Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Mystic Wings ❯ Eighteen Candles ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Eighteen Candles

 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

 

What the heck! Dazed Hitomi woke up to the sound of Van banging wildly on her bedroom door.

 

“Wakey, wakey!” he yelled. “You've slept for long enough. It's past ten and I've got breakfast ready for you Birthday Girl. Get up or I'm coming in.”

 

“Come in!” Hitomi called back to him cheerfully, realizing that he was trying to threaten her.

 

He swung the door open, and with it invaded the smell of pancakes and cooked sausage. “Good morning!” he intoned, checking out what she had worn to bed - just the usual - T-shirt and boxer shorts. His boxing shorts mind you, but he had never worn them. Hitomi and Van both lost all their clothes in the fire, so they had had to buy all their clothes afresh. So, it was a pair that had come fresh from the package. He had never worn them, but he had purchased them, which was enough to cause Hitomi to snatch a pair before they had been used. They were sort of his that way. “You little thief,” he said, seeing her, and recognizing them. “My property isn't safe with you around.”

 

“Sorry, Van. You lie; I steal, and we're just going to have to learn to adjust to each other. Do you want them back?” she offered, pulling at the elastic band waist.

 

“No!” he said quickly. “They're yours now - happy birthday.”

 

“But I don't want them if they're mine,” she said, laughing and throwing a pillow at him. Leave it to him to ruin her sport.

 

He caught it. “Oh well, I guess you're modest enough. Get up or the food will be cold. I went through the trouble of cooking it for you, and I don't cook.”

 

Hitomi jumped out of bed and followed him into the kitchen. “I thought what you made last night was good.”

 

“Why thank you,” he said in mock confidence. “However, you must realize that what I made is like the most rudimentary of all cooking. That's the sort of thing people cook when they're camping. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to cook other than what someone would eat while they're roughing it.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

“I spent a lot of time camping by myself when I was a teenager,” he explained.

 

“Well, this looks great,” Hitomi said, looking at the spread he had set up on the table. It was simple. There were just pancakes, syrup, milk and sausages, but it looked good. “Thank you so much for making breakfast for me.” She reached up and planted a brief kiss on his cheek.

 

They sat down together to eat.

 

“Did you have a good time last night?” Van asked, leaning over to fill their glasses.

 

“Yeah, I really did. You did a pretty good job planning a date you wouldn't go on.”

 

“Is that what it seemed like?” he laughed. “Oh, well. I won't ask you if you were able to figure anything out … even though I'm dying to know.”

 

“I'll tell you one thing for sure,” Hitomi said, taking in a deep breath. “I wasn't able to learn much about my abilities. That part sure seemed to come hard.”

 

“So you didn't make any progress?”

 

She shook her head and took another bite. “Are you disappointed?”

 

“Not in the least. Actually, that was only the beginning. We're going canoeing on the lake after this. Originally, I wanted to take you hiking, but I'm not sure how well I'd do with my leg, so maybe later on.”

 

“Do you have the whole day planned out?” she asked, thinking how interesting this was going to be. She'd been on boats before, but she had never had to paddle one.

 

“Is there anything special you'd like to do on your birthday?” Van asked.

 

“Well,” she answered after thinking a little. “There are lots of things I want to do, but not many of them are particularly birthday related. What did you have planned?”

 

“Then you won't mind me taking you around, eh?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then, let's finish up and get going.”

 

“But Van,” she started out uneasily. A concern had popped into her head. “I don't have a swimsuit.”

 

He scoffed, “You don't need a swim suit. Yeah,” he said looking her over, “I'd let you out in public wearing my underwear. Your shirt is really cute too.”

 

She looked down at his grey boxers and the light blue T she was wearing that said `Angel' in blue sparkles across the front of it. Was it cute?

 

“As a matter of fact, don't change. I like you the way you are.” He gave her a long look. “Is that okay with you?”

 

“I guess,” she said.

 

“When I got up I repacked the backpack, so as soon as we're finished here, we really can head out.”

 

When they finished, Van did the dishes, saying a birthday girl shouldn't have to worry about them. It was then that she realized he'd done them the night before as well, while she was out.

 

Soon they were in the car. Van was on the passenger side again and Hitomi was driving. He was very attractive. No baseball cap today, but he wore his sunglasses and a red shirt with a political joke on the back. She was dressed just as he suggested, except for a pair of sandals and olive tinted glasses.

