Comments in // are from the TV series- ep 11, and 26, I think...
Spoilers, as this takes place after the end...

Three Cards: By Monica Shin

	I look up at the Phantom Moon- to where Hitomi is. When I can, I look in
at her, at her world. She seems happy, smiling and laughing, but when at
times, when our eyes meet... 

/I'm fine.../

	She whispered it to me, and I smiled as she said it. Trying to disregard
the sadness in her eyes, the pain in mine. I keep telling myself that I
hadn't lost the only one who I can love...

/But we can meet anytime, if our feelings are united.../

	Had I even understood it when I had told her that sweet lie? The pain of
seeing glimpses of her, so far away from me. The only thing that makes it
bearable is that her thoughts are ever-present in my heart, next to my soul. 

	I'm rebuilding Fanelia for her, so that if she comes back... when she
comes back, she can see all the happiness that a true kingdom with a true
king has. So that she can smile up at me, and tell me that she will stay by
me forever...

/Until the time comes, you can't. Promise me./

	Mother, I've found her- the one you knew was meant for me. The one that I
was born for... I kept my promise to you, and hid myself from everyone,
from all those voices that hated both of us...

/A descendant of Atlantis. A cursed demon./

	From those who thought we were monsters and dangers to everyone... When I
revealed myself to her, I had thought she would be like the rest- after
all, who doesn't hate the demons who had almost destroyed the world? And
yet, all she told me...

/I like your wings very much. They're beautiful./

	That was all she said. And she didn't even know how much those words
meant, even though she is a person who can see into another's soul... 
	How could she have known that she was the only one who had ever seen these
wings, after my foolhardy attempt so long ago?

/What's wrong? You told me that you wanted to see them, Merle!/

	I had jumped, and had reveled in the feel of cool wind raising me up...
only to let me fall. Dropping me and letting me plummet to the ground...
Then you came and saved me, mother. You flew, as you had never done in
public before, and saved your foolish child...

/Van, you shouldn't show your wings./

	That was all you had said in that sad, quiet voice. In a voice that knew
the pain that being one of us would bring to me...

/You should not get close to the cursed descendants of Atlantis./

	Cursed demons... But she had seen, and hadn't cared. In her voice was only
an innocent admiration, a warm thankfulness. I think that was when I
realized that I was in love with Hitomi... 

	Mother... I think you would be happy to see me now, to see Fanelia now.
We're building for the future, and peace is here to stay, I think. I only
need one other to be with me now to finish it.

*Van, I love you.*

	Her whisper-thought comes to me through the night, and I can't help
smiling. She knows exactly when I need her the most... Closing my eyes, I
envision her world, so strange and crowded. Holding her pendant in my hand,
I feel for her heart, and open my eyes to see her staring out of her room,
at the moon. At Gaea.

"Thank you, Hitomi... I needed that."

	She smiled and turns to me. Looking at her, I see the ghost of a pain
suppressed. A pain unacknowledged... She reaches out for me tentatively,
and flinches as her hands grasp at empty air. Her expression is eloquent as
she draws her hand back and sits at the edge of her bed.

"Van..."

	I smile at her, and mimic sitting on the bed next to her. I can't feel
anything of her world, just like she can't touch anything of mine- and she
knows it. All I can do is be near her, but never with her.

"You don't have to do that, if you don't want to."

	She glances at me with her sad eyes, and then puts up the front that I've
seen her erect countless times before- that I've felt her place near her
heart. Whenever anyone asked her if there was anything wrong, or if there
was something troubling her, she would smile and nod slowly. Quietly, she
would put another barrier between her heart and her life, and then reply
that she was fine- what could be wrong?

"Hitomi- you don't have to do that, either."

	Her look is stricken, and she closes her eyes. I feel her thoughts next to
mine, and feel the shield crack and shatter. A single tear forms at the
corner of her eye, and I instinctively reach out to brush it away.
Forgetting for a moment...

	I watch it slide through my non-physical form, and splash against her
hand. She opens her eyes at that, and sees my expression. Quiet pain... 

"I'm sorry... I forgot-"

	I don't finish my words as she leans her face against my hand- against
where my hand would be, if... I sigh, and let my wings burst through my
shirt. I'm the King of Fanelia, dammit- I'll get a new shirt. 

"Van, I-"

	She smiles in delight as she feels them- the wings that mark me as demon,
as cursed. Only to her are they beauty or joy... only to her. I hold her in
my wings' grasp for a long infinity of a moment. 

"I feel sadness from these feathers again..."

