Sorry for the long wait, I've been working on a pretty dark Teen Titans fan fic I want to post up when this story is done, it's pretty mature though, I'm worrying about it (I need Maboroshi Tsuki to proofread!) Anyway so look out for that if you're over say...15 yeah, it's probably the most mature thing I've written before. So, shameless plug aside let's get the show on the road.
Anyway school and stuff has kept me busy and I've had a little writers block on this story too, but fear not! I will finish!
OK, a little writers block, it's really big _ school is sucking up my inspiration and the problems with my website and everything...I haven't even watched Escaflowne for ages! Maybe that's what I need to get this going again. Please be patient with me! You guys are my pride!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, names, locations! So, yay!
* * *
"Pull them up now!" Allen yelled at his troops, who were patiently proceeding by tying the rope around a nearby tree, which had been hard to find on the rock face, and bracing themselves for a haul
Allen shoved the rope down the hole, Merle and Mamoru gripping each other with nerves as they watched with sharp eyes.
"Van, send Hitomi up first" Allen called into the pit
"I know that!" came the flustered reply
Allen felt a tug on the rope and signalled with his hand to his men across the rocks to begin their haul. It seemed to take forever to Mamoru as he watched foot by foot be tugged out of the darkness and about a century later he breathed a sigh of relief as a hand appeared out of the crater.
Mamoru shoved Merle off him, who yelped, and rushed to Allen to help pull his heavily laden sister from the hole. They pulled until she was completely clear then Allen left her to Mamoru while he and the men got Van out.
Hitomi was flushed and she grinned up at Mamoru as she knelt on the ground.
Mamoru gaped.
"You...you're huge" he gawked
Hitomi had certainly grown, from having nothing a week ago to looking at full term it seemed incredible. He had no idea how it happened and didn't want to ask it now, his mind was simply boggled at the fact his sister looked pregnant and had actually gone into labour so soon.
Hitomi frowned at him "Not my fault Mamoru, babies do this sort of thing to you"
Mamoru blinked and nodded "Do you want me to do anything? Mrs Gable has crushed ice when she went into labour" he gushed
Hitomi stared at him and said slowly "Mamoru, I probably have a few hours to go before I need ice...and where are you going to get ice around here anyway?" Hitomi grimaced as another contraction fleeted over her features
Mamoru shook his head and went to help haul Van out of the hole, who's first action was to run over to Hitomi and ask the same sort of questions as Mamoru, with the same sort of answers.
"Hey, we better get back to the castle" Merle snapped
"Agreed" Hitomi nodded, relieved, she pushed herself off the ground, and much to the arguments of Allen and Van, proceeded to start to walk her way across the rocks and past the Crusade crew
Van stared after Hitomi and turned to Allen with "Should she be doing that?"
Allen shrugged and said, "I guess it'll help take her mind off the contractions" he turned to Mamoru and asked "You alright?"
Mamoru shook his head and said, "My sister is going to have a baby" as if it had only just occurred to him
Allen nodded briskly and jogged off after Hitomi, who had just decided perhaps she couldn't walk the whole way after all as another contraction pushed itself through her.
Van blinked and muttered, "I'm going to be a father"
* * *
They hurried through the woods at an unbelievably fast pace, Hitomi being hauled along in the arms of Gaddess and yelping every so often. Merle jogging at her side trying to be comforting by spouting the stories for all the labours she'd witnessed, Van on the other side asking her if he could do anything and Mamoru running behind her asking what he was supposed to do.
Allen kept away, sending messengers to the palace to let them know they were coming and directing his troops.
Soon enough in the bright rising sun the castle appeared in view, and when they reached the edge of the forest one of the troop called out for assistance. Then they backed off while Hitomi's band and Allen continued into the inner courtyard amidst the men's cries of 'good luck' and jests about not working too hard.
