Warning: LIME!!!! ^_~
Windflowers...
Chapter 3: Candles and SandalWood
For a moment all was silent, Van could clearly hear the soft chirping of birds in the trees that surrounded the small enclosure in the forest. A sudden gust of wind blew the girl's raven hair in front of her eyes, Van blinked as the girl's hold on his shoulder tightened.
"Let go of her."
The tone of the voice could have been intimidating if it hadn't been a four-year old girl saying those words... therefore Van just smiled.
"I said, let go of my mother!"
Such simple words, but they affected Van in the way a death sentence would.
She had married. All was clear now. It was just some sick, twisted joke of the Gods above. Take her away from him, drive him mad while waiting for her to return; and then give her back. And now that she was finally in his arms after so long he would have to let her go again. Let her go back to the one she loved and to the father of her daughter...
In a secluded corner of his mind, Van found himself wishing for the death of this man... maybe if he was dead she would stay by his side... hope blossomed. Maybe she came back to him because her husband had died and she needed comfort. Maybe she would stay... stay because she needed company. He wouldn't care... he wouldn't care if she stayed in Gaea just out of self-pity and loneliness as long as she was by his side.
It was his punishment. He had let go of her and now he would live, if that could be called a life, with the consequences of what he had done. He would love her, need her, want her, reach out for her... and she would always be beside him but never actually there. She would still love another... another cycle had started...
"Why are you crying sir?" the soft, soprano voice echoed through the ancient trees...
"It's nothing. Don't worry about... about your mother. I'm just trying to help"
Van held Hitomi tighter and smoothed her hair away from her pale face...
Self induced torture.
He winced as she shifted in her sleep and moaned out something intelligible in his ear... her eyelids fluttering for a moment but then closing again with a sigh.
Pain, heart-wrenching agony.
He stood up, holding his precious bundle to his heart and started walking towards his horse, which was grazing not far away from the giant mecha.
"Come on, little one, I'm taking you and your mother to my castle. There she can rest until she wakes up... and then leave if she wants..." the last part was a painful whisper...
The girl ran to catch up with him and then she grabbed a hold of his furry cape and tugged.
"You mean a castle like the ones in the fairy tales? Like Cinderella's castle?"
Van had to smile despite of the dull ache he felt echoing through his whole body, flowing with his blood and poisoning his soul. He couldn't hate this little girl, he couldn't even dislike her. She was the result of a love between Hitomi and someone she had obviously cared for, and even though he could barely stand the pain, he had to accept the fact that Hitomi, unlike him, had moved on. She had lived her life, gotten engaged, and then married.
"I don't know who this 'Cinderella' is little one, but yes, it is a castle like the ones in the novels my mother read to me when I was little..."
another painful smile was rewarded with a look of pure bewilderment...
"You've never heard of _Cinderella_?" another sharp tug distracted Van as he reached for his horse's reins and pulled the animal's soft muzzle upwards. He then shifted the weight of the girl in his arms to his other shoulder and, with his free hand, stroked the soft fur on the animal's nose.
The little girl awed.
"You've never heard of Cinderella but you have a real horse?" her childish eyes were wide in wonder...
"What do you mean with a 'real horse' little one? This is an equus." Van smiled as he pulled himself up on the horses back settling Hitomi down in front of himself, her head resting on his shoulder and comfortably leaning against his chest.
"What's an 'equus'?" the girl winced as Van reached down grabbed her waist pulling her up. As soon as she settled down into his lap, she grabbed hold of her mother's hand and held on tight.
Van smiled again "What's a 'Cinderella'?"
The girl shrieked as the 'equus' darted forwards at the slightest command of his master's hand, so Van slowed the animal's pace down. Looking down at the girl in his lap, he noticed her frightened expression and gave her a reassuring squeeze.
"It's alright... he wont run."
The girl visibly relaxed and resumed her happy chatter...
The wind had picked up a bit and it had started to turn chilly, the cold fingers of the afternoon breeze clawing at Ran's thin clothes and she shivered...
"Are you cold little one?"
Riding through the tall trees of the ancient forest was indeed uncomfortable, for the sun's rays couldn't reach the damp brushwood. All was silent except for the soft crunching sound of the animal walking on the layer of dead leaves that had fallen the preceding winter, but Van felt the little girl's answer. She shivered again and hid farther inside his cloak, the skin of her cheek cold against his chest.
Wrapping Hitomi and the girl in his fur cape he motioned to the animal to speed up a bit and finally the white, stone walls of the castle appeared behind the last layer of trees.
The sun shone down on the three riders but Ran just snuggled closer to Van wrapping her tiny arms round his waist and holding onto her mother at the same time.
Van felt himself caring more and more for the little girl... it felt so right to hold her, to hold her and Hitomi. As if she approved his thoughts, Hitomi shifted leaning further against his shoulder, her lips centimeters from his neck, and he heard her murmur out his name. He sighed and closed his eyes...
*maybe... just maybe...*
"When I was younger, my mother used to tell me stories about people that lived behind the moon... about castles, princesses and brave warriors..." the little girl whispered... "Mama also told me about my father. She said he was a young king, and he piloted a giant robot like the ones on TV, what did she call them 'guy-me-lefs' something... just like the one that called me before in the forest" Ran sighed " I remember having the feeling of a family when she used to hold me before I fell asleep... I used to dream about having a real father and it felt like I feel now... warm."
Van froze.
