I was sitting by the front steps of the Asakura House, looking out at the sky. I sighed once more, wondering what my brother and Anna were talking about now.

The next thing I knew, I felt someone sit down beside me. I untucked my other knee. "Of all the places in this house, you had to choose this place to lounge."

Mikihisa shrugged. "You're not paying the electric bill in the house so don't act as if you own this place."

Silence. I wasn't used to having people around me when I think, especially those who wear annoyingly distracting bird masks. I decided to indulge my father and converse with him.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Sitting."

"No. You want to see me suffer." I crossed my arms. "You came here to say 'I-told-you-so'."

"Really now, Hao. Do you really think I can do that to my son?" asked Mikihisa indignantly. After awhile, he spoke, "How did you know I was planning to do that?"

I shrugged, then laughed bitterly. "You told me not so long ago about the human heart. You told me that if I don't understand what real strength is, I would be half a man. Back then, I thought I was the strongest of all. However, when I met Anna, I realized how little my strength was compared to hers. She loved and lost, yet she lived on. As for me, I just realized how really painful is it to lose the one I love, and it hurts like hell. And I don't think I want to still live." I chuckled sadly. "How come no one prepared me for the pain love can bring? Yoh at least should have warned me about it, then I wouldn't have even tried to look at her."

"Now I understand what you say about the real meaning of strength. Now I understand how a thing as small and fragile as the human heart can be so powerful that it can lead people to both renewal and destruction." I smiled. "Now I know why Yoh died for Anna with no hesitation. If the same thing happens to me now, I'll gladly do the same for Anna, if only to thank her for opening my eyes and my heart to the beauty of loving." I exhaled sadly. "But love hurts like hell too… I wish it was me and not Yoh who died instead, then Anna won't be like this."

It took Mikihisa quite awhile before he was able to digest what I just said. "Hao Asakura, love is like a thief in the night; it comes when you least expect it."

"Yeah, but of all the things she could get from me, why did she choose to steal my heart?" I asked helplessly. "Now I don't know how I would live once I go away."

"You're leaving?" asked Mikihisa.

"Yes." I smiled bitterly. "You said it yourself- you can't control the human heart. I can't force Anna to love me, and even if I can, I won't. Call me ambitious, but is it wrong to hope that a woman would love me for the sake of loving and nothing else? That she would love me with her free will, and she would love me because I am me?"

"But leave Anna?" asked Mikihisa. "You were the one who pushed her out of her self-destructive doldrums. Why don't you wait? The girl will eventually love you."

"If you only know how much it hurts, to have someone you love more than your own life by you, but cannot love her openly. It's so frustrating!" I leaned against the pillar of the house. "Besides, I know where I stand. I can never have her heart."

"Don't say never." Mikihisa handed me a pack of chocolate. "Say it with Hershey's."

I had to smile. "OK, I'll try that."

Mikihisa raised his bird mask a bit to show me his fatherly smile. "You are an Asakura Man, one who's not legendary not because of his Shamanic abilities, but also because he could charm even the most elusive woman in this green earth."

I had to smile; it felt awkward to act like this to someone I never had treated like a father before. "Please put that mask back to your face. You look awful."

"It's your fault, mostly," he reminded me.

I watched Mikihisa go. He told me something about him being in charge of the family dinner tonight. I thought about Yoh, and decided that they really were father and son. The Asakura Man should be legendary too because of him being a henpecked husband all the time.  

I raised my face when I heard the familiar footsteps walking towards my direction. Even from afar, I could sense her- living with her and loving her more and more everyday has given me the uncanny ability to memorize her every move, her every gesture, her every nuance.

Ah, how ever did I get that silly idea that I could live without her? I would rather endure the pain of not having the right to love her, just as long as I could be with her all the time.

Anna Kyouyama arrived, a smile pasted on her face. My heart fell; only Yoh could make her smile like that. I had longed to see her that happy, and all it took was some minutes of conversation with my deceased brother.

"So…what did you guys talk about?" I asked, moving aside to give room to Her Royal Artic Highness. "The stock market? The weather?"

"Lots," she replied vaguely as she sat down beside me.

"The lottery results?" I asked.

She glanced at me, and for the first time found them without contempt. "You," she said simply.

I started to feel uncomfortable. So the two had the nerve to laugh at me behind my back. "What about me?" I asked after a while.

"He told me that you told him that you love me," she said.

"He told you that I told him that I love you?" I frowned. "I didn't know that Yoh was capable of gossiping and tattletaling!"

"Is it true?" she asked.

I nodded slowly.

"Since when?" she asked.

"Since you slapped me." I touched my cheek absent-mindedly. "In the desert, in the shaman fight. You were the first woman to stand up against me." In my mind, I added, for the rest of the female species adored me.

"The second time I fell for you was when you vowed revenge against me after I took Yoh's soul back. I really felt jealous of my brother then, because someone like you loved him that much." I laughed as nostalgia hit me. "I let the shikigamis take care of you, because I was so afraid to hurt you."

"The third time I fell in love with you was when I saw you in the garden in Yoh's funeral. Then…" I grinned sheepishly. "…I lost count after the third. All I know is that I have fallen in love with you for so many times already, and each time I fall harder than the last. Ironically, I didn't know how hard I've fallen until now."

"So when Kino and Yohmei announced that someone else will marry you, I was alarmed. I then realized that I would be an utter fool to let you go, so I told them that I'd marry you. How should have I known that you'd react so violently?" I sighed helplessly.

She paused, then raised a brow. "Are you done with your speech, Hao Asakura?"

I felt my face burn. "S-Sure, you may have the floor now, Anna."

She sighed audibly, then asked, "Are you aware that I still love Yoh?"

I nodded, and god, it was the hardest, most painful thing I ever did in my life.

"And you still say you love me?"

"With all my heart," I said. I quietly prepared myself for accepting her rejection.

But her next question, I totally never expected.

"Do you know that I love you for that?"

I blinked, then turned to Anna slowly. She was smiling, and she was smiling at me. At me, and not at Yoh. She was smiling the way I had dreamed of her smiling at me!

"I'm Hao Asakura," I said slowly.

"I'm not questioning your identity," she shot back.

My tentative smile blossomed into a full one. "I…I don't know what to say."

She looked at the Hershey's Kisses pack I was holding. "May I have some of your kisses then?"

I obliged. I gave her my best Kisses.

Kino's head popped out from the sliding door. "Yohmei wants Hershey's too-" She paused when she saw my hand gesturing her to shut the door and leave us alone. I couldn't speak; my mouth was too busy with Anna's. The dear old woman smiled and picked up the forgotten pack of Kisses by the floor, then left us.

"I love you so, Anna Kyouyama Asakura," I whispered on her lips.

"I…" Her cheeks turned pleasantly crimson. "…love you too, Hao. B-Because…because among other things, you have erections."

I chuckled and hugged her tightly. "Your sense of humor is improving."

She sighed contentedly and snuggled close to me. "I'm home."

I smiled. Finally, after the long, unsure journey of learning to love, I made it back home too.

 The end