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Just You Wait by rui

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≤Center≥Chapter Nine



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Hitomi slammed the door shut behind her, making Van, who was stripping off his boots while sitting on the edge of the bed, jump. Her blonde hair was sticking up in several directions and her face clearly told of her unhappiness. He'd seen that look on a person before; it was usually before they killed something or someone. That was usually in battle though, so why was she in such a threatening mood?

"What's wrong?" Van's voice made her narrowed eyes shoot over to him.

"Armand," she bit out, "Armand is what is wrong. He took something from me and won't give it back. He won't even open the door and I can't say anything to him because he keeps laughing too loudly for me to be heard."

Van's black eyebrows rose to an arch. Armand was known as a prankster, but he knew where to draw the line. "What was it?"

Her pale skin almost glowed with red as her eyes cast down toward her feet. She found the tips of her fingers rather interesting as they battled each other. "He took my— night clothes."

Then again, Armand could just be a skilled idiot with no sense of decency whatsoever, Van rethought.

Kicking off his boot, Van quietly got up, went to one of his trunks and pulled out a shirt.

Throwing it in her direction, Hitomi caught on her head, draped over her startled face like a curtain. Pulling the shirt off her head, and holding it in front of her, Hitomi's eyebrows rose along with a deeper shade of scarlet.

"You can wear that. It's a bit tight on me, so you can probably fit it fine." Though she could only see his profile, Hitomi noticed the pink blush across his cheek. It appeared that the head strong man was also a bit on the shy side. It was cute in a way.

"Thanks." If she had been in her own clothes, the female would have stuttered and stammered her way into bed with the lie that her day clothes were comfortable enough to wear to bed. Sure she'd smell as fresh as a rotted potato, but at least she have her dignity intact.

"The bathing room is through that door."

Hint, hint, Hitomi thought with a small smile.

He didn't want to give her the idea that he was trying to get a free peek. Hitomi nodded and made a quick run into the room he pointed toward. Stripping out of the barmaid's outfit and slipping on Van's shirt, she felt her blush creep upon her face again. It wasn't so long; only hit mid thigh but it covered enough of her legs to make her feel safe enough to be seen in this state of dress.

Running a comb through her hair, and washing up best she could, Hitomi cracked open the door. Van was only a lump on the bed and it matched the lump in her throat. She took a deep breath, slipped through the door, and softly padded across the floorboards to the bed. Butterflies of nervousness swarmed within her stomach and heart.

He wasn't sleeping on his normal side of the bed; he had taken 'her' side of the bed. The bed was tucked in the corner of the room so there was no way else to put it in the small room comfortably, but Hitomi felt anything but comfort.

Gingerly, she picked up the lip of the sheet and brought it a few inches off the bed before dropping it as if it had grown scolding hot. Looking around the room, desperately, she noted that there was no sofa, fainting couch, or anything else she could use as an alternative sleeping area. Then again, she looked down at her bare feet and the wooden planks beneath them, there was always the floor.

She heard Van say something, but she clearly decipher what he had said. When asked to repeat himself, the king turned over to face her, even in the dark she could see his garnet eyes effortlessly.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Van whispered. Hitomi swore she heard something akin to hurt in his tone, but it had been so soft, she couldn't be one hundred percent certain yet again. "You don't have to be scared."

She felt guilt squash the butterflies. Of course he wasn't going to try anything. If he wanted to, he could have and that thought made her gut turn to ice. He had the power to do it, had the strength and no one would stop him. She shivered, knowing that he wasn't that type of guy. Or at least he never gave off that dangerous air toward her. An annoyed air? All the time. She breathed in his annoyance and returned it double most of the time.

"Are you going to get in bed or stand there staring at it?" Van asked grumpily, turning his back to her again.

Sighing, she really didn't have to feel any fear toward this man. Someone who was trying
to lure a girl into bed would be a lot sweeter. Hitomi discarded all her other emotions and settled on the over whelming sleepy feeling that was going through her body. She crawled into the bed, and sighed at the warmth already present.

Soon she dropped off to sleep without a care in her dream world.

