Disclaimer: If Shaman King were mine, I wouldn't need to write fanfics. If any of these songs were mine, I wouldn't be writing fanfics.
Background music: She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5
Note: I was seriously considering updating this next week, but then I realized…what if my readers forget about me, a modest fanfic author?! (yes, these thoughts run through my head during odd times. Weird) Besides, I gotta keep up with my tradition of fast updates. Which I do often. Yeah you all benefit from this, but it gives me deadlines. No way. hopefully, the realness is still there. More watered down lemonade. Now along with mood killers, like bread.
Mankin Side of Life 2 – ROADTRIP!
Chapter 1 – She Will Be Loved
Yoh Asakura groaned as he heard the annoying constant beeping of the clock next to his bed. Damn, people these days couldn't have developed a more nicer sounding clock, could they? A monotonous droning beeping that kept all from the peaceful state of rest…he kept his eyes closed, resisting against the beeping thing (now beeping even more loudly, it seemed).
Something slapped the clock quiet. "Get up utouto, or mom's gonna come in here."
Yoh groaned again. He let his eyes half-open (something he was used to, since his eyes always seemed to be in that position anyway) and scanned the dim room. The dark green curtains covering the windows offered protection from the head-on rays of the sun, and the faint light revealed a rather messy room; two twin sized beds separated by a bedside table with the now silent clock and a lamp that's shade was lopsided. There was only one desk, despite the fact the room was shared by two people. The desk was used as a place to throw dirty clothes: Yoh preferred to do his homework on his bed while Hao preferred not to do his homework at all. The floor wasn't much different and the walls had random posters revealing the twins' different tastes: Soul Bob posters covering Yoh's 'side' of the room while there were papers with strange strategies tacked on Hao's walls. What strategies they were, were no one's idea, but one rather large one looked like a map of a school…
"Time to get up," Hao called simply, sounding awake for six-fifty in the morning. Yoh didn't say anything and groaned again as Hao threw something at him. Half-heartedly chucking the textbook (whoa, what was a textbook doing in Hao's room, and why did his brother find it necessary to throw that potentially fatal object at his head?) back, it falling back on the light carpet with a light thud.
"Why are you so awake?" Yoh sighed, sitting up. Hao was already getting dressed for school.
"Well, unlike some people, I don't want to look hideous by the time Lyserg comes over."
Lyserg.
"Morning mom."
"Hey, Yoh. Sleep well?" Keiko smiled warmly as she watched the pancake batter bubble in the pan. She was wearing a light pink apron with a sun in the bottom left corner, smiling anime-like.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"You have to sleep well to have a good day," Mikihisa commented, turning the page of the newspaper he was browsing over. The sun's rays caught a flash of gold and Yoh noticed the gold ring on his father's finger. He let his eyes wander to his mother, who was wearing its twin on her hand.
"Did Lyserg come around yet?" Yoh asked.
"Not yet, honey."
Yoh opened the fridge to get the carton of milk. At the same time, the backdoor opened as well, revealing a green haired beauty standing in the doorframe. "Morning!"
"Good morning, Lyserg," Keiko called, flipping the pancake in the pan. "Happy Monday!"
"Hopefully," Lyserg chuckled. "You know, it's easier to walk across the street here than before."
"We only lived a block down," Keiko said, frowning. "Besides, I thought you liked coming here before school anyway."
"I do!" At that moment, Yoh straightened up and closed the fridge door, drawing attention to him. Lyserg jumped, starting so violently that the aqua tie around his neck shook as well. His green eyes blinked, showing obvious surprise looking back into Yoh's brown.
"Oh…morning Yoh…" Lyserg mumbled, his voice sounding awkward.
"Um, yeah."
Keiko turned to both boys, expecting something else and feeling disappointed when the two just stood there, not looking at each other. "Hey, you two, aren't you going to say anything…"
"Lyserg!"
Hao ran into the kitchen, fully dressed, aqua tie tied loosely around his neck. His shirt was untucked (surprise) as he darted up to Lyserg and kissed him (yes, kissed him) on the lips hello, good morning. Lyserg's gaze disappeared from Yoh's as he closed his eyes in contentment.
"Always so energetic in the mornings," Mikihisa said, sounding a tad sarcastic. Yoh nodded as he turned away and put the carton of milk onto the counter.
"How was your weekend, Lyserg?"
"What are you talking about? I hung out with you yesterday."
"Oh, yeah, right." Hao sat down at the table, and Lyserg fell into the seat next to him. Yoh sat across his brother. Mikihisa scanned the table in front of him.
"How long have you two been steady?" Keiko asked curiously.
"Two months and five days," Lyserg responded coolly. Hao smirked and glanced briefly at Yoh, who peeled an orange silently.
