A/N: Hey! I'm alive after all. hehehe...so anyway. No real explanation for not updating, just had a lot of trouble writing this chapter. Finally had one review too many making me feel guilty about not updating so I finally sat down and vowed to not go to bed until I'd posted this. Forgive any mistakes, I'll probably check it over later...

Disclaimer: I don't own it, but I do own Shaman King volume 17 which features Hao at a hotspring. Mmm...naked Hao.

Warnings: The usual, yaoi, twincest, swearing. XP

"Have you found anything yet?" Marco asked. The man before him, whose name escaped Marco at the moment, gulped but shook his head. Marco frowned. "Nothing?"

"We can't track his mana so we've had to rely on other methods. We're checking the woods where Marie went missing but so far we haven't had any luck. There is a town just on the outskirts of the area we've yet to investigate, sir."

"Hmmm…" Marco thought. "Where could he be hiding...?" he murmured almost to himself. He remained silent a moment before apparently reaching a decision. "Lyserg!" he barked.

A feminine boy with green hair and eyes stepped towards his leader. "Yes sir?"

"I want you to go to this town and see what you can find. The rest of us will continue the search elsewhere," Marco ordered. The boy bowed his head in submission.

"Yes sir."

Despite being in the X-Laws organization his whole life this was the first time Lyserg had gone on a mission on his own. In fact, this was the first real mission he'd ever been on, most of the time he stayed by Lady Jeanne's side and helped to recruit new members.

He knew this was an important task for him. There hadn't been a sign of Hao for days now and the other X-Laws were getting restless. They'd yet to hear from Marie who'd been on the evil one's trail and many feared they never would.

As it were, they'd been able to track Marie's path to a broad location which they were now scoping out. Lyserg had been sent into the town that fell just on the outskirts of the vicinity they were searching to see if Hao had been spotted there.

He got into town in the afternoon just as school was getting out so it didn't look suspicious for him to be wandering around. It wouldn't have mattered in a bigger city but this place was so small that an adolescent walking about during school hours would have attracted attention.

As it was he still stuck out like a sore thumb, what with his green hair and white uniform. The odd looks he kept getting from the townsfolk made him shy about approaching. Mentally he scolded himself, how was he going to get information if he didn't talk to anyone?

Mustering himself he promised that the next person he came across he would talk to. Lo and behold not ten seconds later a girl looking to be about his age with blonde hair and dark eyes walked towards him. He sighed in relief that it wasn't an adult and addressed her.

"Uh, excuse me miss?"

She stopped on the sidewalk. "Need directions?" she asked.

"No, but I do need help. I'm looking for someone actually, and I was hoping you might have seen him pass through here."

"Okay, got a picture?"

Lyserg smiled and reached into his pocket taking out the clearest shot they had of Hao, taken from a security camera at some convenience store months ago.

"That's a picture of Hao!" she gasped glancing at it. Lyserg's heart jumped. "His hair's shorter but that's definitely him." She looked from the picture to Lyserg studying his uniform especially. "You're not from around here. Are you with the police?"

"Yes, a special investigative branch," Lyserg lied easily. Most people seemed to accept this story from the X-Laws; he'd heard his colleagues use the cover plenty of times. "Can you tell me where he is?"

The girl shook her head. "He went missing a couple days ago, the police say he ran away from home. It was weird and really sudden."

Lyserg's mind was racing trying to make sense of what the girl was telling him. "Missing? Home?" he stammered. She looked at him confused and handed back the picture. "He lives around here?" Lyserg finally managed to ask.

"Yeah," she said, "his house is just a few blocks away."

"Can you tell me the address please?" Lyserg asked. She looked suspicious for a moment but Lyserg, knowing how important this was, faced her with the desperation he felt evident on his face. The suspicious look disappeared and she nodded.

"But first, who are you? Are you a friend of Hao's?"

"My name's Lyserg," he answered avoiding the other question. "It's complicated but it's very important that I find Hao."

"Sure," the girl said. "I'm one of his friends, Anna."