Once they'd entered the main courtyard there were yells out to them from the servants and soon they spotted a largish woman and a troop of maids jogging out of the hallways to stop and bow to their King.
Van brushed them away and said "Don't bother, this is too important"
They nodded and the large woman came up to Hitomi and couldn't help but express her surprise at the size of her when only two days ago the girl had hardly been showing.
"My goodness what do they feed you on the Mystic Moon?" she chortled as Gaddess set Hitomi down onto her feet, grasping her arms to steady her
Hitomi rolled her eyes and gasped again "Please can we get this done? I'm a little...pregnant"
The brunette nodded and grinned, she'd obviously been through a lot of first births before and said "Hurry up then, we've set up in the King's chamber" she shot him a look "We assumed this would be alright?" he nodded "Good, come on then girl, the walk will ease the pains, but make sure not to push before we get there" the woman laughed at her own joke and hauled Hitomi off with a yell back to the others of "Merle you come, the rest of you...well, you're not needed yet"
Merle stuck her tongue out at the group while she followed the hobbling Hitomi and her guardian, gleeful she was in on such a female event.
Hitomi gritted her teethe on the stairs and gritted them even harder along the corridor to Van's room, it seemed as if she was about to fall with the pain but her legs just kept themselves going. All the films she'd seen had the women being zoomed around in wheelchairs, where was hers? She had to walk herself to the room!
A pain shot through her and she gripped the midwife's arm in pain as she yelped.
"Are you ok?" Merle asked from Hitomi's other side, with a worried glance
They were just reaching his door and Merle opened it with a swift movement.
"I'm just peachy" Hitomi grimaced, she held onto the doorframe a moment to rest before carrying on, "I'm 16 why is this happening to me? I should be running track, having my first dates and studying for exams! Not being a mother," she complained loudly
Merle gave Hitomi a sly glance and said with a smirk "Education on the Mystic Moon must be bad if you didn't know what would happen"
Hitomi whacked Merle on the back of the head with a light tap.
The midwife brought Hitomi into the room and helped her to get up on the bed, strip down and replace her clothes with a cotton gown, and then said "Well I don't know about where you're from M'lady" she said folding up Hitomi's things and piling cushions up at one end of the bed "But I'm surprised you're on your FIRST child, I would have expected a young thing like yourself to be at least on her third"
Hitomi gasped as a contraction came, blushed and said "Where I'm from I wouldn't even be thinking about children until I was at least in my late twenties"
The other two gasped and both said "Twenties?"
Merle blinked as she helped Hitomi get settled on the pillows and remarked "Well, you're carrying a KING'S child now Hitomi, no one would want to wait till they were twenty for THAT privilege"
Hitomi groaned "You want this privilege, have it, I don't want it anymore"
The midwife began resetting up things the healer's had brought in earliar, Hitomi noted the things she expected; bowl, kettle, blankets, fire stoked in corner. The midwife seemed confident but...she just didn't trust this setting. She'd rather have been in a sterilised hospital...did they even know if this room was clean for a baby?
The midwife stood straight and tapped Hitomi's legs "Open up then"
Hitomi stared at her "Excuse me?"
"I need to see how long it'll be if you please" came the reply "I might have other things to do"
Merle chuckled and said with a wicked grin "What's wrong Hitomi?"
Hitomi glared and said quietly "Merle turn around"
Merle pouted "Why? I want to see if the baby is coming" with the usual curiosity people grow up with for where babies come from
Hitomi sighed and said "Please turn around, you'll have plenty of time to see a baby come later"
Merle obeyed with mutterings.
Hitomi bit her lip and did as the midwife instructed.
"Well that is strange" the Midwife said "It seems as if it won't be long at all, you're nearly completely read, only a centimetre or two and you'll be all done"
Hitomi gasped as a contraction came and went, and said roughly "'Won't be long' isn't soon enough"
* * *
"I'm sorry"
* * *
Van, Allen, Mamoru as well as the original and closest members of the Crusade team had been allocated the library to wait for news. People came and went though, they had chores to do after all, and the only people who never moved were Van and Mamoru. Mamoru had a short sleep on Van's cot but Van never moved from his chair.
