Author's Note: Thank you for the warm welcome of IA4. I never knew people still read this. I was so happy to read all the feedbacks and I'm so flattered by the comments. To Catelina, heh, the screaming part was a bit too funny. To dreamingofflyingaway, I hope this makes your month like the last one. And oh, glomping the author is not advisable as I may be carrying pathogens lol. To Maree, thanks for being honest and for wanting to review even when you couldn't before; don't worry, the long review was smile-creating and if you still want to e-mail me, just tell me so I'll leave my e-mail address in my bio or you could leave your e-mail address and I'll e-mail you. To Kendra, I'm not telling you who was on the intro; heh, evil me. Just stick around. To Smokegirl, no glomping; pathogens everywhere, lol. To megami04, anatomy and physio? Are you a medical student? I am already in my uniform but I'm still in my preparatory for medicine. To Wink57CS, I'm glad you actually gave this series a chance because of one one-shot. And Hitomi becoming a chef, yeah I know, lol. To prima, I think there'd be another one, the Final Cut or something. Ten years worth of lapse is a bit too long to fit into all this. To Diesty-chan, love you more for coming back to review even after you e-mailed me coz the computer wouldn't let you review. To fallen-dark-angel, angry for ending it? Lol, you mean you don't want this to end? Maybe I could continue the IA series after I'm through with Dil and Tomi. Maybe I could do the other's love story on the other IAs. To MysticalDreamer32, I hope this takes away some of your stress. To Chan, I don't write immediately because I also have a life. This isn't the only thing I do. I do go to university, too. About reviewing, do excuse me but as far as I can remember, you don't review at all except the last one and if you do, you certainly don't give reviews often. To everyone, thank you for the feedback and thanks to those who read and reviewed my new one-shot, Rain. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Dedication: execrable-angel, Catelina, Joshua Glass, SabrinaYutsuki, Anthius, Lady Snow Blood, dreamingofflyingaway, Dark-Dreams-69, Winnie, Maree, Feathers of Snow: Honeypot, Princess Neptune, Kendra, , Magicman/Smokegirl, CHI CHI, Faraday, Eio, megami04, mel88, Kya77, duh-hikki-zealot, nancy (harusame-chan), Cole Adams, blue ice2, Wink57CS, Blue Demon, Dilanda Albata, DillyChic16, prima, Diesty-chan, rabsi-babsy, fallen-dark-angel, MysticalDreamer32, bebopin-dreamer, Chan
Note:
"Intruder Alert" - dialogue
'Intruder Alert' - thoughts
Intruder Alert - flashback
Summary: Dilandau Albatou and Hitomi Kanzaki both have a new life. After life had taken some crazy roller coaster turns back in high school, another set of erratic twists are on the way. Because when everything seems alright, they are again thrown back for another ride. Although this time, the dice of chances are in their hands. To throw the dice and start the game once again would be up to them.
Standard Disclaimers Apply
Intruder Alert 4: Chances
By: Frostmourne
Chapter Two: Homecoming Queen
"You look nervous, my dear."
Madam Fleur's voice only added to the uneasiness that Hitomi was suffering from at that moment. The entirety of the long trip back to Japan had served its purpose of increasing her hesitation in coming back. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach that she could not understand and usually, what she could not explain made her extremely fearful.
Forcing a smile, she answered. "My parents are going to be too surprised to see me."
A graying eyebrow rose elegantly as if Madam Fleur knew that Hitomi was avoiding a certain topic on the verge of their small talk. "Have you not come to visit after college?"
Hitomi shook her head. "No."
"So how long has it been then?"
With a sigh, she murmured, "Ten years."
A knowing nod was Madam Fleur's reaction and it gave Hitomi the feeling that Millerna had been talking to the widowed woman behind her back. She almost groaned at what Millerna must have said to make Madam Fleur act as if she knew too much. Heavens, Millerna was going to get an earful after this scenario.
"There must be too much for you to do once we arrive then. Ten years is too long to be away, dear."
Again, Hitomi almost groaned. She was just too sure that Millerna spilled much more than what should be spilled. And knowing the blonde, she must have injected some of her opinions on the matter.
