Title Broken China

Author Kyrie Sanctus

Rating PG-13 for Shounen-ai situations.

Begun September 27, 2003

Finished ???

Chapters 6/??

Synopsis Unfortunately for Ren, Jun has invited Horohoro to accompany them to China. But perhaps, Ren's disgust at this situation is just a cover up for the feelings he hasn't realized he could have for the shaman of ice? A bit plotless, just a device for fluff. HoroRen.

Comments Well, the title does NOT refer to the many plates I've broken in trying to come up with an idea for a HoroRen story good enough to post on FF.net. Instead, it's about China. You know, the country? Broken. Not literally broken, but rather.. .. It's symbolism! Ren's feelings about Horohoro going to China with them are like.. Mixed, you know? The inspiration for this came from me buying a Chinese dictionary and looking up the word 'peach.' Yep. That's how it all got started.

Dedications this goes out to Tanjo, for being the one who made me interested in the Chinese language in the first place. Katie, for no darn reason. Krissy, for always being the little inspiration in my life, and whoever else writes HoroRen fanfics. Because I didn't want you to be alone anymore!

Disclaimer I own no rights to Shaman King, it's plots, or it's characters. Those are all belong to the masterful Hiroyuki Takei. However, I do own the Chinese dictionary used in making all of these pretty Chinese words possible!

Broken China

Dance Six: Rescuing Chinese

"You just had to jinx us, didn't you?" Ren growled as he stared out the window of the cabin they recently chosen to take refuge in. And now the snow had reached the bottom of the windowsill and it hadn't even stopped yet.

Jun was curled up on the sofa across from the fire that was struggling to stay ablaze, as the chimney was allowing tiny snowflakes to flutter inside, only to soon be melted by the warmth of their active heat. Every few odd minutes a gale threatened to put the flame it it's rest.

Horohoro was on his knees in front of the fire, adding the logs he'd ventured out into the snow to retrieve. "How many times are you going to say that?" He groaned, tossing another piece of wood in. The fire flared but clamed quickly, washing another warmth over his face.

"I'll say it until this snow stops." Horohoro sighed and pushed himself to his feet, taking a seat beside Jun. Even thought Ren was freezing by the window, he didn't budge. Jun motioned for Bailong to bring her the radio that was sitting on the desk. He did as asked, and Jun started to search for a radio station. As the static cleared, they could hear a man in Chinese:

It seems the snow may be slowly lightening up, but as of now it looks like it's going to continue coming down well into the morning time. We're looking at a stopping time of around noon. In parts of eastern China it seems to be at least 3 feet deep, and has probably already snowed most of our listeners in by now. "You can say that again," Ren added callously before Jun shushed him. -whether or not the snow is going to stop tomorrow at noon, we'll keep you posted.

As Jun switched off the radio, she rose to her feet. "Well," she exhaled, placing the radio on the coffee table beside the couch. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Nee-san."

"'Night, Jun!"

As Jun entered the only bedroom the cabin offered, Ren pulled his scarf off, freeing his neck. He draped it over the chair in front of the desk and walked to the couch, pulling the large flannel blanket off of the arm. He grabbed the ends and released it, letting it unfold itself. He sat down, letting it extend over both his legs and Horohoro's. "Goodnight."

"'Night…"

When Ren woke up, he was alone on the couch. He pulled the blanket closer around him and enjoyed the warmth he was receiving from it. He turned to the side to notice that the fire had gone out. Groaningly , he thought Where is that idiot? He stood up and walked to the desk, only to find a sheet of paper with a sloppily written note, addressed to him and his sister. Ren read it over. Oh.

Out of firewood. Went to go find some.

-Horohoro

Ren placed the note to the side and looked at the clock. 8:30. Ren sat back down on the couch, wrapping himself back in the blanket. He stared at the fireplace, where the cinders had even started to go black.

After what felt like hours, Ren glanced back over at the clock. 9:45.. Why isn't he back yet? He stood and walked to the window. The snow had somewhat slowed, but it was still softly decorating the ground. Turning away from the desk, he picked up his scarf. "That idiot. I guess I'll have to go find him myself."

Picking up the pen, he jotted a note to Jun telling her where he had went, just in case she woke up before he came back with a frozen Ainu idiot. After tossing the pen down, he walked to the door, opening it.

As soon as the door had even been ajar, a burst of cold rough air which had been locked from the inside came rambling through. He jumped outside and slammed the door, immediately plunging into the knee-deep snow. "Kuso…"

He looked around, squinting his eyes against the gusts of wind which frequently forced themselves into Ren's face. He cursed under his breath again, and waddled forward. It wasn't easy. The snow basically trapped his movements. How the hell did Horohoro get through this?! With a grunt, Ren hoisted himself forward again, but his legs just sank deeper.

"KISAMA!!" Picking up a handful of snow, he tossed it into the distance that he couldn't see, and heard it smack upon something, undoubtedly a tree. What the hell am I supposed to do?! I can't get through this snow.. He pushed forward again, but the snow beneath him only made him fall to his knees. "Kuso.."