He heard footsteps out on the corridor, the door to his chamber opening and closing, people coming and going. Yells of bantering between the three voices he was concentrating on the most; Hitomi, Merle and the Midwife.
His legs were shaking and he didn't trust his hands to take a sip to his dry mouth from the pitcher of water next to him on a table. He didn't want to look at a book or look out of the window, he just wanted to know something.
They'd been back at the castle for an hour and a half at least.
He couldn't stand it.
He was going to be a father.
A boy? A girl? A small heir to the throne he could hold in his arms.
He wasn't old enough for this...he was in the middle of rebuilding his Kingdom, he was supposed to be pouring all his energy into this and now a baby? But his people would be please, even if it was from a union with a woman from the Mystic Moon. They wanted the throne secure after so many years of uncertainty and bad luck with his family.
His feet jumped at the thought of it though: a little baby. All his and Hitomi's, he'd never even dared to hope for it. She'd gone back to Earth...and that had been it. What reason had he ever had to think she might return to him? He had her pendant after all.
The pendant.
Where was it? He grabbed at his shirt but couldn't find it there. Did Hitomi have it? No, she'd had it in her hand and he couldn't picture her with it after the strange light.
He patted his pockets down and found a small lump in one of them. Glancing to see if Mamoru was still asleep, Van reached into his pocket and pulled out the small object.
The ring. His ring to Hitomi. What was it doing in his pocket? If it was in his pocket then where was the pendant?
In the cave.
Van shook his head and pocketed the ring again. That pendant really did seem to have a mind of it's own. Why be left in a cave? He wasn't even sure if he remembered where the cave was, let alone find a small piece of jewellery in the dark.
He smiled. Who needed it now? Hitomi didn't need it to dowse and obviously didn't need it to get to Gaea, and he didn't need it to dowse and had never used it to travel. It was just a symbol of his attachment to Hitomi, and now he had the ring for that. And who knew, maybe this time she'd...
He shook his head, no time to think of that, he forced down the happiness that came when he thought of that.
There was a yell that carried through the wall of the other room and the midwife popped her head in with a mutter of "Silly girl" she looked around and found Van on his chair, she smiled "She's gone into the final stages of labour, won't be long"
She shut the door.
Van sat stiffly in his chair. This was it.
The other door to the room opened a crack and Allen slid through the hole, shutting it quietly as well. He found himself a seat and sat down, crossing his arms and nodding to Van.
Van nodded back, he assumed Allen had a knack for getting the right moment. The Knight looked calm but Van noticed Allen's finger tapping briskly on his shirt sleeve. He was tired of waiting too.
The activity in the other room was off-putting too, it was building and the excitement practically radiated through the wall itself.
He sighed.
He heard Hitomi's voice talking loudly and fast, but muffled as if through gritted teeth along with the occasional yell. Merle's voice was fast and hyped up, excited and it sounded as if she was the one Hitomi was counting on to help her with contractions because of her periodic 'meow's'. The midwife's murmurings on the other hand were all calm and she seemed to be doing her job. He was glad.
His eyes were heavy. No sleep the night before seemed to be taking his toll on him no matter how excited he was, and the pallet looked VERY tempting, the pillow especially.
He couldn't wait for the moment he could hold his baby and Hitomi together in his arms, it would be perfect, the sun shining, the smile that would light up her face as he told her he wanted to marry her...
Van jerked up as someone touched his shoulder, Allen was standing over him, Van blinked and jumped up. He'd been asleep. How could he? He'd missed it all.
He looked around at Mamoru and Allen, before finding the midwife was also int heir midst.
"What?" he asked excitedly, "Is it done?"
