(AN: I've had this chapter done for a while, but I wasn't able to get on to the site. Sorry it took so long Hope you all like it)

Chapter 4

Her parents were in the same room that Hitomi was first brought to upon arrival. Yuki had taken a liking to Mrs. Kanzaki, resting her giant head on her lap as she patted the huge cat's head nervously. Her father was having an animated, if not arguement, with her grandmother near the fire, and her little brother was content with staring out the window over the city which he now found himself prince of.

When Hitomi stepped into the room, her mother, still nervous around the tiger, edged slowly out of her seat, sidestepped Yuki, and came immediately to give her daughter a hug. Hitomi felt Van edge into the room behind her, followed by the ever quiet Josceline, who retreated to a corner.

"How was your journey here Hitomi?" She shuddered slightly. "I have never been so terrified in my life. Your father told me what would happen, but a beam of light picking us up from the ground isn't exactly something I should be used to." She smiled weakly. She looked tired, Hitomi decided.

"You sold the house than?" Hitomi smiled, and patted her mom lightly on the arm. "I'm glad everything's all taken care of."

"You shouldn't be worrying about the house." She passed a quick look to her husband, and obviously just newly met mother-in-law, before smiling at her daughter again. "You have bigger matters to pay attention to. This is such a beautiful place Hitomi, I can see why you didn't want to leave in the first place." She noticed Van behind her. "Who is this?" She smiled a very motherly smile in Van's direction. Hitomi had a feeling her mother was already eyeing up, seeing if this young man was good enough for her only daughter.

Hitomi stepped out of the way, gave a reassuring smile to the suddenly nervous looking Van, and took his hand in hers in what was absolute impulse. She dropped it nearly right away, blushing perfusely as she introduced the two. "Mom, this is Van."

"Van?" She looked shocked. Hitomi inwardly groaned. "This is the Van?" Hitomi nodded, giving her mother a look of absolute embarrasement, hoping she would catch the hint. She didn't. Instead, her face broke into a wide grin, and she turned to her husband. "Shiro (AN: Yes...that will be Mr. Kanzaki's name. Ah...my awesome author ability wills it), this is the Van that Hitomi was telling us about."

Her dad looked over momentarily. "Just a second." He went back to his heated discussion with his mother.

"What's wrong with them?" Hitomi asked her mom, hopeful to get off the topic. She had felt Van stir a bit at her mom's comments about him being the Van and she didn't quite want to know what he thought of it right than.

Her mom sighed. "She's been livid since we got here, telling your father a thing or two about how he shouldn't have left, how irresponsible he is, that he should be lucky you turned out the way you did." She smiled again. "Oh, Hitomi, I think you'll be a lovely queen." She ushered a hand to the hallway. "And this castle with all the angels painted on the walls... this is heaven."

"I agree." Yuuhi looked over from his spot by the window. "I think I'm going to learn how to use a sword."

"One step at a time, Yuuhi." Her dad broke off the conversation with his mother, and came over to the group. Hitomi watched as her grandmother took a seat in her armchair and began lightly stroking Yuki's back. He gave Hitomi a small pat on the shoulder, than turned to eye Van. "Your the King of Fanalia, Mother just told me."

Van nodded. "I am." He seemed to hold himself up a bit straighter. Hitomi had a feeling he had been questioned about his possition several times before.

"Awefully young for a King... a lot of responsibility."

"Dad, he-" She was fully ready to defend Van. She knew this was coming. Her dad was awefully protective of her, and being a jerk to any possible suiters was sometimes the way he went about doing things.

"He's just as capable of ruling as you would be, if not better, Shiro." The queen spoke up from her chair, watching her son with amusement on her face. "He's proven himself several times over. If you see Fanalia now, you'll know what I mean." She smiled slightly, her corners of her mouth twitching. "Besides, he is the same age as Hitomi, and she herself will be ruler soon. Do you deny your only daughter the right to rule?"

Her father passed a look at his wife, than turned back to Van. "I'm sorry to judge you so fast, Your Majesty." To Hitomi's surprise, her father dropped into a small bow.

"It's alright." Van looked down at Hitomi who was watching her father and him worriedly. He smiled in reassurance, than turned back to her father. "You have a right to be sceptical. I am fairly young, but I'm able to do my job right, I think."

