Update as of 25 May 2022
A/N: Some of you might have seen that I had been revising this story. Relatively speaking, quite a few people have read the revised chapters. I DON'T KNOW IF ANYONE LIKES THEM THOUGH BECAUSE I ONLY GOT ONE COMMENT. (ahem readers we authors live for comments)

Well, after completely rewriting the chapter people tended to read the most (chapter 5), I decided my revised story is so different that it needs it's own fresh start. So please check my profile to get the revised version!

This story has been reverted back to the original version. It's still fine. It's simple. But head on over to the newer version for a deeper dive. Because I really dive deep.

xo-CE

PS I took the Reunion bonus chapters, too! Sorry.

A/N

This is a direct sequel to SuilSaifir's one-shot "Home is Where the Heart Is"—Chapter 5 in Black & Gold 30 Kisses. (Found here: fanfiction dot net slash s/4837583/5/Black-Gold-30-Kisses) Everything I've written spans from her idea. Go search that up and read it right now. Hurry. It's only 3k words or so. The next paragraph contains spoilers.

Okay, so to summarize that story, Van and Hitomi have been married for seven months, but they never consummate their marriage for whatever reason (Van is a stiff). Five months into their marriage, Zaibach & Basram attack Fanelia while Van is away. So he's been warring away for the last two months, but is presently in Palas for some war council, pining away for a wife whose fate he doesn't know. Hitomi, meanwhile, treks eleven days through the wilderness, fake pregnant, to show up with important intel from back home. Van is upset she's pregnant, she removes a belly pillow in front of the entire cast, then delivers her intel before passing out from exhaustion. Van carries her to his room, they almost kiss, but then they get interrupted by soup. He returns to the war council to integrate this new intel into a new maneuver. Hitomi thinks she'll not see him until the end of the war and eats her soup.

So the premise of that story was just too much for my mind to resist, especially as the wife of a soldier. Major military maneuvers take time to prepare; they don't just happen at the flip of a switch. And, after Hitomi traveled for so long, she needs longer than an afternoon nap and some soup. Combine this with a soldier-king lonely for his wife, and there's no way Van was going to let Hitomi get away without at least spending one night. I also wanted to answer the question about why Hitomi pretended to be pregnant, and there was this delicious idea of how I could perhaps help these two to fall in love by the end of the day. I'm happy with what I've created, even if it's not perfect.

Anyway, the tone of this story is nothing like Suilsafir's—she's just too expert a wordsmith—but I hope it's something you enjoy anyway. Please read and review!

Hugs- CovertEyes

It goes without saying that I do not own Escaflowne stuff at all. I can't even take credit for the inspiration for this story. So leave me alone, none of this is mine, okay?

Reminder: This story has been reverted back to the original version.

CHAPTER 1

It had been more than even Van's practiced self-discipline could endure when he'd stepped back into the war room after leaving Hitomi in his room. He could still feel the imprint of her body in his arms as he carried her from where she had fainted to his bed, and his cheek felt hot where she had placed a kiss—only the second in their seven-month marriage—and these sensations left him distracted and agitated. He wasn't ready to admit that he'd left something unfinished with her, determined as he was to avenge his country, so he found himself rather on edge when he returned to his fellow rulers only to be barraged by their annoying comments and questions all at once:

"Fanel, you've got to be kidding, don't you think you should be with your wife?"

"You didn't want to help her feel better, King Fanel?"

"I agree with Dryden, you can take some time to be with Hitomi. She looked exhausted."

"Why don't you go take a nap with her, your Majesty?"

"I'll go sit with her!"

This last cheerful remark came from his young cousin-in-law, Chid, and, on its own, it might have been the tipping point that ignited Van's possessiveness and returned him to his wife. Instead, it was a quiet quip on his right that finally and crudely broke through the king's delicate wall of self-control:

"Only if I wanted to bed a wild hog."

