"High school can be so depressing," Anna stated dismissively after the long day. Her glacial blue eyes were transfixed on the water's waves, sparkling as sunlight broke their crystalline surface.

Her fiancé failed to respond, and so she turned to glare at him. But she realized that he would not have seen her nasty glance anyway, for he was just lying there on the grass with his eyes closed and his shirt open.

Yoh hummed to his obnoxious music, which blasted through his equally obnoxious orange headphones. Anna would never admit that his tastes were growing on her, but she sighed nonetheless. How could she stay frustrated at him? He looked so carefree, limbs sprawled on the dewy, high grasses by the tiny river that flowed near their school. The setting sun bounced off of his shining hair. It was the color of India ink, and was illuminated in a sleek manner.

With a quick blink, Anna bit her bottom lip with just one tooth and turned away. Darn, he's cute…

"Ahh, nature is grand!" Yoh belted out of the blue. His bride-to-be whipped back toward him at this.

"What…?!" Anna spattered.

With her outburst, Yoh simply yawned and slid back into silence.

"Grrrr…!" the blonde growled dangerously. Her fists started to shake at the sides of her little green school skirt, but knowing that it wouldn't make any difference to the oblivious Yoh, she huffed and uttered not one complaint.

A pair of small white ducks were swimming by on the bubbling brook at that moment. They seemed to have not a care in the world. Anna looked on at them curiously, to see if they would be topsizing to catch a spare fish or even to release their foot from garbage it might have gotten caught in.

Nothing.

No worry about nourishment; no worry about uncleanliness. No worry if the duck population was booming or falling (Anna didn't know). They just coasted along with what their lives handed to them.

And it made Anna feel very, very confused. She didn't know how to live that way. She constantly worried for her future, for their friends…and especially for Yoh.

When a strong breeze ruffled through the couple's feathers, the slightly larger duck nestled the tip of its bill into its lover's neck. The two paddled forward close together through the waves, and went straight on into the darkness of a tunnel that went through the hill.

Anna pouted her lips and blew a raspberry. She rested her right cheek on her hand. -Sigh-…I really don't get how this is so fun…

Yoh was still relaxing next to her, though. Since he was the one who had insisted on spending sundown there, she wasn't just going to waste her time.

"Yoh?" she called.

His lips tightened up for a second, but he said nothing.

"Yoh??" she asked a little more loudly.

Not a word.

"YOH!!!!!!!!"

"HUH?! WHAT?!!" Yoh sat up abruptly, his hands clutching clumps of grass beside him in shock.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE WE STILL DOING HERE?!"

The boy scratched his thick head of hair; it was the color of black coffee. "We're watching nature!"

"OH-HOH!!" she hooted. "NO, YOU MOST CERTAINLY ARE NOT NATURE-WATCHING! YOU'RE JUST LISTENING TO MUSIC! YOU EVEN HAVE YOUR EYES CLOSED!!!"

As she ranted, her fiancé just laughed and laughed and—

-SMACK!!!-

Yoh's eyelids were spread to fully expose his surprise. He blinked after a minute, Anna's hand still fixed to its spot in the air past his face.

"Anna…" he asked, his voice timid. "Why did you do that?"

The itako was taken aback at his being completely off-guard in the first place. Her hand fell steadily, slowly, and she stared at her palm. Hair hung over her face, she replied, "I…have no idea…"

"I have no idea, either," Yoh whispered. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't say you're sorry!" Anna snapped.

"Why?"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because you don't need to be! You never worry about anything! You don't know what it's like, and you have nothing to be sorry for, so just shut up about it!"

Yoh sat quietly. Anna had thought for a split-second that she had been a little harsh (but only a split-second), but that was before Yoh burst into laughter.

Anna's eyes were wide as saucers, her tiny mouth shut. What…?

"Wow! I'm just…" He wiped a cheerful tear from his eye.

"Just what?"

"I dunno. Just happy, I guess."

His mouth was stretched into a great, hearty grin. His teeth glinting in the intense rays of the sun, and he stood up to stretch.

Anna puffed her cheeks out and got up too. "Well, at least you're paying attention to me now."

Her shaman turned to her in a flash. "When wasn't I paying attention to you, Anna?"

Looking up at him, her eyes grew wide as saucers. "When you were listening to your mu—"

Oh no.