"Why have you not gone home in a long time?"
The glint in Madam Fleur's eyes showed she knew the reason, but Hitomi, in her desperate attempt to prevent one more person from meddling in her life, saw it fit to answer evasively. "Oh my business career is taking up too much of my time."
"Yes, of course. And there's also the matter concerning your love life."
Hitomi's smile faltered at her mentor's double-edged tone that was hinting something regarding a past in Japan. Really, Millerna was going to get it. "So, will we need to stay in the hotel hosting the convention?"
A wider smile that said you're-changing-the-topic was given to her before the older woman answered. "You could stay in your house if you like. But I should stay in the hotel."
"Why? You could stay with me." This time, she offered a real smile, glad that they were off the thin ice she wanted to avoid even for now.
Madam Fleur exhaled loudly. "It wouldn't do to inconvenience you when it would be obvious that there would be lots of catching up to do."
She did not bother to keep her smile up. It was apparent by now that her companion would not let the topic drop. What with all her dual meanings and hinting tones of voice. "I would handle the catching up so it wouldn't be an inconvenience for you to stay with me and my family."
"Reservations had been made in the hotel, my dear."
"Oh. So it means I have to be there-"
"Nonsense. I didn't ask for a room for you there." At Hitomi's confused expression, she continued. "I had the strongest feeling that you would rather stay with your family. Don't worry, my dear. I'm sure we'd both manage our situation quite well. Now, I am certain you would rather we stay quiet for the remaining minutes before landing." With a wink at the younger woman, Madam Fleur returned to her reading.
---IA4---
'This is it,' she thought as they approached a waiting BMW that was most likely the hotel's grand welcome service.
"My dear," Madam Fleur's vibrant voice addressed her with a soft prodding that she stopped walking. "Would you like us to give you a ride home first or would you like to see the hotel?"
Hitomi smiled slightly. She missed her family, but she was worried about Hiko and his girlfriend... "I think I'll go see the hotel first. Then I'd get a taxi once I am familiar with where to see and meet you."
The older woman smiled kindly, her grey eyes shining with a hint of knowing that Hitomi had to wonder if Millerna knew so much more things than she let on she knew. "That would be very practical."
And they proceeded to the car, their luggage carried by the driver.
For the first minutes, the ride had been relatively quiet, Madam Fleur seemingly having had visited Tokyo before. Hitomi was rather thankful for it as she was busy looking at the vaguely familiar places they passed as they made their way towards Shibuya, the busy part of Tokyo that had most of the hotels.
There was a knot in her stomach, a sense of twisted nostalgia perhaps, that came with a vengeance as a blood red car stopped beside them because of the red light. The occupants, teenagers by their looks, were arguing and Hitomi could not help but smile slightly at the sight and sound as she watched with a very good guess in her mind. A few moments and the guy sitting beside the female behind the steering wheel exhaled in irritation, slumping on his seat with a deep frown. The girl beside him just huffed and stared at him, her eyes straying for a second that she met Hitomi's eyes by accident. The guy soon noticed that his companion was looking at something and he followed her gaze, soon enough nodding apologetically at Hitomi.
"She's the worst driver in the world," he said, grinning slightly before receiving an obviously loud slap on his arm. "Hey!"
At that moment, the red light shifted to green, and Hitomi lost sight of the occupants as the BMW turned to another direction. But she could guess what would have come up next and with that, her stomach did another twist that she almost grimaced. Perhaps coming to Japan was certainly a bad idea.
"They remind you of some people perhaps?"
Hitomi turned to her side and offered a weak smile. Of course they reminded her of some people, some people with a honey-brown-haired girl being taught how to drive by one frustrated silver-haired boy. "A little."
The widowed woman smiled and nodded. "I bet they are in love with each other."
Her stomach did another lurch but she ignored the discomfort. "How so? They were arguing, weren't they?" When the words left her mouth, she suddenly felt like groaning in frustration. She almost sounded like an unsure toddler, who'd seen her classmates punch each other but was too naïve to realize they were fighting.
