Epilogue
She was almost surprised at how fast her life had resumed to be normal again. In most aspects.
The door to the Shiroi Ryuu closed softly behind her when she stepped out on the sidewalk and inhaled deeply, the cold air pricking her nose and lungs. It smelled of cars, decaying leaves and the promise of the first snow. It was in the wintry breeze that sauntered along the street, in the shiver of bare branches and in the color of the clouds.
Hitomi pulled her scarf tighter to protect her skin from the cold and scanned the sidewalk for a certain face in the crowd. Her eyes skipped over unfamiliar jackets and scarves and it seemed as if all the colors had disappeared with the last fallen leaves, the city now a mere blur of grey and brown.
And then her features softened. Beyond the late Saturday afternoon bustle she spotted Van leaning comfortably against the pole of a streetlamp. He looked relaxed and at ease with himself, radiating a confidence he had not possessed when she had met him the first time.
As if feeling her eyes on him, he looked up. He found her watching him from where she stood in front of the entrance to the restaurant, people drifting past her like leaves in an autumn storm. The corners of his lips turned upwards in a lazy smile that stirred a flock of butterflies in her stomach. It was a feeling of pleasant restlessness as if she was about to start a long journey, the feeling of two cups of deep black coffee in her system, the feeling of silly smiles and the urge to say stupid things.
She knew she was blushing slightly and hid her smile in the folds of her scarf, not completely in control of the way he affected her. She didn't need the control though. She liked the feeling as it was.
Above her head, crows wailed against the grey November sky when she approached him. The newspaper he held in his hands caught her attention and her eyes skimmed the front page.
Still no trace of the experiment's originators – No decline in debates on ethical responsibility
"I can't believe you're still adorning the front pages of every major newspaper. I mean, it's been more than three months since you went public and people are still not getting tired of you." Her words formed a white cloud in front of her mouth and her finger poked Van's eye in the colored photograph when she pointed at the article.
He shrugged and folded the newspaper. "They just love Angel Boy, they can't help it."
Grinning, Hitomi leaned over to cover the distance between them and kissed the smile that was stretching his cold lips.
"Hello to you, too," he said quietly when she pulled away and his eyes danced with laughter. His smile was like finding 30 bucks in the pocket of last year's winter jacket. "How does it feel to kiss a celebrity?"
She poked her index finger hard into his chest but the effect was almost lost in the resistance of the layers of his clothes. "Don't let it get to your big head."
"You know I'm not famous because I wanted it," he drawled and wrapped his arms around her waist, crushing the newspaper between them. She returned the embrace and allowed him to rest his hands comfortably on her hip.
"I know." Hitomi smiled into his shoulder and breathed him in, the scent of clouds and cold sunshine sticking to his jacket. "You didn't have to wait here in the cold. You could've come inside, Yukari and Merle would've loved to see you."
"I know." He rested his head on her shoulder and she felt him exhale deeply.
He had just started to relax around her friends, letting his usually tense shoulders sag for a few minutes and restraining this calculating, assessing look with which he usually regarded people but he was not yet completely comfortable. He had accepted them like he had accepted Vargas and Millerna, without handing out his trust in his open palm though. His fingers were curled tightly around it, protective, and they wouldn't let go for a while. He would keep his distance and she would be patient.
"How was work?" Van finally asked after breathing in the silence and the words that didn't need to be spoken between them.
Hitomi let go of him with a sigh and immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest in an attempt to keep his warmth with her a little longer. She shrugged. "It was okay. The usual, you know, nice customers who give a tip that makes me grin for an hour and not so nice customers that make me want to curse them through my smile."
His laughter was soft and made a feeling settle in the pit of her stomach that was warm and thick like hot chocolate. He shoved his hands deep in his jean pockets and she noticed his eyes dart from her face to a spot beyond her shoulder.
Although most of the time he seemed to be oblivious to the heads that turned around him, the necks that were being craned and the hushed whispers, ignoring the attention that clung to him like stale cigarette smoke, she knew he was anything but. Van was well aware, feeling the stares and hearing the words as if they had been spoken into his face. The time that had passed wasn't yet enough for people to accept his existence, wasn't enough to compensate for what he had said and the discussions his words had incited to decrease.
His body was tense and she knew he was still having a hard time reining his temper. Within the last month he had, however, learned that ignoring the people was better than blowing up in their faces. It was after all a two-way process; if he wanted people to accept him and his being different, he had to accept them and their curiosity in return.