Lyserg immediately went on guard at the girl's admission but she didn't seem to notice. And she wasn't even a shaman, didn't Hao detest humans? Something wasn't adding up here and Lyserg was determined to find out all he could and report back to Marco as soon as possible.

Putting on his most sincere face he took out a notebook from one of the pockets of his uniform and started taking notes. "If you please, could you tell me all you know about Hao and the day he went missing?"

"Marco, sir, one of our scouts just returned to us."

"Send him in," Marco ordered absently. He returned to the map he was studying as the underling ran out. The man returned momentarily, another X-Law following behind him. Marco looked up from the papers before him and adjusted his glasses.

"Your name?" he asked the newcomer, a shorter man with dark hair and eyes set off by his white uniform. Marco guessed him to be in his thirties with a sense of nervousness about him. He looked around skittishly as if he expected someone to jump out at him at any moment.

"J-James, sir," he said.

"And what news do you bring?" Marco asked impatiently.

"A few days ago I came across Hao," he said. Marco froze and leaned forward.

"And you just now reported this?" Marco asked coldly. James gulped.

"My-my cell phone was out of range, I reported in as soon as I could. I'm not even assigned to tracking Hao, I'm only a scout! But he was just…there, I practically stumbled onto him! And it was strange, I don't think he sensed me coming and he didn't act like he had any idea who or what I was."

Marco pondered for a moment silently then nodded for the man to continue.

"At first I thought he let me get away, but he didn't put up much of a fight. I was able to incapacitate him, he was knocked out when I left."

"You didn't finish him off?" Marco demanded. James shook his head in terror.

"I ran for my life. Like I said, I didn't realize until after…he didn't even come after me! And there was something else…"

"What?"

"All the pictures and description of him say he has short brown hair and his spirit ally is a samurai's ghost, but his hair was much longer and the spirit he was with…it looked like an elemental."

"What element?" Marco asked startled. Could it be…?

"The Spirit of Fire."

Lyserg was confused, to say the least.. Anna insisted that when she'd seen Hao the last time first his hair had been short and then when she'd seen him later that day had been long again. After talking to the her he'd gone to speak to Hao's family. Yes, family, an older couple, who said that they'd adopted the shaman as a baby and raised him. Lyserg knew for a fact that Hao had been raised with his parents on the run until the age of four. That was when the X-Laws had finally managed to kill the evildoers. Only Hao had managed to escape and had been on the run ever since. And not only that, no one else in Hao's 'family' was a shaman and didn't seem to know he was. How was any of this possible?

Questioning his parents had taken only an hour and other than the startling information he hadn't learned much else. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, had been visiting friends in the next town over leaving Hao home alone for about two days. When they'd returned he'd already disappeared. The last people to see him had been his friends, Ren and Horo who lived a few blocks away.

That's where Lyserg was headed now, to speak to these two. But first he was going to call Marco and tell him all he'd learned.

Taking out the cell phone he'd been outfitted with as part of his mission, he dialed he private number Marco had given him. It ran only twice before Marco picked up.

"What do you have?" his superior asked gruffly. Not wasting any time, Lyserg relayed all he'd learned. Marco was quiet during the whole explanation, which took Lyserg about ten minutes to get through.

"What does this mean?" he asked their leader when he finally finished.

Marco remained silent for a moment; Lyserg could hear only his breathing over the phone. "It means…that there are two Hao's."

Hao woke up the next day sorer than he'd ever been in his life. At least that's what he'd told Yoh as he asked him where the nearest stream happened to be. Yoh pointed the way and watched Hao go, the spirit of fire following its master.

Discreetly, when Hao was out of earshot he asked Amidamaru to go after and keep an eye on Hao.

"You'll be along shortly?" Amidamaru asked concern for his charge evident in his grey eyes. Yoh gave him an easy smile in return.

