Lisa stared out of the windshield as she drove, but she wasn't really paying attention to the road. Her mind was elsewhere, reliving her days as an eX-Driver and wondering what things would be like now. It had been five long years since she'd left the team for reasons unspecified, and this was her first time coming back.
A million thoughts rushed through her head as she pulled up to the old building. Outside she could see teenagers, no doubt new eX-Drivers, testing their skills.
Lisa still longed for those days, the excitement and adventure, but they were behind her. She had briefly thought about getting an F.A. license, but didn't have the patience. Besides, her days as an eX-Driver were through.
"Lisa!" cried a familiar voice from above her. Lisa looked up a set of stairs to see Lorna coming down to greet her.
"Wow, you haven't changed at all," Lisa marveled. She herself had let her hair grow out a little, but that was about it.
Lorna hugged her. "It's so good to see you, how have you been?"
"Can't complain. You?"
"I've been good. It was hard for a while... after Grandfather passed away..." Lorna's voice turned sad, but almost immediately jumped back. "But I think I've been doing a pretty good job as Chief!"
Lisa smiled. "It's what he always wanted."
Lorna nodded.
"So, how's..." Lisa stopped mid-sentence, as if unsure whether or not to continue.
"He's doing great, one of the best," Lorna answered without hesitation. She knew what Lisa was going to say sometimes before she even said it herself. "He just turned eighteen you know, the girls love him... the younger drivers that is."
"That's good to hear."
"You should stop by and see him," Lorna suggested.
"I might."
An awkward silence fell over the two, but the familiar sound of the alarm broke it. Lorna ran back up the stairs and Lisa decided this would be a go do time to get her things from the car.
Once she was back outside she saw three young drivers speeding off, no doubt responding to the alarm that still cried out around them. She only had about four more steps to the car when she saw him.
He'd grown up nicely, that's for sure. His spiky black hair hadn't changed, but now he stood at least a foot taller than her. His face still looked as if it held the same youthful enthusiasm, and in an instant it was easy to see why the girls liked him. Not surprisingly he was working on his car, not noticing anything around him. Lisa walked the last four steps and it was the closing of her car door that drew his attention.
"Miss Lisa!" he called out, waving. He set his tools down and easily jogged over to her. "Miss Lisa, hi."
"Hi Souichi," Lisa said, her voice revealing an embarrassing level of uncertainty.
"Wow... you're even more beautiful than I remembered," Souichi marveled. He grabbed her bags from her without even asking and started towards the building. "Where are you staying?"
"With Lorna."
"That's great. It will be nice to have you around for a little while."
"Yeah..."
Lisa just wished this wasn't such a long walk. "So..." she said, attempting small talk. "How have you been?"
"Oh, I've been great. I'll probably be an instructor before too long, or that's what Miss Lorna says anyway."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I know. I always figured you'd be an instructor way before me. It's a shame you left."
"Well, you know... how it goes."
They got to the room and Souichi put the bags inside. "I guess so, but I never did understand why you decided to go away."
Lisa searched for an answer. "It's... complicated." Was the best thing she could come up with.
"Alright, well I better be getting back to work. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Okay."
"Bye Miss Lisa."
"Bye... Souichi."
Lisa closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. The complete truth was that Souichi was the reason she left. Over the course of their friendship Lisa had fallen in love with him, and it didn't matter how "accelerated" or mature he was, that couldn't excuse it. She was seventeen, and he was only thirteen, even if he seemed older to her. It took her two weeks to make the decision, but she eventually opted to leave. Since then she'd done a lot of traveling, speaking about the importance of eX-Drivers and her experience as one along the way. She figured the time away would keep her mind busy, and it did. She hadn't thought of Souichi much in the past couple of years, but coming back had awakened those repressed feelings. She did her best to ignore them though, reasoning that he could be a totally different person now.
