This is my first Escaflowne fic so there may be some OOC. Hitomi will definately be a bit OC. I'm going for a feminist heroine so we'll see how she does. I don't know how long this fic will be so it will be in parts, not chapters. I'm really not sure about this title, even if it does fit, so if anyone has any suggestions feel free. I apologize for the lack of editing but I'm on a role. I will have another update up some time this weekend, just not sure when. Flames and critiques are welcome, but please if you flame provide me with a little insight on what you dislike.


The King's Reluctant Lover

Part One

Leaving the Island

She stood at the edge of the cliff, her eyes closed as she listened to the soothing sound of the Western Seas crashing against the rocks. The tattered silk of her dress tickled her bare ankles, the dewy grass a welcome comfort from the rocks that had made her feet into the cracked mess. Splits had formed across her heels, toes, and the instep of her feet. Days of moving and hiding would have agony if the skin at the hadn't been toughened through the activities that had honed her reflexes and made her so good at her craft.

Fighter, dancer, princess, seer. She had been called all of these things at one time or another. If she had been common-born she would have been called worse—whore, witch. That she was first born child of the Queen, and the only one to survive to puberty, was the only thing that saved her from the fires.

Asturia condemned them as Heathenist. Zaibach called them Backwards. The only country that did not seek to label the small island chain that lay to the west of the mainland was Fanelia, the land of dragons and samurai.

Princess Hitomi had never cared much what the foreigner thought of her people and culture. She cared even less what they thought about her. Her mother had always cautioned that such thinking was dangerous for a women of the blood. No matter where one went in all of Gaea it was always the same. Women were weak. Their wills were feeble. They were the ones who needed to be protected in battle, hidden along with the elders and the children. Marriage, fortune, and a male heir was all that she could possibly look forward to in life.

Her lips curled into a crooked smile when she remember the look on the face of the last ambassedor that had been sent from Asturia. A tall, golden-haired knight that looked more like a lady then she did. He was really very poor suited to that task; the king would have done better to keep him on the battlefield. Hitomi had found his very presence to be insulting. There wasn't a woman in all of Gaea that didn't know the rumors that swirled around the handsome Allen Schezar. And he was handsome. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she had given him the same appraisal that many men had given her. In fact she found herself not really that repulsed by the thought of being one of his many conquests, while he talked to her mother. It was when he had turned that dazzling smile in her direction and started talking to her that Hitomi found the desire to plunge the dagger strapped to her thigh deep into his nether region.

How irritating it had been to listen to his lecture on how important it was to spend some time in his country's capital of Palas. After all she needed to find an able-bodied man that she could marry who could protect her and her country. Then she could give her country a male heir, and wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't it be just lovely to not have to worry about the burden of the crown which was, of course, too much for a woman to possibly bear. She and her mother had shared a look when he then launched into a magnificent and flowery speech on how she could even visit the church and experienced the wonderful blessing of the merciful Lord—who was certainly much more benvelant then their Goddess—and then their were the wonders and parties that were so delightful.

It had been rather difficult to stifle a yawn as she continued and it was only when he had brought up the tournaments that she was pulled out of her fancies (all involving Sir Allen and various means of torture) and bordom. Again the urge to gut him had resurfaced when his answer to her question if she could partake in those events was a condescending smile and a worry that such participation was just not something a lady could handle. This was followed by another speech—one that made the Caeli knight a victim of the Queen's piercing glare—on why women needed to leave fighting to the men. Of course, such frail creatures could not possibly endure the terrible pain of a flesh wound and the endurance that was needed to use a sword. Hitomi had been prepared for that and had planned a rather good retort on how fortunate women were that men could not give birth. After all the terrible pain of the birthing room was nothing more then a myth, because after all it couldn't hurt to squeeze a child through such a small opening.



It was such a shame that at that exact moment she was overcome with a vision of terror, blood, and flames. Once she had gained consciousness her handmaiden had regretted to inform that due to her obviously delicate condition her lady mother and Sir Allen agreed that boarding the Crusade to travel to Asturia would be too much for her.

The cool sea breeze helped to ease Hitomi's irritation at the indignation that the memory had caused. The sound of booted feet stumbling over the jagged rocks of the cliff's path caused her to turn her head, but she didn't move. Everything was gone now. She had fought them with everything that she was, and they had found her wanting. Her defiance had probably made things worse, but given a second chance she still would have done the same. She would give her life for her land, for the island that made up Veshrane, but she had no more.

Her people were suffering for her continued defiance and so she had sent a message to Lord Dilandu with her unconditioned surrender if he would just spare her people. Now she waited for them to find her, waited for her fate.

It really was a pity that Sir Allen had left so quickly.