Summary: Yoh experiences the infamous "talk" that every adolescent boy seems to get. But since he's so distant from any of his other guardians, Anna has to be the one to explain everything! An uncomfortable position for both of them, to say the least. What happens next?

Written: Over about a week from 8/13 to 8/20/07.

Rating: T for innuendo, coarse language, and clinical (non-explicit) anatomic and biological references. If you're squeamish about that kind of stuff, then be warned this story really pushes the envelope; consider it a borderline M.

Author's Note: This is it! Took awhile, but here is Big Number One-Oh. Hope you enjoy it!

A Sticky Situation

Kiss #10

Though Yoh was still certainly asleep, given how tightly his eyelids were shut and how gentle snores were escaping from his closed mouth, a casual observer might have assumed otherwise. Fortunately for him, no observer, not Amidamaru nor Anna--particularly not the latter, although she was in a way observing his body in his dream--was present at the moment. It would have been quite a spectacle had she witnessed Yoh, rolling onto his side, then onto his back again, his hips gyrating, his snores replaced by quiet grunts, his eyelids closing even tighter, his mouth opening slightly. She probably would have left the room from embarrassment by then, but at that moment Yoh began calling out to her, the sheets rising and falling more rapidly now, until several powerful contractions squeezed at his heartstrings and wrenched him awake, gasping and sweating…

He blinked and felt the sheets clinging to him like a shroud. Why am I breathing so hard? And why did I sweat so much?I wasn't having a nightmare, and it's warm this morning, but not too bad.Wait, why is this sweat so warm and gooey?He slid his index finger upon his sheets, feeling the whitish, viscous, hot substance upon his skin, and shuddered. What is this?! Maybe I've got some kind of flesh-eating virus, I heard about those on the news the other day. Could this be…maybe the virus is eating up my brains and they're leaking out of my skin somehow…

Yoh's door slid open briskly, and his fiancée glided into his room in three short strides. Standing before Yoh's lying form with her arms akimbo, she stared down into his clammy face. "What's the holdup? Breakfast won't cook itself, you know."

In a few short seconds Yoh had convinced himself that flesh-eating bacteria had somehow taken up residence in his skull, causing a sticky brain-goo to leak out of his orifices. "Anna! Thank God! I think I'm…going to die!"

She appeared unfazed, her indigo top barely moving as she gave a dry laugh. "Very perceptive, Yoh. In fact you very well may die, if you're not frying eggs in the next five minutes."

"No, seriously!" Yoh pleaded, sitting upright. The sheets continued to cling to his chest. "I think…it looks like a flesh-eating virus is in me and…"

"Yoh, if this is another one of your ploys to wriggle your way out of chores, I ain't buying it." Her slender arms moved from their position on her hips, and crossed upon her chest.

"But Anna…What is this then?" He threw off the sheets, exposing a Yoh who was sitting on the side of his bed with just a pair of boxers for privacy. Anna gave a scandalized gasp and jumped back a step, but Yoh continued, "It looks like liquefied brains, don't you think?"

In fact he felt rather foolish sitting there in such little clothing, but he was even more embarrassed when he realized that most of the "liquefied brains" had ended up clinging to his undergarment, giving the appearance that he had wet the bed…or…

"EWWWW!!!" Anna screeched in horror, recoiling all the way to the far wall of Yoh's room and nearly tearing his Soul Bob poster. "Yoh, that is gross as hell! Why in God's name do you think I'd want to see that?!"

"No…Anna, it's not what you think, it's not pee, I haven't wet the bed in almost ten years--"

"I KNOW IT'S NOT PEE, IT'S TEN TIMES WORSE!!!!" she shrieked, leaping with fury and disgust, her aggravated coiffure wildly flailing like a nest of blonde snakes. "What I don't know is, why in your right mind would you want to show me that??" She glared at Yoh, but he noticed she interrupted her icy stare by glancing downwards occasionally. "I mean," she continued, slightly softer, "there is a lot of it, maybe you were trying to impress…But it's really gross! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Yoh hesitated for a moment, and then replied, "I was hoping you would know what's wrong with me, actually."

She cocked her head to one side and asked, in a voice as shocked and deadly subdued as it was glacial, "Was that supposed to be…Are you coming on to me?"

