Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Another Day in Paradise ❯ Two’s Company, Four’s a Crowd ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Escaflowne or any of its characters… too bad so sad..

 

Chapter 3: Two's Company, Four's a Crowd

 

Hitomi woke up the bright sun shining in her eyes, which for her was so strange. She looked over towards her clock which read 8:30. Oh my god I slept in, I have never done that in four years. Wow Folken what have you done to me, I like it. Oh yeah Folken, he should bee here soon I have to get ready. Hitomi slipped out of bed and rushed into the shower.

 

About fifteen minutes later she reappeared in her room with a towel around her torso and he hair still damp after she towel dried it. She walked over to her closet to pick out what she was going to wear. After searching every article of clothing like she had done yesterday she pulled out a black skirt that would go to just above her knees, she grabbed a light blue tank top and a white sweater to go overtop.

 

As soon as Hitomi finished dressing she ducked into the bathroom once again and did her hair.

 

While she was blow drying her hair, she didn't hear the unlocking of her door. The door opened and Folken slipped through. “Hitomi?” Folken called but there was no answer, just the sound of the hairdryer. He looked around the corner to see the room with the noise had its door shut and the light on. She must be inside, I'll just wait. Folken took off his black shoes and walked around her apartment.

 

In the living room he saw a couch coffee table, TV, stereo and a few other nick knacks he has seen before and even some he didn't know what they were. Folken looked around on the walls and noticed a few framed pictures hanging and went in closer to take a look. In one picture he say a picture of Hitomi when she was 15, she was with what he assumed her family, her younger brother, and her parents. In the next picture there was just three people and one of them Hitomi and another girl and a guy that looked similar to Allen of Austeria. Both Hitomi and the other girl had long robed on with a funny looking hat on their head.

 

There was another frame close by on the wall but it didn't contain a picture, it had a single white feather. The feather was long and fluffy near the stem; it looked similar to the feathers that would come off a Draconian wing. I guess this is Van's feather. Folken turned away and sat down on the couch.

 

Shortly after Folken no longer heard the blow-dryer, he then looked towards the closed door as he saw the door knob turn and the door opened and thee he could see Hitomi.

 

Hitomi looked up and saw Folken sitting quietly on the couch, “Hey Folken, I didn't hear you come in; I hope you went waiting long.”

 

“No that's okay I haven't been hear long. You have a nice apartment; I was just looking at the pictures on the wall.”

 

“Thanks, that one is picture of my family, that's the last picture of my mother I have before she died. And this picture is out high school graduation, my friend Yukari and I graduated and the other guy is Amano, he's Yukari's boyfriend and now they live out of the country.”

 

“I'm sorry to hear about your mother.”

 

“That's alright, so are you ready to go, there's a nice little restaurant around the corner. They have a nice breakfast. Afterwards do you want to check out that new amusement park, that should be fun.”

 

“What's an amusement park?” Folken looked kinda puzzled.

 

“Well they have rides, you sit in a box on a track and the track goes up and down and makes loops and turns. Kinda like flying just you don't have to work. There are also other kinds of rides. There a lot of different kinds of foods. It will be fun.”

 

“Alright, I'm willing to give it a try.”

 

“Awesome, let's go.” Hitomi grabbed her jacket from where she had left it the previous night after her dinner date with the very man in the room.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

After a lovely breakfast Folken and Hitomi made their way to the subway and took the crowded train to the outer edge of the city.

 

When they got off the subway, and squeezed their way out of the crowd, it was only a short walk to the amusement park. After 10 minutes they arrived at the gates. It would be another 10 minutes because of the line up of people.

 

As soon as they made it into the park Folken just stood there in awe. Hitomi looked up at Folken watching him gathering and process this information. Since it was a beautiful day, of course the park would be busy.

 

Folken looked down at Hitomi, she had her arms around his mechanical arm. ”So where would you like to go first.”

