. En's Announcement .
The next few days of school have been completely normal for the rest of the teens. The usual lectures, assignments, projects, et cetera, given by the same annoying, disgusting and cruel teachers. Nothing much happened during those days, and everyone else was too busy with their work to even think about the upcoming masquerade party. Everyone just wanted to get their work over and done with, and who knows, maybe during the party, they'd be thinking that all their hard work has finally paid off.
For Yoh and Hao, however, they spent their time wondering about what happened to their friends, Anna and Horo. Ever since the day they went to the theme park, Anna and Horo have been much closer. What could have happened, then? Several students were both amused and confused about said situation, but they dared not say anything about it for fear of being beaten up by Anna. Even Ren was no longer being teased and questioned about his incident with Anna, despite the fact that he still had fangirls chasing him around and trying to make him taste their homemade Chinese food. How he was ever going to get a girlfriend, no one knows.
Sometime nearing the end of the school week, Yoh and Hao were having their lunch together, as usual. Sitting across each other at a small desk and munching on their simple meals, undisturbed, it seemed like a normal lunch to the both of them. Coincidentally, the two teens had brought a bento set each that day.
"It seems like our plan worked," Hao chirped, in the midst of chewing his yam cake.
Yoh nodded, though he wasn't quite sure if Anna and Horo were actually dating or not. At least the kissing incident with Ren has been long forgotten.
Poking his chopsticks into the remaining yam cake, Hao playfully pouted, "You know... I realized that we've been hanging out more often these few days, and yet I don't know a single thing about you."
Yoh blinked, he was right. They've been hanging out frequently nowadays, but they never really talked much about themselves. Yoh didn't know a single thing about Hao's family, where he lives, et cetera, and yet, the both of them were still very good friends. Yoh then began to wonder if the same went for Anna and Horo's friendship as well.
Hao chuckled, "Well, the only thing I do know about you is that you're afraid of heights, and you're a mommy's boy, - " Yoh blushed in shame upon hearing this, but Hao continued, " - So, if you're living with so many relatives under the same roof, why are you the closest to your mother?"
Quick, Yoh thought. Think of a decent answer; his siblings Redseb and Seyrarm were too irritating, his grandmother was too cranky, his grandfather was far too relaxed for his own good, his uncle Yohken always was always getting drunk and pestering him to get a girlfriend, his other uncle Silva cares for his pets more than he cares for himself.. Yep, Keiko seemed to be the only sane person in the household. Now, how to answer...
"Because she's normal," Yoh replied blankly.
For a second, a faint frown formed on Hao's face, but it went as soon as it came. Yoh blinked his eyes several times to make sure he wasn't imagining things. Not that he wanted to see his frown again, - it was far too painful to - he just wanted to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
"What about your family?" Yoh couldn't help asking.
Hao remained silent for a moment - he seemed as if he was staring at something distant - before finally taking a deep breath and saying, "I don't live with them."
Yoh almost choked on his rice, "Wha—?" He took some time to slowly swallow his food before continuing, "You're kidding! What about your parents? Your uncles? Aunts? Cousins? Siblings?"
"I'm an only child," said Hao. "And I'm the only one in my family living in Japan." Hao paused and tilted his head, his gaze shifting to somewhere else, as if trying to recall something. "We used to live somewhere else. Our house there caught fire a few years ago. I was still at school when it happened, so my parents..., - " the faint, sad frown from before formed once again on Hao's face, " - none of my family wanted to go through the hassle of taking care of me; I was a pain in the ass back then. So I was sent back here to Japan. I was first accompanied by a guardian, but he left because he thought I was old enough to take of myself."
Yoh arched a brow, "So, you live alone?"
Hao nodded, before sighing, "Like you, I was pretty close to my mother. She was, - " Hao took this moment to chuckle, " - one of a kind."
Before Yoh could even respond, Hao had already leaned in closer to him. By then, their faces were only centimetres apart. Hao was smirking slyly, and he spoke in a low and husky voice, something Yoh had never heard before, "That's why I like you so much."
Yoh's face flushed, then the other immediately added, "It's because you remind me so much of my mother."
