Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Secrets ❯ Tardiness ( Chapter 10 )

Secrets

Chapter Ten

Tardiness

AN: To all my reviewers…if you're still out there, Thanx so much. You don't know what your reviews mean to me. I love you guys!!! ^-^!!!!! On with the fiction!!!!!!

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It was dawn. Celena was up and already dressed for her first melef lesson. The only question was where the hell was Dilandau? Last night had been truly strange. The Schezar manor now had a king, a soon-to-be-queen and a condemned lord for houseguests. It was almost laughable.

Celena was starting to worry. The sun had risen almost a half of an hour ago and Dilandau still hadn't shown. He had been acting strangely lately, even for him. He wasn't his angry defensive Dragon Slayer self and though she couldn't say that she liked him like that, she knew that it just wasn't him to be any other way.

She pondered this as she walked down the hallway to his room. It had to be the entire situation that he was faced with. For the past few months she'd been trying to prepare him, testing him to see if he was ready, trying to make him see that he could live again. But she wasn't prepared for what it meant when he did.

To be completely honest, Celena hadn't considered what living with him would be like. Living with him as an actual person and not as a voice in your head. And she had never thought about how it might affect him. She had to admit to herself that she had been naïve. Somehow, during all her planning and hoping and excitement, she had forgotten to take into consideration the fact that maybe things would be too much for him, for her, for Allen, for Gaea.

It hit her as she placed her hand gently on the door handle, that when thinking about Dilandau Albatou, you were not thinking about yourself and his impact on your life, you had to think about his impact on the world. Every decision ever made regarding Dilandau was made looking at how he would affect the entire planet. And his life, his very existence, changed everything on Gaea. It had ten years ago and it still did. Celena realised then, that she had in fact, been extremely narrow-minded.

The first thing that she noticed when she entered the room was the smell of alcohol; it was all over. The doors to the balcony and all of the windows were shut, the curtains were drawn and the air was heavy. Then she looked at the bed.

She couldn't help but stare at him, a drunk, fallen angle. He was lying on his stomach, silver hair covering his eyes and topless. The sheet thrown over his legs was riding low on his hips and Celena didn't see anything taking its place. She almost looked away, wanted to look away, but found herself unable to. Dilandau was truly beautiful. On his face he wore a hard to define expression, a slightly wicked smile played on his lips. She stared at him, sipping each feature distractedly; the way one would a glass of wine when preoccupied. She found herself taking big gulps of her wine when she settled her gaze on his face again.

Celena found herself wondering what it was like to really kiss those lips. True, she'd kissed him the night they had separated from each other but she hadn't really had the time to feel anything. What would his actual flesh and blood feel like pressed against hers? It felt like a slap in the face.

She almost turned and ran. Then she realised that she was staring into bright red eyes that seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. Celena found she couldn't decide what they were saying. She froze.

"I came to see if you were still alive," she said, trying to sound light and failing miserably, "The sun's been up for about an hour already." That was a lie and she knew it but it did give her an excuse. How was he supposed to know anyway? He nodded and moved to get up, the sheet moving lower. Celena closed her eyes and turned away. She walked to the door and without turning around said, "Meet me in the dining hall. We'll eat first."

Dilandau smiled to himself when the door closed behind her. He'd been awake since she opened the door. He was, after all, a trained Zaibach soldier. It was nothing; that much was for sure. In fact, Dilandau knew that even if he wanted, it could never be anything more. Schezar would see to that.

Celena, on the other hand, was bolting down the hallway, completely mortified. How could she have even thought something like that? She stopped at the doors to the kitchen and composed herself. At least he didn't know what was going on inside her head anymore.

Allen sat there staring out into the open blue. Really, what was wrong with him? He had to deal with tensions beyond comprehension but there he was thinking how very attractive the Queen looked! His little sister was about to die in a few days and he was wondering how free Millerna would be in a day or two for them to go out for a while.

Maybe do a little riding, walking, and shopping, of course. He felt like -despite his complete aversion to the use of the word; there was nothing better for it- shit. In the same moment that he had managed to arrive at his self-assessing conclusion, the door of the dining hall opened and Celena walked in. She looked up, flushed as red as an apple, turned on her heel and left.

Deciding that the morning was not going well at all, he rose from his seat at the head of the table, he excused himself and set off to find his prey; a certain seventeen-year-old, silver-haired Lord.

Dilandau was where one expected to find him, in his room. However, Allen really was not pleased to walk into the room and find his little sister with her hand on Dilandau's pants. She was standing in front of him with one hand on his buckle and the other in his. The expression on her face was intent as she worked on the seemingly stubborn buckle. Dilandau was staring at the top of her head with a slightly incredulous, slightly amused and…was that a loving look in his eyes? Allen begged the Gods for his eyes to have been deceiving him.

It wasn't too hard for Allen to make a few leaps and bounds towards some rather unjustified conclusions. After all, there were many reasons why two people could be in that position. But then again…it was Dilandau…and Celena.

He cleared his throat loudly and Celena sprung away from Dilandau but wasn't allowed to get too far for Dilandau still held her other hand in his. Celena looked mortified and Dilandau…he had the nerve to grin. That was about it. Allen was fully prepared to kill the boy right there and then and to Hell with whatever it was he had promised Celena. No one had the right to rob his little sister of her innocence.

"To honour a promise I made, I shall ask you to explain yourself before I kill you," Allen ground out through clenched jaws.

"Allen, this isn't what it looks like…" Celena began but trailed off at the look that she received. He turned his attention once again to Dilandau and glanced pointedly at his fingers wrapped snugly around Celena's wrist. Dilandau didn't let go and his smile widened just slightly so that he looked smug, he refused to smirk in such a situation.

"I suggest you listen to what she has to say, Schezar. It'd probably make more sense coming from her than me. Celena, please explain to your brother what your hand was doing on my crotch," Dilandau said sounding positively wicked.

Celena was astonished. How on Gaea could he say that? He wasn't helping the situation any. Well, it was his face. She looked at him and answered sweetly, "No, why don't you, my Lord?"

Containing herself at that moment was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. The way his face fell hilarious, to say the least. It looked like someone washed his expression of with a swift, single, hard spray of water. It was her turn to look smug.

"On second thought, I'd prefer to not have an explanation," Allen threw in, interrupting their little game of wits. "Celena, I was wondering if you were in good spirits after your hasty exit from the dining hall. Obviously you are well enough to spar with Dilandau therefore I'll be expecting in the dining hall soon. We do have guests." He turned and left without another word and the two breathe and audible, collective sigh of relief.

"Jackass," Celena muttered as she shook her head and tried to pass Dilandau but he caught her wrist that he had only recently relinquished. He pulled on it and she went flying into him. He caught her with ease and stood her up properly.

"What's that, milady?" he asked innocently.

"Really? You don't know? I'll show you one right now," Celena answered, purposely misunderstanding him. She placed her hands on his well-toned arms and turned him so that she faced the mirror and pointed directly at his reflection. "Say 'Hi', Dilly." Then she dropped her hands to her sides, turned and fled down the corridor.

Dilandau smiled to himself. At least she had a sense of humour…and the courage to use it too. He placed his hand on his buckle to do it up when he realised that had been why Celena had her hand there. The stupid thing just wouldn't work.

Finally, after a long, hard struggle with it, her managed to get it to work. He emerged from his room feeling and even worse fool than usual. Honestly, the sooner he got clothes of his own the better.

Now, for those bloody melef lessons.

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AN: Yeah, I know, get going. I promise I will soon.

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