"Augh, too much thinking!" Lisa groaned. She walked around Lorna's room, which was basically a small apartment, and stopped to look at a set of pictures she had on her desk. Of course there was a picture of Lorna and her grandfather, the man Lisa had always simply called "Chief". There were a couple pictures of just Lorna and Lisa, and one with Souichi as well. There was also another picture, one that Lisa had never seen before. It was Lorna smiling happily wrapped in the arms of a good-looking man with short white hair and bright green eyes. Lisa made a mental note to ask her about that when she got back, and moved on to another part of the room.
On the far wall there were a number of framed newspaper articles, none of which Lisa knew even existed. She'd been away for too long!
"Ex-Driver Souichi Sugano nearly killed attempting to rescue Senator's daughter," Lisa read aloud. "Wow, I had no idea."
"Yeah, he was only fifteen when it happened," Lorna said, suddenly appearing behind her. "The girl died, an A.I. car accident, no one saw it coming. Souichi was in the hospital for weeks, he still limps a little even now."
"How old was she?"
"Nine. We all thought Souichi was going to quit after that, but he didn't. He said he couldn't, that he had to become one of the greatest eX-Drivers in the world."
Lisa chuckled. "Such pride."
"He wanted to impress you."
"What?"
"he was heart broken when you left, but he said he knew you'd be back. At first… he was angry, he acted like he hated you."
"I can't say I would have blamed him."
"Yeah, well it was only acting. He's missed you Lisa, he's been waiting for you to come back." Then Lorna giggled, receiving a strange look from her friend. "I think he's always had a crush on you."
"What?!"
"Oh Lisa, it's so obvious! You really never noticed?"
Lisa blushed. She desperately wanted to change the subject. "Hey, who's that guy?"
"What? Oh, Ren! Ren's my fiancé."
"Fiancé? You never told me you were engaged!"
"Well he only proposed last week. We met two years ago, he was an old student of Grandfather's."
"Wow… I mean wow!"
Lorna laughed. "We're having dinner tonight, and as soon as I told him that you were coming to visit he suggested you and Souichi join us."
"Oh…" Lisa said. "Okay, yeah."
"Great! I was hoping you'd say yes, I already asked Souichi."
Lisa excused herself for a shower and took the time to digest all the new information. Souichi actually missed her? And he had a crush on her too? Wow. She really hadn't noticed, she had probably blinded herself with her own feelings. She shouldn't have stayed away for so long.
When she got out of the shower Lorna was gone again. On her desk there was a note saying to be ready by 7:00 for dinner, nothing too fancy, but wear a dress.
"A dress?" Lisa said aloud. "I don't even own a dress!"
"P.S." the note said. "You can borrow a dress from my closet."
"Oh." Lisa looked at the time and saw it was 6:00 already. She had to hurry, after all this was a special occasion, and for special occasions she had to look nice. That was it, she told herself, and it had nothing to do with Souichi, nothing at all.
"God," Lisa mumbled, flipping through the dresses in Lorna's closet. "I'm acting like a teenager. This is crazy!"
But still she picked out the perfect dress, red and strappy, fitting as if it had been made just for her. She didn't wear much makeup due to the fact that she'd always been somewhat of a tomboy and never really learned to put it on. Yet somehow she managed to pull it all together just in time to hear the knock on the door.
"Lorna isn't here," she said, opening the door to reveal Souichi.
"Hi Miss Lisa, Miss Lorna said to go ahead and pick you up here, she'll meet us at the restaurant."
"Oh… okay." She hadn't realized she'd actually be riding with Souichi, and she began to wonder if this wasn't a set up. It definitely seemed that Lorna had something planned.
"You look beautiful," Souichi said. "I never thought I'd see you in a dress. Um, not that I've thought about it or anything."
Lisa laughed a little as Souichi blushed. "We should probably go," he managed to say. "We don't want to keep Miss Lorna waiting."
The two walked outside and Lisa didn't see Souichi's Super 7. "Souichi, where's your car?"
"We didn't think it would be appropriate to take you to dinner in. Your dress could get dirty."
It was true, the Super 7 did have a rather dune buggy-esque design and she would have no doubt been covered by dust, but she wondered… "Who's we?"
"Miss Lorna and I."
Lisa had already known the answer, but as soon as Souichi said it, she started to laugh."
"What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing at all."