"Yes, they were. But then, didn't you notice that despite their arguments, they still put up with each other? The boy could've just walked out on the girl, or maybe the other way around."
"But," Hitomi began, her stubborn streak surfacing clearly. "One of them owns the car. Surely no one would want to leave the car to the other. Besides, the one who walks out will appear like a coward."
A slightly triumphant glint shone amidst the grey depths of the older woman. "Precisely."
Hitomi frowned and again felt like an unsure toddler. "So how does that make them in love?"
"Oh dear Hitomi, it takes a lot of courage to stay while falling in love," Madam Fleur answered, her eyes fixing on Hitomi's, "and an even greater courage to stay when you're already in love. The boy stayed because he was fond enough to tolerate the girl with him."
"But what if they were ordered to spend time together?" She argued, still stubbornly trying to win the argument and ignore the unease at the pit of her stomach.
"No one is around to say they are following what they were ordered to do."
Her green eyes refused to look away from the searching grey eyes. "What if they just don't want to tell a lie to the ones who ordered them?"
There was a silence that followed and Hitomi would've basked in triumph had she not been familiar of her mentor's ability to always win despite the odds of the arguments against her.
"Tell me, Hitomi dear," the older woman began in a deceptively off-hand tone. "If you truly hate someone with all your heart, and someone superior than you, let's say me, tells you to spend the entire semester with that hated someone, would you do it?"
"Well if there were credits to be earned or if there were deductions threatening me, I would."
"But what if you truly hate that person with everything in you?"
"I'd," she bit her lower lip in hesitation, something she had not gotten over since after she came to live in Japan so long ago. "I'd drop the subject."
"Or?"
She bit harder. "I'd compromise."
A nod of acknowledgement and, "You could tell if they were compromising, couldn't you?"
"Well, yeah, I suppose so."
Again, the triumphant glint was swirling in grey eyes. "Do you think they were compromising?"
She didn't want to lose. "Yes."
"Alright, I'll give you that point. Let's say theoretically they were compromising," Madam Fleur said through a smile that made Hitomi sit on with unease. "Do you think they'd just argue lightly, without shouts and sneers or some other rude things youngsters do, if they were only and wholly compromising? Don't you think there must be, let's say, a light or even unofficial friendship between them, for the two of them to be more tolerant than they should be?"
The knot in Hitomi's stomach increased steadily and she did not know how to win and at the same time ignore her unease. "Well... what if they're good in acting?" She almost rolled her eyes at her childish comeback, but nevertheless kept her eyes locked unto her mentor's.
The smile that was positively self-satisfied alerted Hitomi that she had just lost her argument. "Would you act if you're in the same car, alone I should point out, with your most hated person?"
She bit her lower lip and looked away, admitting defeat. "No."
"So there we have it," the older woman said in triumph as she took notice of Hitomi's upset disposition over such argument. She knew in her heart that she touched a sensitive nerve in the younger woman and in her fondness for the green-eyed chef, placed a slightly wrinkled hand on the younger one's own hands. "If truth be told, my dear, the cliché of love and hate having but a hair's breadth of difference is true."
"It's not." Hitomi looked at the hand covering her clasped ones on her lap. "They're two different emotions."
"Yet they belong to one and the same category - an emotion that many can feel."
"Despair is an emotion, why don't they say there's a hair-like border between it and love?"
Madam Fleur did not answer, for the car stopped just seconds earlier and the door was already opened. She knew that Millerna was right; Hitomi ran away for far too long that many things that mattered to her before had gotten too big for her to grasp.
---IA4---
"I should get going," Hitomi murmured, walking towards the door. "I'd come tonight if you'd like that."
Madam Fleur shook her head, following her former student's direction. "No need. Perhaps you can come tomorrow lunch and we'd begin to socialize with the other people invited for the convention. I'm sure you are tired after the very long flight, and of course, the reunion will add to your strain tonight."
Hitomi smiled gratefully. "I'll come by tomorrow at lunch then." She reached out to hug her mentor, before opening the door and stepping out of the suite.
"Hitomi."
"Yeah?" She stopped, looking at the woman she had looked up to since her college years.
"Sleep well."