"What? Anna, I'm really scared, and you're acting like I did something really horrible," he responded. "I'm sorry, whatever it is I did to upset you. So I'm guessing this stuff isn't actually my brains, then?"

Anna raised an eyebrow, changing the quality of her stare from icy to disbelieving. "Wait a minute. This is another of your jokes, right? You know what it is, you have to…"

"Well," he ventured, wrinkling his nose, "it feels kind of like boogers, but the smell is way different--"

"Oh my God…Wait, you had…that class last year, I remember learning all of it!"

"Right, maybe I did," he replied, feeling himself wither slightly at her indignant tone, "but, well, Anna, you know me, I was probably taking a nap when they taught that stuff." He tried to look apologetic, but she just rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, yeah, probably. Well, why don't you just ask one of your friends at school, I'm sure they'll tell you, with all kinds of vulgar slang and X-rated descriptions. You'll like it."

Yoh looked down suddenly, as though her words had socked him square in the gut. "I would, but, well…I hardly talk to anyone at school, and you're my best friend anyway--"

It was difficult to tell who looked more shocked; Yoh stared at the wall behind Anna, bug-eyed, and he was reeling from his slip-up so hard that he ignored the strange, bleach-like smell that came from the hand he had slapped over his shocked mouth. She, on the other hand, merely froze with her hand halfway to her forehead, her usually narrowed eyes wide open; luckily he was stumbling over his own feet trying to apologize, and missed the sign that Anna was touched by his accidental forthrightness…

"It…it's alright, Yoh," Anna said, waving off his awkward apologies while inwardly forcing herself to stay calm. His best friend…actually kind of touching, even if this kid's not exactly socially adept. She massaged the sides of her nose bridge with a firm thumb and forefinger and exhaled sharply. "I guess…it's time for me to give you the talk your parents never did." When Yoh did not reply, but simply remained still, looking expectantly at her, she continued, "Well, uhm, err…This is harder than I thought."

"Just start from the beginning, please, Anna. I want to know what this is, I mean, I know it can't be my brains anymore, but I'm really curious…"

She gave another sigh. "From the beginning…oh man, this is awkward…" She fingered her dark blue top nervously, gliding her pinky over dark circles where beads of nervous sweat had dripped. Yoh is so innocent and pure…Why do I have to be the one who changes that, and why do I feel so guilty about it?Is it because maybe I want to be…more than his best friend?No…well…

"Well?" asked Yoh's antsy voice. Anna gave a little startled jump; having someone next to you say out loud the word you're thinking in your head is pretty freaky, after all.

She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, as though about to meditate, but spoke, in a tone of voice that by Anna's standards almost sounded singsong. "Okay, Yoh…you see, the teenage years are when boys and girls become men and women. A number of changes happen. Both boys and girls start growing, err…" Despite her usual stoic attitude, Anna couldn't help but hesitate now. "They both grow, um, hair in certain places."

Yoh gave a little nod to show he understood; he may be slow sometimes, but not that slow.

"In boys, the voice becomes deeper, and he gets a lot taller, and his body starts to fill out." Perhaps subconsciously, Yoh shifted his gaze from her to his own body, saw the slight creasing of his abdominal muscles, the modest but respectable sinews in his arm, the fine hairs that had started to grow beneath it…and now Anna couldn't help herself from looking at Yoh's form, covered only by a balled-up, sticky sheet in his lap, but he didn't notice her staring, he was still playing with the little hairs under his arm…

He looked up again, and Anna gave a high-pitched gasp, turned her face away in overreaction, and tried to pass her behavior off as a sneeze, although it didn't explain why she appeared to be blushing…

"Bless you," Yoh said in response to her alleged sneeze.

A sigh of relief passed through her lips, and she continued, "Erm, where was I? Oh…In girls, there is some height increase, and the body fills out in the uh…" She flinched, suddenly thinking of the right anatomical term to use. "The mammary glands."

