Promenade
by Apple-chan

Disclaimer: Will never be mine.

Summary: Four couples, one perfect night...or is it? A 5-act tale on how four young men and four young women fall in love at the night of their Junior-Senior Prom. YXA, RXP, LXJ, and HXT.

Warnings: None, except that it's AU. Also, PG-13 to be safe...and Hao.^^



ACT I: On Your Mark.


SCENE 4: Mutual Understanding.


A spiky-haired brunette wearing orange headphones peeked cautiously from behind the widest bookcase in the library, his eyes scanning the whole area...and finally, pausing to rest upon his beautiful blonde-haired classmate, who was standing beside a row of books and examining a thick volume of Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia of Science.

Said blonde looked up suddenly, turned her head and glanced at her side, with a decidedly annoyed expression on her face.

"Eeep!" The brunette exclaimed, hiding his face behind a leather-bound edition of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. He leaned against the side of the bookcase and groaned mentally. Funny, with all his power as a senior, as Asakura Yoh, and most especially as the student council president, there was one person he couldn't quite...order around, no matter how hard he tried. Truth be told, he never really ordered anyone around, they just all tended to follow his bidding; one simple smile was all it took. If his smile doesn't work, his easygoing laugh would do wonders, for sure. Regardless, though, there was this certain human being who was immune to his charms.

Said person was Kyouyama Anna, senior class representative AND the student council's ruling committee head. HIS committee's head. Although he was president, she was the one who controlled the whole council. She was the one who ordered everybody around. Most of all, she was the one who ordered HIM around--she was the one who controlled HIM--in more ways than one.

In fact, he often wondered if the reason why she supported him during the elections instead of running for office herself was because she had intended to head his main committee so that she could order him around. She probably enjoyed ordering him around...not that he was complaining, because she would certainly have something to say if he ever complained. Not that he EVER would, of course. No, he certainly wouldn't--

"Hey! Yoh! Psst! LITTLE BROTHER!" The spiky-haired brunette, who we now know as Yoh, gave another mental groan as a long-haired, ear-pierced, non-uniformed version of himself popped beside him, and subsequently settled himself against the bookcase, all the while speaking loudly, while chewing a Bazooka Bubblegum. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? OR SHOULD I SAY, WHO?"

Yoh turned red.

The snooty library assistant glared at the long-haired non-conformist. "SILENCE! This is a LIBRARY!"

"PUT A LID ON IT, DORK!"

"Keep SILENT or I'm going to have you SUSPENDED, I SWEAR I WILL!" The dork...er, library assistant threatened.

"Oh YEAH?" The person being addressed blew his bubblegum and popped it annoyingly. "You and WHAT army?"

"Why YOU--" The library assistant's face turned red with anger.

"Hao! Oniichan! Stop it!" Yoh hissed, pulling his twin aside, while at the same time flashing an apologetic look at the library assistant.

Somewhat appeased, said person shook his head, glared one last time at his offender, and resumed with his duties at the front desk, all the while still keeping a cautious eye at their school's resident rule breaker and troublemaker, who, as fate would have it, also happened to be the student council president's older twin brother.

"Otouto, are you PEEPING at the Ice Queen again?" Hao stared at his brother with disbelief. "Is that ALL you can DO?"

"N...no, of course not!" Yoh protested in a quiet voice. "I was actually looking for the perfect time to approach her--" he peeked once more at where he was last gazing at her, beside the row of Funk and Wagnall's. He found the area devoid of the blonde-haired object of his affections. "Aargh, she's GONE! Darn it!"

"Did I ruin it for you?" Hao's face held a slightly apologetic look. "Gomen ne..."

"It's not your fault." Yoh shook his head vehemently. "She's so hard to catch anywhere! I've tried to approach her at home, but I always lose my nerve, and now...I've been trying to talk to her for the past hour, but she's just so..." he sighed helplessly. "She's so--"

"Prickly?" Hao supplied.

"No. More like--"

"Touchy?" Hao offered.

"No, not quite. It's kind of like..." Yoh frowned, somewhat at a loss for words. "Like...uh--"

"Angry?" A sharp, female voice sounded from behind the twins.

"AAHHH!" The two shrieked, stumbled, and simultaneously fell to the floor, with Yoh on top of Hao, holding on to him for dear life.

"Ah...Anna..." Yoh stuttered, his arms around his brother's neck, practically strangling him, his body frozen in fear.

"I...Ice Qu...Queen," Hao choked, managing a mocking grin on his face even as he wrestled his brother off of him.

The young woman being addressed crossed her arms against her chest, trying to fight back the amused smile that threatened to come out of her face as she gazed at the two of them. "Are you just about DONE spying on ME?" She threw this question at Yoh.

"Uh-huh," he answered automatically, flashing another apologetic look at the snooty library assistant (who looked just about ready to throw him and his brother out, student council position and seniority be damned), before turning back to his council's main committee head. "I'm done," he added meekly.

"Good." Anna then threw a warning glare in Hao's direction.

The long-haired brunette arched an eyebrow in inquiry.

The blonde arched an eyebrow back. This one held a whole world of meaning.

