Only Human

"No! Please, don't! No!"

"Belldandy?" Keiichi shouted as he slid the door open. On her bed, the goddess struggled about, pleading aloud in her sleep. Before the night had become too old, her speech drifted in and trailed off and back again, but Belldandy's calling his name remained constant, and that was what woke Keiichi and brought him to her side. It was not even a moment more of watching her cry for help that he could not bear to see her suffer like this.

"Wake up, Bell!" he said as he gently shook her from sleep.

The spell broke and the opening of Belldandy's eyes reflected in whatever light shone through the window. Desperately relieved to see Keiichi's face, the goddess rose up and clung to him as tight as she could.

Keiichi did what he could to calm her down as she choked back the emotions, saying, "It's OK, it's OK, you just had a nightmare."

"A what?" Belldandy said in staggered breaths.

"A nightmare--uh, a bad dream," he said, not finding the right words.

Terrified, she looked at him, saying, "I've never had one before. It was so real!"

"What happened?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Well, I...I don't think I can explain, but--"

"It's OK. They're not real. You just need to sleep, that's all."

Belldandy nodded, and slowly lay back down into her bed. At first, she dared not close her eyes. "I can't," she said with a hint of defiance, "I- I won't!"

Keiichi smiled weakly, as if to comfort her, "There's nothing to be afraid of, really!"

The goddess took his words to heart, and held his hand, just to be sure of what was tangible and what was not. Slowly her gently face, covered with sweat, returned to calm, and her breathing returned from an erratic pace. Belldandy looked at Keiichi one last time. "Promise me," she said.

"Anything," he replied softly.

"Promise me you'll always be with me."

"Always," he whispered to give comfort one more time to allow her to return to sleep. He watched Belldandy eventually fall back into unconsciousness. She gripped his hand a bit tighter as a warm smile grew on her face. Tired as he was, having been woken up in the middle of the night, Keiichi just could not miss the opportunity to see her like this, peaceful and gentle. And as he lay down next to her and drifted into his own sleep, he couldn't help but believe that, whatever their troubles at the time, there would always be moments like this that he lived for.

---

The morning was much of a blur for Keiichi, though not because of the lost sleep during the night. Once Skuld had gone to check up on Belldandy at daybreak, he spent much of the day sneaking around corners of the house, for fear that he could not possibly endure the wrath of Belldandy's younger sister.

Eventually, it was all in vain.

"Keiichi!" Urd called from outside, "Come out here, something's happened!"

Keiichi limped into the hallway, holding his stomach, as if he were keeping it in place. Skuld walked two steps behind him, re-attaching her hammer to the back of her outfit.

"Serves you right!" she said.

"Unh," he groaned, "What is it, Urd?"

They stepped outside and, there, rising up from behind the wall surrounding the temple and the entire residence was a gray cloud of smoke.

"Where there's smoke, I guess," Urd said in an attempt to be witty.

Off went Keiichi, rushing out onto the road to see what was the matter. In front of the temple grounds, there sat a car which was the source of all the smoke dispersing into the air. At the head of the car was a woman, a slender figure in contemporary business clothes. She appeared either a little older or a little younger than Keiichi, whichever it was he couldn't say. He watched her for a moment, kicking its bumper and mumbling words of frustration.

"Stupid car!" she said.

"Miss?" Keiichi asked, "Something the matter?"

The woman turned her head, realizing now she had company. "I'm really sorry!" she cried, "The car just gave out and, well, I guess I'm gonna need a tow truck. Do you, uh, mind if I used your phone?"

Keiichi didn't heed the question, and instead stuck his head underneath the hood, already popped open. Very rarely did he ever get to look at the inner workings of a car to diagnose a problem. "Looks like it might be...uh- huh, yeah, that might be it!"

"What? What is it?" she asked.

Keiichi looked up, holding a dipstick in his hand, "There's not a drop of motor oil in this thing! It was bound to break down!"

The woman stepped back, distraught, "Don't you DARE say that! Not today!"

"I'm afraid so," he said, regrettably.

She tore out her hair, not knowing what to do. "I don't know a thing about cars, and I figured it was going to get me at the worst time!"

"I'm sorry, it's--"

"No, no! It's my fault!" she cried frantically, "I'm so far from home, and I'm so far from where I need to be by this time tomorrow, so something horrible was bound to happen, right!?"

"Well--"

She continued on, "I don't even have any money to fix the damn thing! And this is my parents' car, too! So where am I gonna go? What am I gonna do?"

