Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Heart of the Dragon ❯ A Wish ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Note: Ok, I don't own any of Escaflowne, but I do own the characters I made myself, like Seibu. This first chapter sets the tone as it paints the canvas for a suspenseful romance. (And yes, there are a lot of gratifying horny scenes!) This story is very, very long, just to let you know. One chapter is like 71 pages long, and others are like 7! So, I hope you enjoy, and please review!! This is the first story I EVER wrote!!!

The Heart of the Dragon
Chapter One: A Wish

Hitomi stared out the window, watching the birds fly through the sky and sing their happy songs. It was spring; the air was sticky with humidity and made everyone miserable. She sighed and watched the little kids come home from school. She had stayed home because she hadn't felt like going. Her mother still didn't understand what was wrong with her, even after her four years since coming home from Gaea.

She got up and walked out of her room, going down the stairs to the kitchen to see if she could eat some food. The blinds were opened everywhere in the house and the sunlight poured in. Her mother and father weren't home for once in her life. She smiled briefly, enjoying the thought that she could do whatever she wanted without getting in trouble.

She opened the refrigerator and looked in. She shoved stuff aside. How could there be nothing in here? She slammed the door shut, angry that her mother hadn't gotten any food and for once she wanted food. Her mother was constantly trying to make her eat, but she didn't want any. She didn't want anything.

Hitomi walked back upstairs and grabbed her duffel bag, pressing it full of clothes and other accessories. She went to her parents cluttered room and grabbed a wad of money from her savings that her mom kept hidden in her dresser. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care. She was so sick of life that there was no point in living it.

She walked back down the stairs and out the door, not bothering with a note. She headed toward the grocery store for some food. She walked through the automatic doors and she saw people stare at her. Stop looking at me! I know I'm skinny! It's not my fault I don't eat! Actually, it was, but she didn't correct herself.

She walked down the empty aisles and looked for what she wanted. She snatched some V8 Splash and put it in the basket she had grabbed when she had walked in. She got some candy, stuff that she rarely ate, and walked down the aisle some more. She put some cans of soda in her basket and continued on to the next one, taking stuff that even remotely appealed to her.

Walking down the last one, she took a bag of Fritos and hurried to the check out, wary of the looks people were giving her. She kept her eyes down and handed the man the stuff she was buying. He stared at her, making her more nervous than she already was. She didn't ask for plastic or paper, just put it into her duffel bag. She paid and almost ran out.

Why were those people so mean to me? I never did anything to them. Am I really that repulsive to look at now? Am I that starved? Am I so pale that I look like a ghost?She shook her head and held her chin high. She didn't care what people thought. Let them think she was ugly. They had no idea about the reason why she looked so bad.

She remembered suddenly that she left something that meant more than anything did to her at home. Her house was only a block away and she made the journey back quickly. Her parents came into the driveway right when she was getting ready to walk out of the door. She backed up and ran to the back one. The old door squeaked when she opened it and she waited a second to see if her mother or father had heard it. When she didn't see or detect anything, she ran out the door, slamming it closed and not caring. She slowed after she got off her cleanly cut back yard. She smelled the scent of new flowers and inhaled deeply. The pollen she breathed in with it made her sneeze and she stopped breathing in big gulps of air.

She pulled the feather out of her bag and stared at it, stopping. It always seemed to glow whenever she held it in her hand. She closed her eyes, caressed her cheek with it, and smiled at the softness. She loved the feel of it. She put it back into her bag and started off again.

Where am I going? Shouldn't I wait to do whatever I'm doing until I graduate? It's only a few weeks away. She walked faster when she decided she would go to Yukari's house. It took her ten minutes to get to the house that she lived in. It was white, like most of the other houses. It had beautiful flowers blooming everywhere around it. The trees were getting their leaves back and everything looked green and new. She walked up the cement stairs and pushed the doorbell.

Yukari's plump mother opened the door. She beckoned her in sweetly, for Hitomi was Yukari's best friend. Miranda knew that Hitomi was having problems and she was always being kind to her, offering her everything that she could.

"She is upstairs in her room studying. At least I think she is. She is probably listening to her infernal music. Dreadful, horrid stuff. Why doesn't she go out and run or something? You're a good example when it comes to track. Are you still in it?"

Hitomi nodded and Yukari's mother escorted her up the thick green carpeted stairs. Hitomi looked at the portraits of Yukari's family and felt intense jealousy. Why can't I be a normal girl?

