Disclaimer: Do we own Escaflowne? I think you all know the answer to that.

Chapter 5

As soon as Hitomi was seated, Van walked over to her, deciding to take an on the clock break. He sat down directly in front of her. "What were you doing with that policeman?" he demanded quietly.

"We're dating," she answered sarcastically.

"Don't joke with me."

"Don't talk to me."

"Answer my questions, and I'll leave you alone. Now, what did you tell him?" he said coldly.

"Leave me alone, huh? You haven't left me alone once!" Her voice began to raise, and people started to look their direction. She lowered her voice. "Leave me alone." Under her once pretty green eyes were now large, black circles. Lack of sleep and worry had made them quite pronounced.

His eyes narrowed. "I suggest you talk. Now."

She was annoyed. "Well, lemme tell you a story, then, 'kay? There was once a time when I could live in peace. Thanks to you, though - "

"Will you shut up?!" he yelled. He lowered his voice as he continued, (yes, people were definitely staring by now) "Fine. Don't tell me what I want to know. You'll be the one regretting it, wench." With that, he stood and stormed off.

"At least I can come up with better insults..." she mumbled to herself as she put her head on the table.

Saturday was uneventful - fortunately. Hitomi worked a 9 hour day, and Van wasn't even there - much to her happiness.

Sunday, Hitomi and her brother got up at 8:30 in order to attend church. She put on her nicest dress. It was truly a very fashionable, lace sundress. She took it out of the suitcase that was under the lone bed in their dingy apartment. Her brother had a black suit. It looked sharp on him except for the fact that he had slightly outgrown it. The pants were an inch or two too short as were the sleeves. Nonetheless, if you didn't look too closely, he almost passed off as respectable. The same went for Hitomi as all she had for shoes were worn down loafers.

Church was three blocks away, so around 9:40 they left for a leasiurely stroll to church.

That same Sunday afternoon, Dilandau held a meeting with his posse.

"So, what are we gonna do, boss?" asked a man with a black eye from the last rumble.

The scarred gang leader scowled. He stroked his cheek, deep in thought. He would get Dragon back. And it would be bad. Very, very bad. "Men," he began, "I know just the thing to make that skinny, no good creep beg for mercy."

"Oh, what is it, boss?" cried one man excitedly, jumping up and down clapping his hands.

Dilandau looked at the freak in the back, raising an eyebrow. He shook his head in disgust. It was so hard to find good help these days. "Migel! Chesta" he called, two of his men coming to attention as he did so, "I need you two to keep an eye on someone for me."

"Anything you say, boss," replied Migel immediatly.

Chesta asked, "Who?"

"You all remember that girl we caught with Dragon, right? Well, seems she's not just any girl; she's his girl. I need you to tail her, find out where she goes. We are going to be paying her a little visit very shortly." His eyes narrowed as a cruel grin spread across his face.

"What are we going to do to her, boss?" Chesta asked with an eerie gleam in his eye.

"You will let me know what she does. Then I will deal with her when I decide the time is right, got it?" Dilandau glared at his men, the click of his lighter echoing through the room.

The two nodded.

"Good. Now, go to the area near Dragon's warehouse. She has to live somewhere near there. Oh, and Migel, Chesta? Don't come back until you have the information I want."

"Yes, boss!"

As the gang leader watched his men leave, he slowly stroked the scar on his cheek, the grin never leaving his face.

Early Monday morning, Hitomi left for Mr. Moleman's as usual. There was an odd car in the alleyway, but she didn't think too much about it. Really, what was so shifty about a '93 Buick LeSabre? Light blue, at that. But then again, there were two sort of shifty men sleeping in there. She hurried by without their waking.

"Hello!" cried Mr. Moleman as she entered the store.

"Hello, Mr. Moleman. How's business?"

She finished out her day as usual by heading to the grocery store at 11. Once there, she noticed Van glaring daggers at her. Ignoring him, she picked up her till and walked to her register. The first few hours were the same as usual, but just before her first break, murmurs broke out amongst the baggers.

"Hello, Miss Davis, would you like paper or plastic?" asked Hitomi's bagger a little too sweetly.

