Past 200 reviews! * Waves hand in front of face like Miss Congeniality *
Thank you! Thank you everyone for all the fantastic reviews! Everyone is
saying this is the best fanfic they have read... when some of you said
that, I nearly broke into tears! Wow... I'm getting all emotional. From
your awesome reviews, I give you... Chapter 19! And it has what you have
all been waiting for! FLUFF! But first... a disclaimer!
As it said from above... a disclaimer: I hitereth not owneth thy thingith callith Escaflowne... uhh... did that make ANY sense what so ever?
****I posted the Inuyasha fanfiction. Please, if anyone likes vampire fanfictions or Inuyasha, then could you please read my story? You don't even need to know about Inuyasha's story line. I just took the characters and stuff. So if you like, please read it and review! It's called 'Look on the Inside'.
AN to snowykittenz: Umm... I think your getting the wrong idea with Folken's smirks... bad on my part cause I had a bad choice of words. He wasn't thinking bad thoughts and I am NOT going to have him rape Hitomi. That's SO not in character. But if he did... I think Dilandau would kill him for hurting her. -_-,
The warmth from the fire was relaxing and soon enough Dilandau drifted off into the world of dreams just like Hitomi. His body relaxed and he was now lying on the couch. When Hitomi woke up... he would be there, and he swore that he would never let something like that happen again. These were new emotions he was experiencing, but they made him feel at peace... that was something he hadn't felt for a long time.
Chapter 19: Comfort in Your Arms
Needles... green liquid... men in black cloaks... they surrounded her... intoxicating her senses were chemicals of every sort. Bare skin... how cold she felt. Her arms and legs, immobile because of leather straps. Pain! A mouth open in a silent scream as cold fluid ran into her veins, making her blood run cold and dulling her senses. Struggling against the bonds while the black-cloaked men just pathetically smiled.
Panic rose and she struggled with more force. Then the liquid that was injected started to do something... every muscle in her body tensed up and felt like they were about to rip open. Limbs started to spasm uncontrollably and now it felt as though her body was going to die. She tried screaming but no sound would come.
But slowly, ever so slowly, everything started to fade away. The sounds of the men talking and the machinery around her started to grow fainter and her vision got blurry. The last thing she heard one of the men say was, "How is he handling the injections?"
"He's fine..." said another. "It will take more than this to kill Dilandau."
Everything turned white suddenly and more peaceful sounds filled Hitomi's ears. Eyelids that were tightly closed before now relaxed. But when the light that still could be seen even with eyes closed refused to go away, Hitomi lazily opened them. Instead of being surrounded by men, she found herself lying in her bed. There was no pain and none of her limbs were restrained.
'Why were they saying Dilandau?' her mind wondered. 'What was that dream about? Those people were dressed like Folken... but what were they doing?' Hitomi shook when her thoughts went back to the injections. 'Why did I see that?'
Slowly lifting her head, she found that it was morning and the sun had already risen. She looked down at her form, finding that she was still clad in yesterday's clothing. She sat trying to remember what had happened and how she got to her bed until she heard another person in her room.
She became more alert until she found that the sound was of a slow and peaceful breathing. Hitomi pushed herself slowly from her bed and stepped towards the person sleeping on her sofa. What she saw shocked her. There, sleeping like a baby was Dilandau. Once she looked at him, the memories of last night came rushing back to her.
Pieces of what transpired that night flashed before her eyes. Not all of it was clear to her but she did remember that someone had attacked her and she thought she was going to die. Then she remembered Dilandau... he had saved her... he had taken Hitomi back to her room. Now he was there, sleeping.
While she looked at his face, she saw all the coldness gone. He looked innocent and like a child. Hitomi smiled to herself. 'He really isn't as bad as everyone thinks him to be.'
Still feeling tired, Hitomi gave off a light yawn and decided that some more sleep would do her good, especially after last night. She walked back over to her bed and lay down once again. Sleep overcame her and soon enough her eyes drifted shut to a dreamless sleep.
It wasn't much later when Dilandau rose from his sleep. At first he didn't realize where he was until his eyes surveyed his surroundings. It hit him that he had fallen asleep on the couch in Hitomi's room.
'Shit! How did I fall asleep? Did she already wake up? Did she see me?'
Dilandau's thoughts suddenly quieted down when he spotted Hitomi lying on her bed fast asleep. He let out a sigh of relief and lifted himself from the couch.
