Their thoughts touch less often, these days. Hitomi doesn't take it personally - her own life is so busy she barely has the time to daydream of Fanelia and Van. It stands to reason that Van would be the same. Rebuilding Fanelia is a long, gruelling process.

When she looks back, she's appalled to think that she'd been so young. So much pain and responsibility on such inexperienced shoulders.

She still runs, every morning. Not as fast as she used to, although she isn't quite ready to call it a jog.

She gets to the office at nine o'clock every day, or thereabouts, and spends the day fetching files and doing paperwork for the lawyers at her firm. Her political science degree isn't exactly getting full use here, but it's better than going into Japanese politics.

Her tarot cards sit in a drawer next to her bed. She takes them out occasionally, fingering the slightly foxed cardboard, feeling the weight of the deck in her hand, but she never tries to do a reading.

--

Hitomi meets with Yukari once a month, in a booth at the back of their favourite Korean barbecue place. The fights over the meat and what to order are well-worn by now.

"Oh, Hitomi, I have some news for you."

Hitomi raises her eyebrows. "For me?" She wonders if Yukari has something to tell her about Amano.

Yukari nods and links her fingers under her chin. "I was having dinner with my parents last Friday, and you'll never believe what I saw." She doesn't wait for a response before she continues. "A column of light! Rising right into the sky, over by our old school."

Hitomi feigns disinterest. "Oh? How weird."

Yukari narrows her eyes at her. "You don't have to pretend, Hitomi. I've seen your board of news clippings. They were all about mysterious columns of light, all over the world."

"Ah, well, I... I don't do that anymore." She'd found enough evidence to prove that it existed, that it was really real. That was enough.

"Well, I have even more news. The last time I was visiting my parents, I saw it too. And the previous time as well! It seems to be every two weeks, on Friday nights."

Hitomi lets out a little yelp of surprise.

"See?" says Yukari triumphantly. "You'll come with me to stake it out next week, right?"

"Don't you have dinner with your parents?" asked Hitomi faintly.

Yukari waves her off. "I can ask them to postpone. Come on, Hitomi! Don't you want to finally find out what happened back then?"

"That was a long time ago," says Hitomi. "I told you, I don't remember what happened."

"You were missing for a long time," says Yukari. "I worry, you know. You were never quite the same afterwards. Sometimes you just looked... lost."

Hitomi winces. Everybody had seemed to accept her explanation without questions at the time. "I'm fine now. I swear, Yukari."

"Well, you might be, but I'm still curious. Come on, Hitomi!"

"All right. I'll come."

--

The night is cooler than anticipated, and Hitomi wishes she'd thought to bring a jacket. They climb the fence to the oval and jump down, Hitomi's heart-rate spiking with nerves the whole time.

"But how do you know it's here?" Hitomi protests. "Why our school?"

"This is where it happened way back then," said Yukari. "It's the most logical explanation."

They crouch in the bushes for an hour, and Hitomi's calves start to ache with the strain. "Yukari, this is silly," she whispers. "Let's go get a drink and forget about this."

"Just be patient," says Yukari. "It'll happen for sure."

Hitomi rocks back on her heels and rubs at the bridge of her nose. "It's already past the time--"

Yukari frowns. "I thought you'd be more excited about this."

"Well, I... I don't really--" She lets out a heavy sigh.

"Shh," says Yukari. "Just a little longer."

Hitomi sighs. "We could at least have brought snacks. Hey, why don't we go to that cake store, it's probably still open..."

Yukari looks briefly tempted by the mention of food, but shakes her head firmly.

The column of light appears suddenly, obscuring everything in its immediate vicinity with its flickering brightness. Hitomi shades her eyes and gets to her feet.

"Hitomi, what are you doing!" yelps Yukari, trying to grab her arm and pull her down.

Hitomi shakes her arm free and walks quickly towards the column of light. It's fading now, and she can just make out a figure in the middle.

She runs the last few steps and Van pulls her into his arms. She rests her head on his shoulder for the briefest moment, absorbing his familiar warmth. Then she pulls back.

"Hi," he says, smiling.

"This is going to be awkward," she says, just softly enough for him to hear. "I'm sorry."

He looks over her shoulder and his eyes widen. Hitomi takes Van's hand and turns back to Yukari. "You remember my boyfriend Van, right?"

--

"Let me get this straight," said Yukari. "Your boyfriend is from another world?"

They're sitting in Yukari's tiny apartment, Van and Hitomi crowded on the sofa while Yukari sits on a dining chair. It was the closest private place they could think of.

Hitomi can feel the tension in Van next to her. He hadn't enjoyed the drive to Yukari's apartment at all.

"My name is Van Fanel, I'm the King of Fanelia, on the world of Gaea," says Van in careful Japanese.

Yukari wrinkles her nose skeptically. "The King of an entire country wears jeans?"

