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Uchida forwned at her daughter as Van and Hitomi walked through the crowd towards where she stood.
"You know, with the viel and now the crown the only thing I can think of is The Lady Of Shelot." Uchida said once Hitomi was close by her side.
"Gee, thanks mom. That's just want I want to be told after my wedding." Hitomi glared at her mum playfully before remembering that she probably couldn't tell what she was doing.
"Well, it's just what I think of." Uchida shrugged before hugging her daughter and kissing Van's cheek, "Congrats again you two. You make a perfect couple."
"Thank you." Van smiled and wrapped an arm around Hitomi's shoulders.
Uchida started snickering, "I just thought of what else you remind me of!"
"Do I want to know?" Hitomi asked with a groan.
"Casper!" Uchida laughed quietly, having caught a very sour looking Albert's eye.
"He doesn't look happy." Hitomi grinned, knowing he couldn't see her.
"No, he doesn't." Van had to hide his smile, "This week we will make a new council." he added quietly, "I realy should have done it earlier but those men are so good at what they do."
"Well, change will be good. For them as well as us." Hitomi squeezed Van's arm and laughed, "Now, no more talk of bussiness. It's our wedding day."
"Our second wedding day." Van corrected, "But you're right, of course. No more talk of work or politics."
"Good!" Uchida laughed and passed them each a glass of Fanelian wine.
"How am I suppose to...?" Hitomi asked, her hands were the only things outside of the viel at the moment.
"Like this." Van pulled the front of the viel out so Hitomi could tuck her hand, glass of wine and all under the lace for a sip.
Pennin and Rosie came over to talk with the couple for a while. They helped every now and then to keep Hitomi's viel out of the wine.
Uchida spoke with Rosie about children and the names Pennin and Rosie were fond of.
"Three months to go." Pennin grinned at Van as the woman talked about boys names, "Rosie feels that we are having a son."
"Next week it will be two months to go." Rosie said with a smile, "Then, after our little is born, I'll be able to fit through the door with Pennin at my side."
"Right now who ever reaches the door first enters first. Though I do try to get there first so I can hold the door for her." Pennin kissed Rosie's forehead as he placed a hand on her belly.
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Albert had yet to corner the newly married (in his mind this marriage was the only one that counted) couple. They had done something and he was going to speak to Van about the shortening of the sacred vows. Not they realy ment much to him.
Van barely covered his laugh as he pulled Hitomi back behind part of the ruined wall. The celebrations were still going on and at every oppurtunity visiting lords and they families were offering conratulations and talk of happy marriages. What they all realy wanted to hear about was Van's plans on how to deal with Zaibach and when Hitomi was going to have a baby.
All Van wanted was a moment alone with his wife. So, the wall seemed like the perfect hiding place. They would have surely been spotted if they had gone into the palace and also no one would think that the Roayls had gone into the ruined the area of the garden.
"You alright under there?" Van asked, pulling the viel up to reveal Hitomi.
"I'm getting a head ache from looking through the lace." Hitomi smiled weakly, "And I think I've had too much wine."
Van laughed and kissed his wife, "We'll soon retire to our room." he kissed her again,longer this time "I bet we could get away with staying here till just after sunset. We'll drink to the sun's setting and then hide ourselves away."
"As if they won't know where we went." Hitomi laughed and slipped out of Van's arms before he could pin her to the wall again, "We should go back."
"If you insist, my love." Van placed Hitomi's viel back over her face, "But I am not letting them keep us there longer than sunset."
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Hitomi woke to a small humming.
Looking around the room she found that Tar was no where to be seen so it wasn't him. The Dragon had a habit of humming in his sleep.
But this sound was different.
"Van." Hitomi said sleepily, "Van, do you hear this?" she snuggled closer to him as he groaned and opened one eye.
"I don't hear anything." he pulled a pillow over his head and slung an arm around Hitomi.
"Ok." Hitomi sighed and went back to sleep.
Not twnety minutes later a loud knock on the door had Van up and pulling on a pair of pants.
"Yes?" Van asked, eyes still half closed.
"It's Rosie." Pennin said hurriedly, "She having birthing pains but she's only 6 months along. Please, she thought Hitomi might be able to help her. The mid wife has proven to still be too young and inexperienced."
"I'm coming." Hitomi tied her robe and pushed out past Van and Pennin, already wide awake.
Pennin led the way to his room and they found Rosie sitting up in their bed.
"Oh, thank the Gods." Rosie reached out for Hitomi, "Tell him it's too early! Tell him to wait two more months!"
Hitomi didn't know what she could do for her friend but she moved to kneel beside the bed and placed her hands over Rosie's swollen stomack.