 

“How about that one,” Hitomi had let one of her arms go and pointed to a rollercoaster, at first look it didn't look to bad it only had a couple loops and didn't seem to go too high. Folken nodded his head and they walked towards it. Since it still was early enough in the morning the lines to some of the rides were fairly short.

 

And so the day began, by sunset Hitomi had Folken's head spinning. Folken just had to take a break. They both sat on a bench, Folken having his arms around Hitomi underneath a tree, looking out at the setting sun.

 

Folken sighed and tightened his grip on the resting girl in his arms, “This has been a fairly exhausting day, but I enjoyed it. Thank you. I didn't expect some of those rides to be so terrifying, its worse then flying, it still makes me dizzy just thinking about it.” he quietly chuckled at the thought of listening to himself scream during that one rollercoaster. At least during the day he was able to have a brake and ride something tame, like bumper cars.

 

“I guess, I should have taken it easy on you, being your first time doing something like this.” Hitomi said as she rested her hands overtop of Folken's bare hands, which were clasped together around her waist.

 

Little did Hitomi know that there was a pair of on lookers in the shadows, who happen to be a man and a woman.

 

“Hey isn't that Hitomi on the bench over there.” The man said to his female counterpart.

 

“Who is that man who has his arms around her? I talked to her earlier on this week and she didn't mention she was seeing anyone. Let's go say hi.”

 

The man and woman appeared from the shadows and were walking towards the couple on the bench. Hitomi not paying any attention to anything except the man holding her didn't notice anything until she herd a familiar female voice happily screeched her name, “Hitomi!!!”

 

Hitomi looked up and saw her two best friends on all of the Mystic Moon. “Amano, Yukari, what are you doing hear?” Folken's loosened his hold on Hitomi and stood up when Hitomi flew out of his lap and hugged both Amano and Yukari.

 

“We were going to surprise you tomorrow by coming to see you; we got in town this afternoon.” Yukari said happily to her overjoyed best friend.

 

“It's so good to see both of you.” Hitomi was so happy she was almost going to cry, she hadn't see these two in a long time.

 

“It's good to see you too.” Amano started, he then turned his gaze to the tall man standing not to far behind Hitomi. “So who's this guy?”

 

Hitomi took a few steps back to stand at Folken's side and wrapped her right arm around his left. She looked up ant him and began, “These are my friends Amano and Yukari, from this picture.” Hitomi paused and looked at her friends, “Amano, Yukari, this is my boyfriend Folken Fanel.” Hitomi said with a smile. Folken then reached out his mechanical arm to shake her friends hands.

 

Yukari was hesitant to shake his hand when she saw the hand it looked more like a grey skeletons hand then a real one. What the hell is this, a prank or something, its gross? She shook his hand anyways, still feeling a bit nervous. Amano did the same he too felt uneasy about touching that hand.

 

“It's nice to meet you Folken,” Amano said.

 

“The pleasure is all mine, I have heard Hitomi tell many stories about you and Yukari.”

 

“I think the girls want some privacy while they catch up, so you want to sit down so we can get to know each other.” Amano insisted, leading Folken to the bench. He was more interested in his feelings for his friend; he didn't want to see her friend get heart broken.

 

“Very Well.” Folken sat back down on the bench, this time with a different companion. He just knew that Hitomi's friend was just going to ask questions and not so surprisingly he did.

 

“So how did you meet Hitomi?”

 

“Well,” Folken started. “We first met a little over four years ago but we haven't seen each other for a long time. It's kind of complicated.”

 

“You're from Gaea aren't you?”

 

“Yes, how did you know?” Folken looked back at the man very puzzled.

 

“She told us all about her little adventure on Gaea. What was your part in her adventure?”

 

“Unfortunately for most of it I was the enemy, I worked for the Zaiback Empire, and I controlled the Dragonslayers. Near the end of the war I stopped working for Zaibach and helped the other side.”

 

“I see, Hitomi mentioned a Van Fanel, any relation.”

 

“Yes, he's my younger brother.”

 

I see, Hitomi spent the past four years moping around because she missed this guy's brother and wished to be with him so much now she's dating him. “Wow your younger brother. How old are you?”

