This Slow Dance
A/N: bah! chapter twooooo for you people. I have all the time in the world till next term, as I had my last final today. -woot-
This chapter takes place 4 years after the last one, not 4 years after the series. To straighten it up. Hitomi was like 17 in the last chapter... so that didn't take place right after the series either. :P Van and Hitomi are 21 in the present of my story.
Chapter 2
Three Years Later:
My vision keeps blurrying in out and out over these piles of paper, reading fine print for two days on end has began to take it's toll on me. I feel exhausted, and my temples pound without mercy at my lack of common sense, wanting to get these done and over with before the pile will increase even more. A volatile wish, but one that keeps me going.
I reach towards the ceiling, hearing, with a cringe, my back crack down my spine and my neck bunch up in even more knots than the ones from sword practice. My hand is cramping up from signing my name endlessly, and I look down at the last signature I'd signed with doubt. It didn't look like my handwriting... I'd indeed become too tired for this, and was now risking trouble for whoever these papers were to go to if one were to think they were forged. It had happened before, once, under the same situation, and was rather embarrasing to fix.
My duties shouldn't have to include fixing cockups that could, most deffinitly, have been avoided. My duties included taking care of this country, and not wasting time on tedious documents.
Even still, I took my time to read through each page carefully, not wanting anyone in my council to pull the wool over my eyes, or fix something unwanted on me. Reading carefully through each peice of documentation was the way to avoid any confrontation with the seniors on -- I glance at the top of the papers -- the Board of Agricultural wealth. Now I know I'm too tired to continue, as I thought I'd been reading something on immigration, not the yearly amount of grain transported to Asturia...
My thoughts drift, unwanted, but greatly rewarded, to the window, as I peer up through the inky blackness of the night to the Mystic Moon, thoughts strayed to the woman I'd let return there. I felt a fool for thinking we could keep in touch forever, and knew that perhaps we'd just grown apart because of us growing up.
She said she wouldn't forget me, even when she became old... but I blame our aging on this lose of contact more than anything else, basically because I hate to think it might be in some way my fault for the loss of contact.
I'd been in love with her. Surely? But I wasn't sure if the older us would ever be able to last.
Do people change that much?
There is always that inkling I get at the thought of the loss of contact. A surge of worry that something just wasn't right on her end. The last time I'd even got through to her, years ago now, I could have sworn there was just... something there. Something dark and ignored just as the corner of our connection that grew into a barrier and never allowed me to speak with her again.
The last time we'd talked she said she was worried about something. She said that she might be going away.
Going away where? For what purpose? I was never able to comprehend what was happening on her end, having little to no knowledge about the Mystic Moon besides the little things she told me.
I lived daily for her stories. Her misadventures during the day, but I never told her how much I depended on that contact.
I wonder if she loved me.
I'm startled from my thoughts as a sharp knock on the door demands my attention, and I drop my pen back into the ink well as someone pushed it open at my invitation.
Allen.
I feel a sharp blow to my mind that I suppose most people must feel when they come across someone they haven't seen for years and they look different then how you remember them to be.
Allen is still the same in stance. Wearing his knight's wear with a sword strapped to his side as if a second limb. He'd cut his hair, I realized with some shock, and he'd pulled it back at the nape of his neck with a tie. I caught this as he looked towards the open balcony I'd previously been looking towards.
He looked older than I last remembered him... and that's what gained my attention most.
"Allen..." I smile, stand stiffly, making my way over to him and realized as I approuch that I've grown taller than the man. It seemed my family's genes had finally come into play with me, and I now towered over most people like Folken and my Father had. It was strange to be taller than someone you looked up to when you're younger.
I stick out an ink stained hand in greeting and watch as his mouth pulls into a companionable smile, deep lines suddenly showing around his eyes. His gloves hands fits into mine firmly for a moment and I pat his back during the moment of comfortable silence between us.
"Van, how have you been?"
"Busy." I told him honestly, motioning to the paper work piled on the desk. "But I think I can spare some time to visit with an old friend."
How long had it been since I'd seen Allen? I can't remember. Years ago? Had I really become this disconnected from my friends of the war? Could I call them friends?
It seems Hitomi wasn't the only one I'd lost throughout the years.
"Actually, I haven't got time." He holds out a thick peice of parchment to me, and I take it out of curiosity, passing him a questioning look as I take in the cracked seal I recognize but can't seem to place at the moment. "I came to show you this."
I unravel the parchment and find myself look at a long list of names. Each with an age, place of origin (Asturia, Zaibach, Fried, Fanalia even) along with sex and whether the person was deceased or not. There were many listed as dead. I pass my eyes over the page and only after a few moments of silence realize what I'm looking at.
"The refugee list from the Zaibach empire?"
"Close." He indicates the seal I was questionable about. " It's from Youmai."
I gock at him for a moment. "They finally gave up their list?" I look back at it with more interest this time. Some of these people were deserters, prisoners, soldiers in hiding, lost families...
Asturia, as one of the leaders in the Destiny Council, named so after Dornkirk's machine and the losses it had caused, was after the Island of Youmai to give up their list of refugees since the war. Youmai having been a state ruled by Zaibach for several centries after the expansion of their empire. Strangely, it was off the coast of Asturia and had been occupied during the war by allied forces but they always had a problem with the inhabitants and their puppet Emperor who danced to Dornkirk's fiddle when it came to trade and production.
The tension had only increased lately, as Zaibach had plunged into a Civil War that the allies had to keep under close watch and in tight confines. Youmai had always, strangely, been the exception. Untouchable. Van always assumed it was because of the number of aristocrats and high officials living on the Island.
"I brought it because I figured this would interest you." I'm still looking at the list when he points to a specific name, and, much to Van's amazement, he's found the name as been crossed out and become impossible to read. The only thing listed with it was "Age 21. Female. Origins Unknown. Living."
My eyebrows shoot into my hairline as I look up at Allen, as if in askance for an explanation, as I certainly required one. I didn't know what he was showing me.
"My men, after going there to obtain this from their Emperor, reported that there was a bright flash from the sky years ago that did not make a sound. I believe their exact words were 'A pillar of light from the heavens.'
I swear it felt like my heart stopped, or perhaps I simply forgot to breath a moment, but I was staring at Allen in shock and realization.
Could Hitomi be on Gaea already?
"I know it's a long shot Van... and completely skeptical, but I wonder if you would like to accompany our Peace mission over to Youmai."
I stare at him, at a loss for words before shaking my head in silent amazement. "When do you leave?"
Allen looks over my shoulder at the mountain of paper work, and I look back involutarily. "You don't have too much to do?"
Some silly part of me wanted to go with them simply to make sure Allen doesn't sweep Hitomi away from me like before, but the pile of paper work was a nagging voice at the back of my brain.
But I've already made my choice. "I'm coming."
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A/N:Well... 2nd chapter. not very long. hahaha. This is all I had planned to write, I didn't think it would take up not very much space :P
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