Flowers
For Hitmomi
By ~
Careo
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Escaflowne characters or the show or anything used in the show such as weird places and weird names.
PART I
The organ played so loud that the walls of the church began to shake. Each pane in the stain glass windows sang out a note all of its own as it shook in its own little space. The air around Hitomi's ears vibrated so hard against her head that she had to restrain herself from running out of the church with her hands over her ears. But she knew that it would offend everyone, and besides, she was the maid of honor.
Van was standing on the other side of Allen and looked like he was thinking the same thing as Hitomi, but he stayed put too. After what seemed like forever the music stopped and silence flooded the sanctuary. To Hitomi, it was even more beautiful than the organ music had been. Then Father Mason began the service. He had been instructed by Allen to keep the ceremony short and he did. In no time Allen was leading Millerna down the isle and out into the sunshine with Hitomi, Van, and Merle following.
Outside waited two coaches, one for Allen and Millerna, which had been draped with white fabric, even against their wishes. The second coach was undecorated and was intended for the other guests of the wedding party, who were Hitomi, Van and Merle. The ride back to the inn was a bumpy one. Hitomi held onto the small coach window and Merle held onto Van as he did his best to brace himself with his feet so that he wouldn't look like he had to hold onto anything. Hitomi let out a sigh of relief when they reached the Golden Dawn, the inn where they had rooms.
"I miss streets," Merle wined as they all shook off the effect of the short journey across the small country town. Hitomi looked at the mud paths that were used as the village's roads. She nodded in agreement she missed paved roads too.
"Well, let's move up to our rooms now." Allen said as he led Millerna into the inn. Everyone trailed along behind. The common of the inn was filled with burly farm men, throwing dice and relaxing from the days work. One man in particular caught Hitomi's eye as they passed through the noisy room. He had been sitting in that same spot when they had left, and that had been over an hour ago. She had seen him then too. He stood out among the musclely farmers, he was skinny and looked as if he were wasting away with a sickness, his cheeks pale and caved in. The other men in the room had beards and hair that fell into their eyes while this man looked to be clean-shaven and had no hair what- so- ever. The thing that stood out most in Hitomi's mind was the red scar that ran down his head. It started at the crown of his head and ran to his chin, cutting over his left eye. It was blood red, it almost looked like a freshly healed cut, and stood out plain as day against the man's white skin.
They all climbed the stairs and followed Allen and Millerna to the room they would be sharing. When they had checked in the day before, they had gotten two rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. Since the wedding though, Van had given up his spot in the room he shared with Allen so that he could be with his bride. The door that joined the rooms had been opened to let in fresh air from the window in the girl's room. Placed all around the room were pots and vases filled with purple irises that Millerna had ordered the day before from the village's one florist. The aroma from the flowers filled the room and sent Hitomi's mind spinning so that she almost forgot about the dull ache that had invaded her chest earlier that morning.
"Throw your bouquet! Throw it! Throw it…" Merle sang as she danced around Millerna's feet. Millerna smiled down at Merle and pointed to the other side of the room.
"Ok, but you have to go and stand over there." Merle scampered to where she was told and ended up standing only three feet farther away from Millerna than she had been. "Hitomi," Millerna said, still pointing at where Merle was standing, "you have to go and stand over there too."
Hitomi looked up at Millerna and stammered, "No I couldn't really I…"
"Nonsense," Millerna cut in, "now go and stand next to Merle." Merle crossed her arms and gave Hitomi a look that dared her not to move. For a moment the visions of what Merle would do if she didn't move glued her to the floor, but she soon freed herself form them and stood next to Merle who was now singing a song about some brave warrior cat who was so fast no one could ever catch him.
Then Millerna's bouquet of fresh picked wild purple irises with one creamy yellow wild rose in the center was flying through the air strait for Hitomi's heart. Visions of her wedding day floated through her mind, how perfect it would be. Slowly, her arms reached fro the bouquet when Merle jumped and grabbed it almost right out of Hitomi's hands. Hitomi's heart sank a little deeper and the dull ache in her chest became a little sharper.
Merle squealed with delight and pressed her nose into the flowers. Then she ran over to Van and snaked her arm through his. "Van-sama," she cooed, looking up at Van with her best version of moon-eyes, "will you marry me?"
Millerna and Allen chuckled softly but all Hitomi could do was smile. The pain in her chest sharpening again. Van looked down at Merle and smiled, "No, I don't think this is the right time for that." He managed to pry his arm away from her and walked over to stand next to Hitomi.
Millerna grabbed Allen's hand and announced, "We are going out on a carriage ride in the country," Allen shook his head no but he didn't object to going with her, "would any of you like to join us?"
Merle placed her flowers in an empty pot and danced over to Millerna, "I would!" She yelled. Hitomi and Van both shook their heads no and the three went out the door and into one of the coaches that was waiting outside. Millerna had fallen in love with the wild flower covered mountain faces when she had first laid eyes on them. She had taken every chance to go out and see them and she would take anyone who would come along.
Van and Hitomi stood in silence for a few moments before Van broke it. "Well, I think that I'm going to go and take a nap," he began to walk to the other room. "What about you?"
