Summary: In this (LONG overdue) conclusion to "Midway Mayhem," Yoh and Anna's visit to the carnival takes a serious "turn" (you'll see the reason for the pun shortly).

Written: In one night on 6/10/2008—my first free night in several months.

Rating: K+ for mild language and romantic themes. (Another K+ chapter? I've really lost my touch, huh?)

Author's Note: Yeah, I started working. Work sucks. It's the reason why this story took the better part of 3 months to finish. And yes, this story isn't so great either, but I wanted to put something new up, seeing as it's anyone's guess when I'll be able to do so again. Hope you enjoy it!

The Wheel Deal

Kiss #25

"So what are we waiting in line for this time?" Anna asked, her pinky burrowing into the clefts of her right ear. If she seemed suspicious of, or maybe a little annoyed with, Yoh's taste in carnival rides, it seemed she was well justified, as her finger came out of her ear coated with half-dried mud.

"Nothing as nausea-inducing as the Tilt-A-Whirl. I promise," Yoh solemnly swore, raising his right hand and revealing his own accumulation of caked mud from their earlier tumble. "Just the bumper cars."

"Heh, heh," Anna cackled softly, licking her finger and rubbing at a particularly tenacious spot of dirt on her arm.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh," she sputtered in response, looking guilty for an instant before hardening her face into its usual scoff. "Nothing. I just think it'll be a lot of fun, that's all."

"You bet!" Yoh exclaimed, giving a little leap of excitement. He was quite a sight at that moment, a bouncing brown quasi-humanoid occasionally shedding flecks of mud onto his neighbors in line. "I'm gonna go pedal to the metal and bump you from behind, full force!"

"That's what she said," a kid from the back of the line called out. Anna gave an involuntary laugh. The effect upon Yoh was that of utter confusion. "I don't get it," he muttered, and he wasn't just referring to the joke. Anna, he well knew, was the embodiment of stoicism, but something about the bumper cars was bringing a never-before-seen exuberance out of his fiancée.

As though she were reading his thoughts, however, Anna simply gave a taut smile and nodded at him. "You'll see soon enough." She fished around in her purse for tickets and handed Yoh his share just as the sudden cacophony of footsteps on metal alerted them to the mass departure of carnival goers from the ride ahead.

"Well, looks like this is us," Anna said, and once again Yoh did a double-take at the eagerness so apparent in her voice. He knew better than to verbalize his bewilderment, but couldn't help himself. "Anna, you must really love bumper cars."

"You don't know the half of it," she said over her shoulder as she glided forward in line, handing her tickets to the attendant. Yoh followed suit, and for a moment saw her scrutinizing 

the empty cars, giving steering wheels and accelerator pedals a test nudge, until the onrushing kids behind him blocked her completely from view.

"Looks like I better find a vacant car quick," Yoh muttered as a boy in a yellow jacket hopped behind the wheel of the car nearest him. "Ah well, plenty more where that came from," he grinned, but his optimism quickly faded as several other cars filled. He jogged to the far end of the ride platform, nearly colliding with a man and his daughter on the way, and arrived at an unmanned blue car there. He gave the bumper a little kick before settling in behind the wheel. "Works for me," he said, gripping the wheel tightly and rocking back and forth, waiting for the attendant to turn on the juice…

"Whoa!" When a yellow car careened into his side, he knew the ride had begun. High-pitched laughter twirled around him as his car spun out, and despite his predicament, the ride's aura had pervaded him, and he laughed too. That is, until he realized he had been bounced into a corner.

"Geez, they really need to give these things a reverse gear," Yoh mused as he fidgeted with the wheel and accelerator to no avail. "Ugh, I'm stuck! The only way I can get out, is if someone else hits me…"

"Holy crap, watch out for Blondie," came a voice from directly behind Yoh. He craned his neck around and saw, amidst the careening cars and jocund faces, a bright red car driven by a strikingly attractive, if mud-flecked, blonde who looked all too familiar. She stomped on the accelerator and drove right through two other cars that had just collided, sending them rocketing at right angles. The collision sparked a chain reaction, and soon the entire floor was bumping and skidding like billiard balls on a pool table. But through all the chaos a single red car appeared completely stationary from Yoh's perspective, save for the fact that it kept getting bigger and bigger, at least from where he was sitting, stuck…

"Anna!" Yoh called out, waving his hands above his head. "I'm stuck! I need a bump. Hit me!"

"Be careful," Anna yelled back. "You just might get what you wished for!" And Anna, whose speed had been impressive before, now leaned forward, squashing the accelerator with every pound of her delicate frame. The sinews in her delicate arms tensed as she manipulated the wheel with a white-knuckled grip, on a collision course with the immobile, cornered speck of blue just in front of her.

With a mere instant separating Anna from her collision course, it suddenly dawned on Yoh that her speed, combined with his spot wedged against a corner, would make for a violent jostling indeed. His brain frazzled and panicky, he indiscriminately pleaded with his foot and hands, hoping to cajole some productive movement out of the crippled car.