'I better get back to my own room before anyone suspects anything.' Dilandau looked at Hitomi's sleeping form once more before leaving.
Hitomi was able to sleep a little longer until a knock came from her door. She lifted her head expecting to see Dilandau still sleeping on the couch but found that he had already left. Opening the door, she was slightly surprised to see Folken standing there. The door opened wider as he walked in.
Hitomi gave him a questioning look and Folken turned around just in time to see the confusion on her face. He had a worried expression on his face but he broke the silence when he spoke.
"Hitomi... are you alright? After what happened last night... do you need to rest today? It is up to you if you wish to start training today."
She thought about it for only a few seconds until she smiled at him. "I'm fine... really. A lot has happened the past few weeks, but I need to start using my muscles again. I've been resting for the longest time. I am ready to start training."
He looked skeptically at her, but it was her decision and he couldn't force her to change it. "If you are ready, I will escort you down to the training room."
Hitomi nodded her head in reply. She was still in the clothes from yesterday, but they would do for today. Folken walked out of the room with Hitomi following behind him. She had only been in the main training room once, but that was a memory she didn't want to go back to. She nearly got killed that day... if it weren't for Dilandau... he saved her.
'He's done that a lot... hasn't he?' she asked her inner thoughts.
The walk was silent but when they grew closer to the doors of the training facility, Hitomi could clearly hear the sounds of practice swords and yelling coming from behind the doors. Folken opened one of the doors for Hitomi, motioned for her to walk in, and closed it behind her. With that, he walked off towards his lab.
Everyone inside the room stopped what they were doing when they saw the girl from the Mystic Moon walk inside. She shyly looked around, not knowing what to do. Suddenly Dilandau's voice rose above everything. "I don't see swords moving! This is no time for you to stand around and stare!"
The Dragonslayers looked quickly at their commander and resumed what they were doing. Dilandau on the other hand started to walk towards her and when she saw him, he motioned for her to walk towards him. She left her place in front of the giant doors and walked forward. As she followed Dilandau, who had now turned and started to walk in the same direction as she was, she saw her glaive placed on the wall in the room.
Dilandau stopped in front of it as Hitomi walked to it and picked it up off its holster.
"You feel up to training today?" he asked her.
Answering that question for the second time that day, she nodded her head. Dilandau went to an empty space in the large room with Hitomi following.
"Let's go over the basics again, then we will start off slow in attacking and blocking." Dilandau informed her.
Hitomi followed the instructions Dilandau was giving her as she walked through different movements and techniques. Her body got tired quickly from the lack of exercise and muscle movement she went through during her recovery.
"Block your head, now shin, now your left side. Good." Dilandau was doing this for a while now. He showed Hitomi the basic blocks for all the parts on the body again to refresh her memory and was now going through them in a random order. He wasn't attacking... he was just listing them as Hitomi performed each movement. At times she would hesitate or nearly drop her glaive, but when this happened, Dilandau would start again. After a while, she got the hang of it and it flowed more, but these were only the basics.
'She has so much more to learn.' he thought to himself.
Blocking when you were told where the blow was going to come from was easy, now it was time to learn how to read your enemy's actions and know where to block. Let's just say that it's much harder that it looks.
Dilandau was standing in front of Hitomi, his sword out and ready.
"Focus Hitomi. Read my actions... look to see if your enemy is focusing on a certain point. Try and find their weak spot." Dilandau was attacking her one area at a time, and she had to try and block wherever he was going to strike. Dilandau was careful not to hit her with the practice sword especially when striking near her abdomen.
The rest of the day was spent blocking, and soon enough everyone was dismissed. The next few days were slow, but Hitomi was learning more than she ever had. She struggled to keep up with every movement as Dilandau started to attack more quickly, but by using her dousing ability, it was easier to see where attacks were coming from. She was able to read some of his movements, but she always seemed to leave herself open somewhere... and dousing couldn't help her with that.
When Hitomi could block efficiently, Dilandau decided to start teaching her how to attack.
"Attack more aggressively!" Dilandau yelled at her.
Hitomi's glaive swung through the air as Dilandau easily deflected it. Hitomi stood there panting for air as she stood her weapon up next to her. She had been trying to land a hit on Dilandau for a few days now, but she never even got close. It was just too hard to try and attack, but still be aware and block all at the same time. Whenever she would attack, Dilandau saw a way around it and forced her back into a defensive position. The glaive did give her an advantage of being at a further distance from her opponent, but he always got past her defenses.
