Valetine's Fall... and Rise
by pinkpuruu
Disclaimer: I disclaim thee, Shaman King.
Author's Notes: It's not anywhere NEAR Valentine's Day, yet I wrote this. Nyah. Enjoy.
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On Tuesday, Yoh opened his locker for his shoes, only to jump back, stupefied. A wave of colored boxes tumbled out of his shoebox size locker, creating a mountain on the floor that somehow was magically able to fit into his locker. Masses of red tissue paper, white ribbons, pink hearts, and lacey notes dirtied the floor with its cute fluffy puppy-dog cuteness.
Anna took one look at the pile, picked up a particularly large box and unceremoniously removed a homemade heart-shaped chocolate from the box and ate it. She grimaced and spat it out into an extravagantly flowery piece of stationary, and then gave a look of incredible distaste to Yoh.
"Not only do you have bold admirers," she said, "but clumsy ones that can't tell the difference between salt and sugar." With that, she stepped over the mountain, accidentally, deliberately, stepping onto a small teddy bear, causing it to squeak in protest. He watched her wordlessly as she walked away with a haughty sniff.
Yoh then turned back the mountain dismally as if it were an unwanted chore that Anna had dumped onto him, rather than professions of love and loyalty.
With an incredible sigh, he began to throw the mountain away. He felt somewhat guilty, but he wasn't sure if it was because he were throwing these things away or if it was because he didn't really feel guilty, making him feel like quite a heartless person. With much suffering, he hefted the gifts into the too-small trashcan, filling it to the brim. He wiped his hands clean, and let out a sigh.
"But," he said aloud, "why would people give me presents today out of all days?"
He stood there in deep contemplation for a moment, until he found the thinking exhausting, which led him to forget the matter entirely.
Until he reached his classroom and saw his desk, buried in a similar pile of candy, letters, and presents on it, that is. And until he felt the weight of thirty heavy stares on him, half from the givers of the gifts, the other half from jealous peers. The last stare had a special feel to it, and he recognized it immediately as Anna's. He tentatively turned to said person, who merely gave him a Look that seemed empty of all meaning to him. He couldn't tell if it were of slight amusement, irritation, surprise, or even jealousy. Yoh kept the Look in his mind and vowed to investigate it later.
He was slightly distracted, however, from Manta's appearance. The petite boy was clearly impressed by the sheer courage of Yoh's admirers, seeing as that his own desk was utterly bare.
Yoh scratched his head in embarrassment. "Well, that is," he said abashedly, "they never came in groups before."
"You shouldn't be surprised," Manta said, laughing. "It is the fourteenth."
"Eh?" Yoh said, confused. "What does the date have to do with anything?"
As soon as the sentence escaped his lips, the entire room fell into a dead silence. The weight of the stares from before immediately increased by tenfold and Yoh could feel the sweat forming on the nape of his neck.
"W-What?!" Manta sputtered. "Don't tell me you forgot about the most romantic day of the year!"
Yoh blinked. Manta's face grew red.
"Valentine's Day, you idiot!" he exclaimed, appalled.
Once again, Yoh was forced to give him a blank stare.
Manta returned his stare with a look of immense amazement. "…You mean you never…"
They were interrupted by the entrance of their sensei, who immediately called the class to order. There was a scramble to their seats, and Yoh was left sitting cluelessly behind his mountain of gifts, pondering the name of the day. Sure, it reminded him of something, yet he couldn't remember exactly once. After all, it's not like this had ever happened before.
Anna watched him sit attentively in his seat from her position in the back of the classroom, taking note of his alertness during the entire class period.
---
It wasn't until he reached home and turned on the TV did he remember what the name meant. The flashing pink text and gigantic blooming hearts on the screen set off an alarm in his head. Valentine's Day. The day where people gave chocolate to the person that they liked.
Yoh wasn't really surprised at this lapse in memory. After all, no one really paid him any attention in his old school. Correction, people chose to stay away from him in his old school. And Anna? She never celebrated these trivial holidays and instead focused on the more important ones such as Christmas, New Years, and his birthday. So she never dropped him any hints nor indicate that she wanted anything. Therefore, it easily slipped his mind.
That was when he began to panic.
He had not forgotten the Look that he had received from Anna. He knew it was ultimately significant and that it should not be ignored. Anna rarely gave him looks like that, that is, empty of anger, annoyance, or love. It seemed of something much more human. Which, of course, Anna fought to avoid.
He felt like he should do something to make up for his stupidity.