Souichi opened her door and once she was inside he climbed into the driver's seat. It was while she sat there that Lisa noticed Lorna was right, Souichi did walk with a slight limp.
"Ren's a really nice guy," he said as he drove. "And Miss Lorna is really happy with him, I think you'll like him."
"I still can't believe she's getting married. So much has changed since I left."
"Five years is a really long time, especially around her. I guess you could say you never know if you'll be around, that long."
Lisa nodded. "I saw the newspaper article in Lorna's room. The one about your accident."
"Yeah… I really messed up that night, but I wasn't about to quit. I'd thought about it, sure, but I never let anyone know. Those first few nights I was sure I was going to leave, maybe see if I could find you or something."
"But you didn't."
"I couldn't, I had to stay. I had to be the best."
"And I admire you for that. You would never let anything get in the way of your being an eX-Driver, not like I did."
"I'm sure your reason was good, whatever it was. When you left I hated you for it, but deep down I know you didn't really want to go. I could see it in your eyes before you left."
"I'm sorry Souichi."
"For what?"
"For not saying good bye, and… well for leaving period. I should have stayed, but I just wasn't strong enough."
Souichi pulled to a stop in the restaurant parking lot and turned to face her. "Miss Lisa, you've always been strong, since the moment we met. You are the strongest most proud person I've ever known. If something was going on that made you positive you had to leave, then whatever it was had to be something important. It doesn't mean you weren't strong enough to fight it, it mans you were smart enough not too. There are some things in this world that you just can't fight, no matter how strong you are."
Lisa wanted to cry. She wanted to grab a hold of Souichi and tell him that she loved him and overall she just wanted to tell him the complete and total truth. Unfortunately all she could do was nod her head.
"Lisa!" Lorna cried approaching the car. Lisa got out and smoothed her dress down, attempting to act normal. "Hi Lorna."
"Wow, you look fantastic! That dress doesn't look nearly as good on me as it does you."
"Thanks."
"Sorry I left while you were in the shower, they had yet another crisis, you know how it goes."
"A crisis, huh? Are you sure you weren't just plotting something?" Lisa asked quietly.
"What do you mean?"
Lisa glanced at Souichi, who was busy talking to Ren, then she took a hold of Lorna's arm and pulled her a couple feet away. "You're trying to set us up, just admit it."
"I don't know what you're-" she stopped at the insistence of Lisa's unbelieving glare. "Okay, so maybe I am. But why is that a surprise Lisa? He's liked you since you met and I know you feel the same about him."
Lisa didn't even try to lie. "How did you know?"
"It's obvious, it always has been, and now that you're back it's just amplified. I could hear it in your voice before you even saw him today."
"But it's been so long, how do you know he still cares?"
"He's been waiting for you," was all Lorna could say before Souichi and Ren joined them. "Lisa, this is my fiancé Ren."
Lisa shot her friend a look that said "I want to know more" before greeting Ren.
"Lorna tells me you used to be an eX-Driver, and a pretty damn good one at that," he said as they walked inside.
"Yeah, well that was a long time ago."
"But you're back now. Ever thought of joining the team again?"
"Ren! This is a friendly dinner, now stop trying to recruit my friends," Lorna scolded.
Ren laughed. "Yes my love, I'm sorry. Still," he said, turning back to Lisa. "If you decide to think about it…"
"Ren!"
Once inside, Lisa was shocked by the atmosphere. It wasn't a club by any means, but there was a small dance floor, a bar and several tables scattered about. The clientele all seemed to be well dressed and at least fairly well mannered, leading her to believe this was where many business affairs and "other" affairs, took place.
"This is where Ren and I went on our first date," Lorna explained. "I know if doesn't look like much, but it's a really nice place."
The four sat down and ordered their food. While waiting they talked about the good old days, filled each other in on what they'd missed lately, and Ren would drop the occasional hint that Lisa should come back to stay.
When a song that Lorna proclaimed to be "their song" came on, her and Ren got up to dance, leaving Lisa and Souichi to wait for the food. Once again the two were plunged into a slightly uncomfortable silence.
