Name: First frost
Author: Rain
Disclaimer: Don't claim any of Shaman King, it's Takei's.
Last but not least! Dedicated to Zero-Nightmare. Dany-kun, I wanted to make a good gift but it turned stupid. Sorry.
There is a meeting held by the Paches. A large gathering for all the contestants to meet again. Their king, too, is there, even though half of the contestants don't want to see him.
Even she is there. Tantalizing and as innocent as ever as she greets Yoh and his wife before rushing to speak with her former examinator, leaving him with his hand raised to graze her long silvery hair as she escapes him. Without even being aware of the 'danger'.
Hao blinks, a slight pout forming on his lips. He's going to have to catch her sooner or later.
"Shaman King."
To adress him that way costs her more than she imagined to, and he knows that. The curteous bow the slender girl offers him, too, isn't taken lightly and he acknowledges it silently.
But she in herself is too distracting. Her dress shimmers in the light and his gaze insists on place he shouldn't.
The brunette brings her pale hand to his lips and grazes her skin, a smile that could be either dark or just casual hovering on his lips. Her name rolls out of his lips in a charming tone as he slowly answers, whispering against her fingers:
"Jeanne."
"You've grown quite lovely over the years, Jeanne.
- ... Stop staring. You don't want Marco to catch you.
- Aah, that wouldn't do. But after all what he doesn't know doesn't hurt him. But enough about old blondie; I 'largely' prefer to learn about you.
- As if you weren't able to know that by yourself. Don't the winds speak to you?
- They do, of course. But I long to hear your voice after all that time. Any new love conquests for little Jeanne?
- Hao. You 'know' I don't...
- Right, right. The 'holy maiden' and all that. Did I tell you I missed you, dearest?"
She's taken advantage from a slight scuffle between two drunk Shamans to escape his hold. His charming, insinuating inflections, the slightly older but still as handsome as always features - he's overwhelming and she needs a break from his conversation if she wants to be able to stay coherent.
Hao huffs in annoyance as he searches for her easily recognizable silver hair. She's gotten away. Knowing her, she surely tried to breathe away from the crowd and the people she might meet in it. He quickly scans the auras he can feel around him...
A smirk crosses his features. He's found her.
She's slightly cold. He can see it by the way she has wrapped her arms around herself and the way that, though she is away from the crowd she shifts uneasily from leg to leg.
He smiles as his fingers trail across her bare shoulders while her back is still turned to him. "Dearest," he breathes against her hair, "did you miss me?"
The albino shivers and neither of them is sure why exactly, but it doesn't matter.
"Dawn is coming," he thinks to say before he kisses her, and the first rays of sun highlight them as they finally find each other.
Hao: ... I dreaded that...
Rain: Eh, I dread it even now. It's awful. Still, merry christmas to all!