By Electric_Quill23
This fanfic takes place in an alternate Escaflowne universe where the war is still over, Eriya and Naria never died, Folken is still dead, and Merle is Eriya and Naria's niece. After Folken died, Eriya and Naria requested that Hitomi take them back to her world, where they would start over, and their bad reputation would not follow. Hitomi agreed, and they left without Merle (she wanted to stay with Van Fanel to keep him company, knowing that she would never see her aunts again). This takes place shortly after they arrived on Earth, and the twins are now young adults.
The sounds of a swordfight could be heard in a Japanese home. Two Gaeans are squaring off against each other in practice blades.
"Don't you have anymore than that, Eriya?!" Naria said.
This made Eriya even madder. Naria was always better at swordfighting then her. Ever since they had fell in love with Folken, everything was a competition between them. They cared about each other, but they had cared about Folken more. The result of this was a growing feud between the sisters, and it seemed to never stop.
"Stop, Eriya," the silver-haired leopard girl said. "Something's obviously bothering you. Would you care to tell me?"
Eriya wanted to destroy something. She was angry, but she tried not to show it. Because of the situation with Folken, she never exposed her feelings to the world. She used to be sad that Folken was gone. Now, she was just blood-red mad.
"Naria, I hate Folken for dying on us. He should never have—"
"Don't even say that! Folken was good to us. A little strict, but good to us. He loved us as if we were…I don't know. But he treated us well. You know that."
"Ever since I found out you were in love with Folken, I was a little disheartened. You know, the feeling you get when you find out another girl has your man."
"I know the feeling well. Remember, I found out you loved him, too."
"But after that, there was something else. We were devoted to him and I felt this need to outdo you in every way. Now how petty is that?"
"I felt the same way."
"But why are we still doing it?"
"Because we both must still love him. But he is gone, and we left him behind on Gaea. There really is no reason why we should compete anymore. We may be twins, and instead of trying to outdo each other in the same things, why don't we just get really good in different things?"
"Well we are going to college, thanks to Hitomi's family. And they did help us find our jobs."
"Tomorrow is the first day, are you excited?"
"I don't know. Huge guymelefs I can handle. But college professors…"
They both laughed at the silly joke, but Eriya really was nervous about school.