"I wonder why Ren is pushing so hard for you to come back," Souichi finally said. "I mean, he didn't even know you when you were an eX-Driver."
"I'm guessing it has something to do with Lorna," Lisa replied. "Either way it's silly, there are plenty of drivers here already."
"None of them are as good as you though."
"What do you mean? You were better than I was when you were still a kid."
Souichi shook his head. "No I wasn't. Sure, I won a couple races and did some good missions, but that doesn't make someone a better driver."
"Oh really? What does then?"
Souichi didn't answer.
"Souichi?"
"You really should come back Miss Lisa. I can't explain it, but you belong here."
Lisa just stared at him, unsure of what to say back. Fortunately for her the waiter appeared with their food and she didn't have to think of anything.
"So, what have you two been up to while we were gone?" Lorna asked upon her return.
"Nothing really," Souichi said, causing Lorna's face to fall.
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, only interrupted a couple times by half-hearted attempts at small talk.
Finally it was time to leave, and Lisa followed Souichi to the car.
"I'm sorry Miss Lisa," he said once they'd gotten inside.
"For what?"
"For the way I acted at dinner."
"Souichi, this isn't like you. Where is the argumentative spirited guy I used to know?"
"He grew up… I guess."
"Oh," Lisa said. "I see…" She was starting to believe that all of this was a big mistake. "I.. I shouldn't have come back."
"What?" Souichi asked.
Lisa opened the car door and got out, walking away with a purposeful stride.
"Miss Lisa! What are you doing?" Souichi climbed out of the car and ran to her, deliberately placing himself in her path. "Where are you going? And why would you say that?"
"We aren't the same people anymore Souichi, can't you see that? All I've done today is apologize for things and all you've done is praise me. We never would have done that five years ago, we're different now."
"Five years ago you were too stubborn to apologize for much of anything, and I was too stubborn and too scared to tell you what I was really thinking. I've always admired you I just didn't say it before."
"Really?"
"Of course. And yes, we're a little different, but you can't expect us to stay exactly the way we were five years ago. Five years ago I was just a kid, I've done a lot of growing up since then."
Lisa sighed. "You certainly have."
Souichi raised a questioning eyebrow, which made Lisa laugh. "You're taller," she said, which of course was not what she had meant.
"I've always loved you," Souichi blurted out. He seemed to have surprised himself with his revelation and immediately turned all new shades of red.
"You have? So Lorna was right then."
"What?! Miss Lorna knows? She told you? I… I…" This was more like the Souichi that Lisa remembered.
Lisa laughed. "Souichi, calm down. I feel the same."
"You what?"
"I love you, I always have. I couldn't take it any longer though so I left."
"You left because of me?"
Lisa looked down at her feet. "Well yes… and no. I mean, I left because I hated how I felt about you. I hated how I couldn't do anything about it, and how you didn't, or I thought you didn't feel the same about me."
"Wow…"
"Yeah…"
The two were standing there in the now empty parking lot, both unsure of what they should do next.
"Why don't you just drive me back to Lorna's," Lisa suggested. "We can have lunch tomorrow and talk some more."
Souichi agreed and the two were back in the car in minutes. The drive home was a quiet, but comfortable one, and Lisa probably wouldn't have even said anything had Souichi not insisted on walking her to the door.
"I'm really looking forward to tomorrow," he confessed.
"Me too," Lisa said with a smile. She leaned in close to him and graced his lips with a gentle kiss. "Goodnight."
She was walking on air when she got inside, and had no idea Lorna would be sitting there in her pajamas waiting to pounce.
"So, how'd it go?" she asked immediately.
"We're having lunch tomorrow."
For the second time that night Lorna's face fell. "That's all? Lunch? Why lunch?"
"To talk about what we're going to do."
Her interest was peaked. "Do about what?"
"The fact that we both love each other."
"Oh Lisa!" Lorna cried. "I'm so happy for you! It will be good to see you two finally together where you belong, that is if you decide to get together of course."
Lisa smiled, definitely agreeing.
That night she fell asleep in an instant, and it was the most peaceful sleep she'd had in over five years.