I know I took a while but work for both me and my beta are getting busier. I apologize for the delay but honestly it might get worse before it gets better. Just bear with us. This was a hard chapter to write as it was almost all talking. Some people like it more that way. I on the other hand am an action person. I try to find a balance between the two but as a drama this will lean heavily towards talking.

Chapter 3- Dreams

Her fingers tangle in my hair, pulling me closer. I can't think of anything but the promise of a future with Hitomi and the feel of our bodies pressed together. A body changed in such a short time. The press of something literally between us pulls me back to reality. I need my mind back on this world to get the answers denied to me.

Reluctantly I pull away, gently grasping Hitomi's wrists to remove her hands only to place them on my chest instead. Though I don't want to stop the moment the best thing I can do is put some space between us without outright rejecting her. "As much as I'd like to forget everything and start over… I can't. Hitomi, I didn't come into your room in the middle of the night to do anything but talk."

Her bottom lip quivers slightly, but she nods. "We should sit down. You're right, we have a lot to talk about." Sitting on the edge of her bed, she clutches a pillow to her chest like a floatation device.

Sitting on the bed with her might be a bad idea, so I pull over the chair from her desk and turn it around so I can sit straddled with my arms propped up on the back of it. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Rubbing the back of her neck as if embarrassed she won't meet my eyes. "You have to start with the hard question."

I can't help but smile slightly since that seems to be a habit she picked up from me. My smile fades as fast as it comes when I realize that habit is normally reserved for when you're unsure of what to say. Since when has Hitomi felt the need to censor herself around me? The fact that she always spoke bluntly to me was a trait I valued and relied upon. She never tiptoed around me due to rank like most people, so why now of all times am I not getting complete honesty? "Aren't all the questions pretty difficult right now? "Is it your family?"

"Not entirely." She gives a sad smile, still not meeting my eyes. "I'm not ready to go back Van, and you coming for me gives me very little choice."

I decide to try rephrasing the question in the hopes of getting a clearer response. "Is it the thought of leaving them and this world for good?"

"Not exactly, I've realized it would have been kinder to my family if I hadn't come back at all." She places one of her slender hands over where my larger ones grip the back of the chair. "Thank you for standing up for me, but it really wasn't necessary. My dad is just scared that he can't control or protect me from what has happened."

"Guys like him don't handle fear well." I agree, letting the warmth flow between us like old times. "They take it out on the people around them, but there is no excuse for what he said about you."

"At least I tried to tell them everything, it was up to them how much they believed." She shrugged, as if this wasn't something that bothered her.

"Now is the time to tell me everything then." I push, knowing that she'll only tell me what she has to at this point. As much as I'd like to know more about her family or life here, it is just a form of evasion.

She sighs heavily pushing the pillow away. "Think of it this way Van. For so long all you had to think about was Fanelia. What was best for it, fighting for it, and even the future of it." Hitomi wrapped her arms around her rounded stomach as if protecting it from the world. "This child is my Fanelia. It is my responsibility to think of it first."

My hands clench tightly on the back of the chair. "Are you saying that the child needs protection from me?"

Eyes innocent, Hitomi immediately reaches for me. "Not at all! I'm sure you will be a great father… just not yet." Despite her slight hesitation I feel like she is telling the truth. "I want to protect our child from things you can't fight. Here let me show you." She reaches across to her desk, making the too small shirt rise up a bit higher. I was so focused on the exposed skin that I didn't even realize she had opened the desk drawer to remove something until she was waving the ridged envelope in front of my face.

I look from it to her before taking the item. It felt heavier then paper and not nearly as flexible. Carefully I open the envelope, removing a black and white printed sheet. Looking closely, I am amazed to see it was a picture like I've never seen before.

Hitomi leans towards me as I delicately hold this unusual thing. "It's called a sonogram. The doctors here use an ultrasound machine… it uses sound waves to form a picture so they can see what is normally unseen. It's used to check growth rate, development, gender, and if the child is healthy." She started pointing out different blurry shapes. "That's the face and there are the hands and all ten fingers. Everything is normal he is totally healthy."

Stunned, I look from the image to her. "You said he. Is it a boy?"

