Chapter 9

Never Been Kissed

The tall, dark woman walked down the deserted hallway. It was midnight. The only time she could talk to Folken without any interruptions. Folken bowed infront of her, seeing that she seemed amused at the sight of his Vione.

"Stratagos. You're Vione is terribly dark and cold. I love it," She whispered.

"Thank you, your majesty."

She entered the room, which Folken led her to. She sat down in a chair, at the head of the table. Folken sat down on the other end.

"So. The girl, what powers does she have?" The woman spoke through her ancient accent.

"She can control the Escaflowne with her voice."

"Voice? You mean, all she has to do is say,"Come Dragon, I wish to see you." And then, the dragon will come?"

"Queen Kalara…I am sorry for not speaking in much detail. When she sings, she can control the Escaflowne."

"Do you have a recording of her voice?"

"Yes."

"Then why the hell is she still alive? We can do most without her. General Adelphos has informed me that you have told him, Dilandau Albatou his becoming weak. Explain yourself, Folken."

"I do believe, he might have feelings for the girl. I wouldn't mind myself seeing what happens between the two. It seems as though the girl feels she can change him and his ways," He explained.

"I don't want the boy to be distracted. I prefer him a killer than a kisser. If the girl doesn't impress me tomorrow…I want Dilandau himself to kill her. If he doesn't, then I know whom to blame," The Queen glared at Folken.

"Yes your majesty. I understand completely."

"Good."

Just as the Queen was about to leave the room, she asked one final question.

"Is she beautiful, Folken?"

"She's average. But if you mean more beautiful than you are? No she is not."

The woman smirked and left the room, leaving Folkena alone in the dark to think about the question the woman had just asked.



Jolie hadn't fallen asleep. She couldn't sleep at all, to make things clear. She couldn't help but think about Dilandau. Jolie knew she was getting through to him. But there was another feeling there. She tried to get rid that feeling, though she just couldn't.

Jolie stood up and opened the door, looking down the hallway. Seeing Dilandau's door was closed. No guards were around, so she walked down the hallway towards Dilandau's room. She opened the door, noticing it was unlocked. There lay the sleeping Dilandau. He looked so innocent and pure. She smiled and sat down at the end of his bed, not knowing why she was even there.

She noticed that his sheets were covering him completely. It was cold, so she didn't blame him. Jolie let out a sigh of frustration. She heard the boy let out a moan, waking up. Jolie went red as he sat up. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so she turned away, not looking at him.

"What are you doing here?" He grumbled.

"I, uh, had a bad dream. I couldn't get back to sleep so I came to see if you were still awake," She said, still head turned the oposite direction of him.

"How long have you been here?"

"Umm…about ten minutes. I'll go if you want. Sorry I woke you up," Jolie stood up but he grabbed her arm.

"You don't have to go."

Jolie sat back down, as he let go of her. He wrapped the white sheet around him, trying to keep warm. Jolie smiled, and finally looked at him, knowing he was covered up.

"Are you cold?" Jolie asked concerned.

"A little," he mumbled.

Jolie smiled at him, and took her sweater off of herself. She handed it to Dilandau. He looked up at her, thinking she was crazy for letting him wear something of hers.

"It's really warm," She assured.

"No. I couldn't."

"Alright…if you say so."



Jolie then noticed Dilandau was wearing a dog tag necklace. She looked at it, seeing his name on it. She smiled.

"I have an idea."

"For what?" Dilandau asked.

"We're friends, right?" Jolie asked.

"Umm…I don't know. You want to be friends with me?" he asked a little shocked.

"Sure. Like I said before Dilandau. I can see the person no one else can see. And I think you are a very nice person," answered Jolie.

"You think I'm nice? You obviously haven't seen me in battle. I'll will kill anyone who gets in my way. And you call that nice?"

"Well…no. But, I do know that they're only orders, and you're a soldier and you carry out orders. So yeah…"

"Hmm…only sometimes," he snickered.

Jolie shook her head. He is strange, but a little funny as well, she thought.

"Anyways…I was thinking we could give each other our necklaces and then…when the war is over, we can give them back again," Jolie suggested.

Dilandau looked at his dogtag. He took it off and handed it to her. Jolie took her gold chain off and handed it to him. Both of them put the necklaces on at the same time.

"You look really good in gold," laughed Jolie.

Dilandau blushed a little, knowing that she couldn't see it, for the room was fairly dark. Jolie looked away from him, deep in thought.

"Sorry for scaring you earlier. I knew it would scare you, so that's why I did it," Jolie said.

"You didn't scare me. You think I would be scared by a stupid hug?"

"You've never been hugged before have you?" Jolie asked him.

