Amoro Revidi
Title: Disappearances [Part Three]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: G
A/N: Part Three... very basic part. It'll probably get updated and fixed
before I finish part 4...
***
“Your Highness,” an insistent voice calls after the quickly walking monarch of Fanelia. “Lord King, please wait!”
Annoyed, he stops at the top of a staircase, waiting for his advisor to catch up. Once the man is near enough to speak comfortably to, he moves forward again. “What is it?” he asks in an agitated voice, focused only on completing his duties for the day and then going back to see Hitomi again.
“Your Highness, you have not met with your advisors in several days, is something wrong?” the hunched over form of Peralis, his chief advisor, asks him, attempting to keep up with his long strides.
“Nothing is wrong with Fanelia, is it?” Van snaps.
“No, Lord King, but…”
“Well then what should I meet with you about?” he asks, pausing and turning to look at his chief advisor. “I cannot do more than I already am, short of locking myself in with the lot of you to discuss policy and fashion.”
“We… we feel it’s time you begin to consider a wife, Lord King.”
After a moment of silence, in which Peralis shrinks back from the fire in his monarch’s eyes, Van turns on his heel. “I will not discuss this at this moment.”
“Lord King, you are already moving into your twenty second rotation…”
“And Queen Millerna of Asturia already had a husband and a son by this time? Or are you going to tell me that I’m going to turn into Allen Schezar and become a permanent bachelor if I don’t watch out?” Van snaps, holding himself in check from physical violence only by a narrow margin.
“My liege…”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Van’s voice drops.
“Without an heir… Fanelia will never be safe.”
Van snorts and folds his arms on his chest. “Even with an heir Fanelia will never be safe. When my father lived he had two heirs and we still managed to fall on hard times,” he pauses moving onward and saying in a dark tone, “if you recall, during the first war.”
Peralis forces himself to follow as the king continues down the stairs. “Your Highness, even though an heir would not secure Fanelia’s safety, it would do much to assure the line of the nobility.”
Whirling on his chief advisor, Van pins him with a glance. “I’m aware of that, I know that I’m the only living member of my family, I do not need to be reminded of it every step that I take.”
“Y-your Highness, I did not mean to…”
Turning his back to Peralis, Van grudgingly accepts the apology, and cuts him off before he can continue, “I know that you didn’t mean anything by that. You never knew Folken so I don’t expect that you could mean anything by it.” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I’ll… meet with the advisors tomorrow, all right?”
Peralis, shaken but still happy with that announcement, nods. “And will you consider our suggestion…”
“Suggestion of what?” Van’s voice causes Peralis to stiffen and stand up straight.
“That you seek a bride, Your Highness.”
“Duly considered,” he says in a tired voice. “Now go attend to something else that I’m sure needs your attention and leave me in peace.”
***
“Miss Kanzaki, you have a visitor,” the nurse on duty says, peeking her head in.
Hitomi sits the bed up slowly, inching the pillows into a comfortable position and smiles at the nurse.
It had taken some doing, but she had managed to set up with the nurses that Van could come in to visit her. She had been forced to lie and say that he was from another country, and when asked to specify, she had been put on the spot and said ‘America’ with little hesitation. They had accepted that as a fact, and in the eyes of the staff that excused his prior appearance late at night.
“He seems to have learned some manners since we last saw him, thanks for talking to him about the rules here.”
They dismissed it as some silly American impoliteness and impropriety.
She felt bad about it at first.
She knew some very nice Americans that were more polite than people from Japan, but the need to see him overrode her what her normal reserved nature would have done to prevent her from continuing the lie.
“No problem,” she replies with a smile. “Can you send him in?”
“Hold on a moment,” the nurse says, disappearing into the hall and returning a moment later to hold the door open for the young king of Fanelia.
“Hitomi,” he says with a smile.
“Hi Van,” she replies in kind.
The nurse quietly closes the door and goes on about her rounds.
“So, how’s Fanelia?” she asks in a quiet conversational tone.
Van’s eyes darken a moment and he pulls a chair over to sit next to her bed. He doesn’t answer for a long moment, and when he speaks, he changes the subject. “You’re recovering well, I take it?”
A slight frown pulls on Hitomi’s features. “I’m doing as well as can be expected. Van, how’s Fanelia?” she asks again.
“Fanelia is fine,” he says in a tight voice, looking around the room at the lack of decoration. “It’s… bare in here.”
“Yes, it is,” mentally she puzzles over his avoidance in talking about Gaea.
“Shouldn’t there be flowers or something? I feel like I should have brought some, now…”
“Van, what’s going on?” she asks finally, trapping him in her gaze. “You’re avoiding talking about Fanelia, is something wrong?”
He takes her hand in his, looking down at the contrast in their skin tones. “Just political stuff, Hitomi,” he says with a shrug, staring down at the difference between them emblazoned so strongly.
She squeezes his hand and tugs him closer to her, bringing his face level and causing him to lean over her. “Van,” she says in a quiet, intense voice. “Talk to me.”
Instead of saying a word, he leans forward and gives her a soft kiss before pulling back and blushingly looking away from her.
“Van…?”
“Do we have to talk about this?” he asks quietly, glancing up to look into her eyes. “I’d rather… think about other things.”
She nods slowly, one hand lifting to touch her lips.
***
Seated in the council room, Van lounges in his chair and listens to the petty state affairs, shocked himself by his actions the previous day. I kissed her. I can’t believe it. I’ve never…
The advisors noticed the disinterest their king was paying them and the whispers started quietly. ‘Is it true he’s been disappearing into the forest for long periods?’
‘Someone reported seeing a bright light out there the other day.’
‘Do you suppose…’
“That’s quite enough of that sort of talk,” Van says in an angry tone. “If there are questions, I’d prefer that you asked them to me directly instead of speculating and getting the answers wrong.”
Peralis stands at the far end of the room and asks. “Your Highness, where have you been disappearing to lately?”
***
Two: Visiting Hours | Four: Political Fencing | Amoro Revidi