She flushes slightly as if it wasn't a fact that she wanted to let slip. "It isn't for sure, but even if the doctors didn't tell me so I know our child is a boy."

Looking back down at the grainy image with new eyes I gently trace the delicate features of my son. I have heard it said that a woman becomes a mother when she becomes pregnant and her bond with the child is so much closer and that a man only becomes a father when he holds his child for the first time. I know now that it is not true. In that moment, I felt a powerful pull to protect and love this child.

Pulling my attention back to the present, Hitomi began pleading her case again. "Medical care is so much more advanced. Both me and the child would be safer if he were born here."

Reluctantly I hand her the miraculous picture, wanting my hands free and it safe. Hitomi takes it and carefully slides it between the pages of a blue bound book on her night table. I sigh, just what I need, another mysterious journal.

I don't want to scare her, but I think she needs a reminder that everything doesn't always go as planned. "I see, and how would your healers react if our son was born with wings out?"

"That's not possible." She blurted out, but her eyes were uncertain. "Is it?"

"After the war a half Draconian immigrated to Fanelia to join my guard. They were born with wings out and it killed their mother."

One hand flew to cover her mouth while the other cradled her belly. "That's horrible."

"Aside from Folken, this guard is the only other like me I have ever met." I admit

"What happened to them?"

"It's not a happy story." I hesitate to tell her anymore but there isn't a need.

She snorts. "Seems to be a common theme."

"Let me see if I understand this." I had to force the conversation back on the right track. "You planned on having the child here. Alone. What after that?"

Hitomi looked uncertain of what to say so I continued trying to let me disbelief overshadow my anger. "Another three months, that's nine months more for me. You planned on showing up almost three years after you left with a baby and no word?"

"Two and a half years at most." She corrected, though it doesn't make me any happier. This time it is her turn to continue without a response. "Anyways, the time might change this trip, and it wouldn't have been that long."

That has me off balance this time. "What do you mean by that?"

She flips open the blue covered book wordlessly and hands it to me. The handwriting covering the pages was the same characters inscribed outside the house. Completely illegible to me so I just shake my head, and hand the book back to her. "You'll have to tell me."

"I wrote everything down. All I could remember about my time on Gaia… the people that suffered and the things we overcame." She clutched the book tightly. "I even found out more after I returned. My grandmother was taken more then forty years ago but it was only ten on Gaia. There was another taken even before her. His name was Isaac Newton but you knew him as Dornkirk." Before I could gather my thoughts she continued.

"He was famous here so there are records of his life, and when he was taken to Gaia it must have been recorded as his death, more than 280 years ago."

"How is that possible?" Now I was intrigued though I had a bad feeling about all this.

"If time moved five times as fast here then Dornkirk was only on Gaia for about 60 years."

"Dornkirk and your Grandmother both had time move faster here, so why is it now slower? It makes no sense." The numbers just didn't match up. Five times as fast for the first taken to Gaia, then four times as fast for her grandmother, but why now is it three times slower. We know one day here is three on Gaia… why would it change so much when the only variable where the people transported?

"I think it was us." Hitomi speaks, drawing my attention back to her and the warm eyes that I could drown in and not regret. "Something about you and me together changed things. I thought maybe if I waited until after the child was born it might do something similar. Even if it only evened out the time change a little it could still help."

"Then why did nothing change when I came for you the first time?" I'm still trying to reason this out, but something is off about her explanation.

"I think it has to be someone unknowingly or unwillingly taken that triggers the change. I wanted to come back to you, and I still do. I thought this might be the only way to make a difference."

As much as I enjoy her telling me she wants to come back, it still doesn't excuse not telling me she was with child. If I ever kept something this big from Hitomi no explanation would ever make it right in her eyes. That's when it clicked, what about this whole thing that rang odd with me. "Why do you care how fast time moves if you planned on coming back regardless? Why not return to me months ago when you found out?"

She hesitates, not meeting my eyes, never a good sign. "No one wants to grow old and die too fast."

I've tried really hard not to get angry. Yelling at her won't change anything, but right now, it is exactly what I want to do. Instead I grit my teeth so hard it hurts. "That is total crap and you know it. This is just you planning an easy escape."

