and his mother denial in the truth.

She was gone. Just like before. Like before, he seemed to be the only one who remembered it.

Hitomi had left for a period of 3 weeks a few years ago, and when she had returned, her explanation for her disappearance had been told to their father and mother, but not to him. It was as if no one cared that he was left in the dark. He remembered his mother telling him, when he asked her why Hitomi was almost always carrying her duffel bag around with her, "you'll understand when your older." He had thought it was typical parent explanation for questions they felt uncomfortable answering. He was 15 now. He wanted answers. He didn't want to be in the dark anymore. "What are not telling me?" He set the last of the silverware.

His mother placed the breaded onions in the hot oil and put the first patty on top. "I just have a feeling."

This time Hitsarugi couldn't hold back the eye roll. "A feeling."

I don't trust my own.

He turned back toward the living room. "I'll call when I get feeling to eat." He was almost past the front door toward the stairs when he heard the soft click of the door unlocking. He turned toward it with stunned eyes.

Hitomi!

(That's the end of that chapter. I hope you guys liked it, and please review. I do read all of them and really appreciate the feedback. Hopefully I will have the next chapter up soon. I ended it in a really good spot for everyone, and maybe I'll show you guys what Yukari and the gang are up to on Gaea. Never know unless you read!)