Hello to everyone  Thanks for reading the first chapter, and thanks to flyghosh (my older sibling), Macky, Darkangl28 and evanjohnston who gave me reviews. I appreciate it! I'm also sorry that I'm getting the second chapter out six months after the first – it's not because of lack of interest, but just a lot of classes. I even have the third chapter written, but I'll wait till I write the forth to post it. I hope you enjoy this chapter, but before I leave, I think I'd better warn people before they read this:

I know the idea of people going to America for college is rather clichéd, but that's really not a big point of the story – except for a few things here and there. It really depends on where this story is going, and that's something I'm not quite sure of yet.

There may be some shounen ai (that is, some gayness) but it is not likely to be very graphic. Of course, if it really does turn out that way, I will absolutely alert my readers before they actually read it. But I have a feeling that there won't be much more than kissing, I believe.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Fanelia: Four Years Later

Chapter 2: A Vision of Gaea

Disclaimer: I do not own Escaflowne or any of its original characters. But I'm incredibly grateful to those who do, since they got such a cool anime into our lives!

Hitomi had just finished her classes for the day. She thought that she would spend some time under the tall oak tree until Yukari and Amano joined her there.

She decided to go abroad when the time had come to decide where to attend college. Yukari already made it a point to apply to the same school Amano did, since they were, after all, going out – and Hitomi thought, why not, what's keeping her back. So they all landed up together.

Hitomi sighed and looked up and the branches of the oak tree above her. It has been four years. She was already a sophomore, a second-year student in college. This year she was expected to declare her major, and she didn't have quite any idea what to pick. Of course, she could be faced with even harder choices. It was not as if she already hadn't: choosing between Gaea and Earth was a tough call. Seeing Van every now and then didn't help her feel she made the right choice. The whole deal with Gaea probably made her obsessed with making choices for the rest of her life. But what if she did go back? For one thing, she would never graduate, and that would not go too well with her. She liked studying a lot, she always did…in fact, wasn't she busy with a term paper the day all the mad stuff started happening? She was on the university track team, but solely for the purpose of not getting slow. Running wasn't a happy pastime for her anymore – it reminded her too much of Gaea.

But if she was given a choice, would she go back to Gaea and live there? Van would be there, and that would be great. But then again, she remembered, she hadn't seen him in ages, and had no idea how he felt about her. It was four years ago, and they were nineteen now. They were adults now (and I'm an adult who got her only kiss from a guy who's fit to be my brother, she thought ruefully) – would things be different now? But what about the doctorate she wanted (though she still had no idea what she wanted to do, she just knew that she'd adore doing research, arguing with other professors, ask students to go get her tea – oh, well, maybe not the last one)?

Amano spotted her from across the campus square and trotted up to her, "Ah, so you're done with classes for the day?"

"For the week – it's Friday," she replied, falling on to the grass and gazing at the sky above. "Yukari's not done yet?"

"Hmmm, I haven't seen her. Anyways, she'll be here soon. She never lets me…er, us down," Amano replied, turning a little red at his mistake.

"Yup."

"What's wrong, Hitomi? You're usually in a chattier mood. Are you worried about choosing your major again? You shouldn't worry, you've got enough time," Amano looked at her, a worried frown on his face.

Hitomi's attention was diverted from the sky, "Eh? Do I talk about choosing majors that much?"

"Ah, no. Not really. Well, maybe a little – OOOOOOOWWWTCCCCHHHH – stupid Frisbee!" Amano threw back the Frisbee that had just smacked him across the face to the poor freshman on the other side of the square. The freshman mouthed an apology and took off. Amano was a senior, and could be somewhat intimidating at times.

"Amano, are you hurt? Oh, you poooooooor thing!" No doubt about it. Yukari had arrived. Hitomi hoped she'd never act that way around Van, no matter how much she liked him.

Yukari continued to fawn over Amano, and Hitomi decided that this was quite enough for her. She got up and announced, "Hey guys, I think I'd better get a start on my…sociology paper – I'll see you later." She turned and fled. She knew that they'd know that she just wanted to leave them alone. She wasn't the kind to start a paper on a Friday afternoon, even though she liked working so much.

Hitomi walked slowly back to her dorm. She went up the stairs and entered the room she shared with Yukari. She took one good look at it, and then flopped on the pile of cushions on the floor. There was a half-filled coffee mug still sitting on the counter – Hitomi didn't remember whose it was: the three of them were up late last night working on term papers (though, Hitomi couldn't help feeling that Amano and Yukari paid more attention to each other than to their essays). Hitomi stared at the posters of movie stars on Yukari's side of the room, and then to her own side which featured a dozen of her favorite quotes, and a couple of white feathers stuck to the wall next to her bed. Van's feathers. Yukari asked why she put them up. Hitomi babbled on for a bit how feathers represent trust and love, and that she was trying to remind herself that there should be and is more of these things in this world. Yukari listened long enough to state what was on her mind, "You really need a boyfriend." She had paused and a look of astonishment and mild horror had come over her face, "or is it a girlfriend you want?"