---IA4---
With apprehension, she paid for the fare and stepped out of the taxi with her medium-sized suitcase, looking at the massive gate in front of her. There were so many things that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter excitedly and even multiply.
As she stood at the spot, a wave of nostalgia crashed on her and she could picture herself, standing at that exact spot, looking at a boy with strangely silver hair as he remained perched on his motorcycle, the awkwardness surrounding them mounting. She smiled slightly, stepping closer to the side of the gate and pushing the button for a bell inside to ring and alert of someone outside. While she waited, she looked at the area near the gate and her smile faltered. She could almost feel the warmth of someone hugging her back while she was in her sleeping attire, of someone hugging her comfortingly when she was heart-broken.
"Can I... can I just have a hug?"...
"Of course I came. I was the one who told you to wait."...
"Yes, Miss?"
She tore her eyes away from the spot that held her attention a while back, turning to the now slightly opened smaller door of the gate. A woman, in a uniform of white and black looked at her curiously.
"I..." She cleared her throat. "Are the owner of the house inside?"
The woman looked unsure of giving her any information.
"Chee? Open the gate up, would you? I'm going to drive out." A male voice called from somewhere inside the vicinity of the house. "Who's there anyway?"
"Uh, sir, there's a woman."
Hitomi felt a little out-of-place that instant. She knew the woman was only trying to be private about her family since they were of the socially elite society and since she was some unknown person asking for some information. But there was a part of her that made her feel she did not belong there anymore, not after ten years of being gone and never even thinking of coming for a visit.
The woman moved aside by a foot or so as the man strode towards them and peered at the opening. There was a silence then, with heavy tension as the man looked at her closely.
"Tomi?" He said at last, his voice cracking slightly with anticipation.
She smiled hesitantly, looking at the tall man in front of her; green eyes, much like her own, shining brightly at her. "Hey."
In a fraction of a second, the man pulled her inside the house's territory, trapping her in a tight hug, her luggage coming along with her. "Tomi! You're back!"
Her smile widened and she tried to pry his arms away so she could hug him back, but his strength was way more overpowering that she settled for resting her forehead on his broad shoulder. "Hiko."
"Hiko?"
He hugged her tighter as another female voice came from somewhere behind him. "Tomi's back," he said happily. "Tomi's back."
"And I won't be here for long if you keep this up," Hitomi muttered playfully.
Hiko grinned at her and then released her. "Got too excited I forgot you could still break." He gave her a quick once-over and then tugged at her luggage. "Let me have that. Really, Tomi, you'd never really fatten up, would you?"
She laughed and gave his arm a good slap before slowly leaning to her side and looking at the female standing a few meters away from them. She tried to keep her smile intact as she looked upon the very beautiful face of the red-haired woman. "Hey."
The woman smiled slightly, almost shyly and walked towards them. "Hello, Hitomi."
Hiko looked at the other woman standing by the now opened door on one side the gate. "It's alright. I'm not going out. My sister just came back."
The woman clad in uniform blanched and looked apologetically at Hitomi. "I'm sorry, Miss Kanzaki, I didn't know."
Hitomi waved a dismissive hand and kept up her smile. "That's alright. I didn't talk."
"What happened to Miss Popularity?" Hiko asked teasingly, slinging his arm around her shoulder. "You did become Student Council President and officially Most Popular Girl when you came back."
"That was right after I got knocked off from the top of the food chain," she quipped back, surprised and glad that there was no bitterness in her voice at all.
"Let's go in. Dad and Mom will blow their heads off seeing you," Hiko informed with a boyish grin as he half-dragged, half-carried his sister towards the house, leaving the red-haired woman and the woman clad in uniform.
"Don't worry," the beautiful woman said after the two had entered. "Hitomi doesn't keep grudges." She gave a sigh. "Tell Hiko I'm leaving early." With that, she walked towards the car near the gate, feeling still remorseful about something that involved Hitomi ten years ago.