Pain shot through Hitomi's head as she felt the struggle inside of Rosie.
A small life fighting such a huge battle.
Calm. You still have time.
Hitomi tried to think about calming things but the pain of the struggle was pushing in on her mind.
Oh, please. You must stop. Stop.
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Van and Pennin stood outside the room.
Pennin was in shock and Van was just getting his wits back.
Hitomi rarely used her powers so to see her stare into Rosie stomack as the room became brighter and brighter was unnerving. The light had been coming from Hitomi and the baby inside Rosie.
Hours passed and when nothing changed inside the room Van had pulled Pennin from the room with the intention of getting the man a stiff drink but niether of them wanted to be far from the room.
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Hitomi pulled away slowly. The baby and Rosie would both be fine but Rosie had to spend the rest of her pregnancy in bed. Her body was trying to belatedly reject the baby, and Hitomi had done all she could to keep the blood from hurting the little boy.
As Hitomi's power slipped away Rosie's body relaxed and the woman slept.
Just as Hitomi was going to let her power fade back she heard it again. Something was humming. She sat for awhile, letting her power reach one way and then another without success. The humming didn't get stronger or weaker at all.
Opening the door Hitomi found Penning sitting on the floor, his head in his hands and Van leaning against the wall next to him.
"Keep her in bed." Hitomi said and Pennin nodded as he sprang to his feet.
"Anything else?" he asked. Hitomi knew he was asking if both baby and mum were ok.
"Rosie is right." Hitomi smiled tiredly, "You are having a little boy."
Pennin thanked Hitomi and dissapeared inside the room. Van and Hitomi just looked at each other. Van had so many questions but he could tell his wife was about to fall asleep on her feet if he didn't do something about it.
"Come on you." he walked over and scooped Hitomi up in his arms, "Back to bed with you, my Queen."
"She's ok." Hitomi said slowly, "So is the baby."
"I know." Van kissed the top of Hitomi's head as he reached for the door nob to their room, "And you can rest now."
"But the humming." Hitomi mumbled, already asleep in Van's arms.
"Shhhhhhhh." Van set her in the bed and untied her robe to find that she hadn't even taken the time to put anything on under it before running to help her friend. Van himself had been dressed in just a pair of pants all morning. No shirt, no underwear, no shoes and most surprisingly, no sword.
Van watched Hitomi sleep. He had hoped that with Zaibach's ambassadors gone they would be able to rest but it seemed that life just wasn't ready for them to take a breather. He was still worried for Rosie and her baby but he knew that if anything was still seriously wrong with Rosie then Hitomi would still be by her side.
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Aidren limped out to the fields to find Van and Hitomi already there. The soldier stopped, frozen in place by shock. Both the Queen and the King stood there with their wings revealed. In the years that he had known Van Aidren had seen the King's wings only once and from a great distance.
"It's alright, Aidren." Van waved his friend over, "I have a feeling that soon all of Fanelia will have to get use to our wings."
"I need to master flying." Hitomi broke in, "Van is teaching me but it's hard while we have to worry about others coming across us."
"I asked you to come out here to act as look out." Van smiled, "I trust you, and it will be one less thing to distract Hitomi."
"Of course." Aidren shook Van's hand and then bowed to Hitomi, "The sight of you two does wonders for one's heart." he said as he turned and limped over to where he had walked into the field.
"Now, Hitomi," Van put a hand on Hitomi's arm, "Stay clam and do what you did last time."
"You mean panic?" Hitomi asked somewhat annoyed. In school she had caught onto everything very quickly and no sport was too hard for her. But now a pair of wings seemed to be more than she could handle.
"No." Van smiled, "Though the noise you made just before you fell was rather interesting."
"Van!" Hitomi couldn't help but laugh.
"Seriously." Van cleared his throat and tried not to smile, "You were doing fine untill you started over thinking everything and don't pay too much attention to the ground."
"I'll try." Hitomi nodded at Van and flexed her wings.
She could do this.
She knew she could do this.
There was no way in Hell Van would be teaching her how to fly if he thought she couldn't do it.
Don't think about it. Just fly. Steady beat and push forward.
Hitomi had her eyes closed as she moved to keep from staring at the ground as she had been doing all day. The muscles in her back no longer screamed in pain everytime she took to the air which in her opinion was the best thing that had happened in a while when it came to flying.
Already they had been three days outside in the chill wind practicing and talking over every big and small detail of how Draconian wings worked.
Three days and a million bruises later Hitomi felt the same lift as her feet left the ground. Now all she was waiting for was the twist of her stomack and the sudden rush of air that ment she was falling. Her eyes were still tightly shut when Van yelled, startling Hitomi to the point where she almost did fall out of the sky.
