Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne.


Chapter Fourteen

Up the Creek

Hitomi and Van didn't tell Folken where they were going for lunch, which was why they were so surprised when he showed up at their restaurant. He dropped himself into their booth, threw his bag across the bench and stretched his legs out so far that Hitomi was positive he would trip a waitress if one happened to walk by … but maybe that was his plan.

"Hey kids," he said casually.

Van gave him a funny look, but managed to be polite enough to ask without an attitude, "What are you doing here?"

Folken shook his hand at Van like he didn't realize he was interrupting a date. "I'm angry," he said simply.

"Of course you are. Almost a whole morning of wasted! What exactly happened with Allen and Dilandau anyway? Hitomi's convinced that Allen refused to pose with her," Van explained.

Folken nodded. "Sorry Hitomi. Try not to take it personally. I don't think it had much to do with how you modelled or how you looked."

"Then what was it about?" Hitomi asked.

Folken shook his head. "I don't know. Considering how urgently Allen wanted to leave the set, I'd say that he simply had some place else he wanted to be and he was willing to say that it was your bad modelling that was driving him away rather than take responsibility for what he was doing. Dilandau certainly didn't want him to leave us in the lurch, hence the extended argument. You see, Allen broke the conditions of his contact with Capier when he walked out today."

"How's Dryden taking that?"

"I haven't been able to get a hold of him," Folken said.

"Maybe Celena knows where he is," Van said, retrieving his cell phone and finding Celena's number. He programmed her number and put his phone to his ear. Within a few rings he hung up. "Yeah, she's not answering either."

Folken chuckled, "Lover's quarrel?"

"LOVER'S QUARREL?" Hitomi and Van blurted at the exact same time.

"Huh?" Folken said. "You didn't know? I think they've been together for a couple years. Weird couple, eh?"

Van looked ultimately perplexed as he said, "You know, Folken, Celena has been chasing me since I started working for Capier. I didn't know that she ever had a relationship with Dryden."

"Really? I guess they broke up then, but back in the day, they were all over each other. The marriage issue must have finally done them in."

"What?"

"It's not an uncommon story. She wanted to get married – he just wanted to live together. I knew they were fighting about it, but … Well; it's been a long time since I had that sort of conversation with Dryden."

Hitomi could hardly keep her astonishment in check. "But Van and Dryden are nothing like each other. How could she be interested in both of them? Dryden's a …"

"Player?" Folken supplied.

Hitomi looked around from side to side searching for a way out. How could she say that her boss's boss was a player?

Luckily Van rescued her. "It's not so weird. Dryden's unpredictable and unreliable while Celena is the opposite. She probably got fed up with his crap and decided to go for someone who was more 'her type'. Me. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe Dryden decided he didn't want to be with her for the same reasons that I did."

"What were those?" Folken asked.

"I didn't want a girl I had to schedule time with."

"How ironic," Folken said thoughtfully, taking his feet out of the aisle and putting them under the table. "That you should end up with Hitomi; a girl you not only had to schedule a date with, but also had to pay for."

Hitomi bit her lip and then said frostily, "I thought we'd been through this."

"Sorry," Folken said breaking from his reverie. "I didn't mean to insult you. Don't take what I said personally. I have a lot on my mind. I need to talk to Dryden about the photo shoot, because it looks like Allen is seriously breaking contract. He says he won't come back to work until we have found a replacement for you, but I don't think we have time to find someone who suits Allen. That is a tough job when you have all the time in the world. We need to have these shots done as soon as possible so that we will have time to film a commercial before the end of the summer."

Hitomi sighed and looked away. She wanted to be helpful, but she didn't know how. She couldn't force Allen to cooperate.

"So far, all of the shots Allen has done for Capier he has done solo. Could it be that he really doesn't like sharing the stage?" Van suggested.

"Maybe that's the problem. It's possible that he doesn't think our project is a priority because he's not really the star. All the shots taken either focus on both him and Hitomi equally or they highlight Hitomi while he's left in the background. This phone is for women, so we need to show a woman using one which means that he can't do the shoot without a female partner. Like I said, finding someone who can model with Allen is challenging. When I saw Dryden's pictures of you, Hitomi, I thought we had practically struck gold. You would look good with anybody … Which," Folken said meaningfully, "is why I think it would be faster to replace Allen than to replace you."