This remark from Allen was just too much. Van had often been disgusted by the Knight Caeli, who, contrary to his assertion, was not in any way selective about the women he chose to bed. Indeed, Van had seen a string of wretched females leave his tent when they were on the battlefield. Such a debase implication about his wife, combined with the insults Allen had thrown at her before she fainted, stirred in the king a feeling of protectiveness that had been simmering beneath the surface for longer than he realized. After all, Van had been unable to protect her from Basram and Zaibach, but he could protect her from Allen.

With a rush of rage, Van had bodily pinned the Knight Caeli up against the nearest wall, his arm at the other man's throat. "Care to insult my Queen again, Shaezar?"

He watched a trace of something flicker in Allen's blue eyes, and a wild thought flew into his mind. "You're jealous, is that it, Shaezar? She rejected you, didn't she? She's my wife, Shaezar!"

When Allen's eyes narrowed, Van knew he'd hit close to the mark, but the victory was short lived. The knight's mouth twisted into a smirk, and he had only a brief moment to steel himself for what he knew was coming. "If I had to guess, I'm not the only one she's rejected. Can you even call her your wife, Fanel?" Allen spat.

Only his best kingly instinct preserved his pride and Allen's life right then as he focused everything he had to keep himself from dignifying the claim with a reaction.

He and his wife had acted their parts well—hadn't they? Or had he himself given them away with his initially hostile treatment of her—before she pulled the pillow out of her dress—when she looked as if she were pregnant—as pregnant as she could have been had they consummated their marriage?

The king knew the insult had to have been a wild guess on Allen's part, a barb intended to further agitate Van, but that didn't mean it was any less true. Behind his undeviating hold on the knight, Van's mind was racing. The truth was that while their initial abstinence had been mutually agreed upon, he had ignored her gentle attempts to bridge things between them after that.

He had to admit for that single minute he had believed her to be pregnant, and not with his child, he had been angry, but it was a jealous anger that reflected back on himself: because his weren't available, she'd been left to find love in the arms of another man. And a part of his mind recognized that if he felt so deeply over an imagined lover of hers, how much might she have felt for his disloyalty to her?

As if to avoid the pain of that thought, he saw again the image of Hitomi carrying a child, but this time his, and he suddenly felt exposed within himself other desires that he hadn't known were there.

What if Hitomi were carrying his child? What if he had allowed himself to love her? What if he had allowed himself to enjoy her company? What if he wanted things to be different between them?

All of these thoughts came to Van in those seconds after Allen's affront, as if his mind had been busy processing what had happened with Hitomi earlier and had just now laid out the results before him. Had he been feeling loneliness, guilt, and regret all this time? He felt like crying out. It took everything he had to keep hold of his honor and dignity as he continued to stare down the bastard who'd insulted his wife and called into question his marriage. He began to quake beneath the strain of it all, and he knew couldn't keep up pretenses any longer.

Van released the knight.

"Allen Shaezar, you're dismissed," he heard King Fassa command from behind him. Without so much as shaking himself off, the disgraced Knight Caeli stomped away. Nobody followed him.

The room was silent now. Even the normally enthusiastic Chid remained mute. Van felt suddenly cold and exposed, as if these people had witnessed his internal struggles along with his external dramas.

"Well, I think it's about time for lunch," Millerna said gently.

Figures slid out of the war room, but Van remained frozen. As Millerna left, she handed him the pillow Hitomi had pulled from her dress, murmuring something that he didn't hear. Van took it numbly and stared at nothing as he processed the revelations he'd just experienced. He felt as if his insides were rearranging into something new and different.

He didn't know how long he stood there before he became aware of his surroundings again. Gradually, he began to look around the room until his eye caught the map that had been laid out for his wife not so long ago. Troop and battery figurines had been placed in the key locations she'd pointed out, as if the leaders had begun to plan their new counter-offensive during the time he'd taken to carry her to his room. But as he looked at the map, instead of envisioning strategies, he found himself instead envisioning the potential routes his wife might have used on her trek here. He felt within himself whispers of awe and gratitude for her, because she'd traveled alone for days through the wilderness—and through dragon country at that—for the sake of the country he loved and fought for.

A realization came to him just then. She didn't do all this only to deliver a piece of intelligence any trusted messenger could have carried.

Could it be?

Hitomi was here—to see him.