Disclaimer: Don't own them. If I did, Hitomi certainly wouldn't have gone home at the end of the anime.
A/N: Written for LiveJournal's SpringKink comm and their March 10, 2010 prompt of 'Van/Hitomi - light bondage - 'I love to touch your wings.' Trying to plausibly work bondage into a canon setting was a real challenge.
Bouquets to my betas: Akarii, Empatheia and Ranuel.
Warnings: hints of citrus, suggestions of nudity, WAFF
Love Knots
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Hitomi gazed around the sun-drenched meadow, bemused at the apparent ease of her return across the mystic bridge after three long years of wanting. A swift shadow circled once, then swept over her; as she looked up, she was snatched up off her feet and crushed against a hard-muscled body. Gloved hands roughly seized her waist and tangled in her hair, while a familiar voice huskily whispered her name over and over again. Van was clutching her so tightly that she could barely breathe, but Hitomi determinedly loosened his grasp until she could return his fierce hug. Ethereal softness curled around her as his wings enclosed them like second pair of arms.
Tilting back her head, Van whispered hoarsely, "I'd almost given up hope."
Emotion stole her voice as she looked up into his dear face. "I'm sorry I took so long," she managed to choke out, her eyes dampening, and after that there was no need for words until they lay twined in each others' arms, the soft white feathers of their impromptu privacy screen ruffling in the light breeze. Hitomi reached up over Van's bare shoulder and traced the graceful arch; he smiled lazily, stroking his fingertips across her cheekbones.
"I can't believe you're really here," he murmured, his gaze dark and hooded.
"Me neither." Suddenly shy despite their intimate embrace, Hitomi toyed with the red jewel hanging around his neck. The Atlantean artefact seemed to briefly glow, as if in welcome. "I don't know why I was able to cross today."
Van pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. "Maybe you were finally ready to stay?" he suggested.
Hitomi twisted the cord around her finger and thought for a long moment about the crystal-clear certainty that had consumed her just before she was pulled across time and space. "You're right," she finally breathed. "I wanted to see you... with all my heart. I'm ready to make Gaia my home."
He chuckled deep in his throat as he nuzzled her cheek. "Plenty of rebuilding still to be done; Fanelia's queen can't be afraid to mix mortar or bundle thatch." Pulling the heirloom necklace over his head, he looped the cord around her wrist.
"The crown jewel?" she asked playfully.
"The only one," Van grinned ruefully. "Want to change your mind?"
Hitomi huffed, "Definitely not," and he laughed, then thoroughly distracted her with a passionate kiss while he craftily stretched her arms up above her head. When he finally let her breathe, it took her a moment or two to realize what mischief he'd wrought. "Eh...?" Frowning, she inspected the loosely-knotted cord binding her wrists, the pendant swinging freely in between. "What's up with this?"
He appeared shifty. "Um... to make sure I don't lose you?" he mumbled. "Since you can apparently summon the mystic bridge without help, I don't want to take any chances."
She gave the sheepish young king a sceptical look. "Then wouldn't it have made more sense to tie us together?" Van turned as red as the dangling jewel before reaching for the knot, but Hitomi reacted too quickly for him. Hooking her bound wrists behind his neck, she used her unexpected leverage to pull him down for a lingering kiss. Smiling at his dazed expression several long, sweet moments later, she relaxed her hold and mused, "Actually, maybe this isn't so bad," while riffling her fingertips through the down covering the juncture between his shoulder blades. "I love to touch your wings."
"Just my wings?" Van asked with a suggestive lilt, his hands wandering.
Hitomi looked at him through her lashes, her heart beating faster as she arched into his touch. "If I wasn't kinda-sorta tied up right now, you'd have a better chance of finding out."
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