 

“So, where are we going?”

 

“Astral Lake,” he said. “It's about a forty minute drive from here. I'll give you directions.”

 

They drove silently for a while with only the beat of the radio playing, until Hitomi could stand it no longer.

 

“You know, for someone so anxious to teach me about this gift, you're awfully tight lipped,” she said.

 

“I know,” he said, looking at her. “But that's not the only thing this trip is about. Even if we go on a hundred more trips, nothing will ever be like this first one. I was going to wait until we were out on the lake.”

 

A silence followed, until Hitomi finally asked, “Well then, can we talk about something?”

 

“Anything you want to,” he said noncommittally.

 

“Okay, I'll think of something. I got it. What are you going to do with the land your house used to be on?”

 

“Sell it, of course,” he said. “I don't have any use for it now. Actually, after the cleanup is finished it'll go on the market.”

 

“Do you know when that'll be?”

 

“No idea. I'm not there to supervise anything. Besides, the insurance company and the city are taking care of all that. I'm not even interested. I'm finished with the Abaharaki anyway.”

 

“What'll Allen say when he hears?” she asked, a little distressed. She had almost thought that he didn't mean what he said about leaving them when he talked about it before.

 

“He'll probably be disappointed with me, but I don't really care. I still want to help free Celena though. I had never met her before we found her in the Dragon Slayer hideout. I never imagined that she would be such a defeated little creature - it was horrible. I don't care what Allen says. I'm not endangering other people anymore. If I feel like doing something rash, then so be it, I'll take the consequences, but this thing that's happened with Jeremy, Nick and Richard is breaking me down. Who knows what they'll be like when Dilandau and Folken let them out? There's no way they'll be the same after living with the Dragon Slayers for almost two months.”

 

“You don't know what will happen?” Hitomi asked nervously.

 

“No, I have no idea. I can't even guess. This sort of thing has never happened before. I keep rolling the idea around in my head. Why did they want to keep those guys for six whole weeks? That's a lot of time to keep them and ensure their safety. Something smells bad and I can't even guess how things are going to turn out.”

 

“Do you think they're being … tortured?”

 

“I don't know,” he admitted, obviously uncomfortable, “But Allen's not being tortured. I know that for sure. They have a different plan for him.”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“He's Celena's brother. I'm sure they can think of plenty of uses for him that don't have anything to do with us. They said they'd give him back, but I don't know. They might change their minds about that.”

 

“What'll you do, Van?”

 

“If that happens?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

He smiled and touched her arm reassuringly. “I'll take care of it.”

 

“You're not going to tell me more than that?”

 

“No,” he said flatly and looked out the window.

 

Hitomi decided to hop back on the question of his house. It seemed safer. “So, are you going to buy another house when we get back to the city?”

 

“Hadn't planned on it.”

 

“Don't you need some place to live?” she asked, wondering at his reasoning.

 

“Actually, I haven't finished making my plans about that yet. I've been so busy, I haven't even thought about it.”

 

Hitomi wanted to ask him if she would be going with him wherever he decided to go, but in the end made up her mind not to.

 

“You're very curious today Miss Kanzaki,” he said. “What brought all this on?”

 

“You never tell me anything,” she grumbled.

 

He laughed at her expression. “That's okay. Most of this is supposed to be a surprise anyway. And you keep stealing my stuff. I have to do something to get back at you, but I have to tell you something, Sweetheart. When you wear a T-shirt, you can't see the body of the dragon or the moon on your arm. You only see the tail that slips down your arm. Even though I've seen your tattoo dozens of times now, the urge to pull the sleeve up and have one more look at it is almost impossible to resist.”

 

“You seem to do quite well,” she said. He hadn't done that once! Much to her disappointment! He never touched her, even though she wanted him to.

 

Finally, they came to the town outside Lake Astral, and to the hut that rented canoes to the tourists. Van and Hitomi got out of the car and walked over to it together - holding hands. Van had arranged everything previously and they only had to slip on their orange life jackets and go.

 

When the proprietor of the shop saw Van limp he said cautiously. “I wouldn't go out there if you're hurt.”

 

Van shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care and said with his back turned to the man, “That's what the life jacket is for.”

 

“Whatever you say,” the man said, before going back into the hut.

 

Van showed her how to hold her paddle and put her in the front. “That way we can go wherever you want to - if there's anything you want to see.” He threw their backpack in with them and he got into the back.

