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Beneath Two Moons
4. Steam and Supernovas
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By Jessica Lynn S. (escaflowne@opalwings.com)
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Spoilers: The entire Escaflowne series.
Warnings: Sensuality, shoujo-ai (romance between two female characters), and a bit of violence.
Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or its characters. No profit is being made from my silly fanfiction hobby. ^_^ I do, however, own this fic and the original characters in contains. Please do not post this story anywhere without asking first.
Summary: A Gallant Swordswoman makes her entry and her relationship with Merle is questioned. Things heat up between Hitomi and Van, but shadows linger on the horizon.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This chapter has some very strongly sexually-themed scenes which may not be appropriate for minors. I wanted to depict the development of Van and Hitomi as a couple on many different levels, including sexually, because sexual things are part of real relationships. (And because I'm a pervert. I admit it.) To quote my buddy rainjewel; if you can't stand the heat, get out of the oven. This fic is rated "R" for a reason!
Hitomi sat in a cozy armchair in the small castle library with a book spread open in her lap. All of the ancient Fanelian texts had been destroyed in Zaibach's attack, which was really quite a pity. She had seen the old library just briefly when she had wandered about the castle alone on her first day there. It was just as small then, but it felt more like a library. It was stuffed to the brim with books, and had a charmingly ancient and musty aroma.
Yukari used to joke that Hitomi had a heightened awareness of smell - poking fun at her tendency to liken Van's hair to a summertime field - but it was probably the truth. She perceived the world around her in scents just as much as in sights and sounds; certain smells having a nostalgic quality for her.
The new library smelled like sawdust, mostly. There was nothing nostalgic about that. There were more far more empty shelves than their should have been. The other shelves were lined with books borrowed from Asturia, Basram, Daedalus and Egzardia.
Hitomi flipped through these leather-bound volumes, reading about the governments and economies of those countries. There was a small section of fictional novels, the avoidance of which employed a little bit of her self-restraint. She wondered exactly what kind of fairy tales the people of a world where knights and dragons still roamed in abundance would have. Learning the realities of Gaea took precedence, though, and sometimes they could be just as interesting as fiction.
Learning to be a queen was harder than college. Van had graciously hired a tutor - a kindly old man with long gray hair and an off-kilter personality reminded her in some ways of Dryden - to teach her Fanelian history and economy. She also attended council meetings with Van and Merle, in which people would argue over a plethora of matters she couldn't even begin to imagine. Foreign trade, immigration, the state of the crops... Fanelia was mostly a farming country, though since the reconstruction, tourism had been blossoming a well. It was a rapidly-changing world.
Merle was currently lobbying for a hospital to be built in the capital. Fanelia had its share of doctors, but their medical knowledge was terribly insufficient in comparison to that of other countries. Millernia had obviously been talking to the cat girl the last time she was in Asturia. Hitomi agreed; hospitals were important. That opinion was shared by Van and the majority of the council. But then came the question of funding. Would the Fanelian people agree to higher taxes? They were rather disturbingly set in their primitive ideals of medicine. Ruling a country was a constant and delicate act of balance. Everything was intertwined in ways that made Hitomi's head swim, and her head had been swimming enough for one afternoon.
She shut her book and replaced it on the shelf. She was suddenly in the mood for tea, and ventured to the kitchen, where Halena was scrubbing the pots left over from breakfast. The maid greeted Hitomi with a smile and a polite bow as she always did.
Hitomi found Halena rather fascinating; she had a strange sort negative energy about her. It was not a negativity in the sense of depression or a negative attitude, but like the negative ions which charged the air before a thunderstorm. Her hair was of the same eerie, unearthly shade that the sky had been on the day when a tornado touched down six blocks from Hitomi's street. There had been churning walls of charcoal and lilac clouds, threaded with forked mazes of retina-scorching lightning.
Hitomi was only a child at the time, and she had thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She did not understand the danger that she and her family had been in until the next morning, when she was walking to catch her bus for school and she saw a house that had been lifted from its foundations, dropped in the middle of the street. It was a humbling experience.
Perhaps the fact that Halena seemed constantly on edge would account for that bizarre, electric feeling. It was as if she expected another invisible guymelef to spring from the walls and destroy what little in the world she had left to hold on to. Hitomi felt for her, and had made a mental note to try to befriend her, but her attempts had not been successful. Halena was kind enough, but she had quite-deliberately placed a wall between herself and the rest of the world. In some ways it was rather like Van during the war, but Van had always been easy to read. Despite his silence, his bitter melancholy had been written quite plainly across his face. Halena's expression always unwaveringly pleasant; the jade-eyed maid was a mystery.
