She wasn't home. She wasn't home, and her absence unnerved him.
What hour was it again? He couldn't remember. It was late, though. Much too late for Anna to be out running errands or doing any of the things the girls had taken a liking to forcing her into. The blonde may have changed, may have opened up to the world around her a bit more, but there were certain tendencies that defined her, tendencies that Yoh knew would never disappear.
Her punctuality was one of them.
Of course, she hadn't given him an exact hour when she would be home. She never did. But then again, she had never been out after eleven in the evening, either.
His eyes narrowed.
It was unbelievable how disconcerted he was about this whole situation. Had he not known she could take care of herself, he would have thought something had happened to her, and would have been worried. But he did know better, and he knew there was no reason for that.
Anna was not in danger. No, she was far from that. She was with Pirika, and she was having fun—and they were not alone.
He had caught bits and pieces of their conversation at school. The blue-haired Ainu wanted to go clubbing, and since Jeanne was gone, she turned to Anna. He had no idea how she got his serious and responsible fiancée to agree, but by the time he had settled beside them, their evening had already been planned. A double date of sorts, that was.
To say that it annoyed him would be an understatement. And it was the strangest thing, because Yoh had never been one for annoyance. Anna was beautiful, amazingly so, and as soon as his hormones started acting up, which was around the time she had been transferred to their school, he had realized that. He had always considered her pretty, but he had never quite imagined that the word didn't do her justice. And he had not been alone in his realization. All of a sudden, boys were constantly all over her—but he had never cared one bit.
That, however, was because she had always rejected them. Now that he knew she had willingly walked into a date… the story changed.
And that was the reason why, for the first time since he had come to Tokyo, Asakura Yoh stepped out of the inn with a scowl on his face.
In the heart of the city, Kyoyama Anna breathed out a silent, relieved sigh as she stepped out of the loud club, the music pounding through the walls and seeping into the cool night air. What she must have been thinking when she took Pirika up on her offer, she didn't know. What she did know was that she couldn't have let her walk in by herself on a date with two men, and that made sense; it was simply not in her nature to leave her friends vulnerable and unprotected, especially when they took the time to actually ask for her help.
The knowledge that she had made the right choice did not, sadly, eliminate the foul mood the sheer craziness of the environment she had been thrust in had brought upon her. She wasn't used to crowds—she hated them, actually; she was very, very fond of her personal space. And as if that wasn't enough, everywhere she looked, there was alcohol, cigarette smoke, wandering hands, and intoxicated youngsters spread all over the filthy space.
She was far more elegant than that. She was a lady, a future queen, not an overly-dramatic teenager with no other purpose in life than to ruin her liver.
"Anna…" a familiar voice came from behind her. She rolled her eyes and tamed down her impending growl; taking in a deep breath, she attempted to calm down as he came to stand in front of her. "Come back inside," he coaxed, putting on what could have been a handsome smile.
Anna didn't know and she personally didn't care. There was one smile that she loved, and it wasn't his. Though she supposed it could have helped if he wasn't drunk.
"How about you go back?" she retorted, arms crossed over her chest.
"I don't want to go back without you," he whined.
Anna resumed at taking in another deep breath. She tried not to slap him, because he was truly intoxicated, and taking advantage of people when they were in weakened states was not one of her favorite pastimes, no matter what others thought and said.
"Go inside," she suggested as calmly as she could. "I'll be there."
"Promise?" he insisted.
It was a bit difficult not to punch him then, but she heroically resisted the temptation. "Yeah," she said.
As soon as he was gone, she rolled her eyes and scowled at the empty street before her.
She wondered if it would be very wrong of her to leave without telling Pirika.
Running a hand through her hair, she heaved a sigh. Of course her conscience would not allow her to leave her friend alone after she had gone so far to actually be there with her. Resigned, she was about to turn around and kindly let her know they were leaving when she saw something from the corner of her eye that made her stop dead in her tracks.
"Yoh?!"
When Yoh finally caught sight of his fiancée, every muscle in his body froze. His heart stopped beating. His lungs stopped functioning. Only his mouth dropped open.
