The Yoh smiling back at him had a strange red glint in his eyes that was akin to a consuming flame. With a mysterious smirk, the spirit moved its host's mouth. "My name is Hao and I'm here for you."
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Well. That was certainly both unexpected and unwelcomed to hear. It took all of the young Londoners' very carefully built self-control to resist the immediate and overwhelming urge to wrinkle his nose in distaste, staring up at the stranger now inhabiting Yoh's slim frame. "Sorry to say, I'm not exactly just some box you can come pick up whenever you fancy."
Despite his trying to make that a jabbing insult, the spirit only seemed amused by his response, tilting Yoh's head to one side and letting out a soft laugh that didn't fit the normally caring face in the least. Mocking, cynical; everything that wasn't Yoh summed up quite nicely in just one chortle. This only made the urge to pull away even greater, and despite his self-control, Lyserg didn't bother resisting it a second time around. Unfortunately, this 'Hao'...thing (he was reluctant to call it a human spirit) was a great deal stronger than Yoh.
Bad planning on his own part.
Struggling did absolutely no good for him at all aside from drawing another unnerving laugh from his captor, who used the opportunity to pull Lyserg's struggling form closer still. "You really think I'd spend so much time watching and not make a claim?" The cryptic words spilling forth from borrowed lips momentarily stunned the dowser into a contemplative silence. ...Wait, did that mean that this spirit had been around for a while? 'Watching' certainly implied that. Then how could he have missed the spiritual signature?
And Hao, being Hao, decided to take that prime opportunity to draw the pondering boy closer still, their lips just a breath apart. And that was about when the aforementioned boy regained his senses in an entirely too-fast manner.
...
Now, there were two things that most people learned about Lyserg Deithyl upon getting to know the Brit. One, of course, was his aversion to short-term relationships, flings, one-night stands, whatever you want to call them. The other centered around the fact that nobody in a ten-acre radius had a harder time stomaching violence than he did. Even tiny scraps going on in car parks were way more than enough to make him go off in the other direction flinching and covering his ears.
So anyone who knew anything about Lyserg would have been surprised to hear the sharp sound of hand-meeting-face echoing through the otherwise silent winterscape.
Even the greenette himself looked jarred by the action, his right hand now suspended in the frigid air after making a clean strike against his possessed boyfriend's cheek, which was already blossoming with a brilliant red. Bright green and darkened obsidian met and held, the latter blinking once-twice; and that unnatural red tint was gone.
And once again there were only two entities left with eachother for company in the dissolving-white of their backyard landscape.
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Yoh reached a hand out, taking a hold of the icepack Horo offered him with a small nod of thanks before placing it against the red of his swollen cheek, a faint hiss sounding through clenched teeth. Really. Who would have guessed that such a scrawny kid with no arm strength to speak of could land such a hit? If he hadn't been the recipient of it, he'd have probably given a round of applause in utter amazement.
That, however, was not the case and so he simply settled with attempting to stop the swelling and ease some of the remaining sting.
Lyserg sat guiltily on the sofa next to him, curled up into his side in an unusual display of affection (or perhaps the Brit just felt too upset about actually having hit someone to leave him be?). They weren't alone in the small, warm 'lobby' of the Inn though.
As soon as Yoh had regained consciousness, he was baraged instantly with a huge string of apologies that appeared to have no end in sight, until the brunette had timidly piped up with the fact that his cheek was throbbing in an unpleasant way. Which, of course, brought up the entire 'what was that possession about!?' topic, which...Yoh refused to answer.
At least, until Horo and Ren had been called and asked to return to the house. The Ainu grumbled about it all the way home, much to the chagrin of the Chinese shaman. Really, who gave a damn about vandalising icee carts? It was a weird hobby anyway. Once they reached the house and saw the none-too-pretty state of Yoh's cheek though, all complaining had ceased and, in the case of Horo, laughter began.
He'd recieved a good few hits over the head from Ren after that, especially with Lyserg fretting away just a few paces behind and looking like he'd burst into tears after Horo had pointed and declared; "HE did this to you!?", laughing the entire time.
After that whole circus madness had been finished with and everyone seated in a circle in the living room, the real problem was soon to be adressed which virtually wiped any trace of humour from the situation.
They were dealing with a frequenting spirit, after all - one that not only knew how to quickly subdue Yoh, but had been watching Lyserg and, for all they knew, everyone else in the Inn for who knew how long.
Those points were brought up by Lyserg, who followed up with a contemplative look and interrogative-sounding question. "Has anyone detected any continuous presence around here...?" Ren simply shook his head, the usual bored-why-am-I-here expression in place. Horo shook his as well, before shrugging. "Eh, I didn't NOTICE anything at least?" Green eyes then darted over to the figure next to him and noted with mixed emotions that Yoh was studying a bit of pillow fluff just a little too intently.
"...Yoh...?" Obsidian raised hesitantly to acknowledge he'd heard his name before darting off to the side again. Yep, the furtiveness was definitely not a good sign. Lyserg's brow furrowed faintly whilst Horo had to fight back a laugh at the brunette's almost childish reaction.
"Yoh," the Londoner tried again, trying (and failing) to add a bit more authority to his voice. At least he managed to catch and hold the others' stare this time - who did, indeed, look like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar or something. "...Did you know Hao was here? And if that's the case, how come none of the rest of us didn't sense him...? Why didn't you tell us?" Ah, the wonder of jumping to conclusions.
"No, no, it's nothing like that..." Three sets of eyes were drawn to Yoh, who had spoken for the first time since being socked upside the head. "What do you mean, then?" The Brit shifted away from his position, taking up a seat on the opposite sofa cushion to better view the elder shaman, who obviously knew more about the whole story than they did.
But for another minute, they got nothing but a deep almost sigh-sounding breath as an answer, Yoh pulling his feet up off the floor to wrap his arms round his knees. "It's kind of a long story..." Despite his answer being muffled, the three onlookers remained just as intent as ever. Much to Yoh's disappointment.
Sighing again, a bit heavier, he raised one of his arms and raked his fingers through messy bed-head hair. "...So, you know... Remember that one time that we learned about long-term possessions?"
Even Ren looked mildly intrigued at that, arching a brow and scrutinising the tired-looking boy like he was the latest scientific wonder. "Of course. We were all sitting there with you when he told you, remember?" The he referring to none other than Yohmei, Yoh's grandfather, who took every opportunity possible to give Yoh's band of friends weird bits of trivia involving shamanism.
Yoh simply nodded. "Right, well... Wouldn't that be funny if I told you that I kind of...um. Had something like that going on? Haha! Funny, right?" His voice soared to a slightly higher pitch due to the nerves, which almost drew another laugh from Horo (managing to refrain after a death glare via Ren). Lyserg just sat where he was with a wide-eyed expression, piecing things together all too quickly. "So...all this time...?"
He was stopped from finishing the sentence when Yoh raised a hand, looking...almost stern, for once. Unusually serious, that was for sure. "Yeah. He's been here the whole time. But!-" He waved his hand again when Lyserg opened his mouth to say something else; "-now that you know that, you're going to need the rest of the story. ...Best get comfortable." Another tiny sigh escaped him, looking unusually uncomfortable for Yoh.
"This might take a while."
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Sorry that took such a massive amount of time, been busy like something crazy as of late. I'll definitely cut down the next span between updates as much as possible.
Look for the continuation; chapter three with Mankinfan!