CHAPTER TWO
I looked in to his crimson red eyes and blushed brightly as he stared in to mine. Van, it was really Van! So I wasn't going crazy after all. "Is this just a dream?" I asked and Van looked at me strangely as I held him tighter. "No, you're here." I said as I leaned my head against his chest and closed my eyes as I could hear his heart beat.
"Hitomi…" Van started to say. "Is something wrong?" He asked with out trying to hide the concern in his voice.
"No Van." I relied. "I just can't believe that I'm finally back here… finally back with you…." I seemed to have collapsed at that point since I didn't remember anything else.
Van caught Hitomi as she started to slide down and he picked her up bridle style. "Hitomi, you're back."
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When I woke up it was dark, or at least the room was, I couldn't tell the shade was pulled over the window which blocked out any light from the out side world. I couldn't tell where I was or anything until I looked to the side of the bed I was placed on and found Van sleeping there. I blushed as I watched him sleep sitting in a chair with his head on the bed. Gaea, I was back on Gaea, this wasn't any dream or joke, Van was here so I had to be on Gaea right? Van looked so peaceful, and handsome as he laid there asleep. He had changed, but only slightly, well it had been five years but the changes weren't any to complain about. He appeared to be taller, or at least that's what it felt like when he held me. There where a few other changes other then his height, but none where obvious, to me, he still appeared to be the same Van Fanel that I had fallen in love with five years ago. Then it hit me; fallen in love, could it be possible that he was already married now? My heart pounded at the thought and my hand moved up to try to make it stop from beating so loud. Had all of these years of avoiding having boyfriends and making sure that I didn't fall in love with any one else be in vain? It wouldn't have been all that impossible, he was a handsome king and there must have been quite a few number of girls who fancied him so he could be, he could be married. I wanted to cry but forced myself not to since he was right there. But then again, if he was married why was he here, sleeping by my side, or almost anyway. I wanted to cry, and it kept every ounce of strength to keep myself from not crying. It was then when I found a pair of crimson red eyes staring up at me and I felt myself blush as I stared in to his eyes which always made me feel weak. "Did I wake you?" I asked as he sat up and popped his neck, it was terribly uncomfortable to sleep like that, I knew that from experience.
"No, you didn't." Van replied and looked at me silently. "I'm glad to see that you're awake Hitomi, I was worried about you when you suddenly collapsed like that."
Worried, did he just say that he was worried about me? I knew that he liked me five years ago when I was here my first time around but… Maybe I was just taking things the wrong way. "Sorry about that Van." I apologized. "I don't know what came over me."
"I'm just glad that you're safe." Van said and locked his eyes with Hitomi's. Silence fell between the two for what felt like endless silence. Meeting with your old crush was, such a strange feeling. Especially when you lived on two different worlds and two different lives, and not to mention that it had been five years! "You must be hungry." Van finally said as he realized what time it was.
I knew that this was his way to try to break the silence. "Sounds good to me Van, how long was I asleep?" I asked.
"Two days." Van replied and I looked at him in shock. "Two days you where asleep, when we got here you collapsed and then, ever since then you where in that state..."
I remembered then why I was so tired. It was me who had called that light to take me back to this world, back to Gaea. I wanted to go back so bad and to see Van again. "I think I might have used a little too much energy in creating that light." I finally said. "The one that took us here."
"You?" Van asked with a mixture of a curious and shocked look on his face.
"I don't know how I did it, I think…. I don't really remember actually it's sort of just happened so fast that I don't know how I did it." I said and laughed nervously which made Van give me a weird look. "I'm such a baka."
"No, you're not." Van said. "Well I shouldn't be keeping you from everyone, let's go or would you prefer to walk yourself there?" Van asked.
"You know I don't know my way around Van." I said which made him grin strangely. I guessed that I was in Fanelia, it would be the only sensible explanation to where I was.
"You're right, sorry I forgot." Van said and laughed nervously as he looked at me. "I will escort you there then, Lady Hitomi." Van said which made me blush. "What do you mean by "Lady" Van?" I asked.
"What do I mean? Oh you're known as Lady Hitomi the seer from the Mystic Moon in our books now, that's what I mean." Van explained and raised an eye brow as he held out his arm for me to take. I placed my arm in his and blushed fiercely as I felt his warm skin against mine. "EEeeh you're not serious." I said and felt my face burn even more.
"I am." Van replied. "Very serious." He said laughing as he saw my face. "Calm down, Lady Hitomi." Van said as they walked down the palace halls. "There is nothing wrong in calling you lady."
The chief said that it was actually after hours for meal but he said that he would make an exception for the king's guest and the king since the cook scolded "King Van" for nearly starving himself the two days.
