A/N: I decided to see if I could fit this chapter in before I leave tomorrow.
A/n: I decided to also put Chapter 5 along here. I think I also put Chapter 6 in here. Mind you, Chapter five was really short.
Magicman: You know, you and Van should compare big shiny swords. Having them both at my neck isn't good for ones health.
Thundersenshi17: Thanks for the cookies, *gagging sounds* they're really good. J Just joking
Esca chic & Magicman: Thanks for being the only 2 to review all 3 chapters!
And a Thanks to all my other reviewers, sorry I can't post all your names (well I could)if I can why don't I? These are from Chapter 3 only. My fingers hurt too much to type already. *LAZY*
Stefanie
Twin Star of Suzaka
Dilanda
Angel of Mercy
Chapter 4
Lover Boy
Chapter 5
The Decision
Chapter 6
The Vacation
It's been three months since I started my job. At first it was hard to manage doing school, track, and work in less than twelve hours, but after I got used to it, it was much easier. Without the girls and Yasu at work and school, I would have very well gone insane!
My birthday had passed and I had had a surprise party that included my little brother, Mom, Dad, Yukari, Yoshiko, Umeko and Yasu. It was kind of weird having a boy at my "sweet sixteen" birthday party.
Even though Umeko and Yoshiko were in their late twenties, they were very cool. All five of us (the girls and Yasu) would always go out and have fun. I have the distinct feeling they thing Yasu and I make a kawaii (cute) couple. Yukari things the polar opposite. She remembers Van briefly from the time he came to the Mystic Moon on Escaflowne. She saw how I liked him. After about three weeks, Yasu started asking me to do stuff. Not like dates, but between friends. I didn't mind, but after a while I started to realize something.
Then one Saturday, while Yasu and I were out eating lunch, Yukari popped out of no were. She was more than a little happy. "Hitomi! You have to come with me!" Yukari yelled, grabbing my arm and dragging me away, toward the school.
"What's so important? 'Kari, stop dragging me!" I stumbled when Yukari's steel grip was removed.
"Watch it. Don't want you to fall, now do we, Hitomi?" Yasu's voice was alight with merriment. Yukari's eye narrowed. (a/n: just to let ya'll know, Yukari thinks Hitomi should stay away from Yasu so she can love Van without any complications.)
"Come on, Hitomi! Lover Boy's here!" Yukari said. While I knew who she was talking about, Yasu didn't. His eyes narrowed and he seemed to try to get closer to me. Every time he did this, Yukari grabbed my hand and tried to make me go faster.
I'm not dumb nor dense. I could tell Yasu liked me, but that doesn't mean that I like him. Sure he was cute and funny and all the things I like in guys. But Yasu was by far not Van.
After a few minutes we reached the school track, where I figured we were heading all this time. A boy was standing there on the track looking around.
Who do you think it is?
not gonna to tell you
till next chapter
teeheeeheee
evil me
thinks of Magicman's sword
scared me
maybe I will
"Amano!" I yelled running up to him to give him a hug.
I saw Yasu glare accusingly at Amano from the corner of my eyes. I'll repeat what I said earlier; I'm not dense. I know Yasu likes me. (a/n: What? Allen was SIX years older than her!)
When Yasu and Yukari finally got to us, I introduced Yasu to Amano. "Yasu, this is one of my very best friends, Amano." As I was saying 'very best friends,' Yasu just glared harder. As extra precaution I added, "He's Yukari's boyfriend (a/n: I support Amano + Yukari!)." Yasu heard this and stopped glaring.
"Hi," was all he said.
"Same to you. What did you think that Hitomi and I were a couple?" Yasu just looked at Amano and locked eyes. Amano smiled. "Sure, I had a crush on Hitomi a while ago, but that's all done now. I got Yukari. Besides, Hitomi likes guys that just fall out of the sky."
Yukari and I both froze. I knew Yasu was going to ask me what Amano meant. Yukari caught my glance. Uh-oh We both thought.
"Hitomi, what does he mean?" Yasu asked.
"Well I just like mysterious guys, yeah that's it. I like mysterious guys," I said, laughing nervously. Amano must have gotten a hint to shut up. He just seemed to know that the boy he saw pick me up on a 'dragon' wasn't open for discussion.
*~*~
After Yasu left that night, Amano, Yukari and I all went to my house to talk.
"So, who is this Yasu guy anyway?" Amano asked.
"He's just someone I work with," I said.
"He seems more than that."
"Yasu wants to be more than just friends with Hitomi, Amano," Yukari replied.
"Well what abut the dragon boy?" Yukari and I just face faulted.
"Van?" I asked.
"If that's his name," Amano said.
I glanced over at Yukari. She nodded to me. I looked back over at Amano. "Well let me tell you the whole story up to this day…"
"…and then you showed up today." I finished. Amano gazed at me.
"What you're saying is out of this world, but I'll buy into it. So, who all have you told the whole story to?" he asked.
"Just you and 'Kari," I answered.
