Of Gangs and Groceries
Gwydion and T4

Chapter 10

Allen attempted to shield Hitomi from the gang, but she seemed pretty adamant about pushing him out of the building. "Who are you calling a piece of trash?" he cried, though with less gusto than he had intended. "So I can't enter an abandoned warehouse, but you can ruin my car, huh?"

"Shut up," she hissed and gave him a firm shove toward the door.

The gang leader smirked. "You didn't appreciate my artistic talent, did you? Well, that's too bad, lawyer-boy. Maybe next time you'll have a little more compassion for someone who's just trying to help a girl out." Dragon walked closer to Allen, paying no attention to Hitomi who was still standing between the two.

"Oh my word..." she mumbled, trying to ignore Dragon's huge ego which filled the entire room. Similarly, his gang, on his command, began to spread throughout the room, blocking the exit.

Allen, realizing that there was no way out, gently pushed Hitomi aside who had pretty much given up. He was now facing the smirking gang leader. Hitomi moved off to the side, grumbling to herself about her old friend's absolute stupidity.

Trying to be cool and tough, Allen repeatedly dropped the wrench into his hand, eyes narrow, and began, "I don't think I ever got to pay you for the work you did on my car."

Dragon's gang laughed as their leader raised an amused eyebrow. "Are you challenging me? You realize that your daddy can't come save you if you get hurt. But if you insist..."

Allen gripped the wrench tightly and swung it, hitting the gang leader squarely in the chin, causing his lip to split open and bleed. "I do."

Hitomi's eyes almost bugged out of her head. This can't go on. She thought as quickly as she could. What could she do? What could she do?

The gang leader touched his lip and stared vaguely at the blood on his fingers. His cold eyes glared at the wrench-holding wuss, a cruel smile playing on his lips. In a flash, Dragon's fist grabbed the front of Allen's shirt, and with his other he punched him in the nose. Stunned, his opponent dropped the wrench, which landed with a loud clank on the hard floor. The gang leader then pushed him to the ground and brought his fist back for another, probably final, blow, his posse egging him on.

"Stop!" Hitomi yelled. She held the cell phone in her hand. "One more digit, and I will have called 911. I know you don't want the police involved. Now, let him up and let us leave in peace, and I won't call. I don't want to have to do this, but if you even make a wrong move, I will call." Her eyes were fierce.

Dragon froze, arm still raised. A very big part of him really wanted to beat the snot out of this creep. The rational part of his mind realized that doing so would only cause more problems. Reluctantly, he slowly moved away from the downed rich boy. "Happy?" he said as he motioned for his gang to back off. As Allen picked himself off the floor, he added, "Feel free to come by anytime, lawyer-boy."

Allen looked as if he might say some threat or smart aleck retort, but Hitomi cut him off with a warning: "Come on, Allen." Grudgingly, he followed her through the door and down the rickety steps. Able to hear waning voices in the warehouse, Hitomi headed into her building, dragging Allen behind her. His nose was bleeding all over his recently clean, white button down shirt, making a complete mess.

"Sit down," she commanded as she got a damp cloth for him once they had reached her apartment. After a few minutes of directing him and lots of wiping, his nose finally stopped bleeding. "It's not broken, is it?"

He touched his nose and took a few deep breaths through it. "No, I don't think so." He hadn't said much until then. Hitomi sat down across from him. There was so much that needed to be said, discussed, argued over, but the two sat in silence for a while, undoubtedly working the conversation out in their heads, trying to find the best words.

Finally, Hitomi decided to just hit the problem head on. "What in the world were you doing over there?!" She motioned in the direction of the warehouse. Yeah, she was too shocked and annoyed to think of any better words despite her attempts during the prolonged silence.

An answer didn't come immediately. There was some staring at the floor and silent thought before any speech came. "They know you live here, right? Any time they could just come over and... " He stopped, not wanting to recount all the horrid possibilities that had been flowing through his mind.