"And, um, how long have you been married?" Hao asked, for the sake of asking prying questions. He rolled his eyes and Lyserg laughed.
"Almost a year now!" Keiko said, and it was obvious it was something she was happy about. She flashed her wedding ring and jolted a pancake off the pan onto Hao's plate. "Thank you for asking!"
Hao's posture was perfect, despite the weight of his chunky bookbag pulling him in one direction. Yoh noticed this as he followed his brother and Lyserg down the street to school. It was only a few months before that Lyserg was completely comfortable walking to school next to him. Now being in the same room seemed to make Lyserg jittery and the greenette would disappear from it the first opportunity he got.
So much for 'being friends'.
"Living in a house is so much better than living in a car," Hao was saying. Yoh nodded, although the two didn't notice. The old house had been too small to hold Hao after their parents remarried. So, they had packed up and looked for another house in the neighborhood.
As luck would have it, the house across from the Diethyls had been on sale.
That was back closer to the beginning of junior year. And now it was already the middle of May. Junior year was almost over and summer break was coming.
"Who's renting the car?"
"I thought Horo was going to do it."
"Whoever gets it, I'm driving first, alright?"
"Hao, you're going to kill us all."
"What are you talking about? I got my license first out of all of us! Besides, Ren's just got his and you seem okay when he drives!"
"Ren's responsible enough to drive."
"So's Yoh. So why won't you ride with him?"
Yoh looked up, hearing his name mentioned. Lyserg glanced back at him for the first time that morning and instantly turned away, but Yoh saw fear flash in the slight second he saw those emerald eyes. "Um…well, it's a little awkward…"
Lyserg smiled, a slow curve that arched smoothly across his flushed face as he linked his arms around Yoh's neck, his hips still swaying gently to the fast beats in the school gym. Yoh chuckled, instantly wrapping his arms around the smaller boy's more feminine hips. No one seemed to notice. Everyone at their school already knew they were an item (one hot item, actually), and everyone else not from the school didn't think much about an oddly colored hair girl dancing with a stoner boy with orange headphones.
"Are you enjoying yourself?" Yoh asked, talking a bit louder than he normally did in order to be heard over the music.
Lyserg nodded, the smile still etched on his face. "The question is are you enjoying yourself? You don't usually go to these kinds of things."
It was true. Yoh was not much of a dance person, truth be told. Lyserg had dragged him to a few before they started going out, but this was only the second time the younger Asakura twin had actually agreed to go.
"Well, you really wanted to go to this one, so I decided I'd go with you."
"It is Valentine's Day tomorrow," Lyserg said, a playful frown darting across his face. "Why not come?" A smile graced his features again as he leaned upward. "Right?"
"Right," Yoh agreed, smiling as he leaned down to gently kiss the boy on the lips. Only if he knew what he would say tomorrow would end it, he would have kissed Lyserg longer and reminded himself to never say those words…
"Morning, everyone."
As fate would have it, the five were in the same homeroom for junior year, plus the new addition to the group.
"Mourning everyone? Who died?" asked a dark skinned boy sitting on a desk close to the door. Yoh couldn't help but smile a bit at Chocolove McDaniel's joke. Chocolove wasn't a very good comedian, but he tried, and sometimes that itself was hilarious. He had been the new student beginning of junior year, moving over to their quiet neighborhood from New York. First day there, Choco had tied his aqua tie around his head like a hippie through a timewarp, although the golden brass knuckles reading 'McDa' on one and 'niel' on the other prevented many from saying anything.
Although when Hao had asked him if he wanted to fight him near the dumpsters after school, and Choco had looked shocked, the image kinda…jiggled.
"Morning, Choco!" Lyserg aimed an angelic smile toward his African American friend, earning an equally friendly smile. Yoh wondered when Lyserg would smile at him like that.
"Mourning me? I'm not dead yet, I hope!" Choco laughed. The two boys standing behind him didn't seem amused, however.
"You will be if you don't stop cracking those lame ass jokes," Ren Tao muttered, his arms crossed, crinkling his normally crisply ironed white school shirt. His figure was flaunted in dark denim (just a shade lighter and it would a violation of dress code, but it wouldn't be Ren without laughing in the face of authority), showing off his body rivaled only by Lyserg. It was rumored that the girls in the class didn't envy posters of sultry movie stars.
No, they strived to be more like Ren or Lyserg.
Boys in their class. Boys.
"Frowning's gonna leave wrinkles," Horokeu (or just plain Horo) Usui said, glancing down at Ren. Over sophomore summer break, Horo had shot up in height and was the tallest boy in the class, at a whopping five eleven. It was barely secret that he had a crush on the relatively shrimpy Ren, but nothing as of late had come of it. However, it was almost common knowledge that Ren had his eyes out for a certain blue-haired someone…but no one was really sure, for everyone who had asked had been thoroughly throttled, save Lyserg who emerged laughing. Ren hadn't responded to the question, but Ren's blushing red face had been enough to cause a laugh attack for the Diethyl which didn't end until lunch time.