"Good. I was scared that you might have told Yasu. The less people the better. I think the best solution would be to go to Gaea and worn them about the danger. That way they can be prepared." He said.
"But we don't even know if anyone is going to try to go to Gaea," I said.
"It never hurt to tell them. Come on. It can't be that hard," Amano said.
I fell silent, not wanting to tell him the truth. Yukari spoke up. "It is though. She can't contact him without the pendant that she gave him. We have no way to warn them." She said quietly.
Amano's eye took on a gleam. "Hey! I'm the one and only Amano! If theirs a will, there's a way! Hmm… if you said that the pendant makes wishes come true, and you were able to teach Van how to use the pendant with out having to have it with him. Can't it work for us even if it's not here?"
I jumped on him and squeezed him into a big bear hug. "Thank you so much Amano! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I yelled.
"When are we going?" Yukari asked.
"We?" I said.
"You don't think we're going to let you go to a tropical paradise all by yourself, are you?" Amano piped up.
I just about burst into tears. I had the world's best friends. "Tonight, we leave tonight." I stated finally. I went into my closet and grabbed my old duffel bag. I told them they could each bring one bag. They raced out of the house and came back half an hour. We shouldered our packs. I told them we'd better go to the shrine that we were at. It somehow seemed more fitting, even more so than the track.
The three of us hiked up the hill. We looked around. There was no sign that a major battle between a dragon and a prince had been here. I told the both of them to think of Gaea up in the sky and Van. We closed our eyes.
*normal POV* (what can I say, they all have their eyes closed)
Yasu had seen the thee of them walk up the hill to the small shrine and decided to follow. When he reached the top, he saw them all in a circle with their eyes closed. Then just as Gaea was about to go fully behind the Moon, a bright pillar of light came and picked all three of them up before his very eyes.
*Hitomi's POV* (once again)
I felt the familiar pulling of the bright blue light I opened my eyes to see Yukari and Amano with their eyes opened wide in shock. I noticed a figure outside of the light. It was so bright I was partially blinded and couldn't see who it was though.
*~*~
I woke up to see a planet and a moon in the sky. I could tell that it was the Mystic Moon and the Silver Moon. "We made it," I said
"Wha… Where are we?" Yukari asked.
I looked around. "I'd say we're out side the village of Arzas (a/n: no clue on spelling)." I remember this place.
"Arzas?" Amano asked. Suddenly we were surrounded by a bunch of wolf men. I smiled, it was just like the first time. Their leader came forward to show no other than Rhum (a/n: no clue either).
When he saw me, he gasped and smiled. "What a fine beauty you are. I haven't seen you for a while Hitomi. How is it going?"
"Fine Rhum. These are my friends, Yukari and Amano," I said motioning to them. "Could you… could you do me a favor?" I asked.
"If it involves going to Fanelia, of course. Lord Van will be very pleased." I blushed. Thank goodness it was dark out.
Should I go on?
YES!
I only have four more hours
to type
(a/n: In MY story Amano and Yukari can understand Gaean language and things like that.)
*~*~
We arrived in Fanelia at about nine o'clock Mystic Moon time in the morning, but it seemed to work for this time zone too.
Amano and Yukari were amazed at how pretty everything was. I was amazed too, but had seen it before so I was able to keep my amazement in.
When we got to Fanelia, I couldn't help but have my mouth hang wide open. Already over half the city was done! Amano and Yukari looked over at me. Yukari looked at me accusingly. "I thought you said the whole city was destroyed."
"It was." That was all I could say.
Rhum laughed from his position on top on the great beast we were riding. "You two didn't honestly believe that this was the only city of Fanelia? Did you?"
I looked up at him. "The way Van went on about it, I thought so," I said.
"Well Van took it pretty hard. You know how possessive he is," Rhum told me with a pointed glance. I shook my head.
We passed under the high wall that was supposed to protect Fanelia. Behind the wall there were walls of people, not stones, that blocked out path. Two colors of hair were set differently apart from the masses of brown and auburn. Black and Pink.
The pink haired girl was excited.
The black haired boy was calm. And I couldn't take my eyes off the boy. I hit myself mentally. He's not a boy anymore, he's a man on this planet, I thought. And a hot one at that, the other part of my brain said. I blushed lightly when I noticed myself checking him out. He seemed to be seeing all this, but then again not. If he was really looking he would have noticed me.
When the animal stopped I got out with my duffel bag on my shoulder. Amano and Yukari followed suit. I walked up to Van slowly. About half way there he blinked. Then his eyes went wide.
"Hitomi?" he managed to whisper. I nodded. He opened his arms as I ran into them. We hugged for a while. Everyone was quiet. Not knowing what to do.
"HITOMI!" Merle screamed I let go of Van in fear of my life. Sure Merle was a nice catgirl, but still. She ran full blast into me, knocking me off my feet and into the hard stone ground. Yukari started to giggle, than laugh outright. Amano soon joined. Van managed to smile. He helped pick me up. He turned toward the crowd. They made a pathway between them and he walked straight forward. The four of us followed him. Merle, for once was silent.
