………………………………………………………………………………………………

CHAPTER SEVEN

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I was eventually allowed to leave my room and walk short distances by the end of the week which was nice since I hated staying in one spot. My voice hadn't come back yet, but my strength was. I wanted things to be normal again, or at least how it was before I had been poisoned. Van had promised to take me horse back ridding once I was "well" again. Van's definition of well was me being back to full strength and able to walk more then a few feet with out collapsing to the ground. Actually it was less then a few feet that I was able to walk which sucked since if any one from my old track team saw me in this shape, they would laugh since I had become captain of the track team when I was in high school. My legs fell beneath me and I clung to the wall or tried to since it was a distance away but ended up on the floor instead. "DAMN IT!" I shouted in my head in frustration and could feel someone help me up. A young man, one of the palace guards I assumed. "Perhaps you should head back, my lady." The man said gently and kindly and I shook my head. "Not yet." I wrote on the pad of paper that I always took with me. Thank god that they discovered paper since I would go nuts trying to say what was in my mind or what I wanted to tell people.

"That's the second time Lady Hitomi." A woman said quietly, I assumed that Van had meant for her to be my personal care giver. Van was really too over protective.

"I'll be fine." I insisted not wanting to be secluded back to my room yet. I liked being outside and I hated sitting in one spot. It was a bad habit that I picked up, but it was also good since I use to be on the track team at school. I knew that my body couldn't take any more, but I didn't want to go back. I don't remember passing out, but I knew that it had to be sometime after I got up and started to walk again because I didn't remember anything after that. I woke up and found myself in my bed. Why was I so weak? I had lost my voice to poison and now my body was still fighting to be back to normal. Why me? Why did things always happen to me? I just wanted to be normal again. Then again, I wouldn't be normal, even if I did stay off of Gaea that first time that I came I wouldn't have been normal. I knew that, as much as I didn't want to admit it. I decided to lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The time on my wrist watch read that it was 7:30 in the evening. I groaned. I had been asleep for a better part of the day and now it was the evening hours. I just stared up at the high ceiling and didn't say a word. Not like I could speak in the first place, but I didn't really think much. I had to somehow be able to speak again and gain my strength back so Van wouldn't have to pretend not to be sad any more.

I hated seeing him sad, it made me want to cry every time he was. It made me feel that way because he was crying because of me. I didn't want him to feel that way, I wanted to make him happy, not sad.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself earlier, Lady Hitomi." Aya said as she walked over to my bed. "Van-Sama was rather upset that we didn't stop you the first time you fell."

"I'm not some weak kitten who can't even stand!" I wrote as soon as I managed to find the pad of paper.

"Yes, I know, your strength is legendary." Aya said calmly. "However, you shouldn't push yourself." Aya said agreeing with Van. "He worries about you." She said. "You shouldn't betray that type of love."

My eyes shot a deadly glare at Aya, what the hell would she know of our love? Everyone knew that we loved one another, but that was it. No matter what was written in any text book or on any paper, nothing could express what we felt for one another, no other person could feel what we felt. The pain, the sorrow, the agony; the words she just said made me angry, I wanted to slap her or something.

"Take that anger to make yourself get well again." Aya said and I looked at her with a confused look now. "Don't push yourself too much, Lady Hitomi." She just said again. "I'll bring you some thing to eat." The door opened and Aya bowed instantly.

"At ease, Aya." Van said almost like an order and Aya just stood there and watched him.

"Your highness, have you eaten yet?" Aya asked and Van almost didn't seem to hear.

"No I haven't." Van said after having to think about it. "Why?"

"I'll bring something for you to then." Aya said. "If his highness wishes."

"Yes, thank you." Van replied and Aya bowed and left. "How do you feel, Hitomi?" Van asked me and sat down and I blushed brightly not knowing why.

"Fine." I wrote making sure that he didn't see what I had wrote on the other side. "I'm fine Van."

He smiled at me and kissed my forehead. "That's good." Van replied. "We can eat on the balcony if you want." Van suggested and I nodded. "My advisers tried to cancel the wedding because of your condition. You not being able to walk very well, I mean." Van said correcting himself. "I told them that you would hopefully be better by then, but the wedding would go on anyway even if you weren't. I told them that you would probably want it to." I nodded again happy.

"I can't believe that you still want to marry me even though I can't speak and can barely walk." I wrote and Van frowned. "Why would that change anything?" He asked angrily. "Why? Do you know how long I've waited for you? Nearly six years! Those days after you left felt like hell. I had to get use to the idea that you weren't going to be with me everyday. I couldn't speak to you everyday in person, I couldn't be near you as much as I wanted to. I wished I had let you stayed and broke that damn promise. If it wasn't for the fact that Balgus had promise to send you back that first day you where here, I would have let you stay. I sent you because of him!" Van said, his voice shaking.