Hao then leaned back on his chair and laughed to himself, as he rested his cheek on a loosely-closed fist. He proceeded to stare at Yoh, who stared back, and for several minutes, none of them said a word.
"So," Hao spoke up again. "Where's your father?"
Yoh blinked again; it would bring back awful memories of the time when he discussed about it with his mother.
"Are you free this afternoon?" he asked, completely avoiding Hao's question.
Confused, Hao tilted his head, "Your fathe—"
"Are you free this afternoon?" Yoh repeated.
This time, Hao remained silent. He wasn't quite sure how to respond; he wasn't used to being ignored. His fans would always listen to him and do whatever he told them to, and they always answered him whenever he spoke. Even his parents used to pamper him. But now that he was being ignored, he didn't know what to do or say. Not to mention the one ignoring him was his friend, and it wasn't Yoh's first time doing so, either. Even Anna wouldn't dare ignore him.
"Well...," Hao finally replied. He figured he should just 'play along' if he didn't want any trouble. "...Not really. I have a tournament this weekend, so I gotta train."
Yoh nodded blankly, "Okay..."
Realizing the mood wasn't very cheery and light at the moment, Hao leaned in closer to Yoh once again and smirked, "Why do you ask? Did you want to take me out on a date?"
Yoh flushed once more, and Hao got into a playful laughing fit.
After a long tiring day at school, most students would only want to get home and have some rest, before continuing on their assignments. As for some others, well, it would take more than just nagging and persuasion to get them to do such things; they'd rather have their eyes sucked into the screen of a television, or a computer. As for the oh-so-charming Ren, usually he'd rather train himself with his own martial arts skills. School was never a number one priority for him.
That afternoon, after school, Ren tried as best as he could to reach home early, so he would have more time to train later on. Though school was quite a distance from his house, he still managed to reach home in less than fifteen minutes that day. Ren smirked to himself; a new record. Throwing his book bag onto the floor, he announced, "I'm home."
"Ren! Welcome back!" his sister, Tao Jun, cheered as she stepped out of the kitchen, an excited grin spreading widely on her face. "Father wants to see you."
Ren twitched, "What?"
"Father wants to have a word with you," his sister rephrased.
"What for?"
Jun shrugged, "He wouldn't tell me. I guess it's a man-to-man talk." She giggled for a bit, which made her little sibling grimace in disgust, before continuing, "Father is in the hall right now. It's best if you go to him right now."
Ren wasn't amused at all. Talking to his father was like walking into a lion's den, and if you screwed up, you'd get eaten up. Not that Ren was afraid of his father; he just hated him. His father was unfair and never really understood his only son. Heck, even if they were to talk right now, Ren wouldn't even listen to a single word his father said. They would get in heaty arguments all the time over petty things. Forgot to buy milk? Argument. Gave two eggs instead of three? Argument. Ren speaking in Japanese? Argument. With Ren and his father around, almost every day was different.
Having no other choice but to oblige, Ren began to walk briskly to the hall, where his father was waiting for him. Ren wondered what his father would talk to him about. Could it be about his martial arts training? Or maybe his schoolwork? Or even worse... could they be going back to China?
As the teen entered the hall, he saw his father's huge back facing him. The old man didn't seem to be doing anything, so Ren did nothing but simply stood at the hallway, waiting for his father to speak.
"Ren...," his father's proud, loud and low voice spoke up upon realizing that his son was now behind him. "...How was your day at school?"
"What did you want to talk about?" Ren asked, completely avoiding his father's question.
The older Tao couldn't help but laugh, "Getting straight to the point already? ...Exactly the son I brought up. I'm proud of you, Ren."
"What did you want to talk about, En?" Ren repeated, this time calling out his father's name, thinking it would make him stop rambling.
"Humph...," En frowned. "Ren.. you were born as a Tao, you live as a Tao, and you will die as a Tao.."
Ren twitched; whatever his father was going to talk about, didn't seem like a good thing. Whenever En spoke like that, Ren could expect nothing but bad news.
"Right now, you are a man, Ren," En continued. "You are on the second stage of living your life as a Tao."
"So? What is it tha—"
"For generations, we have been practicing the customs of the Tao's," En interrupted. "Even in this generation, you will do the same."