"I've been fine up 'til now. Allen, right now, my biggest problem is what you just did. Why did you come here? I don't want you trying to save me or something. I thought I had made that perfectly clear." She sighed, running her freshly cleaned hand through her hair.

"I didn't come to save you, alright?" he defended as emphatically as he could.

What? Hitomi looked at him, waiting for the 'real' reason for his visit to the gang occupied building.

"Did you see what that punk did to my car?! He has no right to treat me in such a manner!" he fumed, adding in his head, "He's got no right to treat you in such a manner!"

"So all your stupidity was because of something as lame as a car?!"

"It is a very nice car." He corrected, "It was a very nice car."

"So what? Yes, it was a nice car, but who cares? Your life and health and safety are more important than any kind of vehicle, even your precious baby." Was he really this shallow?

"It's not my precious baby," he defended weakly, not wanting to admit the truth.

"Well, you sure seem to be acting like it is…"

He stood in a rush, haphazardly pushing in the sad, little chair. "For Pete's sake, Hitomi!" He ran his hand that still had a little dried blood on it through his nice, but slightly disheveled blonde hair; he positioned his arm so that she couldn't see his face. Throwing out his hand, he continued, "You know that I didn't go over there because of my car."

"Allen," she spoke as she stood, but he disregarded her.

"I really couldn't care less about my car. It's you that I'm so worried about. Hitomi, the way -"

"Allen." Her firm tone made him stop and look at her across the table. "I know. You don't have to say any more; I know. I appreciate all your help. You know I do, but Allen, you can't fight this battle. First, please understand that this is my problem to fix. Second, they could hurt you." She looked up at him with a worried expression and looked away. "I simply could not bear it if you got hurt because of me. Please don't even make that a possibility of something I might have to deal with." She stopped for a moment then looked at him. "I know you want to help, and I thank you so much for it. But, please - please stay out of this."

He looked at her for a good long moment. He wasn't sure what emotion was going through him. Was he happy because she was concerned for him or was he still worried for her or was he angry that she wouldn't let him help? He didn't even know. Slowly, he made his way to the other side of the table where Hitomi stood, looking down. He raised her head gently with his finger, "I'm sorry, Hitomi, if I made you worry. But that is the feeling I constantly have." His hand dropped to his side as he proceeded, "Please understand. I will try my best to give you your space and let you deal with this, but I worry about you a lot."

"Please don't." She knew that nothing she could say would make him stop, but she had to try at least one more time. She always had to try at least one more time. He just smiled sadly in return and headed to the door. Just as he was opening the door slowly and the low groan of the old door subsided, she quickly requested: "Promise me something, Allen. Please promise me something."

"What?"

Desperately, but quietly, she said, "Promise me that you'll never go to that warehouse again."

He thought a moment.

"Please promise me, Allen."

"I promise." With that, he shut the door behind him.

"Hello, is Momaru there? This is Hitomi," she spoke with Allen's family's butler, Mr. Scherazade, on the phone. He had come to recognize her voice due to her calls every evening recently.

"Momaru? How are you?"

"I'm good," he assured, about to burst with stories of the day. "Today, Allen took me to the zoo. He even bought me the feed at the petting zoo part, and I fed the goat. It started trying to eat my fingers, but Allen shooed it away before I lost any fingers. Then, we went to the exotic bird show. I got to go down to the front and the hawk landed on my arm. You wouldn't guess it the way they fly so easily, but they're pretty heavy."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they are. But they're really cool birds. We learned about what they eat and where they live. Then, afterward, Allen and I came back home, and we had dinner, then he had somewhere he had to go. He's not back yet or you could talk with him. But Mr. Scherazade promised to play me on Allen's Gamecube. At first, it was sorta embarrassing, 'cause he totally crushed me the first few times, but I'm catching up now. I've gotten a lot better. Don't worry, though, I don't spend too much time doing that. I read and do only educational stuff during the day." He sounded only somewhat serious, but that was okay for Hitomi. She smiled almost sadly. It was great that her brother was having a good time. He deserved it. She just wished that she could be with him. Soon, she assured herself, soon. But after tonight's charades... who knew? "So," Momaru finally slowed down some and asked, "How was work?"