* * *
MWUH HAH HA HA HA HA! Cliff-hanger! Anyway, this is the beginning of the split endings! Tee hee, you'll have to wait doubly long now T_T sorry! But this is how I'm doing it. Happy new year!
Anyway school and stuff has kept me busy and I've had a little writers block on this story too, but fear not! I will finish!
OK, a little writers block, it's really big _ school is sucking up my inspiration and the problems with my website and everything...I haven't even watched Escaflowne for ages! Maybe that's what I need to get this going again. Please be patient with me! You guys are my pride!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, names, locations! So, yay!
* * *
"Pull them up now!" Allen yelled at his troops, who were patiently proceeding by tying the rope around a nearby tree, which had been hard to find on the rock face, and bracing themselves for a haul
Allen shoved the rope down the hole, Merle and Mamoru gripping each other with nerves as they watched with sharp eyes.
"Van, send Hitomi up first" Allen called into the pit
"I know that!" came the flustered reply
Allen felt a tug on the rope and signalled with his hand to his men across the rocks to begin their haul. It seemed to take forever to Mamoru as he watched foot by foot be tugged out of the darkness and about a century later he breathed a sigh of relief as a hand appeared out of the crater.
Mamoru shoved Merle off him, who yelped, and rushed to Allen to help pull his heavily laden sister from the hole. They pulled until she was completely clear then Allen left her to Mamoru while he and the men got Van out.
Hitomi was flushed and she grinned up at Mamoru as she knelt on the ground.
Mamoru gaped.
"You...you're huge" he gawked
Hitomi had certainly grown, from having nothing a week ago to looking at full term it seemed incredible. He had no idea how it happened and didn't want to ask it now, his mind was simply boggled at the fact his sister looked pregnant and had actually gone into labour so soon.
Hitomi frowned at him "Not my fault Mamoru, babies do this sort of thing to you"
Mamoru blinked and nodded "Do you want me to do anything? Mrs Gable has crushed ice when she went into labour" he gushed
Hitomi stared at him and said slowly "Mamoru, I probably have a few hours to go before I need ice...and where are you going to get ice around here anyway?" Hitomi grimaced as another contraction fleeted over her features
Mamoru shook his head and went to help haul Van out of the hole, who's first action was to run over to Hitomi and ask the same sort of questions as Mamoru, with the same sort of answers.
"Hey, we better get back to the castle" Merle snapped
"Agreed" Hitomi nodded, relieved, she pushed herself off the ground, and much to the arguments of Allen and Van, proceeded to start to walk her way across the rocks and past the Crusade crew
Van stared after Hitomi and turned to Allen with "Should she be doing that?"
Allen shrugged and said, "I guess it'll help take her mind off the contractions" he turned to Mamoru and asked "You alright?"
Mamoru shook his head and said, "My sister is going to have a baby" as if it had only just occurred to him
Allen nodded briskly and jogged off after Hitomi, who had just decided perhaps she couldn't walk the whole way after all as another contraction pushed itself through her.
Van blinked and muttered, "I'm going to be a father"
* * *
They hurried through the woods at an unbelievably fast pace, Hitomi being hauled along in the arms of Gaddess and yelping every so often. Merle jogging at her side trying to be comforting by spouting the stories for all the labours she'd witnessed, Van on the other side asking her if he could do anything and Mamoru running behind her asking what he was supposed to do.
Allen kept away, sending messengers to the palace to let them know they were coming and directing his troops.
Soon enough in the bright rising sun the castle appeared in view, and when they reached the edge of the forest one of the troop called out for assistance. Then they backed off while Hitomi's band and Allen continued into the inner courtyard amidst the men's cries of 'good luck' and jests about not working too hard.
Once they'd entered the main courtyard there were yells out to them from the servants and soon they spotted a largish woman and a troop of maids jogging out of the hallways to stop and bow to their King.
