Van's towel and jaw dropped. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. With large eyes, he looked over his shoulder at her. Words and actions refused to be accessible as he tried his hardest to process what in the dragon's fire she was talking about!
Stomping her foot, she flew down the stairs, leaving a very baffled king in her verbal wake. Hitomi's words seeped into the mortar and whispered back to each other.
That's what she thought about him? Where would she get an idea like that?
Van's higher mental process started to do the extensive memory search for an answer, but only one name continuously came up.
Armand.
He was the one who had the most contact with the queen besides himself, and he was at the ball which seemed to be the starting point of this whole mess. Mapping out where the man could have taken off to, he went in the direction of the kitchen.
She had to be joking!
Van would have set a new record in the time it took him to close the distance from the upper, west wing hall to the kitchen— if such things were recorded. He threw open the doors, scanned, and found a startled soul to interrogate.
"Where is the knight?" Van ordered to an innocent kitchen boy who pointed in a direction and then skittered away as quickly.
Of course! The knight went for the wine, the king should have known. Being honorable was one of Van's most treasured character traits, but according to the Queen he was nothing more than animated dirt. She hadn't said as much or with such a description, but she might have well had if that was her true opinion of him.
Who else thought that?
"DECRI!" Van roared.
With the scrape of a chair legs and boot leather hitting the floor, a rattled knight was soon in front of him. Red wine speckled his white shirt, proof he must have spilled it on himself after being so rudely disturbed.
"What may I do for you, my liege?"
"Who talked to Hitomi? What did they tell her?"
"I don't know! A few maids perhaps, but I dare not stick my nose into girl matters," Armand answered quickly. His mother was going to kill him.
Van's temper was getting the best of him as he clenched his fists, "she thinks I use women."
"That you—wait, what?" Oblivious of the danger he was in, the knight began to chuckle. The noise soon grew into full fledged laugh. Tears started to roll down his face and that was just like throwing a tree trunk on an already raging fire.
"It's not funny. She hates me because she thinks that I am some sort of womanizer!"
"You can't see the humor in this, m'lord?" Armand snorted and dried his eyes. "She thinks that you, you who only looks at a female to know which way to run away from, is a manipulator?"
"Who told her this?" Van demanded.
"Somebody at the party, perhaps one of your spurned love affairs," With one stern look from Van, Armand sighed and decided to keep quiet. Well, not so much quiet as to refuse to say anything that might be a joke until Van either had a physical activity to participate in or vented properly. The chestnut haired man just hoped that any venting was not done in his general direction.
"Why would she think that about me?" Van's temper tapered off as he seemed lost in his own disbelief. "What could I have done to give her that impression?"
"I honestly do not know, my lord. But perhaps you should tell her your past before another bit of poison is slipped into her thoughts." Armand's words didn't fall on deaf ears, but Van didn't respond to them. "This comes from a fool who can't correct his lack of conversational skills with his own wife."
For the knight to mention his wife, Van wagered silently, it had to be serious.
---------
Merle had been hopping mad when she stepped out of the bedroom to find no Hitomi and a brooding Van. The king had always confided in her, and it was time once again to come into that role. He was upset and ended up spilling the entirety of the situation.
The neko was ready to tear the castle down to find that presumptions trollop! To think that the great and honorable Van would ever sink as low to be a common abuser! He never would hurt anyone, unless it was in battle, but that was another matter entirely. Yet she thought he did it for sport?
"I think you should just let her keep thinking that!" Merle stomped around. "She'll be the one who misses out on a great person!" The girl crossed her arms and legs as she plopped down on the bedroom floor, next to the fireplace, her tail flicking irritably. Van sat on the bed, contemplating what advice he'd been given and what he was thinking.
Before the ball, he and Hitomi had been getting closer. Yes, they had their moments of downfall, but the uplift was even greater. He wasn't usually so reserved on his emotions, but to act out on them wasn't going to help him in this matter. It certainly didn't help before. He still wasn't sure what to think or to feel about Hitomi, but he hated to be so horrific in her eyes.
For some reason, that was what bothered him the most.
He had to do it! That was it, he just had to. He didn't want to, but there was no way around it. The thought she was alive and hating him for what she thought he was just ate at Van to the point of doing something about it.
Climbing to his feet, he ran his gloved hand through his hair before declaring his course of action. "I'm going to tell her the truth."
Merle's tail stilled, her eyes and voice held suspicion, "What 'truth'?"
"About what happened with—her," Van clarified; his smile pathetically small. He was at the door before the cat girl was propelled back into action. Fear of pain for him made her move, made her almost desperate to protect him from another fall.
"No! Lord Van! Don't!" Merle had tears in her eyes as she grabbed her lord's hand. "You can't!" She clenched her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears as she wrapped her arms around his arm and buried her face in it. "Y-you can't!"
She remembered it all too clearly. The things that happened, the way he reacted, the way he retreated by shutting everyone out of his life. It was worse than when his brother had died! Van almost gave himself to the undertaker of depression and all because he told the truth! It wasn't fair!
"Merle," Van said gently, prying her hands off of him. "I don't want it to be like this." With that, he turned and walked out of the room.
Merle's tears wouldn't fall, but it didn't stop her heart from shattering on the floor. He wouldn't recover! He was allowing himself to be slaughtered.
Clenching her fists, the neko knew she was powerless against him, but if that female messed this up no one—no one would be able to protect her!