	She is holding a single feather in her hand, and is looking at me with the
slightly faraway gaze of the seer in her eyes. I can't say anything to
that, and instead, I try to take the feather from her grasp. She holds onto
one end, and I hold onto the other... our only link.

"Van... are you happy?"

	I hesitate, and lower my eyes to the feather. I take a breath, and let it
go. She drops her end also, and it flutters into her lap, and then onto the
floor. It lies there for a moment, before being caught by the wind of the
open window. Finally, it flies away into the night, leaving both of us
behind...

"I will be, after one thing is finished."

	I look up at her, and she smiles. Reaching over, she grabs the cards that
had been placed very carefully onto the center of the desk. Placing them on
the bed, she takes a deep breath, never taking her eyes away from mine.

"Shall we see?"

	She does a very simple spread for me- three cards, no more. Not
foreseeing, but merely one question asked. 

"The first card shows the past... The Moon." 

	Hitomi looks up at the moon, at Gaea almost involuntarily, and then smiles
wanly at me. She takes a breath, and lets it out. 

"Dangerous situations and perilous times are in the past... a deep need for
security and fulfillment. 

	She turns over the second card, and nods to herself. 

"The second card shows the present- Justice. The achievement of balance and
harmony after much strife... Suspension of any true action until a decision
is reached..."

	Hitomi pauses and looks at me. I gaze back at her, acknowledging the limbo
our lives have been in. The takes another breath, and then turns over the
third card. She starts a bit, and then lets out another shaky breath.

"The third card shows the future- The World. Indicating a time of
prosperity or joy... of a change in residence or travel-"

	I gaze at her again, at her shaken expression. Then, I turn and
concentrate on the pendant. 

"Van, where-"

	I don't turn back, and let my wings go back to where they have hidden
almost all my life. 

"Hitomi, you and I both know that fate, those cards don't mean anything. If
you don't want to come, you don't have to. But-"

	I can't help myself. I turn to catch one more glimpse of her, so far away
from me...

"I want you to come... I want you to stay with me. In Fanelia... I want us
to be together."

	I smile bitterly, and then drop the pendant on the floor. Somehow, it
materializes into her world...

"But if you won't come... I can't force you. I cannot go to your world- I
have a responsibility to Fanelia- an oath that I swore to all those who
didn't survive in the making of a new world."

	I hold out the Energist that is ever with me, and let the radiance start
to pull me back up. 

"I don't want to torture you with these half-glimpses... so I-"

	I stop as I feel something hit my back. I turn and glance down at the
ground, to see the pendant that I had left-

"Why don't you ever understand my feelings?!"
/Why don't you ever understand my feelings?!/

	I blink at Hitomi's truly angry expression, and at the words that she had
spoken to me that eventful day. I can't help back up as she storms at me
with a furious expression on her face.

"You idiot! I don't want to stay here! I don't! But I just can't leave and-"

	She turns away abruptly, and goes to the bed. She picks up the cards, and
then shows me the ones that had just foretold our relationship.

"These are showing truth. I won't deny that... I want to got with you! I
want to..."

	Another tear threatens from the corner of her eye, and she looks like
she's about to scream. I don't know what to say to her... I can't say
anything. 

"I love you, idiot!"

	I blink as she snatches the pendant from my grasp. As she places it on, it
starts to glow. Then, she steps back slowly, and then raises her hand. She
glares at me, and then swings her hand toward me swiftly, until it contacts
painfully with my face.

"Ow! That hur-"

	I rub at my sore cheek, and then glance at her, at my wonderful clever
Hitomi. I can't help but start to laugh, and she joins me. Finally, we both
calm down, and then I reach over to brush away the tear from her cheek.

"Will you come with me?"

	Both of us are silent, until she nods.

"Wait a day. Just one, to explain everything to everyone. Then-"

	She smiles, exuberantly.

"A final decision is made..."

	I reach over to her, and take her in my arms. I let my wings out again,
and they wrap around her, pulling her closer to me. Looking into her eyes,
I smile, and kiss her deeply, sweetly. 

"I want you to see Fanelia as you should have... it's beautiful."

	Mother... I've found her, and I'm never letting her go. No one will ever
take her from me again...

---Finis---

-----
Monica/Akira-chan/Heero/Hayama/Naga/Kircheis no Miko- Proud TABBE! Member
monica@pipeline.com - http://www.pipeline.com/~monica/- DOWN UNTIL SEPT 1
Loves- CLAMP, LoGH, MB, RKen, Z/B, Gundam, EVA, KoDoCha, RoV, Subby, Seig
"Tell Annerose-sama that Sieg kept his promise..." - Kircheis-sama
"Watashi no Andre?" Oscar Francois de Jarjeyes