She set a kettle of water in the fireplace to boil, then began to grind the leaves for Hitomi's tea.
"Halena?" asked Hitomi, suddenly.
"Hmm?" asked the handmaiden, looking up at her with one bushy eyebrow raised.
"Would you...would you like to be in my bridal party?"
"Me?" asked Halena in disbelief. She quickly fumbled for an excuse. "I...I'd have nothing to wear."
"I could buy a dress for you, it's really no trouble."
The girl cast her eyes downward before answering with a hesitant "okay." Hitomi thanked her gleefully and hugged her. Halena was paralyzed with shock, but Hitomi didn't seem to notice. She grabbed her cup of tea and scurried out of the room, wishing her a pleasant day.
Halena glanced down at her hands. Her eyes crossed, temporarily blurring her vision as she felt the invisible knife of guilt stab her in the ribs and twist.
She's so naive! Halena thought with irritation, So naive and...so kind. This makes it harder for me to stand and watch. I am just standing and watching, right? Yes...that's all I am. An informant. The poor woman... She isn't going to take this well.
But I mustn't think of that. I must think of mother, father, and my little brother and sister who will never grow up now. It is to them that my loyalty is sworn - and to my love - not the fiancee of the man who failed to protect them. She wants me to serve in the wedding, but this will all be over before the wedding even happens. Things will be better then. I wonder when Kipalisa will act?
She smoothed out her skirt and blouse; an unconscious physical mirror of the mental composure she'd regained. She returned to the sink to finish scrubbing the pots so that she could begin cooking lunch.
The air was still chilly, but the afternoon sun beat down upon Celena's back. Its heat was making her quite itchy in her long, starched sleeves. She wished she could just rip off her uniform and be done with it, but a Caeli knight arriving with a message from her queen in nothing but her undergarments would not give a particularly good impression of Asturia.
Millernia had taken the throne only slightly over a year ago, when King Aston - who's health had already been in decline - suffered a rather severe stroke. Thanks to Millernia's medical knowledge and quick action, his life was saved. But the man could no longer dress or feed himself, let alone attend to his royal duties. He could no longer even speak his wishes; only utter incoherent gibbering sounds to express when he was tired or uncomfortable...or had wet himself.
Millernia had to supervise his care while simultaneously filling his shoes, but she made no complaints. She took a nearly-sadistic amusement in the irony of it; that her father who had once dictated her every waking action was now entirely at her mercy. She could pass laws, wear pants, go out walking unescorted, and withhold Aston's dessert from him if she saw fit. Dryden had returned right away to aid Millernia in her duties, but he respected her authority and decisions. Somehow, a spark had ignited between them. Whether or not their marriage had remained binding was a gray area, and so they were to remarry in the autumn. Dryden would be crowned officially then. Love and revolution seemed to be in the air in Asturia; not only in the government but at Schezar estate as well.
Only months after Millernia's royal coronation, Princess Eries had given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Lynn Encia Therese. The father was none other than Allen, but this time his child was not illegitimate. Baby Lynn carried the last names of both her parents. Celena had mused on occasion that it was, perhaps, a blessing that Chid zar Freid did not know of his true parentage. It was certainly odd to have a cousin who was also a half-sister.
Being married to Eries had done wonders for Allen; his strict and ever-serious attitude was easing up considerably. His response when Celena had first announced her intentions to become a knight was rather predictable though; a resounding "Absolutely not!"
Celena had come to terms with her previous existence as Dilandu, and her lingering guilt had given way to a stronger desire to serve and protect the innocent as penance for her past. She wasn't entirely sure how to go about serving and protecting the innocent, until one of the elder Caeli knights died and a replacement had to be found. Dilandu had been trained well in the art of sword, and Celena had retained those skills instinctively. After her brother shot down the idea, she took it to Millernia. Millernia had wasted no time decreeing that, yes, women could absolutely vie for the honor of becoming a Knight of Heaven.
There was no way Allen could go against the word of his queen, and after one more feeble attempt to discourage his sister, he gave in. Not only did he give in, he also took it upon himself to further Celena's training. He told her that if she was going to go through with her crazy idea, she would have to be prepared for every possible circumstance she might face in battle, because he was not about to loose her again. She was to do the Schezar name proud.
There had never been any doubt in her mind that her brother loved her, but he had a tendency to be condescending and treat her like a child. The first time he ever locked blades with her in a sparring match, she finally felt as if he not only loved, but respected her as well. There was nothing she wanted more in the world than that respect, and the look of pride in his eyes when she won the tournament to earn the position of Caeli had made her feel positively luminous.