Hitomi had been drifting in her thoughts; the question from Van snapped her out of them. "Wha-? Oh, I think I'll go down to the market place, look around a little. I'll be back in a little while." Van looked as though he didn't like the idea of her going out alone and was about to say something about it when Hitomi cut him off, "I'll wake you up when I get back ok?" He nodded and went into his room to sleep.
Hitomi grabbed a little bag that she had been using as a purse and went down and out of the inn. The walk was a short one, it was a small village. The rest of the village was empty compared to the bustle that was going on in the market place. People were everywhere, and they were selling things that looked like the vender had traveled far and wide to come to this nowhere place. Each vender's voice was louder than the last, Hitomi almost covered her ears, but she didn't. She wandered around for what seemed like only a few minutes, but when she glanced at her watch she was shocked to see that she had been gone for 45 minutes. AH! I hope Van isn't awake yet… She thought as she struggled with the large crowed. Just as she got past the last both did she see him, the white man with the scar that ran down his face. And this time she was positive that she was looking at her.
He took a step forward and held out his hand, "Miss Hitomi, allow me to introduce myself…" Hitomi didn't wait around to hear what else he was going to say, she took off run to the inn. Hitomi was sure that if Amano had been there to see her run like that, he would have been proud.
Hitomi burst into the inn and sprinted up the stairs to her room. She almost kicked the room door in, and slammed it behind her. Van was on his feet, sword in hand with a look of surprise of his face. "I…um…sorry, you woke me up and I didn't know who it was…" he stammered. Hitomi smiled, he was cute when he was still sleepy.
She smiled at him, "I'm back now." They both laughed. Van put his sword away and put on a shirt. Then they went into the other room and sat on the windowsill and looked out over the city. Small, flickering lights was all that lighted the night. The stars shone as bright as anything and the full moon lit up the small bit of earth for them.
"So how was your trip to the market?" Van asked after they had been sitting for a while. Hitomi only then remembered the strange man with the scar who knew where she was staying. She told him the whole story as fast as she could. Van just sat there, taking it all in as it came to him. "I guess we should find the others and start running, if they've found us again." Hitomi's heart sank, she had grown tried of always being on guard, always being ready to run. She wanted to stay in one place for more than a day or two.
Hitomi sighed, "But how are we going to find them? It's not like they told us which mountain they were going to." She waved her hand out of the open window and pointed to the mountains that protected the valley the village was in. "And if the guy found us here, he can find us anywhere." Hitomi rested her head on her knees and wished with all her heart to be home. Just anywhere but here.
Van gently rubbed her back. "Don't worry, we'll find someway to shake him. We'll get away and then we can stay in the towns we end up in for more than just a day at a time." Hitomi looked up at Van, had he read her mind? The moonlight glinted off his black hair and his eyes glittered. "It'll all be ok, I promise." He smiled down at her and rested his head on her back. They sat there until the others got back from their trip, which was close to dawn.
Merle was the first in the room. She bounded over to where Hitomi and Van had fallen asleep on each other and yelled, "Hey wake up you two! It's time to go and have breakfast!" Hitomi jumped so hard that she almost fell out of the window. But Van grabbed her before she was able to go too far down. Once everyone had changed, they all piled down into the common room for breakfast. It was served to them on the inn's finest dishes, they looked like sliver platters but were probably something a lot cheaper. Plate after plate after plate was served to them until they couldn't eat another bite. They all ordered some after breakfast vino and sat sipping it as they talked about what they had done the night before.
Millerna told about how the night had come on so quickly and how the mountain air had just enchanted them so much that they had to stay the night. Merle eagerly joined in the telling of the story. While Allen sat back, not saying a word and making it clear to Hitomi and Van that the mountain air had not enchanted him so much that he would want to spend the night. Millerna and Merle went on about how the night sparkled and the town's lights looked like only a candle on the horizon and these strange balls of light that had awakened them close to dawn.
Millerna looked keenly at Hitomi, like she might give her an answer to some unasked question. "Hitomi, when those balls of light came and woke us up, I had this feeling in my stomach that something was wrong. I sat up and tried to think about what in the world could be wrong in such a little hidden place like this and the first thing that came to mind was you and Van here alone in the inn." Millerna's eyes took on an inquisitive glimmer as she leaned across the table to get closer to Hitomi. "Tell me, did anything strange happen to you or Van last night?"
Van kicked Hitomi under the table, it was their signal, the whole group knew what it meant, to tell her all that she wanted to know. "Well…now that you mention it, something weird did happen to me in the market place when I went out…" Hitomi told the story as casually as she could in a room full of men who might want to kill them all. When she was done Merle had stopped eating, Allen had his elbows on the table, something he rarely did and Millerna had an almost triumphant look on her face.
Merle glanced around the common room, "I think I want to leave this place now…" she said quietly. Millerna smiled at the almost trembling Merle. Hitomi felt sorry for the poor cat girl, she had never been this scared by the thought of danger before.
Allen leaned back in his chair and tried to relax himself, "I say we leave here as soon as we can and keep running. If he is a threat then we've left him behind us, and if he isn't well then, we still have lost him."