Van brushed them away and said "Don't bother, this is too important"
They nodded and the large woman came up to Hitomi and couldn't help but express her surprise at the size of her when only two days ago the girl had hardly been showing.
"My goodness what do they feed you on the Mystic Moon?" she chortled as Gaddess set Hitomi down onto her feet, grasping her arms to steady her
Hitomi rolled her eyes and gasped again "Please can we get this done? I'm a little...pregnant"
The brunette nodded and grinned, she'd obviously been through a lot of first births before and said "Hurry up then, we've set up in the King's chamber" she shot him a look "We assumed this would be alright?" he nodded "Good, come on then girl, the walk will ease the pains, but make sure not to push before we get there" the woman laughed at her own joke and hauled Hitomi off with a yell back to the others of "Merle you come, the rest of you...well, you're not needed yet"
Merle stuck her tongue out at the group while she followed the hobbling Hitomi and her guardian, gleeful she was in on such a female event.
Hitomi gritted her teethe on the stairs and gritted them even harder along the corridor to Van's room, it seemed as if she was about to fall with the pain but her legs just kept themselves going. All the films she'd seen had the women being zoomed around in wheelchairs, where was hers? She had to walk herself to the room!
A pain shot through her and she gripped the midwife's arm in pain as she yelped.
"Are you ok?" Merle asked from Hitomi's other side, with a worried glance
They were just reaching his door and Merle opened it with a swift movement.
"I'm just peachy" Hitomi grimaced, she held onto the doorframe a moment to rest before carrying on, "I'm 16 why is this happening to me? I should be running track, having my first dates and studying for exams! Not being a mother," she complained loudly
Merle gave Hitomi a sly glance and said with a smirk "Education on the Mystic Moon must be bad if you didn't know what would happen"
Hitomi whacked Merle on the back of the head with a light tap.
The midwife brought Hitomi into the room and helped her to get up on the bed, strip down and replace her clothes with a cotton gown, and then said "Well I don't know about where you're from M'lady" she said folding up Hitomi's things and piling cushions up at one end of the bed "But I'm surprised you're on your FIRST child, I would have expected a young thing like yourself to be at least on her third"
Hitomi gasped as a contraction came, blushed and said "Where I'm from I wouldn't even be thinking about children until I was at least in my late twenties"
The other two gasped and both said "Twenties?"
Merle blinked as she helped Hitomi get settled on the pillows and remarked "Well, you're carrying a KING'S child now Hitomi, no one would want to wait till they were twenty for THAT privilege"
Hitomi groaned "You want this privilege, have it, I don't want it anymore"
The midwife began resetting up things the healer's had brought in earliar, Hitomi noted the things she expected; bowl, kettle, blankets, fire stoked in corner. The midwife seemed confident but...she just didn't trust this setting. She'd rather have been in a sterilised hospital...did they even know if this room was clean for a baby?
The midwife stood straight and tapped Hitomi's legs "Open up then"
Hitomi stared at her "Excuse me?"
"I need to see how long it'll be if you please" came the reply "I might have other things to do"
Merle chuckled and said with a wicked grin "What's wrong Hitomi?"
Hitomi glared and said quietly "Merle turn around"
Merle pouted "Why? I want to see if the baby is coming" with the usual curiosity people grow up with for where babies come from
Hitomi sighed and said "Please turn around, you'll have plenty of time to see a baby come later"
Merle obeyed with mutterings.
Hitomi bit her lip and did as the midwife instructed.
"Well that is strange" the Midwife said "It seems as if it won't be long at all, you're nearly completely read, only a centimetre or two and you'll be all done"
Hitomi gasped as a contraction came and went, and said roughly "'Won't be long' isn't soon enough"
* * *
"I'm sorry"
* * *
Van, Allen, Mamoru as well as the original and closest members of the Crusade team had been allocated the library to wait for news. People came and went though, they had chores to do after all, and the only people who never moved were Van and Mamoru. Mamoru had a short sleep on Van's cot but Van never moved from his chair.