She hadn't expected him to know what those were, but maybe he was just lucky. Anna couldn't help but notice Yoh's eyes shifting quickly to her chest, almost feeling his roving eyes molesting her gentle curves as he continued to sneak more rapid glances that couldn't be more obvious. He risked a peek at her face, and their eyes met; his were both excited and guilty, and he had expected hers to be angry, violated, reproving, but instead they looked slightly uncomfortable and surprised, perhaps … pleasantly so…

Their eyes remained locked for several seconds before Anna shook her head, much more violently than she had meant to. "Ahem…anyway, moving right along. As you continue toward adulthood, your body will begin making hormones. They cause certain…physical changes and can cause you to have…certain urges…"

Before she could think of a sufficiently delicate way to phrase the next part of her speech, Yoh smoothed out part of the bed sheet and pointed at one of the moist streaks on it. "This is all very interesting, Anna. Thanks for explaining so well…but what does all of that have to do," and he pointed again, "with this?"

"Well…God, how do I put this…" she wondered aloud. "Ah! Well, see, the hormones I was talking about earlier, the ones that give you certain urges? They also cause your…generative organs to become capable of reproduction."

As his reply, Yoh favored her with a completely baffled stare. "Anna. You're smart. I'm not. Could you put that in a way that I'd understand?"

It was her turn to stare blankly; she had no idea how to rephrase what she had just said without jeopardizing the story's "T" rating. "Uh…see, part of becoming a man, is the ability to…reproduce…"

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Yoh declared. "I did that once when I was nine!"

Anna looked appalled. "What?!"

"Yeah! And they turned out okay. A little off-center and blurry, but I still did it!"

Half of Anna laughed; the other half took in just how naïve Yoh really was. "No, not reproduction with a copy machine. I meant the ability to make…to have children."

"Oh!" Yoh's thin eyebrows shot up. "I know about that! The guys at school always talk about that at lunch. Except they never called it reproducing, I think they say 'fu--'"

"There are plenty of slang terms for it," Anna interrupted loudly. "But the proper term is 'intercourse.'"

"Well, whatever. So what's that have to do with…you know…"

The crumpled sheets in Yoh's lap reminded her that she still had quite a task to accomplish. "Ugh. Don't tell anybody that I was the one to explain all of this to you, okay?" After he nodded, she took another deep breath and pressed on. "When a man gets excited, you see, it can cause a stiff…well, I guess the clinical term would be 'tumescence.'"

"Never heard of it--wait, when a guy gets excited? And cause a stiff…" He looked as though deep in thought for a moment, then his shoulders rose slightly and his face brightened. "Oh! It makes sense!"

"Huh?" Anna looked perplexed; it wasn't like Yoh to have such strokes of brilliance without the threat of death knocking on his door.

"Yeah! That time we went to the beach last week. I was wading in the water and you were about to come in. You let your hair loose, and you were running towards me in your bikini, and your skin was the same color as the bronze sand, then I saw your face in the sunlight…You're very pretty, Anna, you know, and I guess it did make me excited in a way, I got goose bumps and I felt my skin tingle…but anyway, I thought a jellyfish stung me or something because I was swelling up, but now I know! It was tumescence!"

Anna appeared both disturbed and flattered, and it seemed like she wanted to say something, but she bit her lip, trying her best to pretend she wasn't a little excited by Yoh's naïve confession; she forced herself to look away from him and continue. "Anyway, if a man with tumescence continues to uh, be excited, then it will eventually…release a fluid that can cause a woman to become pregnant."

Eventually, after several blank moments, a dawning look of comprehension began to appear on Yoh's face. He looked at the bed sheet, blinked, looked at Anna, blinked again, and suddenly gasped. "But…Anna! No! You need to get out of here, now! What if you accidentally touched it? We're not ready to have children! We're not married yet, and besides we're only fifteen--"

To both his and her shock, Anna placed her hand upon his quivering arm. "Don't worry, Yoh. It doesn't matter if I touch it. Women can only be made pregnant by it if…" She drew slightly closer, and Yoh felt a swelling in his chest as he felt her hot breath wafting upon his ear; she was whispering something…

"What?!" he exclaimed, drawing back from her shocked. "So that's what people have…that…for. But then why do all the guys at school want to do that so bad? They're just kids like me, they're not ready to have families of their own yet…"

In response, Anna drew herself nearer to Yoh once more and began whispering once again. "Because it feels…" and the rest of her words were nearly inaudible, definitely drowned out by his gasp.

