For the Love of a Brother

Disclaimer: I am not making any profit from this. I own nothing other than my story I suppose.

Part V: The Separation Has Begun

Sleeping through the morning Hitomi sighed contentedly. Last night she had talked to Dilandau’s mother. Fortunately she was willing to keep that fact that Hitomi was there a secret from her parents. Maria Albatou only made her promise to keep up with her school work and to eventually confront her family. Slowly rolling over Hitomi sighed again. Yesterday seemed to be nothing but a nightmare.

“You up yet Hitomi?” Dilandau knocked on her door gently.

“Yeah I’m up!” Looking at the clock that was on the nightstand Hitomi was surprised to see that it was already one o’clock in the afternoon. She didn’t even realize how tired she had been yesterday.

Opening the door slowly Dilandau poked his head into her room. “Are you hungry? My mom has some food ready if you want it.”

“Mmm… Food sounds really good right now.”

~~~~~~~

Mrs. Albatou was standing in the kitchen by the stove when her son and his friend came downstairs. “Well good afternoon Hitomi. How are you feeling?”

Hitomi smiled brightly. “I feel great. Thank you for letting me stay here Mrs. Albatou.”

Dilandau’s mother laughed gently. “I would rather you stay here than somewhere else while you’re having conflicts with your family. I won’t force you to go to school if you don’t want to although you will need to keep up with your schoolwork.”

“Thank you so much Mrs. Albatou.” Hitomi hugged her friend’s mother. “You have no idea how much I appreciate you doing this for me!” Settling down at the kitchen table with the plate of food that Maria Albatou made for her Hitomi started to wonder about the conditions that she agreed to. She had no idea how she was going to talk to her family.

~~~~~~~

A sobbing Varie was sitting on the couch in the living room. Yesterday evening her only daughter had disappeared. They all thought that she would have come back late in the night, but they were terrified to find that she hadn’t come back at all.

“Maybe she’ll come back tonight Mom.” Earlier that morning Folken had come back home. Varie and Gaou had told him everything that had happened to lead up to Hitomi running away from home. “She has to come home soon. Where else would she go? She couldn’t have packed that much to be able to stay away for that long.” Putting an arm around his mother the oldest of the Fanel boys tried to comfort his mother.

~~~~~~

Lying awake on his bed Van tried to think of every place that his sister could have gone to. What really pissed him off about her running away wasn’t the fact that she ran away but the fact that his father was blaming him for her running. If only he could think of where she would go. ‘Why did you have to run Hitomi? It would have been better if you hadn’t…’

With a heavy sigh Van closed his eyes. This would be the longest time that he had been separated from his sister since she moved in with them. At dinner it had been decided that if she didn’t come back by tomorrow afternoon they would start searching and asking everyone they knew if they had seen her.

Van sat up suddenly with a growl. Getting out of bed he grabbed a jacket and walked out.

~~~~~~

“And where do you think you’re going boy?”

“Out.”

Storming out the door Van walked out into the cold night. Unlike his parents and brother he wasn’t going to wait any longer. He wasn’t going to wait for her to come home; he was going to bring her back. Fortunately he knew her well enough to know some of the places that she would have gone to. Walking further down his street he headed towards the park that they had always played at. If she wasn’t there he would check Yukari’s house.

The separation wouldn’t last that long.

~~~~~~

“So… Who did you have the fight with in your family? Your parents? Or Van?”

Hitomi let out a small sigh. It was already her second night at Dilandau’s house and he was trying to figure out more about her story and what made her want to run away from home. “It was both. Van and I got in trouble with our parents. Well more Van than me but I couldn’t take what he said so I came here.”

A quirked eyebrow was her only response.

“What?”

“What exactly did you and Van do?”

“Can I tell you and Yukari at the same time, you both are bound to find out anyway?”

“Well if that’s the case then I’ll call her now and have her come over.”

~~~~~~

“Van! What are you doing here?”

“Have you seen Hitomi lately?” The neighborhood park had proven fruitless.

Yukari shook her red head sadly. “No I haven’t. She wasn’t at school today. I just assumed that your mother knew that she was at home sick or something. Did something bad happen?”

“She got into a fight with our parents and ran away. I was trying to find her. If you see her will you call me? I need to find her.”

“Of Course! Don’t worry as soon as I hear anything I’ll let you know.” Closing the door slowly after Van left Yukari sighed. “Why would you run away Hitomi?” Suddenly the phone rang. “I got it Mom!” Grabbing the phone Yukari tried to put some happiness into her voice. “Uchida residence. Yukari speaking.” Yukari gasped. “Dilandau!”