"I was, uh, just--"

"There goes my career, right? Like the man said, 'Could've been a contender!' But no, that's it! Done in by a car!" The last of her rant flushed out of her system, the woman finally caught a breath and decided to calm down. She looked at Keiichi and said, "I'm sorry, I guess I'm having a bad day."

"It's OK," he said, dumbfounded.

"I just spent most of this morning driving up the countryside, and I still got another three hours to go, so I suppose I'm in the middle of nowhere and--I'm just going on and on, right?"

"I wouldn't say th--"

"No, don't. I just need something to go right today!" she cried before a long pause, "So, what we're you saying."

"Well, uh," Keiichi said, waiting in between words for her to interrupt, before finally suggesting, "I could fix your car."

The woman's jaw dropped ever so noticeably. "What did you say?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I could put in some oil, and I think I have some spare parts in the back. Won't be good as new, but it'll get you where you need to go, I hope."

Suddenly, her eyes lit up, having been saved by the kindness of strangers. "Oh my God," she exclaimed, "You are so cool!" She then stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. "I'm sorry, I never got your name. Miyo Ichikawa, at your service. Do I, uh, owe you anything?"

"Keiichi," he said, glad to be of help, "Keiichi Morisato. And don't worry about it."

"Ah!" she cried, "I love you, Keiichi!"

Keiichi smiled, red in the face. Even more so, though, when he realized that someone, for some time, had been standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the temple.

"Is something wrong?" Belldandy said blankly.

Keiichi jumped, not knowing how to react. "Belldandy!" he said aloud. The mere appearance of it all...

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Miyo said jokingly, "I didn't realize I was stealing him away from you!"

Belldandy recoiled, quickly running the words in her head, "What?"

"I mean, I didn't think I was taking him--no, I mean...your husband's agreed to fix my car!"

Keiichi was absolutely floored. He was relieved to hear Belldandy laugh at Miyo's remark.

"Well, uh," Belldandy said, laughing, "We're not really, um--"

"Ah, I see," Miyo replied, "Well, anything's possible, I suppose!"

"Keiichi, are you OK?" the goddess asked.

"Yeah," Keiichi said, picking himself off the floor, "If I start now, I could have the car ready to go in a couple of hours."

"You're kidding!" Miyo said, obviously surprised. Keiichi nodded, to which she said, "Isn't he great?"

Belldandy agreed silently, "Yes, he is."

---

Miyo had a loud, bubbling voice, accompanied with an obvious penchant to talk anyone's ear off. She resonated throughout the house as she talked on the phone.

"Yes...yes, absolutely!" she said into the receiver, "Well, of course! If I make the trip by tonight, I could be there by early morning, so...naw, don't worry about it! I think I'm good hands. Car's gonna be OK, but I THINK you're gonna need to look at it when I get...no, not at all. I can take care of myself! I trust them. Well, I'm not fifteen years old, I can take care of myself!"

The words all meshed together and echoed in Belldandy's ears, as she prepared a light snack for everyone. Of course, she said nothing about it to Miyo, but she sure had an instant attachment to Keiichi! Once the food was laid down across the table, she went to summon the others. But as the goddess turned the corner, she stopped to listen in on her guest chatting incessantly on the phone.

"He seems like a nice guy," Miyo said, with words that caught Belldandy's attention, "I dunno, apparently he's some sort of handyman, fixes bikes for a living, I think. Come on, it's not like I'm gonna marry him, I just said he's a nice guy!"

"Ah!" Belldandy cried. She had leaned forward to hear better, and once her hand had slid off the wall, she fell clumsily onto the ground, causing Miyo to look in her direction. She had been caught in the act!

"Are you OK?" Miyo asked.

Red-faced and embarassed, Belldandy picked herself off the ground. "I'm sorry," she said, trying to find the words, "I-I...tripped."

Her story had left her mouth before she could catch it and stop it from being heard. Belldandy had lied!

"Oh," Miyo replied, then talking into the phone, "Well, I gotta go. Have to check up on the car. No. No. Yeah! Yes, I know. OK, bye!" She hung up the phone, saying, "Thanks for letting me use your phone!"

"It's no problem at all," Belldandy replied, still shaken, "There's, uh, some food on the table, if you care for a snack."

"That would be great," she said, turning for the doorway, "Why don't I go get your lover-boy and we'll all have lunch?"

"My--what?" the goddess asked.