"What's wrong?" she asked, looking around for any attack that she might be able to see from so high up.
"You're flying!" Van yelled, launching himself up into the air.
Hitomi looked down and smiled. She realy was flying and at the moment she was even pulling off an impressive hover.
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Selena sat quietly, if impatiently for her Master to arrive.
She had been summoned and had come quickly only to find that the Master was not in the room she had been sent to.
Now the only thing for her to do was wait. She hated being made to wait.
Slowly, Selena looked around the room. It was the first time she had actualy been summoned by the Master and didn't have to deal with the Master's magicians. A group of idiots who while seperating Dilandau from her mind nearly killed her. As far as she knew they still hadn't recieved any punishment for their carelessness.
"You returned early." came the smooth silky voice Selena knew all too well. It froze her in place.
"Yes, Master."
"Without my orders." there was no threat or edge in the voice.
"To warn of the Dragons. When the Dragons were no longer a threat we came back for the troops and to bring Allen back to you." Selena was sure she wasn't ment to know where her Master was but she was dying to turn her head and try to find where the voice was coming from.
"The troops are not yet ready." a coldness had entered the voice, "You've now sentenced yourself to at least two weeks of waiting and you left weak men behind in Fanelia."
"They know better than to try something without orders." Selena sat up straighter, staring at the darkly papered wall.
"You had better hope so. I have plans and if anything gets in the way of those plans you are the one I intend to blame."
Selena desperately wanted to ask about Dilandau. What about him? Shouldn't he get blamed as well? He was just as much a part of this as she was and yet he wasn't the one getting a 'talking to' from the Master.
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Van swung his sword slowly. He made sure Hitomi saw every move over and over.
"It's not much, but if you have to fight with a sword at least you will know what you're doing." Van straightened up and had Hitomi go through the movements again.
"I don't plan to fight with a sword, Van." Hitomi strained with the weapon's weight and Van stepped forward to correct the angle.
"I just want you to know how to use one. I started training when I was only four." Van kept his eyes on her poise, "Elbow higher and don't jerk the Sword around like that. You'll end up dropping it."
"Four?" Hitomi asked, letting her elbow drop more. The visual of a four year old Van training with a small practice sword made her sad, "You were expected to fight at four?"
"No." Van moved to her side and brought her arms back up, "It's just easier for a child to get use to weapons than an untrained adult. Adults use their heads too much. A child follows directions without questions while an adult will talk through an enitire lesson, not learning anything."
"I'm sorry." Hitomi dropped her gaze, knowing that this ment a lot to Van, "I'll stop talking and keep my elbow up."
Van kissed Hitomi's hair, "I just want you to be safe. I'm not trying to scold you. I love you."
"I know." Hitomi looked up at her husband, "Now, lets start again."
Van nodded and stepped back to watch his wife. He corrected her only a few times. She realy had picked up everything very fast. He was proud to say that she was his Queen and wife. During the Destiny War he had seen too many women killed or driven off after their husbands had died. Next to none of them knew how to swing a sword.
Hitomi had other deffenses but he just felt better knowing that she could follow a simple sword lesson. As Hitomi swung at the 'target', which happened to be an old post, Van was also happy to see that she was capable. That was always a good start for any warrior.
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It was late and Hitomi was still wide awake. She was just laying there listening to Van breathe when she heard it faintly.
The humming was back.
Off and on during the day Hitomi had listened for it and found it easily enough. When she was busy she didn't notice it at all, but when ever she was still and relaxed she could hear it as though it was coming from far away. Quiet yet constant.
She had tried all day to find it's source. She found nothing.
It worried her yet at the same time it didn't.
A shadow glided past the windows, announcing Tar's return. He had had bussiness elsewhere. Bussiness he hadn't been inclined to talk about. In fact he sounded distant when Hitimi had asked where he was going. His answer had been a small, "You'll know when you know."
Van snored lightly and Hitomi smiled. He only snored when he was very tired and denied that he'd ever snored in his life. She'd made the mistake of telling him one morning that she had heard him snoring when she woke up for water in the middle of the night. He had turned an odd shade of red and flat out denied it.
Men.
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A/N: I had every intention of making this extra long but at the moment we're going through a family crisis. A friend (a self adopted sibling, I guess you could say) has been injured. Someone I've known my whole life. Please, send him your possitive thoughts and best wishes. I'm not sure how I feel about praying but if it'll help him I will try anything. Thank you.
I'm in such a daze due to what happened...I'm not even sure I'm telling you everything I wanted to. O, well. There's always the next chapter.
Please review and as always ignore my spelling. It's been horrid for as long as I can remember and will always be horrid.