Hitomi had stared at Yukari and had mumbled, "No." This had probably made Yukari even more certain of her sexual tendencies. Hitomi had not felt any need to elaborate on the matter of Van, King of Fanelia – though a mad thought had come to her mind that he could be a woman. She had discarded that idea about five minutes later.

Hitomi took a deep breath, and tried to relax. What was making her feel so jumpy all of a sudden? Nothing out of the ordinary happened – except for the Frisbee that hit Amano, and if that was considered out of the ordinary, then she was living a sad life indeed. Hitomi tried clearing her mind. The name Van popped up, something that happened whenever she tried clearing her mind. She gave up trying to fight against the thoughts that were trying to float back into her brain. So she thought. She remembered the dragon that brought her to Fanelia. She remembered the slap she gave Van when he was acting like a stuck-up conceited brat. She remembered how he told her he wanted her…and then ended up saying that he wanted her for her powers, by which point she was ready to throttle him. He got another slap for that. Then she wondered why she remembered all of these points in her relationship with Van.

She got up. Her mind was made up. She was going to go back to Fanelia. Having some nice good fights with Van would break up the monotony rather nicely, something Earth with all its terrific university programs could never do.

It was time to go back. And make sure that Van was, indeed, a man.

It didn't take too long to pack. She stuffed her duffel bag with underwear, and a few shirts, three pairs of shorts and a couple of pairs of jeans. She took a good look at the contents of her bag, and dumped in her world history book and a notebook.

She zipped up her bag and stepped out of her room. She took one look at it after she locked the door. Then she remembered she hadn't left a note for Yukari. "Ah, well, what's a dry-erase board for anyway?" For some reason, when Hitomi and Yukari decided to room together, they got three dry-erase boards after the second week. This was mainly because they both enjoyed writing to each other on them. And so did Amano for that matter.

Hitomi stepped back from the door and glanced at her message. The dry-erase board now displayed:

Yukari – I'm sort of going home so you won't see me for a while…I'll give you a message as soon as possible.

Hitomi sighed. She really didn't know what else to write. In a way, she was going home. Gaea was home more than Japan was.

HItomi turned and ran smack into Yukari, who bumped into Amano. The domino effect resulted in every one lying in a heap on the ground. It happened so suddenly that nobody managed to squeeze in a yell or two. Yukari lifted up her head from under Amano's leg (Hitomi had no idea how it got there), and stared at the duffel bag. "Hitomi? What's up? Why do you have your bag with you?" She said in a somewhat squashed voice.

Amano, whose head was closest to the door, hovering over Hitomi's stomach, looked up at Yukari's board and read the message silently. Then he muttered, "Going home? Hitomi…I'm not sure if you realized this, but home is pretty far away."

"Home?" squealed Yukari.

"I know it's far away," Hitomi replied, wishing she'd left a bit earlier. It was rather uncomfortable lying on the ground like this, with Amano and Yukari above her.

Amano made an effort to get up, slipped and landed on Hitomi, his face burying itself right in Hitomi's chest. Hitomi's squeal of pain drowned out his already muffled yell. That was not all. Amano's leg knocked Yukari's knees from beneath her, and Yukari ended up sprawling over Hitomi's torso. Their lower bodies were entwined in a mesh of jean-clad legs.

Hitomi would never be able to verbally describe what happened next, and why it happened. After she got over the bout of pain that Amano subject her to, her thoughts flew to Gaea, and particularly, to Van. And the familiar sensation took over her: In front of her, another dimension, another place, another time appeared in front of her. She saw, before the edge of a lake, where the trees were lit by a brilliant sunset, and two people in close contact, their lower bodies concealed from her by a rock. One of these people had a strong, broad, unclad back, his hair gleaming a wonderful mix between gold and silver in the dying sunlight. The other person was hidden underneath, it appeared that the the tanned body was lying on the shore of that lake.

Hitomi stared. The bodies on the shore of the lake shifted slightly, providing her with a clearer shot of the scene. Hitomi knew that she would never be able to say why she thought what she did at that moment. Van's not on top.

That's it for now – and I hope to write the fourth chapter soon, so I can post the third. Please tell me what you think, about my writing, the story, whatever – even if it's bad. Thanks for reading!