"Here she is. You can hear that disgusting music through her door already. Yukari! Hello, Yukari?! Hitomi's here! Open your door!"

Miranda knocked on the door and tried to turn the handle. It was locked and it made her mad. What was her little girl trying to hide? Yukari whipped open her door, her hair a mess from head banging. She shoved it back and ushered Hitomi in, grinning. She thanked her mom and closed it in her face, locking it again.

"Hitomi! What are you doing here? You look paler than normal. Are you ok?" Yukari was always joking about her being so pale and skinny all the while trying to stuff food down her throat and making her go outside.

"I can't stand it anymore, Yukari," Hitomi said and sat down on her friend's bed, sighing and putting her head in her hands. She watched Yukari turn off the music and try to clean up all the junk food lying around. She shoved it all into a drawer and sat down by Hitomi when she was done.

"What can't you stand anymore? Being skinny? Being pale?"

"All of those things...and more! Why do I still love him?! Why can't I get over him?!" Hitomi crashed back onto the bed, covering her face with her hands. Yukari frowned and pushed her back up, telling her to get off her bed. She pulled the cluttered mess into place and sat Hitomi back down.

"You'll get over Van some day. For now, you just have to deal with it. Why don't we go somewhere?"

"I don't want to go anywhere. People look at me weird," Hitomi said and lay back down on the bed and curled up. Yukari got back off the bed, grabbed her duffel bag, and started shoving clothes into it.

"What are you doing?" Hitomi asked, thinking her friend crazy. Yukari put stuff haphazardly into her bag.

"Why do you have your bag filled with food and clothes? I can only guess your running away. I'm coming with you."

"I didn't know I was."

"Well you are now. I'm so sick of my protective mother anyway. We only have a few weeks of school left and there isn't any point of going. We finished finals a long time ago and we just sit around. We can come back the last few days or something and get our diploma thing, whatever it's called."

Hitomi smiled and sat up. She guessed she had no choice now that Yukari was all ready. Yukari put some more stuff in her bag and was ready to walk out the door when she remembered her CD player. She placed it carefully in her bag along with her huge library of CDs and a bunch of batteries that she had lying around. She unlocked her door and looked both ways before they crept to a back window with a porch under it. Yukari slid it open and helped Hitomi out. She came through it after her and didn't bother with closing it. She heard her mother calling her name and almost pushed Hitomi off the roof. It was low so they didn't have any problem jumping off. They ran for a while and slowed down when they got to a small park filled with old people.

"Can we get my boyfriend?" Yukari asked, panting from exertion. Hitomi nodded eagerly, for Amano was her friend too. They hurried to his house that was almost on the other side of the city. Yukari kept glancing back watching out for her mother. She frowned and started to make fun her possessive mother. Hitomi was upset with her because her mom was a good person.

They got to Amano's house after a half an hour. They had argued about where they were going to go and they still had no idea. "What happens if he doesn't want to come? What happens if he tells our moms?" Hitomi asked, worried about what he would do. Yukari smiled and knocked on the door. No one answered and she just walked in.

"He won't. He tells me all the time that he can't wait to get away from this pathetic town. He is always wondering why he doesn't run away. Well, this is his chance."

"Where are we going?" Hitomi whispered, clinging on Yukari's shirt. She was scared that someone or something would flip out on them because Yukari had just walked in.

"To his room. He's either sleeping or blasting MY music. He is always borrowing it and he never gives it back."

They walked to the back of the house and sure enough, the music was blasting. Yukari pounded on the door but no one opened it.

Hitomi and Yukari started to laugh when they heard him screaming and yelling the lyrics and could barely hear the bouncing of the bed. Yukari opened the door slightly and saw him jumping up and down on his queen size bed, his guitar in his hands. He wasn't strumming it, he was just pretending. Yukari stared to giggle. Hitomi shoved her head out of the way and stuck her own in. She saw Amano do some sort of a twist in the air and bounce even harder on the bed, head banging, hair flying everywhere.

Yukari flung open the door and Amano was in mid-air when he saw the door fly open. He fell onto his butt on the floor. He saw Hitomi and Yukari holding their hands over their mouths, pointing at him and trying not to laugh. He got up and took off his guitar. He walked over to his stereo and turned off his music. Yukari laughed and ran into his arms when he turned around. Amano kissed her lightly on the lips and set her away from him.

"What are you girls doing here?" he asked and closed his door.

"We're running away!" Yukari said and sat down on his rumpled bed. Hitomi sat down beside her and waited for Amano to yell at them for even considering such a crazy thing.