Miyo looked back at Belldandy's blank stare, "Your, uh, Keiichi. Why don't I go grab him from outside and we'll all have lunch?"

"Ah, yes," she said, understanding.

The houseguest nodded one more time and off she went to summon Keiichi from underneath the hood of her car. She left Belldandy standing in the hallway, trying to piece together the sequence of events in her mind. The goddess did not see her older sister creep up from behind her.

"Is it possible?" she asked, "I mean, is it possible at all?"

"Urd!" Belldandy replied, startled, "I don't know what you mean."

"Well, I don't know, you've always been so protective of Keiichi, but never like this!"

"Oh, stop it!" she snapped, "Why shouldn't I be, when there's a--"

Belldandy stopped in mid-sentence when she had realized that she had shaken Urd with her emotional retort.

"I'm sorry, sis," Urd said softly, "I shouldn't have--"

"No," Belldandy insisted, her face full of distress, "No, you're right. It's true, I've become so...so..."

"Oh, come, now," she said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Look at you, you're one of us after all!"

They both laughed, if only to make light of a tense situation. Belldandy smiled softly, and asked out of ignorance, "Is that good?"

---

"Some days, I think my parents wanted a son," Miyo said in what appeared to be a very extensive monologue, "Else they wouldn't be sending their little princess to help run the family business."

"Uh-huh," Keiichi said, still going at it underneath the car.

"Of course, it's not that I don't like it. Well, the hours are pretty bad and some of the people I have to deal with are even worse! Still, I wouldn't miss it for the world, I guess."

"Gives you a lot to talk about, I suppose."

Miyo paused, and said, "Oh my God, I get that a lot. Do you think I talk too much?"

"Well, uh--"

"It's OK, you can be straight with me. I can go on and on for hours! It's making up for lost time, I think. I didn't have many friends at school. I'm not visually appealing, is what the guys would say."

Keiichi rolled out from underneath the car, "I don't think so."

"Naw, it's true! When I was in high school, I was an ol' shorty," Miyo said, unaware that she had finally caught his attention.

"You don't say," he said, captivated.

"Yeah. So, nowadays, whenever I have someone to talk to, I just, you know, talk their ears off! Force of habit, I know I shouldn't. Not many people had my dilemma, I guess."

Keiichi shook his head in amusement, "You'd be surprised, Miyo. But, uh, anyways, I just need to replace a couple more parts, and you should be all set."

"Really?" Miyo asked, "That's great! Well, don't you worry about it right now. I came here to tell you that your Belldandy made some lunch."

"What?" he cried, "That was twenty minutes ago!"

---

Keiichi sat in between the two: Belldandy to his left and Miyo to his right. It seemed innocuous enough; in fact, he didn't notice at all. That is, until he noticed the expressions on the faces of both Urd and Skuld, sitting across from him and fully aware of what could be a tense situation.

Miyo, on the other hand, was completely oblivious. She continued to talk everyone to near-death, as was her nature.

"It's so hard to believe that all three of you are sisters!" she exclaimed.

Belldandy, Keiichi observed, put on her best face and tried to hold it for as long as she could. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Well, look at the three of you, no resemblance to each at all!"

"You see, our family is, um--"

"--Very unique," Urd interjected.

"Oh, I'll bet! Listen, Belldandy, thank you for lunch, it was wonderful."

"You're quite welcome," the goddess replied, smiling.

"And you, Keiichi!" Miyo cried, grasping his hand and shaking it for everyone, including Belldandy, to see, "I don't know how to thank you!"

"Well, I--" Keiichi began to say in a bashful tone. When Belldandy cleared her voice, though, he jumped inside and instinctively pulled his hand away. "It's nothing, really," he said with a bit more caution in his speech, "I just love doing it, that's all."

"Oh, you're certainly good at it, I can tell you!"

At that point, Belldandy couldn't stand it for one moment longer. From underneath the table, she sought help from her older sister, gently pinching her on her arm.

"Ow! What--?" Urd said, then looked at her sister. "Oh, uh...Miyo, why don't I show you my lab? I've been cooking up some aphrodisiacs that can drive any man crazy!"

"Really? In that case, sure, I'd love to check it out."

"Wonderful," she said, taking Skuld by the hand, "Come now, kid, why don't we all go?"

"What are you talking about?" Skuld asked, carried away by force, with her voice trailing off, "Let me go! Let me go! Let me..."

What remained was a deafening silence between Keiichi and Belldandy. The two sat motionless at the table for nearly an eternity.