"Of course you are, dear." Lorilae stood, using her golden cane as support. "My son is simply filled with too much hot air after our little spat."Hitomi hid a smile. "I'm going to retire for the day. I'll be in my chambers, if anyone needs me." She looked out the window, past the eager looking Yuuhi. "It's started to rain, so I suggest to hold a tour of the city tomorrow when the castle is preparing for your ball." She strod past the group and out into the hallway.

Everyone stood still for half a second. Yuuhi was the first to react. He headed eagerly towards Van and Hitomi from his spot at the window sill. "Do you really pilot a machine than can turn into a dragon."

Hitomi passed Van a look of apology, but she found he was smiling. "I did... Escaflowne. But I had to put it to sleep for a long time. The war ended, and there was no more need for it."

Yuuhi took to eyeing Van's sword. "Can you teach me to use a sword?" He smiled eagerly. "I'm a fast learner."

Hitomi sighed, and smiled at Van "He really is." She turned to her little brother. "I'm jealous."

"You know stuff I don't though." Yuuhi scrunched up his nose in what was his own form of irritation.

"You'll learn another time, Yuuhi. Van is here for a nice visit, he probably wouldn't want to be teaching you sword play." Mrs. Kanzaki placed a gentle hand on her son's shoulder.

"I don't mind at all." Hitomi looked up at van with a smile. He had a strange look on his face. Even though his face looked happy, she could see something just beyond his eyes. Longing? Saddness? She blinked when he suddenly looked at her, his smile dissapearing slightly. She found herself blushing again. Gods... she wished to just throw her arms around him and kiss him senseless right there. But she didn't think her parents would approve. Not to mention she didn't want to her little brother to see and make faces of disgust.

She noticed suddenly that he was still wearing her pendant around his neck. The chain it hung on was different. Thicker. Probably so it couldn't break. But the red pendant on the end still looked exactly as she saw it last. Damn the thing... it must be broken for not letting me and Van talk for years.

"We're going to head to our rooms too Hitomi." Her mom yawned. "I don't know what time it is here, but on Earth, it must be around 3 in the morning."

Hitomi blinked in surprise. When she came here, she didn't feel any sense of tiredness. It looked and sounded as if her mother was experiencing a stronge sense of jetlag.

Both her parents and Yuuhi left, yawning, reassuring that they would be at supper tonight, they just needed some sleep before that. Yuuhi put up a bit of a fight though, saying he wasn't tired as they trunged down the hall to they're chambers.

Hitomi felt herself alone with Van. Well, nearly alone. She looked into the corner. Yes, Josceline was still there. He was watching them with slight interest well he leaned against a wall.

"Your parents seem very nice."

She looked up at Van with a smile. "Ya... they're overprotective of me sometimes, but besides that they're great."

They fell into silence. She felt uncomfortable talking about her parents and family when Van had none.

"Van..." She looked up at him, blushing, only to find herself completely frozen. He was looking at her... funny... She tried to swallow back nervousness, and this strange thrill that suddenly came to the pit of her stomach. Goose flesh raced up her arms, and she felt lightheaded. She found herself wishing he would pull her close to him, kiss her, and slowly back her towards the couch...

She blinked. He was leaning forward! Her breath caught in her throat, and she found herself trying to take a step back, but found herself unable. His cheek brushed against hers. She felt his hot breath on her ear, her hair stirred, as he brought up a calloused hand to brush away the hair from her neck, placing it carefully just under her ear, nervously, she could feel in his touch. He was just as unsure as she was. His jet black hair ticked her cheek and forehead.

"Meet me in the gardens tonight, after the midnight call." His voice came out a husky whisper, and she felt more thrills come and a tickling sensation that spread up her spine, as if something cold had raced up it. She felt her breath coming out funny.

But just as soon, he stepped away from her, gave a smile of perfect innocence in Josceline's direction, than left the room without even looking back. Hitomi felt it was good he didn't look back... she probably looked absolutly idiotic, standing there, frozen to the spot with her mouth hanging slightly open, and a blush splattered across her face.

"I see you liked that." Josceline walked over. He looked irritated. "Do you have to do that stuff around me?"

She didn't have time to be shocked that he was actually speaking more and more to her, she felt herself getting angry. "How should I go about doing that Josceline, when you never leave me alone?" She glared at him, than stomped from the room. Yuki followed. Hitomi had forgotten the large cat was still in the room.