Beet-red and bug-eyed, Yoh looked as though he had just stepped off a particularly harrowing roller coaster. "I can't believe it! Every guy in my class is disgusting." He made a face; since he was still flush with embarrassment, it was quite a spectacle. "Wait a minute…why was I able to release…this stuff? I was sleeping! I certainly wasn't doing—I mean I kind of was dreaming about—err, never mind…"

Once more, Anna was secretly excited by Yoh's candid confession, maybe even a little…excited, but she commendably ignored her urges and cleared her throat diplomatically. "Well, as I said earlier, any kind of stimulation will result in a…release of fluid. It doesn't have to be from another person. When you cause it to yourself, and there's nothing wrong with it either, it's called—"

Yoh interrupted, looking triumphant. "I know! It's called jacki—"

"It has," Anna cut in before he could finish, "a lot of nicknames."

"Oh my God," he started. "That's what those guys were doing in the locker room! I thought maybe they were making sure they were clean over there."

She smirked. "Maybe the guys in your class really are disgusting."

"I told you!"

"Anyway," she said with a chuckle, "it looks like I finally get to the part you've been waiting for. If a guy doesn't get to release his fluid from intercourse or from…what you just described, then it starts to build up and it has to go somewhere. So, sometimes when a guy is sleeping, he will have an exciting dream or rub against the mattress and have a nocturnal emission."

"A what?"

Anna pointed to the wadded bed sheet in his lap. "A that."

"Oh!" He sat up and nodded. "Is there anything bad about it, though? Like do I have to go to the doctor?"

"It's all part of growing up. In fact it's good. It means you're waiting. After all, you shouldn't…have intercourse…until you fall in love. You have to find the right person."

"Who's the right person?"

"When you meet her," she said, and Yoh heard the unusual note of kindness in her voice, "you'll know."

He felt color rising into his cheeks as he thought of the dream he'd had last night, and maybe it was his imagination but as his memories grew more vivid, it seemed that the little smile on Anna's face grew as well. Could she see, somehow, into his mind, where he recalled her delicate arms, her slender torso, the mop of blonde that lapped at her neck and shoulders? Perhaps she could see, as he could now in his mind, the way his eyes had locked with hers, her face beautiful with a sultry, almost supercilious expression that kept him enthralled.

Yoh advanced slightly in his mind, and even from the mere recollection of something as immaterial as a dream, felt his heart pumping faster, just as it had when he was sleeping not one hour ago. Anna looked at him then, mouth opened slightly, her eyes narrowed just a bit, but not with irritation, and he let her goldenrod strands of hair cascade upon his gently brushing fingertips, coyly inching his free hand towards her waist, the other moving back slightly and sliding up from the nape of her neck—

Sometime around then, the line between Yoh's dream and reality blurred and, as Anna gave a little gasp of pleasant surprise, disappeared entirely. The fine hairs on his upper lip tickled hers just before they grazed, and he could taste the salty traces of dried excitement there. She could feel his still sticky hands nestled upon her back, and a little shudder of adrenaline surged through her body as the warmth of his bare chest enveloped her. The bed sheet was suspended now only by her hips and legs pressing against his, and Yoh gave a soft sigh of pleasure that Anna swallowed up as she slid her tender hands upon his back, feeling his taut shoulder blades, his spine that vibrated with nerve and excitement. It was her turn to sigh; Yoh pressed his body to hers tightly, closing his arms, and she could feel his heartbeat upon her chest, felt the suppleness of his tongue as it chased hers to and fro…

They stood in each other's arms for quite some time, her ebullient face craned up at Yoh's, and somehow she knew the lazy, almost childish smile he wore meant more than anything he could have said at the moment. She, on the other hand, finally broke the silence.

"That was very bold of you, Yoh."

He smiled even more broadly as he took in her affectionate, soft tone. "People do crazy things when they're in love. It's like you said, Anna. 'When you meet her, you'll know.' You are the girl of my dreams…literally."

"Aww…I love—" But before she could finish her reply, Yoh abruptly sat down, crumpling the bed sheet tightly in his lap. "What's wrong?" she asked, but she saw his embarrassed expression and the balled-up sheet in his lap and figured it out.

"Maybe I should finish your lesson for today," she said sultrily, and whispered something in Yoh's ear that caused him to blush more furiously than ever…