It had been a rather noisy history class.
"So's laughing," Ren shot back, reminding Horo of how easy it was to make the Usui crack up. "Anyway, did you do anything for the roadtrip, Joco?"
Choco cringed, the remnants of the joke sliding off his face. "Don't call me that. It sounds retarded."
"Like you, but don't change the subject."
Yoh rolled his eyes. Why couldn't his friends ever get along nicely? "Look, we had a deal that we'd never mention that stupid nickname ever again, okay?"
"It's not my fault the school had a typo when it came to your stupid name. Jocolove McDanields. God, I should have known."
Horo snickered, and a content flicker of a smile crossed Ren's face, wiped off as fast as a wet towel wipes off Expo the moment the Chinese boy had noticed Lyserg giving him a meaningful look.
Choco glared at Ren. "For that, no, I didn't do anything for the trip, but it looks like you probably did, Mr. Overachiever."
"As a matter of fact, I did. I got us three rooms at a hotel near the border of Niagara Falls, thank you so much, and I printed out directions on where to go."
"Jesus," Horo murmured.
Ren turned on him. "Exactly, coming from someone who the whole stupid 'roadtrip' idea came from. I'm not seeing anything coming from your end, Usui!"
"Hold on, guys," Lyserg said quickly. "Let's not start a fight this early in the morning, alright?"
"Can't you control your idiotic friends?" Hao asked, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"They're your friends too," Lyserg protested, although he smiled when Hao wrapped an arm around his waist. "But we know who my best friend is, don't we?"
"Oh, no, please, no more make out sessions," Choco shouted, covering his eyes. "I so did not want to watch you two swap spit in the library last Thursday."
"No one asked you to watch," Hao smirked, as he planted a kiss on Lyserg's lips. Yoh walked past them calmly, barely glancing at them as he walked over to his locker. He felt Lyserg's eyes on his back for a brief second, but he didn't turn around. As he spun the combination to his hallway locker, he noticed Choco walk up to him. "Hey, Yoh." Choco took a second to laugh at that brilliant pun before snapping to business. "What's up with you and Lyserg today?"
"Nothing. What are you talking about?" Yoh threw his math textbook into his locker with a loud metallic bang.
"I don't know…I don't really know the circumstances about your guys' relationship, but it seems a little different this morning." Choco had been thoroughly stunned to find out the 'cross-dressing green-haired girl' and the 'stoner' were going out the first week he was there. Hao had been the 'long-haired devil incarnate' (which Hao to this day reveled in), Horo had been the 'coffee chugging shorts maniac'…and Ren had been purposely left out after an event that will remained unmentioned.
Ask anyone, it didn't involve violence! No matter what people say about the 'McDa' imprint on Choco's stomach that only started fading away a few weeks ago!
"Nothing's different," Yoh said, pulling out a yellow notebook. "It's the same as last week, and the week before that."
Choco stared at him. "You say you're over him?"
"I never said that," Yoh said, shutting the locker and turned to face Choco. "But I'm not going to say anything. Not if he's fine with Hao."
"But, Yoh…"
"Thanks for worrying, but it's okay." Yoh smiled. "Let's just try and get through this week, alright?"
"Good bye, honey."
"Hmm. Have a nice day, Mickey." Keiko dropped a quick kiss on Mickey's cheek, feeling the unshaved-yet-for-the-day chin of her husband. Mikihisa smiled as she got into her car. As much as he wanted to be the breadwinner of the family, he…um, hadn't landed a job yet (although he'd been there for more than a year!) and was still looking for one. Keiko was still at the firm, working hard with her new business partner.
"Good morning, Kimi!"
"Oh, morning, Ms. Keiko!" Kimi leaned over the secretary's desk. "I'll be in there in a minute with your coffee!"
Keiko nodded as she opened the door to her office, which she shared with her partner. After that case involving the cat stuffed with cocaine, she had been boosted up it the social ladder and finally got the coveted 'window' office (although her old office had a nice view too. But this was better.). She walked over to her side of the office, the nice and tidy side. Her desk was in place, the papers stacked up in a nice organized fashion, the pictures of her family littering the desk. Her computer was on standby mode, with a note scribbled on the monitor reading 'Save Power! Turn Me OFF Next Time!'. Keiko laughed, recognizing her partner's handwriting.
