Truce Between Two Kingdoms

By Sakuralily

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King…;___; Although I would very much like to own Hao.

Claimer: Lily belongs to me since she's me…I like to think I own myself! ^__^

A/N: Warnings include yaoi and shonen-ai, specifically, YohXManta and HorohoroXRen. And a self-insertion couple HaoXLily. Thanks, Wusai, for being my super great beta-reader! :D

~Chapter 4~

Anna told herself once again that she did not want to get annoyed with the servants and murder them all now since she needed them and it would be a bad idea.

"I said that it was all right and no I do not need anymore gowns or dresses to be made." She said through clenched teeth, forcing down the urge to strangle the servant girl before her. The girl nodded hurriedly and bowed, disappearing out the door quickly. Anna sighed in frustration and threw a pillow into the nearby wall. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself, but the pressure of her mission was enormous and at this point annoying as hell. The pillow landed on the wall with a soft thump and fell to the ground next to other unfortunate items that had been thrown.

In nothing more than a few short hours she would be leaving for an unknown territory and to a lord that was reputable as gay. Not only that, the fate of her kingdom rested on her shoulders. If she failed her home would be destroyed and taken over by some evil overlord that was reputed to have many affairs and was pure evil.

"Wonderful…wonderful…absolutely…wonderful." She muttered under her breath as she sat down in her chair. Her room had been cleaned thoroughly and looked extremely bare now then it had been a week ago. Trembling suddenly she placed a hand on the necklace of beads around her neck. The reassuring presence of the cold marbles relaxed her momentarily and she breathed easily. This is something I have to do and I have to do it right. I can't break down now. I WON'T break down. She thought calmly and let her hand slide back down beside her.

A few pictures were left on the vanity in front of her and she grasped one of them. It was a picture of her half-sister Lily glomped around her waist. That had been taken a few months before Lily had gone to boarding school. She realized that she missed her half-sister terribly. Lily had always been there, a presence in her life ever since she was 10 and it was strange not to have her sister there with her.

"Heh…if she was here…she'd be planning assassination attempts on Hao's life right about now." Anna said softly to the picture with a half-smile. She hoped absently that she would be back before Lily returned or there was sure to be trouble. She also wondered where on earth Lily had developed the protective streak over her, but it was something she rarely questioned about. There was a knock at her door again and she shot the large wooden door with a glare.

"Yes?"
"Your Highness…Their Majesties request that you get ready now. Apparently everything is ready and earlier than they thought."

Anna let her brain register this fact before saying slowly, "Very well then. I'll be ready in a few minutes." She was surprised by the calmness of her voice.
"Yes, Your Highness." As the footsteps disappeared, Anna was alarmed to find that she was crying…


~*~

"What are you doing?" Ren asked almost curiously peering over Lily's shoulder.
"Writing a letter to my sister and my parents." She replied absently and she scribbled something down.
"Why would you bother?" The pointy-haired teen questioned almost disgustedly as he sat on the desk beside her.
"Why not?" Lily retorted glancing up from the letter to look at her friend. Ren shrugged and looked away from her gaze.
"They're my family and I care about them so I want them to know that I'm okay and happy where I am." She replied finally after a long moment of silence between them.
"Oh…"

Lily went back to writing her letter with a sigh.

"Don't you ever write to your family? I remember that your sister, Jun, she visited you once."

Ren shrugged again, his golden eyes strangely thoughtful.

"I haven't really thought about it. I didn't think she would worry about me that much. My parents…they're too busy to worry."

The last was said with just a hint of bitterness that didn't go unnoticed by Lily.

"Hmm…most of the time I just write to my sister, Anna. My parents are also too busy. I suppose being rulers of a kingdom is hard."

She smiled briefly at Ren whom stared a bit frozen.

"You know…Anna's really not my sister either. She's only my half-sister, we're not really related at all."

She continued casually while still writing. Ren waited for the explanation to continue.

"My father had an affair with my real mother. They had met a party and things just got a little messy I suppose and before they knew it, my mother was pregnant with me. She tried to hide it from my father, but there's only so much you can do when you're pregnant. When he found out…he was really guilty and he wanted to take care of us, but he couldn't. My mother eventually just ran away and hid from him until I was born."

The writing had stopped and the pen slipped from her fingers. There was a brief pause as she fumbled for it and Ren watched, slightly alarmed by the way she was acting.

"Mother…she didn't like me." The statement was said calmly almost nonchalantly and the writing resumed. "I don't know why…maybe it was because I was a mistake. Maybe it was because I looked like Father, but she never liked me. My mother…she was really beautiful and when I was little I admired her. I loved the way her hair would sparkle every time the sunlight shined in her hair. I admired the way she acted so polite yet elegant, but she was sad. She was always sad and whenever she saw me she either got sadder or got mad. I think she wanted to love me, but I was too much like Father for her to love. She died when I was 6. The doctor said that she was too weak and she had no will to live. She withered away from all the sadness that she felt."

The writing never stopped once and she said all this with a calm, detached tone.

"Father found me two years later and took me to live with him. I met Anna there and my stepmother. And that's that."

The pen stopped and was slowly put down the letter was finished. Ren paused uncertain how to take this all in.

"Why do you want me to know? What do you expect me to do?" He asked. His friend shrugged carelessly as she folded the letter up.
"I don't know. I just wanted you to know I guess. You know my impulses make no sense." Ren snorted uneasily and glared at the wall.
"They don't. I think that I'll write a letter to Jun later. Maybe. She'll be surprised if I do." Lily grinned at him almost evilly.
"Surprised is good, but I think she'll be happy that you thought of her at least." Ren was the one to shrug this time.
"I suppose. I don't really care."
"You wouldn't. Now that I'm finished writing do you want to go practice? I still need to beat you back for the last time." The challenge hung in the air and the tense atmosphere melted away like ice in the sun. Ren smirked, his golden eyes gleaming at the challenge.
"Fine. But I'll win again."
"We'll see about that," was his only answer.

~*~

Whee…comments! Reviews! Onegai~….V__V Chapters will be slightly slower in coming out from here since I have a block and my muses have deserted me to go make out somewhere…X__X Thanks for reading so far! :D