---IA4---
He always thought before that by the time they'd be more than twenty-five, hugging would be virtually counted out of reunions, but as he watched from a short distance as his sister was being smothered by their parents in numerous, tight hugs, he could not help but shake his head. Perhaps it was because he had been proven wrong yet again when it came to Hitomi, or perhaps it was because it was strange seeing Hitomi after ten long years.
It was actually strange when he thought about it. Ten years and it seemed as if nothing had ever changed. Hitomi, although she was slightly altered in physical appearance, still was and always will be his sister. He knew very well that under her now composed person, there will always be inside her the fiery and yet strangely scared girl.
Of the years that passed, he hardly ever told her of what had happened to everyone in Japan. He did tell her stories, but mostly it was related to their family alone. She never did ask him what became of the others and although he could sense that she will always inwardly ask herself, he refused to volunteer information until she would ask for it. Perhaps he was only challenging her before; challenging her to stop pretending and actually step forward and look over the cliff. But as years went by, he simply lost his challenging mood to the ever-present protectiveness he had for her. It was obvious to him; Hitomi was scared to know, and he, being the kind of brother that he was, refused to be the one to force her on things she was not ready for.
And so years went on and still Hitomi never once asked him even in an off-mannered way. Whatever it was that she wished to run away from, he was sure it was something he did not want to press on her. For his sister to not come back for ten years was something and some times, he wondered what had her running off for so long. Maybe he guessed it right in the many conclusions he gave before or maybe not. But there was one thing he truly hoped for; that Hitomi would not regret anything she did.
"How long will you be here?"
Hiko looked with interest as his sister straightened her slightly rumpled clothing before looking back at their father. He was quite amused that Hitomi still was bothered by anything messy. Couldn't she lighten up a bit, even after all these years?
"Just two weeks, Dad."
Their parents look visibly disappointed. The idea of so many years of being away and only coming back for two weeks is not very welcome it seemed.
"But I could come visit again soon after I check up on my friends," she said quickly. "It would be pretty unfair on them if I leave them to deal with my responsibilities longer than the supposed time."
Their mother nodded and smiled. "Of course. You will be staying here for two weeks, right?"
At the question, Hitomi looked slightly apologetic. "Well actually, I have to attend a convention until the end of my visit. But I will be going home here..."
"You're going to that convention?" Their father asked with a proud hint to his voice. "I've heard that the best in culinary arts are going to be attending."
Hitomi smiled almost shyly, so unlike the self-assured Hitomi of long ago. "Dad, my mentor invited me along. It's not really because I'm great in what I do. I mean," she widened her eyes in self-mockery. "I couldn't even cook for my life before and all. Those people there knew how everything since they were barely teenagers."
"Of course," their father acquiesced. "But the fact that you're successful today must mean you're at least near their capabilities. That makes it all the more better. If you didn't even know whatever it is that should be known before that they knew since they were still young and still end up near them, it means you are truly a remarkable learner."
"Oh Dad!" Hitomi exclaimed with embarrassment, flushing slightly.
Their parents laughed and Hiko watched with more interest as his sister continued to show little things about her that certainly did change. She wasn't the Hitomi he thought he remembered. Perhaps things did change when she came back to America.
---IA4---
A vaguely familiar beeping, so loud and so clear, woke her up a few minutes before. But she was determined to snag a few more minutes of sleep that she ignored whatever contraption she had activated the night before. Unfortunately, the supposed few more minutes of sleep only served to irritate her that she finally reached out a hand and felt for the bedside table blindly. She cringed inwardly at all the muffled sound of things falling on a carpeted floor that followed next. Still, after all the effort she did were not to yield any result, the blasted sound continued on.
Giving up with irritation oozing from every pore in her body, she turned on her side and opened her eyes, searching for the alarm clock Hiko leant her last night.
'Honestly,' she thought with not so little irk. 'How can Hiko stand this thing?!"
The alarm clock was a bit out of her reach and finally fully awake, she sat up and moved to the side of the bed, slamming her palm none too gently on the protruding part of the alarm clock. Finally, the sound stopped. But now she was sure that her irritation awakened her mind completely and that few more minutes of sleep she wanted were long gone by now.
She frowned. For the last years of her life, she never woke up this irritated.