Van, on the other side of the bed, was awake most of the night.

What was he thinking when he thought it would be no problem sleeping next to a warm woman, almost close enough to touch, the entire night?

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It had been exactly eighteen days after the wedding, eleven days since they left the capital city, and seven days since Hitomi and Van had talked to each other. The night after they slept at the inn Van had been less than friendly for reasons he wouldn't share with anyone. How could he admit that being so near his wife had caused him to be overly aware of every little thing. Every step in the hall, every flicker of the street lanterns from outside the window, every innocent brush of her against his had made it impossible to sleep.

Hitomi, having had a very restful night, was happy and lively so much that Armand had a good verbal sparring partner for breakfast. Van had put up with it.

When six out of the seven men had nasty hangovers, the only sober one had been wrathfully eyed as they reloaded the carriage to continue the journey. The fact the man then decided to sing at the top of his lungs nearly the entire day only added to the murderous atmosphere. There had been dark chuckles as vivid images and ideas about having the singer thrown into the mud and then beat him with empty booze bottles circulated.

Van had gotten a few minutes of rest on the bumpy road, and then she started to talk. She wanted to know something, a simple question neither of them remembered a week later, but it had caused his irritation to sky rocket. He said one thing, she said another and slowly it escalated into neither of them talking to the other.

Armand had been brave or unperceptive to the extra cold climate, and dared to ask the couple why they suddenly seemed so quiet. Van didn't reply, but his icy mask belayed volumes as did Hitomi's up turned nose and crossed arms.

The encampment had been anything but warm, even next to the fire, that night and for the nights following.

Van stared out the window, arms crossed and feet kicked out. His thoughts weren't on anything in particular, but they were there, silently running around causing him to have a slight headache as they clashed with each other.

The thoughts would start familiar such as fighting styles, established trade treaties, and then the lightening would strike.
"Fine then!" she had fumed, "but don't blame me if you are miserable! It's not my fault."

Another clash. Another ounce of pain in his mind.

She had looked so upset.

But where did Fanelia stand with its fruit exports?

While on the other side of the carriage, the girl studied the design of the interior woodcuts. The scenery had grown boring and repetitious in the many days of seeing nothing but sparse trees and rolling hills of brown dirt. Of course, there was only so much paneling and wood grain a person could take as well. The knights, as Hitomi discovered they were all knights of Fanelia, stayed away from the carriage should another verbal eruption occur.

It wasn't her fault. She had only asked something innocent and he suddenly became a bull headed jerk about everything. No way did she keep this to herself, she let him know she didn't like his rude treatment and he had replied with something that made her call him a jerk.

Repeatedly.

However, she was bored and her pride wouldn't allow her to yield and be the first to speak. If it meant spending the rest of the trip in complete and utter silence so be it. Hitomi figured she had been the first to start most of the conversations and it was his turn to try, which to her meant she was going to spend a lot of time listening to the stabbing silence.

Van jerked forward as Hitomi hit the back of her head on the carriage wall. The coach had stopped without warning and wobbled to the side a bit.

"What happened?" the Queen asked to no one in particular.

"I don't know." Van opened the door and stuck his head out. There had been a problem with the wheel on the left back side and now the problem had turned into a broken pile of wood. Hitomi sighed as she and Van were asked to step out of the carriage.

"This will only take a few hours your highness," Jill tried to smile but only got two very unhappy looks in return.

"The park around here seems lovely, doesn't it?" Armand remarked offhandedly. "Perhaps your majesties would like to take a stroll why we humble servants fix the limping transportation?"

"I can help," Van offered quickly.

"Nonsense, your majesty, we can handle it." Armand gave a cheerful smile, turned, and jumped off his horse to aid the others as they hoisted the box up to clear off the remaining bits of wheel.
Lovely, Hitomi thought, looking around at the same type of landscape she'd been forced to endure for the past few days. Brown with a bit of trees. Shrugging, the girl picked a direction to the left of the road and began to walk.

