Dreams and Visions: Chapter 19

By mercy_angel_09

Rating PG-13

Disclaimers: I don't own Escaflowne and I'm certainly not making any money off of this venture, so it'd be sort of pointless to sue me.  (Besides, I'm a poor college student; you'd lose more money than you'd gain.)  The creative geniuses behind EscaFlowne are Hajime Yatate and Shoji Kawamori, Sunrise, Bandai, and I'm sure a few other companies that I'm forgetting or have no idea about.

~*~

            Chid's fury was unspeakable.  He stormed though the halls with a rain cloud above his head, and none of the servants dared to speak to him.

            Merle and Gaddes, who had been discussing how much Gaea had changed since the fall of the Zaibach empire, were startled to see him walk down the outside corridor that lead to the ballroom.

            Gaddes shrugged, but Merle was concerned.  Concerned about the coming property damage.  Rallying her courage, she left Gaddes and went to see if she could talk to Chid.  It wasn't going to be easy but at least it was worth a try.

            He was pacing around the empty ballroom, attempting to sort out the recent turn of events and muttering to himself in the process.

            "Um, Chid?"

            "What?" he asked upset that someone had dared to interrupt him.

            "Listen, I don't know what happened, but I think that you may be overreacting to what ever it is."

            "Me?  Overreact to something like Hikari falling in love with Kaiden?  That's ridiculous!" he steamed.

            "Oh, so that's what this is all about.  You're in love with Miss Hikari but she's in love with your cousin?" Merle mused.  "Now that does make things interesting."

            "How could you possibly know?" Chid snorted.

            "I don't think that I'm the one to tell you," Merle answered, looking up to see that Allen had slipped into the ballroom unnoticed.  "But I do know who can."

            "Who?" Chid snapped.

            "My, my Chid.  Aren't we in a bit of a temper?" Allen asked, chuckling softly.  "Merle could you please excuse us?"

            Merle nodded and left to find Gaddes so they could resume their conversation.

            "So you're in love with Hikari.  She's a wonderful girl."

            "The most wonderful in the world."

            "You only say that now.  But something tells me that you're not really in love with her."

            "How could you know?"

            "Because I felt the same way about Hitomi.  But the fact of the matter was that I thought that I loved Hitomi.  Really, it was a fascination with her.  She was new and different and that made her fascinating and exciting.  She came from the Mystic Moon so that also meant that she was forbidden, in a sense.  I only wanted her because I knew that I could never have her."

            "But I can have Hikari!"

            "But you can't Chid!  Hopefully you remember the real reason why you missed most of Hitomi and Van's wedding."

            Chid cast his eyes on the floor, trying to block the memory from surfacing.  "I do," he mumbled.

            "I'm sure that Lady Indira isn't that bad," Allen continued.  "She may not be Hikari, but then again, there will never be another girl quite like Hikari.  But you'll just have to realize that you can't force her to love you.  I couldn't force Hitomi to love me, so I've consented to be a bachelor for the rest of my life and keep an eye on Celena."

            "So you quit!"

            "I did not quit!"  Allen yelled.  "I realized that I had entered into an impossible situation and that the only solution was to let Hitomi decide.  Well she decided on Van, and I'm happy for them!"

            "Don't you regret not fighting for her?" Chid demanded.

            "I fought for her and it made her miserable!" Allen answered with such ferocity that Chid recoiled slightly.  "I wasn't going to hurt her any more than I had to and I realized that in order to keep her from suffering I had to step out of the picture and let her and Van be together."

            Chid stared at his father in a silent wonder.

            "You must have realized by now that if you really love her you wouldn't hurt her, physically or emotionally.  And if there's one thing that I've learned it's that the emotional scars last longer and hurt more than the physical ones.  Don't do that to Hikari.  If you're really in love with her, you won't," Allen finished, his eyes burning.

            "I'm hurting her?" Chid asked.

            "The poor girl had to be carried up to her room, where I do believe that her red eyes are more red than usual.  If you really loved her, you would have seen what you're doing to her," Allen replied.  "Kaiden realized that he was making her miserable and did everything in his power to stop it."

