Amoro Revidi

Title: Departures [Part Five]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: G
A/N: Longer part here, they're all starting to get longer and longer as I add more perspectives into them because the plot calls for them. I'll try to maintain the time it's been taking me to get them posted as it is, but for the next week I'm simply not going to have the time to do all the uploading and stuff I've been doing lately. :( Sorry guys, it's finals week.

***

"Well, Miss Kanzaki, how does it feel to finally be getting out of here?" the nurse asks, helping her to stand, somewhat shakily.

She smiles a genuine smile at the nurse and asks, "Has he come yet?"

"Not that I know of… let me just check again."

Quietly she sits down on the edge of the bed and starts to put on her shoes, the scene replaying in her mind of the day before when Van had asked her to come back to Gaea with him for a second time.

***

"Hitomi," he stopped her in the middle of a sentence.

"Yes, Van?" she asked politely, slightly unnerved by the stillness of his voice and demeanor. He took her hand in his, looking down at them for a moment before looking up into her eyes.

"Where are you going to go when you get released tomorrow?" his voice was unsure, as though he were about to do something he wasn't sure of.

"I…" she paused and the realization came that she didn't know what she was going to do when she got out. She hadn't thought that far ahead in time and confronted with the sudden emptiness of possibility, she closed her eyes and clutched his hand tightly. "I suppose I've got to… go home…"

He squeezed her hand once and her eyes opened, watering, and looked into his. "You could… come back to Gaea with me…"

She blinked her eyes several times, trying to get a clearer view of his face.

"It wouldn't… have to be forever or anything…"

"Van…?"

"But there's this anniversary for Millerna…"

She smiled pleasantly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"… and I was going to go… plus Merle hasn't seen you in ages and…"

Wiping her face with the back of her free hand she reached out and touched his cheek. "Thank you," she whispered, pulling his chin forward enough to brush lips with him.

After a moment of shocked silence, Van leaned forward and embraced her loosely, mindful of her injuries, even though she was mostly recovered.

"And yes," she whispered in his ear, "I will come with you."

***

Her duffle bag sits on the floor beside her and she lowers her foot to the floor, standing cautiously. The door opens slowly and Hitomi can hear the nurse in the background say, "She's right through there."

A quiet cough brings her attention around to the tall figure of Fanelia's king standing, somewhat abashedly, in the doorway. She smiles warmly and leans down to pick up her bag, but he scoops it up before she can.

"Van, I can…"

"Please?" he asks quietly, making a pleading face.

She sighs and waves him on.

"Is there anything else?" he asks quietly, offering her his arm.

"N-no," she replies, somewhat confused by the formality of the gesture.

The two of them progress down towards the lobby slowly, Hitomi seated in a wheelchair being pushed by an orderly. In the lobby the two make their way towards the doors, her arm looped through his again, until a voice calls out to them.

"Hitomi!"

Van tenses, and the two of them turn to face the person calling out and approaching rapidly. "Yukari?" Hitomi asks in confusion.

Van glances down at her concernedly and she grips his arm tightly as the dark haired young woman comes over and embraces Hitomi consolingly. "I came as soon as I could, Hitomi, when I found out that…"

"Excuse me," Van says in a quiet voice, "she's still not quite well."

As though just seeing him for the first time, Yukari takes a step back, brushing her long hair over one ear as she takes in the countenance of the young man escorting her former best friend. "Hitomi… who's this?"

"Ah…" Hitomi glances between the two, pale jade eyes sparkling. "This is Van," she says, gesturing to him with her free arm, "I'm going to go stay with him for a while…"

"Hitomi, shouldn't you go home first?" Yukari asks, oblivious.

"Why… why would I do that?" Hitomi asks, voice faltering.

"Well… won't they worry…?"

Van, red eyes sparking in anger, pulls Hitomi into a gentle embrace, tucking her against him protectively and glaring at Yukari as she starts to cry quietly. "Don't you know anything?" Van snaps.

"Know what?" Yukari asks, bewildered and feeling some nagging recollection about the young man before her.

Van glares and brings one hand up to brush Hitomi's hair gently.

"They're… dead," Hitomi says quietly, pushing against Van's chest to be released. He lets her go slowly and she turns to face Yukari with a wan smile, "I… just can't go home right now, so I'm going to go stay with Van for a while."

He places a hand on her shoulder quietly and she turns to look up at him. "We should really be going, Hitomi."

Yukari blinks. "Hitomi!" she exclaims.

"What?" she replies, somewhat bewildered.

"That's the boy!"

Van blinks and peers closer at her. "Hitomi…?"

***

The staircase in the grand ballroom in Pallas, Asturia, had been scrubbed from top to bottom so that the white glittered in the afternoon sunlight like diamonds and crystals. The ballroom itself was being festooned and garlanded with multicolored silks and large festoons and flowers decorated the area.

In the afternoon sunlight the Queen sits on the throne in the ballroom, her son bouncing on her knee as she waits patiently.

A noise from the end of the room alerts her attention and her husband enters, a sour expression on his face. "Dryden?" she asks in a quiet voice, handing off the child to one of her attendants.

As the attendant leaves, carrying the young boy off to his nanny, Dryden Fassa kneels at his wife's feet and rests his head on her knees. Startled momentarily, she makes a little jump.

"You're still not comfortable with me, after so much time?" he asks quietly.

"Dryden, it's not that, I…" Millerna says, "something's troubling you, what is it?" she reaches down and brushes his thick dark hair back from his forehead.