"I had a maid bring something for me to eat." Van said as he tried to reassure the cook.
"I told you King Van that you mustn't push yourself like this when you're busy!" The cook nearly shouted. "I swear if I didn't threathen to beat him with one of my pots he wouldn't come in to eat at all."
"So King Van hadn't come to eat for the past two days?" I asked.
"No, he hasn't!" The cook said and I looked at Van. "Typical." I said and shook my head.
"Who is your young guest your highness?" The cook asked Van and I blushed.
"Lady Hitomi Kanzaki, the seer from the Mystic Moon." Van said with out any hesitation and the cook just looked at me with weird eyes.
"Dear gods.." The cook said and took my hand. "It's the Lady Hitomi…"
"Will you excuse us so I can have a talk with his highness?" I asked the cook who looked at me.
"Yes, excuse me, I better get that meal started." The cook said and I dragged Van in to the other room which appeared empty. "YOU MEAN…" I started to shout but was silenced by a kiss. I looked at Van in shock as I felt his lips against mine. I closed my eyes and could feel my heart skip beats just about every other beat. My face felt hot and I knew that I must have been blushing over a hundred shades of red. Van was kissing me, me, so he wasn't married? My heart jumped for joy at the thought. He was single right? He wouldn't be kissing me if he was married right? Van wasn't just that type of person. Once the kiss was broke we where both left apparently breathless.
"Van…" I breathed as I looked at him.
"Hitomi, I might have been wrong to do that but I…." Van stuttered.
I stared at him in shock not knowing what to say or do. I had waited five years for this moment, five years! He had kissed me and I had kissed him back. My heart beat fast, I was having a hard time breathing. Van still loved me, thank the gods, he still did. But wasn't this sudden? I just woke up not but at least thirty minutes ago and he kissed me. Gods he must have been waiting a long time to do that. Here he was about to spill something out to me and I couldn't do a thing!
"I…" Van continued as he tried to say what it was that he was trying to say. "Come on Van you spent at least over three hours in the bathroom over the past five years practicing this for the time if she ever returned." Van thought as he scolded himself. "I can speak in front of an entire kingdom with out a problem and other kingdoms as well and now look at me, useless!" Then again, was it not Hitomi who had first liked Allen before him? Allen was the one who seemed to be able to say the right things and act the right way in front of women. He also had the looks and the skills of a swordsman. He'd also had Hitomi's been the one who stolen Hitomi's first kiss away from him.
"I love you Van." Hitomi said with out any hesitation as she felt her heart finally calm down. "I still love you Van Fanel." Hitomi said and could feel her knees go weak below her and Van caught her.
"Hitomi!" Van said as he caught her.
"I'm fine Van." I said as I tried to reassure the man who I had just confessed my love to again. "I guess like I don't have my energy back all the way yet, that's all." I said as I looked up at him. He did get taller, that was not my imagination. He picked me up and brought me to a table on the far side of the room next to a window. He sat me down in a chair and pushed it in.
"How long do you plan on staying this time?" Van asked curiously not meaning to have made it to sound as cold as it did since this was the woman who he was crazy about.
"I don't know Van." I answered honestly. "I want to stay as long as you will let me or as long as Gaea and the Mystic Moon will let me." I answered blushing.
"You can stay for as long as you like or are let." Van said and I smiled happily. "Tomorrow if I have time." Van started to say which made me blink. "I would like to personally show you around Fanelia. We have finally finished rebuilding it to how it was before the great war and even better." Van said and quieted himself as he saw the cook come in from the corner of his eye. "You didn't have to bring it to us you know." Van said.
"It is an honor to…"
"Dri, just because Lady Hitomi is here doesn't mean that you have to act like that. You don't seem to act that way in front of me and I'm the king." Van said shaking his head.
"Yes but…" Dri protested.
"No buts, just act like you normally do. I'm sure that the Lady Hitomi will find out your true nature sooner or later, Dri." Van said as Dri put two plates on the table. He went back to go get them something to drink.
"Will that be all my lady?" Dri asked me and I laughed. "That's fine thanks." I said and looked at Van who looked at Dri annoyed.
"Would you leave us alone now Dri? We have a lot to discuss and shouldn't you be preparing the menu for tomorrow's ball?" Van asked with a raised eye brow.
"I already have it done your highness." Dri replied.
"Well then go recheck it and do not tell any one that Lady Hitomi has returned." Van said. "That's an order Dri." He said as the man lingered there a little while longer.
"Is it true that you can really see the future?" Dri asked as if not hearing Van's question.