 

Once they were out on the water, Hitomi felt Van's eyes on her back. He was looking at her. She turned around to see his face, and he smiled broadly at her.

 

“You had other reasons for putting me up here, didn't you?”

 

“Of course,” he grinned.

 

It was a nice day to be out on the lake. There were big white clouds in the sky that gave the occasional patch of shadow. The water was the coarsest shade of green Hitomi had ever seen. There was a slight breeze, and Hitomi was happy to be there. It wasn't just because she was with Van. She was starting to feel like he had a lot more to teach her and show her than just about love, but about … she didn't know how to describe it. It was like if she tagged along with him and did the things he loved she would learn everything. Not just about him or just about her or the abilities they shared, but she would learn about everything

 

She must really be a city girl if she was impressed by all of this, but she was impressed. She never realized the world was this beautiful.

 

After they had been paddling for a while, Hitomi's arms were starting to burn. At first she thought it was easy, but now Van was the only thing pushing them along. She pulled her paddle out of the water and rested it across the front of the boat and turned around to look at him.

 

“I'm beat,” she said, opening the backpack looking for some water. “You're sure a good at this. I guess it doesn't matter if your leg is hurt.”

 

“It's stupid, isn't it? I feel like a cripple.”

 

“What do you mean? You were shot after all. There's no reason to ashamed. It's not like you tripped on the sidewalk or something.”

 

“Wow,” he said lightly. “Chicks really do dig scars.”

 

“Dang skippy,” she laughed. “So, have we gone far enough? I'm tired.”

 

“Sure, we can stop here and just float if you want to. Is all this new to you?”

 

“Yeah,” she said, unconsciously putting her hand to her neck.

 

“There's some sunscreen in there if you want,” he told her. “You're awfully pale, and I don't want you to burn. So, I was going to start off by telling you more about my uncle Balgus, if that's all right.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“I told you that he was the one I inherited my elemental abilities from, didn't I?”

 

Hitomi said that he had.

 

“His symbol was a wolf. He received his power one day while he was hunting. You have to understand that he didn't tell me any of this himself. My aunt told me a few things once she realized that I had inherited his power, so my story might be a little muddled.”

 

“Which elemental powers did he possess?”

 

“I know he had air, like me. I saw him use it once when I was a kid. When I asked my aunt about it she agreed with me, but told me I had to find my own path and I couldn't focus on what Balgus did or had. I pressed her for more information of course, but she pushed me off every time, simply saying that she knew he wouldn't want to give me more information.”

 

“It seems a little harsh that she wouldn't tell you anything more than that,” Hitomi said.

 

Van shrugged his shoulders. “I still don't know if she had the right idea there or not, but I do know that she was really doing what my uncle would have wanted. After the incident where he used his air abilities he wouldn't tell me a word about it, even though I asked him all the time.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“I fell off the roof, and he used his ability to stop me from slamming head-first into the driveway. He used the wind to direct me - head-first, mind you - into a stack of hay.”

 

Hitomi giggled at the idea of Van getting literally thrown into anything.

 

“It wasn't funny. I was still hurt! It wasn't soft or anything. I was cut and stuff!”

 

“And he wouldn't talk to you about what happened?”

 

“No. He just kept saying that I wasn't supposed to talk about it. Anyway, I was left to figure things out for myself. I got my ability when I was a teenager. I told you the story about my seeing the Chinese dragon when my uncle died, didn't I?”

 

Hitomi nodded. “Tell me about the first time you used your power, Van?”

 

“It was nothing. At least it wasn't anything near as intense as what happened when you used yours for the first time. I was blown away by how tough you were,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I was just at school with a couple of boys (not my friends), and they were getting bullied by the guys a few grades above us. I didn't like what they were doing, so I got in a fight with them. Actually, I didn't even hear about it until afterwards. The guys I punched didn't just have bruises, but burns too.”

 

“The cops didn't charge you or anything, did they Van?” Hitomi asked in distress.

 

“No. Those kids were too stupid to want to admit that they had been hurt by a kid a couple years younger than them, but they did come for revenge.”

 

“Did they hurt you?”

 

He shook his head. “It was too late. I'd already spoken with my aunt and gotten a pretty good idea as to what I could do if I was riled up. So, they couldn't touch me, and after a few failed attempts, they stopped coming. After that, I had an interesting reputation at school.”