            "But I never made her miserable.  She was always happy around me."

            "I think because most of the misery you caused was internal.  She was able to keep it hidden.  But Kaiden annoyed her from the get go.  She had no problem showing her displeasure of his company.  You, on the other hand, you might have come on too strongly for her.  Or perhaps she never thought of you in a romantic way.  But perhaps more of as a –"

            "Friend," Chid finished, remembering his first real conversation with Hikari.  There had been no talk of romance.  She had always addressed him like a brother.  But there had always been a sort of hostility between herself and Kaiden.  They had always been involved in lover's quarrels.  But it was different with him.

            He was nothing more than an older brother figure.  Someone that Hikari could look up to.  Someone she could depend on.  Not someone she would fall in love with.

            "Have you always known?" he asked Allen.

            Allen sighed.  "For a while I thought that she might have been in love with you, and who knows, perhaps she had an initial feeling for you.  But when it comes down to it, Hikari began to look at you as the older brother figure.  I'm sure that the age difference didn't help."

            "You were twenty-one when you met Hitomi, right?"

            "And she was fifteen."

            "So that's a six year difference.  It's eight years between Hikari and myself.  I don't blame her for her decision.  I suppose it was the right one to make," Chid mused, closing his eyes in defeat.

            "Chid, I realize that this is a tough situation for you to be in, and I realize that few people understand your feelings about this," Allen said.  "But you need to understand that forcing people to do things that they don't want to will only make them dislike you.  While this usually isn't a problem for you, there will be times where you'll have to take a look at what you're doing to the people you're around the most."

            "Did you have to look at what you were doing to others?"

            "In the case of myself, I had to take a good, hard look.  I didn't realize that I was hurting Hitomi and Millerna.  And Eries as well."

            "Eries has always been in love with you."

            "She was just as thrilled as your mother was when I was appointed to be a Knight of Caelie.  I never considered her though.  I suppose it's the curse of being the middle child.  Millerna was always tagging along with Marlene so I knew Millerna very well.  But Eries has always been quiet and she usually kept to herself.  When it comes down to it, I'm upset with my self since I hurt not only Marlene, but both of her sisters as well," Allen answered.  "There's not much more to say.  But I can tell you this, those that you think you love, you only want to protect."

            "So you're saying that all I want to do is protect Hikari?"

            "She doesn't know Gaea as well as you do, so naturally you feel the need to protect her from all of the unpleasantness.  I felt the same way about Hitomi.  I wanted to protect her from everything that could harm her in Gaea.  Really, she didn't need it.  People are surprising that way Chid.  Hikari is capable of taking care of herself," Allen replied.  "She's an amazing girl."

            Chid sighed as he sat down on one of the benches.  "Yeah, she really is."

            "So, what are you planning to do?   You upset her terribly this evening," Allen said, leaning against the wrought iron railing that kept patrons from falling from the balcony.  Somehow in the middle of the conversation they had moved from the ballroom to one of the many balconies.

            "I'll have to speak with her tomorrow morning I guess.  It rather obvious that she doesn't want to talk to me right now," Chid answered.  He crossed his arms against his chest as the breeze ruffled his long blond hair.  "I just hope that she's willing to speak with me tomorrow."

~*~

Oh, sad face!  This is bad.  Well, I mean that it's good that Chid has finally worked out his issues, but it's still bad because he's engaged (look for an introduction to Lady Indira in a future chapter) and he was asking for Hikari's hand.  Well, I'll dive more into that subplot when we reach that part of the story line (like when Lady Indira is finally officially introduced).  So you know, I couldn't leave Chid all by his lonesome!  Even he deserves a chance at romance!  So I invented a woman for him.  Gaaah!  I'm just too freaking nice!

Well, I think that I'm finally starting to see that light that comes to an author when a great and long fic is finally ending.  So I just have some wrap-ups to do and then it's over.  And don't go looking for a sequel.  I can tell you right now: IT WON'T HAPPEN.

Usual ending notes apply: Read and review . . . . blahdy, blahdy, blah.

Mercy_Angel_09