Josceline, as ever, followed both down the hall. A look of amusement on his face.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The whole time during dinner, Hitomi kept passing nervous glances in Van's direction, hoping for some sort of conformation, or something, just so she could know that it actually happened. But he never met her gaze, only talked happily with her little brother, mother, Griffin and Merle. She did notice Josceline watching her though, to which she only sent him a glare. He shook his head, that look of pure amusement still on his face. He didn't hear did he? Where she was planning on going that night?

After dinner, the most Hitomi got out of Van was a small smile before he dissapeared with Merle to the guest quarters of the castle.

She tossed and turned as she tried to get some sleep before her supposed meeting with Van. She went to bed fully dressed, wearing a light dress of the La Vallex fasion, pinned at the shoulders, and flowy all the way down. She didn't want to be stumbling around her bedroom at midnight looking for something decent to wear.

So now she found herself, laying ontop of her covers,( the room oddly hot after the afternoon's rainfall), staring up at her canvas ceiling. With a sigh, she turned over to get the view of the city outside. The harbour light was still on, as always, flashing to ships at sea, and several lights in the streets still blazed from late night partiers or workers. She smiled. One day, it would all be hers... in a sense anyway. She didn't want to be one of those tyrant rulers she had heard about in History class back home.

She looked at the mystic moon, glowing eerily from behind it's smaller orb the moon. Gods... it was so far away...

She found herself jerked away by the sudden gong clanging in the distance. She wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't half listening for it. Sometime in the night, she had drifted off, and now found herself scrambling out of bed despite all her best efforts to avoid this.

She crept as quietly as possible to the door, thankful for the plush carpets lining the floor. (Though earlier that night she had been cursing them for they're heat). The large amount of padding against her feet kept her from making any shuffling noises.

Hitomi was grinning to herself when she opened the door into the hallway... but let out a small yelp of surprise when she found Josceline, leaning against the adjacent wall, watching her with a grin of his own.

"All right than, where are you off to?" He pulled away from the wall, and to Hitomi's great surprise, he did not bow, only walked straight up to her, grinning down at her from his taller possition. She backed away from him, glaring.

"This is what I meant by you never giving me any privacy."

He simply shrugged. "Off to a nice midnight meeting?"

She scowled and began walking down the hall, Josceline remaining at her side. "When do you leave me alone besides when I'm in my room?" She snapped at him.

"When you shower." He smirked down at her. "Or when your with your fiancé or husband."

"Interesting." She sighed. "Don't you want a life of your own, Josceline, I'm pretty sure you don't want to follow me around for the rest of your life." She stopped abruptly in the hall, and stood akimbo, facing him.

He was silent for a moment, his grin already having slipped away. He did not look away when he answered. "This is what I've spent my whole life training to do."

"To protect me?" She looked at him sceptically.

"Since I was 7."

She stared at him. "Did you not grow up with a family?"

"I have a large family. I visit them whenever I can. I have 4 other brothers who are Celestial Gates too... I'm the youngest."

She remembered Van waiting, and shook her head. "I don't feel right... keeping you from your family, I mean."

He shrugged, and smiled again. "It's not as if I can start my own family, Your Majesty."

She watched him silently for a moment, than continued down the hall. Something felt odd... she hadn't ever seen Josceline fight yet... but there was just something about him that carried an...insane amount of power. She could feel it now. It nearly radiated from him.

She remembered back to dinner, when he pulled up a sleeve of his plain grey shirt so he could scratch at his arm. The same blue markings on his hands laced their way up his arms and she had a feeling his had the markings all over his chest and back as well.

The garden was still wet from the afternoon rain. The sun had gone down before it stopped, so there wasn't much to dry it up. The hems of her dress trailed along the wet grass, and she could feet the wetness of it start to travel up through the light fabric. Josceline made very little noise in the grass behind her.

Upon realising that she never made a specific location to meet with Van, she took a seat at the beautiful fountain she had seen earlier. Josceline remained behind, standing near a clump of bushes, seemingly staring at the ground.

Hitomi was smoothing down her hair and dress when Van arrived. He looked slightly wet, with dew in his hair, and a light drizzle of water on his shoulders and bottom of his pantlegs. He smiled shyly at her when he walked over.

Raising an eyebrow at his state, she moved over so he could sit beside her, not really knowing why when there was already plenty of room to sit.

