Title: Oracle Bell
Authoress: Kitzaku-Moose
Pairing: Horohoro x Tao Ren
Fandom: Shaman King
Theme: #14. radio-cassette player; #29. the sound of waves #30. Kiss
Disclaimer: Just because I own a few trading cards does not mean I own this series. It belongs to Hiroyuki Takei
Takes place before they reach Patch Village. What do they call it in the dub again? Dobi?
"If we didn't need to have these stupid Oracle Bells, I would say that they were completely useless."
"But we do need them."
"I know."
"So. Shut up."
Horohoro stopped punching buttons on his Oracle Bell long enough to glare at Ren coldly. A wind that seemed to come from nowhere blew between them, messing their hair up for only a second before letting it settle back into its correct place. "Will you stop telling me to shut up? It's annoying."
"You're annoying."
"SHUT UP!"
"Now who is telling who to shut up?" Ren smirked in spite of himself. The two of them were getting waiting for Yoh and the others to finish using the restroom. Though, by restroom, that meant finding a secluded place in the desert, dig a whole and the rest was history. They hadn't made much progress in finding Patch Village, and the anticipation was growing on everyone.
Horohoro actually stayed silent for quite some time. He was punching away furiously at the Oracle Bell strapped to his arm. The steady beeping sounds the buttons made and the small humming noises Horohoro decided to throw in eventually began to grate on Ren's nerves. With every press of a button, Ren's face grew a slightly darker shade of red until his ears started to steam.
He turned toward Horohoro, about ready to blow his lid again when Horohoro's fists suddenly shot up in the air in a cheer of triumph—giving Ren an uppercut to the jaw. Ren's body flew backwards, with him landed on the sand beside the rock they were both sitting on.
"YATTA!" Horohoro cheered, and looked to where Ren had been sitting. Once he realized that Ren was no longer there, his gaze shifted to the Taoist's new position on the ground. "Um, Ren? What the heck are you doing down there? Are you looking for seashells?"
"No you idiot!" Ren rubbed his chin with a scowl on his face. "This is a desert. There aren't any seashells in a desert."
"But there's sand. And sand is at the beach. And the beach means seashells!"
Ren rolled his eyes. "I don't even want to know what goes up there."
"Up where?" Horohoro asked, but when he saw the look on Ren's face, he decided to drop it. "In any case, I found something really cool on this thing!" He held up the Oracle Bell really close to Ren's face.
"Yeah. It's an Oracle Bell. I don't really care."
"No, no no. LOOK!" Horohoro pressed one last button and elevator music started to play from somewhere inside the device. Ren gave Horohoro a blank stare, to which Horohoro replied, "It's a radio!"
Ren stood up and turned around. "I think I'm going to go pee—for a very long time."
"I'll go with you! And, I'll bring this so you have something to listen to while you tinkle."
"I don't need to listen to anything when I'm taking a piss!" Ren's cowlick grew.
Horohoro opened his mouth to badger Ren about something when he suddenly stopped for a moment, though, and then slowly said, "I don't think you have to go pee."
"And what gave you that idea, Sherlock?"
"You aren't doing the peepee dance."
"Oh my GOD, does everyone have to do the peepee dance if they have to piss?"
"Yoh does it."
"You're a dumbass."
"I am not! I'm smart. I figured out how to use the radio on an Oracle Bell. I have skills." Horohoro defended himself proudly.
"It plays elevator music." Ren pointed out. "How is that supposed to be of any help?"
"Ah… well… you see. Here." Horohoro pressed a button and the elevator music got louder. "If I got lost, you could find me!"
"We could find you by your smell—wait, if you were lost, I wouldn't find you!"
"Oh, yes you would, Ren-kun. Life without me is pretty boring." Horohoro grinned.
Ren only rolled his eyes. "I beg to differ."
Horohoro stood straighter and balled his fists. "Oh yeah? I'll show you!" He lunged forward suddenly, placing a sloppy kiss directly on Ren's lips. At least, that was where he was aiming. Instead, he missed Ren's lips and hit his teeth and part of his upper lip, but it got the point across.
Ren immediately pulled back and grimaced. "You IDIOT! What the heck were you doing?"
"Proving that I am exciting." Horohoro folded his arms.
Ren raised an eyebrow. "What part of THAT was exciting? Your kissing skills SUCK."
"That's because your mouth was open and you weren't expecting it. If you would hold yourself right, you'd find out that I'm a good kisser." Horohoro stuck his tongue out indignantly.
"Who the hell told you that you were a good kisser?" Ren held his head in his hands. He could feel the pangs of an annoyance headache setting in. "It's not as if you have a lot of kissing experience anyway."
"How would YOU know? Do you go around kissing people?"
"No!"
"Then how can you say that I'm a bad kisser?"
"Because!" Ren started but then stopped for a moment. "Because, if someone were to kiss me, it wouldn't be like that."
"What would it be like?"
"It would be softer, and have more meaning behind it and—wait, why the heck would you care anyway? This subject is dropped." Ren sneered, folded his arms, and turned around.
Horohoro was quiet for a moment, the only sound to be heard for any length of time was the elevator music still streaming from somewhere inside the Oracle Bell. He tapped his foot a few times and even tried to hum along to the music. At that moment, he realized that Yoh and the others were taking an awfully long time going to the bathroom. He glanced over at Ren at a moment, who was still sulking, and perked up suddenly.
"Can I try again?"
"NO!"