"Sweet!" was what he said instead of the reprimand that Hitomi thought he would say. "When are you leaving? Now? I'll be ready in five minutes. My dad isn't home so I can kinda borrow some of his of money. There's so much there that he won't notice about two hundred dollars missing."

Yukari shook her head in excitement and Amano took his backpack out of his closet. He dumped the college books out and opened his dresser, pushing his crazy shirts and jeans into the bag. He put his CD player and other various music equipment that seemed like Yukari and him couldn't live without. Hitomi had hers too, but they made such a fuss over it all.

He ran out of his room to his father's and opened a large box. There was a zillion one hundred-dollar bills in it that made Yukari and Hitomi drool. He took a couple and put them in his pocket.

He took hold of Yukari's hand and Hitomi felt such longing go through her, just for Van to hold her once, to kiss her for the first time. They walked out of the house and Yukari stopped abruptly. "Where are we going to go?"

Hitomi looked at her friend with sadness in her eyes and Yukari let go of Amano and went to her. She hugged her and Hitomi scarcely embraced her back. She felt tears come to her eyes but fought them.

Yukari said for only her to hear, "You are one of those people that loves once and only once, aren't you?" Yukari squeezed her again. She let go of her and looked into her eyes. She saw what Hitomi was unwilling to say and the tears that were about to overflow.

Hitomi nodded, not knowing what to say. Her life had been getting worse lately and all because of the dreams she was having. She would dream about Van and how sad he was that she wasn't with him and then she would see him kill himself. She prayed that it hadn't happened, that it was only a forewarning or a stupid dream. The connection that they had shared was still strong and Van still talked to her. But he hadn't talked to her today. He usually woke her up talking to her and it hadn't happened that morning. That was why she hadn't gone to school.

She felt something missing immediately and wondered if he was all right. She always felt how he was feeling when he talked to her or if he was with her. She would sense the love he felt for her when he talked to her and she would feel so much better that she would almost swoon. She recalled him getting her through a hard time when a close aunt of hers had died. She sniffed and forgot her silly tears. She was going to have fun! She was going to forget him and try to live a normal life, not one filled with pathetic longing.

Yukari watched all the emotions flash across her friend's expressive face. She wondered what she was thinking when she saw her back stiffen and her proud chin go up into the air. Yukari guessed that it was good and patted her on the back. "Man, we need to fatten you up!"

Hitomi nodded and agreed with her silently. Amano walked over to his car and opened it. He took some more CDs out and put them in his bag.

"Can we go somewhere calm and peaceful, somewhere where we can relax and let go of every day stresses?" Hitomi asked. They started down his long driveway. He lived out on the edge of the city and the houses were nicer and had bigger yards. Hitomi loved everything about the area, the quietness of it, the sound of no cars driving by and just the birds chirping. Just like Fanelia.

"My uncle has a cabin up in some woods about ten miles from here. It's calm and stuff up there. He's only up there at winter time. He always has food stocked up there. He once nudged me in the side and gave me a wink and said I could hang out with the little girlies there if I wanted to. I never took him seriously because I never had a reason to hide. But now I do!" Amano said and laughed. Hitomi laughed nervously along with him.

Yukari decided unexpectedly that she didn't want to walk ten miles to some camp. Amano wasn't sure if he should take his car, but both Hitomi and Yukari argued with him. He gave up and got into the car. Hitomi and Yukari crawled into the back and settled around the speakers that he insisted on having. He turned the music down so that it was only the loudest thing Hitomi had ever heard. It took them an hour to get there because of the traffic and the people getting out of work at five in the afternoon.

When they got out of the car and stretched from the cramped space in the back, Hitomi smiled. It looked so much like Gaea. She could picture herself standing in a field with Van, holding him forever, a breeze wafting around them and the sun warming their skin. She shook her head vigorously. That was the reason why she was running away. She had to get over Van or she would die. It was that simple.

Amano walked over to the door and tried the handle. Of course it was locked, Hitomi could have told him that. He lifted his arm to above the door and revealed a rusted key. He waved it around as if he had something precious and opened the door. The half-rotten door almost sounded like it was going to fall off, but it didn't. They all walked in and the first thing they noticed was the musty smell. Hitomi went around and opened the surprisingly brand new windows to get the nasty smell out.

