Ren glared at HoroHoro.
The blue haired idiot was always flouncing about, always doing something moronic. HoroHoro couldn't sit still for one minute, and for Ren, it was either irritating when he was trying to concentrate, or annoying when he wanted HoroHoro's attention. Granted, the words irritating and annoying were synonyms for the same thing, but Ren had long given up on trying to find the correct something he felt at HoroHoro's idiocy.
Insults were the only thing that penetrated the thick, spiky head, and it was the thing that Ren used the most, and often to his own advantage.
Bason had remarked that Ren seemed besotted with HoroHoro, but the spirit had been cut off abruptly with a vicious 'Rapid Tempo Assault'. Ren didn't need stupid remarks from a stupid spirit, and he set about to solve his problem of keeping HoroHoro still. (And nearby, but that was left unsaid.)
Ren continued glaring at HoroHoro, and he saw the dimwit sweatdrop slightly, as if nervous at his stare. Good.
He'd find a solution to his problem, and Ren toyed with his yellow scarf, eyebrows creased with thought.
………………………
HoroHoro received many things for his birthday. He received handmade talismans from Pirika; snowboarding stuff from friends, a CD from Yoh, and other little trinkets from relatives which he had long forgotten existed. They were all thoughtful presents, and HoroHoro had grinned at nearly all of them when unwrapping the gifts.
But from them all, only one present stood out.
And that was because he didn't like it.
The said present was a scarf, and to HoroHoro, it just screamed boring. At first glance, it was a simple blue scarf; the very colour of his hair. It reminded him of the scarf that Ren wore sometimes, the one that had appeared so suddenly in the shaman tournament.
Besides, it was so plain; who wanted a scarf for a present anyway?
HoroHoro looked at the card attached to it. His lips twisted in sour amusement as he read it. No wonder it reminded him of Ren; after all, the prick had sent it him. The card was generic and insulting with the bright yellow 'three years old today!' on the cover. It didn't surprise HoroHoro one bit.
He had expected something like that anyway.
Mentally noting to get back at Ren someday, HoroHoro moved onto the next present, when he suddenly realised something was very. wrong.
Ren knew when his birthday was.
That, in itself was catastrophic to his brain, but there was more. Ren had actually bothered to send him something. HoroHoro struggled with the image of Ren going to the shops to buy him something, and he was immediately suspicious of any hidden intentions behind the scarf. But he couldn't think of anything, and so inevitably, he was indignant over the fact that it was such a crappy present.
Nevertheless, he still wore it when meeting up at Yoh's house. And that was because Pirika thought it looked good on him.
The scarf was met with mixed reactions from within the group, but among them all, Ren's eyes positively sparkled. HoroHoro didn't know any better, and so he didn't recognise the smile on Ren's face for an accomplished smirk.
"You wore that scarf for me." Ren said slowly, earning a few facevaults and sweatdrops around the room.
HoroHoro found that he didn't have the heart to tell Ren that Pirika had forced him into it - with the threat of more training and sharp pointy objects. He scratched his head with embarrassment, and grinned.
"I'll wear it everyday if you want…" He trailed off, only just noticing Ren's twisted smile.
"Really? I'll be holding you to that."
And from that day onwards, Ren had absolutely no problem with getting HoroHoro's attention every again.
After all, he had a leash.
fin