Here it is, y'all! The finale of Let's Pretend. With an original poem in here too! Make sure you review nicely.
Oh, and in the last chapter, that song is called "Someday We'll Know" and it's from A Walk to Remember."
Now go and read!!!
Amiko woke with a slight headache pounding in her temples. She felt dizzy. Maybe she exerted herself too much the day before. Cautiously she forced herself into a sitting position, and promptly slumped over again, weak and exhausted.
"Anna?" she heard Yoh call. "What's wrong?"
She didn't care what he called her, as long as he came. "Yoh, I feel sick," she moaned.
Yoh burst into her room. "You're sick? What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling next to her.
"My head hurts," she whimpered. "I feel so dizzy."
Carefully he lifted her into a more comfortable position. "It's all right, Anna. I'm here," Yoh said. "I'm here. I'll get you something for your headache, and then you can go back to sleep."
"I'm not Anna," she called as he left. "Remember? I'm not Anna."
He hadn't heard her. Yoh came back into her room with a bottle of pills in his hand. "Open your mouth, Anna," he said.
"I'm not Anna," she reminded him.
Yoh half smiled. "Sorry. You just looked so...never mind."
The pills tasted tart and rough on her tongue. "Chewables?" she said. "How did you know I can't swallow pills?"
Yoh half smiled again. "Lucky guess, I suppose."
"Let me guess," she said bitterly. "Anna is the same."
"She is," Yoh said simply.
The pulled the blankets over her head. "I don't want to be Anna!" she wailed, her voice muffled. "I don't want to be Anna, I want to be Amiko! Amiko! Amiko! That's who I am!"
There was silence. Heart pounding, she began to regret her words.
"All right, Amiko," Yoh said softly. "Hao's coming for you in a few hours. I'll...I'll get your things together for you."
"Hao!" she cried, holding out her thin arms. "Hao-kun, I want to go home!"
Hao caught her in his embrace. "Don't cry, darling child," he soothed. "I'm here. I'm here."
Anna drew away, her dark eyes confused. "That's what he said," she said. "The other boy. He said that too. He looks so much like you, but he's so different from you and he- and he- he calls me Anna! Oh, Hao, I don't know what to think anymore."
"Don't dwell on it," Hao said, kissing the top of her head. "I have excellent news, watashi no Ami-chan. I'm taking you to Paris. There's a clinic there, where the doctors might be able to help you walk and even dance again. We'll be gone for quite awhile- away from all of this."
"I want to go now," Anna whispered. "I don't ever want to come back to this place again." He heard her. The words she spoke struck through his heart harder than any attack. "Hao!" Yoh shouted. "You can't take her from me!" He broke through the door, Harusame in his white-knuckled grip.
Hao straightened, his dark eyes as calm and mocking as ever. "Come, ototo-chan," he smirked. "The child has clearly chosen me. Amiko is mine. And your Anna is now . She will never come back to you. Never. You've lost- to me."
"Never," Yoh spat.
"We had a deal, ototo-chan," Hao said.
"Ototo-chan?" Amiko repeated.
"We may have had a 'deal', but I have something greater than that," Yoh said. "I promised Anna that I would marry her, and that I would love her. I intend to keep that promise."
"Love her?" Hao said, raising an eyebrow. "When did you ever tell Anna you loved her? When did you ever show that poor sweet baby that you loved her? That you cared for her? She dedicated her life to making you everything you could ever be, and yet you never spoke the three words she would die to hear."
"Maybe I never told Anna I love her," Yoh said. "But I showed it. Everything I did, I did for my Anna. Training, cleaning, cooking. She may have ordered me to do those things, but I did them willingly because I love her. She is, and always will be, my Anna."
"I don't understand," Amiko whispered. "Who is Anna? Where is Anna?"
"She's ," Hao said coolly, patting Amiko on the head. "I killed her myself. You needn't worry about her resurfacing."
Amiko jerked away. "You killed her?" she said, horrified. "How could you?"
"I did it for your sake!" Hao exclaimed. "Be grateful."
"Grateful that a is ?" Amiko stammered.
Hao's eyes flashed. He smacked her across the face, knocking her almost completely out of her wheelchair. "Thankfully you can't remember your left-slap," he smirked.
"Remember my what?" Amiko sobbed.
"You hurt her!" Yoh cried. He dropped his sword and gathered Amiko into his arms. "How could you?"
"Yoh, I don't understand!" Amiko wept.
Suddenly a spurt of hot splashed against her cheek. "Yoh-kun!" she screamed.
Yoh's eyes widened as he coughed a little. A dagger jabbed through his left shoulder. He squeezed his eyes tight and yanked it out. His left arm dangled limply as he swept up Harusame with his right hand. "Anna, stay back," he instructed. "Everything's going to turn out all right."
She could only cry.
What was happening? To her, to her Hao, to her Yoh? What was going on?
Something warm and sticky was soaking through her shirt and she idly realized that the from the wound on Yoh's left shoulder had dripped down her cheek and onto her neck.
Wound on Yoh's left shoulder.
"So, Yoh," Anna said. "How badly were you hurt?"
He blinked. "He hit my shoulder," he said.
"What kind of weapon?"
"Halberd."
Anna nodded. "You should know better, Yoh. With a long weapon like a kwan do, you can use the top-heavy weight of the spearhead to your advantage. Understand?"
"Hai," Yoh sighed.