"You're mine, Yoh!" When he heard Anna speak these words, he closed his eyes and ducked his head beneath his arms. His breath caught itself in his throat and he braced himself for the mother of all bumper car collisions…

He opened his eyes and noticed, first of all, he was no longer staring directly into a corner. Rather, his field of vision focused upon Anna, who was laughing catatonically. "You shoulda seen the look on your face! Oh man, if this kid hadn't come between us at the last second, you woulda landed on the top seat of the roller coaster!"

Yoh smiled weakly; he was relieved, but infinitely more confused. Wasn't she really upset? Nah, maybe she just really likes the bumper cars. She is human, after all…



"I'll get you for sure next time, slowpoke," she called over her shoulder with a wink as she sped away from him.

"Ahh…it's good to be able to move again," he sighed, colliding with car after car. Yoh felt as though he were in a pinball machine, but he didn't mind at all. "Gotcha!" he yelled, accelerating gently into the back of a white car.

"There you are!" The familiar voice had spoken from his left, but when he turned his head, he saw nobody there. Then from directly behind him, she spoke. "Run while you still can!"

"Ahhh!" Yoh floored his accelerator, but the distance between the two of them was diminishing rapidly; his car's pickup was sluggish, while Anna was steering the bumper-car equivalent of an F1 racer.

"No escape this time—" Yoh lurched forward, and at first he thought Anna had finally rear-ended him, but then he noticed everything around him had come to a stop.

"Time's up!" bellowed the attendant. "Let the next kids come on, please!"

"Aww, how lame," Anna said, making a face. "I never did get to bump you."

Yoh remembered what the guy behind him in line had said, and even though he didn't get it, decided to try it out anyway. "That's what she said?"

She rolled her eyes and gave Yoh a gentle shove. "How about I bump you on the noggin instead?"

"Much as I'd love to, what say we get on another ride instead? You can beat me up tomorrow. In fact, you probably will…"

Anna laughed at that. "You know, I…I'm actually glad Ryu brought us here. And I'm actually, well, enjoying myself. What a great guy, huh?"

Yoh warded off the momentary shock of Anna's sudden confession. "Uh…come to think of it, where'd he disappear to, anyway?"

"No idea, but I'm sure he'll turn up. C'mon, this is Ryu we're talking about! Great guy, but really…frankly, he's pretty weird."

"Ha, tell me about it." He played with his hair and held it in a rough imitation of Ryu's coiffure, then cleared his throat and said, in the lowest, most exaggeratedly macho voice he could manage, "This carnival is my Best Place!"

Anna gave a shrieking laugh. Doubled over, she gasped, "Stop it! You're killing me!"

"It's payback for the bumper cars!"

"Which was payback for a certain person getting a certain other person covered in mud thanks to an ill-advised ride choice, if you'll recall." Yoh looked as though he was about to rebut her, but she shrugged and continued, "Anyway, speaking of ride choices, what's this line for?"

"Well, I thought it'd be a good idea to finish the night with a ride that won't leave our hearts racing with adrenaline…or nausea. So this is the line for the Ferris wheel."

Anna's reaction made Yoh question whether or not he had indeed spoken the words "Ferris wheel," and not, say, "Flaming Inverted Chaos Pendulum of Burning Death," which might have suited her reaction more amply. She simply stared with an expression of ultimate shock at Yoh for several moments, then spoke, with eyes still bulging, "No. Absolutely not. I can't ride that thing."

"What?" Yoh's expression was the polar opposite of hers. He looked as though trying to suppress a smile and failing miserably, like she was pulling his leg and he knew it, but her reply wiped the trace of a smile off his lips.

"No. Let's ride something else."



"What?" asked Yoh again, less incredulously this time. "Why not?"

"I…well, I just don't feel like it tonight!"

Trying to inject a little levity into the tense situation, Yoh tried once again with the line he didn't get. "That's what she said?"

"Ugh! Yoh…If you must know, well, I'm…"

Yoh realized about then that Anna was about to say something difficult and personal—in other words, something she might otherwise never speak—and turned to face her gravely.

"…I'm afraid of heights, all right? Look, let's just forget it."

"Anna…" No words came to him then; Anna's candid confessions had a way of leaving him speechless, but something within him compelled him to at least try to articulate his jumbled thoughts. "We're all afraid of something, and that's only natural. Sometimes even the bravest of us have the silliest fears. But sooner or later," he said, pausing to collect his thoughts but never shifting his gaze away from Anna's uncertain eyes, "we have to face that which we fear the most. And more often than not we discover there was nothing to fear in the first place. In fact, oftentimes when we conquer our fears, we discover everything we've been missing out on."

Anna looked pensive but skeptical. "Yeah, right. Then tell me, Yoh. What are you afraid of?"

He swallowed hard, and the faintest beginnings of a blush appeared at the peaks of his jaw. "Anna," he said finally, "I'll tell you on the Ferris wheel."

She stared at him with a frown that softened into a deep gaze. At last she gave a stiff nod. "All right."