We followed him clear into the palace. He led us down a few corridors until he stood in front of the guest doors. He pointed to Amano then to the door he was standing by. "You can stay in this room. And you," he said pointing to Yukari, "can sleep in this room." Going to the room across the hall. I walked up to a door. Took the handle in my hand. I turned to Van to get his acceptance. He nodded.
I walked into my old room. I looked around. It was almost as I remembered it. I dropped my stuff on my bed and walked out into the hall.
Or at least tried to. I ran into someone. Muttering an apology, I looked up to see Van looking down at me. I gave a smile.
He did not return it. "Hitomi, why are you here?"
To avoid the question, I asked one myself. "You don't want me here?"
"Of course I do. But I want to know why you're here, that's all." He could tell I didn't want him to know. So instead of pushing me to tell, he asked if he wanted to take a walk. I agreed.
"How did you get most of Fanelia finished already?" I asked, still amazed at how much was done
"Well, the palace didn't take very long to fix since it wasn't in that bad of shape. The villagers had already come right before we got here, with people from other villages. So our population here in the city just about doubled overnight. Everyone worked really hard to get everything done. Asturia helped out a lot too, mainly because they didn't really get any damage. Come to think of it, most of the countries helped out Freid and Fanelia." He explained.
"Are they going make you pay for the help?" I asked. I knew Fanelia wasn't that rich of a country so war debt would really hurt.
"Actually no." I looked up at him in total surprise. Van saw the face and smiled, a genuine smile. "All the allies decided that since Fanelia let them use Escaflowne in their army, they would help." That had to be hard. Taking help from other countries by saying he let them use Escaflowne in battle.
"Well, at least your people are safe."
"Yes." He turned so he faced me more. The smile on his face and just the way he looked all around, made me loose all thoughts of anything. No threat to Gaea, no Yasu (A/N: TAKE THAT HEHE), and certainly no worries about anything.
We slowly started to come together. Our lips almost meeting.
"LORD VAAAAAAAAAN!!!" Merle yelled. Van pulled his face away, as did I. I looked around and didn't see Merle anywhere.
"Oh no," Van mumbled.
"What's wrong Van?" I asked.
"There's a meeting with the councilors and I'm late!" Van started to walk off. Suddenly he turned around. "See you later tonight!" He yelled then turned back and ran more than walked back to the palace.
"Hitomi!" I heard Yukari's voice yelled, much lower than Merle's and certainly a lot less shriller.
"Coming!" I answered back. I located her and went up to her. She and Amano were enjoying another view of the city from the palace's nice view. "What's up guys?" I asked.
"Well we saw you and Van walking together and figured you had told him about the planet being visible," Amano said.
"Nope, I don't really want to tell him." They both frowned. "Don't worry. I'm going to, it's just I want this to be like a vacation for us. Let's wait until we leave to tell them"
"Hitomi, that's another thing. Tomorrow is Monday, won't people notice we're gone?" Yukari asked.
"Well our families will for sure, but we don't have school for the next three weeks."
Yukari smiled. "That's right! A three week vacation on Gaea! Besides, I told my mom I was going on a trip with you!" she yelled.
Amano smiled and said, "I was supposed to be a vacation, so my father wont' care."
I thought for a second. "I think my mom kinda knew what happened to me, I know my brother does, even thought I didn't tell him a thing. So I'm clean too!" I said in glee.
*~*~
We spent our three weeks here having the time of our lives. Van showed us things around Fanelia. He even managed to get Princess Millerna to come here and visit. Allen and Celena came along with her. Us girls had fun while Van stated how much alike Amano and Allen were. They went home and we stayed. On the last day though, I finally went up to Van and told him what was wrong.
"Van?" I stared.
"Yes Hitomi?" he said. I blushed remembering our almost kiss.
"Well, I'm finally going to tell you what was bothering me when I first came here." Van nodded, willing me to go on. "Well you see…Gaea has suddenly become visible to the people on the Mystic Moon and I have a feeling they want to do some thing really bad and I'm scared for Gaea's sake," I said in a rush of words.
Van looked at me. He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, I was so relieved. I thought I'd see anger and hatred in them, but instead I saw calm wisdom. "Hitomi, I don't know what to do right now. We just got down with a mighty war and the people don't want another one. But I do know one thing." Van said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"If you were to be like a spy and tell us what's going on, we could keep living peaceful lives, but would be ready when they came," he said.
"It would all depend on me?" I squeaked.
Van nodded his head. He had said he didn't want to fight anymore, and I didn't want him to fight. But if need be, I'd let him. "I'll do it. If anything happens to catch my ear that they're planning on something, I'll tell you immediately."
"Just be very careful," he said.
A/N: Now as I understand it, Japanese people go for like a month, then get three weeks off or something like that. That's what's going on for the three week long vacation. And I know their parents
