Just You Wait by rui

Chapter 04

Chapter 4
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She slammed her door shut and with large eyes. Placing a hand over her racing she heart, Hitomi did her best to try to calm it down.

Of all the possible and impossible scenarios she could have ever dreamed up in her years, this dinner would still have been unexpected. Nothing, absolutely not a thing, could have prepared her for what happened. Hitomi wasn't sure if she was going to cry or laugh. Cry because she had embarrassed herself beyond all belief or just laugh because of the obscurity of it all.

A knock at her door sent the girl into another full blown panic.

"W-who is it?"

"Armand." The voice didn't bring comfort and her blood pressure shot through the roof. No doubt he had heard about the disastrous dinner. Desperately, the frantic girl searched around her room for some excuse or exit. "I know you're in there, Lady Hitomi, I can here you wheezing."

Too distracted with trying to get an escape route, she let the insult slide off her shoulders. There was the balcony, but the girl knew that she was at least three floors up so it would be impossible to escape through there. But, she re-thought, it might stall Armand from chewing her from head to her now bare feet. The jingle of keys and curses made the would-be Queen bolt to her balcony.

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Van had never witnessed someone eating so slowly in his life. His to-be was slowly spooning out her soup and only managed to get three spoonfuls into her mouth before the butler whisked the first course away to bring the next.

Having been forced into her company at every dinner, he was sure that she could swallow a cow and cough up the bones with little problem and now she had a bird stomach? He thought it was strange but nothing compared with the dinner that had been held tonight.

His guests were as pleasant and friendly as anyone would expect a member of the royal family and royal guard to be. Hitomi, for the most part, slowly ate. They were only a few minutes into the second course when a large rumbling was heard. Thinking it danger, Van itched to jump up but didn't want to alarm the others if it was just a phobia of his.

The rumbling became higher pitched and it was soon revealed to be the chattering sound of females. He looked at his fiancée who was frozen in place, her green eyes large with shock. Millerna had cocked her head to the side as Allen raised an eyebrow.

A few seconds and bam the doors to the formal dining hall were thrown open to reveal two women, one obviously older than the second and both looking quite happy.

"Here you are, dear!" the eldest one squealed in delight. Hitomi turned around, slowly, in her chair with a twitching smile on her face.

"M-mother!"

"Isn't this lovely," she crowed, "A get together among friends and family. You don't mind if we stay, do you, your majesties?" Hitomi's mother gave an odd laugh before seating herself right by Allen, the other one who was revealed to be Hitomi's older sister, Leiko, sat next to Hitomi.

"I-I'm afraid we haven't had the pleasure of meeting." Princess Millerna was the first to recover.

"Sorry, honey, I'm Minerva Kanzaki and this is my daughter Leiko."

The blonde smiled at them both and gave her ever formal smile and 'how-do-you-dos'. Allen did the same, though he was able to shake the shock off more easily than Van or Hitomi.

"Why, darling, you look pale! Are they feeding you well here?" Minerva's eyes snapped to Van's as she sent him silent daggers. "You are feeding her well aren't you?"

"Of course, ma'am." Van shook the feeling that he was using the term loosely.

A brilliant smile took over her face. "Good! Then she will be a fat and happy wife!" Hitomi's complexion recovered from its paleness only to plunge into a deep red.

"M-mother! I thought you had gone back home!"

"Nonsense child! With so many fine young men coming to the ceremonies, Leiko could not afford to be absent, isn't that right precious?" The older sister beamed with a smile much like her mother's. Van coughed lightly to distract the conversation from where it might lead. Hitomi's character, he was sad to think, was in question. Was she just after the money? But that was ridiculous, wasn't it?

"Where are you staying?" Van couldn't think of a less painful, but blunt way of putting the question. From the three minutes they had spent together, he was sure he'd get real good at hiding in his palace.

"In a little hotel just outside the gates," Leiko answered and gave him the 'come-hither' eyes. Hitomi had been stock still through most of the fiasco and when she noticed her sister's attempts at capturing Van's attention, one could almost swear that they could see when she started to want to run from the room.

When the butlers came in, now carrying two extra plates for the unexpected guests, Leiko and Minerva didn't stop. Their table manners were acceptable but the conversation topics had Van with his mouth open most of the conversation with nothing going in or out. And then, he shook his head in disbelief of this memory, came the book.

"Since you are to be her husband, and you, your majesty, are sure to be her new best friend, I guess it’s okay to show this." From Hitomi's petrified look, Van only guessed that her doom was impending. "Wasn't she such a precious baby!" Minerva cooed, quickly getting up from her chair and running to Van's side to show him a rather odd baby picture of, who he guessed, was Hitomi. The sketch was nicely done but the poor kid had not a stitch of clothing on and had a rather nasty trail of nose drippings.

His stomach clenched, he was somewhere between horribly amused, disgusted and sympathetic but the neutral mask never moved off his face.

"Mother!" Hitomi jumped to her feet and lunged into an attempt to grab the cursed book from the older woman who danced out of the way. Unable to regain her balance, the force of her lunge at her mother carried her past her now moved intended target and straight into Van.

Before impact Van could see the terror on Hitomi's face, after the impact all he could do was let an 'oomph' out as the girl's momentum caused his chair to go on two legs, but no further as it slammed down again on the floor.

Hitomi let out a whimper as she mentioned that the chair was on her foot, Van jumped up, knocking the book from Minerva's hands. The troublesome sketch book hit the tip of his plate and catapulted his food towards his guests, covering them in meat and sauce.

