A/N: Needed to write some fanfiction. Still trying to get back on track. So anyway, this is rushed, meaning there'll be a ton of flaws. I'm kind of screwing the story, so I don't know at what point this happens... It wasn't planned out enough for that, being the spontaneous result of too much DAI, Ayu, chocolate, and the fact that it's been over a year, and I never got the Shaman King DVDs I ordered, or my money back... cries

Any criticism is appreciated.

Little by Little

[By Bunny-Chan a.k.a. Kawaii Kokkei Tsuita no Neko]

Walking down the streets that day would leave anyone wet and cold.

And still, one girl continued down the sidewalks, with no umbrella, seemingly oblivious to the pouring rain.

"Look at Kyouyama over there, all alone."

"Hah, what a loser! Who eats by themselves?"

"She's just too ugly to get any boys to hang around with her, and too much of a bitch to get any girls to be friends."

"It's not even that she's a bitch, she's just too ugly to get anyone to eat with her at all!"

The four girls sat laughing on the lawn, perfectly aware that the focus of their conversation could hear them perfectly.

Anna glared. Afterall, it was what she did best.

"What are you looking at Kyouyama?" One of the girls snapped.

Anna ignored them, stood, and walked back to the school building.

She stopped and looked at her reflection in a store window. It was blurred and distorted due to the water running down it, but she could clearly make out her face.

"I'm not... that ugly... am I?"

"Kyouyama-San! Please, wait up!"

Anna turned around to see a short girl with long, blue braids and thick glasses running after her. She quickly rubbed away the tears that had been gathering in her eyes. Okay, so maybe she wasn't apathetic and cold to the point where she could ignore everything. Everyone was entitled to some pain at some point, ne? She waited for the girl, whose name she was sure was Ryu.

"Kyouyama-San." She bowed.

"Can I help you...?" It wasn't everyday that someone just ran up to her.

"Kyouyama-San, I heard what Mayatsuri and the others said back there. I'd like to apologize." Anna blinked.

"Why? You didn't do anything, and you had nothing to do with them."

"Kyouyama-San, the reason they hate you is because you are very pretty, and the boys all have noticed. They're just jealous, Kyouyama-San." Ryu smiled.

"Katsuragi, we hate Kyouyama because she's stupid and ugly. How can she ever expect to be referred to as a girl at all, looking like that? Of course, not to say that you're much better." Ryu's head went down immediately, and her face turned a deep shade of red. Mayatsuri Miyuki threw her head to the side, swinging her long, black hair, then walked off.

She felt bad for Ryu. Ryu always sat alone in every class, and at lunch. She walked to and from school by herself, and talked to almost no one. Anna and Ryu were almost the same.

Except Anna did have someone who she could walk with, hang out with, sit with, talk with... Yoh and Manta. Not to say that they would be particularly happy to have her company, but if she chose to be a part of their little group, they'd have no choice but to let her.

Still, she didn't want to be unwanted, and she didn't want to force herself on anyone. So everyday she sat, silent and apathetic. Now it was getting to the point where her antisocial ways had earned her teasing comments, mean remarks, and many hurtful laughs. She had no doubts that soon she'd be just like Ryu- ignored, teased, and treated like a walking disease.

"Now I know what girls like her must feel like..." She sighed.

It wasn't normal for her to let this kind of thing get under her skin and bother her. Sometimes though, when someone went too far, it really did hurt, and after awhile, everything people say begins to build up, even on those who don't care at all.

For days now, all she would hear were comments on how ugly she was. How unattractive she was. How no one liked her.

She stopped at another store window to look at her reflection again. Sure... She didn't have a supermodel figure, but hey, she was only 13. You couldn't expect every 13-year-old in the world to look like a hentai film star and have a gorgeous face, right?

Finally she found herself at the abandoned hotel that she knew as "home". She didn't even bother going in. Instead, she threw her schoolbag at the wall of the house, and sat sullenly on the steps.

"Bah." Silence followed. The raindrops still fell. The wind still blew. But no one came out to greet her (though she assumed that, having not entered yet, no one would have noticed she'd returned). She wondered if Yoh would be worried at all. Afterall, she'd taken her time in coming home, and he must have returned quite a bit earlier than she had.