"I love you, Millerna," Dryden says in a quiet voice.

Her hand pauses. "Dryden… I love you."

He smiles gently and squeezes her knee with one hand. Slowly, she draws him up from her lap and kisses him gently, eyes staring into his. The two of them break apart slowly and she smiles, "I married you, after all."

"Yes, you did," he smiles at her, the weight seeming to lift from his shoulders. "Which reminds me, there's a treat in store for you, my goddess."

She flushes slightly, still, at that reference to her beauty, and asks quickly to cover it, "What do you mean?"

"The King of Fanelia will be attending our anniversary celebration," he says with a smile and then as she puzzles over that he adds, "And your friend from the Mystic Moon."

"Hitomi?" Millerna gasps, grabbing his forearms. "No, she can't be," she says in a doubtful tone. "You're only saying that."

"No," he responds, reaching on hand up to cup her cheek, running his thumb over her nose, "I'm quite serious."

Millerna laughs happily and moves into his embrace, smiling as he tucks her against his chest. "I haven't seen either of them in so long, I wonder what's happened to the two of them."

"I haven't a clue when it comes to that, my dear," he responds, easing her up to her feet, "but I do know that the Queen of Asturia has more important matters to attend to before her own anniversary celebration than wondering about her guests."

"She does?" Millerna asks challengingly.

"Yes, she does, like greeting the first of them with her husband," he says, ushering her towards their rooms.

"And they're waiting for us in our rooms?"

Dryden smiles beguilingly, "No, but I really wouldn't expect the Queen to greet her guests covered in her son's spittle," he says, one hand on the small of her back as the other fingers the front of her gown near the stain.

She blushes and bats his hand away, moving along with him up the staircase to their rooms.

***

"Van, this is Yukari, my best friend."

***

Merle taps her foot disinterestedly as the maids prepare the guest room. "Where are those seamstresses?" she asks in an annoyed voice, tail swishing behind her in an agitated gesture.

A small group of women line up in front of her, out of breath, as though they had been rushing to get to where they stand, and Merle looks them over with an agitated glance for several minutes before saying, "And why are you late?"

One, apparently the spokeswoman, curtsies and says, "Sorry, Lady Merle, but there was a hold up in the marketplace when some…"

"That's fine," she says with a sigh. The marketplace had more problems than a labyrinth had wrong turns lately, due to the commotion over the entire anniversary celebration. "Let's head into the drawing room and see what fabrics you've brought with you… Hitomi can be very picky."

The youngest of the seamstresses, a girl who looked barely over fifteen, lets out a stifled giggle at that thought. Merle rolls her eyes and walks before them into the drawing room.

***

"Yukari, this is Van."

***

Chid looks himself over in the mirror, scowling.

"Your Majesty?" one of his guards says inquisitively.

"I'm still too small to be of any real importance, aren't I?" he wonders aloud, dusting off invisible particles of dust from his robe. The guard stutters for a moment, and he decides to rescue him with the question, "How do I look? Fit to visit my aunt Millerna's anniversary party?"

"Oh yes, Majesty, you look more than adequate."

A messenger arrives and announces, "Knight Caeli Allen Schezar has arrived to escort his Majesty, Duke Chid of Freid to Pallas, Asturia for the celebration festivities and to visit with Queen Millerna for the time being."

Chid smiles and waves the messenger away. "Have Allen brought here, I'd like to speak with him."

***

Glancing around agitatedly, Van nods to Yukari, fingers twitching for his gloves and a familiar twitch in his shoulder blades reminding him of his need to return to Gaea soon. He glances down at Hitomi as she speaks with her friend quietly for a few moments, and then looks around at the lobby, glad to note that the three of them are not attracting much of any attention.

Outside the afternoon sun slants its way towards the horizon.

***

"Hitomi, where'd you meet him? Why do I feel like I remember him… somehow?"

"I'll tell you about it some other time, Yukari, we've got to be going or we're going to be late, and I don't want to be late," Hitomi says, mentally frowning at adding another lie to the ones she'd already told her childhood best friend.

"Late?" Yukari asks. "Late for what, Hitomi?"

"We're…" she scrambles for an answer that is as truthful as possible, "we're going to meet some friends, and it's quite a long ways away."

"Hitomi, Amano and I could give you a ride, if you'd like."

"No, no, Van's going to take me, and it's pretty far."

"Oh, all right then," Yukari looks down for a moment and then says, "Would you like me to stop by your house for you and make sure everything's ok?"

Hitomi nods, reaching her hand into her pocket and pulling out a ring of keys, which she hands over to Yukari. "I might be gone some while, Yukari, so… it'd be nice of you to."

There is a pause in the conversation and Yukari closes her fingers around the keys, nodding and winking. "You can count on me, Hitomi."

"I always do," she responds with a smile.

"Well, Hitomi, I'll see you around," Yukari says, looking over at the door awkwardly. "Amano's waiting outside. I'll… tell him you said hello and that you're doing all right."

Hitomi moves forward and embraces her friend carefully, smiling as Yukari's arms reach up to embrace her as well. After a moment the two of them pull apart and Yukari turns and heads towards the door.

Hitomi turns to look at Van, who has a very uncomfortable expression on his face. She grins a little and puts a hand on his arm, alerting his attention.

"Is everything all right?" he asks immediately as she takes his arm again.

"Yes," she replies with a somewhat sad smile that, after a moment, brightens as the two of them move out the doors and into the golden glow of the late afternoon sunlight.

***

Elsewhere, as the sun sets in the sky, a battle rages.