------------
"Hitomi?" Van questioned, seeing at least a half dozen heads bobbing up and down in time with the washing grills as they cleaned out the sheets, shirts, and other what-knits. Between the stirring, scrubbing, and pressing, it was hard to make his way around all the women who were dressed in the same with light blue dresses and white caps to protect their hair.
The room was extremely humid as the hot irons were placed on the linens to give them a crisp appearance (that would last only a few moments once they were used). Rei had mentioned, offhandedly, that Hitomi had been seen making her way to the laundry rooms. The kitchen, Van figured, was her first choice, but a bit too obvious for her to be able to hide from him.
At the rate he was going, he'd have to tap every woman on the shoulder and see if it was his wife or not.
"My King," one female plucked up as he passed her tub. "What are you doin' down 'ere?"
Luck was smiling down on him.
Cocking an eyebrow, "Have you seen the queen?"
"'er majesty?" a new girl asked, "She's out back, 'angin' up the sheets."
He nodded his thanks and hurried from the stuffy and dripping with estrogen room. The only distinct difference between that group of women and a group of heiresses was the laundry female didn't hide their appreciation as they would scan him from head to toe while the royals would only ogle him from behind their teacups.
He could feel their eyes on him as he quickly jumped up the stairs and left the steamy room. The instant he set foot on the grass, the room behind him erupted into giggles. Van sighed; maybe he should have come down in full dress, that way they be intimidated and not interested.
Foolishly thinking that the drying lines were one or two, he nearly fell over to see at least thirty or more lines strung up between forked poles. Another handful of girls in white were bustling about, so the green of Hitomi's dress stuck out rather well against the field of white linens.
"You there," an older woman turned and nearly fainted as her lord approached her. "Tell those who are working to go inside for a while."
"Y-yes, your majesty," the woman did a sloppy, nervous curtsy and then bellowed for the girls to come in. Van wasted no time and ducked into the row Hitomi was pinning sheets up on. She had been completely oblivious to him for a few moments, until she turned to collect another sheet and saw him patiently watching her.
"V-van," her blush was a chain reaction to his name. "W-what are you doing here?" She plucked up another sheet and threw one end over the line. Nervous chickens ran around in her stomach on fluffy footed horses, making it highly ticklish.
"We need to talk," he said simply.
Her blood froze as her heart rate hit the roof. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, the Queen attempted to find another girl in the field to use as an excuse, but there wasn't a soul around but a fat cat who mewed and stretched out in the sun's rays.
"About what?"
"About what you said," Van replied coolly. "Why'd you say it?"
Obvious question.
"It's the truth isn't it?" Hitomi shot back, barely giving him another glance as she smoothed out the wrinkles from the sheet. She didn't even hear him move before she found her wrists caught up by his hands as she was forced to look at him.
"No, it isn't," Van's voice went from his cool tone to a slightly deeper, huskier sound. "It's not true; I would never do that to any woman. Though a few wouldn't have minded if I tried." There was a distinct disgust in his last sentence. "I don't know why you think this about me, and you've already said that you don't trust me, but I want you to believe me."
Hitomi was speechless. Here he was, making it hard to dislike him again. Van made it even harder when he let the hands fall between them. His hands left her wrists and slid down to hold them gently. Either he was really, really good at acting or he was being honest. He was opening up—that boy again who was hiding in there was peeking through. The same boy with the shy smile who blushed after she had accidentally brushed his hand with hers during a meal in Slena.
"Van," she started, trying to get her thoughts to be quiet.
"S-she told me that you would go to a different palace, mansion, estate, or whatever people live in who have a lot of money, stay to visit with the girl and then take off in the middle of the night."
He wasn't sure how that led to him being a womanizer.
Personally it sounded like he was just overly friendly and liked to travel.
"That's all?"
Studying their hands, she swallowed. She didn't think that giving the abridged version would work.
"She told me you would—stay with the girls. She said that you'd promise to marry them and then—then, uhm, take advantage of them only to leave them later that night." Her cheeks were like two fire coals, burning red hot with embarrassment.
Ah, now it was making sense. "Who is this she?"
"I told you, I don't know. She never gave me a name," Hitomi's eyes flickered up to Van's. "Is it true?"
Gods, she didn't want it to be. That's why she didn't really want to talk about it. She didn't want to hear that any of the accusations were real.
"They, the women you speak of, were too concerned for their well being to give a moment's thought about the kingdom," Van explained, a ghost of a smile tracing his lips. "I did visit numerous bridal candidates." Hitomi went rigid, but he sighed. "But I only had dinner with them, if I even stayed that long."
"Why?" Hitomi questioned, slowly drawing her hands from Van's in order to continue her work.
"I didn't care about them and they didn't care about me," Van picked a sheet from the wicker basket, and ran his gloved fingers over the fabric. "Some were willing to pretend, but I— I didn't want to do—I didn't want that."
Relief swept up from the ground like a warm wind and before she knew it, Hitomi found herself light headed and hugging Van. She was just so happy he was the man she hoped he was and not the brash boy that the girl insisted. She tightened her hold on the king who was in such a state of shock, that he wasn't able to respond.
A heartbeat passed, then twenty more, and at last Hitomi's eyes flew open in shock. Just as she was ready to pull back and bluster out a mouth full of apologies and excuses, she felt his arms on her back. H-he was hugging her back?
Hitomi felt dizzy with surprise all over again.
Van held her, his eyes closed as he tried to push away the nagging demons reminding him of what he was and of what happened. He didn't want to think about that as he could feel her warmth against his skin. He didn't come out here to talk about that part of his past, but he'd get around to it.
Eventually.
Someday.
Maybe.