 

“In earth terms I am 29 years old. I will be 30 in March.”

 

Isn't this guy a little old for Hitomi. “I see, if you don't mind me asking, please don't take offence, but I noticed your hand, what happened to it.”

 

“I don't take offence; it's not just my hand, when I was fifteen I lost my arm right to my shoulder. At fifteen I was suppose to slay a dragon to become king of my country but the dragon surprised me and bit off my arm and left me to die. Zaibach found me and I woke up on an examining table to find this,” Folken held out his mechanical hand.

 

“I'm sorry to hear that, I guess you got stuck working for them because they saved your life.”

 

“Yeah, pretty much. Before you even ask, I really care about Hitomi; I would not deliberately hurt her.”

 

“I'm glad to hear that, you seem to be a perfect gentleman because if you ever hurt her I will kill you. Please take care of her.” Amano got a good feeling coming from Folken.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

In the meantime the girls were talking.

 

“Hitomi that Folken guy is pretty good looking how did you ever find someone that handsome?”

 

“He's Van's older brother, from Gaea. I've never felt this way about a guy since I met Van. I don't even care he's ten years older then me.”

 

“Well Hitomi I envy you. I just love his long black hair and his maroon eyes. I can't say much about that hand.” Yukari's tone turned from playful to disgust. She just didn't like that arm. Perhaps if she knew what happened she would reconsider?

 

“His hair isn't naturally black; it was the most gorgeous light blue. He changed it because he was subject to ridicule, he also would hide his arm under long sleeves and gloves.” Hitomi explained.

 

“Blue hair, aww that would have been so nice to see. What do you mean his whole arm is like that?”

 

“You only saw a glimpse of his prosthetic arm; it goes up to his shoulder. He lost his arm when he let his guard down slaying a dragon. He had to slay the dragon to ear the title of King of Fanelia but he failed.”

 

“Oh, now I feel bad for my reaction. I think you two make a wonderful couple. So have you given up on Van coming for you?”

 

“Yeah, pretty much, I don't want to be depressed anymore. When I woke up this morning it wasn't at some unholy hour like everyday since I came back. I think I'm starting to let Van go.”

 

“Wow that's great Hitomi I'm really happy for you.” Yukari said as she gave her best friend a hug.

 

“Thanks Yukari. We should be getting home, Folken and I have been here all day, and he's pretty whipped out”

 

“Okay but we're coming over tomorrow to see you alright.

 

Yukari and Hitomi walked back to their boyfriends who seemed to get along alright with out them watching over them. Hitomi walked over to Folken and put out her hand for Folken to grab. After Folken stood up they both said their good byes and walked arm and arm out of the park. While Yukari and Amano watched.

 

Hitomi didn't realize how tiered she was until she sat down in the subway. It would probably be a 30 minute s or so to wait in the subway. Hitomi and Folken were sitting side by side in the front of the car. It wasn't that busy probably a dozen other people in the car with them.

 

Hitomi rested her head on Folken's left shoulder listening to the sounds in the car; eventually they began to fade away. She could then swear that she heard Folken's heartbeat but she didn't have time to check she slowly slipped into a world of sleep.

 

Folken looked over to Hitomi and smiled as her saw she had fallen asleep. He saw her peaceful expression on her face. He looked up, letting her sleep.

 

He started thinking to himself, Well van I guess you waited to long I think she's falling for me; I must thank you for that Van if it hadn't been for you I don't think we would be together now. I want to spend the rest of my life loving her; she's been the best thing to happen to me since Alex took me in. Folken's thoughts turned to that man with a big heart. He was the kindest man Folken had known, he was like a father to him. He took him in not questioning him; he believed his story and didn't turn the other way just at the sight of him. Not to mention he was there every step of the way in his recovery. I should take Hitomi to meet him, he'll be happy to hear I've found someone.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The subway stopped at their stop but Hitomi was still asleep. Folken carefully picked up Hitomi and carried her out of the subway being careful not to wake her up. It must have been after 8:30, the sun was already down and it was getting darker.