It was five forty-five from what Hitomi could tell from the clock on the wall. She didn't know if it was off or not. She walked up the stairs and found another surprise. It was totally modern! There were black leather sofa's on each side of the wall and gray carpeting on the floor. A big screen TV sat on the floor with a set of large speakers sounding it and smaller ones hanging on the walls at random intervals. She leaped onto the sofa and sighed at how comfortable it was. She closed her eyes and started to relax.

She didn't hear anything from Amano and Yukari and she could only guess at what they were doing. She flipped over onto her back and sighed again. She couldn't get comfortable anymore. She went to one of the side doors and found a small room with a bed and a small dresser almost smashed against the wall. She closed the door and plopped down onto the bed. It seemed much more comfortable than the leather sofa. She closed her tired eyes and fell instantly asleep.

**********

Van stared out of his window to the Mystic Moon hanging high and proud in the sky. He wondered how Hitomi was. He inhaled the smell of food baking and almost felt tears come to his eyes. He grasped the pendant that Hitomi had given to him and he tried to get a hold of her once more. He sighed and gave up when he realized she was sleeping. He turned around when he heard a knock at his door. Merle walked gracefully in, unlike the old bounding and leaping she used to do. She came over to him and wrapped her arms around his back. Van hugged her back and walked away from her.

"Van, you know that you have no choice."

Van frowned at her words, knowing that he did have a choice, but he hadn't done anything about it. Fanelia needed an heir, just as his council was always complaining about. He opened the glass door and walked onto the balcony connected to his room.

Merle followed him out. "Van, if you are so against it, then why don't you just say no or something? You can do something else. Although everyone thinks that what you are doing is the most wonderful thing ever, I know and you know that it isn't. Just...take a break and go somewhere for a while, try to sort things through your mind and decide your future."

"Merle, no matter what happens, I'm going to be married tomorrow," Van said and leaned his arms against the rail, looking down the cliff that was beneath his window. He looked back up and stared at Fanelia. The city was beautiful, and he had made it all happen. The people where still getting ready for tomorrow's celebrations although it was late.

"You don't even like her! You don't even know her! She's not even as beautiful as Hitomi or...me for example. I mean, if I was you, I would rather marry me than...than that...thing-"

"Merle, stop. If I married you, could you imagine the council's reaction, let alone the people of Fanelia? I need their support to rule effectively. They are opposed to a match between us. It wouldn't be a good decision," Van said, understanding that Merle was trying to help.

"Do you even know her whole name?"

"No," Van admitted. He saw Merle give him a pathetic look and smiled at her. He ruffled her hair that he noticed had taken her a long time to do it the way she had. Merle stuck her tongue out at him. He acted like he was going to grab it and Merle sucked it back in. They both laughed.

"I'll kill her if you want me to."

"Merle!! I wouldn't have even expected something like that to come out of your mouth!!" Van exclaimed, wondering if Merle was serious. He saw her grin and knew that she wasn't.

"Van, you know that I'm protective of you. I just can't imagine you...married to...her," Merle said and shuddered.

"Ok then. You can kill her."

"Are you serious?? Will you let me??! I'll be right back. No, wait. What should I kill her with? A sword? A poison? Torture? I don't know!"

"Merle, please, before I laugh my head off," Van said, holding his stomach. He ruffled her hair again and she frowned at him, wishing that she could change what was going to happen tomorrow to something that Van would actually want and be happy with.

"Have you tried to get a hold of Hitomi lately?" Merle asked abruptly. Van nodded.

"I have, but...I don't know. It's as if she doesn't want to talk to me or she can't hear me or something...I have to tell her somehow-"

Merle heard a knock on the door and knew that it was a servant looking for her. She touched her hand to his cheek saying quietly, "Van, wish with all your heart and love you feel for Hitomi that you can see her one more time. It will make you feel better to try anyway. Who knows what can happen with that pendant?" Merle walked away with those wisely spoken words.

Van realized how much she had grown up right then. She wasn't that totally annoying little cat girl that hung on him wherever he went, although she still did every once in awhile. He had missed her affection when Hitomi had left Gaea four years ago. His heart longed for it...needed it. He sighed and walked off his balcony, closing the glass door. He didn't bother with taking off his clothes. He lay down and wished. He wished that Hitomi was with him right now, that he was getting married to her instead of the girl he was getting married to tomorrow. He wished that she were holding his hand right now, with her lying right beside him. He closed his eyes, wishing even harder. He fell asleep begging and craving Hitomi to be with him, even if it was for a minute.

**********

Ok, this is gonna get a lot better, just watch. Please r&r!!!! I need it!!!!!