She had been glowing ever since.
Reaching the top of a steep hill, she brought her horse to an abrupt halt. Stretching out before her was the vast and beautiful Fanelian capital. The familiar perfume of forests and farms filled her nostrils, prompting her to inhale more deeply. She was glad to be back.
She had spent many joyful and carefree days in Fanelia before she was sworn to her knightly duties, for Fanelia was the home of the first person to truly befriend her since her days as Dilandu. On her first visit there with Allen, she was met with suspicious glances from the king, and a particularly rude pink-haired cat-girl. Celena had immediately tried to befriend her but Merle had taken it upon herself to make her stay miserable; not nessicarily because of her past, but just because she could. Somehow, amid the squabbling and uncertainty, they did find friendship. They confided secrets in each other, explored the forests and made mischief in the castle. Hesitantly, Van began to accept Celena as well. He allowed her to visit often, and became not unlike a friend himself.
It had been far too long since she had seen Merle, and she was grateful for Millernia's kindness in granting her the opportunity. The queen had even given her permission to stay two nights in Fanelia if it was okay with Van, provided she inquire as to the state of plans for a hospital. She tilted her head back and gave a wild whoop of joy, causing her chestnut-colored horse to break in to a frantic gallop towards the city. Celena's long, pale-golden curls billowed out behind her in the breeze.
Hitomi had nearly mistaken her for Allen when she arrived; except that Allen didn't have curls. Or breasts, for that matter. The Schezars seemed to have just the right genes to be a charming and perfectly-balanced mix of both masculine and feminine qualities.
Merle had been thrilled to see Celena, and latched on to her instantly. Hitomi realized that they had the same kind of hair; the long curls. Merle told her proudly that they'd decided to grow their hair together not long after they'd made friends. Celena didn't want to look anything like Dilandu, and Merle thought that a change would be nice herself.
Since she had come on business, Van and Hitomi received Celena formally in the library. The female Caeli apparently had not only her brother's good looks, but his suave professional manner as well. She delivered a personal message of congratulation from Millernia, and the news that Millernia, Dryden, Allen, Eries and herself would all be in attendance of the wedding. After that, she smiled wickedly and challenged Van to a sparring match. He promised to take her up on it after dinner. Merle was thrilled to hear that her Celena-chan could visit, at least for a little while, and the two took off together in to depths the castle.
Van and Hitomi stayed behind. They were alone now, enveloped in comfortable silence. Van reached across the gap between their chairs to rest his palm over the back of her hand. He threaded his fingers between hers, sliding their tips beneath the delicate webbing in a loving gesture which she gratefully accepted. He studied her face with curiosity, realizing that she looked rather somber.
"Is something wrong?" he asked, tentatively.
"No, not really." she said. "It's just that seeing those two together makes me think of Yukari. I wonder how she is doing, and I miss her."
Van gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Those two..." he said, "well, they might be a little different than you and Yukari."
Hitomi blinked once before she understood the gist of his words. Then she blinked again. "Van, you're not implying..."
"I honestly don't know. It doesn't concern me, Merle can do what she wants." he said, "But they do seem awfully affectionate."
"Well, Merle was awfully affectionate with you, too. Even with me, once she got used to me. Perhaps she's just affectionate by nature, you know...a cat thing."
"I thought that she'd outgrow it." Van said with a shrug, "I guess not." He grinned a little bit, then got up from his seat, perching himself upon the arm of Hitomi's chair.
"Hitomi-sama!" he exclaimed in a mock-squeal, throwing his arms around her. He made a cheesy attempt at a purring sound and rubbed his chin against her shoulder. She giggled scratched his head. Then he licked her cheek several times, leaving it damp with saliva. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, looking disenchanted.
"You're too weird sometimes, Van." she said, pinching his nose lightly, at which point he leaned forward and nipped the tip of hers. He lost his balance and fell in to her lap. She laughed as he peered at her with an impish smirk from behind the curtain of wild black hair that had fallen across his eyes. He was irresistibly cute. She pulled him close and kissed him.
Things were less awkward between them now, since Van had made the suggestion that they be traditional and properly consummate their marriage on their wedding night; not before. After all, it was only two colors away. The suggestion would have been a welcome one, had he not teased her to the ends of Gaea with kisses before making it. He was evil like that.
They still slept in the same bed, ending every day with the familiar routine of cuddling and kissing. As time passed, though, the routine grew in intensity. Van would kiss down her neck to her collarbone - and never any lower - but he had learned the territory well. He knew the sensitive spots and exactly how to work them. At some point she'd have wrapped her legs and arms around him and they'd move together in a slow rocking motion, locking lips once again. The friction would build sweetly between them through the fabric of their sleep clothes.
