"Hurry, Yoh!" Anna called down, not once stopping.
"-Huff-huff-huff- Hai, Anna," Yoh answered, trying his best not to let himself look tired. His bare, flat feet pressed into the sand, hot and raw at the contact. The sun had really scorched that dune…go figure Anna ordered him to climb it…
"Yoh, are you all right?" his fiancée asked him. Her eyebrow cocked and she tapped her foot impatiently.
Yoh paused and gasped for air. He couldn't mask his breathlessness, for sure. "Yeah, I'm fine, Anna—"
"Good. You're almost there." Already at the top of the giant mount, the blonde stepped out of view while Yoh still struggled through the climb. She looked like an angel today. Her white bikini and sheer blue shawl reminded him of the wholesome clouds and azure skies of Heaven. Her pale skin had a smooth shine in the sunlight, and her blonde hair was even lighter than usual at the beach. Everything around her radiated unsullied loveliness, like a pure white oleander.
But she wasn't going to wait for Yoh anymore. How long it would take to get to the summit and see what exactly Anna wanted to show him?
He didn't even care about that, really…he just wanted to set his eyes upon Anna again…
Suddenly, a look of determination flared in Yoh's eyes. He was going to dash right up to the top, no matter what!
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!" he screamed, the soles of his feet burning with every scratch against the sand.
"Yoh-kun?" Manta said perplexedly in the middle of a volleyball game by the shore. He turned his head toward the dune in the distance to see what Yoh was shouting about.
"Huh?" Horohoro turned his head around, too, never able to resist curiosity. "Oi, I see him! He's—UFF!!!"
Horo rubbed the cheek that the hard white ball had smacked into, and then he staggered and fell backward…onto a pile of shells that Pirika had gathered together earlier.
"ITAI—!!!!!"
"Fn. You complete idiot," Ren stated flatly, shaking his head incredulously from behind the Ainu.
Tamao tapped Pirika's shoulder nervously from the other side of the net.
"Yes?" Pirika asked, watching her brother curse out the sharp-haired boy standing over him.
"Maybe we should go get the ball and play on our own…" she softly suggested.
"Okay! I can get it," Pirika offered with a smile. Blue hair of hers trailed behind in a thick, long ponytail, and she retrieved the fully-aired beach volleyball for her, Tamao, and Jun to play with.
On the other side of the net, Manta stood off to the side and continually sweatdropped as Ren and Horo incessantly bickered. Horohoro got up to his feet and started to push Ren around, when all of a sudden—
"Look out, boys!" Jun called out in a singsong voice.
-Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff…-
The ball was no longer usable. Air leaked out until all the thing was was a white sac.
It had speared itself directly atop Ren's hair.
Horohoro blinked for a second, Manta stood stiff with his eyes completely bugged out, and the girls on the other side came around silently.
"…-Pfft-," Horohoro snickered. "He spiked it."
Hysterical laughter filled the entire beach as Ren blushed deep magenta.
"Stop it!!" the poor Tao protested. "Stop that this instant!! Jun, make them all stop!!!"
His sister couldn't hear him. She fell to the ground in an uncontrollable cackling frenzy. Her black and green onepiece got smothered in golden sand as she held her sides and rolled.
"Grrr…" Ren snarled as Horohoro guffawed in his bright red ear and plucked the dead volleyball from his head.
The Ice Queen coolly acknowledged Yoh. "Wow, you made it."
Her fiancé's head hung as he panted and wheezed, trying hard to regain his breath. His hands clutched his knees until his knuckles were as white as Anna's swimsuit.
"Anna," he said to her, "What in the world did you want me here for?"
"You haven't been sticking with the program I labored so hard to write out for you, have you?" Anna asked him. She donned her big white sunglasses.
"Huh?" Yoh's eyebrow twitched. He didn't look up though; he still needed to collect himself after the workout. "What are you talking about?"
"So you haven't?"
"…No?"
"Yoh! You would have made it a lot faster if you had been following my training program this whole time!"