 

“Were you a delinquent?”

 

Van smiled. “I might have been … if I wasn't so studious. I got good grades, so I was left alone. Anyway, back on topic, I started practicing using the fire, but it was hard. I kept burning things by accident. Besides, I had to be so angry before I could even get a spark. That's when Auntie told me to lighten up and try to use air, because after all, my symbol was a dragon. Once I started doing that, I got much better.”

 

“So, how do you trigger the elemental powers in your mind for air? I thought of the beat of the music in the dance hall when I fell unconscious and made my heart beat just as fast. Then the feeling just came from me and the ice came with it. Is it like that for you?”

 

Van put his hand over Hitomi's excitedly. “You don't know how good it is to be able to talk to someone else like this. It's marvelous. I can't tell you how alone I've felt, being the only one who could do this. It makes me realize how much we were meant to be together and how overjoyed I am that I met you. Thank you Hitomi for believing in me.”

 

“I'll always believe in you,” she said, looking wonderingly into his eyes. Would right now be a good time to …

 

But Van interrupted her thought process and continued, “Well, it's interesting that you used the beat of your heart to get started. With fire for some reason, even though this doesn't make sense, it's the air in my lungs that powers the energy. I have to be breathing hard. You would think that you would use your own breath to start using an air element, but that isn't how it works. Isn't that curious? Anyway, before I use the air element, my body has to be very limber. I have to be totally relaxed, and then every motion I make will float me on air. It's interesting.”

 

“You can fly!” she exclaimed.

 

“I wouldn't go that far,” he said quickly. “Not only would I not want anyone to see me doing something so ridiculous, I don't know if it would work. I can only control the wind in gusts. I've often wondered if I could control something as powerful as a tornado, but whenever I think about it, I know that I don't want to. I have no use for power on that scale, nor do I know how to activate something like that.”

 

“But do you think it's possible?”

 

“It might be.”

 

Hitomi's mind suddenly clicked and she understood something that she wasn't sure if he meant for her to learn. “So, Van, do you accidentally set fire to things when you breathe too hard?”

 

“Sometimes, yeah I do, but I'm a lot better at controlling it than I used to be. Why?”

 

“Is that why you don't want to kiss me? Are you worried you'll breathe too hard and scald me? Is that why you're pushing me now to learn my ice skills?”

 

He looked at the water, tilting his chin away like he didn't want to answer her. “The thought did cross my mind,” he answered slowly, “but I don't think it's possible for me to hurt you. At least I don't think so ... Sorry that I am what I am.”

 

“The Dragon,” she said, giving him a half smile. “I think that's pretty sexy.”

 

His head whipped around. “You do?”

 

“You haven't been fooling around with anyone, have you?” she asked, feeling very confident.

 

“No,” he admitted. “Even before I met you, I was afraid that I might hurt someone.”

 

“And why you have never, to date, initiated a kiss between the two of us. It's always been me who made the first move, and you've even stopped me a time or two.”

 

There was a moment when they were looking at each other, reaching for each other, but Van broke the spell and turned away.

 

“Okay, okay, okay,” he said, dipping his paddle into the water again. “We can't talk about this anymore. A man can only take so much. Come on Hitomi. You were so strong that first time after I was shot. You acted so tough and wouldn't let us go too far, even though my control was so run down at the time. Be strong for me again!”

 

“But …” she started.

 

“Come on, Birthday Girl,” he interrupted, “show a little stamina and enjoy the moment of anticipation.”

 

“But …” she began again.

 

He looked at her as if to tell her to stop.

 

“Listen to me,” she said forcefully. “You always avoid the topic of you and me and what we're going to do about all this. Why do you avoid the question? We need to work things out. Well, last night when you sent me off on my own, I worked things out and I know what I want. Why won't you let us have this conversation? Isn't this what you wanted?”

 

Van sighed deeply. “Can I tell you what I want?”

 

“Of course,” she said openly, excited for the moment they could express what they were feeling. She desperately wanted to hear what he had to say. Everything in her heart was swelling for his moment.

 

“I need,” he paused, “one more day.”

 

“One more day?” she asked, her heart feeling like it was literally falling in her chest in disappointment. “Why?”

 

“We can have that conversation to your heart's content tomorrow if you want, but I want your birthday to be special and a nice day that you and I can always look back on as a great day, no matter what happens next.”

 

His voice was so steady, she felt like arguing was a waste of time.