Hitomi knew she didn't get the same release from it that Van did. She had heard him get up and go to the his bathroom to clean himself a few times after he thought she was asleep, and she would bite her tongue to avoid laughing about it. Some nights once he started snoring, she'd have to slide her hand beneath the waistband of her pants to find that release herself.
He had definitely come through on his threat. He still never really touched her anywhere "inappropriate" -- unless way he brushed against her counted. Well, maybe it did. But no clothing was ever shed. It was driving her mad. She could wait two colors for sex, but she wanted to be bolder. She wanted to shed her inhibitions and explore the world of sensuality more thoroughly.
She was jolted back to the here-and-now by the feel of Van's lips brushing lightly and across the entirety of her cheek. "I love you." he murmured, low in his throat, nuzzling her ear.
"Van..." she muttered softly, "I want...I want..."
He drew back and looked at her questioningly. "What do you want?" he said with a smile. "Have I really made you that flustered with just a few kisses that you can't form a complete sentence? Damn, I'm getting good."
"You're an arrogant little bastard." she said with a sigh, pushing him backward just enough that he had to struggle to regain his balance. "But...you've won. You said I'd be begging for more, and now, here I am, begging. I want more, Van." Her last words were nothing more than a whisper as she pulled his body back to hers, nipping at his throat.
He smiled softly and stroked her hair. "Okay, Hitomi. How could I say no? But not...not here, not now. It's broad daylight, and it's just not private enough. Wait until after dinner, after my sparring match with Celena. There's a place that I want to show you."
Celena and Merle sat along the castle wall. The sky above them was blanketed in constellations. Celena had beat Van in their spar -- he was getting rusty, and he didn't charge aggressively enough. He had accepted his defeat gracefully, but asked for a rematch the next day. Celena was grateful to oblige. She loved to duel. She also loved to braid Merle's hair; an activity which she was now peacefully engaged in. She wove the long pink strands together as Merle sat patiently, purring with half-closed eyes. "I can't wait until my niece has enough hair to do this with!" she chirped gleefully.
"Then you won't need me for anything at all anymore, will you?" Merle muttered with a hint of bitterness.
"Don't be ridiculous." Celena swatted her shoulder. "You know you're my best friend. I'd be lost without you."
"Sorry." sighed Merle, slumping down. "I accepted Van and Hitomi being together a long time ago. It's just lately, I'm feeling like I'm bound to lose everyone. You're so busy now, with your job and everything."
"It's just the way my life has to be. I need to fix the things I've destroyed, Merle."
"I know. I'm proud of you. It's just that I feel that life is passing me by. I have my work in the council, but I am still lonely. I guess I should try and find someone to love. A few members of the staff seem to be quite taken with me," she smiled, "but what if when I get close to them, they meet someone mysterious and beautiful from the Mystic Moon? What if they find work elsewhere? What happens if they just, well, get killed or something? I couldn't stand it."
"I don't need a man to be happy." Celena shrugged. "I like my freedom. But I like my best friend, too." She put her arms around Merle and hugged her tightly. "If you're feeling that unhappy here, then why don't you come live in Asturia? You could help Eries look after the baby, you've always loved children..."
"You know I can't do that. Just like you can't give up being a Caeli. I might not be quite as important as you, but I'm still important here, you know."
Celena sighed as she secured the last of Merle's braids in place, then rested her head on the cat-girl's shoulder. "I can't stand to see you unhappy, you know."
"I'm sorry, Celena-chan. It just seems like there's something out there that is infinitely beyond my grasp..." She reached out her hand as if she was trying to catch the stars in her claws, then let it drop to her side. She turned her head and looked at Celena, perking her ears. "No more of this for tonight." she said with a grin. "Let's go find some trouble!"
"Now that's the Merle I know!" Celena exclaimed.
They embarked from the roof. The sky was crisp and clear, and the Mystic Moon was straight ahead, like the beacon of a lighthouse in an ocean of stars. The night air was chilly, and Hitomi could see her breath. Van had given her a rolled-up blanket, which she pulled snugly to her chest. He embraced her from behind, and a familiar sound of rustling and ripping fabric filled the air. White feathers drifted down in front of her face. He rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist. He beat his wings gently, gracefully propelling himself and Hitomi in to the air. They had never flown like this before. She had always faced him, with her head buried in his shoulder, hiding from the sky. This way, she could see the candlelit windows of Fanelia beneath her, the vast fields of crops, and an endless expanse of treetops in the distance. That was probably his intent.