"Oh, paper please," said the customer in a voice that seemed much to low to be a female's.

Sort of surprised, Hitomi took a second glance at her customer. The "woman" had a rather manly wrinkled face underneath a large white wig. "She" wore a pale blue dress with matching nail polish on "her" large hands. Not to mention that "her" legs looked a little too big and hairy.

Hitomi couldn't help but stare a little. As Miss Davis exited the grocery store, her bagger leaned toward her and whispered, "That was Miss Davis, one of our more colorful shoppers." Hitomi quickly left for her break and went to the back room to watch TV. A story on the news about a local rich kid's school intrigued her. She watched closely as the students in maroon blazers crossed the colorful autumn campus. As her fifteen minutes ended, she sighed and went back to her job.

As she returned home that night, she noticed that the blue LeSabre was still parked in the alley. She shrugged and went on home.

"Hey, Chesta!" Migel jabbed his partner in the ribs. Chesta awoke with a jolt. "I caught sight of her."

"Where? Where'd she go!?" he asked as he frantically looked around.

"Home, where else?" replied the other with a smirk. He pointed a gloved finger at Hitomi's run down apartment complex. "Now all we have to do is watch for her to come back out tomorrow, follow her all day, and then tell the boss what's up."

"Yeah, but you have to make sure you're awake this time," commented Chesta darkly, "We must have missed her this morning when you were supposed to be on watch."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up."

The two men made themselves more comfortable, readying themselves for their mission tomorrow morning.

The next morning was like the last - Hitomi got up, went to the pizza shop, and the car was still in the alley. But, this time, the inhabitants were awake and watching her. She made like she didn't notice and continued. They followed at a not too indiscrete distance. As she quickened her pace, the car sped up with her. The car did the same when she walked slowly. Yeah, she was sure - she was being followed. Now, why? And by whom? She was sorta worried, to be honest. But, she had to go to work, so she stopped at the pizza place and greeted Mr. Moleman as usual. The car parked across the street until, as suspected, she left for the grocery store around 11.

"That chick must work here," said Migel. "This must have been where we saw her returning from last night."

"Alright, let's head back to the boss and give him the skinny." At that, the blue Buick drove off.

It was around three when Hitomi was supposed to take her break. She had just turned her light off when one more person got in her line. "What's one more?" she thought, sort of annoyed, but not terribly so. The customer just before the late-comer left, and she greeted her last customer with a "Hello, how are you?" and a smile until she noticed the scar running down the man's face.

"I'm doing quite well, thanks, but I think you could use a break. Whaddya say the two of us take a walk?" Dilandau grinned, hands in the pockets of his oversized trench coat.

"Uh..." she looked around. No one seemed to notice something weird was going on. "I really gotta go over there..." She pointed at the side of the managers' customer service counter where the timeclock was.

"Do you now?" Through the thin material of this pocket, the outline of a gun was most obvious.

Hitomi nodded, hoping someone had noticed, and began walking in the direction the scarred freak motioned. He quickly led her to the back of the store, toward the storage area. Hitomi quietly went where she was directed. Why her? What did it always have to be her? Dilandau led her into one of the large refrigerator rooms. They were surrounded by a LOT of milk.

"Now, I have some things I'd like to discuss with you regarding our mutual friend," he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and coldly informed, "He's no friend of mine, thank you."

"Oh, isn't he?"

"It's true," she defended.

Dilandau's eyes narrowed as he pulled the gun out of his pocket. "Now, would you like to try that again?"

"Try what again?"

"Don't toy with me! I know you know what Dragon is planning!" he yelled.

"No, really, I don't," she informed him calmly - well, as calmly as a person at gun point can answer an insane gunman.

"Dilandau! What the heck are you doing here!?" Dragon, in his gang attire, burst into the refrigerator. Both Hitomi and Dilandau turned and looked at their "mutual friend".

"Heh, come to save your woman, Whitey?" taunted the armed gang leader.

"What?! I am no such thing, you thick-skulled moron," Hitomi mumbled as the sentence came to an end and crossed her arms.

Dragon laughed. "You think I give a care about her? Always knew you were crazy, Dilly. What I want to know is why you're here."