"NOW!" Van said as he raised his voice and watched as Dri then hurried back to the kitchen.
"Ball?" I asked curiously.
"The one to which I am suppose to announce who I have chosen as my bride." Van said and sighed. "I hate it when they keep pushing the subject but they decided to arrange this to where I'm suppose to dance with every royal woman until I tell them who I have chosen." Van said annoyedly.
"Oh…" Hitomi said sadly.
"I would like you to come Hitomi." Van said. "I know that this is sudden but you are an important figure here on Gaea I would like you to come as my honored guest." Van said.
"Honored?" Hitomi asked. "I don't know what to say to that Van."
"I forgot about it until just now and the tuor will have to wait." Van said as he looked at Hitomi with pleading eyes.
"I seem to have no choice but to say yes, Van." Hitomi said sadly. "It seems as if I will have to painfully watch in the corner as I watch you choose your future wife." I wanted to cry as I had back then in the room. I forced the tears back as I sat and listened to Van talk about Fanelia and what happened after the war since I did ask. I hoped that the conversation would make my mind at ease. However I still couldn't help but to selfishly think that Van would have to choose some other girl besides me. A princess most likely, a princess from a well known country here on Gaea. I was no body, just the seer from the Mystic Moon. I was also known as the Wing Goddess to some people though I never really saw why, I wasn't the one who had wings, Van was the one who had them not me. "Your country sounds amazing Van, I can't wait to say it." I said as I tried to push the idea of the ball out of my mind.
"I want you to tell me of the Mystic Moon if you don't mind that is." Van said with curiosity in his voice and his eyes.
I then explained to him how it was for me when I got back home. How father didn't believe me and said that I had ran away even though mother, Yukari, and Amando said that I was in another world. How I was in my last year of high school and was going to graduate. Things like that and it seemed to make Van smile to hear of my past five years. The only thing he frowned at however, was the fact that I said about my father. The cook Dri had left after we finished eating once he had cleaned the plates and Van and I still remained and talked in to long hours in the night. My digital watch on my wrist told me that it was way past 1:30 in the morning and Van let out a yawn that he seemed to be trying to hold back.
"Why didn't you tell me that you where tired Van? You have to wake up early and have a long day tomorrow um, today." I said as I corrected myself. Van just smiled at me and looked at me with those eyes of his that always seemed to pull me in.
"I don't mind loosing sleep." Van insisted. "As long as I'm loosing it over you."
I blushed more then a dozen shades of red and insisted that Van go to bed. He insisted that he'd be the one to walk me to my room since I didn't know my way around the castle and I realized that he was right. I hadn't payed attention to the path that we took to get here since I was too busy staring at Van. I blushed and nodded. As we got to the door of the bedroom to where I was staying I noticed how highly guarded these few doors where. "Van why is the castle so highly guarded? I thought that Gaea was at a state of peace."
"These rooms are my quarters. The room that you woke up in is one of my rooms, Lady Hitomi, I thought that I told you that." Van asked me and I blushed fiercely. "You may use it for as long as you like." He whispered in my ear and then with out hesitation kissed me good night. I then walked in to the room that Van had let me have and went in. "He likes me." I thought happily as my heart raced and my face flushed as I thought about it. "He still likes me." It was stupid, I know, but I couldn't help it. Five years, five faithful years, however, there was a down side to it. Tomorrow happened to be the day that he had to choose his wife. The woman Van chose, I knew would be lucky. Since Van was so full of love even if I had denied him that love before back during the war when I had first came. Van Fanel would no longer be mine as of tomorrow and was he mine to take in the first place? I didn't know. Questions and dark thoughts raced through my mind that night as I tried to fall asleep at least for a few hours before the sun rose. I finally fell asleep something during that night, but I don't know when for I remember the dark dreams that I had that matched my dark thoughts that night. When I was woken up at 9am that next morning thanks to a maid who awoke me. I rolled back over and placed my face in to the pillow and groaned. Today would be the day to when Van would choose the woman who he married. The young woman pulled the covers off of my bed and threw open the shade. "It is time to get up, milady." The young woman said. "I have orders to make sure you get out of bed."
Tiredly and now wishing that I hadn't stayed up so late last night with Van, I sat up. "Today was going to be a long day." I thought and my first official morning on Gaea started.
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Finally right? I finally decided that I might continue this story. It kind of depends on the reviews and if I decide to and have time and that stuff. What is really disappointing to a writer is how little reviews you get compared to how many people who have actually looked at the site. Well tell me what you think everyone. (This is my second EscaFlowne hit so this time around, I hope that I get all of the names spelt right. If I don't then I guess like I'll never learn them.)