"It was fine," Hitomi assured.

"Did he bother you?" He didn't need to mention White Dragon's name; it was more than understood. She hadn't told her brother about Dryden. He didn't need to know that.

"Well, a little, but it turned out fine in the end." Hitomi quickly changed the subject, not wanting to be asked anything more about Dragon. She hoped that Allen wouldn't tell Momaru about that night. "But get this. There was this little old lady today who was there for the sale on cat food, which, honestly, was more than amazing because everyone was there for the meat sale, really. Maybe she just didn't get the memo. Well, I take it back; I guess she did have some of the meat on sale, which is so gross, honestly. But, anyway, back to the cat food." She recounted the story of the partially deaf lady, feeling her brother's excitement rub off on her just a little bit.

After about fifteen minutes on the phone, she had to cut Momaru off before he started recounting all the levels of the video game he was working on. "We'll talk again tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, I'll tell you about it then."

"Sounds great, Momaru. I love you." She was actually smiling. This had been a good conversation.

"I love you too. Be careful, okay?"

"I will. Don't worry about me. I'm tough."

"I know."

"Alright," she tried again to say goodbye.

"Hitomi?" he cut her off.

"Yeah?"

"When are you going to be done with this and come get me?"

"Soon... I hope. Soon." She paused. "Well... I love you, Momaru. We'll talk later."

"Bye."

"Sleep well." She hung up and held the phone for a few minutes. Momaru was such a good brother. Sighing, she set the cell phone in the recharger and crawled into bed.

"Hello, Mr. Moleman!" It was bright and early this fine Friday morning before the last day of the meat sale. Ick.

"Why, hello Hitomi! How are you?"

He asked that daily, and she always answered, "Fine." That was the only response she felt like giving. It was easier than going into all the business with Allen and Dragon and Dryden and Momaru and the grocery store and everything that seemed to be going wrong, well, at least, not right, with her life. But she was at the pizza place, and, for the most part, this place was a safe haven where she could just be calm. She didn't have to worry about the people or the nuisance of dealing with customers, even. She was there early to make the crusts and prepare the shop for the day. It was just her and Mr. Moleman who just loved to listen to his oldies. Being somewhat of an oldies fan herself, Hitomi always enjoyed singing along when she could. Some days, she wasn't much into it, but after a few bars of "Wild Thing" or "Dizzy" or "Leader of the Pack" she couldn't help but lighten up a little bit until customers started coming in. That was when she remembered that she had to be pleasant and would soon have to continue on to the grocery store. It wouldn't have been so bad if it just hadn't been for... well, a few things. Oh well, she was going to enjoy her time with Mr. Moleman this morning.

"This is for all the lonely people..."

Van groaned as he looked out at the parking lot. He was going to kill whoever was supposed to have carts last. It was a meat sale day; you could not neglect your cart getting duties on meat sale days. Because not only was the parking lot full of random carts, most of which were not in the designated "leave your cart here" spaces, but all of the ones inside the store for the customers to take and use were missing. And if he didn't hurry, the manager on duty would blame him. He sighed as he grabbed the bright orange vest (which had certainly seen better days before the other baggers decided to rip it apart and then try to put it back together with staples) and walked out into the parking lot, the hot sun beating down on him.

"Have a nice day," Hitomi greeted for the seemingly millionth time that day. She hadn't had a second to just breathe since she got there. In fact, there had been at least four customers in her line since she opened fated lane three. Why did they put her here? She always preferred the larger numbered lanes. Why? Because people came to them last - oh, especially lane eight. That was the best lane to get. The fewest number of people made their way all the way down to that lane. But, alas, she was stuck at lane three. People were buying so much meat. She knew this wasn't going to be a fun day due to the hectic nature of yesterday. And yesterday had been a Thursday, not a Friday. Fridays were naturally busier. Sigh. She turned to the next customer. "Hello. How are you?" She began to ring up the packages of meat, along with some assorted yogurt and a head of cauliflower. The customer forced a quickly fading smile and returned to look at the really dumb soap opera magazines. When she had completely finished the order, Hitomi stated,

"That'll be $156.38, please."