Dilandau sighed in frustration and yelled something towards his Dragonslayers. "Gatty! Get over here!"
The light brown haired boy stopped practicing with his sword and walked over to where Dilandau stood. "Yes Dilandau-sama?" he said.
"I want you to attack Hitomi." Hitomi gave Dilandau the 'are you serious' look but stopped when she saw him walk around her.
She was about to say something when she heard his voice behind her, "Get into your fighting stance."
Hitomi did as she was told and was wondering what to do next until she felt his chest press against her back. She froze in place from the position they were both in, and his arms reached around her to grasp the glaive right below where her hands were positioned. Her breath quickened at the sudden close proximity of his body, but she cleared her thoughts as she felt that Dilandau was going to help her in attacking Gatty.
"Just follow my movements." Dilandau's warm breath came from right over her shoulder.
Hitomi nodded her head at Gatty to signal that he could attack at any time, and as soon as she did, he lunged forward. Dilandau was taller than Hitomi so he could see over her shoulder. Dilandau read Gatty's actions and moved the glaive to block. As soon as the weapons struck, he helped Hitomi push off his weapon and push Gatty back in the process. Dilandau then whispered for her to attack. He let go of the weapon and took a step back from Hitomi who was now slicing through the air at the other Dragonslayer. She deflected his sword to the right giving her a wide opening. She then pushed her glaive forward so it was resting in the air just inches away from Gatty's chest. She smiled in triumph and lowered her glaive.
Gatty was dismissed and Dilandau walked back over towards Hitomi. She turned around when she heard him talking. "That is what you need to do. If you don't see an opening, make one. And just make sure you are always on your guard. You need to keep your distance because attacking will be hard once the enemy is closer."
Hitomi blushed slightly with the memory of him against her and of his warm breath on the back of her neck, but her thoughts were interrupted. "We are done for today. Go and rest. We will start the same thing again tomorrow morning."
With all the Dragonslayers dismissed, Hitomi walked back to her room to get some well-deserved sleep. It had been over a few week so far in her training, but it was slow going. She was still weak and need to rest more often, but that never made her quit. She still held her determination and continued on.
She went to bed once she got to her room, and once she was snuggled within her blankets, sleep immediately came. The only thing was that it was not a restful sleep. Dreams came to her, dreams of home, dreams of her family. She saw her mom, dad, and brother. They were all worried about her... they missed her, just like how she missed them. She didn't realize it till now, but in a way, she had nearly forgotten about Earth... she almost forgot about her family. She woke up only a little later after she fell asleep to find that tears were already running down her cheeks.
'I haven't even thought about home for the last few weeks... so many things have been happening lately... and I was excited over having a home here on Gaea. But... what about Earth?'
Tears suddenly came at an unstoppable pace from her eyes as she sat there upright in her bed. No matter how hard she tried, nothing could stop all the emotion she was pouring from her heart and soul at that moment.
From outside her door, Dilandau was walking by to check and see if she was safe in her room, but when he drew closer, he heard an almost silent whimpering...
He opened the door a little and walked into her room. The sound was louder and he could tell she was crying... but why? As he drew nearer, he could tell she hadn't noticed him yet, especially since her hands were covering her face. Not wanting to scare her, he whispered her name. "Hitomi?"
She jerked her head up thinking she was just hearing things until she saw him standing a few feet from her bed. She quickly tried to wipe the water away, but nothing could hide the tears that ran from her red eyes.
Just seeing her sad... it caused a new emotion to spark inside of Dilandau. All his life he had never been around a woman. His past was one he couldn't remember, and this was the first time that he felt he needed to do something to sooth her pain. Everyone has the emotions in them... its just a matter of when they will emerge. He had never reacted like this before, he knew, but instinct took over and hopefully, he thought, he was going to do the right thing.
As Hitomi was trying to wipe away the salt water on her face, Dilandau sat on the edge of her bed and pulled her into his embrace. Hitomi felt shocked at first, but as the warmth coming from him made her relax, she soon felt the tears resurface. He rubbed his hand up and down her back and rocked her back and forth, while whispering soothing words... and saying that it was ok to cry.