*a king? giant melef? Escaflowne calling her?*
As little Ran rambled on everything clicked into place...
The girl's hair, her eyes, her nose... they had looked familiar and now Van knew why. They were his own.
Escaflowne. Escaflowne had been reacting to the girl's presence and that could only mean she was of the Fanel family.
But he had to be certain...
"What's... what's your name, little one?" he grabbed her shoulder tightly but not painfully... almost, almost comfortingly.
She blushed, suddenly shy "Ran sir... my name is Ran Kanzaki. I know it's an unusual name but she said it reminded her of my father..."
"What's your na..." she started, but he silenced her moving a hand up to the girl's face to brush her wild locks away from her eyes. She started to repeat her question but it was then that she noticed tears falling down his tanned cheeks.
"Van... Van Fanel, King of Fanelia"
~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~
*Flying... wings, feathers... Van!*
Hitomi blinked, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings of the room she had been sleeping in... she felt the soft, warm material of the sheets tangled in her legs and noticed the shivering light produced by the scented candles resting on the dresser next to the large bed.
She breathed in the sweet smell of incense and turned round so she faced the window in the far east side of the bedroom... if you could call it a bedroom. More like apartment really...
The moon, or more precisely moons, were shining in the dark velvet sky casting an eerie shadow on the person sitting in front of the window...
Hitomi sat up, holding her head with one hand, and tried to see clearly through the thick embroidery of incense smoke that was floating in the room and through her sleepy eyes.
Longish black hair, broad shoulders, red shirt...
"Van?" she called out tentatively...
Van was startled when he heard her sweet voice calling his name and he darted over to her side and sat down on the bed.
"Van, is that you?" another insecure whisper...
Van grabbed her shoulders and held her close and buried his face in her neck...
"It's me Hitomi... it's me." he mumbled into her shoulder as he felt her arms encircle him tightly.
"I missed you..." their voices mixing as one, baritone and soprano voicing the same pain and happiness...
Suddenly she pulled away, eyes frantic with worry...
"Where is she? Where's Ran... she was with me before... Van have you seen her?" she pushed him away and attempted to stand, throwing her legs over the side of his bed...
She started to walk, more like run, towards the door when she felt Van grab her waist and hug her hard.
"It's late Hitomi, she's sleeping in the room next to this one..."
"Van do you know..." she untangled herself from his arms and turned around, liquid green pools melting into ruby, as she looked up into his face...
"Yes... I realized... I'm so sorry..." he hugged her closer, her cheek pressed tightly against his chest.. so tightly she could feel his strong heartbeat... "You had to go through all that alone... I'm sorry..." Hitomi heard his voice echoing in his chest... deep and powerful... She had missed him so much it hurt... physically...
"No matter... you're here with me now... I'm back..."
But her words were cut off by his warm lips pressed against her own in a sweet kiss... in a kiss she had last experienced five years before... she moaned and parted her lips allowing him to seek what he most needed...
He tasted her hungrily, with five years of pent-up emotions fueling his actions... pushing her against the wall and pressing his body against hers... his arms snaking round her waist and holding her even closer, her fingers tangling in his hair and pulling his face down to hers...
Finally they parted, surfacing for air... breathing hard Van stared into Hitomi's eyes, then, noticing her encouraging smile, he pulled his silky shirt over his head tossing it to the floor... then he leaned down kissing her lips, her eyes, her cheeks... his nose grazing her cheekbone, his lips as soft and gentle as feathers as he trailed a path of fire down her neck and to her chest...
She sighed, whispering sweet, meaningless words into his ear as he slowly undid the ties in her white robe parting it to reveal the pale skin of her breasts... the feeling of her hot skin pressed against his own drowning all other senses apart from the feeling of her hands travelling across his chest; slowly, tenderly pushing him backwards towards the bed...
Tripping over his own shirt, Van fell back onto the soft sheets taking Hitomi with him, never breaking their passionate kiss... he groaned as she landed on top of him, pressing him against the mattress her lips kissing his neck...
A sudden gust of wind form the window blew the candles out... the curtains flapping wildly in the cold night's air, the embers of the incense sticks glowing a bright orange in the darkness...
But the two lovers didn't care... for they were safe and warm in each other's arms for the first time since what had seemed eternity...
to be continued...
Whoa... that was spiraling quickly out of control at the end... ^_~ so I decided to stop it there before I had to give this fic a higher rating... ::coughNC17cough:: I will attempt a lemon once I am sure I can write one... but it probably wont be part of this fic... maybe a prologue... who knows? ^_^
sorry... I wanted to post this yesterday but I had an English essay to write... damn you Shakespeare and all your fricking plays! _
Next chapter out on Sunday... Monday at most
Oh... Disclaimer:
Esca does not belong to poor, little, ol'me... it belongs to some lucky and _rich_ people out there who were kind enough to share it with the rest of us... Windflowers belongs to me though... so do Ran and Tareel.. so ask if you want to use them in any of your fics!
Luv,
Serena aka Koneko (who is also busy trying to build a fricking web site for her fricking fanfics but her and HTML don't mix, so it may take a while... _will_ take a while... ^_^)
Please review... and thanks to all the kind readers who reviewed the previous chapters... I don't deserve half the stuff you tell me guys.. I'm flattered! =^.^= ::blush::
Oh.. and by the way…
Equus means 'horse' in Latin… I figured that if I wanted to give animals weird names I might as well use their Latin equivalent… =^.^=