As she sat down at her chair, she looked around the office. There was a nice homey leather sofa sitting across from her, flanked by a glass coffee table. The sleek ceiling fan was currently still at the moment. The bookshelf on her side was neatly organized, without a book out of place. She was the poster girl of organization and control.
Her life hadn't always been that way, but…well, life was life.
Her partner wasn't the same, but Keiko didn't mind. Her partner's side of the room was relatively messy; papers were strewn about in a tornado manner and there were pens all over the place. The file cabinets had papers coming out of it and the fern on next to it looked malnourished. The room was symmetrical, but if the sides were twins, Keiko was the straight A getting, neat dressed, smiling teacher's pet while the other was…well, almost like Hao, actually.
"Good morning, Keiko!" Kimi stumbled into the room, holding two cups of coffee. She was dressed in a light gray dress suit, although the blouse was slightly untucked. Probably late again, Keiko thought. Kimi set one blue mug on Keiko's desk. "How's the family?"
"They're peachy, like usual. Yoh's a little broody lately."
"Aw, sweetie. I feel bad for him." Kimi's face fell.
"Anyway, how is it with you?"
"Horo's managing to stay out of trouble, goodness. And Pirka's still the cheerful little girl she was last week!" Kimi's face lit up with a smile as she sipped the other cup of coffee. "And you know what? This is the 375th day I've been sober!"
Keiko smiled too, the happiness on her face relevant. Her life couldn't be more perfect than it was now.
Kimi blinked. "Oh! I guess we should start working, eh?" The phone rang on the desk next to Keiko's at that moment and Kimi rushed to answer it. "Oh, yes, KK's office! … Oh, that's completely fine, Ms. Tao, just fax them over…oh, don't worry about it…oh, yes, Jun, that's right…sorry, you're just so grown up I must call you Ms. Tao!" Kimi giggled as she hung up. "Jun's faxing over the latest case now." Kimi collapsed in the chair to the desk. "We're busy lately, aren't we, partner?"
"Right." Keiko pressed the power button to her computer. That's right, the Asakura/Usui partnership (or KK for Keiko and Kimi) was just starting and it was up and jumping like Hao high on caffeine! Keiko glanced up at the law degree hanging above the fern on Kimi's side of the office.
She couldn't have been more proud of her best friend.
The door to their office opened slightly and revealed Jun Tao, Ren's pretty older sister. She was decked in a pencil skirt and a pure white blouse. "The papers should be faxed, Ms. Usui."
"Thanks." Kimi smiled as she nodded. "You're the best secretary in the world! As good as I was when I was still down there. But you'll get here soon!"
"Eh, thanks, but I really don't want to be a big shot lawyer." Jun chuckled. "My dad would make such a big deal about it…I don't even want to think about it. Oh…and by the way…um…can I leave early today?"
"Why?" Kimi asked, a knowing look on her face. "Is Pyron leaving early to see you?"
Pyron Lee, the Chinese martial artist currently teaching at the community center, was the object of the currently blushing secretary's affections. "Um…yeah…he says the kids are really getting it so he doesn't have to spend so much time on them…"
"Shall we let her off?" Kimi asked, laughter dancing in her eyes as she turned to Keiko.
"Well…" Keiko said in a long dramatic tone, as she flipped open her schedule. "We have a court date scheduled tomorrow and a few deadlines we need to cover…" she improvised as she stared down at her blank page, "so unless you can finish filing last year's cases by noon, you can't go."
"Thanks!" Jun cried, beaming. Keiko smiled, thinking of the single case the two had covered as partners last year. It was their first (and only for a few months) trial, and they had won it.
A pretty big victory in Kimi's book. It was a symbol of victory over her old life and fortune for her life to come.
As Jun skipped out the door, Keiko sighed. "To be young again."
"Says the thirty-two year old hottie lawyer," Kimi said sarcastically. "I should really be saying that…I'm twenty-nine."
The two laughed, the office filling up with the carefree noise.
ROADTRIP notes (take them. There will be a test): and the first chapter commences! Let me talk in order of things that appear:
first) titles – most of the titles (except for the next one which I didn't plan this out when I wrote it) will be titles of songs. I do not own them. This is self explanatory.
Second) questions are being asked! Yoh and Lyserg, couple of the freaking century…NOT TOGETHER! This pained me since I love them! But I'm sure all you Hao and Lyserg fans aren't complaining. I'm sure not (you: wait, what did you just say?). besides, they don't get enough fan service anyway.
Third) Ren and Horo…still iffy.
Fourth) Chocolove? Why him, you ask? First of all, he has almost no fan service anyway. Let's not be racist, everyone. He's a funny guy. I also like to pair him with Lyserg, if you've read any of my other stories…only one…but will there be any of that here? Hmm…still iffy.
Fifth) READ THE NEXT CHAPTER! HUNGER FOR IT!