It was toward those distant treetops they flew. The cold air chilled her face, but the warmth of Van's body against her back compensated more than sufficiently for that. It had been less than ten minutes, but time seemed to stand still, suspended - like them - high above the world. Van's wings cut through the whooshing currents of air with all the sweet, rhythmic repetition of a lullaby. She felt weightless, as if in a dream. She had often wondered what it would be like to have wings of her own, but in the moment, she realized that she wouldn't really want them. Draconian wings were so long; they had to be to support human weight. If two were to fly too close to one another, their wings would collide and tangle, knocking them out of the sky. She would rather be wingless than forgo the comforting harness of Van's arms around her body.
She wondered if he grew tired from carrying her, but he made no complaint. She turned her head once to look at him, and he had looked back and smiled. It was a smile that was both content and full of promise. She wondered briefly if it would be possible to make love in the air like this. Probably not, she concluded; at least not without great difficulty. It would be too much of a physical strain, especially for Van.
It was then that a low-laying cloud of steam on the horizon caught her attention. What lay below it was their destination. Van's wings caught a sudden gust of wind, which carried them along even faster. Together, they swooped beneath the treeline and landed gently in the grass beside a steaming hot spring.
"What do you think?" asked Van calmly as he surveyed the scenery. "Not many people know about this place."
"It's beautiful." she responded with wide eyes, setting the blanket on the ground.
"Mother used to bring Folken and I here to swim when we were little. We had so much fun." he said, smiling warmly at the memory.
"Do you wish he was here?" Hitomi asked.
"Well...not right now!" Van blushed. "Brothers are nice to have around, but not when you intend upon swimming with your beloved." He smiled wryly.
His wings were gone as fast as they had come and Hitomi had barely even gotten a glimpse of them. She wished he would have kept them; that she could trace their feathery texture beneath her fingertips. She had felt a strong pull to touch them the first night she had seen them, but Van wouldn't let her. He had jerked them away protectively when she reached out her hand. It must have been because of how ashamed he was of his heritage. His mother had told him to keep them hidden. Hitomi thought they were too beautiful to hide away forever.
She was quickly snapped from that train of thought when she realized what Van was doing. He had pulled his shirt up over his head, and he cast it carelessly to the ground as she watched him. Unburdened of clothes; the muscles of his torso rippled in the moonlight. She looked away in embarrassment as he fumbled with the buttons of his fly and she heard more fabric brush against the grass. Then she heard a splash, and looked to see her fiancé waist-deep in the hot water.
"Your turn." he informed her with an expectant grin.
"Must you watch?" she frowned.
"I'll see it eventually anyway." he said with a playful wink. "Trust me, it won't feel so bad once you get it done and over with. Didn't you say you wanted to be uninhibited?"
"It's easier in theory than in practice." she retorted, but obliged him by hesitantly taking off her shirt to reveal a simple cotton bra of a pale-cream shade.
"Ah, now we're getting somewhere." he said. She growled at him and he decided it would be wise not to say anything more, lest she change her mind about the whole thing. Trembling, she unzipped her jeans and let them slide down to her ankles, then stepped out of them, shaking her legs free. She did away with the bra and the underwear which matched its color as quickly as possible. Goosebumps prickled on her skin in the cold air. She felt awkward, clammy and horribly vulnerable. She shivered and scurried in to the comfort of the boiling water before Van had the chance to really take in the sight.
She ducked neck-deep in to the spring, and shuddered as the encompassing heat washed over her. Sharply contrasting the air, it passed through her body like little shockwaves until she adjusted to the temperature. She wrapped her arms around her body as it gave an involuntary shiver and looked down to the water, trying to block out the world.
"Don't worry, Hitomi." said Van, "I didn't see very much. I only saw enough to know that you're beautiful." He smiled approvingly. In response, she hid her face. She had a feeling he would shower her relentlessly with this terribly embarrassing commentary, and there was no possible way in which she could retaliate against him. He seemed totally comfortable wearing only his skin, but his body was mostly hidden beneath the water as well.
"Can I hold you?" he asked her, paddling leisurely to her side. His voice was soft and unassuming. Sometimes he surprised her.
"Okay." she answered reluctantly, her voice quivering. He wrapped his arms around her, slowly pulling her body to his. She was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she felt something hard brush against her hip. She tensed reflexively.
"Sorry..." he said, looking rather embarrassed, himself. "I can't help it. Think of it as...a compliment." he offered with a shrug. She gave no reply. It wasn't as if she hadn't felt its presence before, but it had always been safely hidden away behind layers of clothing. She felt horribly uncomfortable. Like the hot water, the awkward vulnerability of nudity was something she would have to adjust to. She rested her head against his shoulder and brought her arms up to return his embrace. She let her breasts flatten against his chest under the water, wishing that she could enjoy the moment as much as he was.