 

He carried her into the apartment and when he got to her door he carefully went into his pocket to grab the key and unlock the door which was very hard, thankfully Hitomi wasn't that heavy. Folken opened the door and entered closing the door behind him with his foot.

 

There was a small nightlight in the hallway that was on which guided Folken to Hitomi's bedroom. He laid her down gently on the bed and removed her jacket and shoes. Folken lifted her head up a bit to slide her pillow underneath. And found a small blanket and covered her with it.

 

Once he was finished he walked out of the room with her coat and shoes and closed the door behind him. After putting away her articles of clothing Folken realized how tiered he was and decided it wouldn't hurt if he borrowed her couch for the nigh, he was just too tiered to fly home. He then took off his long coat to reveal his black dress pants and a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the top. He hung his jacket in the closet and took off his shoes and placed them by the door.

 

Folken then made his way to the soft couch and laid down, taking up the whole couch with his head resting on the soft arm with his feet hanging off the end, and after one big yawn he was asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Meanwhile it was still light out on Gaea and the King of Fanelia was in a meeting with his council. The council was meeting in the council chambers, which was a designated room in the palace. Inside the council chambers there was a long rectangular table with a total of twenty representatives from different comities, and at the end of the table was Van, King of Fanelia. Among the representatives there were twelve, one from each of the smaller towns in Fanelia and one from the capital, they report of the needs of the Fanelian people. There was one representative for the following, housing, construction, public services, sanitation, environment, and military/defence. The last two people were the recorder, who took down everything that is said and done in the council chambers, and the financial advisor.

 

It was a couple hours into the meeting; most of the smaller issues had been dealt with. These meetings tended to take a very long time and were held once a month.

 

The last town representative had finished voicing their concerns, now it was time to hear the latest report from the construction comity.

 

“Mr. Milaire, would you please stand up and tell the council and myself the progress of the construction being done in this country.” Van said in a stern tone looking over to the man as he stood up in front of his majesty and the council.

 

“Yes Sir. Well all construction in the twelve towns has been complete; we have been working on building more homes in each community and in the capital. Construction is still underway in the palace and on the west and northwest regions of the capital. Now that the construction for the towns has finished our concentration is on Fanelia's capital. We plan on finishing the guymelif Storage building, the palace and stables. In the west and northwest parts of the city we are building merchant shops and houses, for the fast growing city.” Mr. Milaire reported confidently

 

“Very good, Mr. Milaire would you be able to tell us how much longer before construction is finished?” Van inquired.

 

“Um, at the pace we have been moving we estimate that construction will be complete in 13 months.” It is currently October by earth standards and construction would be completed by November the following year.

 

“Thank you, you may sit down Mr. Milaire. I am happy to hear that we are on our last stretch for construction, on my latest visit to each town I saw how well of a job you and your team managed to come this far in for years. I am very pleased.” Van paused as he looked down at his agenda. “Mr. Lagusu will you please stand and report on housing.”

 

This continued for another few hours going through each and every comity. Finally when all of them have reported the floor was open for any other concerns.

 

“Before we close this meeting is there any other concerns the council has?” Van asked the council.

 

There was a brief silence before Mr. Savern, a representative of his town that was only about 15 kilometres away from the capital, stood up. He was an older man in his 60's, a well respected man. “The council and I have discussed this outside this council and we would like to raise an issue regarding yourself, your highness.” Mr. Savern voice was getting shaky from nervousness; he did not know how to tell his highness the councils concern.

 

“An issue about myself, well please by all means what is it Mr. Savern? I would really like to know.” Van was quite taken aback from what Mr. Savern had said.

 

“Well your highness,” The man started. “We the council believe it is far past time for you to chose a bride. Our country would like to see Fanelia have an heir to their thrown. Also, we want to see you happy, we do not like to see you alone and unhappy. Over the past few years we have noticed your loneliness that could only be ended by a special woman. So the council has decided that if you cannot find a bride to marry, in four months; the council will chose an appropriate bride for you.”

