TABOO
Author Notes: I'm so happy!! Thank you for your reviews and flames! This is the last chapter when they are a little bit older, maybe between the series so I guess it won't alter the series. In this chapter I'll explain why Anna looks like a rose (to me).
Chapter 3: Roses.
How long it has been? Years, decades, she could barely tell. What mattered to her was the comfortable view she had by sitting on her room's window.
It was a soft breeze in a summer night was illuminated by the soft rays of moonlight. She leaned her head into the window feeling her ser tired.
The Kouyama girl was tired of nothing, of feeling nothing from anyone and feeling empty. That's what her promise brought her an unfulfilled emptiness.
And it was slowly killing her but at the same time protecting her from 'him'.
"Ho-re-ru…" even when she blurted it out in a smooth whisper to her it was nothing but words lost in the wind. Her hands automatically started to stroke the leaves of the rosebush that has been growing since the day she came to this house.
Her eyelids slowly closed as she felt one of the petals run through her fingers, she had defoliated the whole flower into petals, death corpses falling to the ground.
She gazed at her hand and saw a remaining petal on her palm and with it a mixture of crimson liquid flowing from it. The young Itako was graciously enchanted as the petal floated in the scarlet fluid.
She stared back to the rosebush, the thorns were dripping of that liquid too. A muffled laugh was pleasantly forming inside her chest; she had grabbed the rose so hard that its thorns had pierced her skin.
The teenage itako took the petal and let it fall through the window to join with their equals, and then her black orbs returned to the red spot on her palm. She stood up and exited her room with her wounded hand already fisted.
~°~
"Yoh-kun! Anna isn't watching anymore! Take a break!" the midget looked at the window that its owner had already left.
"Iie, Manta-kun the ghosts will gossip her and my punishment will be another two thousand katas." He tried so hard to smile, his legs weren't helping too much with his training.
"It was strange; she was never looking to you at all! You should quit it when she isn't paying attention!" He cried looking that his friend's legs wouldn't hold on any longer.
"Oh yes she is." He said solemnly grinning genuinely. Manta sighed and gazed at the two lazy bums lying under a tree. The Ainu boy was now leaving a trail of dribble over the Cucumber hairstyle man beside him, both of them snoring loudly.
"Shall I help you to drag them to bed?" Manta offered as he saw that Yoh was now falling asleep too.
"Iie, leave them there, they will scare each other with their own snores. He he" he laughed as he saw the cute couple snoring almost rhythmically.
"Well, I'm a little bit tired so I'll be going then. Do you want me to help you cleaning this mess?" Manta stared at all the dust and hay sprayed all over the grass.
"Iie, Shinpai shinai de kudasai!" He said grabbing the broom and a potato bag to clean up all his training snippets. His little fellow nodded and exited his friend's house endearing for his precious house.
As he kept sweeping all the hay of his enemy's doll, he found something red beneath the rosebush. It was rare to find some petals when he had done all the gardening in the morning.
He sat on his heels making a close inspection to some pieces redder than others. He took one and placed it on his palm, his brows furrowed wryly as he looked that some parts of the petal were darker than the others.
He approached the piece to his nose as his senses could barely notice the sweet fragrance of roses but there was another smell, he opened his eyes as he realized it was dry blood.
He kept the petal into his pocket until he finished cleaning. When he was over, he positioned the broom beside the gardening storage and tossed a blanket over the sleeping 'beauties'.
Lazily he went upstairs feeling his body even heavier than accustomed. Maybe if he could sleep over the stairs no one would mind.
As the teenage shaman started to feel comfort from the stairs, he remembered the petal he had on his pocket. Moaning inwardly he crawled into the itako's room.
'Perfect! She's asleep!' He could know it by sensing her low ki and the way the roses filled the room with their fragrance drowning her to a sweet slumber.
He crawled silently to the window where the homicide was done. He saw rests of petals lying 'limply' over the window's rail. His eyes lowered almost lamenting what happened, he motioned himself into a comfortable position where his chin was resting over his folded arms.
"You shouldn't have done that. I planted their seeds when I got into this house 'cuz Otou-san told me that Ha-ha loved flowers, especially roses. I didn't know you hated them." Yoh's calmed attitude masked all his features, there was still one rose standing proudly lighted with the moon rays.
"I was beginning to worry when I saw no buds at all. But I still kept watering the seeds until you came and decided that this was going to be your room. That night there were plenty of buds…" His face was almost hidden in his arms, he unfolded one and started touching a leaf.
"Ever since, they started to grow magically and sometimes I felt that I hated them." His eyes were now focused on the leaf's veins.
"Hai, me Asakura Yoh hated something. Naze? Well, at times I believed that the roses were too pretentious, always suffocating the plants beneath them, the roses had developed HUGE thorns. I was scared…" His finger trailed down to one of the thorns adorning the beautiful plant.
"Although I thought that those thorns were to protect themselves from stealing their beauty and strength, to be protected from me…" his last words slipped silently as a murmur.
"They were protecting themselves from me, from all the people…and I respected them…" his head cocked aside, his long bangs falling to rest on his cheek.