'Great,' she thought sarcastically. 'Not even twenty-four hours here and I already feel like whining and ripping something apart. Great. Just mature.'
Getting out of bed, she walked towards the door and headed for the dinning room. When she arrived, the only occupant was Hiko, who didn't even notice her as he was busy reading the newspaper opened so widely in front of him. That suited her just fine. With her mood, she didn't particularly feel too adept in socializing.
However, the moment she sat down, Hiko folded his paper and looked at her from across the table. "The alarm clock," he stated matter-of-factly.
She gave an irate nod that soon gave way to wide grinning. Goodness! She felt like she was a teenager once more, something she never felt since so long ago. "How can you stand that thing?"
He grinned; much like the teenage Hiko would've done before. "And you ask me before why I was willing to lend it to you?"
She snorted in an effort to keep her laughter in check. "So how'd you put up with it?"
"Simple," he answered, reaching for his cup of coffee and sipping from it. "I don't. I just stash it up in one desk drawer. But when you said you needed an effective wake-up call, I figured it was time to use that thing. I think I was thinking 'in case of desperate times, pull out the drawer and resort to desperate means'."
At this she laughed. "You must think I'm that desperate."
His grin widened. "I'm guessing you'll want me to get it as far away from you as possible." He took another sip, watching his sister from the rim of his cup for a moment before putting the cup down on the table. "Dad and Mom couldn't wait. You know how things are when one is running a big company."
"I know. I'm just juggling less than ten restaurants and I could hardly keep up. I can just imagine it for them." Suddenly, she gave him a questioning look. "Aren't you supposed to be there, too?"
"Dad figured you'd need someone to talk to before you go to the hotel."
She nodded, somewhat feeling relieved that Hiko did stay to ease her mood. Obviously, he had done this before. She couldn't even remember when she overly lost the irritation she felt that morning.
"You said something about a lunch date with your mentor." He looked at his wrist watch. "It's almost ten-thirty. "You really should get ready. The traffic would be a killer and I don't even want to think about braving it."
"You'd be giving me a ride then?"
He gave a nod and when she stood up, asked. "You're not having breakfast?"
"This isn't breakfast, Hiko. This is brunch. Ten-thirty? Breakfast? You sure have a screwed sense of time."
When she left, Hiko smiled. "And I'm guessing she starts working at six am."
---IA4---
"Turn here," Hitomi said, eyeing the street as if trying to make sure she was giving the right directions. "Yeah, here."
Hiko grinned. "You know, Tomi, it sure took you a quick time to get ready. I'm guessing you finally learned that making people wait is utterly despicable."
"Says the guy who needs an hour to prepare."
He laughed. "Just so you'd know, we both learned that 'time is of the essence'."
"Warcraft 3," she murmured, remembering the PC strategic game. "The archers and rangers say that, right?"
"Just the archers, I think."
She sighed. Somehow, even when she was technically grown up, she felt the longing of being young again. There were too much things she had to give up on when she came back to America; things that gave her the satisfaction of doing and things that gave her the bittersweet feeling of walking down memory lane.
"There." She said suddenly, pointing to a big hotel.
Hiko gave her a look. "You're not kidding, are you?"
She frowned. "Stop being childish, Hiko. Why would I kid around?" She watched closely as different emotions battled on Hiko's face before he managed to keep them all in control in a record time of barely a few seconds.
He quietly drove near the hotel and parked the car. He looked at her and gave her a smile she could not quite read through. "So, you want me to escort you there?"
She smiled. "Of course. You'd get to meet Madam Fleur after all the years I spent telling you how great she is."
He nodded and vacated the car, waiting for Hitomi before locking it up. He then proceeded to walk with his sister into the hotel. There was a knot in his stomach that he didn't know how to react to. The convention was a big time one and surely it would involve certain people from upperclass that had something to do with culinary arts and also hotel and restaurant management.
"Except your mentor, are you familiar with anyone here?" He asked when they entered one elevator that luckily had only three other occupants inside.
"Actually, no," she replied with a slight shrug. "Why did you ask? Nervous about meeting my mentor? Don't worry, Hiko, she's really nice."
