(revised version)
Chapter 5: A Letter and A "Peaceful" Night
Willow sorted through the mail.
"Junk, bill, junk, junk, letter from the company, and AH!" She yelped in pain when a letter in a black envelope sent a spark flying into her fingertips causing her to drop it. Carefully she picked it up and looked at it.
"Its addressed to you," She looked at it puzzled and handed it to him.
"Hmm," Folken studied it trying to decide whether he should open it or not, "Its from the Ispano clan… their the people, if you could even call them that," he snorted, "that made Escaflowne and… my arm."
Willow gasped, putting her hand to her now open mouth, her voice had been lost somewhere on the floor. Folken was trembling at the thought of what the letter might contain.
"Willow, could you do me the greatest favor yet and read that letter to me, I'm afraid I don't have the energy to read it myself just now," he gasped slightly, rubbing his forehead as he handed it back to her.
"I most certainly will not! Folken, what they did to you was just shear torture, and making a blood pact with a machine? That's just absurd. I will not read this until you're ready to read it yourself!"
Folken smiled both from the idea he had just had and from her reaction to the letter.
"What are you smiling at?"
"I just realized I can actually say no to them now. I know it must seem strange but…"
"It most certainly does not, it makes perfect sense, while you were in their control your life depended on them and they could do what ever they wanted with it, right?"
"Well, yes."
"That's just cruel, and especially to a fifteen year old boy." She held it between her index finger and thumb with her arm extended as if the letter were the most vile and disgusting thing she had ever seen. Folken was holding himself back, her anger fueled the flame in his heart and made him feel like he was walking on air. He could hardly contain himself as he watched her heated actions, looking at more of her than was appropriate. He knew it was all too quick he knew he shouldn't be thinkign what he was but he couldn't help it.
"If I didn't think it might contain something you might actually need to know then I'd burn this thing right here and now!"
Folken couldn't help himself he pulled her into his arms, she dropped the letter
"Folken," She gasped before his lips covered hers in a passionate kiss.
He kissed her fervently, loving the feel of her skin under his touch, softness of her hair that brushed against his cheek. He knew he wasn't healed enough for this, he shouldn't be moving so fast but he didn't care. He pressed his lips more intensely against hers, savoring every last drop of her tightening embrace. She tensed noticableable and suddenly he tasted the saltiness of his own blood as his spilt lip opened again. He moaned and pulled himself away from her. He felt ashamed and rash, like foolish teenager.
"I'm so sorry Willow, forgive me I feel I've lost nearly all restraint of myself. I love you… but I just can't go on." He wavered and nearly fell over in her arms.
"Oh, Folken, don't feel so bad." She put her hand to his bleeding lip.
"I… just… forgive me." He fell unconscious in her
arms.
* * *
Folken woke late that evening, Willow was sitting at her drawing desk, she had been sitting there since soon after he passed out and she laid him on the couch. He just watched her; she was drawing intently not taking her eyes from the page except to look at the photo she was sketching from. Finally she set her pen aside and grabbed her watercolor pencils. He watched as she blended just the right amounts of blues and greens. Finally, he couldn't stand the curiosity any more he stood carefully, pushing his wings back and out of the way.
He looked over her shoulder to see the blue jay from earlier, both the photo she had taken and the sketch she now was finishing. He gently laid his hand on her shoulder.
"It's beautiful, when did you develop the film?" He asked softly.
"While you were asleep, it took about an hour and I've been working on this for…" She looked at the clock; it read 6:30 "…Three hours."
Folken whistled at how long he'd been passed out. He watched as she made her last few adjustments to the picture, blending the green background a little more before setting it in a safe place. Her stomach growled and they laughed lightly and walked into the kitchen. She made a quick dinner of a pre-cooked chicken that she just had to put in the oven for thirty minutes. He helped her gather and make a salad, trying to focus on preparing the food more than he was on holding her waist. Several times, he had to almost shove himself into another room to get his mind out of the gutter.
"Willow?"
"Folken?"
"About earlier…"
"Shhh," she put her finger to his lips to silence him, "Folken, don't worry about it…"she took a ragged breath, "You just startled me, that's all." She looked into his loving eyes and wondered if this was to good to be true.
"I love you Willow," he whispered, gently wrapping his arms around her waist. She pursed her lips, wondering how in such a short amount of time he could come to love her and how he could have raised the feeling of excitement that was taking her breath away.It seemed all to fast but she felt she'd known him all her life, but just been waiting to find him.