He heard footsteps out on the corridor, the door to his chamber opening and closing, people coming and going. Yells of bantering between the three voices he was concentrating on the most; Hitomi, Merle and the Midwife.
His legs were shaking and he didn't trust his hands to take a sip to his dry mouth from the pitcher of water next to him on a table. He didn't want to look at a book or look out of the window, he just wanted to know something.
They'd been back at the castle for an hour and a half at least.
He couldn't stand it.
He was going to be a father.
A boy? A girl? A small heir to the throne he could hold in his arms.
He wasn't old enough for this...he was in the middle of rebuilding his Kingdom, he was supposed to be pouring all his energy into this and now a baby? But his people would be please, even if it was from a union with a woman from the Mystic Moon. They wanted the throne secure after so many years of uncertainty and bad luck with his family.
His feet jumped at the thought of it though: a little baby. All his and Hitomi's, he'd never even dared to hope for it. She'd gone back to Earth...and that had been it. What reason had he ever had to think she might return to him? He had her pendant after all.
The pendant.
Where was it? He grabbed at his shirt but couldn't find it there. Did Hitomi have it? No, she'd had it in her hand and he couldn't picture her with it after the strange light.
He patted his pockets down and found a small lump in one of them. Glancing to see if Mamoru was still asleep, Van reached into his pocket and pulled out the small object.
The ring. His ring to Hitomi. What was it doing in his pocket? If it was in his pocket then where was the pendant?
In the cave.
Van shook his head and pocketed the ring again. That pendant really did seem to have a mind of it's own. Why be left in a cave? He wasn't even sure if he remembered where the cave was, let alone find a small piece of jewellery in the dark.
He smiled. Who needed it now? Hitomi didn't need it to dowse and obviously didn't need it to get to Gaea, and he didn't need it to dowse and had never used it to travel. It was just a symbol of his attachment to Hitomi, and now he had the ring for that. And who knew, maybe this time she'd...
He shook his head, no time to think of that, he forced down the happiness that came when he thought of that.
There was a yell that carried through the wall of the other room and the midwife popped her head in with a mutter of "Silly girl" she looked around and found Van on his chair, she smiled "She's gone into the final stages of labour, won't be long"
She shut the door.
Van sat stiffly in his chair. This was it.
The other door to the room opened a crack and Allen slid through the hole, shutting it quietly as well. He found himself a seat and sat down, crossing his arms and nodding to Van.
Van nodded back, he assumed Allen had a knack for getting the right moment. The Knight looked calm but Van noticed Allen's finger tapping briskly on his shirt sleeve. He was tired of waiting too.
The activity in the other room was off-putting too, it was building and the excitement practically radiated through the wall itself.
He sighed.
He heard Hitomi's voice talking loudly and fast, but muffled as if through gritted teeth along with the occasional yell. Merle's voice was fast and hyped up, excited and it sounded as if she was the one Hitomi was counting on to help her with contractions because of her periodic 'meow's'. The midwife's murmurings on the other hand were all calm and she seemed to be doing her job. He was glad.
His eyes were heavy. No sleep the night before seemed to be taking his toll on him no matter how excited he was, and the pallet looked VERY tempting, the pillow especially.
He couldn't wait for the moment he could hold his baby and Hitomi together in his arms, it would be perfect, the sun shining, the smile that would light up her face as he told her he wanted to marry her...
Van jerked up as someone touched his shoulder, Allen was standing over him, Van blinked and jumped up. He'd been asleep. How could he? He'd missed it all.
He looked around at Mamoru and Allen, before finding the midwife was also int heir midst.
"What?" he asked excitedly, "Is it done?"
* * *
MWUH HAH HA HA HA HA! Cliff-hanger! Anyway, this is the beginning of the split endings! Tee hee, you'll have to wait doubly long now T_T sorry! But this is how I'm doing it. Happy new year!