Van scowled as he watched her leave before setting to go after her. She was headstrong, unpredictable and—and just overly frustrating in general. But what was he to expect? He'd known someone just like her. Not really wanting to be punched in the face again, he made sure she knew it was him.

"Wait." The blonde turned her face to the side, saw him, and came to an unwanted stop.

"I thought you'd want some space," The petite blonde crossed her arms and turned her face away from him.

"I can't let you run around the country side by yourself," Van stated plainly.

Hitomi shrugged and started walking. She had no idea where she was going or what her destination was going to be, but she was making great time. It wasn't until a mile or two into the 'woods' that she heard something that made her ears perk.

Van, who had wisely kept his mouth shut the entire adventure, stopped when Hitomi did and recognized the same sound as she. "It's water movement."

"Which way?"

He pointed in a direction and off she went in a near sprint. Sighing, the man silently followed his running bride. When Van caught up with her, she had her hands clasped together in front of her chest with a wide smile on her face. She had a light blush and her jade eyes sparkled like the lake.

Quirking an eyebrow at her strange reaction, Van looked out toward the decent sized lake, though it was probably just a swelled pond, and tipped his head in confusion. It was just a body of water, what made her so happy about it? What, was she going to drown herself? Is that why she was so strangely happy to see it?

As if he would ever let her die on purpose.

Running a hand through his wild hair, he watched as she danced closer to the water's edge. She was about to put her foot in the water when he calmly told her to stop.

"Why?" She had inspected the water, and it didn't seem to be a sewage line from any neighboring house or village. The water was clear and she saw the small fish as they wiggled around under the transparent surface. "It looks fine to me."

"You'll freeze," Van replied. "Those are sun stones over there." He pointed to flat, gray-brown rocks that were under the water on the far side of the pond. "They give off heat so the water around them is usually warmer."

Hitomi looked over and shrugged as she made her way toward these supposed 'sun stones'. She cautiously inserted the tip of her toes into the liquid and, to her surprise, found it a pleasantly warm temperature. A content smile took over her lips as she wadded into the water about waist deep. With her cares forgotten in the flow of the warmed water, the girl turned to the black haired king with her smile and asked. "Why don't you come in?"

"I—," he snapped his mouth shut when he could think of a reasonable excuse, instead of joining her as she continued to walk deeper into the pond, he squatted at the shore side. Spreading his fingers he let the water thread through them.

Van's shock was punctuated by Hitomi's laugh as he had been splashed, rather unexpectedly, by the now laughing female. The front of his shirt and bottom of his pants had received most of the water damage, the garnet eyes quickly went to the amused blonde in the water.

"What was that for?"

"You shouldn't always be so serious. You're face will be permanently stuck in a scowl if you do," She pointed out and Van rolled his eyes.

"No, it won't." His mother tried that trick a million times when his brother and he would start making faces at each other at a formal dinner to help ease the boredom.

"Fine then, how about this." Even with her hips under water, he could tell that's where her hands were firmly planted. "You will look older quicker unless you learn to lighten up. We've both been cramped in that horrid sweat box all day and both of us could benefit from a quick swim."

First she called him old looking and now she was telling him he stunk? What a lady. She had been spending too much time around Armand, whether Hitomi was aware of it or not, she started to pick up on his twisted logic.

"No thanks," Van gave her a firm look but Hitomi just sighed.

The blonde slowly made her way back to the bored king. After being splashed he was ready to dash off in a heartbeat to prevent from getting wet again. What he didn't expect was for her to lean down, grab both of his arms and within a second, send him face first into the warm water of the pond.

He came back up sputtering and spitting water.

Hitomi was already in the middle of the pond and swimming far away from him. In between the splashes, he could hear her laughing. His eyebrow ticked, well if she wanted to play dirty, then he could play dirty. In fact it was good they were in the water because they'd need to clean up after he really started to play the dirtiest! Of course, Van thought on reflection that it sounded rather perverted. Shaking off the thoughts, he took off his now soggy boots and discarded his soaked shirt.

"You asked for it," Van smirked as he dove into the pond. Hitomi yelped in surprise when she saw the Fanelian king disappear under the water. Hopefully he knew how to swim—maybe that was it! Maybe he couldn't swim and that was the reason he was reluctant to come in! She was going to be the reason for his drowning!