"I love you too," She sighed, falling into his gentle embrace. She felt safe, the tough occured to her in a moment and it surprised her. His touch, his voice, just his pressence made her feel SAFE, in a world that had threatened her for so long.
"I'll always be here for you, Willow, tell me everything, leave out no detail." He purred into her ear, his warm breath caressing her cheek. He wanted to protect her forever, to be her sanctuary, where she could run from her troubles a safe place for her to share her heart.
"Oh Folken, you don't know how much I've wanted to hear those very words." She brought her hand up to his cheek, feeling the two days worth of stubble that had grown in there.
They stood there for another minute, as if frozen in time, just holding each other while the smell of dinner wafted in the air. The buzzer on the oven went off all too soon and they were forced to leave their comforting embrace.
"It looks delicious." Folken smiled when she brought it over to the table. He looked in the refrigerator for drinks and before he could grab a pitcher of juice and ask what it was she reached in and picked up a bottle of wine.
"What's that?" he asked as she took out corkscrew and proceeded to remove the cork.
"Just some wine I was saving for a special occasion," she smiled, "I think this counts." She poured the wine into two wineglasses, and he couldn't keep his eyes off her as she walked back to the table, they both sat down and Folken set about carving the chicken for them. Willow spooned some salad onto her plate and poured some ranch dressing on it. Soon they had traded dishes and each had some salad and chicken on their plates.
"Tell me more about Gaea, Folken." Willow leaned her head on her palm, intrigued with the concept of a fantasy world, that actually existed!
"Well, in Fanelia, as I told you earlier, there were dragons. Great land dragons, flying dragons that would occasionally soar over the kingdom and sea dragons that swam in the seas that were just beyond the cliffs behind the palace. I remember Van and I used to go out to that cliff and fly off the edge together, plunging down towards the water and flying for hours where no one would see us." Folken sighed and Willow smiled.
"It sounds heavenly." She took another sip of her wine.
"It was, I wish I could go back and take you with me."
She blushed profusely, looking into her wineglass, watching as the light danced through it causing little red spots of light to flicker about the table as she turned it.
'Wasn't there something in Judeo Christian beliefs about wine being representative of blood?' She was caught up in this thought before she knew where it was going. 'Yes there most definitely was, I believe Jesus referred to wine being his blood… but why?'
"Willow?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry… I guess I was just deep in thought… I do that a lot." Willow set the glass down and smiled, but Folken had seen the troubled and contemplative look on her face while she studied the wine. He wondered what she could be thinking of.
"Its all right… why don't you tell me what you were thinking?" He smiled and picked up his own glass. "What is the significance of this wine?" He hit the mark straight on, causing her to blush even more. He loved the bright color that was rising in her cheeks but her frown made him wonder if he should have been more delicate.
"Willow…"
"Folken, if its all the same to you, I don't really have an explanation that would make sense right now… Heck, it doesn't even make sense to me!" She laughed nervously, wondering why she had been contemplating something so silly and futile.
"When you get it figured out let me know." Folken took her hand in his own, across the table.
"Thank you, Folken."
"For what? I'm the one who should be thanking you."
"For caring, not many people in my have ever really have... At least no that I've believed, i've had a hard time trusting people..."
"Your more than welcome." He smiled at her earnestly
They finished dinner and cleaned up the dishes. Willow wandered into the living room again and took up her favorite position in front of her computer. She sat with one foot tucked under her and folken smiled at the look of childish glee that spread across her face as she pulled up one of her books. She started typing and he watched as her fingers flew over the keys, composing a literary masterpiece. She finished a chapter and then turned to him, finding he was only inches away from her.
She sighed and mussed up his hair, which simply fell back into place. He laughed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Want to read it?" She asked, standing so he could sit where she had been.
"Of, course I do." He took her spot, and before she could sit where he had been, he pulled her into his lap.
"Hey!" she laughed and tickled him.
"Hey, nothing I might need you to answer a question or something." He smiled and started reading from the beginning. Willow read with him, correcting grammar mistakes as they went. Occasionally Folken would squeeze her waist a little more tightly when he read something that either excited him or made him feel sad. He cheered out loud when his favorite character kicked butt and complained when they were beaten down. Willow couldn't help but laugh when he got to the end and immediately put her hands on the keys, demanding she write more.
"Go on, write the rest." He coaxed, desperate to find out what would happen next.
"Folken, if you want to know what happens next you'll have to help me get past my writer's block."
"Your what?"
"Writer's block, you know, when you can't think of what to write next?" She laughed and he pinched her side.
