A/N: We all want to do a fic that explores the what if side of things in terms of continuation, which is what fanfiction is all about I guess, so here's mine. Let us pray to Escaflowne that it continues and is well received. Also it won't be the picture perfect story at first that everyone hopes for, as that wouldn't give me much of a plot to work with.
Van stood in his private study again after a long day of reading important documents and having a few discussions with chief council members, ones that didn't antagonise him too much and left him well alone on the subject of marriage.
Although, he had let them in on his plans recently and to his well-hidden surprise they had thoroughly approved of his idea; not that he needed their approval, it just made things easier that they weren't throwing princesses and noble ladies at him any more. He had pondered for quite some time that they would disagree with his ideas or even the principles behind it, but they seemed happy for him. Only now, they were pushing for him to put his plan into action as if they had been the ones to suggest it and he was feeling slightly reluctant to carry it out.
He had heard one of the council members leaving the Council chamber a few days ago muttering to a rather deaf counterpart,
"Well he'd better get a move on soon, he's 20 and will soon be 21!" He smiled to himself and then sighed, his bangs waving as if in a breeze across his forehead. He had been so sure and so certain of himself in preparing everything, but the next steps would need a great deal more courage than he thought and he would need to explain to his friends the true meaning of his quest a few years previous.
His friends would soon be arriving after his birthday and he would explain everything then; a late birthday present to himself he thought. Even Merle had been kept in the dark after her self-appointment of his chief worrier because of his favourite pastime. Ever since the winter previous, Van had taken to sitting on a window seat in one of the many sitting rooms the rebuilt section of the palace had to offer.
He had his own, far more luxurious than the rest but this particular one, one that was in a guest wing along one of the many maze-like corridors, had taken his fancy and he would sit there for hours studying the view of the mountains to the west of Fanelia, often until sunset and later if he had the time. There had been many nights where he had come and take in the view, in the hope of seeing the lights in faraway towns and villages that were the furthest part of his kingdom he could see; even though the borders into Ezgardia were further off than the geographical marker.
Unfortunately one winter evening he had stupidly and admittedly, of his own fault left a top window open, allowing icy drafts into the room giving him a chill for a whole week. And being the first time taken ill since the Destiny War, his subjects plunged into a pseudo-mourning for him praying for his swift return to health. Another result of this had been Merle, who had spent some time in Asturia studying healing under Millerna's care, had found certain herbs to alleviate his symptoms and then almost ripped his head off, yelling at him about his window habit.
She had watched him for a few months as winter turned to spring and seemed to take on the mentality of a nursemaid every time he approached or leaned against a window and chased him away as if he was a child doing something naughty. Nonetheless in the past month or so he had gone back to his former habit and Merle gave up her watchwoman duty.
He smiled to himself watching the view out of his study window, one that looked down onto the city that had been rebuilt after the war and was now a thriving economic and agricultural centre. His personal ties to Asturian and Freid nobility had helped his people to establish ties with merchants of the other two countries, who put a great deal of money into the economy and added to Fanelia's prowess. No longer the little backwater of Asturia it had once been seen as, Fanelia was now included in important Gaean politics and he himself an important figure, hailed as a war hero.
His name often in connection with a Seeress he had travelled with during the war, were lauded a great deal, earning respect from many nations whom previously had acknowledged Fanelia's presence but had not paid a great deal of interest before the Destiny War.
The view from this window had to be his second favourite after the Mountain View, he could see the hustle and bustle of city life in the capital and how much progress had been made since Fanelia had been burnt to the ground and then rebuilt. He was fiercely proud of his home and his nation that he ruled, but a small part of him wanted to hear whether another was proud of him. His blood relations were all dead, and Merle who would regularly sing his praises as a child, had matured and gladly nagged him as a sister would when he skipped duties or didn't sleep for long enough.
She was proud of him he knew, and the people he now counted his friends after their shared exploits five years previous. However there was one person whose opinion he wanted, especially since certain things had been put in place for her. He hoped the day would soon arrive when he would discover her opinion and whether she was proud of him too.