Yoh seated himself in the Ferris wheel gondola, but stood up again when Anna hesitated to step in after him. "Come on, here, I'll help you in," Yoh offered, extending his arm, but Anna took a deep breath, boldly planted her right foot into the gondola—then scampered to the seat, shutting her eyes tightly and tucking her head within her arms.

"Anna?"

She gave no indication of having heard him.

"Anna, please talk to me."

Silence.

"Anna? Please, open your eyes. Look, we're still on the ground."

"Really?" Anna's arms, tightly crossed before her head, loosened. Her head rose and her eyes opened a crack. "Ahhhh! Y—you damn liar! Yoh! I'll never forgive you!" And with that, Anna turtled herself once more, her eyes shut and her arms locked before her head.

"Anna…look. There's really nothing to be afraid of. Hell, you rode the bumper cars. I'm pretty sure more people have died in the bumper cars than in the Ferris wheel."

"Eep! People die on this thing?!"

Oh man, nice choice of words there, Yoh. "No—I mean, look. If you're afraid of heights, that's one thing, and it's perfectly understandable. But you're not rock climbing here, or bungee jumping, or parachuting. You're on a Ferris wheel. The only way you'd ever fall on this thing is if someone picked you up, swung you around and gave you a huge heave. And you don't really think I'd do that, do you?"

Yoh sighed at the prolonged silence that answered him. He was about to begin persuading her again, but she finally responded. "I…I guess you're right."

"Yeah! I mean, the first Ferris wheel was invented over a hundred years ago! By now they've got these things down to a science. Nothing could go wrong—"



Yoh felt the air around him suddenly grow colder, and it wasn't just his imagination. At the apex of his gondola's path, all the lights around him suddenly snuffed out. As if to confirm his suspicions, he peeked down onto the fairgrounds—they were pitch black.

A power outage?! You've gotta be shitting me…Anna's going to kill me…probably by picking me up, swinging me around and giving me a huge heave…

"W—what's going on, Yoh?" Anna asked from behind her arms. "Why'd you stop talking all of a sudden?"

"Uh…" Yoh racked his brain for some plausible excuse as to why the Ferris wheel had stopped moving and all the lights for miles had suddenly shut off. "Well, you see, it looks like there was a bit of a…power outage…"

"You mean to tell me that I'm stuck up here, in total darkness, at the top of a Ferris wheel?!"

"Well…not total darkness—"

"AHHHH!"

Yoh massaged his throbbing temples in the darkness. "Anna…I know this hasn't turned out quite the way either of us wanted it to. But couldn't you at least open your eyes? Just look up, if nothing else. Without all these lights in the way, the night sky's just unbelievable."

"No!" Anna yelled, and even without seeing her face he knew she was furious. "How can I even trust you? You haven't even told me what you're afraid of, like you promised!"

"You're right," he replied. "A promise is a promise."

"Well?"

"Okay. I first encountered my fear years ago. Apparently, my parents thought it'd be a good idea for me to get acquainted with it, since someday it'd make me stronger. Well, they could force me to spend time around it, but they certainly couldn't force me to like it. And I could never escape it. I literally had to live with it—I still do, in fact. And let me tell you, I had every right to be afraid of it. If you come across it at the wrong time, it'll make you feel cold, helpless, depressed, angry—you name it."

Anna didn't have anything to say to this, so Yoh continued, "But in time I came to realize, sometimes we're just afraid of what we don't understand. That same coldness, the depression, the helplessness—it can make you stronger. It can make you happy. You just need to understand it, and try to work with it rather than against it, and you'll see there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Yoh, you could be a politician. You still haven't said exactly what you're afraid of!"

"Isn't it obvious? Something that makes me feel cold and helpless sometimes, and yet fills me with such warmth and hope that I'm not afraid of anything anymore?"

"Sounds like some kind of magic potion."

"Close. It is magical, at least. Anna…it's you."

Anna's figure, silhouetted by the gentle moonlight, slowly rose. The moonbeams glinted off of something watery upon her face, and Yoh thought she was looking directly at him, but he slowly realized she was instead staring directly behind him. She joined Yoh on his side of the gondola and peered out over the edge. Bereft of the gaudy midway lights, the landscape looked tranquil, enshrouded in rolling wisps of mist, and Anna said, "You're right, Yoh."

"About the view? Yeah, it's great—"

"No. Yoh, there really is nothing to be afraid of. Not for me, and certainly not for you."



His eyes had adjusted to the gray moonlight, but Anna's face was anything but dull, especially at such close proximity. Her arms, which moments ago had been clasped about her head, were now just as tightly embracing Yoh's torso, and it was his turn now to shut his eyes passionately as their lips grazed, then locked. Certainly neither of them was afraid at that moment, even though the gondola was rocking quite strongly from the vigor of their kiss. It wasn't fear that made Yoh's heart race at that instant. It wasn't fear that made Anna's delicate arms bristle with goosebumps at that moment. No, it was passion. It was surprise. It was love. And although the power was eventually restored and the Ferris wheel gondola returned to the ground, the lingering memory of their airborne kiss was enough for Yoh's hope to take flight once again…