Ren arched a brow, "You're saying...?"
"Tao Ren... we have decided you, your future wife."
Silence followed. Then...
"WHAAAAAT—?"
I apologize for writing such a short chapter! My brain was practically dead while planning this... but, hey, at least we're making progress! Yes, only ten days left until the masquerade party! Let's do a countdown from now on, shall we? xD Well! I really am sorry for making you guys wait so long! Now it's the holidays and I can write whenever I want! 8D But at the same time, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo and... yeah. xD
I'll be writing a Shaman King fic for NaNoWriMo (as usual LOL). 83 It's supposed to take part during the Heian period of Japan, aka Asakura Hao's first life! Expect OC's. Then again, I don't think I'll be uploading the novel on here but, eh, we'll see about that! xD A really good friend of mine has read the summary and she told me that it sounded epic, and for some reason, that motivated me... xD But of course, with all the cheers I've been getting from my friends and family (actually, only my mother), I'm determined to put in lots of effort into this novel! And to anyone out there who are also taking part in NaNoWriMo, I wish you guys the best of luck as well! :D (pssst, I'm fatalshamanhearts on NaNoWriMo, in case any of you want to read the summary of the novel. Just search it up on Google— /shot)
Back to the fic. Um. If you haven't realized it yet... there could be a possibility that Ren is becoming one of the main characters of this fic as well. 8'D
:D I am so glad my readers responded well to the last chapter! And also, I wish I had all of your mothers. They all seem to be... okay-ish with gays and stuff. My mother is really against it. Like, she knows I'm a huge fan of the actor Neil Patrick Harris but when she learned he was gay, she just... flipped. God, it was like a nightmare. I don't know if it was because she isn't used to these kind of things, or if it's just our religion. It pains me more when I start asking myself, how will I ever talk to my mother about my sexuality? I mean, she's gotta know about it someday, am I right? She is my mother. But it scares me to think of how she's going to react when she learns that her daughter is not a normal, straight person. I know I'm only just a kid but.. :( Anyway, review replies!:
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Xbakiyalo — It is, isn't it? Sometimes I envy the relationship between Yoh and his mother in this fic. LOL, thank you and I'm glad you liked it!
SK-fan7 — Asa-kun comes from Asakura. :) And I wish I had a sweet and caring mother like Keiko, too! xD I thought this fic needed humour, so I decided, "Why not make Keiko mistake Hao for a girl?" xDDD I'd put the genre of this fic Romance and Humour, but there's more drama, so... yeah, you get the idea. xD Ahh! At first I wanted to make Yoh fall off his bed or something but I decided not to because I liked the towel scene more. DON'T WORRY I'll try not to give this fic a bad ending. Pshh, HaoxMari is actually my biggest OTP (now do you understand why I didn't ship HaoxYoh at first? xD). Heck, I shipped HaoxMari way before I started to ship YohxAnna. Hahaha!
RoseBlossomWarrior — xD Well, perhaps Yoh thought the 'Asa-kun' comes from a first name, not from surnames (which, as you might already know, comes from Asakura). Hurhurr. I just imagined Ren being all tsundere and blushing and inviting you to his room. Wait, did that make any sense? I think not. Do you prefer Ren as a tsundere, though? xDDD FKSBKSFBF X-Laws as Vocaloids OMG I can't breathe! xDD When I saw this review the other day, I actually did a sketch where Jeanne was dressed like Hatsune Miku and the others were dressed like the other Vocaloids or just... half-naked, (like the dancers in the Moves Like Jagger video? xD) but I didn't finish it because I thought it was horrible. x'DDD
Koorinosekai — xD I'm glad I made a non-yaoi shipper like this fic! Thank you, and I will!
TotalAmuto — YES, MY DEAR. This fic is far more important than your research paper. COME WITH ME— /shot. xDD Thank you so much, and I'm glad you like it!
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o.o Whoa, this A/N is loooong... I don't know how to end it... Uhh... How do you guys like the ending of this chapter? /shot
- A
P.S. I LOVE YAM CAKE— uhm, I mean, sorry for any mistakes!