Van dropped a hand beneath the bubbling surface, and at first Hitomi was nervous as to where that hand would wander too. It only took a fistful of water and drizzled it over her hair. She felt the water run down the back of her neck, warming her skin, and sighed. She relaxed against him a little bit and leaned in towards him, brushing her lips over his. He did nothing at first, almost making her work for the kiss. She nosed his cheek in silent plea and ran the tip of her tongue across his upper lip. Finally his mouth parted, letting her in. He kissed her slowly; carefully and tenderly. His usual kisses were like spontaneous combustion. This one was a slow-burning fire, rising from mere embers to encompass her entire being. Being naked didn't mean so much anymore.
In fact, the closeness of it was rather nice. Skin against skin; she could feel all the precise and delicate rhythms of his body. She felt his heart pounding hard against her chest, the rise and fall of his diaphragm with every breath he took, an involuntary muscle twitch somewhere in his stomach. It was a poetry with no words, a lucid and enveloping heat. When he finally ended the kiss, she backed slowly out of his arms. "Hitomi?" he asked with concern, worried that he had done something wrong.
"I'm too hot." she confessed. "I feel a bit woozy. I'm going to sit up on that rock over there." She indicated to a smooth boulder protruding just slightly out of the water.
"Ah, yes. I do have that effect." Van smirked. She splashed him and waded to the boulder.
She lifted herself on to it gracefully, letting Van look at her body as much as he pleased. At first, he tried not to look, worried he would make her feel more uncomfortable. Then she kicked at the water with her foot and splashed him again. "I thought you WANTED to look at me." she commanded.
"Who am I to argue?" said Van, resisting the urge to sappily liken her to a goddess or some other mythical being as he turned his eyes toward her.
Thin whisps of wet hair clung to her face, the droplets running down over her flushed skin. Her green eyes were uncharacteristically large and bright as she returned his smile. She arched her body forward in a confident, graceful, stretching slope as if to flaunt her figure. Her breasts seemed to be the just the right size for her frame (any larger and they would have been overpowering) and they rested against her ribcage in perfect symmetry.
Van did not consciously comprehend this. In typical male fashion, all he comprehended was: Breasts! I'm seeing breasts! And...other stuff...ooh! His eyes trailed down her body - a soft and slender cascade of concave and convex curves - taking in each and every one of them, from the slopes of her shoulders and the gentle blossom of her hips to the sparse, damp tendrils of honey-brown where her thighs intersected with her torso. His resolve not to be cheesy crumbled.
"You are a goddess." he said. He took a step towards her, unaware of exactly how far his mouth was hanging open.
"Flattery will get you nowhere. You can look at me...from OVER THERE." She stuck out her tongue.
"Ahh, you're no fun!" he groaned.
"Tough luck."
"Should I come out of the water, too?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Do you want to see..."
"Umm, I've never seen one before. It scares me." Her words prompted Van to blush again.
"I wasn't referring to that ONE THING in particular," he complained indignantly, "but it doesn't bite."
"It was going to! I nearly mistook it for a water snake!" she jokingly ventured. Van briefly considered making a remark about Hitomi being so delicious that he couldn't blame his "water snake" for wanting a taste, but he quickly decided against it. That definitely wasn't going to gain him her favor.
"You're impossible, Hitomi." he sighed, giving up for the time being. He sank to his knees in the water and pouted. Hitomi seemed oblivious to his presence for a long while. For Van - and the throbbing ache which was constantly increasing in his groin - it seemed like an eternity. She looked up to the moons and stars overhead. The steam blurred the sky above, making it look like wet paint.
"Wet paint sky..." she muttered softly to no one in particular. She reached her hand upward as if to smear more stars across the canvas of the stratosphere.
"Wet..." Van echoed, that single word sending a kaleidoscope of scintillating images through his mind. She turned and met his eyes. The air between them was tense with electricity.
"You can come over here now." she said. "Come over here and kiss me, like you did before." He appeared before her in a single heartbeat. She slid down in to the in to his arms and let her lips mingle with his again, this time standing so that the water only reached to her waist. He pulled back slightly, locking her eyes in a penetrating gaze.
"Can I...?" he began to ask. Hitomi raised a finger to his lips before he could even finish the question.
"I'm yours, Van."
