There and Back again
GA1: Due to my umm... laziness I'm putting two chapters up at once.
SD Yay! About time you did something….
GA1: O shut up… I don't see you doing any work
SD: That's because all the stuff is on your computer... smiles So it's up to you to do all the work.
GA1: glares Death...
Disclaimer: Fear me for I am the almighty owner of nothing! That's right, nothing. That means that I don't own the world, nor do I own Escaflowne and its characters. I can pretend I do and end up in the crazy people home but nay, that's too much work. However, we do own our respective characters:
Spirit Dancer: Aiko, Shiva
Glass Angel1: Ayane, Fira, Merlin, the Providence Children, Caim and any other character that I must create for the production of this story.
All rights reserved.
Summary:
Not just an ordinary retelling of Escaflowne. Two girl's wish away their lives of family abuse, only to find their wish answered. Destiny plays its hands hard as these two friends find themselves caught up in a war of a world they barely know, only to be torn apart along the way. Will they be able to overcome their trouble pasts, and save this new world for its own destruction? Or will their pasts become its means of destruction?
Category: Action/Adventure/Romance
xVxVxVxVx; same place different point of view
xXxXxXx; scene change
italic; vision
XoX; Flashback
Chpt 14 Out on the Town
The sunlight crept through the open balcony doors down onto the bed. Aiko rolled over away from it, trying to fall back to into the darkness of the tempting sleep. She pulled the heavy set of blankets over her head as she curled the feather pillow around her. Getting up at the moment wasn't something she wanted to do. Someone was moving around the room, she could hear them as a few things were being moved around, and a sniffled curse. The room was quiet again, satisfied with the silence, Aiko began to fall back asleep when that 'someone' yanked the blankets off of the bed and her face was basked in sunlight again.
"Aiko, you bum get up." Aiko groaned as she put the pillow over her head.
"Just...five...more..." she never got to finish, as she drifted off to sleep again...or would have if Ayane hadn't yanked the pillow off her head. Groaning again, Aiko might as well get up, since all of her covers were gone. She yawned and turned to Ayane. "Why did you have to wake me up?"
"Because if I don't you'll spend the whole damn day in bed..." Ayane growled her short hair was no longer curled, slight damp from a bath she probably had. Now that it fell down to her shoulders, one could see the different layers that it had. Leaving the bed side, she returned to tossing through her stuff, and putting it back into her bag.
"What's your point?" Aiko asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Ayane rolled her eyes at the girl.
"I left you some hot water for your bath; if you get up a little faster you will have a nice hot bath for once and not a cold one..." A black blur rushed past Ayane and into the bathroom, slamming the door in the process. As Aiko jumped into the warm water, Ayane popped her head in momentary. "I'll be out for a while, you think you can not try and kill yourself in that time?" Aiko rolled her eyes.
"Ya ya... I'll be here when you get back, don't worry..." she said when she saw Ayane giving her a suspicious look. When she closed the door, Aiko got undressed and went into the bathtub. She sighed as leaned back against the tub. Finally, she had a warm bath, unlike all the other places. Aiko closed her eyes to relax but end up falling back to the darkness of sleep for a short time.
XoX (dream)
Aiko jumped awake, and saw that she was in her own room. "What...was it all a dream?" She got out of bed quickly got dressed and went down stair to make breakfast, only to find that breakfast was already made. Looking around, she saw herself as a four year old, and her mother talking to her in a soft voice.
"Oh no…." She heard her self say as her mother laughed.
"We're going to the beach today right mommy?"
"Yes, dear. Mommy and Daddy are taking you to beach today." The little girl giggles softly as she got down from the table and puts her dish into the sink. Her mother smiled and put her dish up as well. The scene blurs out and returns to the mother and the father sitting under a beach umbrella, as they watch a four year old Aiko building in the sand. The father gets up, and starts to head towards the water. The young Aiko gets up, leaving her half finished sandcastle, and follows him with a smile on her face. Once again the scene is blurred out by a mixture of colors that faded into a hospital room. Aiko's mother was on the bed, with Aiko and her father around the bed. The mother is holding her daughters hand as tears roll down her pale cheeks.
"Be careful." The hand goes limp as the heart monitor screams, signaling that the heart has stopped.
XoX
The dream jolted Aiko awake to find herself in a cold bath, tears gracing her cheeks. She looked around and sighed, wiping them off. Getting out of the tub, she dried herself, and gets changed into her clothes. Twists her towel around her hair, she walked mindlessly into the bedroom again, with the only thought of not falling asleep again.
xXxXxXx
She walked down the halls making her way to where she had promised to meet him. At least it was easier to see where she was going now that the morning light lit up the palace halls. Straightening the front of her black dress out a bit, she let her mind wonder a bit before she stepped outside the Palace walls. At first, the bright light hurt her eyes a bit, but as she quickly made her way down the path they adjusted to the brightness. This world seemed to have brighter sunrises then back home in Tokyo, but then again Tokyo did have a lot of smog. Coming around a bend on the path she found Van standing alone, looking at nothing particular in front of him. Smiling from the look on his face, Ayane crept up next to him and grabbed his arm, hugging onto it like she had since Merle do a few times. Van didn't move, or even turn his head to see who it was. Ayane could almost laugh, he was so adsorbed in his own thought that he thought she was Merle.