"Suman, Anna!"
Anna huffed. She knew it all along; she knew that he'd be twice as slow as her the entire hike up the dune. However, not only had she planned to make this a day of free affection, but the day was actually favorable, to say the least—the sun shone, the clouds were perfect little plumes, the wind rustled the leaves in the trees. It was intoxicating. Anna felt the urge to surprise her Shaman King…and be very forgiving.
"Yoh," she started to tell him.
"Yes?" the boy asked, his shoulders slumping low.
"You want to know why I wanted you to come up here, right?"
"Hai."
"Well, I can tell you it's worth it."
Yoh didn't know that Anna had swiftly stepped over to him, so when she crouched below and drew his chin up with her index finger, he was genuinely touched.
"Look around," she said.
The shaman stood up and turned all around to take in his surroundings. The ocean appeared a million times more vast from up top, sparkling cerulean in the light of high noon. The tall, thin grasses that sprung up from in-between mini-dunes tickled Yoh's feet when the gentle breeze brushed by—nothing like that blew down on the hot, level sands near the shoreline. Up on the dune it was like another world.
But what amazed Yoh even more than the view of the ocean was the view opposite the coast. On the other side of the dune (going away from the beach), uneven paths wound down the hill, bordered by reedy grasses. Right when the paths reached the bottom, they were forced right back up two twin hills, to which clung numerous swaying trees.
All of it was otherworldly picturesque, like it had come out of a storybook. Yoh's mouth hung open in awe.
"It's…"
"Mm?" Anna hummed.
Hearing the beatific ring of Anna's voice, Yoh turned to her. She had taken her sunglasses off to gaze at their surreal environment with him, and Yoh thanked Kami-sama that she had. Her eyes pulled him in, deep and multi-faceted like a sea of sapphires.
"It's perfect," he said.
"I'm glad."
With that, the girl sauntered a ways down the sand dune on her own. Yoh watched her sway, and decided immediately that he would follow.
When she found a favorable spot in the grass, she plopped down. With a stretch, Anna laid back and folded the frugal reeds trapped under her.
Sliding down the dune with no foot protection didn't sizzle Yoh's feet this time. Sand slunk past his toes gingerly as he surfed his way down the soft hill.
Making his way down the path, he realized that in his fun gliding along the fall of the sand dune, he'd lost sight of where Anna was lying down in the tall grass.
And he couldn't find it again.
His eyes searching every way, he called humbly, "Anna…?"
"GOTCHA!!" she exclaimed, leaping onto him. He arms twined around Yoh's neck, and when he lost even footing, they began to roll down together.
When they crashed at the bottom, Anna laughed loudly at their tumble.
"Hahaha…!" she spat, choking on her own excitement. Yoh had landed on top of her, and his head was directly atop her chest.
"Um…" he mumbled, pink blush blooming on his face at the embarrassing position. He felt her heartbeat, though, and he listened to it intently as Anna laughed up a storm. It raced as fast as a bunny's.
"-Sigh…-" Anna was done laughing after a good five minutes. She breathed out slowly, wiping a tear of joy from the corner of her eye. "I can't remember having so much fun."
Yoh closed his eyes peacefully as his fiancée's breast rose and fell evenly under him, calming down after such a giddy rush. "I'm glad, Anna."
He took his ear from her chest and lifted his head. Propping his body off of Anna, his hands pushed against the ground on either side of her. The feel of sand sifting through all of his fingers was wonderful.
When Yoh had released Anna from under him, he hovered over her, just gazing at how gorgeous she was. It was hard for him to believe that Anna was once a very lonely, unfathomably terrified girl whose powers had turned her bitter. Freed from all of that, lying as one with nature, she had transformed into something completely contrary—spirited, gentle, enchanting…and blissful.