He gave her a grateful, impish smile and quickly lowered his mouth to her throat, finding one of the spots which never failed to make her shiver. He kissed and lapped at the skin. She threw her head back and moaned softly as - with the utmost reverence and care - he stroked the side of her breast, making an agonizingly-slow spiral inward towards the pale dusty-rose nipple. He stroked lightly up and down over it, just barely brushing it with his fingertips before finally catching it between them and feeling it harden instantly as he rolled it gently back and forth. She gave a small shiver; she was more sensitive there than she had realized.
Sometimes it felt to Hitomi as if there were two sides to Van. One was kind, gentle, eternally patient and understanding. The other was something more dangerous; savage and predatory. That later side was taking over now as he ran his hand teasingly down her side and over the subtle curve of her hip, then back up to the nipple. But perhaps there were two sides to Hitomi as well. Shyness had long-since given way to instinct as she involuntarily drew her nails across his back, leaving small red scratches on his skin. He smiled and withdrew his hand. She grabbed it, trying to force it back to her breast.
"You like that, eh?" he asked, nibbling her earlobe. His voice was low and thick with desire. She nodded quickly and looked at him, her eyes pleading for more. He complied, lowering his mouth to the breast, lapping and sucking at it with voracious insistence. She inhaled sharply and uttered a melodious cry as he began to fondle her other, previously neglected, breast with his hand. He still had one hand free, and a vague idea of what he might do with it. He let up on his oral assault for just a moment, and asked Hitomi to climb back up on the rock. She obeyed with wordless understanding.
It no longer felt threatening in the slightest that Van slid his hand across her inner thigh then cautiously inserted a single finger between her legs. The way he moved it was far too gentle, as if he were afraid she'd rupture beneath his touch. It quickly became obvious that now that his hand was there, he had not the slightest inkling of what to do with it. She clasped her hand firmly over the back of his, guiding the finger, showing him what she wanted him to do.
He wondered if she touched herself like this, and that thought was enough to send him completely over the edge. He found his release in a rather anti-climatic fashion, there in the water. Hitomi was none-the-wiser to it. She clenched her eyes and her teeth tightly as he continued to work
A warm ecstasy quickly built up deep inside her. In her mind's eye, the wet-paint stars became more focused, clearer and sharper than they had ever been before. Pulled by an all-encompassing gravity they converged upon a single point with a blinding brightness, then exploded, sending waves of pleasure through her entire body as they spiraled back to their galaxies. Without thinking, she balled her fists in Van's hair and yanked hard, jerking his head upward. She kissed him aggressively as the orgasm wracked through her, biting at his tongue as her frail form shuddering under the nearly unbearable pleasure.
Van pulled away from her, gasping for air. "Hitomi..."
"Hmm?" she asked him, peering through lazy, half-lidded eyes.
"I needed to breathe. You were suffocating me and chomping my tongue. You pulled my hair and clawed my shoulder too. Pleasuring you is dangerous!" He gave her a warm, yet exhausted smile.
She blushed bright red as her fuzzy mind returned to reality, realizing what it was that she had just done. The embarrassment wasn't too great though; after all, she had done it with Van. This was only another way in which he knew her like no one else could.
After too much time in hot water, the cool air was a comfort. They laid on the blanket in the grass, listening to the sounds of the forest as their pruney fingers and toes slowly returned to their normal smoothness and the water evaporated from their skin. Hitomi had only seen male nudity twice before in her life, and wasn't sure if either instance really counted for something.
The first was when her brother was a toddler and going through an odd phase where he had an aversion to clothes. Her mother would be throwing a dinner party when the little boy would come padding in to the room dressed in nothing besides his birthday suit, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Mrs. Kanzaki would promptly scoop him up and cart him off to his room as the guests tried to repress amused laughter. The second time was in a video that Yukari made her watch when they were teenagers. Hitomi had hid her face for the majority of the time, though looking back, she found herself wishing she had paid more attention, because she could have learned something. She wanted to return the pleasure which Van had given her, but she hadn't the foggiest idea how.
She forced herself to study him more boldly now, noticing the little details and peculiarities that she liked about his body. There was something enchanting in the way the skin would tighten across his chest as he inhaled, revealing the muscle tone there. There was so much energy contained within the simple act of his breathing. She found the jutting angularity of his hip bones fascinating as well, imagining they were made like that just so that she could hook her legs over them when they finally made love.
She was even so bold as to turn some of her visual attention to that part of his anatomy that had previously frightened her. Her eyes did not linger there long. It still felt kind of strange to look at it. Van rolled on to his stomach, stretching out his body and closing his eyes contentedly. She reached out and ran her fingers along the curve of his spine and traced his shoulder blades with her fingertips, finding no trace of the wings when they were retracted.