"How about if you don't write any more I'll be forced to torture you slowly and painfully." He said with a smirk.
"No way! No how!" She laughed, giving him an indignant shrug of her shoulders.
"Aww, come on, you have to write more!"
"Nope, you haven't helped me get past my writers block and I don't know what to write." SHe looked away, tilting her chin up in the air indignatnly, buta smirk played lightly on her lips, giving her away.
"How about our hero meets a beautiful young maiden and falls madly in love with her, fighting for her and nearly killing himself in the process?" He knew it didn't work with the story line but it sounded good anyway.
"Nope, no good."
"What if I just give up and we do something else?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me, want to watch a movie? I just rented some new ones the other day and haven't had a chance to watch them since you fell into my life." She smiled and stood up, walking over to the entertainment center.
"Sounds like you've already made up your mind." He teased, turning off the computer.
"You've got that right!"
*
*
*
Willow picked up three videos and brought them over
to the couch where he had sat down.
"We have…Monsters Inc, a cute little kids movie I
rented to watch with the girls, I heard its really good,
they made it so that parents wouldn't be bored half to death while
their kids watched it. Then there is Pearl
harbor; an action, romance and drama all rolled into one about a huge
war that happened a while ago." Willow
held the boxes out to him and he looked at the back of each one.
"How about Pearl Harbor?" He handed them back to her.
"Okay, I've heard it's really good." She put it in
the VCR and fast-forwarded it until the previews were
over. She sat next to Folken on the couch, curling her legs up under
her and leaning on him for support,
he sighed as she moved a little closer.
'Is she saying this all right? Should I go for it?'
He shrugged off the thought and concentrated on the
video. 'I'm acting like some love sick, hormone laden teenager.' He
scolded himself. Nevertheless, there
were moments when he couldn't help but hold her tightly, he squeezed
her hand during the most
frightening parts, just to let her know he was still there... This
was all frighteningly too familiar, the horror
of global war, the torture of commanding troops to their deaths, the
patriotism of all sides. The sacrifice of
blossomed youth to the god of war.
After the video was over Willow was bawling.
"It was so sad!" She sniffed and gathered her emotions.
"It was sad." Folken caressed her cheek, wiping her
tears away as he tried to hide his own puffy eyes. "I'm
glad we watched it. I'm learning so much about your culture already."
"What do you mean?" She asked, snuggling closer to him for comfort.
"Your world is going through similar things to those
on Gaea. Apparently, every culture is filled with war
and hatred, mixed with love and compassion. All things are tied together
by people's desires, they desire
compassion and desire war. Somehow, there is a coexistence of both
love and hate, although it never
seems to be perfectly one or the other in one person or another. Its
always a mixture of both emotions,
sometimes love out ways hate, but more often hate out weighs love and
breeds war." Folken was
contemplating more for his own benefit than Willow's but she couldn't
help but be completely enraptured
by his words.
"Folken, that was amazing! You really should starting
writing things like that down!" She smiled up at
him.
"Really? I was just thinking out loud." He looked off into the distance.
"Seriously Folken, you could write a book at this
rate." She blushed and rested her head on his shoulder
so that if he turned his head towards her there would be almost no
distance between them.
"I appreciate your confidence in me." He smiled and
turned towards her, he had known how close she
was, it was obvious. He couldn't help but noticethe feeling of herr
breath on his neck as his heart sped up,
how close she was to him and he couldn't resist her any longer.
"I love you, Folken," she purred, her soft breath caressing his lips.
That was it, he couldn't take it any more! He closed
the gap between them and pressed his lips against
hers, tentatively at first, but then more strongly when she returned
it. He pulled away, weary of his lip, not
wanting a repeat of earlier that morning.
"Oh, Willow," He sighed into her hair, caressing
her cheek with his own. "I love you more than I've ever
loved anything else."
"I know, I love you too." She sighed and laid her
head on his chest, listening to his heart beat, her hand
resting softly on his stomach. Shewas so relaxed and felt so completely
at ease she fell asleep in his arms
and he carried her into her room. He sunk into the soft cushion of
her bed, keeping her ear to his heart the whole time,
knowing that the sound of it told her she was not alone and that he
wouldn't leave her. Soon he too fell
asleep, dreaming wonderful dreams of life in Fanelia before the Dragon,
before all the trouble…
However, this time Willow was there, the dragon held
her in its clutches its touch fllicked distastefully
over her, he raised his blade and killed the dragon with one simple
blow. He smiled in triumph as he
gathered the ragged and rather distraught, younger version of Willow
into his arms before carring her back
to the palace. There was a flash of light and he saw himself by Willow's
side, she looked about the age she
really was when he first met her, only her stomach was rotund and there
was perspiration on her brow. He
dabbed it away and she screamed in torment as another contraction racked
her body. He sobbed in joy as he
was handed a baby boy with her crystal blue eyes and his blue hair.