She was gorgeous—with make-up on her face and curls in her hair and a color other than black to contrast with her creamy skin. Not to mention the heels that did wonders to her already perfect legs.
She never dressed up for him. Hell, she never did as much as give him a smile! Alright, so maybe she did. But not voluntarily, and certainly not without a reason, like girlfriends—or rather, fiancées—were supposed to do.
A part of him told him that this—the dress, the heels, the make-up—was Pirika's doing, but another part of him, the larger, more dominant one this time, reminded him that no one, not even an energetic Pirika, could force Anna to do anything she did not want to do.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, her brows furrowed, as she approached him. "You do know you have training tomorrow morning, right?"
Yoh scowled as he stuck his hands into his pockets. "Yeah, well, I figured that if my fiancée takes the liberty to go on dates, I could afford to take a walk in the middle of the night, too."
Anna blinked. For a moment, she was emotionless; then shock flooded her expression. "Excuse me?" she sputtered.
"I know where you went tonight, Anna," he told her. It was almost an accusation.
"What?" she tried again, her frown deepening.
"I know you went on a date—and that Pirika was with you!"
"Are you out of your mind?"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I heard you two talking this morning."
"Of course you did, we were right beside you," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, well, because you didn't even bother to hide it, I thought you were just fooling her, but of course, I should have imagined you would never stay out this late!"
"Yoh—"
"I just never thought you'd be capable of doing this to me—"
"Doing this to you? Yoh, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Your date?" he reminded her. "With that guy?"
"My date—with—" She paused, blinked, and then promptly—and uncharacteristically—burst out laughing. "You idiot!"
Yoh didn't know if he should be happy that he had made her laugh or angry that it was him who she was laughing at. Instead, he settled for scowling some more.
But when a full minute had passed and she was still amusing herself copiously on a matter that he did not even understand, in the first place, he felt the need to stop her.
"Anna, this really isn't—"
"You are…" she interrupted him, shaking her head, slight giggles escaping her lips, "You are quite the character."
The brunet frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"
She huffed an amused breath, and Yoh knew—he knew—he was supposed to come up with an argument, something that would make her listen to him, see his point, and stop interrupting him all the time on the account that he was being funny. He knew that for a fact—along with a bunch of other conclusions he had reached and never really put into practice.
But it was in that particular moment that his mind decided to zero in on her smile—her beautiful, brilliant, glowing smile. Then his heart decided it should become involved and his brain blacked out, every thought erased per completely. The words he was about to say died in his throat, and he had a vague feeling his mouth was hanging open once again.
"The reason why I went out tonight," she started, clearing her throat in another futile effort to curb her amusement, "Was because Pirika asked me to accompany her. She had a date. Her boyfriend had nothing to do with his visiting—relative, if I remember correctly. She didn't want to be alone with two guys, and to be honest, I didn't want that, either, because I don't like that boyfriend of hers."
Yoh almost rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but that—"
"That doesn't change the fact that, technically, I went out with another guy," she agreed. "But you know better than to make a scene because of that."
"I'm not making a scene," he defended, his enthusiasm slowly fading as the anger left him and his rational side started to regain control. A couple of seconds passed, and he wanted to hit himself. What had he done? He was never living this down.
"Yes, you are," she insisted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Yoh almost flinched at the familiar action, but seeing as she didn't glare or look ready to maim him, he resisted the urge to apologize and beg for forgiveness. His ego was still rather inflated, after all.
"At least, you were a couple of minutes ago," she added.
He heaved a defeated sigh. "You'll punish me now?"
Anna smirked. "There will be repercussions, most likely." Dropping her arms, she gave a sigh of her own and closed the distance between them with only a few steps.
Yoh could only watch, with wide brown eyes, as she wrapped her arms around his waist, her playful smirk slowly molding into a tender smile.
"Tomorrow," she specified, before pressing her lips to his and making him forget all about dates and jealousy and improper reactions and punishments—making him forget everything but her name and the warm, warm feeling in his heart that he had always associated it with.
A/N: So, I decided to try my hand at something other than Yoh/Anna drama, haha!
Outfit on Flickr.
Please review if you enjoyed this!