"Van?" She asked, keeping herself afloat as she splashed around, trying to find him.


Then something gripped one of her ankles and before she could kick, scream, or be surprised— she found herself underneath the surface.

She shot up from underneath and coughed the water she'd sucked in while trying to scream. Hitomi then glared at the now chuckling King. Apparently, he could swim but who cared? She was going to splash him to death!

"This means war!" She gave her own brief dangerous smile and lunged at him. They ended up in a splash war, both of them swallowing as much water as they pushed toward the other.

Hitomi finally, many minutes later, forfeited when her arms began to burn from overuse.

"Okay! Okay!" She laughed, looking at him with one eye, "you win."

He gave her a small smirk that slowly transformed into a small smile. She couldn't help to notice how, even wet, when he smiled he was extremely cute.

Van's ebony hair was sticking to and hanging in his face. He tossed his head back and forth trying to free himself of the burdensome locks. He tried to blow on it with no luck. Hitomi giggled.

At the sound, Van's focus left his hair to the soaked blonde. She looked really— cute. A blush crept up his face as he took in her cheerful expression, actually daring to study her for an extended time without the worry of his council or Armand seeing it as something it wasn't. It was curiosity, not interest. Surely not interest.

Her eyes were bright, almost meadow green he noted. Hitomi's hair was like the color of the sun, her eyes a meadow—Van couldn't think of what to term her pink lips. A rebel thought wondered if they were soft as a flower or chapped from too many days in the sun.

Hitomi felt self-conscious at his prolonged and silent observation. Did he find something offensive? Did she do something wrong again? Coming a bit closer to him, she took a wild chance and reached out toward the silent royal. Gingerly, she brushed his stubborn locks behind his ear.

At her touch, the king was thrust into another time and place where that gesture happened. Fingertips and her smile haunting him, almost burning as she had whispered to him.

"I won't hurt you, Van."

He jerked away at the memory and Hitomi eyes widened. How could he forget? Closing his eyes, Van pushed her away again. Not wanting to get put in that pain again.

Had she done something wrong? Again?

Without a word, the king made his way back to the bank, dressed, and turned to Hitomi with his mouth opened as if to say something. Van's stern look dissolved as quick as his blush rose on his cheeks and he jerked his head away.

Hitomi felt dread well up in her, did she say something wrong? Why did he suddenly go from laughing into the silent brooding man?

"I think we need to get back," he suggested, walking away from the shore. His heart was racing. The girl didn't need to do anything else right now but dry off. He kept his back turned toward her the entire time she was behind him. Silently, the couple weaved their way back to the carriage where the other travelers were jaw jacking and yawning.

When the King came into view, they snapped into place, but when the Queen came into sight, the men's eyes went wide.

Armand gritted his teeth. The little hillbilly! Didn't she realize? Deciding to deal with her secondly, Armand reached into the carriage and retrieved Van's traveling cloak.

"I don't think you are being very good right now," Armand said pointedly to each and every gawking knight.

When she came close enough, he draped the cloak around her shoulders and fastened it tightly around her small figure.

"Armand! It's sweltering!" Hitomi complained, trying to shrug off the offending piece of material.

"That it may be, but I don't think you were thinking (big surprise) when you decided to go for your swim, or whatever you did that made you so—transparent."

Hitomi eyebrows rose, looking down at herself, she closed the cape as swiftly as possible and made a mad dash into the carriage, knocking Van in the shoulder at her hasty escape.

Why didn't he tell her that was the reason he was blushing? She was wearing a white dress and white undergarments! Gah! She just wanted to get to wherever they were going as soon as possible! How was she supposed to look any of the knights in the face again?

A deep blush set in when she thought of Van, which wasn't hard considering he was entering the coach. Why hadn't he said anything? Did he think it was funny? Maybe, it was a stretch, but perhaps he was too embarrassed to say anything?

Whatever the reason may have been, Hitomi only wanted to get to Slena as soon as possible!

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