"I never touched them or even approached them because I was afraid I could break them or hurt them…I let them be…" his hand left the flower as he climbed to the next one, the one that was already destroyed tainted with his fiancée's blood.
"Furthermore without knowing it, I was starting to understand everything they thought and I was ok with that. I could live with that. Until know…" his index finger stroked gently the tainted leaf making it wave smoothly over his whole hand.
He smiled.
"How stupid of me to imagine that now and then I consider that they want to touch me as badly as I do." He was beaming brightly at the rose.
"Aa, it's relaxing when I can barely touch them." He closed his eyes heaving a sigh and sat giving his back to the window.
"But I…" He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at her, Yoh started to crawl towards her.
"Will never let you to hurt my roses…" He finally got to her and leaned close her ear and leisurely inhaling her scent, a mix of roses and fresh air.
"Because I love them…" he whispered gently as he shut his eyes almost kissing her earlobe.
Suddenly he opened his eyes, sensing a change of ki. His warm dark eyes crushed with iced black ones.
"A-a-anna! Go-gomen nasai! I was just…Eto!" He shrieked like an old lady scared by a mouse. He started to drag himself to the nearest wall with his eyes wide and blank.
The itako sat up, her stands of her blocking any view of her face. Her hands were clutching tightly the sheets as one of them was wrapped in bandages. Her head slowly turned to Yoh as he started to sweat cold.
"Naze?" was more a query than a statement. Yoh blinked in awe at not receiving any mega-itako-punch. And then he lowered his eyes to the floor.
"Did you hear it all?" he started to laugh nervously. Her strands fell down to her cheeks leaving her eyes into view. They weren't icy, they were warm and scared and with that frame he felt his heart sank.
"Na-ze." Her lips were almost trembling and her words were not ordering but begging. his eyes widened, he had never seen her like that.
"I don't know why… it's strange… I won't…I won't let you… hurt… MY roses…" He couldn't think of another explanation, he was stammering and couldn't think up straight goddamnit!
Anna hid herself again in her blonde curtain smiling more to herself than to the words the boy had just said.
"Kesou…" she murmured so softly that Yoh couldn't heard it. 'I have to thank someone for something.' She thought almost happily.
"Nani?" Yoh inquired feeling that any moment he will be flying through the window. He smirked nervously as he tried to get out from her room.
"You know what…" Yoh's attempt to escape stopped as he heard her. He half smiled and nodded her to continue.
"You have a serious problem with 'talking' to objects…" Her cold attitude returned as her lips thinned.
Yoh was frozen 'Did she see me talk to Quakie and the oranges?' his mind screamed.
"Gomen ne!" He laughed scratching the back of his head.
"Do you have anything else to tell to your beloved flowers?" Her brow arched questionably. Yoh shook his head beaming from cheek to cheek.
"Then get out of here and let me sleep." She laid down and covered herself up with the sheets.
Yoh got out from her room, with all this; he wasn't in the mood to sleep. He laid down and smiled at the picture she made when the icy itako smiled behind her golden locks.
~°~
On the other hand, the itako couldn't sleep either. Her attention was in the rose that was standing up high adorning her room. She smiled again feeling a weight fell down from her shoulders.
She deeply felt something brake beneath her dark soul.
And maybe just maybe… some promises were made to be broken.
THE END
Final notes: T_T Well here you have it the last chapter! I hope I didn't screw it up! And I'm sorry for putting Yoh so OCC and maybe Anna too. But bleh… everyone makes mistakes. Thank you all for reviewing this and thank you for your patience in my goddamn grammar! I will really appreciate and editor but there are so hard to find ^_^UU.
Japanese words:
Horeru: To fall in love. Shinpai shinai de kudasai: You don't have to worry/Don't worry.
Otousan: Father. Ha-ha: Mother. Naze: Why? Kesou: Falling in love. Nani: What? Nansorya: What's that?
O genki desu ka?: How are you? Totemo genki desu: (like) I'm very good/fine. Ojii-san: grandfather.
Oiishi yo; it's delicious. Moushikaneru: I'm sorry to trouble you. Boku wa: I am (in boys or men)
Special thanks to:
Sweet Anime Fan: Ariagato gosaimasu! And no! There's no childhood scene in tankoubon 20. It's just that in one anonymous review I was told that in the manga they talked 'twenty' about it. ^_^ I hope you like some lines in this chapter too!
Unmei: Well, the oranges idea is mine, it's just that Wusai-dono mentioned that 'Yoh likes oranges' but nothing is referred to what I wrote on the second chapter. Thank you for reading!
Meemee: I'm so honored that you liked my fic! And the shamless plug as you quote it wasn't on porpoise! Gomen ne!
Argentum Draco: Thanks for keep reading my chapters! Thanks for your kind words too!
Bratty: Well, here's my theory why Anna is like a rose. Hope you don't feel insulted with this chapter! Thank you!
Phoenix Charmer: Thanks for the correction of Yohmei, and I feel very touched that you actually put this story on your faves! And no I'm not Japanese, I wish I was… -_-
I've got out of words to thank; Jan-chan, KiraX105, Lady Macbeth, Baka Cupid, Lafine, -*-*-.