 

Van looked around at the council and all of them shook their head in agreement to Mr. Savern's words. “Well I see you all seem to agree and I propose a proposition. I have a bride in mind, the girl Hitomi from the Mystic Moon who had saved Gaea four years ago. I am very much in love with her even though we haven't seen each other in those four years. As my proposition, after a month when the construction is finished and Fanelia is running smoothly again, which is fourteen months from now; I will travel to the Mystic Moon to get my bride. So you will not under any circumstances are to line up a back up bride if Hitomi should turn me down. Instead find a suitable candidate for the new King of Fanelia, for I will not marry anyone else besides Hitomi.” The whole council was taken aback at their Kings speech, they were all speechless. Van continued, “After fourteen months you will allow me one month to claim my bride. If I should return alone then I will resign as King. Do we have an agreement?” Van finished. He was starting to worry if the council will accept his proposal.

 

“What if Miss. Hitomi were to have already found a suitor or what if she were ill?” Mr. Milaire stood up and questioned.

 

“If Hitomi were ill, I would remain by her side and if that meant that I would have to stay on the Mystic Moon, I will step down as king.” Van paused for a few moments as he thought about the next part, thinking he'd be so devastated if Hitomi were another mans wife. “If Hitomi were married, I would return to Gaea and also step down as king.”

 

“So are you are willing to risk being king to this country?” Mr. Milaire asked, just to make sure his highness was fully aware of what he may lose id Miss. Hitomi were unable to be his bride.

 

“Yes, I am willing to risk everything.” Van said confidently.

 

“Well Van Fanel King of Fanelia, for your sake and the sake of this country we hope Miss. Hitomi becomes your bride. Fanelia would hate to lose you as its ruler. We accept your proposal.”

 

“Thank you Mr. Milaire and thank you council, now if there are no further issues to address then I hear by find this meeting adjourned.

 

Van left the council chambers and walked quietly down the hall alone. He walked into his bedroom; it was cold, quiet and dark. Van walked to the other side of the room and opened up the curtains. The windows took up the whole wall from wall to wall and from ceiling to floor. In the middle was a door leading to a marble balcony.

 

Van opened the door and walked out to the edge of the balcony leaning over and resting his elbows on the railing and his chin in his hands.

 

Van's childhood friend, the cat girl Merle jut happened to walk by Van's open bedroom door and saw her friend looking pretty down. Merle looked in both directions of the hallway to see if any one was watching. No one besides the king and queen were allowed into the royal bedchambers, of course Van wouldn't mind but she would get in trouble by the council. When merle didn't see anyone she slipped into the room and closed the door behind her.

 

Merle walked over to her friend and put her hand on his shoulder, “Van what is wrong? You cannot hide anything from me.” Van didn't answer. “You miss Hitomi don't you?”

 

“Everyday Merle, but I cannot see her just yet; I must finish rebuilding Fanelia, and restore her good name. I must take care of my people before myself.”

 

“Did you find out how much longer construction will take?”

 

“Thirteen months.” Van paused and looked at his worried cat friend. “I made a proposition to the council today.” Van said in a quiet voice.

 

“What kind of proposition?” Merle asked.

 

“At first they wanted me to choose a bride and if I could not do that in four months, they would force me to marry someone they find will make a respectable queen. I don't want them to choose a bride for me; I want to marry Hitomi. I proposed that they give me fourteen months to let the rebuilding finish and to let things settle down. Once that has happened I will travel to the Mystic Moon and ask Hitomi to be my wife. If for some reason I am unsuccessful I will not marry anyone else and the council and I have agreed that if that were to happen I will step down as King and they will appoint a new king.”

 

“Oh Van; I hope it will never have to come to that, Hitomi will say yes I know she will just watch.” Merle said as she hugged Him trying to reassure her best friend, “I just know she will.”

 

“Me too Merle, me too.” Van whispered as he looked up to the Mystic Moon and its moon in the sky.