"If you say so." He hesitated for a moment. "Do you think she's acquainted with the one who owns this hotel?"
Hitomi gave another slight shrug. "I'm not sure. But it might be a possibility. The hotel sent a BMW to pick us up and they did give her a good suite. I'm not sure about the other guests but I think they gave her a very good treatment." She gave a slight thought but smiled nevertheless. "She is very good and have a good reputation in the culinary world so I think it's just a tribute of respect of some sort."
Hiko frowned slightly, regarding his sister as she continued looking at the metal sliding door without a care. Something was tugging at him, something that told him he was overlooking something. "Are you really close with your mentor?"
Green eyes, so much like his own, looked back at him with curiosity. "Of course. Why'd you ask?"
"You tell me too much about her. I thought that maybe you just look up at her way too much." He leaned on the wall, ignoring the close look he was obviously receiving from the other female occupants of the elevator apart from his sister. He can immediately tell they were barely out of their teens and he almost gave a sigh. Why was it females keep eyeing him most of the time like he was on display? "How were things with you and her back in college?"
"How should I put it?" Hitomi asked a rhetorical question, leaning on the opposite side of the wall her brother was propped up against and noticing for the first time and with great amusement as the teenagers eyed her brother adoringly. "She was like a parent and a friend to me. She didn't only teach me about culinary arts, she taught me other things about life like Mom and Dad used to do before we moved here in Japan."
"So she liked you enough to invite you to her house?"
She smiled fondly. "I often had dinner in her house. She gets lonely in such a big place off New York."
"So you drive a long way to eat dinner with her?"
"Actually, her driver fetches me and brings me back when she couldn't persuade me to an overnight stay."
He looked at her closely. "And her comment on your love life?"
At this, she frowned, eyeing her brother almost suspiciously. "And where is this conversation heading?"
Hiko was spared from answering as a beep was heard and soon, the metal doors slid open. He swiftly walked out of the elevator, waiting for his sister outside while he tried to ignore the giggling teenagers still looking at him. When Hitomi moved out and the doors slid close, they walked down the hallway.
"I'm just curious," he said at last.
Hitomi, although slightly suspicious about his attitude, gave a smile and allowed the topic to drop. Now that she thought about it, there were times before were she told Madam Fleur of stories about her friends in Japan. But it was a bit peculiar on closer thought how each time she talked about a certain red-eyed troublemaker, her mentor seemed to brighten up. She groaned. So Millerna was not the only one feeding Madam Fleur with her delusions about probable lost chances in love. She, Hitomi Kanzaki, had also been incriminating herself.
"Hitomi, there you are dear," an endearing voice of some woman called out from somewhere a few meters in front of them.
She shook out of her thoughts and looked at the approaching figure of her favorite mentor in college.
"This must be your brother," the older woman said as she stopped in front of the two green-eyed young people.
"Madam Fleur, I would like you to meet Hiko."
Hiko stepped forward and took Madam Fleur's hand, kissing it like the perfect gentleman, making the older woman smile in obvious delight of his behavior. Hitomi merely raised one amused brow and wondered how it was that Hiko managed to be such a smooth man capable of pleasing any of the female population. She never did think about it before but when they were teenagers, Hiko did have three serious relationships with girls older than him, all of whom were within the circle of the girls desired by many boys. A few minutes ago, three teenagers were eyeing her brother, and now, her mentor, who was not easily pleased, was chatting amicably with her brother in the middle of a big hotel's hallway.
"Join us for lunch," Madam Fleur invited warmly before turning to Hitomi. "Your brother is such a charmer, my dear. I'm surprised you didn't tell me about that fact."
"Madam, you praise me much," Hiko said.
Madam Fleur's fondness seemed to increase and it made Hitomi even more amused. Was it just her, or was Madam Fleur treating her brother like she knew of him from someone? Her friends might have made up with Hiko, but she seriously doubted that any of them would've told Madam Fleur something about him. When she thought about that part, a knot began forming in her stomach. Something was tugging at her, something that told her she was overlooking something.
Hiko caught her eye and for some reason, she knew he was feeling exactly what she felt.