Anna looked up at Yoh, too, and her lips fell open in a little o. His dark brown hair shone cleanly as the sun's rays bounced off it, and his slightly tan complexion was as inviting as warm coffee. When Yoh's eyes met hers, it was as though she needed desperately to look down and blush shyly, but she couldn't. The color of dark chocolate melted into her and made her feel cozy inside. Anna wasn't about to let the moment slip away, so she took charge. Deftly, she took her shawl out from under her and slung it around Yoh's neck. She lightly pulled down on it, and it locked them in a passionate kiss.
Letting her fingers slide down from the thin blue scarf, they nestled themselves in Yoh's silky hair when his tongue caressed her own. She breathed in the scent of summer; the scents of the wildflowers and tall grass that rippled like waves as the wind embraced them. She breathed in the scent of Yoh. Anna knew that this beautiful moment would never come again, and she took it all in before their lips parted.
Yoh sat up, flushed with exhilaration. "Wow, Anna…"
She smiled placidly and began to try and sit up. Yoh pulled her hands, and she was lifted onto her fiancé's lap.
Crossing her legs around his torso, she gave Yoh a grateful, "Thank you."
He returned it with a silly grin. "For what? For knocking us down here and spoiling that perfect view you wanted me to see?"
Anna beamed back at him. "I like this view just as much, Yoh."
Her eyes absolutely smiled as Yoh tilted his head and leaned in to kiss her neck. When she felt his tongue run up from her collarbone to her cheek, she cried his name out.
"Pass me those chips, Manta."
Both Anna and Yoh's ears perked acute the instant those words were uttered. Yoh broke away and they both turned their heads to look up to the top of the dune.
Horohoro chomped away at crispy potato chips, accompanied by a wide-eyed Manta, a deviously smirking Ren, and Jun, Pirika and Tamao all giggling to each other.
"What…" Yoh started, eyes narrowed. "…are you doing here?"
"Aww, it was getting so good!" Horohoro laughed.
Anna's eyebrows arched dangerously, and her teeth ground together. "Grrr…"
"Well, um," Manta began, twirling his fingers together. "We were kinda playing volleyball when a little accident occurred," —Ren's yellow irises zero in on the diminutive friend beside him— "and then we noticed you guys were gone."
"We all agreed to come up here, seeing as how an agonizing scream came from Yoh on this hill," Jun explained pleasantly.
"Plus Oniichan was eating all the food we brought since we couldn't play, so it's not like we could have stayed down there on the beach," Pirika pouted.
"Oi, oi!! You said that I could bring the chips!!" Horohoro sputtered through a mouthful. He turned back to Yoh and Anna. Thrusting his bag out with a cheesy grin, he offered, "Want some?"
"GRAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!" Anna shrieked.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" Horohoro spilled all of his chips onto the grass around him and darted towards the ocean. The rest of the gang bolted up and got the heck off of the sand dune while Anna chased after them like a raving banshee.
Yoh was left at the bottom of the hill, watching as everyone darted down the other side and out of his sight. He laughed nervously and scratched behind his neck. Ah, well. Better go make sure everyone's all right after Anna gets to 'em…
He got to his knees and trudged up the steep hill. He heard something that crunched underneath his right foot.
Ooh, one of Horo's chips.
Yoh munched on the salty snacks all the way back to his friends.
-OWARI-
A/N's:
To my new readers, "Hajimemashite!!" To those of you who've read my other fics, "Nice to see you again!!"
My sister didn't know what an oleander was -.-;; So I figured there would probably be others who don't know, either. That's okay! Here, I've looked it up for you:
Direct from Webster's New World English Dictionary (an ancient copy of it, anyway): o-le-an-der n. (ML.) - fragrant white flowers on a poisonous shrub with narrow, feathery leaves.
I think that oleanders suit Anna on the beach very well. -niko-
Feel free to PM me, and -ahem- I love reviews even more than strawberries.
O.O Matte...
Did I just say that?! OxO WOW OxO
That means review! I need artistic, inspirational nourishment! Or criticism, if you deem it necessary.
Arigatou gozaimashita, minna-sama!
-SS