Let me tell you a Story

by: say-chan

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King or any of its beautiful characters, so please don't sue me. Please R&R! First attempt in writing a Yohnna. Spare me the flames. Credits to my Oneechan, she did half of his. Now to make it happen.

Chapter One : In Keeping Secrets

you love me but you don't know who i am, so let me go, just let me go...

---

"I really don't know how to cope up with her anymore!"

The young shaman threw both his hands on the back of his head and let himself free-fall on the shiny hard floor behind him. A bucket was beside him and inside the said bucket was a big brush and a wet towel.

"But, Yoh-dono..."

The guardian spirit suddenly appeared on spirit-ball mode, hovering above him. "What will you do when-"

"Oh Yoh, I'm home...", came a singsong voice, almost taunting, from the open door behind him.

"Aaaaahh-- Anna!", he quickly stood up from his comfortable position, causing the bucket of water to spill all over the floor.

The footsteps came nearer and the young shaman, with his reliable guardian spirit, now in full form, were panicking, trying to fix up the mess.

But this act was to no avail.

The owner of the voice was now in front of the shaman, who was on the floor, shirt off, wiping the floor with the damp cloth that was his shirt.

"What a mess! What have you done now, Yoh!"

The shaman turned to his side and his reliable Amidamaru was gone in an instant, obviously terrified by this 'Anna'.

"B-But A-Anna- I-I w-was-"

"Save it, Yoh. Now, quit whining, fix this mess, make me some lunch and do the laundry, you slacker! And after you do that, 100 laps around the village, double the weights, 500 push-ups and 300 sit-ups all before dinner!"

"But Anna-", came his reply.

"I said can it, Asakura. Now go," she replied, coldly as she turned away from him.

"Stupid A-" he muttered but he was forced to bite his tongue when Anna's head peeked from the door frame.

"Yes, Yoh, you were saying?"

"N-Nothing, Anna," he replied, scratching his head and starting to get up. Her head then disappeared from the frame and as Yoh was about to stand up completely, he stepped on a bar of soap that didn't have to be in that place at that time and fell, causing three of four lumps to form over his head.

"Oh man, this is gonna be a long day," he muttered, standing up once more and dusting dirt off his pants. He took the bucket by the handle and trudged his way to the bathroom to start another hour or so of cleaning the house.

Yoh watched as the water from the tap slowly filled with water. He turned the tap off when the bucket was half-full.

He passed by the living room on his way to the kitchen. The sliding door was slightly ajar and Yoh heard melancholic music from the soap opera being shown on the TV. He gazed at Anna, who was lying on her side on the floor, probably eating cookies and watching the program intently. The thought of cookies caused his stomach to grumble loudly. Sighing, he went to the kitchen to start his chores.

Yoh dropped a wet rag onto the floor and started with the floor, which was, in his opinion, still squeaky clean from yesterday's cleaning. He thought of telling this to Anna but he knew that instead of the sympathy he would expect her to give, he'd probably receive another punch on the face.

He started scrubbing. He worked with such speed that in no time, the floors were glistening like crystals in the sunlight. Amidamaru appeared in spirit ball mode and gazed at his master admiringly.

"I'm impressed Yoh-dono. You finished cleaning this in such a short time!"

"Uh, well..." Yoh began, sweat dropping, but was suddenly cut off when he heard Anna's voice from the corridor.

"Yoh, you still have a lot of chores to do and I'll let you do more if you think of resting before you finish them all."

Yoh stiffened and stuffed the rag into the bucket. Holding the bucket by the handle, he zoomed into the bathroom, quickly changed the dirty water and proceeded with his next task.

---

Anna gazed at the clock. It was almost ten in the evening. She poured herself a glass of water and after drinking, she placed the empty cup on the sink. On her way to her room, she saw Yoh coming out from the bathroom. He looked at her and she looked away and as she stepped into her room, she closed the door behind her.

She leaned back against the door and inhaled sharply. She could hear Yoh's footsteps approaching, and it suddenly came to halt. He was standing outside her room. She knew he was looking at the door to her room, she could feel his intense gaze, which seemed to pierce through the wooden barrier that separated them. Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

"Goodnight, Anna." Yoh's muffled voice came. She felt him smile. And as she laid down her futon and pulled the covers towards her body, the itako let out the breath she was keeping all the while.

---

"Hey, Yoh!"

"Oh, hey Manta!"

"You ready for school?" he asked as they waited for Anna on the front porch.

"Am I ever?", Yoh replied, sarcastically as Anna went out the door. They began walking towards the school and Manta told Yoh about his trip to the Tokyo Art Museum.

"And there were these really great artworks! You should have seen it. Maybe we could go see it in the weekend or something," Manta said with a glimmer in his eyes. Yoh nodded with a smile.

"That would be nice," he replied.

"Yoh doesn't have time for that, Manta. You know that he should focus all his energy on training for the Shaman tournament," Anna said. Manta sweat dropped.

Yoh thought that he would be better off if he kept his mouth shut. Manta was thinking of the same thing.

The long walk to school progressed without any of them uttering a single word. The silence was cut by the sound of an approaching school bus. Anna was about to take a step when she felt something sticky attach itself on the sole of her shoe. She lifted her foot and saw an elongated pink object stretching from the ground to her shoe. Anna sighed exasperatedly.

Yoh became aware that Anna was not walking in step with him. He halted, looked back, and saw Anna trying to remove something from her shoe. "What is it, Anna?"