Her eyes flash a warning, and I know I'm in for a fight. "So what if I am! I don't want to have any regrets."

I push myself quickly out of the chair letting it fall noisily to the floor. "Then actually commit to something! Marry me."

Throwing her hands up I felt dismissed, as if I'm the one speaking nonsense. "Why is that your answer for everything?"

"Because it's the logical reaction to all this." My voice had risen with my irritation.

She shoots a nervous glance at the door, as if it would be opened at any moment. "Quiet Van, you'll wake the whole house."

Why am I the selfish, unreasonable one? If understanding her were a life or death issue I would have died a long time ago. "You still want me to leave?"

"If your going to act like a child, yes." She hisses between her teeth. I don't know how much she really desires me to be gone, but I'll let her have what she wants.

"Then good bye." I spin on my heels and stalk out of the room. Despite the increasing volume of our augment there is no sign of movement from her parents room. Hitomi didn't call out for me like I'd hoped deep down. Taking the stairs swiftly, I'm surprised that the dark room below isn't vacant after all. Hitomi's mother sits in the shadow with my mother's journal closed in her lap and no smile on her face.

"Didn't go well, did it?" She glances to where I stand frozen. "Come here Van, I think you and I should talk."

"Hitomi has made her wishes clear." I state, but I am reluctant to leave without hearing this woman out. I descend the last few steps and sit on the very edge of the chair.

She touches the cover of the book almost reverently before offering it back to me. "This is yours isn't it?"

"Yes, it was my mother's." I gratefully take the book from her, gripping the age-softened leather in my hands. It seems I've been losing track of it lately and that would be a great loss.

"Please take Hitomi with you." She spoke calmly, though the set of her mouth was grim.

I shake my head, feeling the weight of tension settle on my shoulders. "That's not what she really wants."

This woman, who I have barely met, reaches out to me patting my hand in a comforting manner. "Since when can a teenage girl be completely sure of what she wants? Hitomi belongs with you. She always has."

That's when it struck me that the way she has reacted to all this is like she knew it was coming. "Do you have visions like Hitomi?"

That sad smile also looks familiar. "No, my sight was never as strong as hers. Hitomi takes after my mother in the strength of her abilities. I have feelings though and things always turn out that way."

"Is this power also passed from parent to child?" I have to ask, seeing as no one seems to know for sure where Hitomi's abilities came from, only that they got much stronger after she was transported to Gaia with me. The pendent may have amplified the powers but as I've had it since she left it can't be the source.

"It is passed from mother to child, always stronger in girls though." Her smile tells me she is also aware of the gender of my child.

"Why does it seem I am always the last to know these things?" I do not expect an answer, as the question is rhetorical.

"Will you read me something from your book? We have time to wait for Hitomi to pack and follow you." The sureness of her statement left no question that Hitomi would come for me this time.

I nod, opening the journal to were the stray feather marks my place. From her expression it isn't necessary to start from the beginning or to explain the setting. Hitomi's mother just wants to know something of the world she out of her three generations will most likely never see. The writing on this page was inscribed with a heavier hand and a fiercer slant to the words, as if written by someone very angry, trying to spear their thoughts straight through.

Pink 31th moon,

Those ridiculous old fools! As wonderful as my Lord Goau is how can he have such blind decrepit misogynists as advisors?! I overheard them today in yet another meeting where they tried to convince Goau of my infectious curse. I will write of exactly what they said about me.

"Have you gone mad?!"

"He's right, you can't marry a Draconian woman."

"Surely you're not forgetting they are the accursed people who destroyed Atlantis…"

"She will bring disaster upon Faneilia."

"No, we can't possibly consent to this milord."

My hands shook so hard, but what could I say? Listening from the shadows, there was nothing I could do to change their mind. Luckily, I didn't have to. Goau sat on his throne, seething in anger. "I don't care what the legends say. They've nothing to do with Varie. Do you hear me?" His voice was low and threatening, in a way I have never known before. "I've fallen in love with Varie and there is nothing that can separate us."

May the gods help anyone that opposes him after such a declaration.