"You want to replace Allen?" Van asked. "With who?"

Folken's eyes literally twinkled. "Van," he said smoothly. "Do you remember the promise you made me in exchange for my letting you live in my condo?"

"You don't mean?"

"Oh, but I do," Folken said, fishing through his bag and withdrawing a magazine. "Hitomi, have a look at that."

Hitomi took the copy of 'Teen Wish' and examined the cover. It was the prom issue.

Hitomi gaped.

Van laughed when he saw it. "Where did you dig that up?"

"Dig it up? I keep a copy with me at all times," Folken proclaimed noisily.

"Of course you do," Van drawled. "How many years ago was that, anyway?"

"Five," Hitomi answered, looking at the date on the issue.

She flipped open the cover and found a younger Van staring back at her. There he was on almost every other page sporting tuxedoes and a fashionably messy hair style. He wasn't the main attraction, but merely an accessory to a girl who was modelling the latest styles of prom dresses. She could not believe how good he looked. Not only that, but as she combed further into the issue, she found a picture of him that had been mounted on one of her school friends' wall. She remembered seeing the photo years and years ago and thinking he was hotter than the usual teen heartthrob, but naturally – completely untouchable – so not worth thinking about.

Hitomi turned to Van and said, "This photo was up on my friend Yukari's wall when I was still in junior high."

"Really?" he asked, looking completely aghast.

"Yeah, really. Don't blush, Van. You look hot."

"Which is why I want him to take over Allen's place," Folken said.

Hitomi stared at Folken. "What?" she blurted. "Can you do that?"

"Well, since I can't seem to get in touch with Dryden, I guess I can do whatever I think is best. It would be a hassle to have to rebook all the locations and to rehire the temporary staff. The best thing is just to dress Van up like Allen – sans turtleneck of course – and to just get on with it." Then Folken added, "Van looks terrible in turtlenecks."

Hitomi couldn't believe what Folken was suggesting. Switching Allen for Van would make the photo shoot fun – instead of hell on earth. Her pulse was already racing at the very idea.

"The best part is that Van has modelled for me numerous times and I know he can deliver what Dryden wants. And since I let him live in my place rent free – he can't turn me down."

"Is that true?" Hitomi asked.

"Yes," Van said slowly.

"So," Folken said with a note of finality, "Eat up and we'll head back to the set. I want to finish up the coffee shop pictures before the end of the day. I'll show Dryden the pictures once we're finished. He'll like not having to dish out the big bucks for Allen – especially when he's such a pain in the ass."

Folken swapped Allen's turtleneck for a white button-up-the-front shirt. "Van's dark, see?" Folken said, pulling a shirt out of the makeshift wardrobe. "So, we need a white shirt to contrast his colouring. He's not as tall as Allen though, so he needs to wear a different size of trousers."

"Are you faking an English accent?" Hitomi suddenly asked.

Folken smiled. "Not intentionally. I work with a lot of Brits. It rubs off." Then he jumped back into work. He thumbed through the spare clothes. "Hmm … nothing that would fit Van."

Van snorted. "Excuse me for being short."

"Well, what you're wearing isn't at all suitable. A cat has better fashion sense than you do."

"You only think that because a cat runs around in the buff," Van retorted and Hitomi silently agreed that Folken's modesty left something to be desired.

"You'll have to wear mine. Switch me," Folken said, immediately unbuttoning his own black pants. He didn't even give Hitomi a chance to turn around. Apparently, he didn't mind if she saw his shiny black briefs.

Hitomi bolted out of the door to the trailer. "Whoa," she said, leaning against the door after she clamped it shut.

"Hey," Merle said coming up to her. "Folken said we had to find a different shirt for you too. What are you doing out here in the same thing?"

"Let's just give them a minute," Hitomi said, shaking her head.

Within half an hour, Hitomi and Van were ready to go. Hitomi's wardrobe had been altered so that her blouse and coat were gone. Instead she was wearing a black off-the-shoulder sweater and a scarf around her neck. Folken liked the change because he said it made her more feminine. Plus, she had been wearing something similar in the initial pictures Dryden took.