Taking the hint, Hao gave a dramatic sigh, and gently untangled himself from his brother. "I'll be going now," he announced with the unnatural cheerfulness that was his trademark. With a regal air, he stood up and strutted towards the front desk. As he opened the entrance door, he produced a cigarette from his pocket, lighted it, and promptly smoked it in the library assistant's face.

That did it. Said assistant turned a dark and scary shade of red. "No SMOKING in the LIBRARY. No SMOKING at SCHOOL!" He screamed.

Hao chuckled. "Who's going to stop me? YOU?" He mocked. Then, he turned to his brother, all the while still calmly puffing on his cigarette and continuously annoying the library assistant, who was now turning purple. "I'll see you at HOME, Otouto! And I want DETAILS, you HEAR?" Before the library assistant even got close to him, he zoomed out and shut the door behind him.

Inside, the assistant seethed silently, very much disappointed that he hadn't been able to even at least lay a hand on the hair of Asakura Hao. He continued to glare off into space, muttering under his breath about long-haired abominations to society who had no respect for authority figures, and the unfortunate ties of blood that constantly kept them out of detention, suspension, and expulsion. Life was so unfair.

Meanwhile, with as much dignity as he could muster, the honorable student council president, known to his friends as Yoh, and known to Kyouyama Anna as "Baka," rose up from the floor and straightened himself in front of the object of his affections. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Anna nodded absently, silently appraising him from head to toe. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Yoh's mind snapped into focus, and, losing his nerve, he shook his head. "Nothing. I'm going now. Ja!" He jumped across from Anna and began to run away...but a pair of hands grabbed at his shirt.

"If you've got something to say, say it," Anna ordered, pulling him forcefully back and gazing at him expectantly.

"Umm..." Yoh looked around him for a possible getaway. "I was going to ask if...uh...you had this morning's Classical Literature notes? Because I, uh, fell asleep."

Anna rolled her eyes to the ceiling as she dug into her purse. "Here," she slammed her notebook against his chest.

"Thanks." Yoh coughed, placing the notebook inside his backpack.

"Sure. Anything else?"

"No. Nothing. See ya!" He started to escape again, but she backed him to a corner before he could move.

"Now," she began, "...I'll ask again," her tone was low, and threatening. "Anything ELSE?" She gave him a warning, penetrating look.

Yoh winced. There's no getting out of this one for him, not anymore. He gulped. "Uh...actually, I..." he hesitated. "I wanted to ask you...uh..." he gulped again. Three more times.

After about five minutes of stalling, the blonde lost her patience. She took a leaflet out of her purse and shoved it into his face. "Does it have anything to do with THIS?" Said leaflet was an early advertisement for the Junior-Senior Prom.

He glanced at the leaflet, then nodded vigorously.

Anna frowned. With an exasperated exhale, she grabbed his shirt, cupped his chin, and pointedly gazed into his eyes.

Yoh tried to look away, but she had him imprisoned in her gaze. He held his breath. He could practically hear the sweat popping out of his forehead from sheer nervousness.

She often did this just to get him to confess his sins...because for the length of time that they've known each other, and the seven years that they've been living under the same roof, he was practically transparent to her, and could often tell how he feels and what he was thinking. She knew him far too much...and more often than not, she used that to get what she wanted from him. He knew well when it happens. Hell, he knew it very well, what she was trying to do...and he was powerless to stop it. Besides, even he tried, he probably wouldn't live long enough to know the result of his objection. She could get extremely dangerous when provoked.

It was one of the reasons why he liked her so much, actually. Strange as it may seem, but then again, Yoh had weird taste...

Five more minutes later, he started breathing again as she broke eye contact with him. He could tell from the expression on her face that she'd figured out what he had done. "Gomen ne..."

"So," she began in a tone that betrayed no emotion, "...You've announced to the whole male population of the SCHOOL that you and I are going to the prom together."

"It wasn't ME!" He protested. "It was Hao. He was the one who--"

"It's fine."

"--announced it to the whole team after Kendo training, and then THEY were the ones who--" he paused, not quite sure if he heard her right. "What?"

Anna rolled her eyes. "I SAID, it's FINE. I'll go with you."

Yoh's eyes lit up. "REALLY?" Damn, I really thought she was going to get angry...but she didn't!

An exasperated sigh. "Yes, REALLY." She slapped him forcefully on the back. "Now go away. I'm busy."

...Ouch. He gave her a sheepish smile and scratched his head as he stumbled forward.

She rolled her eyes at him again and shook her head as she walked away.

Omedetto gozaimasu, Asakura Yoh, he cheered silently, patting himself mentally on the back as he watched her retreating form with a big, goofy grin on his face.



TSUZUKU.



Review Replies: bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO, thank you, thank you.=) Update on Vestige? We're on it...kind of.*sweatdrop* Sheo Darren, amen to that.=) Hope you'll be able to update your fic soon! And oh yeah...Belated Happy Birthday to you!^^ yuri maxwell, I wrote the previous chap with you in mind, so...you inspired me, is what I can say.=) KristiexxNguyen, Itako No Anna Asakura, and chibi, here's the YohXAnna you've been waiting for! GoddessLD, yes, Horo-horo is smart, ne?=) Naoko Asakura, glad you liked it! And thanks for the encouragement! Hinote Kitsune Nikore, as long as they're not really bound by blood, it's not really wrong. At least, that's what I think. As for Hao...well, you'll see.=)