Hitomi gripped his white shirt with both her hands and cried into his chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head as they both sat there in each other's company.
'He's being so gentle.' Hitomi thought. 'What everyone else says about him... it's all lies... behind that cold exterior is a warm hearted person. Nobody has seen this side of him though... except me.'
Hitomi smiled to herself as she held onto the warmth encircling her. Her tears had stopped and now she kept her face snuggled in his chest.
Dilandau's thoughts were not troubled by war and death now. Everything and the world around him disappeared and all his worries vanished. 'I feel... at peace when I hold her. It's like nothing can harm me... not even those damn sorcerers.'
Without making Hitomi think that he was going to leave, Dilandau changed his position so that he was leaning against the bed's headboard with Hitomi lying on the other side of him, her upper body still snuggled against his.
After a few minutes of lying there, Dilandau broke the comfortable silence, "Do you want to talk about what made you upset?"
Hitomi took a deep breath, trying to control the uproar of tears, and said, "I just miss my family... that's all..."
"On the Mystic Moon?" Hitomi nodded her head. "You'll get to see them again... they know that too. One day, you will all be together again."
Hitomi lifted her head to stare into his deep red orbs and smiled at him. Dilandau felt a warmth build up inside him as he gazed into her green eyes. More and more emotions built up in Dilandau, and Hitomi got lost in his gaze. Their feelings and some other sensations both had never experienced before started to take over.
Dilandau lowered his head closer to Hitomi's, unsure how she would react. She closed her eyes and tilted her head a little to meet his lips with her own. Their kiss was soft and gentle, and passion did not blind all reason. Warmth like none other spread throughout Hitomi's body as Dilandau's lips caressed her own. Both pulled away slowly and red eyes met with green.
Dilandau raised his head and looked at the girl in his arms. She smiled sweetly at him, showing he wasn't going to get slapped, and she put her arms around his waist, nuzzling her head against his stomach and deeply inhaling his scent. Both felt content and drifted off to a deep slumber.
~*~*~*~*~
I just had to end it there... it was just too cute! You people don't know how hard it was to write that chapter... I mean... just choosing the wording for it and trying to fit in how they heck they were going to kiss! We are 19 chapters into it and finally they display their emotions! YES! Hope the next chapters won't take me so long and hope I don't have writer's block... I had a major case of it during this chapter. Please review! Thanks to all of those who have for every chapter!
As it said from above... a disclaimer: I hitereth not owneth thy thingith callith Escaflowne... uhh... did that make ANY sense what so ever?
****I posted the Inuyasha fanfiction. Please, if anyone likes vampire fanfictions or Inuyasha, then could you please read my story? You don't even need to know about Inuyasha's story line. I just took the characters and stuff. So if you like, please read it and review! It's called 'Look on the Inside'.
AN to snowykittenz: Umm... I think your getting the wrong idea with Folken's smirks... bad on my part cause I had a bad choice of words. He wasn't thinking bad thoughts and I am NOT going to have him rape Hitomi. That's SO not in character. But if he did... I think Dilandau would kill him for hurting her. -_-,
The warmth from the fire was relaxing and soon enough Dilandau drifted off into the world of dreams just like Hitomi. His body relaxed and he was now lying on the couch. When Hitomi woke up... he would be there, and he swore that he would never let something like that happen again. These were new emotions he was experiencing, but they made him feel at peace... that was something he hadn't felt for a long time.
Chapter 19: Comfort in Your Arms
Needles... green liquid... men in black cloaks... they surrounded her... intoxicating her senses were chemicals of every sort. Bare skin... how cold she felt. Her arms and legs, immobile because of leather straps. Pain! A mouth open in a silent scream as cold fluid ran into her veins, making her blood run cold and dulling her senses. Struggling against the bonds while the black-cloaked men just pathetically smiled.
Panic rose and she struggled with more force. Then the liquid that was injected started to do something... every muscle in her body tensed up and felt like they were about to rip open. Limbs started to spasm uncontrollably and now it felt as though her body was going to die. She tried screaming but no sound would come.
But slowly, ever so slowly, everything started to fade away. The sounds of the men talking and the machinery around her started to grow fainter and her vision got blurry. The last thing she heard one of the men say was, "How is he handling the injections?"
"He's fine..." said another. "It will take more than this to kill Dilandau."