"I'll be fine," he assured him. Amidamaru nodded but lingered for another moment before floating off. Yoh went to work getting rid of any traces of their passing. It was slow work; he was meticulous in this after all better safe than dead. There was also his back which was still healing. It seemed to have finally closed over for good, the skin felt tight and itchy but he didn't dare scratch at it for fear of opening it again. Hao had brought along some of the salve he'd used before and that had helped.

Thinking of Hao he smiled then frowned, then settled for a semi-blank expression incase Hao or Amidamaru happened to come back. It was highly doubtful Hao would be the first one; it took forever to wash his hair. Part of Yoh was annoyed that Hao was high maintenance in this area, but most of him was fascinated with the shiny mass. He caught himself wondering what it felt like to run his fingers through it to see if it was as soft as it looked. It should have been with how much Hao brushed it…

…What in the world was he thinking?! Yoh shook his head but couldn't seem to stop his thoughts of his twin. Maybe it was going most of his life without prolonged (live) human contact but Hao awakened in him the strangest urges. Like wanting to touch his hair. And wanting to see that annoyed expression he got when he and Amidamaru left him out of conversations.

Amidamaru helped in this area actually. Yoh knew Amidamaru didn't actually dislike Hao but he wasn't inclined to liking him either. Yoh at once felt bad about somehow using Amidamaru to his ends and not being able to help himself.

It was perfectly normal for him to think of Hao a lot, right? He was his first living traveling companion, not to mention his twin. So the fact that thinking of Hao filled his time and occasionally kept him awake was perfectly normal, right?

As Yoh tried to convince himself of this he followed Hao's (fairly obvious) trail towards the stream they'd camped near. He stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of the other boy.

The shaman had found a part of stream that was actually deep, coming to a little over his knees. He was nude crouched over in the water running his hand through his hair. In a single smooth motion he stood and flung his hair up and around his head out of his eyes and out of the way, leaving Yoh an uninhibited view of his front. It took Yoh a minute to digest what he was seeing. Smooth, pale skin covered a well-muscles yet thin frame. His hands were busy wringing out his hair left Yoh to see the defined muscles of his chest and stomach, lines leading down to-

Yoh looked up blushing. He met Hao's eyes despite the look his twin was giving him. And how were they twins again? Hao was so much better looking with eyes that were right now half-lidded with a lazy smirk to match. Not exactly sure why the expression quickened his pulse and heated his face even more, Yoh smiled at his brother. Yes brother. If he kept reminding himself of that maybe he'd make it though. Through what he wasn't sure. As of right now, however, he was positive his feelings towards Hao were anything but normal.

The rest of the day was a little awkward for Yoh. Hao was enjoying his discomfort it seemed Yoh wasn't completely naïve, but he was pretty sure that whatever attraction he felt for Hao the other boy should have been freaking out about it. Instead he was acting like Yoh had given him the go-ahead and flirted outrageously with him and despite the fact Yoh found himself liking the attention. Most of what Hao said went way over his head and he didn't want to ask Amidamaru anything knowing how the spirit's old world view sometimes made him uncomfortable. And while sometimes it was fun to poke at the ghost's comfort levels he got the feeling the conversation would be just as embarrassing from his point of view.

They made camp later than usual so it was nearly dark when the spirit of fire stared their campfire for them. In all honesty the spirit didn't need to start a fire as he produced warmth from his presence alone but the thing never stood still for very long. And it slightly offended Hao when you used the spirit of fire as a camp fire. Yoh supposed he would feel the same way if someone used Amidamaru like an object.

"Like Ren did with Bason," Hao said totally out of the blue.

"What?"

"Ren used to treat Bason like an object instead of a person. You said you'd be upset if someone used Amidamaru like that."

"I never said that…" Yoh said thinking hard. No, he hadn't said that out loud, he was positive.

"Yeah you did, just now."

"I was thinking it…" Yoh mumbled.

"What? That's impossible. You said it out loud; you just don't remember saying it."

"Well…"

"Come on, it's not like I'm a mind reader."

Yoh nodded smiling at his foolishness. Impossible, exactly…

I totally don't deserve it but review please? I want some feedback on this chapter 'cause I think it's a little off. Please tell me what you think!