"I'm just checking up on a certain someone who I know not only has the information I want, but can be used as quite the hostage" the other gang leader replied with a smirk, grabbing Hitomi around the neck and holding the gun up to her temple. Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Now that you're here, I think the hostage role is more appropriate, wouldn't you agree? I'll get all of my information from you, White Dragon."

"Go ahead, shoot her. You realize, however, that by doing that the security would be alerted to your presence, and unless you plan on shooting your way through them, there wouldn't be much of an escape route for you. Though I'll admit that by killing her you'd be getting rid of a very annoying aspect of my life," he said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but if you shoot him, you'd be getting rid of a very annoying aspect of both of our lives," she said snidely.

Dilandau's face contorted with rage. This was not what he had expected, and he was getting rather furious. He didn't care who he had to shoot just as long as he got what he wanted, his revenge. Of course, the girl had a point. If he just shot Dragon here, he'd never have to worry about him ever again. It seemed that his plan had in fact worked after all. He began to move the gun away from Hitomi's head when a loud siren suddenly went off, indicating that a shipment of goods was ready to be unloaded. Startled, Dilandau looked around frantically, not realizing what was going on.

Dragon took this moment to run at the rival gang leader. With Dilandau not paying attention, he had a chance of getting the gun away and using it himself. But as he drew closer to the other man, his opponent realized what was going on and turned his gun toward the approaching foe. With a loud bang, the gun fired, Dragon ducking behind some crates of chocolate milk to get out of harm's way.

As Dilandau headed toward the crates of chocolate milk, Hitomi took a deep breath and elbowed her captor in the stomach. With a cry, he bent over slightly and loosened his grip on the cashier. Realizing it was now or never, she grabbed at the gun and was just barely able to yank it from the gang leader's hand. She promptly aimed it at him as he glared at her, his fists clenched.

"Aw, great," muttered Dragon, looking out from his hiding place. He wasn't sure whether the gun was better off in Hitomi's hands or Dilandau's.

Shaking the gun slightly for accent, Hitomi warned, "Don't move."

"Right," mumbled Dragon. He not only knew that Hitomi didn't have the guts to shoot anyone, but also that Dilandau wouldn't let that stop him. He quickly took the opportunity to jump at his opponent. Dilandau looked up just in time to see his rival pull back his fist. He immediately ducked, Dragon's fist passing just over his head. The scarred man retaliated with a punch of his own, but Dragon was too fast. Dilandau turned around, ready to deliver another blow, but instead found his foe ready for him.

Just as Dragon grabbed the other man's collar and punched him in the eye, a rather overweight security guard ran in, wheezing due to a lifetime of smoking. "Nobody move until the cops get here!" he screamed, his face flushed from running across the store. The three just looked at him as the sound of police sirens drew nearer. Before they had even a chance to react, they heard several steel-toed boots running in their direction.

"Freeze! Don't anybody move!" shouted one of the policemen, a gun pointed at Hitomi. The girl immediately put both of her hands up, forgetting she still had the gun in one of them. "Put the gun down now!" he added, motioning his gun at the floor.

"R-right," she answered as she slowly set the gun on the floor.

'Crap,' thought Dragon, who was still holding Dilandau. He really did not need this right now. The last people he wanted to deal with were the police. If they realized that he was the head of a gang, he could be in a whole heap of trouble. Dilandau began to squirm.

"Hey!" he shouted suddenly, "These two were trying to kill me!"

"What?!" Hitomi cried. "That's such a lie!" Her eyes widened.

"We'll see about that down at the station," the policeman sneered. At that, he motioned to his cohorts to cuff the dark-haired hooligan and the girl. They roughly pushed them into the the back of police car number 9 and transported them to the station. Dilandau was also taken for questioning; he however was treated like a first-class victim.

to be continued...

A/N: Ok, first off, I'd like to make an extra disclaimer: using things like the term "Whitey" and people like Miss Davis are not meant to be offensive. Well, "Whitey" is an insult to Dragon, but not a racial slur or anything. Also, I merely put down the real reactions of people towards Miss Davis. I'm not trying to be discriminatory. Just felt I should add that. ^_^ Anyway, hope you enjoyed the next chapter!