Everything turned white suddenly and more peaceful sounds filled Hitomi's ears. Eyelids that were tightly closed before now relaxed. But when the light that still could be seen even with eyes closed refused to go away, Hitomi lazily opened them. Instead of being surrounded by men, she found herself lying in her bed. There was no pain and none of her limbs were restrained.
'Why were they saying Dilandau?' her mind wondered. 'What was that dream about? Those people were dressed like Folken... but what were they doing?' Hitomi shook when her thoughts went back to the injections. 'Why did I see that?'
Slowly lifting her head, she found that it was morning and the sun had already risen. She looked down at her form, finding that she was still clad in yesterday's clothing. She sat trying to remember what had happened and how she got to her bed until she heard another person in her room.
She became more alert until she found that the sound was of a slow and peaceful breathing. Hitomi pushed herself slowly from her bed and stepped towards the person sleeping on her sofa. What she saw shocked her. There, sleeping like a baby was Dilandau. Once she looked at him, the memories of last night came rushing back to her.
Pieces of what transpired that night flashed before her eyes. Not all of it was clear to her but she did remember that someone had attacked her and she thought she was going to die. Then she remembered Dilandau... he had saved her... he had taken Hitomi back to her room. Now he was there, sleeping.
While she looked at his face, she saw all the coldness gone. He looked innocent and like a child. Hitomi smiled to herself. 'He really isn't as bad as everyone thinks him to be.'
Still feeling tired, Hitomi gave off a light yawn and decided that some more sleep would do her good, especially after last night. She walked back over to her bed and lay down once again. Sleep overcame her and soon enough her eyes drifted shut to a dreamless sleep.
It wasn't much later when Dilandau rose from his sleep. At first he didn't realize where he was until his eyes surveyed his surroundings. It hit him that he had fallen asleep on the couch in Hitomi's room.
'Shit! How did I fall asleep? Did she already wake up? Did she see me?'
Dilandau's thoughts suddenly quieted down when he spotted Hitomi lying on her bed fast asleep. He let out a sigh of relief and lifted himself from the couch.
'I better get back to my own room before anyone suspects anything.' Dilandau looked at Hitomi's sleeping form once more before leaving.
Hitomi was able to sleep a little longer until a knock came from her door. She lifted her head expecting to see Dilandau still sleeping on the couch but found that he had already left. Opening the door, she was slightly surprised to see Folken standing there. The door opened wider as he walked in.
Hitomi gave him a questioning look and Folken turned around just in time to see the confusion on her face. He had a worried expression on his face but he broke the silence when he spoke.
"Hitomi... are you alright? After what happened last night... do you need to rest today? It is up to you if you wish to start training today."
She thought about it for only a few seconds until she smiled at him. "I'm fine... really. A lot has happened the past few weeks, but I need to start using my muscles again. I've been resting for the longest time. I am ready to start training."
He looked skeptically at her, but it was her decision and he couldn't force her to change it. "If you are ready, I will escort you down to the training room."
Hitomi nodded her head in reply. She was still in the clothes from yesterday, but they would do for today. Folken walked out of the room with Hitomi following behind him. She had only been in the main training room once, but that was a memory she didn't want to go back to. She nearly got killed that day... if it weren't for Dilandau... he saved her.
'He's done that a lot... hasn't he?' she asked her inner thoughts.
The walk was silent but when they grew closer to the doors of the training facility, Hitomi could clearly hear the sounds of practice swords and yelling coming from behind the doors. Folken opened one of the doors for Hitomi, motioned for her to walk in, and closed it behind her. With that, he walked off towards his lab.
Everyone inside the room stopped what they were doing when they saw the girl from the Mystic Moon walk inside. She shyly looked around, not knowing what to do. Suddenly Dilandau's voice rose above everything. "I don't see swords moving! This is no time for you to stand around and stare!"
The Dragonslayers looked quickly at their commander and resumed what they were doing. Dilandau on the other hand started to walk towards her and when she saw him, he motioned for her to walk towards him. She left her place in front of the giant doors and walked forward. As she followed Dilandau, who had now turned and started to walk in the same direction as she was, she saw her glaive placed on the wall in the room.
Dilandau stopped in front of it as Hitomi walked to it and picked it up off its holster.
"You feel up to training today?" he asked her.
Answering that question for the second time that day, she nodded her head. Dilandau went to an empty space in the large room with Hitomi following.
