* ~* ~Always and Forever ~* ~*

A/N: Hey, look at me! I wrote a one shot! Lol!

Summary: Hitomi and Van: friends since childhood, and destined to be together.

♥ Prologue:

She rubbed her sleepy eyes and slowly got up out of bed. As she staggered sleepily to her dressing room, she vaguely remembered that today was suppose to be the day that her best friend was returning home from attending his royal duties in Asturia. Hitomi quickened her step in anticipation and walked into her large closet. Hanging from at least two hundred hooks were gowns of blue, green, pink and many other shades. Picking one of her more fancy green gowns—since it was a special occasion—she dressed herself quickly and made her way to her fathers thrown room.

Walking down the long, immaculately clean corridors she waved to several guards and servants that lined the palace walls. Being a princess, it was slightly odd for Hitomi to be so friendly to the servants and, she was frequently frowned upon by her mother and father--the queen and king of Geryon.

Pushing open the doors of the throne room she realized that her father was not there, so she headed to his study. Even before she opened the door, she knew her father was in the room because of the low murmur of voices coming from inside. She slowly opened the door and peeked inside. Seeing it was only her father and a servant talking, she walked in and cleared her throat lightly—not wanting to interrupt their conversation even though it was evident is was not that important. Her father turned her way and smiled a kindly smile. "Yes, Hitomi? What is it?"

"I was wondering if today was the day Prince Van is coming home from Asturia?" she asked.

"Why, yes, it is," he said, "I can see your excited to see the young prince."

Hitomi blushed at her father's accusation. "Well it has been several years since I've seen him, and he is a good friend," she said trying to brush it off.

"Of course", her father said, amusement evident in his voice, "he should be arriving with his father to the castle sometime this afternoon."

Hitomi bowed politely and hurried out of the room to save herself from anymore embarrassment.

She made her way to the courtyard and climbed up her favorite tree making sure not to rip the lacy frills on her dress. Ever since she was little she had been climbing tress and ripping her pretty gowns on the branches. That was also the exact way she had met Van. She was seven years old and had climbed up a tree to hide from the guest at a party her parents were throwing. She was climbing steadily higher into the tree when a branch broke, and she toppled out with a scream, landing right on Van's unsuspecting head.

With a groan he had stood up and rubbed the back of his head were he was sure a new bruise was forming.

"I'm so sorry!" she'd cried when the stars had stopped dancing around her head.

"It's no problem, I should been watching to see if anything was about to fall on top of me," he said with a smile and Hitomi couldn't help but smile back, "And what is a girl like you doing up in a tree?"

"Climbing"

Van cocked his head to the side. "You were climbing a tree?"

Hitomi smiled innocently, "Climbing…and hiding from my parents party."

"Me too." He replied and they both started laughing, From that moment on Hitomi knew that they would be great friends.

For over four years they became closer and closer never caring what others thought of a boy and a girl being best friends. Being that age was also when all the princess's in the surrounding countries suddenly realized that being a girl meant you had to wear pretty dresses and go to parties and play dollies. Maybe that was why Van liked Hitomi in the first place, the way she didn't like to play tea party and dress up because she would rather ride horses and climb trees. And the reason why Hitomi liked Van so much was because he accepted her for being a tomboy and he didn't care if she was like other girls or not, sometimes she even wondered if he realized she was a girl.

But after four years of being the best of friends it came to an unexpected halt. Just weeks after Van's 12th birthday—since he was a year older then Hitomi —he was told it was time that he studied to become the future ruler of his country. And during following week, he was hastily sent off to Asturia, the country where his father had studied when he was young. The parting was so unexpected that Hitomi and Van barely had time to realize that they might never see each other again.

The night before Van was set to depart, he snuck out of his castle and rode his fathers horse all the way to Geryon in hopes of being able to say goodbye to Hitomi . And in the early hours of the morning when he had finally reached her castle, he stood out side her window, throwing small rocks—his usual way of getting her attention when he was forbidden to see her—and waited until she climbed out her bedroom window—which was no hard feat considering all her years of practice—to meet him on the ground.

And with Hitomi standing in her white nightdress and Van only wearing a pair of slacks, since he had snuck out so hastily, they stuck out their pinkies, locked them together and pinky swore that they would stay best friend forever.

It had now been over two years since they had made their promise and finally Van was being allowed to return home. At thirteen Hitomi was still quite a tomboy even though she was finally persuaded by her parents that she was to wear a dress at all times; none of the boys breaches or trousers from her childhood.

And as the years wore on she was becoming afraid that Van would not recognize the new her. She had let her short cropped auburn hair—which she had stubbornly declared would always stay short—grow out until it reached mid back and at the age of twelve she had hit a growth spurt and had grown more then several inches. But the thing that stayed the same was the mischievous sparkled in her bright green eyes.

The sounds of horns snapped Hitomi out of her thoughts and she almost slipped from her perch in the tree. Her heart beat quickened in anticipation at the familiar sound of the horns; it meant that someone was approaching the castle. She quickly jumped from the tree and ignoring her ladylike manners again, she took off for the castle.

Entering the palace walls, Maddy, her nurse ran to her in a panic. "Quick, my lady! Your father is waiting for you in the thrown room! The guests have arrived. Go quickly!"

