Disclaimer: All the squishy butterflies fly 'round and 'round the room. Cupid hits one with an arrow, all'a sudden--BOOM!
A/N: Dude, I'm surprised with the response I'm getting for this. Anyways, here's another chapter. And for all the ppl who are reading PT over in the DBZ ff area, don't worry, I'm not abandoning it.
Between Dreams
She flopped back on the ground, looking up through the knee high grass at the stars, at the Earth and her moon, at Gaea. Van had changed so much; he didn't seem to be confused at all anymore. Actually, as he stood there, a few paces off and closer to the water, hands at his sides, looking up into the slight breeze at the heavens, he seemed to know exactly what was going on, where they were, and how they'd gotten there. If she didn't know better, she'd say he knew why they were there as well.
As opposed to her, who was as confused as ever, and as lost as she'd ever been in her entire life. But the sight of him was reassuring: his strong and familiar frame, the stubborn line of his jaw and chin, his broad shoulders.
He had changed so much; not just in the fact that his khaki-colored pants weren't so tight, and that he had traded in his signature red shirt for a khaki-grey tunic-ish turtleneck. No, he felt different to her. More in control; more grown up.
All this has taught me how much I need to grow...
How long ago had he said that? Had she really been gone that long?
His hair was shorter; still unruly, but more refined. The stiff sense of purpose was gone from his shoulders, just as it had been since those first days after the war. There was this overall peace in him. It showed in his eyes, in the relaxed set of his face. He could take whatever anybody threw at him, and not take it as a personal offense, or as a challenge.
She folded her hands behind her head and turned her eyes back to the heavens.
"So how have you been, Hitomi?"
His voice hadn't changed though; it was a little deeper, yes, but it still carried that hint of hesitancy in it. She could only wonder about his social skills. The familiarity of the thought made her smile.
"I've been alright. It's always a little hard, this time every spring, but I always get through it alright."
She saw him nod slightly before he turned and walked towards her, sitting down in the grass between her and his sword, propping his elbows on his knees and looking out over the glass-like water.
"Have you been happy Hitomi?"
Ah, there it was. That little glimmer of uncertainty beneath the surface, that need to protect her that gave him purpose, strength, assurance, and courage.
"Yes, actually. When I got back to Earth, I'd been gone nearly a year. I don't know how that worked--I'd been gone months the first time, and arrived home the day before I left. I was gone half as long the second time, but by the time I'd gotten home, it was as if one day lapsed on Earth for every one I'd been on Gaea. After telling everyone that I'd been sick and in America--another continent--for medical attention, I had to make up my entire second year of high school while working on the third. So for the first couple years, I didn't get to stop and think much."
He nodded mutely.
"Yukari and Amano are worried about me. They know something happened while I was gone, and while they can't believe me because of how absurd it sounds, they know I'm telling the truth; they saw you, and they saw me leave both times. But they don't need to worry; I have my ups and my downs, like everybody. I just have my moments where...well...where I miss you all so much. It doesn't help that Amano looks just like Allen, only with shorter and brown hair, because that only gets me thinking about Millerna, and you, and Merle, and everyone. Usually around this time of year, too."
He fell silent, and then lay back in the grass, a curtain of green stalks between them.
"It was around this time of year that everything started, wasn't it?"
She nodded.
"Which is probably why we're both here," he continued. She looked over at him, and was forced to smile as he reached out a hand and parted the grass between them, gently bending the stalks so that he could see her eyes. Over the water, dawn reached her warm fingers towards them. "Fanelia is finally rebuilt, Hitomi. This is the first time in a long time that I've been able to sit and--"
His words cut themselves off abruptly as the clearing was flooded with a white-blue light that encircled them both, shrinking into two columns, Hitomi enbraced by one, Van by the other.
"I guess this is good-bye," she called over, not quite sure what to say. There were so many things she wanted to know, like how Merle and Millerna were, Prince Chid and Allen, Dryden and everyone else. Was Fanelia beautiful again? Was he, happy? So many things, and yet she knew they didn't have time to ask or answer a single one.
He looked over at her as he was lifted gently off the ground in his own pillar, watching with a smirkish grin as she was lifted butt first into the air, almost folded in half as she tried to right herself. He brushed a lock of hair out of his eye, reaching out a hand and grabbing his sword as it too was lifted into the light.
"Not for forever, Hitomi," he called back. "Never forever; we'll see each other again."
"All we have to do is think of each other, right?" she laughed.
He nodded, but her response was lost as the two pillars rocketed them into the air and into their own beds, on their own planets.
A/N: So that's this chapter; no, this isn't the end. I just wanted to end this chapter before the next one. *laughs; yes, it is that simple. So yeah; review if you like...just know that reviews motivate me. ;P
-Belle
http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/angelica