She had knocked his headphones off.

Had he even noticed??

"Ah!" he screamed unexpectedly.

"What?" Anna asked, full of concern.

Yoh's index finger flew in the direction of the tunnel, and he ran into the shallow little canal to retrieve the glimpse of orange through the darkness.

"Yoh!!" Anna called out, her hand thrust out. Despite her palm telling him to stop, he ignored her and made his way into the small tunnel.

"Ah, what is he doing?!" Anna asked no one. She looked around and then decided to run in after him. The girl kicked her shoes off carelessly and plopped her feet into the frigid water.

Brrr, this is colder than it he made it look! Anna sensed. She hugged herself to try and halt an icy chill from being sent up her spine. Aaahhhhh… she moaned as a violent shake reverbed throughout her body.

"AUGH--!!!"she shrieked as said violent shake sent her balance off and plummeted her into the freezing waters. The waves rushed over her, and ducks squawked loudly as they ran from the tunnel and made their way over her body.

Not one minute after she set her mind on chasing after Yoh, he emerged from the tunnel with his headphones in hand.

"Got 'em!" He proclaimed merrily. Nothing mattered to him more, it seemed, than his headphones.

-Awkwardness-

"Why are you lying in the water?"

"…" Anna's face contorted visibly with rage, but no one could blame her for trying to smile. The results were a bit scary.

"eep," Yoh whimpered briefly. He backed away from the monster with the eye slits and a crocodilian, gritty smile. Settling himself on the grass a few meters away, he shook his headphones out and resumed his music.

She made her way up, swishing her golden hair until it was only damp rather than soaked. Her glare narrowed in on him.

His eyes were closed as he tapped out-of-time with his favorite Bob Love song, "Squeeze Me Like an Orange." A smile was plastered across his face.

Drying quickly in the rapidly disappearing sun, Anna walked over to sit next to him. Yoh didn't detect her in the slightest.

"Yoh?" she asked.

It was apparent that he couldn't hear her.

With yet another sigh, Anna shook her head. She'd given up at this point.

"You've loved those headphones for a really long time…haven't you…"

"Yeah," he said to her, still watching the inside of his eyelids.

With a fleeting blink, Anna decided to continue calmly. "When did they start meaning so much to you?"

Taking in the gentle wind that wafted past his smooth face, Yoh told her, "When I found out that if I was listening to music, I didn't have to talk to people."

Anna's mouth dropped open.

Yoh could be deceivingly calculating.

"But," Yoh added. He released his eyes from their trancelike state. "Back when I first got these I never wanted to hear what people said around me."

His fiancée's lips came together again and she looked down at a daisy beside her, unsure of what to say. Quietly, she asked, "Why?"

"They weren't nice. I didn't have any friends until Manta."

"You mean I wasn't your friend?"

They both looked right at each other after that bark from Anna. At once, their minds linked with the same answer.

And they burst into hysterical laughter.

"Ahahahaha!!!" Yoh burst, holding his sides tightly.

"Ahahahahaa…" Anna echoed along, her voice trailing off. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Yeah. I'm okay."

Yoh beaming ebulliently, his lips fell into the shape of an upside-down triangle. His handsome grin reflected perfectly how she looked to him, smiling like that. The sun was almost gone, and like it meant to stay up to see her beautiful face, Anna absolutely radiated loveliness.

Glossy lips, he thought. Anna has glossy, moist lips that sparkle like a jewel.

He leaned in to kiss them.

Pleasantly surprised, Anna's lips pressed together from her grin to return it. She tasted just like sweet strawberries.

When they parted, they were both breathless together. Yoh gingerly ran his fingers through Anna's hair, although he didn't have a chance to kiss her before she turned away from him.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly.

"…I Love You," she stated bluntly, turning away even more. She hung her head so the blush would be covered by her bangs.

Yoh chuckled. "That's wrong?"

"I know I'm not a great friend, but I do care about you," she explained, flustered. "And I'm sorry for saying that you never worried before. I know how harsh people can be."

Red plumes blossomed onto Yoh's cheeks as well, hearing her be so kind. "'Salright, Anna."

They sat together as the sun sank into slumber completely.

"And you know what?"

"What."

"I Love You, Too."

With a kiss pressed to his fiancée's fair hair, they stood up together and walked toward home.