So she sat there, still and quiet.

After maybe 10 minutes, the door finally opened.

"Anna! We were getting worried! Manta and I got home a half an hour ago." Yoh closed the door and hurried over to where Anna was sulking. "Hey, why are you sitting outside in the rain...?"

She didn't answer, but instead just sniffled.

Wait... Sniffled? Yoh blinked back surprise. Was Anna... crying?

He sat down beside her, but she looked away from him, hiding her face. That confirmed it, sure enough. Otherwise she'd have nothing to hide.

"Anna... Are you crying?"

"No."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Anna..." Finally she looked at him. Tears were streaming down her face. Her eyes were red, and looked worn, as if she hadn't slept decently in awhile.

"Yoh... am I not pretty?"

The question caught Yoh by surprise. It was very obvious that Anna was serious, but this was just so unlike her. Normally she was the demon fiancée from Hell....

Fiancée. That's right, she's my fiancée. It's my job to make her happy. Now he felt guilty for his description of her only a second ago.

She told him the whole story, explaining everything.

"No! Anna, you're..." He reached out his hand, with every intention of putting it to her face, to emphasize his next word. However, memories of hissing, scratching, biting, hitting, and general abuse made him pause and wonder if he would be sending himself to the hospital by touching her.

Well, there's no time like the present.

He put his hand to her cheek, which earned him quite the look of shock.

"Anna, you're beautiful."

"You act like you're ashamed of being engaged to me."

"Why would you say that?"

"You're popular, and everyone loves you. Girls crowd around you, boys invite you to hang out with them. I understand that. But still... You never walk with me to or from school. You never say hi to me in the hallway. You never work with me in classes. You never sit with me during lunch..." For a moment, Yoh didn't know exactly what to say. He hadn't done that because he was ashamed. He would never do that.

"Anna, I'm proud that you're my fiancée. I couldn't imagine myself loving anyone but you. I always just thought you wanted to be alone." He moved closer to her. "Anna... You're beautiful, smart, and ki- well, maybe not always extremely loving... but still... I wouldn't want to be here with anyone but you."

Manta stood as well as he could on the stool, Amidamaru by his side.

"I can't see very well!" He stood on his tiptoes, and finally found himself a clear view.

Yoh's and Anna's faces were closer now than Manta thought he'd ever seen them.

"Wow, I think they're gonna kiss!" Amidamaru nodded.

"I must offer my congratulations to Lord Yoh on finally receiving something other than bruises from this she-devil of his."

But suddenly Anna pulled away from Yoh and ran into the house. Manta jumped down from the stool, afraid of what Anna might do if she saw that he'd been spying on her.

Amidamaru moved to the floor, and both boys (well, one boy and a ghost, technically) began to study a crack in the floor. It didn't seem to matter though, because Anna ran straight to her room, slamming the door.

"Anna still hasn't come down for dinner Yoh. Should someone go see if she's alright."

"Nah, best just let her be."

Both Amidamaru and Manta knew the whole story now. Neither could really believe that Anna had let comments get to her, but neither had said it.

"I still can't believe she cried over that. I thought she was heartless."

Well, no one had said it yet anyway...

"I can't blame her. The girls say an awful lot of mean things about her, and for no reason. Wouldn't you be hurt if people said that kind of stuff about you every day?" Manta looked down, a bit ashamed that he had said such a thing."

Yoh put down his bowl.

"Hey Manta? Do you think you could do the dishes tonight?"

Anna stared at the wall. She was sitting on her futon, in the dark, with her "Keep out (or die screaming" sign hanging off of the outside door handle.

"Anna, I love you."

They were going to kiss. They were going to kiss. She knew it. He knew it. Those idiots looking out the window knew it.

And suddenly she freaked out.

"Stop!" She pulled away from his touch, stood up, and ran inside the house, all at a world record of .23 seconds.

She ran straight to her room, throwing her favorite threatening sign on the knob, and slamming the door.

She was Anna the itako. She was powerful, independent, apathetic, and she didn't need any kind words, romance, or friendship.