So, there was Hitomi up against the wall for a second time, but luckily this time, it was Van pushing her instead of Allen. Except now she was uncomfortable in a different way. She'd never seen Van pretend before, and so she wasn't sure how much of his behaviour was real or for the benefit of Folken's camera. Were his eyes always this dark, this full of passion and awareness? Did his hand always feel this self assured when she held it before? Did the two of them always get along this well? Did he look at her like this when she wasn't paying attention, or did she just not see it before?

It was then that Hitomi realized that the flush on her cheeks wasn't one of her brain-induced rushes. This was quite the opposite - the real thing. Van might not be able to tell when she was real, but Folken did. He always shot off his camera shutter insanely at the most inopportune moments – right when Van's gaze got too intense for Hitomi and she was about to look away. It made Hitomi blush even more furiously to have her heart exposed like that. But whenever she looked at the crew – it was just business as usual for them – they were selling phones. They didn't know it was her real heart on the line.

Folken had a lot of poses up his figurative sleeve and he did rounds of more poses than Hitomi could count before he called it a day.

Hitomi was completely and totally drained. She stretched her arms and cocked her neck hoping to hear a satisfying crack.

"I don't feel like doing dinner tonight," Hitomi told Van as he gave her a bottle of water. "I'm beat and by now, I'm probably too frazzled to appear in public."

"That's okay. I'm not really in the mood anymore either," he said shortly.

"All right then," Hitomi said, wondering about his dark mood. Maybe it he didn't really want to pose after all. "I'm going to go change."

Hitomi turned and went to go into the trailer and was surprised to see Van walking behind her. She peeked around at him a couple times and looked at him meaningfully trying to communicate to him that she wanted to go alone because she was obviously going to change into her street clothes. But he didn't seem to catch the hint and kept right on following her.
At the door she stopped, "Van I …"

Van reached past her and opened the door for her. "After you," he said, steering her into the trailer.

Hitomi felt lost as she stumbled into the empty trailer. What was did he need to talk to her about that couldn't wait until after she had taken her wretched wig off? Regardless, she couldn't wait to start getting comfortable.

"What is it?" she asked him as she stepped up to her dressing table and started unscrewing the backs of her earrings. She set them on the table when Van gradually came up behind her and started rubbing her shoulders.

"You're tired, aren't you?" he whispered as he drew back the curtain of her hair and began kissing her ear.

Hitomi could see their reflection in the mirror as he worked his way down her neck. His kisses were soft and his breath warm. Hitomi's legs felt wobbly; she didn't know if she could keep standing. One of his hands went to the back of her throat and tugged her scarf free. He wrapped it between his fingers, to keep it from falling. Hitomi felt so weak that she couldn't keep her eyes open. But even as his arms encircled her and he pulled her around to face him, somehow she couldn't lose sight of where they were.

"Van," she sighed. "Do you really think this is a good place? What if someone walks in on us?"

His dark eyes locked on hers and he asked roughly, "Don't you want me?" He kissed her again and she could sense his desperation for her. It was in every one of his motions.

She didn't know what to do. She felt like such a tramp. How could she make out with her boss at work? It seemed so slutty – except for the pounding of her heart. She was so excited by him that she didn't know if she could push him away.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Hitomi pushed Van off and quickly turned around to continue taking off her jewellery. She was just in time, because Folken and Merle came crashing into the trailer talking about how great work had been that day. Hitomi was beet-red, but she acted as if nothing happened. She was pretty sure they hadn't seen anything, but when she looked at Van … she saw that she had offended him.

He stalked behind a Chinese screen to change his clothing and when he emerged, he didn't look the least bit happier. Before he left the trailer entirely, he gave Hitomi a look that was both disappointed and extremely frustrated.

Author's Notes: Sorry I haven't updated. I have been working furiously on 'Ghost Mist' (which is posted on fictionpress). I like that project. I like Tesai - he's like Dryden in my Escaflowne trilogy - except sassier. So, about this chappy: I didn't have a beta reader for this chapter, so there may be mistakes - there are probably lots of them. Be cool, kay? Thanks always to anyone who reviews. Reviews are important because they make me work. For instance - I had pretty much forgotten this story existed (so hard have I been working on 'Ghost Mist') when I got a lovely review today from Yura and I got up the memory to finish this chapter and post it. Remember folks - reviewing is key. Cheers!