He laughed happily and handed him to his
mother. Another flash of light and he saw Van and Hitomi, standing
together he realized they were getting
married and nearly leaped for joy. It all faded away as his eyes clouded
with tears of joy…
Folken woke up and looked at the clock, 2 am. 'Ouch.'
He tried to remember what had woken him
from his dream when he realized it was the immense pain in his wings.
He sighed and rolled over so he was face down in
the pillow his head was resting on. He reached over to
wrap his arm around Willow and pull her close to him for comfort when
he realized she wasn't there, but
the spot where she had been was still warm. He sat up and realized
that water was running in the bathroom
across the hall. "
"Why would she be taking a shower at this time of
night?" He wondered out loud, rubbing the sleep from
his eyes. As if in answer to his question the water stopped and a few
seconds later the door opened.
Willow stood in the doorway; she was in a fresh nightgown that came
to just above her knees. She
toweled off her hair and grabbed a comb before heading back into the
room. She nearly jumped when she
saw Folken sitting up in the bed.
"Folken! You startled me." She laughed, a blush rising
in her cheeks, she was glad for the cover of
darkness.
"I'm sorry." He apologized, thinking for a moment before he realized what this could be.
"No, I'm sorry, I woke you up." She sat on the edge of the bed and started combing her hair.
Folken fought the pain in his wings as he moved to
sit behind her, he took the comb from her and ran it
through her hair. If he was right, she would need a lot of tender attention
for the next week. He set the
comb aside. She sighed, feeling his gentle touch as he pulled her into
his arms but was noticable tense.
"Folken, I'm not feeling so good right now…"
"Is your cycle always this hard on you?" He took
a flying leap at his guess, figuring it was the most likely
explanation.
"Not always," she said in a barely audible whisper,
"It's just been longer than usual since the last one
and…"
"Shhh, its okay Willow, I understand. I know more
about science than just about anyone on gaea" He just
held her for a while trying desperately to ignore the rising pain in
his wings.
"Thank you Folken, you are so kind." She sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"You deserve it." He cooed, cupping her cheek in his hand. She shook her head in quick denial.
"No, I don't, Folken."
"Yes, you do," He held her chin so she would look
into his eyes. Tears fell over her cheeks and he kissed
them away.
"I won't argue with you, but I don't feel like I deserve it..."
"But you do..." He moaned as a tremor of pain ran through his wings.
"Folken?! Are you all right?" Her hands went to his shoulders.
"I'll be fine, my feathers a coming in tonight, My
wings be sore for a while and these tremors will get
more consistent until their all in. aahh, ouch!"
"Oh Folken, that's got to be horrible. Wait a moment!
I wonder if our medicines will work for you, the
food seems to be fine so… Hang on I'll be right back; I need another
dose of aspirin myself, and I'll get
you some too."
She was gone before he could say otherwise and he
decided that anything she could give him would be
better than dealing with the pain.
She returned with a bottle of medicine and a glass
of water. She took two white pills out of the bottle and
handed them to him, she took two for herself and swallowed them with
a couple mouthfuls of water.
Folken took the glass from her and took his own medicine.
"It'll take about thirty minutes for it to start
working." She explained and crawled under the covers, feeling
a bit better after her shower. Folken lied down next to her, gently
taking her into his arms, she sighed and
rested her head on his chest, her warm breath comforting him. Another
tremor traveled through his wings
and she tightened her embrace until it passed. Soon, she was asleep,
but Folken couldn't seem to follow
her into peaceful slumber. He forced himself to concentrate on her
breathing, making himself breath along
with her when his wings ached so much he couldn't stand it. Half an
hour later he fell asleep, the aspirin
relieving enough of the soreness to let him sleep.
A/N: YAY! another revised chapter!
Thanks to everyone who's been so nice to review and rereview, I love
you all!
Feedback: Any sort of constructive critisism is help mainly
on my weaknesses. Orginaization, dialogue, Characterization, Stream of
Consciousness, etc. Encouragement is nice as well, but really I'm seeking
to grow as a writer. Any literary techniques I can learn are great.