After a great deal of 'advice' from Allen concerning the female gender, he was curious to find out the knight's opinion of what Van had planned. Allen had become a good friend over the past five years but there was never any pretence that the friendship was not primarily based on a competition for affection over a tawny haired seeress they had both known and begrudgingly to him had both fallen for. Even though Allen showed no signs of disliking him or being jealous that Hitomi had indirectly chosen him, there was still an air of competition between the two when they met and practiced sword fighting or anything that would involve pitting one against the other.
It was if even though Hitomi wasn't there to say whom she preferred and Escaflowne forbid that she would look at another man or move on with her life, whoever won these childish games and competitions between the two would naturally be the one she would choose to love. All this was seemingly implicit in their minds, although they would immaturely refuse to admit what was going on.
Allen had taken other lovers after Hitomi had left, though a stubborn park of Van's mind wouldn't classify Hitomi as being a past lover of the Knight Caeli's, specifically as she and he had only been 15 at the time and Hitomi had rejected Allen's proposal. None of them had ever seemed all that serious in Van's eyes when they all met together and Allen would introduce the latest female to him.
However in the past few months Allen had been rather airy in his correspondence and had not mentioned any females specifically or in casual passing. Van thought that it could be very possible that Allen had found someone as he had happily engaged with other females since Hitomi's departure. Van knew that Allen wasn't seriously considering Hitomi in the same way he did, it was more of a rivalry that had sparked between them because of her and their strange bond caused by her.
But here again, Van was once more at a window and Merle had inadvertently caught him staring out aimlessly.
"Ah ha!" she cried aloud in an accusatory manner, her ears twitching suspiciously as if she had caught him torturing someone or admiring a woman who wasn't Hitomi.
Merle had taken the view that the only woman good enough for her brother was Hitomi and no one else would be accepted by her, not that Van was regularly associating with noble women of his own free will. That said, one of Merle's main reasons for constantly pestering him to go to Hitomi and get her to return was based on the worry that as a young, bachelor King his council would arrange a marriage for him to a spoilt idiot.
His somewhat adopted sister would much prefer Hitomi to have such a role, even though they had been rather catty towards each other before. It was strange, and slightly amusing but Merle saw her as a female best friend, as they had definitely shared some moments in their united worry and fear for Van's welfare during the war; and she wanted her back. She too had missed Hitomi.
Van calmly turned round slightly to face her, his right shoulder resting against the window frame,
"Merle," he acknowledged before turning round to look at the view again, hearing his adoptive sister sigh gently, "Am I doing something wrong?" he murmured, still facing the window, but watching her reflection as she opened a drawer and pulled something out before reaching his side.
"There, put that on you, you'll catch cold otherwise." She chided, holding out a worn blanket that he had used in previous winters as his desk was the furthest object from the fireplace in the room. He rolled his eyes and took it from her, placing an arm across her shoulders and draping it across her more than himself. She huffed at his gesture, but leaned against him slightly.
"You've found another window to mope by then?" she queried and watched his eyebrow rise up his forehead and into his bangs.
Merle sighed and turned her gaze to the dazzling view, "You miss her. Go to her. End of." She stated decisively, having said the phrase so often it now seemed monotonous to her. "Your majesty," she added sarcastically for good measure to show how annoyed she was with him for moping. "The others will be arriving soon and will want to know whether you'll ever go to her." Her surrogate, although it seemed biological now, brother didn't appear to acknowledge her comment so she warmed to her favourite topic, Hitomi-nagging.
The feline had been the first person to truly see Van's real feelings appear.
Even before Hitomi had left the first time, she had seen the looks Van had given her and the atmosphere he seemed to create when she would flirt with Allen, blind to any of his true emotions. She was the first person who had told him how he felt. She had encouraged them, and in the end he let her leave. Merle had grown up in the past five years, her childhood attachment to Van had been in the form of a crush, but she watched him fall in love with someone and she realised the truth. She had worshipped him because his father had saved her life, so she attached herself to the person closest in age to her.