"Sorry, I had to loose Merle, she found me sneaking out. I think she wanted to spy on us." His smile turned cheeky, and he suddenly passed a look at Josceline. Hitomi too looked over in the direction of her bodygaurd.

And to her complete and utter surprise, he bowed politely to the pair, and stepped away out of site.

"He said that-" She stopped. Van had sat beside her and was tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"I wanted to talk to you alone all day, but I-" He stopped and looked away into the flowing water of the fountain. For a moment, he looked like the 15 year old she had last saw.

"Van..." She hesitated, thoughts of what happened earlier coming to her head. Was he engaged, is that what he wanted to tell her, bringing her to a public place so she wouldn't feel embarrased. Well, she would feel embarrased. Useless, that she spent the last 4 years waiting for Van to find he didn't wait for her. Half of her yelled that if he was engaged it probably wasn't his fault. She swallowed. "Did you need to tell me something?"

He turned to her than, a look she couldn't quite identify on his face. Though she guessed it was somewhere between longing and frieght. Oh gods...he was engaged, but he wanted to elope with her instead. Romantic thought yes... but not what she wanted. "Hitomi..." He faltered, looking down at her hands which he suddenly clasped in his own. He wouldn't meet her gaze.

Hitomi's heart pounded. Gods! Just kiss him or something Hitomi! You know you want to! She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it, literally.

His lips brushed against hers in a quick, but intimate contact. She stared at him in shock, their eyes locking a moment before he closed his own, and leaned in again, pressing his lips against hers a little harder, more confidently. She felt lightheaded, as he gently and very caustiously wrapped one arm effortlessly around her waist, well placing the other against the base of her neck. She had placed her hands on his solid chest without realising it.

It seemed too sudden when he pulled away, a small boyish blush splashed across his face to match Hitomi's. He removed his arms, Hitomi feeling the urge to cry out at the lose of contact.

"I'm sorry." He stumbled over his words, but did not look away. He was waiting for a reaction from her, something to tell him that what he just did was all right. Worried he may get slapped like when they were younger.

She let out a shaky breath, and leaned away from him, but what she really wanted to do was lean closer. "Don't be." She held her trembling hands in her lap. Gods... she'd never been kissed like that before.

"I just...I've wanted to do that for so long, and I just thought that-"

She kissed him, cutting of his words as his lips hastily moved into the kiss. She placed a hand on his cheek, feeling the slight stubble from a day or fews worth of growth. She kissed his top lip, than his bottom, than nudged his nose gently with her own, leaning back a bit too get a good look at his face. He looked surprised to say the least. She held back the urge to giggle. "Thought that I might feel the same way?" She asked, brushing her lips against his as she talked. She briefly wondered when she got to brave. Van always made her feel different. It was no different now. She felt like she would just slip off the rim of the fountain and melt into the grass if she pulled away from him.

She smiled against his lips when she felt both his arms encircle her again, more boldly than the last time. "I'm glad you do." He lightly and carefully kissed her forehead, than her cheek. "You have no idea how glad I am."

She let her breath come out in a shaky sigh, and leaned into his chest, letting his warmth incircle her, her face hidden into the base of his neck. She could feel gooseflesh pop up on his arms as her breath and hair tickled his skin. He leaned down, and placed a hand at the back of her neck, pulling her closer.

"So... your not engage?" She could feel him shake slightly from held in laughter, and when she tried to lean away to get a good look at him, he held her tightly. "Van?" She asked impatiently.

"No, I'm not engaged." She could feel him smile against her neck, and to her utter surprise (she was getting loads of pleasent surprised that night), he lightly kissed her sensitive flesh, and left small kissed up to her ear, where he whispered. "Even if I was, I would end it now, after being with you tonight." She shivered.

"Van..." she pulled away, and opened her mouth to speak more, but Josceline came back into site.

"Your Majesties... the gaurds are heading this way, and they won't like it if your out at this hour." He bowed slightly to them, and remained watching the ground as he straightened.

Van and Hitomi both hastily separated. Hitomi once again opened her mouth to speak, but Van was already standing up. "I'll see you in the morning, Hitomi." He bent down and gave her a small kiss on the forehead, before heading past Josceline and back to the castle.

Hitomi stood, and walked, slightly shaking, over to where Josceline stood. Josceline noticed her trembling and smirked. "If that's a reaction from love, I'm glad I have none of it."