At last, he spoke up, "Talk about bad timing, huh?"

She, on the other hand, lacked the words to respond.

"Bell, you know that I love no one else but you."

"I know," Belldandy replied, almost whispering.

"Then what--?"

"I trust you, Keiichi! With all my heart, I trust you. It's just...HER that I don't trust!"

The silence returned once more, as Keiichi searched for a hint of understanding to something he couldn't possibly consider about Belldandy.

"Are you jealous?"

She looked up once the question was posed. Finally, she was confronted with her dilemma. "I know I shouldn't!" she cried, "She is everything that I am not, and I can't help but wonder if that is what I could've been for you! That I couldn't have given you what you wanted!"

"Belldandy," Keiichi insisted, "I want no one else BUT you."

"I know that!" Belldandy shouted, "But this doubt, this dread...it's never been this strong before. I've never felt like this before!"

He sighed, pressed into action to fix another problem. "I'm sorry, Bell, I guess I underestimated your feelings."

Her feelings? He hadn't considered them?

"Hold on," Keiichi said, "That came out wrong. But you're just going to have to trust me. Believe me when I say that when I walk out that door to finish fixing her car, I'm coming right back. OK?"

Eventually, Belldandy nodded in agreement. She searched deep inside to find the trust that she had lost, but ultimately she put her faith in his pledge. "Go on, fix her car," she said.

With that, he stood up and walked out, but not before getting in the last word, saying, "Jealousy can be good, I guess. It lets someone know how much you love them, and that you don't want to lose that. Thank you, Bell!"

As the door slid closed, Belldandy was left all alone, pleasantly surprised. She had not thought of it in that manner, and without her Keiichi, she would have never considered it at all.

---

"Well," Miyo said, "I can't say it enough. Thank you so much!"

"Don't worry," Keiichi replied, "You've said more than enough."

"Oh, you joker!" she exclaimed. When she leaned forward, she kissed him ever so softly on the cheek.

Belldandy gasped silently, but watched almost helplessly as Keiichi handed the keys to her car.

"Will you make it in time?"

"I probably wouldn't, if it weren't for you," Miyo said, "I just have to--"

"Check the fluids on the way back, right."

"Gotcha," she said, then turning to Belldandy, "Girl, let me tell you something."

The goddess stepped back for a moment as Miyo drew closer, but stopped to heed her words.

"Don't you ever let go of him, do you hear me?" she whispered, "Not for all the universe. Not for anything."

"I won't," Belldandy replied, smiling, and finally changing her opinion of Miyo. At long last, their guest drove off in her car, off to wherever it was she needed to be. Both Keiichi and Belldandy waved goodbye as she drove down the road and disappeared into the horizon. Her words remained with the goddess, of course, and continued to echo deep inside. "Don't ever let go of him," the voice said, trailing off.

---

The clock had struck four. The dead of night would be no longer in a couple of hours, but as it turned out, Belldandy had been agonizing over yet another nightmare for much of her sleep. In fact, it was the same episode that she had experienced the night before.

"No! Please!"

She was helpless to stop it from happening, powerless to keep from watching it so curiously. Over and over in this dream, she stood from afar, and yet saw herself in the distance. There was Keiichi, too, right beside her. They were happy to be together, sure enough, but that was what was so heart- wrenching.

"Don't, no!"

Every so often, the spectre that resembled Keiichi inexplicably abandoned the figure that looked like Belldandy. For any number of reasons, it didn't matter. Every time, Keiichi left her behind, leaving the goddess in the distance behind in despair. As a final insult, the sequence would repeat all over again. There were slight nuances and variations, but the theme remained the same, and it was terrifying each time for Belldandy. Until, that is, she could bear it not one minute more.

"STOP!"

The door opened and, once again, Keiichi stepped through it. Only this time, the bed that server as a place for Belldandy to sleep was empty. The window to the outside was left open, but no one remained inside.

"Belldandy?" he cried aloud, not concerned that there were others asleep. He flicked the switch on, and the glow of the light revealed a clue, a note atop the comforter on the bed. Keiichi knelt down to inspect it, and the words did not please him.

---

I'm sorry, Keiichi, but though you made a promise to me, it is I who must leave. Not for long, just to sort out those emotions that I am not fit to handle. I shall return, of that you can be sure. For now, please believe me if I say that I will never leave you, but until I can be confident of anything, I must simply leave. - Belldandy.

To Be Continued...