My hand went to grab his and pulled it to my heart and he just stared at me as if not understanding. My heart was beating fast because of him, every time he just hugged me I had to resist the temptation of my hormones. I could see that he was blushing brightly. "I love you." I mouthed and moved up to place a kiss on his lips, with out hesitation. If it wasn't for the fact that Aya would come back at any moment, I would have let him make love to me right there, but we where expecting Aya. So he just carefully leaned me against the bed and kissed me. His hand enclosed in to mine, and even after he broke the kiss, he laid his head on my chest, listening to my heart beat. I just ran my fingers through his hair and we both jumped up once the door knocked.

"Yes?" Van asked.

"It's Aya sir." Van walked to the door at Aya's voice and opened it. He grabbed a tray. "Thank's Aya, you didn't have to do this you know." Van said.

"You need to eat your highness as well as Lady Hitomi." Aya said as she put the tray down. "I know how it is when you get caught up in things and never eat."

"Aya's one of my personal servants." Van explained to Hitomi. "Has been for a few years now."

"For a while he refused to eat anything for days." Aya said crossly. "I had to sit here and force it down and tied him up. He threatened to send me in to jail for it, but the guards agreed with my point of view." Aya said laughing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." Aya bowed and left the room once again. Van moved a small table outside to the balcony and two chairs that he managed to find with in the rooms. I just stared at him as he moved the furniture around and wanted to help, but knowing Van he would just tell me to sit and rest. It was a nice evening. The sun had set and the stars where coming out. Fanelia looked beautiful under the two moons, and the silver moon was full. "Earth." I thought as I stared up at home. "I wonder what everyone's doing right now." I sighed and looked back down and could feel Van's eyes on me.

"You miss it don't you?" Van asked and I just looked at him and shook my head. "No." I mouthed. "I don't miss it as much as I missed you when I couldn't be with you." I wrote blushing. "I can live with out being there, just as long as you're here. If anything happens to you I'd…" He took my hand and forced the pen out.

"Nothing's going to happen to me, I'm right here." Van said and I just smiled at him and leaned my head against his shoulder and nugged it and blushed as Van laughed. "Alright, alright, let's eat." Van said happily and we began to eat.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The day of our wedding came sooner then we thought. The advisers had arranged for it to be at the end of the month and it was that day already. I was excited even though I could barely hold my excitement; Van sure seemed to be able to. I was told of the traditional Fanelian royal wedding and I couldn't believe it. Four hours long just to say I do! The first hour was to get the groom and the bride ready. The second, the woman was suppose to go to the chapel to pray while the king made some speech or something like that. The third and fourth, that was the actual wedding. I couldn't believe it! I just wanted to have a simple wedding, but that wasn't going to happen. Then again, I was going to marry a king so it wouldn't be possible. The wedding was arranged so quickly that I was surprised. Right now, I was waiting in the chapel, suppose to be praying to the gods and goddess of Gaea. I didn't really know any of them so I didn't bother; I felt bad that I was pretending to pray, but my mind was racing else where. My thoughts where to what my life was going to possibly be like with Van as his wife and queen. My cheeks must have been a deeper shade of red then the pendant was because my face felt hot.

My dress was really long and hard to walk in since there where so many layers; it was bad enough that I had enough time walking but the healer said that I should be fine wearing it. I would kill Sakura the next time I seen her, had I known she would have made this wedding dress this many layers, I would have chosen another. I know it sounded conceded, but it couldn't be helped. It wasn't that it wasn't beautiful or anything, it was just too difficult to walk in. It must have cost a fortune! I could have never afforded something like this back on Earth.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

It was finally time, I was waiting next to Van. He took the veil that draped over my face and pushed it back over the crown that I now wore on my head. We started to walk and everyone bowed as we passed them. I had to hold back the tears in my eyes since it would have been embarrassing to cry at your own wedding. How long have I dreamed of getting married? Ever since I was a little girl I use to play with my dolls and get them married to my brother's action figures. It was pathetic, but every girl had to do it once in their life so here was my chance for it to be real. We bowed before the priest and it reminded me of Millerna and Dryden's wedding sort of, expect this time it was me and Van at the front and Millerna was waiting somewhere in the audience, quietly watching. It felt like it was going on forever. Van slipped the ring on my finger and I on his, he then kissed me and the crowd cheered. Once our kiss broke, I felt that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong and before I knew it, I felt that all too familiar light surround me. I looked at Van with panic stricken eyes as it lifted me off the ground and started to pick me up. I could see the horror in Van's eyes as well as he reached his hand out for mine and I enclosed my hand around the edge of his fingers and he tried to hang on.

"HITOMI!" Van shouted not caring about titles or any of that crap, he just cared about his wife, he wanted her safe, here on Gaea. "HITOMI!" He shouted again and the next thing I knew, Gaea was gone.