"Let's go over the basics again, then we will start off slow in attacking and blocking." Dilandau informed her.
Hitomi followed the instructions Dilandau was giving her as she walked through different movements and techniques. Her body got tired quickly from the lack of exercise and muscle movement she went through during her recovery.
"Block your head, now shin, now your left side. Good." Dilandau was doing this for a while now. He showed Hitomi the basic blocks for all the parts on the body again to refresh her memory and was now going through them in a random order. He wasn't attacking... he was just listing them as Hitomi performed each movement. At times she would hesitate or nearly drop her glaive, but when this happened, Dilandau would start again. After a while, she got the hang of it and it flowed more, but these were only the basics.
'She has so much more to learn.' he thought to himself.
Blocking when you were told where the blow was going to come from was easy, now it was time to learn how to read your enemy's actions and know where to block. Let's just say that it's much harder that it looks.
Dilandau was standing in front of Hitomi, his sword out and ready.
"Focus Hitomi. Read my actions... look to see if your enemy is focusing on a certain point. Try and find their weak spot." Dilandau was attacking her one area at a time, and she had to try and block wherever he was going to strike. Dilandau was careful not to hit her with the practice sword especially when striking near her abdomen.
The rest of the day was spent blocking, and soon enough everyone was dismissed. The next few days were slow, but Hitomi was learning more than she ever had. She struggled to keep up with every movement as Dilandau started to attack more quickly, but by using her dousing ability, it was easier to see where attacks were coming from. She was able to read some of his movements, but she always seemed to leave herself open somewhere... and dousing couldn't help her with that.
When Hitomi could block efficiently, Dilandau decided to start teaching her how to attack.
"Attack more aggressively!" Dilandau yelled at her.
Hitomi's glaive swung through the air as Dilandau easily deflected it. Hitomi stood there panting for air as she stood her weapon up next to her. She had been trying to land a hit on Dilandau for a few days now, but she never even got close. It was just too hard to try and attack, but still be aware and block all at the same time. Whenever she would attack, Dilandau saw a way around it and forced her back into a defensive position. The glaive did give her an advantage of being at a further distance from her opponent, but he always got past her defenses.
Dilandau sighed in frustration and yelled something towards his Dragonslayers. "Gatty! Get over here!"
The light brown haired boy stopped practicing with his sword and walked over to where Dilandau stood. "Yes Dilandau-sama?" he said.
"I want you to attack Hitomi." Hitomi gave Dilandau the 'are you serious' look but stopped when she saw him walk around her.
She was about to say something when she heard his voice behind her, "Get into your fighting stance."
Hitomi did as she was told and was wondering what to do next until she felt his chest press against her back. She froze in place from the position they were both in, and his arms reached around her to grasp the glaive right below where her hands were positioned. Her breath quickened at the sudden close proximity of his body, but she cleared her thoughts as she felt that Dilandau was going to help her in attacking Gatty.
"Just follow my movements." Dilandau's warm breath came from right over her shoulder.
Hitomi nodded her head at Gatty to signal that he could attack at any time, and as soon as she did, he lunged forward. Dilandau was taller than Hitomi so he could see over her shoulder. Dilandau read Gatty's actions and moved the glaive to block. As soon as the weapons struck, he helped Hitomi push off his weapon and push Gatty back in the process. Dilandau then whispered for her to attack. He let go of the weapon and took a step back from Hitomi who was now slicing through the air at the other Dragonslayer. She deflected his sword to the right giving her a wide opening. She then pushed her glaive forward so it was resting in the air just inches away from Gatty's chest. She smiled in triumph and lowered her glaive.
Gatty was dismissed and Dilandau walked back over towards Hitomi. She turned around when she heard him talking. "That is what you need to do. If you don't see an opening, make one. And just make sure you are always on your guard. You need to keep your distance because attacking will be hard once the enemy is closer."
Hitomi blushed slightly with the memory of him against her and of his warm breath on the back of her neck, but her thoughts were interrupted. "We are done for today. Go and rest. We will start the same thing again tomorrow morning."
With all the Dragonslayers dismissed, Hitomi walked back to her room to get some well-deserved sleep. It had been over a few week so far in her training, but it was slow going. She was still weak and need to rest more often, but that never made her quit. She still held her determination and continued on.