But she wanted to form a brother-sister bond, which they now had. And as Van's widely acknowledged sister, she took it upon herself to nag him – though she viewed it as encouragement – about the woman he loved. Merle had seen many ladies of nobility and a princess or two be lauded in front of Van, to whom he paid no attention or showed no interest in.
Whereas they were skilled in light banter and taught to be sweet, slightly knowledgeable and above all regal, Van had been lured by a girl who was straight speaking, was a commoner in her own world and held no high bearings for herself. He had formed friendships with a few who recognized he held no affection for them, nor would he grow to love them and whom had been forced to present themselves to him; one lady whose wedding they had recently attended.
Van seemed to hold a torch for only one woman and Merle knew as King, a wife and heirs were important.
Thus in Merle's slightly acerbic logic, he should seek her out and ask her to marry him. However, Van was still rather closed off as a person. Even after Hitomi had opened him up to her and Merle in due course, as well as him having friends and political allies; Van was still rather solitary compared to other young men. Merle herself had had a few dalliances with noblemen and commoners in the city whom she knew rather well, but had only enjoyed a fleeting lust or affection for, nothing that seemed to compare for the love her brother held for a certain seeress.
Merle watched from the corner of her eye her brother's constant gaze and was unsurprised to find him staring out the window when she had first entered the room. Nonetheless, she was still curious as to why he had picked another particular window to sit by and gaze out of, the mountains were the only view out of it. However upon reflection Merle had looked out of the window too, one night she had found Van there in the guest suite once again and had noticed something.
Whether Van had chosen it by chance or had searched every other window in the castle for it, the window he favoured had a rather uncluttered landscape and aside from the mountains in the distance had a perfect view of the two moons that hung in the sky. She had smiled to herself upon noticing this one night as she sat in an armchair near the window. And even though she had to stretch her neck to look up at the glowing orb in the sky, she had also noticed that Van never seemed to look up that far, she assumed that he knew which part of the Mystic Moon Hitomi came from was the southern tip.
She imagined that it would be a rather warm place to be, rather like Fanelia's slightly tropical climate.
It had been another particularly stressful day in Van's opinion and certainly not the way he had wished to spend his birthday of all days. Even though he was King of Fanelia and bred to be a member of the aristocracy, he still had the underlying tendency to want to sleep in for most of the day, especially now when he knew what he was missing. But the day was now over, and despite the rest of the nation celebrating their Monarch's twenty-first birthday, he wanted to do nothing more than sleep.
And as he reached the corner turning into the corridor which lay his own bed chambers he tensed waiting for something to happen or someone to call him and disturb him leading to him being kept awake for even longer than necessary. If he was asked for a birthday present then his answer would be a day of uninterrupted sleep as well as the woman he loved being by his side. But he was working on that.
As usual his heightened senses were dead on. His adoptive sister's voice came echoing from behind him a few corridors away, screeching at the top of her voice excitedly, "Van! Van! Come quick!"
He turned, wondering what had put Merle into such a boisterous state when she of all people had heard him mutter away at breakfast that morning about how all he wanted to do that day was to go back to sleep and not be disturbed. He waited patiently for her approaching footsteps, praying that Allen and his crew hadn't arrived early on purpose as he was certainly not in the mood for entertaining guests, being regal in any way – not that they cared – or being hospitable whatsoever. His mind was focused on one thing, and that was sleep; and possibly the nice dreams that followed with a certain seeress he held dear to him.
His ears rang with the sound of Merle panting as she turned the corner and seemed to speed up, not bothering to stop in front of him as she reached out for his arm, grabbed it, turned back round and appeared to set off back from where she came. But Van was too tired for whatever she was up to and in a gruff mood he held steadfast, causing Merle to almost trip over her own tail, turning round to glare at him. He raised an eyebrow, too tired to bother talking.
Her eyes glittered at him excitedly,
"You have to come and see this! I know you're tired and if I was anyone else you'd yell at them. So yes I am taking advantage of this but you have to come!"