Which led him to somehow, in less than an hour, kick Anna out of the house by persuading Tamao to take her out to go do the grocery shopping. Tamao had readily acquiesced, and left the house, dragging a disgruntled Anna behind her. Yoh mentally thanked Tamao graciously, since she was risking imminent pain and death for him.
Then he set off to work.
He sprinted out of the house to the nearby convenience store to make a few purchases, making sure to avoid the route to the grocery store as to not bump into the two girls and creating awkward situations. He ran five blocks to the store, grabbed a few supplies necessary to do the deed, tossed the money onto the cashier's counter, and ran back out, nearly crashing into three cars.
As soon as he reached home, he dumped the contents of the bag onto the kitchen counter. A package of Hershey drops. Frosting. Molds.
First, he picked up the package of chocolate, and read the instructions on the back. After looking at it for a few long seconds, he sighed with exasperation.
This, he thought, was going to take a while.
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An hour later, he fell in exhaustion against the counter. The tips of his hair were singed and there were streaks of chocolate smeared on his face, though he didn't notice. His clothes were also immensely ragged with stains of chocolate and white frosting on his school uniform. A pungent burnt smell permeated his clothes and the rest of the kitchen, no doubt extending to other parts of the house.
But he had done it, he thought with satisfaction. Now all he had to do was wait a little longer for it to cool, and all would be well—
"What's burning?"
Yoh leapt up, startled. "A-Anna!" he exclaimed. "Tamao! You're back f-fast!" He immediately tried to erase any evidence by dumping the burnt pan and chocolate making contents into the sink and trash can. "I was just c-cooking dinner!"
"Tamao has returned home," she said curtly. "She seemed adamant upon entering." He could hear her footsteps drawing closer towards the kitchen. "What exactly are you cooking?" he heard Anna said, her voice louder and closer. "I'm not eating it if it smells this bad…"
He saw her shadow from his position in the kitchen, and immediately rushed to the threshold of the doorway and tried to block her from entering and looking into what he had done.
"Anna!" he exclaimed breathlessly, "I don't think you should come in, it's pretty bad…"
"All the more reason for me to come in," she said, irritated, "so I can help clean up the mess you made with your incompetence."
"N-No! I'll do it! After all, it's my fault…"
She slapped him roughly against the face and tossed him aside with amazing ease. She strode boldly into the kitchen and inspected the mess.
"What have you been doing?" Anna asked. "Playing with matches with kerosene and oil?"
"N-No," Yoh stammered. Then, startled, he ran past her and tried to defend something from her eyes. "B-but I really think you shouldn't worry about dinner. I'll just clean this up and order some take-out—"
She glared at him, and then walked over to him. "What are you hiding?" She pried his fingers from the table, and wretched them away, and Yoh felt waves of embarrassment wash over him. Her eyes fell about the fish-shaped chocolate with the words, "for Anna" painstakingly written on it in pale white frosting. The shape was rather lopsided and uneven and it had an odd, un-chocolately smell to it. A rather sloppily made chocolate, though honestly heartfelt.
Her breath hitched at the sight of it, and she reached out to touch it delicately. Yoh hung his head in defeat, and shuffled his feet abashedly. "I told Tamao to take you out for awhile so I can make you some Valentine's chocolate. It took me awhile, but I finally did it."
"Why?" she asked, her voice quiet.
He lifted his head slightly and looked at her through the corner of his eyes. "Well, it's Valentine's Day, and it's the day where people show their appreciation for each other," he mumbled. "And I just wanted to know how important you are to me."
Yoh misread her stunned looked for a look of apprehension, and reached out to cover the fish chocolate with a napkin. "But you don't have to eat it if you don't—"
"Idiot," Anna muttered. Yoh looked up, a bit shocked. Anna refused to look at him, as she said, "The girls are supposed to make the boys chocolate."
Yoh's face flooded with color. "W-Well then. I s-suppose I'll just throw it away then—"
She reached out quickly before his fingers touched the chocolate, and bit the tail of the fish roughly. He stared at her in shock as she chewed and swallowed the chocolate calmly.
"But I'll take it," she said, wrapping the chocolate in the napkin and then walking away, nibbling the ends gingerly. "Thank you."
Dumbstruck, Yoh was uncertain of what to do. Then,
"Go get the groceries in the door. Then clean up that mess you made, after you've ordered dinner," Anna ordered from the living room, already plopping down to watch her soaps. Yoh let out a relieved sigh, and smiled ruefully. He eagerly set out to oblige to her commands, a slight smile blooming on his face. Maybe Valentine's Day was not as trivial as he thought it was.
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