She cocked her head to the side then as devious thoughts formed in her mind. "Van, can I see your wings?" she asked him, breaking the silence. He stared at her as if she had requested something horridly obscene, confirming her observations that he was still somewhat ashamed of them.
"You saw them earlier." he said flatly, propping himself up on his elbows and resting his face in his hands to look at her.
"Well," she smiled, "I'd like to conduct a closer examination. You got to examine everything that YOU wanted to tonight." She had a point. He sighed defeatedly and rose from where he sat, stretching his arms toward the sky and letting the snowy feathers erupt from his back once more.
"Does it hurt?" Hitomi asked, noticing how he winced. She had never considered that sprouting the wings might be painful for Van before.
"No." he answered. "It feels awfully strange, but it doesn't hurt." He folded them and returned to the blanket, looking at her expectantly with his dark eyes.
"How does it feel when I touch them?" she asked, smoothing down the feathers on the back of one wing. He shivered violently, his body responding in ways she would have never expected. His breathing deepened but he gave no answer. "Come on, tell me!" she persisted, tracing her hand back along the same path, this time against the lay of the feathers. He shook his head.
"Wonderful...and totally, totally wrong."
"Why is that?" she inquired.
"They're for flying. They're for getting me where I need to go. That's all." He folded his arms.
"Someone has a complex." she quipped. "You make me think of a woman telling a man not to touch her thighs, because they're too big." "Well, I'm not telling you NOT to touch them..." he muttered.
"Hmm..." she said with a pondering expression, fingertips tickling at the sensitive skin where the wings connected to his shoulders, "I wouldn't want to do anything to you that you weren't comfortable with." She pulled her hand away. "I don't think I'm going to touch your wings anymore...that is, until you beg me to." She was pulling the same line on him that he had used on her so many times before. He let out a desperate whimper. She smirked. Turnabout was fair play. She had a greater resolve than Van though, for he was on his knees in seconds.
"Please." he whispered. He looked at her with big, glistening eyes and leaned forward, planting the most delicate kiss on her lips.
"I'm not convinced." she said.
"Don't torment me!" he chided. "You win!" He caught a feather that had settled on the blanket beside them, and turned it around in his fingertips. "You know, I think I first fell in love with you when you told me that you liked my wings." He ran the feather lightly over her jawline and across her throat. "My whole life, people have only reacted in the worst way to them, with the exception of Merle. But...she's Merle, and she takes fascination in the oddest of things. Anyway, I don't want to think about her now...I'd rather think about you. I really want to show you how grateful I am."
"I don't think my body can take any more of your gratitude tonight. I should...return some of it..." she said, nervously. He took her hand in his own and placed it on his wing impatiently. She removed it and put it somewhere entirely different. Van's eyes went wide. He hadn't expected to be so lucky that night.
"Oh...that's...even better." he whimpered. "Hitomi, don't stop...please don't stop!" Surprisingly, she had a better grip (no pun intended) on how to work his anatomy than he did hers.
The morning sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. Kipalisa crouched low in the bushes, his brown eyes narrowed as he watched the garden for any signs of life. He had been rather annoyed that the Caeli had come the previous day, but he hoped she wouldn't interfere. The plan was simple: lay low, kill Van, and get the hell out. He didn't know who would take over then. He wasn't about to try; the glory meant nothing to him.
He hoped Hitomi would go back to her own world once her strongest tie with Gaea was broken, rather than taking the throne in Van's stead. He didn't want to have to kill her too. But if the little cat-girl tried to take the throne, he'd have no qualms with dispatching her. The ruler of Fanelia should not be Draconian or beastman or from the Mystic Moon, he reasoned; he or she should be a simple citizen with the best interests of the country in mind.
His father had been one such citizen; serving as an advisor to Goau Fanel. He was disgracefully relieved of his position when he stubbornly refused to accept the king's marriage to Varie, a move which had only left disaster in it's wake. It was time for the succession of a new, untainted royalty. So he waited there amongst low branches and twisted roots, like a wolf stalking its prey.
AN: I changed a lot here, making it the longest chapter thusfar -- with close to eight-thousand words. Eep! When I wrote this I was being a total wimp about the intimate scenes. I went back and made them much more...descriptive, while attempting to keep within the "R" rating. I would still argue that writing citrusy stuff is not my strong point though I may do it one more time over the course of this story.
Allen and Eries' daughter, Lynn, is named after my first niece, Lynn Marie T., who was born on November 1st, 2002. She's a beautiful child and a blessing to both of her families.
Site Plug: http://www.opalwings.com/escaflowne