Why was she suddenly losing grip on that?

She never cried. Especially in front of anyone.

Since when was she so weak?

Knocking on the door drew her out of her thoughts, but she really didn't feel like answering, so she chose instead to just ignore it. Maybe they would think she was sleeping.

"Anna? May I come in?"

Silence.

"Anna, I know you're awake."

"Go away. Can't you read?"

And still the door opened. Someone was going to die tonight. He walked over to where she sat near the window.

"I thought I told you to go away, Yoh." She growled.

"We need to talk." She stood up, with her back to him still.

"I have nothing to say to you. Now go clean something." That authoritative tone that she must have been born with (either that or practiced using since she was 2 years old) seemed to be back. Whatever had hit her that afternoon was gone, hidden behind that extremely well built wall of hers.

"Anna, we need to talk." She spun around, furious. No one disobeyed her in this household. If she said, "go away", they did. If she said she didn't want to talk, there was silence. This was the way it worked, how dare he ignore her?!

"I told you to leave!" She flung her hand out, confident that her signature punch might get him to shut up. Afterall, it worked with everyone whenever she needed it to. But suddenly her hand stopped.

"Wha-" She stared, eyes wide with shock. Yoh had caught her wrist just before she made contact with his nose.

"How dare you..." She trailed off, concentrating instead on yanking her arm away. To her misfortune, his grip was too tight.

Damn all that extra training I made him do while I just read magazines...

"Anna... What happened earlier? Did I upset you somehow?" She was still trying to pull her hand away.

"Yoh, let go of me." Her tone was low, and dangerous, but wavered a little. He'd never gone against her before. She hadn't met his eyes till now.

Instead of the usual fear they held whenever she started giving orders and yelling, there was determination there. Something she hadn't seen anytime before this, with the exception of during his fights with other shamans.

"Anna, we're engaged. You can't expect to hide everything forever. I'm a part of your life, like it or not." Anna stopped pulling. She'd never expected to hear that from him. Being her fiancé didn't entitle him to know every feeling she had, did it?

Anna's hesitation and lack of response gave Yoh the initiative. He pulled her toward him, his mouth meeting hers.

The third time in 10 minutes that she had shocked her speechless. She raised her free hand to hit him, push him away, something. And he caught that one too.

Wouldn't it figure that all the training she made him do every day would eventually come back to be used against her? Irony. Damn, pure irony. And she did not like that.

He pushed her against the wall and deepened the kiss. Of course, this all might have been much more romantic if Anna's eyes weren't still wide. However, she did finally give in, realizing that this was one fight she couldn't win. She stopped trying to pull away, and Yoh let her arms go, putting one hand behind her head, and letting the other rest on her upper arm.

It seemed to go on for minutes, then hours, maybe even days. Maybe time had even stopped. It was something that neither of them had ever anticipated happening. Sort of an "in the moment" deal.

When Yoh finally pulled away, both of them were out of breath. Anna was leaning against the wall, obviously still shocked.

"What was ... that?" She mumbled, most likely to herself.

"Anna, I love you. I never want to spend a single day without you. You're the one I want to be with the rest of my life." Anna blinked. Blinking seemed to be a very popular action that day. She was still too shocked to speak, and was looking at the floor. "You can hit me, you can make me train till I'm half dead, you can order me around... but that's never going to change the fact that I care about you."

Anna looked up.

"Yoh."

Silence. Always with the silence.

"I... I love you too."

They both just kind of looked at each other. Neither of them was sure what they should do or say.

"..." Anna walked toward the door. "Hold on a second." She opened it, sending Manta flying into the hall wall.

"You were eavesdropping on us...?" Anna grit her teeth. "Why you little... !!"

And so it finally seemed like a normal night in the Asukura household: Manta running for his life, Anna yelling, and Amidamaru hiding so as not to share Manta's fate.

Yoh smiled to himself, and shut Anna's door behind him.

Hey, maybe everything really does work out, little by little, ne?

((end))

A/N: And finally the torture is over, ne? It was fun to write, even if it wasn't written well, so thanks for reading Bah... I can't stand the ending... it's so...blah.... But it's better than the original.