"Well, where is it?" Hitomi asked, breaking into his thoughts, and he focused his attention back on her with a grateful smile.
"Right here," Van replied and patted the saddle of the beat-up bicycle that was slouching against the pole. It looked ancient and very tired of carrying people. The paint was crumbling, making room for rust that was growing along the frame like ivy.
"It's a bike."
Van chuckled at the incredulous tone of her voice. She raised one brow at him and turned back around to stare at his bicycle, probably contemplating if he was kidding her or not. He watched the crease on her forehead deepen.
The way his gaze lingered on her like a fine drizzle, warm and with the ability to soak her to her very core, reminded her of the way he had looked at her that day he had appeared on her doorstep after she hadn't heard from him in weeks. He had been too busy dealing with worldwide public attention and she had been too busy avoiding just the same. She had missed him and had not known how to tell him and suddenly he had been at her door with a blush on his cheeks, a stream of incoherent words coming out of his mouth and the promise of something beautiful in his eyes.
"No really, Hitomi? I wouldn't have guessed." His sarcastic remark made her turn to face him and his teeth showed when he grinned widely. "Didn't expect that, did you?"
She cast him a lop-sided smile. "No, I surely didn't expect that when you said Folken got you a vehicle. I didn't expect a Porsche but I thought it'd sport at least ---"
"...four tyres?" His eyes sparkled in amusement.
"...an engine," she finished with a pointed look and blinked in surprise when the streetlamp switched to life above their heads. Dusk had slowly started to creep across the sky and darkness had settled unnoticed in the streets.
Van snorted out a laugh and when the wind picked up it reached with invisible fingers to ruffle his hair. "Who are you kidding? How could a kid with as sad an excuse of an income as I, no birth certificate, no social security card and no driving licence, just to name a few, possibly afford a car?" He walked toward the bike and patted the saddle fondly. "I'm glad Folken came up with that at all."
"Well, at least you could have gotten a bike that would have at least seemed as if it could last you down 2nd Avenue." She watched in disbelieving fascination when he proceeded to open the U-lock. "Don't tell me you actually locked that piece of –-- "
"Careful what you say there," Van interrupted her and light-heartedly wagged his index finger. His eyes had softened at the corners in a way that betrayed his playfulness and told her just how unwilling he was to admit it. "There's a lot of emotional value attached to this bike. It was my dad's."
It was strange that he could be so fond of something that belonged to a man he didn't even know. Folken had started to fill him in on their parents, sketching lines and etches and character into the flat faces he knew from photographs. But no matter how many little stories Folken told him on how their dad almost burned down the entire house when preparing a meal by himself for the first time in his life or how their mom would spy on Folken and his girlfriend he couldn't wipe away this clammy feeling that had settled deep within him, the feeling that they would always be strangers.
He was fighting a lost battle and clung to every memory Folken shared with him as if they were his own, making them his own.
He felt Hitomi's eyes studying him and knew she was following his every thought that was clearly displayed in a flood of emotions across his face. He didn't mind. Returning her warm smile, he clasped the lock around the saddle and stuffed the key back in his pocket. "The bike is a legend. Folken told me some stories."
Hitomi wrinkled her nose when looking up at him, knowing how much it meant to him, knowing he would tell her later. In the few months she had known Van, she had learned that patience was the most effective tool when it came to him. He usually didn't tell her right away when something was bothering him.
There had been times he had waited for days and until three in the morning to call and tell her what was on his mind.
"How's Folken? I haven't seen him in a while."
"He's busy." Van shrugged and wheeled his bike around the pole it had been wrapped around. The handlebars were cold in his palms and the tyres scrunched across the pavement. "You know him."
Living with his brother was different than he had expected. On the one hand he wished Folken had more time that they could spent getting to know each other, on the other hand he felt as if Folken was suffocating him with his attention. He was treating Van like a two year old, acting as if the last two decades did not exist.
"And he's sulking because he doesn't agree with Dryden's means of getting my medication and of getting me into uni next semester."
"Hmm. Any news from Dryden about that?" Hitomi fell in step beside him when he manoeuvred his bike down the sidewalk toward the closest traffic light. She made an effort of stepping on his orange shadow that the streetlamps cast on the sidewalk.
Van made an incredulous noise. "Dryden wasn't of much help lately. He's going on a date with Millerna tonight and to say he was a nervous wreck would be an understatement."