Millerna rested her forehead on the palm of her hand and sighed. "Allen, now that he has made himself known to us, don't you think he'd find it a bit strange that we ran the second after?" Allen made a move to speak but Millerna cut him off with a glare, "And if he is after us then he would know that we are running and if he could find us here, think of where he could find us next." Van nodded in agreement and got a glare from Allen.
"But he knows something's strange already. Hitomi ran from him in the market. If you were a person and walked up to someone and said hello and they ran away, what you think about them?" Allen said, fixing Millerna with his best blank faced stare.
Millerna smiled, "I would think that they were very rude and that I should never speak with them again." Allen slapped his forehead with his glass of wine, dribbling a little on his black pants. He swung his long blonde hair in frustration with Millerna and groaned under his breath.
"You don't think like a man Millerna, had that happened to me, I would be all the more interested in the person and I would follow them with more care and determination than I had to begin with." He finished with a flourish that sent wine sloshing over the top of his glass and onto the wood floor.
Millerna punched Allen playfully, causing him to almost choke on his wine. "And that is exactly why we should not run." Everyone at the table looked at Millerna like she was crazy. And then Hitomi got it. She smiled and wanted to laugh out loud at how slow men where that she thought she would burst from it before the men caught up to them. Allen gave Millerna a questioning look. "Allen dear, you just said that if a girl had run away from you in the market when you tried to introduce yourself to her would only make you want to follow her more, right?" Allen nodded slowly, still not comprehending what Millerna was driving at. "Well, let's say that you did follow her and when you asked about her in the inn where you know she was staying and they said that she checked out the day after you had talked to her, wouldn't you ask everyone in town where she had gone to so that you could continue to follow her?" Allen nodded again, Van sat in his chair and listened with a confused air about him. "Wouldn't think that there must be some reason that she was running away from you like that and wouldn't you want to find out what that reason was, at almost any cost to you or the girl you happened to be following?" Allen nodded again…and then his eyes lit up with a look of knowing as everything that Millerna had said clicked into place. Van figured it out at the same time.
"I suppose you do have a point Millerna," Allen said slowly. Van nodded and Hitomi just smiled. Hitomi never quite understood Millerna's way of dealing with men. Whenever Millerna went up in a debate against Van or Allen, she always won. Millerna gave Hitomi a little smile to show that she would keep on winning, even if she had to beat her side of the debate into her opposition.
"So I suppose that we'll be staying here for a while longer?" Hitomi asked anyone at the table who cared to answer. Millerna nodded and stuck her tongue out at Allen. Hitomi settled back into her chair, she was hoping they wouldn't have to leave the cute little valley town so soon.
Merle coughed softly and blushed a little. "Um...sorry but…I'm lost." She smiled weakly at Van while the rest of the table erupted in fits of laughter. Merle turned an even brighter shade of red and scowled at them. It didn't do much good though, it just made her look funnier, which made them all laugh even harder. Everyone was stressed, looking over your shoulder and watching out for the other people in the group that you came with was hard to do when you also had to look where you were walking.
That night, while everyone was bed Hitomi walked to the window and stood leaning on the sill, just looking out at the town below her. It's so peaceful, she thought. Hitomi wished that her spirits would calm down so that she could go to sleep. A cat meowed loudly in the alley next to the inn, and then the cat began to hiss loudly. The sound of boards falling is what really grabbed Hitomi's attention from her thoughts. A man so white he almost glowed in the dark stepped out of the alley and into the street. Hitomi pulled back on reflex when she realized that it was the man from the market. She didn't move but still looked down at the street where the man was standing. He looked back at the alley, up at her window for a moment, Hitomi would have sworn that he smiled in such a way that it made her bones shiver, and then looked at the western horizon. Hitomi glanced up to see a black dot flying in the air and slowly land on one of the rock faces. The man in the street jumped and ran faster than Hitomi thought anyone could run toward the place where the black dot had landed. Hitomi stood frozen to the wall for a few minutes afterward, her eyes locked on the spot where the white man had been standing only a few minutes earlier.
"Hitomi?" Van was sitting up in his bed, rubbing one of his eyes with the back of his hand. "What are you doing up?" He got out of bed and came over to look out the window with her. The almost full moon glinted off every flat surface of Van's body. He almost seemed to glimmer in the dim light. He must have had another nightmare and that was what woke him up, Hitomi thought slowly. She reached out and rubbed his back like he had rubbed hers the day before. He turned and smiled at her, "I had another dream…"
Hitomi placed a finger across his lips, "Shush now. You can't tell me a dream without having breakfast first or else it will come true." Van smile underneath her finger. "And besides, look at how late it is. You need to get back into bed and so do I." She shooed Van along in front of her. He climbed in his bed and she tucked him in it with care to be sure that he was comfortable. Then she sat on his bed and smiled down at him as he began to fall asleep again. "I promise that you won't have another bad dream again for the rest of the night." She whispered as she leaned down and gave him a kiss on his forehead, and he smiled at her from behind a curtain of sleep. Hitomi got into her own bed and snuggled down into it, comforted by the memories of Van flying down to rescue her.