What was happening?
Amiko grabbed for the edge of the step and used her arms to drag her weak torso and useless legs across the floor. Yank, drag, yank, drag. The monotony and the pain eased the wheels spinning in her tired mind. Tired, so tired. Anna, Amiko, Yoh, and Hao. It sounded like a poem one taught to a child.
Anna, Amiko, Yoh, and Hao
Which is which in the here and now?
One is and one is lost
One is rich, one pays the cost.
"Get out of my head," Amiko murmured. Her head was pounding and throbbing with a migraine. Anna, Anna, who was Anna? Where was she? Was she ? Was she alive?
Was she inside of her?
Anna, Amiko, Yoh, and Hao
One made a promise, one broke a vow
Love was lost and love was found
And one young spun round and round.
Hao and Yoh were fighting now. The Spirit of Fire versus the Spirit of the Samurai. Like fire and wind. Always different, always opposite. Like heat and cold. Like night and day. Like Anna and Amiko.
Anna, Amiko, Yoh, and Hao
One bent with wind, one did not bow
Fire is hot and the flames glow bright
But wind is the one that will turn out right.
Amiko leaned over the side of the porch and threw up. The throbbing of her headache pulsed through her thin body. Anna, Amiko, Yoh, and Hao...one young spun round and round...round and round and round and round....
"Anna!" Yoh screamed. "Please remember!" His voice was choked and caught by tears. "Anna, please!"
"I...I can't," she sobbed. "I don't know anything..."
"You got to know something!" Yoh called. "Anything, Anna, anything!"
"I...I..." Amiko pressed her forehead against the splintered wood of the porch floor. The only thing in her head was a song, a song she couldn't remember learning.
Tokidoki wa setsunakutte
Tokidoki wa kurushikutte
Kakeyotte dakishimete tsutaetai
Demo ima wa iwanai no
Anata ga jibun no yume
Tsukamitoru sono hi dake shinjiteru
"Sometimes I'm lonely," Amiko sang softly, "sometimes it hurts. I want to run up and hug you and tell you, but I'll wait till the day you capture your dream..."
Her dark eyes flashed.
"I think..." Amiko murmured. "I think I remember..."
Amiko closed her eyes. Then suddenly they opened, and Amiko was .
"I'M ANNA!" she screamed.Yoh didn't care about anything else anymore. He dropped Harusame, broke oversoul, and ran to her. "You remember?" he asked, grabbing her face and pulling her up to look in his eyes. "Do you remember?"
She responded by flinging her arms around his neck. "My name is Annabelle Rose Kyoyama, I'm sixteen years old, and I love Yoh Asakura," she sobbed into his shoulder.
"Anna!" Yoh screamed, yanking her into his arms. "Anna, you're back! Oh, Anna, my Anna, you're not , you're not , you're not !" He buried his face in her shoulder and sobbed helplessly.
Hao clenched his fists. "I've lost her," he said calmly, ending his oversoul crisply. "Well. No matter. Let's go, Spirit."
Anna stroked her fingers through Yoh's dark hair. "You don't have to cry anymore," she whispered. "I'm here." She pressed a kiss on his hot, tearwet cheek. "I'm here, Yoh. And I will always be your Anna."
Yoh rocked her in his arms. "My Anna," he sighed. "Ah, my Anna. You've come home."
Christmastime
Anna smiled as she tugged the blanket over her thin, weak legs. Christmas was always an interesting time at the En Inn. Everyone came, even Lyserg and Jeanne. Chocolove was making everyone nauseous with his jokes, while Tamao kept making cookies that HoroHoro kept eating before anyone else could get to them.
And then there was the surprise guest.
Hao seemed a little unsure of himself among all of them. After all, he wasn't exactly what one would call a friend of theirs. But she wanted him there all the same.
"Aw, all the presents are gone from under the tree," HoroHoro whined.
"Maybe from the tree, but I still have one," Anna said. She drew back the blanket and swung her legs over the side of the sofa.
"Anna!" Yoh gasped.
"Go stand over there," she ordered. "And you, Hao. Come here."
"What is it, Anna?" Hao asked.
She held out her hands. "Help me up," she said. Hao gripped her elbows and helped her to her feet. "Now come behind me...don't let me fall." He obeyed her, bracing her completely. "And now," Anna whispered. "Let go."
"But Anna-"
"Let go, Hao."
He did.
Anna stood alone for a moment, swaying a little. Slowly she took one tiny step. And then another. She held her arms out at her sides, almost in a dancer's position. Anna stepped slowly, lightly. She moved with a sweet, awkward grace until she tumbled, laughing, in Yoh's arms.
"Oh, Anna!" he whispered, slipping his arms around her waist. "Oh, Anna, oh, Anna!"
"Merry Christmas, anata," Anna smiled.
Later That Night...
"You are late, Hao-sama," Mari commented.
"Perhaps," he said. "I will be in my quarters. Please leave me alone for the night." Mari nodded and left obediently. Hao disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him.
"Good evening," he said pleasantly. "It is Christmas Eve. Did you know that, my darling?" Hao smiled. "No, I suppose you did not. Ah, well. This will be your first Christmas." He flipped the switch and opened the lid.
The young inside blinked slowly. When she opened her eyes, they were a rich chocolate brown color. "Hello, Hao-kun," she smiled.
Hao smiled back.
"Hello, Amiko."
owari!
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