"Hitomi makes me wear these," Van explains, plucking at his jeans and t-shirt with an expression of vague displeasure.

"That's because I can't afford any of the things you like in Shinjuku," she replies, poking him.

Yukari cocks her head and looks at Van closely. "I knew you were weird, but I thought it was just because you were foreign."

"I am foreign," he points out.

"Hitomi, why did you never tell me this before?" asks Yukari.

"Well," says Hitomi slowly. "I didn't think you'd believe me. It seemed better to pretend I forgot everything. I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was bothering you." Her family know about Van, of course. But they had made a decision a long time ago to keep the rest of Hitomi's friends in the dark. There was too much at risk.

"You owe me cake," Yukari declares. "So, so, do you ever go to his world? Or does he just come here?"

"We take turns," says Hitomi. "The column of light you saw two weeks ago was me visiting Van in Fanelia."

Yukari's eyes widen. "Are you the queen?"

Hitomi feels her cheeks flame. When she sneaks a peak at Van, he's also blushing, looking at the wall.

"We haven't really--" he begins.

"I don't think--"

Yukari slumps down again. "Well, I suppose that's good. If I missed your wedding I would never forgive you, Hitomi."

"We'd need to have two weddings," said Hitomi thoughtfully. "One here, and one in Fanelia."

Van is still blushing fiercely and not meeting her eyes.

Yukari elects to change the subject. "Tell me about your world. I've never heard of Gaea."

"Gaea is Earth's second moon," Van explains. "Or perhaps the other way around. On Gaea we call Earth the Mystic Moon."

Yukari's eyes dart towards the window, although the blinds are closed and there's no chance of seeing the moon tonight.

"You can't see it from Earth," says Hitomi. "But from Gaea you can see Earth, even bigger than our moon. It's beautiful."

"Is Gaea pretty? Can I visit it?

"Parts of Gaea are pretty, I suppose?" says Van, frowning.

"It's big. Maybe not as big as Earth, but there are lots of different places there. Deserts and forests and mountains."

"That's so cool," breathes Yukari. She turns to Van. "Do you like Japan?"

He shrugs. "It's noisy. Some parts are nice. I like cheesecake, and rollercoasters."

Hitomi bites her lip in an effort not to laugh. "Van doesn't like Tokyo. Gaea doesn't have cars or electricity or anything." She wonders if it would be complicating things to mention the magic. "They have steam power, though. Much more advanced than we ever did on Earth."

"I don't like cars," says Van. "They're noisy and they don't feel safe."

Hitomi laughs. "Which is funny, coming from a guy who used to fly around on a giant robot dragon."

"OK, now that you have to explain," says Yukari, her eyes wide.

"When I first met Hitomi, we were in the middle of a war," says Van. "Escaflowne was a weapon. I don't use it anymore."

As a conversation killer, it was remarkably effective.

Yukari cleared her throat. "I hope I can visit someday. Hitomi, you're going to owe me so much cake if you don't take me next time."

Hitomi smiles. "I don't know if it's possible, but we can try."

--

"I'm sorry," Hitomi murmurs, much later, when they're back in her apartment. "Yukari insisted."

She explains the circumstances that had led to her staking out her school oval with her high school best friend, much to Van's amusement.

"I think it will be easier, not having to pretend around her," says Van.

"We really need to find a less flashy way of traveling. Yukari probably won't be the last one to notice."

Van pulls Hitomi's pendant out from under his shirt and holds it up to the light, flicking it to make it start swinging. "We might be able to figure out a new landing place."

"We figured out how to synchronise our times, surely the location can't be that hard." The first few times they'd tried traveling between Earth and Gaea, they discovered what seemed like an even two weeks for Hitomi could be months for Van, and vice versa. It had taken some experimentation to figure that out.

She closed her hand over Van's, feeling the slight warmth of the pendant caught between his fingers.

"How have you been? Did you make any councillors cry this week?"

Van frowns. "That was only the once, and it wasn't my fault." He pokes her in the side gently. "We finished the south-east road, and the fountain in the south quarter."

Hitomi smiles and rests her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad everything is going well." She takes a deep breath, then lets it out again slowly. "I spoke to my boss. She gave me permission to take three months off next year. I told her I was going to be travelling - I hope she doesn't ask me for photos!"

Van's eyes widen as her meaning sinks in. He pulls back and stares at her searchingly for a moment, then leans in and kisses her soundly.

Hitomi has a lot of plans for next year. No more stolen weekends in Gaea, she'll finally have the time to be able to throw herself into the rebuilding effort. She'll visit her Gaean friends, every one she can find. She'll get to see Van in action as King of Fanelia. Maybe she'll be able to convince him to find a safe, secluded place and practice flying.

For now, though, she's content to be in Tokyo, in Van's arms.