Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne in any form so don't try to attach it to me, I have enough problems as it is.
Chapter One: Problems on Earth
Has it been three years already, has it really been three years since I returned to Earth? Hitomi thought while lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Hitomi's high school graduation was next week and none of it, none of the change, none of the apprehensiveness, none of this anxiety affected her... until now. She changed her position until she was seated and her knees were pressed up against her chest. Ever since Hitomi came back from Gæa, her impassive nature just took control. When all of the other graduating girls were all giggly and excited, Hitomi didn't really understand their elation. What was so great about moving onto another school? It'd just be high school all over again with just another group of people. She got up and walked to the full-length mirror in her room. Her appearance hasn't changed much since she left, well except that she let her hair grow about five or six inches longer than normal. She also lost the lanky little girl image. Now, she seemed to look more like a woman than a girl.
Hitomi looked over on her closet where a lavender dress laid. The dress was diagonally strapped with a long bodice and skirt. After studying it for the hundredth time, she looked away and sighed. It was a bridesmaid's dress. Another event would be taking place next week, Yukari's wedding. She didn't know why it came as such a shock, but it did even though Amano and her were together since he returned from England. He left only to come back a few months later…to Yukari. She remembered when Yukari told her it would happen almost a year ago.
The phone rang. Do I really want to pick it up? Hitomi thought. She let it ring about six times before she finally decided the noise wasn't worth it.
"Hello?" she greeted in exasperation.
"Hitomi! Hitomi! Oh guess what?!" a screeching voice said on the other line.
"What is it Yukari? You sound frantic," Hitomi asked, wondering what made her friend so uppity.
"No Hitomi, not frantic, excited! Amano proposed to me! Oh my god, I can't believe it!!" I can't believe it either, Hitomi thought.
"He w-w-what!!"
"We're to be married after our graduation, isn't this great?!"
"Yeah Yukari, that's wonderful," she said, trying to make up some enthusiasm, even if it was fake, for her happy friend, but discovering that she couldn't.
"I have to make plans, so I'll call you back Hitomi, okay? Bye."
"Bye."
Yukari made such a big fuss about Hitomi being the maid of honor so she couldn't refuse(not that she had a choice), even though she dreaded the occasion.
"I- I thought I was really serious about Amano," Hitomi said out loud, "well I was..." Despite her efforts to hold them back, tears fell her eyes.
She heard the door creak and she looked up to see Amano standing there.
"And I was serious about you too Hitomi," he said softly, a small smile crept up on his face.
"Amano, what are you doing here?" Hitomi asked, frantically wiping her tears away.
"Your mother let me in just a minute ago," he paused, looking down at his feet, "I wanted to talk to you about the wedding."
"You know I don't want to talk about the wedding, what's there to talk about?" she glared at him.
"Yes, I know, but I just needed some closure."
"Closure! Closure! You want to talk to me about closure?" Hitomi outburst. She was aghast at the rashness of her answer and how loud she became. Amano turned red and tried avoiding her gaze.
"You know, it might've been Yukari in that dress instead," Amano said pointing to the dress on her closet. Hitomi couldn't believe how blunt he was being. Is he actually REGRETTING asking Yukari to marry him?
I don't need this now, she thought, why is he doing this?
"So is that what you came here to tell me? That it might've been me getting married to you?" she said tearfully, "why are you telling me this now?"
Amano didn't answer her, instead he just sighed.
"Why Amano? I want to know why! Please!…Please Amano, I can't take it anymore. I want you to leave," she lowered her voice to a whisper, in fear that her voice might break.
"First you want answers and now you want me to leave. My…how fickle you are, but that's a common characteristic of yours, isn't it. Well I'm sorry, but I'm not leaving until I get somewhat of an answer from you, Hitomi," he put his hand on her shoulder. She stood up and jerked his hand away.
"You can't get an answer from a question that you haven't even asked." Hitomi turned red at his remark, but she couldn't let him get the upper hand. She didn't want to be this cold, but she had to get the message through. She already ruined one wedding.
"Fine then," he sighed, "What happened three years ago Hitomi?"
"What are you talking about?" she asked, fearing this question since his arrival.
"Look Hitomi, I'm not here to play games, okay? Just answer me, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For once I want to know why…"
"Okay, okay… I- I just couldn't be around you anymore." It wasn't a complete lie part of it was true. She was only withholding information.
"Is that it? Hitomi, we were just doing fine until that accident at the track course. For some reason you just well... CHANGED. You turned away from me like you didn't love me anymore."
Love? She thought, was I that much in love? Or maybe…was HE that much in love?
"Amano, you had to go to England, I didn't want to get too close to you," she lied.
"But I came back after a few months! You STILL chose to stay away. You seemed like you wanted me but your words said otherwise. That really hurt Hitomi, more than you think. I knew that wasn't it."
"It's going to be difficult to put this, but I just-I just..." Hitomi had a hard time making out her words.
"Yes?" Amano's anticipation grew, this was the answer to the question he's been thinking about for three years, but what is it going to be?
"I wasn't in love with you anymore, that's why," she finally spit out. There was an awkward silence after that. If this hurt Amano, you wouldn't be able to tell. His expression remained cold and impassive. "I couldn't say I was in love still because that would be living a lie. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lied to you, that's all." Now he seemed a little angry.
"After all this time Hitomi, you finally told me the truth. Now I know that the lie would've at least spared my feelings. I think I would've liked it even better," he said, trying not to show too much emotion and he strode out of the room.
Hitomi could stop the tears and just threw herself on the length of her bed. No matter what, she had always seemed to screw up somehow. It was inevitable; no matter what she did she couldn't avoid her failures.