"Why?" he asked, almost whining at her excitable enthusiasm,
"You just have to see!"
And against his better judgement, Van followed his sister down the maze of corridors; although at a far slower pace than she had intended as he was in no rush to see whatever Merle was so energized about.
To his surprise he wasn't dragged towards the castle entrance, or to the throne room or the kitchen as she had the year before having made him herself a birthday cake which was actually rather good. But food wasn't what he particularly wanted at this point in time. Even more surprised he was when he gathered where Merle was leading him to. His favourite window spot. But he was puzzled as to why Merle desperately wanted to show him the room. She couldn't know why he stared out of that particular window so what had she done?
Merle inwardly smirked at her brother's morose state of unwillingness behind her and was sure that he would be happy with her when she revealed her discovery. She had happened upon it completely by chance, after having wandered to the room expecting him to be there but had found something else. At first alarmed, but then looking more clearly and realizing the true meaning of what she saw. Something so amazing she had to find him and bring him quick.
And so she stopped outside the room, turning to him and gesturing for him to open the door. He quirked his eyebrow again, this time in slight annoyance. He had no idea what was going on and he certainly wasn't in the mood for socializing if Merle had decided to throw a surprise party in this very room for his damn birthday.
Even so Van sighed and knew Merle wouldn't let him leave before doing what she wanted. He reached out for the door handle using the arm she had previously let go of and strained to hear anything. He prayed it wasn't a surprise party in his honour as his mood was currently rather foul, causing him to be quite rude and leave his 'guests' to go and sleep somewhere uninterrupted for as long as he wished. He couldn't hear anything so he turned the handle and opened the door almost apprehensively.
Merle chuckled beside him and pushed the door wide open. He looked inside. There was nothing or rather no-one waiting for him. Not even a cake. He turned to stare at his sister, not wanting to yell at her, he only had the energy to sigh in his view.
She on the other hand had enough energy to push him into the room and towards the window for some unknown reason, still grinning behind him. She came to a halt when he stopped still with a clear view in front of the window he seemed to adore so much. His face illuminated by far more than the two moons that hung in the sky. Merle opened her mouth to point out where he was to look. For once not at the Mystic Moon but the mountains in the distance. But she sensed she didn't need to as he tensed up and gasped almost in wonder. They stared out at the view before them, smiling, but for slightly different reasons.
Their gazes were completely fixed by the mountains that gave Fanelia its natural borders, were alight.
Not in the same way as five years ago sparking the Destiny War, but in celebration. There were beacons lit at various points along the mountain paths and some were even different colours, a red beacon, a blue beacon and even a green one dotted about the peaks. The people of Fanelia were honouring the day and were sending a message of support and loyalty to their King on his birthday. To Merle's surprise, Van reached out and touched one of the panes of glass, laying his palm flat against it and smiled almost lovingly at the view.
He gently wrapped an arm around Merle's shoulder, pulling her closer to him and murmured,
"Thank you. This is the best birthday present I've had." Merle was surprised at the scale of Van's reaction. She had wanted to cheer him up, but had not expected such heartfelt emotion to pour out of him. She nodded and rested against him.
The two siblings watched the dazzling beacons for quite a long while; despite Van's earlier protests at wanting to be left alone and his desire to sleep. Merle was feeling pleased and rather happy to have made her brother's birthday a slightly more happy occasion. And Van himself smiled, inwardly glowing at the gesture, his thoughts on another, wondering if they had been involved in this.
His thoughts went out. Thank you.
At the same time he felt as if they had responded and correctly too as he yawned and felt Merle resting against him more than she normally would as she too was yawning. He shook her gently out of her daze and the two left the room arm-in-arm, both content at the celebrations for the Fanelian King's twenty-first birthday.
But being the King of Fanelia, things weren't going to happen so easily.
The last two members of the Fanel household were walking slowly along a well-illuminated passage as it had large sweeping windows all along the right hand side, lighting up the tapestries and odd painting that adorned the walls. Van was still happy about the surprise he had received and slightly in his own world imagining things that Merle wasn't aware of. Merle also was happy in having cheered her brother up.