The Princess squeaked in surprise and jumped to her feet quickly. Van lifted the chair and Hitomi's injured foot slipped out from underneath it. Leiko, during the fiasco, had gotten up and attempted to aid Sir Allen in getting the dinner off of him, among other things, as he tried to fight away her hands. Millerna was successful at only getting the pieces off her rather expensive looking dress but the sauce had soaked through. Minerva had began to laugh nervously as she backed away from the table and into the butler carrying water to the table, she was able not only to remove herself from danger, but also trip the butler who let the pitcher fling its contents over Van and Hitomi.

The entire room went silent.

"This will make a wonderful story for future children, no?" Leiko attempted to jest, only to be glared at by her mother. Hitomi recovered first after her sister, and in a rushed tumbling of words she apologized several times while she ran out of the room.

The guests looked at one another and then to Van who was busily telling the butlers to show the invaders out. He wouldn't have been surprised if Asturia declared war right then and there, but instead of a high pitched voice ringing out in annoyance, a soft laugh was heard.

Van's eyebrows rose again and higher when Millerna's laugh grew in volume. Perhaps the sauce was laced with some type of drug?

"She is quite the girl," the Princess managed to gasp out as she calmly sat back down, intent of finishing dinner. Taking her lead, both baffled males sat down. The rest of the dinner had been rather uneventful after the grand opening act. Afterward, the Princess insisted that the dress would be taken care of and like new in no time and there were no hard feelings. She felt that there was no need to make a fuss about such a small thing.

Allen had asked him to practice his swordsmanship with him having, also, been a student of Balgus. Van readily accepted, anything was better than thinking about what a joke dinner had been. And to think, those women were to be associated with the royal family of Fanelia.

"Lord Van," Merle broke his thoughts with her voice. "Why didn't you put up more of a fight when they picked her?"
Van sighed, he knew why. The Grand Council would have to listen to him if he told them 'no' and he really wanted to. But the one thing a council member had humbly pointed out was that he had attempted to find a hand to hold with every local daughter of a duke, king, lord or lady. When the time came, most likely none would have him if he had previously slighted them.

Van blew out a huff of air. It wasn't his fault they had—issues that were so blatantly obvious any man in his right mind would be fearful of the girls. He had watched at least three nearly behead a servant for dropping something near their gown or bumping their chair or something else as trivial. At least this girl that he was going to have to marry seemed to be able to tolerate more. This evening proved it.

The Prince shuttered at the fact that her colorful family was soon to be his in-laws.

"Lord Van?" Merle prodded.

"I don't have a choice."

The neko reeled backward at his statement. "Didn't have a choice?" She took a deep breath before letting all her thoughts out, per usual. "You are the one who pays them and they get to rule your life? If I was a princess and they tried to marry me off to some woodsy, gold digging, peasant person I would tell them where they could go lick themselves!" She crossed her fur covered arms, her eyebrows crashing together. "You are in charge, tell them you don't wanna."

"I can't. It's not that simple, Merle." Van removed his shirt and dug around in his wardrobe till he found one of his favorite shirts. Slipping it on, he turned to face the feline female that was busting at the seams in irritation or anger, perhaps both. Maybe it was just gas. "I can't say 'no'. I'm doing what's best for Fanelia as I'm sure she is."

The little cat nose went straight in the air. "She's doing what's best for her pocket book! And you should do what is best for you since you have to be stuck with the girl."

"Perhaps, but either way." The prince shrugged as he opened his bedroom door and grabbed his sword. "I'll be back later."

Merle gave a rather discontented grunt when the door shut.

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Hitomi wanted to die. Maybe it would be better than having to face Van or Millerna or Allen. Her insane family was banned from the castle until the wedding for obvious reasons although they weren't told as bluntly as that. To escape from Armand's going on and on about the lack of civility in her family and how it must have been passed down to her, she ran to the gardens.

She picked at the flowers and nearly had her heart stop when a gardener came out of nowhere to fuss at her for ruining his beautiful creation. She apologized and put the flower down and made a quick getaway. Nothing seemed to be going right. Hitmoi was truly from a different world than Van and his odd servants were.

"Milady?" Turning, Hitomi came face to face with Allen. "Why are you out here by yourself?"

"Because it's safer for everyone else." She pouted, turning away from him. "And Armand has horrible allergies, so this will be the last place he'll be willing to look."

"Actually, he kindly requested me to find you." She felt her shoulders square up. Of course that pretty boy would send out the blood hounds for her. He wasn't going to let her out of his snide little claws that easily.

"Please don't make me go back, please," Hitomi begged and received a kind smile in return. A smile, how much she had missed seeing that on people's faces!

"Very well, but I'll have to insist on my coming with you. Wouldn't want anything to happen to you; Prince Van would never forgive me."

She rolled her eyes, but decided to allow him to tag along. Honestly there was no way she could stop him from coming and it would be one less thing for Armand to get on to her about in the future.

"How much did I embarrass Fanelia last night?" The question had been burning in her mind and with a hung head and heavy heart, she just had to know.

"I'm not sure. I'm not of Fanelia and don't know what the customs are. Perhaps that was some welcoming ritual you people do here." Allen tried to make a joke but it was completely lost on Hitomi who only sunk lower into her pity pool. Noticing this, the knight tried a new path. "The Princess Millerna thoroughly enjoyed the dinner."

Hitomi's head snapped up. "How?"

"Coming from a royal house, you have to understand, doesn't allow for such antics to occur. Though I'm sure Prince Van would have liked the entire incident never to have happened, it is amusing that it did." Allen gave her a warm smile and Hitomi reflected the gesture. "So you haven't caused any negative opinions."

Maybe not to the Princess, but the Prince is another matter I'm sure.

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