Giving her quick thanks, Hitomi sprinted to the thrown room and stopped just outside the door to catch her breath. Taking a deep breath she smoothed down her golden brown tresses and her emerald green gown and wiped her sweaty palms on her dress. She slowly opened the door and walked inside. Despite her unladylike demeanor, she could be very dignified when needed.

Her father and mother smiled proudly when she entered and motioned her to take her seat beside her father. She took her seat and looked to the entrance as the horns trumpeted again, signaling their guest's arrival.

"Announcing King Gaou, and his son, Prince Van" a servant yelled as the doors were thrust open and two figures walked inside…

"Ah! King Gaou, a pleasure to see you again." Her father said happily as he stood from his thrown to greet the guests.

As the two figures stopped in front of her father, Hitomi let out her breath that she hadn't known she was holding. "The pleasure is all mine, Fujitaka," King Gaou replied kindly as well.

"And look!" her father turned to the person to his left, "PrinceVan! What a handsome young man you've become!" he exclaimed.

Hitomi's gaze finally focused on Van for the first time, as if she was afraid to look until her father confirmed that it was really him standing before her.

"It is good to see you again, King Fujitaka." Van replied in a voice deeper then the one Hitomi remembered but still pleasantly familiar. But his messy black hair and crimson eyes still remained the same.

"I'm sure you both remember my wife, Genevieve and my daughter Hitomi." Her father said as he gestured Hitomi and her mother to move forward.

King Gaou took Queen's hand in his own and kissed in lightly. "Pleasure to see both of you again," then he looked to his son, "and I'm sure Van has missed you Princess Hitomi."

Hitomi smiled brightly and looked to Van, "And I've missed Van also." But her smile faltered slightly as Van looked at her expressionlessly and bowed respectively. Hitomi's thoughts were in turmoil. What had happened to her warm hearted best friend? Did he not remember the promise they had made?

As her father and Van's continued the talk of royal affairs and such they were ushered into the dinning hall where they were to have diner together. All through diner Van did not utter a word unless called upon and Hitomi was forced to study him from the corner of her eye as not to seem as if she was starring.

Van resembled very much like the last time she had seen him. Except for, of course, he was taller, still much taller then her and he seemed leaner, less childlike. His hair was slightly longer, and his bangs almost covered his eyes, especially when he looked down. Hitomi was dying to see if his reckless carefree smile was the same, but since he hadn't shown anything remotely close to a smile, she was left to suffer. All in all he was as handsome as ever.

After dinner, Hitomi asked if she could reside early to her bedchambers, using the excuse that she wasn't feeling well. Not that she was lying. Her spirits were as low as they could be, seeing as her best friend hadn't even smiled or said a word to her, much less even looked at her. But instead of going to her room she snuck away to the courtyard where she could climb up her favorite willow tree.

She sat on a low branch swinging her legs back and forth gazing at the moon as the sky darkened slowly becoming later in the evening. All of a sudden something grabbed her leg and with a loud scream she lost her footing and fell from the tree, landing on something soft beneath her.

"Owww," came a low moan from beneath her as she stood up to see what she had squashed.

"Van?!" she cried incredulously.

Van looked up at her and smiled rubbing his head. "Isn't this the way we met?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

Hitomi cried out in happiness and jumped on top of him, engulfing him in a hug. "I thought I had lost you!"

Van put a hand on her forehead and frowned, making Hitomi frown in confusion. "What?" she asked.

"You don't have a fever. Are you sure you didn't go crazy while I was gone?"

*SLAP*

"Ouch, that hurt," said Van, a second later rubbing his cheek thoughtfully, "you seem to be trying to hurt me today."

"I meant I thought I lost you because you were acting so distant earlier today!" she said exasperatedly

"Oh, I'm sorry about that" Van frowned in remorse.

"No need to be sorry," Hitomi said brightly, "I would just like an explanation!"

"Well, it's just this school where I've been studying at," Van started and Hitomi nodded her head, urging him to continue, "all they do is tell you what to do and how to behave. They're always saying, 'When addressing people be formal and respectful and blah blah blah'. Then, when we arrived, my father told me not to do or say anything and to be respectful. Do they honestly think that I'm going to do something horrible?!" he finished angrily and shook his head in frustration.

Hitomi sighed loudly. "That's a relief, I was scared you had changed and you didn't want to be my friend anymore." She smiled, though sadly.

"What? You think I would forget our promise?" Van smiled and held out his pinky, "Best friends forever right?"

Hitomi smiled in the moonlight and linked her pinky with his, "Yes, always and forever."

* ~* ~The End~* ~*

A/N: All done! I hope you guys liked it! ^_^

And to those people who might have noticed that at the beginning it said "Prologue.":

Well just to tell you this is just a prologue to a story I plan to write. It will be like the exact same story line and everything as this but it will continue with Hitomi's and Van's relationship when they are teenagers and it's gonna have a ton of action and shit. Lol!

I never actually planed on posting this as a one shot….it was going to be like the first chapter or something after I changed it around….but I thought it stood well by itself. So Voila! This one shot was born.

But keep your eye open for "WILLOW" (that's what I'm gonna name the full version of this fic) because it will be out sooner or later. (You'll realize why I'm gonna call it Willow eventually.)

So as a last note I'd just like to say R&R! R&R! R&R!