"Well…no."

Jolie smiled and gave him another hug. This time, he did hug back. Jolie layed her head on his shoulder and let out a sigh.

"Have you ever been kissed?" Jolie asked him unsuspectidly.

"Kissed?"

"Yeah. Well, kissed by someone of the opoisite sex?" Jolie said.

"No," he answered.

"Ok."

Jolie didn't know what to say next. Before she knew it, Dilandau and her were face to face. She closed her eyes, hoping he would kiss her, for Jolie had never been kissed as well. Just as he was inches away from kissing her, she said something.

"You're not just trying to get me to join Zaibach are you? Dilandau? I wanted to talk to you about it," Jolie's face was full of hope as her eyes were still closed waiting to be kissed.

Dilandau shook his head, as Jolie stood up.

"I think you should leave."

"So do I."

With that said, Jolie walked back to her room, still thinking about how close that was. In a way, Jolie wanted to be kiss, though in another way she didn't. Maybe things just weren't meant to be, thought Jolie. As for Dilandau, he was beating himself up mentally. He was weakening. And Folken and the Queen knew that as well.



It was the next day. Jolie was in the stage room alone, early in the morning. She was trying to write a song with the guitar she was given. She played a few chords, then wrote them down on the piece of paper. Jolie put the guitar down and sighed, looking back on last night.

"Well, now all I need is the lyrics," She told herself.

It was then when Lily and Rita walked in holding bags of something that was most likely to be outfits for tomorrow. The two sat down next to Jolie on the stage.

"Alright. So, we have exact doubles of the outfits in the music videos that we're doing. Three of them you have to wear. The rest are optional," Rita explained.

Jolie looked through all of the outfits they had brought. She went red, knowing that there was no possible way she would wear something like that…

"No. No way! There is…just no! I won't wear it!"

"Wear what?" came a familiar echo.

The three looked over to see Folken standing with Dilandau behind them. Jolie blushed furiously, remembering the night before with Dilandau.

"Well, Jolie hasn't even tried these on, and she refuses to wear them. Come on Jolie, atleast try them on. Oh and put you're hair up when you try this one on," Rita held up a certain bag.

Jolie looked at Folken. He nodded for her to try them on. She took the bags and walked into the dressing room that was behind the stage. She put her hair up with a clip and started to change.

Jolie put on the same outfit Kylie Minogue wore in "Can't Get You Out of My Head". It was the white on which showed much skin. Ten minutes had passed by. She refused to come out wearing what she was well wearing. Rita was banging on the door, along with Lily.

"You have to come out and show us. We need to know if it fits!" yelled Rita.

"Come on Jolie. We're all…well not all of us are girls. But you know what I mean. Just come out. Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Lily started to sound like a puppy.

"Fine," sighed Jolie. "But atleast stand in the isle so I can't see your reactions."

"Fine. Whatever you say!" Rita assured.

Jolie waited a minute and came out. She couldn't see anyone in the isle, for it was made so you couldn't. Jolie held the outfit so that it covered everything around her chest area.

"JOLIE!" yelled Rita.

Jolie sighed and let the outfit sit as it was meant to. She could hear a few gasps as well. It was Dilandau. He was shocked. He had never seen a woman showing so much of…well what a woman usually hides…

"Jolie, put on the head thingy!" ordered Lily.

Jolie lifted the 'head thingy' and put it on her head. She smiled; feeling it covered a portion of her body. Though it didn't, it didn't at all.

"Ok, now pose."

"Excuse me?"

"Pose dammit! I wanna get a picture of this," shouted Rita.

Jolie let out an annoyed laugh and crossed her arms. She looked into the isle, knowing where exactly they stood.

"That's not helping. Now pose like she does in the video. You know, the sort of disco pose," directed Rita.

"NO! NO WAY! NO WAY, UH UH, NO WAY!" cried Jolie.

"Jolie…" Folken sounded a little irritated about their arguement.

"Fine."

Jolie did her 'disco' pose as Rita somehow took a picture. Jolie couldn't help but hear the laughter coming from the two. She could also tell someone was enjoying her humiliation. And someone else was just as embarrassed as her, or maybe even more.

Author's Notes: Oh I'm just soooooooooooooooooo evil in this story. I couldn't help but put the whole outfit thingy in. On the radio today they were announcing a Kylie Minogue contest and were talking about her white outfit. So I just added it. I guess you can kind of say it's sort of a humor thing going on. Oh, and I couldn't resist the 'almost kiss' part. Now, can you guess what movie that's from? (Hint): Rachael Leigh Cook…(I'm a big Rachael Leigh Cook fan so I know like all of her movies).