"I have a money order," the customer informed matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Hitomi looked a little unsure; she never had figured out how to do this. "One moment, please." She picked up the phone and dialed the number for the customer service desk. "I need help with a money order." The person from the front desk didn't sound too pleased to have to help the cashier out but ensured that she'd be there soon. Hitomi looked at the front desk; there were many people getting rain checks and other types of transactions going on. It was such a busy line. While she waited, she watched as her line grew annoyingly long.

Finally, the person showed up and finished the money order. 'Why do people use money orders?' Hitomi wondered as she stared haphazardly around the store, waiting for this customer to be finished so she could start the next one.

At that moment, a flash of orange caught her eye. She turned her head toward the entrance and saw a rather disgusting sight. There stood Van dripping with sweat, peeling the neon vest off of him. She saw him wince and grab his finger. He then looked down at one of the stapled straps and cursed. Shaking her head, she turned back to her register and began ringing up the next person in line.

The Van quickly checked the cart list and found the name of the next person on duty. He practically threw the moist vest at the bagger and began packing in his place. The cashier eyed him and crinkled her nose in disgust at what was sure to become pit stains. Van just ignored her as he stuffed the customer's green pepper (which was not in a produce bag, mind you) into a plastic bag, earning him an equal look of revulsion from the customer.

Finally, it was Hitomi's lunch break. As she turned her light off, one more customer came into her line, well, one customer and one giggly friend. Groan. She politely rang up the thankfully small purchase of two candy bars. She looked at the customer, a girl of similar age to herself, but one who was undoubtedly "popular" or some such annoyance dictating airheadiness. The customer had her cheerleader smile on. "It'll be 98 cents please."

Hitomi forced a smile in return as she passed the candy bars down to her bagger, Amano, to bag.

The girl pulled out a dollar and handed it to Hitomi.

"Out of one dollar, then?"

"Wait." She stopped Hitomi who impatiently waited for the girl who was searching her bottomless purse for something. "I have two pennies to make it easier."

Hitomi looked at her, dumbfounded, but did as she was requested. "Okay, out of $1.02."

She pulled off the receipt and handed the girl four pennies of change. "Four cents is your change." She grinned, wallowing in the stupidity of the girl.

The customer's friend giggled and pushed the other girl who just looked at her hand, not believing her eyes. "Oops," she squealed as she grabbed her Milky Way and Nutrageous bars which had been gently placed into a white grocery bag. They left in a whiff of too strong perfume and highlighted hair, but not before Amano called out cheerfully, "Have an awesome day!" How could he be so stinkin' happy on a meat sale day? He always said that. Finally, Hitomi was allowed her break.

It was over. At long last, the meat sale days were done. Hitomi moseyed her way home, taking her time because she was just so darn tired. It was hot, too. Yes, the sun was down - and recently, it had been relatively acceptable, almost cool, on her walks home, but today was different. It had been sweltering this afternoon, and now it was merely sultry.

Finally, she turned the corner into the alley. At this point in her walk home, she always became more alert to her surroundings, making sure no one was going to jump out of somewhere and bother her or something. She opened the door to the stairwell of her apartment. There was a shadowy figure on the bottom stair.

"Took you long enough."

to be continued...

A/N: Dun dun dun... Guess you'll have to wait to find out what happens next, ne? ^_~ And does anyone know if I spelled Allen's guymelef (can't spell that either...) right? I figured it would make a good butler, lol. That and I was running out of characters connected to Allen to use. Anyways, that'll be it for now! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! ^_^