She went to bed once she got to her room, and once she was snuggled within her blankets, sleep immediately came. The only thing was that it was not a restful sleep. Dreams came to her, dreams of home, dreams of her family. She saw her mom, dad, and brother. They were all worried about her... they missed her, just like how she missed them. She didn't realize it till now, but in a way, she had nearly forgotten about Earth... she almost forgot about her family. She woke up only a little later after she fell asleep to find that tears were already running down her cheeks.
'I haven't even thought about home for the last few weeks... so many things have been happening lately... and I was excited over having a home here on Gaea. But... what about Earth?'
Tears suddenly came at an unstoppable pace from her eyes as she sat there upright in her bed. No matter how hard she tried, nothing could stop all the emotion she was pouring from her heart and soul at that moment.
From outside her door, Dilandau was walking by to check and see if she was safe in her room, but when he drew closer, he heard an almost silent whimpering...
He opened the door a little and walked into her room. The sound was louder and he could tell she was crying... but why? As he drew nearer, he could tell she hadn't noticed him yet, especially since her hands were covering her face. Not wanting to scare her, he whispered her name. "Hitomi?"
She jerked her head up thinking she was just hearing things until she saw him standing a few feet from her bed. She quickly tried to wipe the water away, but nothing could hide the tears that ran from her red eyes.
Just seeing her sad... it caused a new emotion to spark inside of Dilandau. All his life he had never been around a woman. His past was one he couldn't remember, and this was the first time that he felt he needed to do something to sooth her pain. Everyone has the emotions in them... its just a matter of when they will emerge. He had never reacted like this before, he knew, but instinct took over and hopefully, he thought, he was going to do the right thing.
As Hitomi was trying to wipe away the salt water on her face, Dilandau sat on the edge of her bed and pulled her into his embrace. Hitomi felt shocked at first, but as the warmth coming from him made her relax, she soon felt the tears resurface. He rubbed his hand up and down her back and rocked her back and forth, while whispering soothing words... and saying that it was ok to cry.
Hitomi gripped his white shirt with both her hands and cried into his chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head as they both sat there in each other's company.
'He's being so gentle.' Hitomi thought. 'What everyone else says about him... it's all lies... behind that cold exterior is a warm hearted person. Nobody has seen this side of him though... except me.'
Hitomi smiled to herself as she held onto the warmth encircling her. Her tears had stopped and now she kept her face snuggled in his chest.
Dilandau's thoughts were not troubled by war and death now. Everything and the world around him disappeared and all his worries vanished. 'I feel... at peace when I hold her. It's like nothing can harm me... not even those damn sorcerers.'
Without making Hitomi think that he was going to leave, Dilandau changed his position so that he was leaning against the bed's headboard with Hitomi lying on the other side of him, her upper body still snuggled against his.
After a few minutes of lying there, Dilandau broke the comfortable silence, "Do you want to talk about what made you upset?"
Hitomi took a deep breath, trying to control the uproar of tears, and said, "I just miss my family... that's all..."
"On the Mystic Moon?" Hitomi nodded her head. "You'll get to see them again... they know that too. One day, you will all be together again."
Hitomi lifted her head to stare into his deep red orbs and smiled at him. Dilandau felt a warmth build up inside him as he gazed into her green eyes. More and more emotions built up in Dilandau, and Hitomi got lost in his gaze. Their feelings and some other sensations both had never experienced before started to take over.
Dilandau lowered his head closer to Hitomi's, unsure how she would react. She closed her eyes and tilted her head a little to meet his lips with her own. Their kiss was soft and gentle, and passion did not blind all reason. Warmth like none other spread throughout Hitomi's body as Dilandau's lips caressed her own. Both pulled away slowly and red eyes met with green.
Dilandau raised his head and looked at the girl in his arms. She smiled sweetly at him, showing he wasn't going to get slapped, and she put her arms around his waist, nuzzling her head against his stomach and deeply inhaling his scent. Both felt content and drifted off to a deep slumber.
~*~*~*~*~
I just had to end it there... it was just too cute! You people don't know how hard it was to write that chapter... I mean... just choosing the wording for it and trying to fit in how they heck they were going to kiss! We are 19 chapters into it and finally they display their emotions! YES! Hope the next chapters won't take me so long and hope I don't have writer's block... I had a major case of it during this chapter. Please review! Thanks to all of those who have for every chapter!