"I stepped on bubblegum," Anna replied simply as she tried disentangle her shoe from the sticky substance. She exerted a bit of effort on this which caused her to lose her balance. Yoh caught her by the arm.

"Careful," Yoh said with an amused smile. Anna freed herself from Yoh's grip and dusted her skirt. Yoh scratched his head in confusion. Anna sure has funny ways of showing her thanks.

Manta watched them together and he couldn't help but smile. Yoh and Anna have completely different personalities, but like they say in science, opposites attract. He was about to make his way to them when he saw the school bus approaching with great speed. Anna was standing near the edge of the sidewalk. Manta looked at them in horror.

"Watch out!"

Thanks to his quick reflexes, Yoh was able to pull Anna towards him before she got blown away by the bus' speed.

Unfortunately, her skirt wasn't so lucky. Anna looked down only to see her neatly-pressed and clean skirt now covered in mud, a lot of mud.

Yoh could see Anna's fist clenching tightly around her stained skirt. "Uh-oh," he said to himself, taking a step back. "This isn't good..."

And, well, in fact, it really wasn't.

Anna threw her bag at Yoh (which he did catch with both hands) and started walking- running incredibly fast towards the evil school bus.

"A-Anna! Wait!" Yoh called on impulse and threw both his and Anna's bags on Manta, who was instantly crushed by the weight of both, as he ran after her.

Yoh knew his speed increased because of all the training he had been doing, but apparently, it wasn't enough to catch up with the itako, who was sending a cloud of dust on his face.

"Anna! Wait up!" he called out. But his call fell on deaf ears. Anna's eyes were spewing fire as she chased after the bus and amazingly caught up with it. She dashed to the road and stopped in front of the path of the speeding vehicle.

Yoh almost fell face-first to the ground when he saw Anna's exact location. His eyes widened in horror.

"ANNA!"

The sound of screeching tires sent the birds flying for their dear life. The bus stopped merely inches away from Anna's petite and unmoving body.

The doors of the bus opened and the bus driver stormed out of the vehicle, apparently mad. "What the hell are you doing, lady! You want to get yourself killed!"

"Apparently not," Anna replied. She moved from her current position and stared up to the bus driver, who was at least a foot taller than she was.

"What do you want, little girl?" the driver asked as he wiped a disgustingly dirty towel across his forehead.

Anna stared at him for what seemed like hours before pointing at her mud-stained skirt.

"You stained my skirt with mud," she said simply. The bus driver contorted his face in a weird way to show his incomprehension.

"What!"

"I said, you stained my skirt with mud," Anna said, her eyes staring daggers at the bus driver.

"I don't care about your skirt, lady. You could stain your blouse too, for all I care," he was about to ascend the steps to the bus when he felt a hand pulling his shirt back. He looked over his shoulder and saw the girl gripping the edge of his white polo.

"What do ya want, lady! I don't have time for you, let me go!" he swung an arm at her, which she quickly dodged, almost effortlessly. He blinked in surprise. "What the-"

Anna's eyes were turning red in anger as her grip on the man's white polo tightened. "No one stains my skirt with mud, and walks away with it."

---

Moments later, Yoh was lucky enough to come out of the fight with just a black eye. All three decided to skip school because of the previous incidents. Anna was at her usual place in front of the television and Manta was busy treating Yoh's wound. Amidamaru revealed himself in spirit ball mode and sighed deeply.

"If you called me, Yoh-dono, this would not have happened. I'm sorry I failed you," he muttered regretfully.

Yoh looked up to him and forced a smile. "Oh come on, Amidamaru, I'm fine. It's just a little brui- ouch. Careful, Manta."

"Sorry," Manta smiled apologetically as he put the medicine kit aside. "Hey, I guess I better get going. I remembered that I had an English report due today. So, I'll see you later, okay?

"Sure. I'll see you later," Yoh called out as Manta went out the house. The moment Manta was gone, he laid on his back and sighed, contemplating the events that happened earlier. He was about to close his eyes when a shadow darkened over him and a dark green cloth was held over his face.

"W-What? What's this?" Yoh asked as he stood up and saw Anna holding the school skirt that she wore a while ago.

"Anna?"

Anna simply shoved the skirt onto his hands in reply.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Yoh asked as he met Anna's icy glare.

"It's not going to wash itself, Yoh," Anna replied in monotone, turning away from him and returning to her previous position in front of the television.

Yoh could only sigh in reply as he got up, ignoring the pain that he was feeling on the right part of his hip. He trudged out of the living room and into the bathroom to fill up a basin of water and grabbed the box of detergent.

The guardian spirit then presented himself in full mode and hovered beside his master.

"Yoh-dono," he began in a low tone as he watched his master put a spoonful of detergent in the basin and scrubbing the mess on Anna's skirt.

"Hm?" the shaman asked in reply, not bothering to look up from his laundry.

"Is there, by any chance, something wrong?" the spirit asked, uncertainly putting in his words.

"What do you mean, Amidamaru?" Yoh asked, still not looking up from the skirt that he was washing. Unfortunately, the stain wasn't that easy to wash away so it had to take extra effort from him to scrub it off.

"I mean, with Anna-dono," the spirit continued. "Is there something wrong between you two?"

The question surely hit a nerve. Yoh had been keeping his feelings in wraps for too long and have been wanting to let it all out. Sighing, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'm sick of her, Amidamaru. I don't think I can take her any longer."

A/N:

hey guys! this is my first attempt at writing in this section, so spare me a review... this thing is gonna go on for about two or four more chapters, so please bare with me, okay? credits to those who helped make this happen! ciao!

luv, say-chan