Brown 5th moon,

Even after the disastrous meeting that I overheard, Lord Goau has acted no different around me. Just as kind and as thoughtful as before. His advisors on the other hand would like nothing more then to see me gone.

Speaking of gone… Balgus has left Fanelia and for a moment I thought it was on my account. Since we have started to realize that Lord Goau is both our main priority, we share common goals. The warrior is still weary of my company but we are civil. It seems he has chosen to travel Gaia with the goal of becoming a stronger swordsman and even training promising youth in the ways of the sword. Before he left we spoke once more.

"Lady?" He called out to me as I walked the gardens.
"Samurai." I tried to suppress my grin at our awkward greetings.

He coughed uncomfortably into his hand. "Where is your escort?"

"I did not know that the King's cursed paramour merited any guard."

"If anyone needs protection, it would be you Lady. Your desire to wed the king has not made you any friends."

I raised my chin as I do to deflect the harsh words and pointed looks. "Then it is good I did not journey here to make any friends."

That earned barking laughter from the scarred man. "Then Lady you have failed since you have earned one in me. When my tour is complete, I swear to return and teach your sons the art of swordsmanship."

"Thank you, that would mean the world to me. Balgus, Fanelia will always welcome you with open arms. Return home soon my friend."

I finish reading that page and close the book. It is comforting to see that at least Balgus and mother had found an understanding. Two people that didn't think they'd ever see eye to eye learned how wrong they were. As much as my heart aches for what Hitomi has kept from me, I know I don't love her any less.

Communication has never quite been a strong point for either of us and she was right in knowing if I had been informed of her condition there would be no waiting. She would have found herself in Fanelia despite what she wanted. I want… no I need her to wish for this, for me.

"Thank you, for sharing that with me." I had almost forgotten Hitomi's mother and her quite presence.

"I apologize if it was not interesting." I shift awkwardly, not knowing what she expected to hear. There are no fights of valor or life and death struggles depicted in these pages.

"No, it was fine. Your mother sounds like an entertaining person. Did you know her well before she…" She trailed off uncertainly. It seems some of my family's past was at least shared.

"Passed." I finished, undisturbed by admitting how little I actually knew my own parents. I clutched the book a bit tighter. "I was five, but I hold my memories close. This is my chance to know her and my father as I didn't while they lived."

"I'm sure you've made them very proud." She pats my hand once more, before glancing up the stairs with a knowing smile. "Well, if you leave the house now then Hitomi will catch up to you before you make it past the gate."

I stand, taking the cue. I have learned the hard way to always listen to seers. "Thank you. I don't know if I can ever repay your kindness."

She waves me away. "Just take care of them."

"I swear it." I bow to her as she continues to shoo me out the door with a radiant smile. Stepping out into the night air I feel like a different person is residing in my skin. I start down the path away from the Kanzaki family home. The stars shine brightly and I could already feel the pull to go home. I have only been here hours and yet it seems like a lifetime ago.

The moment I reach the gate, I hear the sound of a door being opened and quickly shut. "Van, Wait!" Hitomi calls out to me. I turn to see she has dressed and carries a large bag. "Thank god you haven't left yet."

I can't help smiling at her. "I won't leave you." She makes her way to me, as I quickened my own steps to close the distance that much quicker. I pull her into my arms as soon as she is within reach. "It seems we are bound together."

Even in the dark I can tell there was a heat in her gaze. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Her mouth finds mine then and I drink in the feel and taste of her.

Pulling away reluctantly, I take the bag from her wordlessly. I don't need to say anything as she knows what is on my mind and says it before I can.

"Lets go home to Fanelia. I've been gone too long." She grabs my free hand, twining our fingers together. The pendent I've worn everyday for the last year and a half, begins to glow. Crackling energy fills the air and condenses into a blinding power all around us. The magical wind lifts us almost gently. Then faster and faster we shot into the sky towards Gaia and home where we belong, together.

To Be Continued…

AN- Well they are finally going home to Gaia. There might not be anymore that takes place on earth. I always did like it better on Gaia. The drama is far from over in fact this won't be Van and Hitomi's first fight as perspective new parents. Please be patient with me I'll make it worthwhile I swear.

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