For whatever reason the gesture of the Fanelian people in the mountains had left him almost aglow himself Merle inwardly joked. Except he was suddenly aglow visibly, more than by just the reflection of the two moons resting in the sky.
Merle stared out the window as Van too was gazing fixedly at the bright pillar of light that had abruptly appeared from the heavens. She had to squint to focus on the dark fuzzy figure floating down the pillar coming to rest on one of the lawns in the Palace gardens. Turning to her transfixed brother, she noted his utter shock at what they had witnessed.
She recovered first and was bursting with glee as she once more yanked her brother along the never-ending corridors and down flights of stairs all the way out to the lawn. Van kept pace with her and could have probably speeded ahead but Merle sensed he was still in complete shock. Perhaps she would have to hit him so he could fully pay attention to Hitomi when she greeted him. Or kissed him or be kissed by him. The inner-romantic in Merle squealed with delight that the two star-crossed lovers in her view would be reunited and would now have the chance to live happily ever after.
Van seemed to recover as they entered the large lounge type chamber whose doors lead out onto the lawn that had been deposited on by the pillar of light. His pace increased and overtook Merle before opening the doors wide to get a better look at who had appeared on the palace grounds.
Merle stopped behind him at the same moment they heard a male voice murmur,
"Where in Buddha's name are we?" and then a younger, teen male reply,
"We're on Gaea! Holy Shit we're on Gaea! She was telling the truth Dad! It's real!" he cried once more as Van ventured out onto the paved part of the gardens leading from the door he had stepped out of.
Tagging along behind him, the feline grasped his arm tightly, hissing,
"Who are these people? Where's Hitomi?" Van had a nagging suspicion that she wasn't with these two men even when a female voice piped up,
"I think Mamoru's right Ken-kun."
"Someone's coming!" The boy now identified as Mamoru said, trying to lower his voice and failing in his shock and realization at where he had been taken to by a mysterious pillar of light.
Van believed the best thing would be to approach them quietly and try not to startle them, whoever they were. But Merle didn't seem to share his thread of thought as she sped past him, without any thought to her own safety, marched up to the shadowed figures and demanded,
"Who are you and why are you in the Fanelian Palace's private gardens?" the individuals turned around, startled by an imperious voice.
The younger male who now appeared to be the tallest person replied, "We're in Fanelia?"
"Yes," came the bark of a reply from Merle. Van put a hand on her shoulder indicating for her to calm down and for him to deal with the uninvited guests.
"Who are you?" was the best he could come up with and apparently Merle agreed with his thoughts as she rolled her eyes at him. However the reply they received was rather informative, more informative than either he or Merle had expected.
The elder male stepped forward slightly shorter than the younger one and said in a rather shaky voice,
"And who are you sir?"
"I am Van Fanel, King of Fanelia," he said with his best authoritative tone, "And who are you?" he commanded once again, not hearing the gasp that came from one of the shadows. To everyone's surprise it was the younger boy who spoke rather clearly, though disbelief was obvious in his words,
"My name is Mamoru and these are my parents Kenzo and Haruka Kanzaki."
Both Merle and Van, for completely different reasons were left speechless.
A/N: This is an apology to everyone who wanted me to continue Locked Inside My Heart. I want to do this first and then maybe I'll post something similar but with less writer's block involved so thanks go out to:
InLuvWidVan Queen-of-the-Saps Sneedlle Missing-white-wings15 Arienhod flys without wings AmethystWings Honeypots Shadowwolf403 SnTAngel rukz
and everyone else who reviewed and chatted to me giving me a good kick up the backside, turning this from a reoccurring daydream to this!
Please review or Hitomi will be forced to marry Allen (gasp!) The purpley button at the very bottom of the screen is the only barrier separating Hitomi from Van! Press it to open the door between them so they can awkwardly flirt with each other.
Until next time …
Sina xx