"Good morning Van-dono..." she cooed in a "Merle like voice'. Van's chocolate brown eyes seemed to flash a bit, as he turned his head sharply to look at her. She could see the line of color running to his face under his tan skin.
"M-morning, Lady Ayane..." She smiled a bit and cocked her head to the side.
"Sleep well?"
"Yes...thank you." She hugged his arm a little more as she blinked up at him. The blush seemed to darken a bit on his face; Ayane was having too much fun with the shy boy.
"Your highness, can you do be a little favor while I'm gone?"
"Gone?" Van asked a little confused at the sweet covered tone in her voice. "What?"
"Allen promised to show me around a bit, since yesterday's exploring was cut short by a few mishaps." And so I can eat something that I can keep down, she thought to herself as she smiled up at him brightly. She was having way too much fun with his shyness around females. "Could you keep Aiko out of trouble until I get back?"
"Yes... Sure Lady Ayane..." He smiled a bit in return. Ayane nearly pulled his arm off as she made a little jump of joy.
"Thank you, Van-dono!" She jumped up again suddenly and kissed him on the cheek before running down the path, leaving a stunned Van in her wake.
xXxXxXx
"Dear lord... Gatty can you even read this?" Shesta sighed as they stood to the side of the busy crowd of the Austria marketplace. The two of them were dressed down out of their Dragonslayers uniforms, in normal clothing. Gatty was leaning against the wall next to him, straightening out his long sleeves of his blue dress shirt. Even if they were out of uniform, they were still in the right colors. Blue and black, with dagger hidden inside their boots just incase something was to happen...while they were running around the Austria marketplace doing their general's shopping. Shesta sighed inwardly; the Strategoes was furious with Dilandau when he reached the Vione. That evening's training had not been the greatest with their commander's temper on edge. And since, now Dilandau was even forbidden to even go near the hanger bays, he had to send two of his slayers out to do this.
"Read what? Dilandau-sama's handwriting when his pissed off...?" Gatty looked over his shoulder at the small piece of paper his friend's hand, and laughed. "No, but I can tell you that 'dead' stick figure is King Van!" Sighing to suppress his own laughter, Shesta leaned against the stone wall as well. Even Dilandau-sama's art suffered when he was angry. Maybe while they were out here, they could buy him a few more canvases and paints. Pushing the thought aside he went back to deciphering the handwriting.
"Gods, why didn't we just send Viole and Miguel out on this? At least Miguel would have a clue what was written on here..."
"Yeah Shesta, but the two of them wouldn't get anything done. Look where we are, Shes." Gatty waved his hand at the passing group of young women, who looked at them giggling. "Viole be flirting with every woman in sight."
"And Miguel would be trying to kill him. I know, I know..."
"Exactly, now, let's get back to deciphering what's written on that list shall we?" Shesta nodded as he being to work out the letters on the ink splattered paper. Sometimes he wished that Dilandau would use a pen instead of that calligraphy set Dallet had bought him last winter's eve. Though, Dilandau was quiet good with it, it was just when he was angry had a habit of drawling all over the paper making the words nearly impossible to read.
"Well. The first few things are fruits: Mangos, Strawberries, Apples, err, I think that's bananas, but those aren't in season here yet. We have: Oranges, Red Grape fruit, Grapes..."
"So the first few things are just fruits right?"
"Yeah..." Shesta nodded.
"Alright, is there anything else on there?"
"Yup... We have err...Blacpaony?" He frowned as he turned the paper a bit. "O! Black paint, he's also got the colors, red, blue, white, peach, purple, and satin violet."
"I guess he has something he wants to paint. Better get him a few canvases while we're at it, eh Shes?" Gatty stood up off the wall and looked at him to continue.
"Ok... the next thing on this list is...huh?" He frowned as he reread what was on it. "A cherry oak queen size bed with canopy, a matching dresser and night stand. A Solid oak table with two 'olive' chairs, a set of black silk curtains, for the bed canopy. Also, black satin bed sheets. Two large size swan feather pillows and two smaller ones with black pillow covers. A black velvet blanket..." He could nearly see the frown forming on his partners face; both of them were thinking the same thing as he continued down the list. "There's also a set of black bath towels, umm... there's a list of what I'm guessing of...famine products? What the hell is going on here?"
"Planning for something I guess..." Gatty shrugged, "but what kind of products... There is no way I'm going to be getting any of 'those' type of things."
"Well, there's none of 'those', most of this looks like toiletry kind of things, soaps, shampoos...err... O! There's one more thing."
"Thank god... What is it?"
"We're to pick up a clothing order in one of the clothing shops...The stores name indicates it's a female cloth designer..." Sighing Shesta looked up at his partner, "I take it back; coming out here with this list was a good ideal. I think I now what they others were complaining about when we left this morning."
"Yup. They get to clean out the empty room on the top floor while we get to buy the furniture for it." Gatty sighed, and then smiled. "Looks like we are getting our little Healer back. The training room seemed to loose its perk when she left."