Why did I leave? she thought to herself. Why did I leave, that's a stupid question, I left because... because of the turbulence. I couldn't handle it anymore.
A sigh escaped from her and she lifted herself into a seated position once again. There really wasn't a specific reason why she left, it was just she needed to be back on Earth she needed normalcy. Hitomi didn't think she could handle all the changes Gaea had to offer.
"Oh Van…" she said out loud, she missed him so much, but somehow, she felt emptiness when thinking about him. She didn't have any means of transportation over there; thinking about it was pointless. In the midst of her thinking, the phone rang. She went up to go get it, hoping it wasn't Amano.
"Hello?" she said, trying to conceal the fact that she was crying.
"Hey, Hitomi, umm... I have a favor to ask," Hitomi recognized the voice instantly. Something was wrong though, she could just her it in the pitch of her friend's throat.
"Yukari? What is it, you're upset," Hitomi asked, hoping it wasn't her fault…again.
"I kind of am Hitomi, you see, Amano came home and looked sort of mad. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me to leave him alone. He just started acting so weird."
"Really? Oh Yukari, what's the favor?" Hitomi couldn't believe that what she said affected Yukari. She couldn't help but feel guilty.
"I want you to read my fortune, I want to know if this wedding is the right thing?"
A sudden flashback struck Hitomi.
"I want you to tell me my fortune. I see that look on your face, and suddenly I'm not so sure anymore. So tell me, tell me my fortune."
"Yukari, I you know I don't read fortunes anymore."
"C'mon Hitomi, this is really important to me, PLEASSSEEE!"
"Yukari, I don't know..."
"Okay, I'll be over in a minute!" she exclaimed and hung up the phone before Hitomi had the chance to respond. She put the phone down and walked over to her closet.
"Yukari has to learn when to take no for an answer," Hitomi said to herself as she opened the sliding closet door. She searched diligently for a box that she hadn't opened in three years. When she finally found it, Hitomi plopped herself on the floor and sighed. The last time she read a wedding fortune, the outcome wasn't too great. She didn't want the same thing that happened to Millerna happen to Yukari. This was Yukari's big moment, she was going to marry the guy she's had a crush on for years.
Yukari came busting through the door.
"Hello Hitomi!" she exclaimed.
"Hi Yukari," she said, not happy at all.
"I'm sorry if I was rushing you, but I really need to know," Yukari said in a more serious tone.
"Don't worry about it Yukari. Let's just do it." Yukari nodded and sat down across Hitomi and awaited instructions. Hitomi laid out her cards in front of her in the Celtic cross.
It's been a long time since I've done this, she thought, I wonder if I'll be as accurate as I once was. After the process was complete, Hitomi scanned the cards to see what they were going to tell her. The cards didn't seem so bad, in fact, it pointed out to a very good marriage. That good fortune would change, however. Hitomi picked up another card and gasped. It was the infamous tower card.
Suddenly a vision overtook Hitomi and she jerked her head back violently.
"Hitomi, Hitomi what's wrong?!" Yukari asked, but her words fell on deaf ears.
"Oh no," Hitomi said silently to herself. "Not again…"
The vision started with a million illuminating lights flashing into one another, the brightness was seizure inducing. It then focused on Yukari's wedding. She hasn't had any visions ever since she came back, so this seemed so new to her.
The wedding seemed to have been going okay except for one factor. Hitomi. She was the problem of everything. She saw Yukari and Amano kiss, then Millerna and Dryden and then Yukari and Amano. The images flashing before her was almost unbearable and it kept repeated until the aisle in Yukari's wedding had erupted in flames.
"Amano come back!!" screamed Yukari as he ran towards Hitomi who disappeared and then an arrow was shot through his heart. His blood spilt and he finally collapsed in a heap as he said, "Hitomi… but why?"
"Hitomi, what's wrong?" Yukari asked, bringing Hitomi back to Earth.
"Oh... Nothing, nothing at all," she replied looking over the cards again. "It says here that your marriage will go beautifully, you may encounter some problems, but they'll be easily solved if you compromise and don't lose sight of both your goals," Hitomi told her.
"Really!?" Yukari said, relieved. "Yes, but as a whole, your marriage will fail if you don't listen to each other, and I mean really listen to each other and you cannot refuse to believe what is the truth."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said happily then bid Hitomi goodbye and walked out of her room.
Hitomi organized her cards together again and for some reason, could not put them away again.
"I feel as if I need them, to guide me," Hitomi said, "but I don't want to be the cause of bad futures, not again. Fortunes are just bad news, why get involved in all that again?"
Of course their marriage would go fine, as long as Hitomi didn't attend the wedding or be apart of their lives, for that matter. If I attend the wedding, the entire ceremony would be ruined. I couldn't do that to Yukari. If I continue to stay in their lives, then their marriage will fail. Where would I go? I couldn't even choose a proper college and now I have to leave to preserve my friends' happiness? What am I supposed to do? she thought. She purposely didn't mention love to Yukari because it seemed that it would be one-sided at times and Hitomi knew why.
It never occurred to her that she would actually leave the home that she's grown up in. Hitomi was getting anxious, she never planned this; it wasn't supposed to happen. She let out an exasperated sigh and cried out, "I can't stay here, where am I supposed to go!!!"
Suddenly her tarot cards flew up in the air and swirled around her body. "W-what's happening?" she gasped and one card, only one card landed at her feet while the others were still in the air. It was the card of the dragon. "E-Escaflowne?" she whispered. "Am I going back, but why?" she asked before disappearing in a beam of light.