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Chapter ????
The Wedding
I woke up only to find myself looking into five pairs of eyes. As soon as my friends saw that my eyes were a fraction of the way open, they tried to yank me from my bed.
"Hurry up!"
"Wake up sleepyhead!"
"Come on slowpoke!"
The women called from above me. Once they succeeded in getting me fully awake, they threw a quick bite to eat my direction [which I managed to catch and quickly eat]. Then they shoved me in my bathroom and each of them had a job to get me looking pretty. Yoshiko combed my hair [since she has such pretty hair], Umeko brushed my teeth [that was just plain weird], Merle filed my nails [with a brand new nail file], Millerna put some makeup on me ["So you'll look even more beautiful!"], and Yukari, well she was just my prep talk.
"Don't worry, Hitomi! You'll look fine!" Yukari said.
"I don't care how I look!" Liar! My conscience said. "Anyway, how did you manage to do nothing?" I asked.
"You know me! I can't take care of myself, let alone a soon to be queen!" Yukari laughed.
"That's my best friend?" I asked myself out loud.
"HEY!"
*~*~
"Van better love how you look!" Umeko exclaimed. "With all the time and persuasion on our part it took… I'll kick him if he doesn't think it's pretty."
"It's beautiful! I know Lord Van, and he'll think Hitomi's whole ensemble's nice," Merle predicted.
I looked at myself in the mirror again. "You know," I said to get the girls' attention. "I look like a snowman! A huge snowman!"
"What's a snowman?" Merle and Millerna questioned.
"How do we explain this?" Yukari asked in Japanese.
"I'll try to." Yoshiko volunteered. "You know when it was snowing how we were rolling the snow into different sized balls and stacking them on top of each other?" They nodded. "Well, that's a snowman!" Yoshiko tried to answer the question.
Millerna and Merle looked from me to Yoshiko. "She does!" Merle decided.
"No she doesn't!" Millerna cried. "She isn't as cold or fluffy!"
This made everyone but Millerna laugh. "You're right Millerna!" Yukari said still laughing. "She's probably sweating like crazy, and that dress is stiff as board!"
I did look like a snowman, even if they were joking about it. The back had a trail of red and gold to signify what I was about to become, but the front was pure white. Millerna had gone so far as to even lightly paint my eyes a frosty white.
Oh well, it looks nice at least, I thought.
*~*~ (A/n: Remember how Hitomi was the one to read the words in the Mystic Valley???
WELL THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT HERE!!!!)
Around nine fifty, I was taken to the courtyard that overlooked the city. The wedding was to start at ten, but everyone thought it was necessary to have me stand out there for ten minutes in the sun. April isn't that hot, but it isn't that cool either.
At exactly ten o'clock the priest and Van came out. I was motioned to walk to the direct center of the courtyard so I could meet up and kneel with Van. The priest said a long phrase in ancient Gaean [which I understood but nobody else did]. I wasn't even sure if the priest knew exactly what he was saying. It went something like this:
Oh, Ancient Dragon above, {Escaflowne}
Grant this wedding to be prosperous and fruitful.
Join these two people in everlasting marriage,
So come and bless this holy day.
It went on like that for three minutes. The priest even added some insignificant arm gestures. They don't have vows in Fanelia so I never had to say anything really accept for 'I do', and I made a huge thing out of that. Like I said earlier, I wasn't sure the priest knew exactly what he was saying. When it came to Van's I do section of the wedding, he said:
Do you, Van Fanel, take her, Hitomi Kanzaki, to be your mate for life?
By the time it came to me, I was really starting to hate my ability to know the words. For me, the words were even strange. I had to say yes to:
Do you, Hitomi Kanzaki, allow Van Fanel to do with you as he pleases?
I didn't answer for a while, I didn't really like the way that question was worded. It made me sound like I was going to become some kind of play toy. All and all, I decided the wedding went very smoothly. My coronation went just as easily.
(A/n: poor Hitomi. I was just in the mood to torment her so I did)
*~*~ The Noon Banquet
The Fanelia people really like to celebrate anything. For the wedding/coronation there was a HUGE feast. Every kind of food that Fanelia can make was there. Everyone was allowed to come and great me if they wanted and while they were at it, grab a bite to eat. After about a thousand people greeted me, I was allowed to eat. I sat down at the head of the table with Van on my left. (A/N: is that the side I put him on at the party??? Oh well, I'll do it however I feel like saying it at the time.)
Once the priest had blessed the food and all the "invited" [invited meaning people who were lords and ladies] guests had started eating, Van leaned over and started to talk to me. "Hitomi, why'd it take you so long to answer the priest?" he asked. "I don't think there was really any doubt in here mind, or am I wrong?"
"There was no doubt, but do you know what the priest was saying?" I asked him.
"The words are really old. People have forgotten the exact meaning so only the general one remains," Van explained. "Didn't you know the sense of the words?" he asked.
"I knew more than the general sense. I heard in my head the exact words! He asked me if I would let you 'do as you please to me.' I didn't really like the words," I told him.
Van tilted his head a little. "You mean you heard the exact words?" I nodded my head. "That's amazing! No one has understood the words precisely for about two hundred years," he stated.
"Well, let me tell you the words aren't worth translating!" I declared.
*~*~ Night time
The banquet lasted clear until dinner where a new course was set out and more eating was done. Around nine o'clock Van called it quits. Everyone milled around to congratulate Van and me one more time before retiring his or her rooms.
I didn't want to go bed [even if we weren't going to sleep in it] quite yet. I asked Van if we could go to the Royal Gardens for a while. He didn't care, so we went outside. The stars were already out so we went to the middle of the Gardens and looked up to the sky to star gaze.
"Van?"
"Yes?"
"I just want you to remember that no matter what, I'll always love you," I told him.
Van turned to face me. "Why would you need to remind me?" he asked.
"I don't know, I just felt the need to tell you."
"Since we're on the subject, I feel the same way," he confessed.
"Let's go inside, I'm cold," I said after a few minutes.
*~*~ We are skipping the night time. If you want to know what happened, go find yourself a lemon.
MORNING
Van, in case we were doing something in the morning still, put a chair under the doorknob to keep his personal attendants away. When he finally did take the chair away, it was only to shout to them to bring food to us. The attendants were just staring at their lord's state of undress [clad only in a sheet]. I was quite glad Van was blocking their view of me, as how I had nothing on. When they didn't move, Van slammed the door in their faces.
"I need to get new attendants," he stated.
"Why?"
"I only have males."
"Oh. OH!"
Okay.
That was toooooooooooootal fluff. Don't worry the next chapter is going to have some action in it. Then the next one will have more, and then the next one will be the epilogue. IF I stick to my planning.
Next on the list. Someone, I can't remember who at the time since I'm over at my dad's and can't access my mail very easily, told me I should raise my rating. I don't think there's that much R material in it. Is there?