"Poor Dryden. Millerna is really giving him a hard time." She tried to slip her hand casually in his but couldn't stop a silly grin from parting her lips.
His warm fingers immediately entwined with hers and he tugged her closer. "It was priceless to watch him behave like a nineteen-year-old."
She didn't even need to see the smirk on his face to know that he was referring to her behaviour when she was with him. A deep blush crept across the bridge of her nose and Van yelped at the forceful punch he received to his upper arm.
"You..." she trailed off when she saw the sparkle in his eyes.
"I like it when you're all flustered. It's cute." He squeezed her hand and bestowed a radiant smile upon her that was all white teeth, dimples and brilliant eyes. It pulled the ground from underneath her feet and had her falling.
They crossed the street at a traffic light that had just switched to Walk and her heart beat in her throat when she watched his profile. She remembered the first time she had met him and noticed just how much he had changed since then. He had been confident back then in a natural kind of way which could be put down to the fact that he had never had a reason to doubt himself during the time in the lab. He was still radiating confidence in waves with every step he took, with every parting of a crowd, with every sideways glance at those who were talking about him, yet it had an almost calculating edge now.
And there was pride as well, shyly hiding behind broad shoulders and defiant eyes, indicating that he was slowly starting to accept himself the way he was in an environment so different from everything he had been used to.
She recalled the day they had gone to the concert and he had carried her on his shoulders. He seemed taller now she realized.
The smile that had played about her lips vanished when a thought struck her. "Hey, Van, do you remember Allen Schezar?"
He turned slightly to look at her and steered his bike onto the sidewalk with his free hand. "That very blonde guy?"
Hitomi chuckled. "Yeah, him. He called me last night. He apologized for trying to use me to get to you for a story he was working on."
"He used you?" Van exclaimed in surprise, stopping the bike beside a bench and pulling Hitomi softly out of the way of the people who were slowly meandering alongside the street, heading for the bus stop, heading to buy dinner, heading to an appointment, heading somewhere, anywhere. "And he apologized now? It's a little late, isn't it?"
"Well, at least he apologized at all," Hitomi replied and looked at Van's hand that was curled around her fingers.
She had avoided answering his first question on purpose. The answer would include too many embarrassing memories. She couldn't possibly tell Van that she had had a crush on Allen.
"And he says that he has got something for you." When she looked up at him she found him frowning. The light of a street lamp that filtered through the bare crown of a nearby tree cast edgy patterns across his face and chest. They seemed to move softly against his cheeks like bony fingers. "It's his father's journal. He said his father had investigated Dornkirk Inc. for decades and thought you might be interested."
Van stared at the pavement where the shadows melted into light. Her words bounced in his mind and realizing that their echo was his answer he let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. "I think I won't need it anymore but thanks for telling me."
She waited until the breath that had gathered in front of his lips dispersed before she spoke. "You're welcome."
Her words had already faded yet she was still searching his eyes. She knew what to look for, had seen it one too many times. Her brows unfurled and a hesitant smile spread across her lips when she couldn't find it. "What do you wanna do now?"
He tugged her along with him and his rattling bike and his eyes glinted when he spoke, "Well, Miss Scatterbrain, I can't quite believe you already forgot that Vargas wanted to meet us for dinner today."
She glared at him from behind her blush. "Vargas is not going to stop looking out for you anytime soon, is he? And I'm not scatterbrained."
A faint smile touched his lips that was made of both, doubt and hope. "Vargas is not going to stop looking out for me until I turn fifty-eight with 3 kids, a dog and a mortgage that's been paid off for 7 years at least. And yes, you are scatterbrained. I'd even dare say you suffer from a severe case of memory-deficit disorder. May I remind you of the time you…"
She punched him hard in the arm and people turned when he threw his head back and laughed.
The End
A/N: This is it. Took me a loooong time but I finally finished my baby I know I didn't answer all the questions and didn't explain what happened to everybody but I tried to give glimpses of what is going on in the lives of the other characters. I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out and I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to everybody who stuck with me all these years and didn't give up on the possibility of me updating and everybody who joined somewhere along the way :P Thanks to everybody who reviewed, I really really appreciate all the reviews and I'm sorry I never managed to reply to all of them. Thanks also to everybody who read and never came around to review...I'm pretty much like that as well ::grins::
I won't be gone for long though since I've still got one story out there and no, I haven't forgotten about it. It shall be finished one day. The next chapter is pretty much done, I dare say ::winks::
Thanks,
Dariel