"Gatty!" Shesta looked at him in shock.
"What? O come on, Shesta you were checking her out too so don't even start..." He waved his hand in the air, his blond friend just made a face at him. "Anyways... Why don't we start with the big stuff, and work down to the fruits. We'll get the big stuff delivered to the Vione this evening..."
"Sounds like a good ideal..." Shesta started to say, but would be unable to finish as someone spoke up next to them.
"How's your hand?" The two turned sharply to see the woman they had just been talking about standing not to far away. The black dress she wore glistened from the sun, the light sea breeze tossed her straightened hair about as she smiled at the two of them. Both Gatty and Shesta were at a loss for words as their mouths dripped kind of open. Ayane looked from one to the other before looking back to Shesta. "It didn't scar did it?"
"N-no…." Was all Shesta could manage as she smiled at him. Gatty turn his attention to a certain blond making his way through the crowd towards them. Momentarily he poked his companion in the back so that he would look too. Ayane frowned for a moment before following Gatty's eyes to the blond knight. The frown deepened before she looked back at them and smiled, as he got closer.
"Ayane... Why did you run off like that?" Allen's voice seemed a bit out of breath. His blue eyes fixed on the two down dressed slayers, face threatening to frown as his hand fell to the hilt of his sword. Ayane wheeled around to face him, sticking out her tongue.
"It's not my fault you're slow!" She turned around to look at them again. "I think I saw the store you are looking for down a ways... Sorry but that's about all I can tell you, sirs…"
"It's alright…." Gatty managed, a little confused at what she was talking about. She turned around again and grabbed Allen's arm to drag him back into the passing crowd.
"Come on Allen! Back to the castle we go!" The knight didn't have a chance to argue with her, as she pulled him along. Neither of the slayers let out an eased breath until the blond knight was out of sight.
"That…..was close….."
"You're telling me..." Gatty leaned back against the wall, hand on his forehead.
"Hey Gatty…."
"Yea, Shes?"
"Let's get her something extra ok?"
"Agreed…"
xXxXxXx
Aiko had fallen asleep sometime before Ayane got back. Her head phones were on the little bedside table, her book was open on her stomach unfinished, and split in the middle. Her face frowned as she turned over to the other side, no doubt losing her place as the book fell off her stomach onto the bed.
"Aiko?" Ayane said as she popped her head into the room. According to Merle, she had spent the day in here, and Ayane felt a little bad about leaving her alone. The room was dark when she looked in. Taking a moment to let her eyes adjust to the light, she walked into the room. Her friend was sound asleep on the bed, mostly hogging it from what she could see. Sighing, she walked into the bathroom, slowly stripping down out of her dress. Walking around in black in this heat was something she was going to have to get use to, or she would have to find a way to clean her other dress. As she stepped back into the room, dressed in a short black bathrobe, Ayane laid her dress on the back of one of the chairs along with her leggings, and her boots. Aiko murmured something in her sleep as she tossed about. Rolling her eyes, Ayane walked to the side of the bed, and poked her. There was no way she was going to let Aiko have all the bed again. The girl had a thing for sleeping in the middle. "Hey... Aiko... move over..." Aiko mumbled something again, as she turned and faced Ayane.
"...stop...it..." It was almost as if she was answering back. Ayane's eye brow raised a little as Aiko moved over in Ayane's favor. Mumbling some more incoherent words, she turned again, so that her back was facing Ayane. Sighing, she studied her back before she picked up the book on the bed. Frowning, she placed it on the night stand.
"Let me guess, you willed the day away by hiding in this room, reading and listening to that CD player of yours... You do know those batteries are going to die soon, and I'm not giving you my spares..." Ayane crossed her arms in front of her as she continued to lecture her sleeping friend. "I bet you didn't even eat anything today. Not that I really blame you for not wanting to eat anything in this place. The food at the bar Allen took me was pretty good... Though the beer needs some work..." She continued to talk, as if Aiko was listening to her, which in fact she wasn't. After a few more sentences Aiko rolled over again so that she, once again, claimed the center of the bed. Frowning as she realized what had happened. Ayane rolled her eyes, as she knelt over the bed, and stabbed her in the side with her index finger.
"Aiko, move your butt over!" Aiko's eyes snapped open, as she punched Ayane hard, sending her backwards.
"Get the fuck off me!" She got up off the bed suddenly, and started to walk towards Ayane with hate in her eyes. They weren't very clear, nor focused. "I hate you! I wish you would fucking die and never come back!" Aiko picked up Ayane by the throat and held her against the wall, holding her several feet above the ground. A chaotic smile crossed her face as her thumb found the sensitive spot, and began to push against it. "Now die!"
"Aiko..." Ayane choked as her hands weakly pressed against her chest, the lack of oxygen making her dizzy.
GA1: What are you gonna do!
SD: nervous laugh I…umm…don't remember. Didn't we write this like…six months ago?
GA1: frowns Am I really that far behind in updates?
SD: Yup……afraid so…
GA1: grrr……
GA1 & SD: Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Editing: 08/15/2007