"AHH-CHOO!!" Horohoro covered his face with his hands, dropping all of the logs he'd been carrying. "Tch! Man!" He knelt down to pick them back up, using his snowboard to keep himself from topping over with the wind. "I think I'm catching a cold." As soon as he'd retrieved his fallen logs, he stood, taking one step before his leg plunged into the snow.

He frowned, and pulled it back out. It had been a long time since he had tried to walk on top of snow, so he was a bit rusty. He looked through the trees to find the way which he had come in, and spotted the clearing, since his foot-tracks had already been covered. "There we go.."

Ren had finally found a way to stay from falling into the snow, but he was growing tired from fighting the wind, which was blowing directly in his face. It wasn't until he found a clearing that he sat down in the shelter of a tree and a rock and exhaled. He looked around him.. Everything was white, but how did it still seem so dark?

He tried to hide his face even deeper in his muffler. It stung from where the snow had been whipping him in the face. He growled under his breath. Why did I decide to look for that baka anyway?!

As another few minutes passed, Ren's hopes were darted away, as the wind didn't seem to die down. He had two choices: either he could sit there and die, or he could keep going and die, and seeing as he was always the fighter, he pushed himself to his feet and trudged forward, a foot sinking deep in the cold and wet snow every so-often.

When he came across a larger spread of trees he smirked, figuring, if anything, Horohoro had gone in there to look for firewood. He took another step, and felt his feet on something firm. Odd, he thought, as he placed his other foot upon it, realizing that he was just stepping on snow-covered ice. Deciding this could be an easier way of travel, he trudged forward.

That is, until…

Although he'd thought he'd found an exit, Horohoro had just made himself that much more lost. He frowned, suddenly wishing Kororo was there. He came across another spread of trees, which looked quite familiar, and stepped forward, his feet sliding a bit. "Eh! Ice." He looked up, however, and saw something pretty frightening.

Right smack dab in the middle of the ice, a hole, with two black-clad arms flinging around outside of it, with a shark fin bobbing up from under the water. Even with as thick as Horohoro could be, he immediately recognized it as Ren, and dashed over, cracking some ice under his feet. He winced as he reached the hole, noticing that it was about to widen itself.

Trying not to panic, he got to his knees as quickly as possible, dropping the wood beside him. He grabbed Ren's left hand, as the other hand already submerged. Clasping his hand to his forearm, he pulled as hard as he could, his knee sliding into the cold water slowly as the ice beneath him began to pull apart from it's frozen entity.

He groaned, and gave another pull, forcing Ren's upper body out the water. Ren immediately put his knee on the ice, and, with Horohoro's help, got himself the rest of the way out of the water. With Ren laying on top of him, Horohoro pushed them away from the hole as it broke open and allowed more space to itself, swallowing the logs Horohoro had gotten for their fire.

He exhaled, looking at the boy on top of him. "Are you alright?" The Chinese boy blinked, in utter shock of what had just happened. Horohoro grinned and sat up, pulling Ren up with him. As he did so, however, he heard him wince. "What's wrong?!"

"It's my ankle.." Ren frowned, looking down at his booted feet. "I think I twisted it when I fell in the ice." Horohoro pulled his wet pant-leg up to investigate, and, sure enough, his ankle was pretty swollen. He frowned and covered it again. "Kisama.." Ren kicked at the snow with his uninjured foot, and then tried to push himself up.

However, the foot he'd been putting pressure on flew out from beneath him, and he landed back in Horohoro's arms again. He growled to himself. "Maybe I should help you?" Horohoro lifted Ren and set him on a patch of snow beside them, and pushed himself to his feet, then reached down for Ren's hands. Ren took them, and, balancing on his one leg, was helped to his feet. They both frowned as he wobbled, not used to only using one foot, especially in the snow. "Hm. This isn't going to work."

"Well, what do you want me to do, then?! Stay here and freeze to death?!"

"No, of course not," Horohoro grinned and he picked up a few logs which rested beside them, and handed them to Ren. "Hold these, will ya?"

"How in the hell do you expect me to keep my balance on one foot while---- What the hell are you doing?!" Ren, while complaining, had been scooped into a pair of strong Ainu arms. Golden eyes almost instantly shot into the vision of wide blue ones, which were immediately accompanied by a smile.

"Well, you didn't think I'd try to make you walk like that, did you?"

"Horohoro.."

The Ainu blinked at the way his former leader had so tenderly said his name. He blushed, but tried to hide it in his collar as he started walking back towards the cabin. Well, that was unexpected.

Ren, feeling somewhat defeated, for the fact that he had been knocked off of his feet, and disgraced himself in more ways than one, pouted and inconspicuously snuggled into the warmth of the boy who was carrying him.

Horohoro had put Ren on the couch, had removed his boots, helped him change his clothes, and had wrapped him up in more than one blanket, and was now getting the fire started. Of course, Jun had woken up and had heard all that had happened, and was now in the cabin's kitchen, trying to fix something warm for Ren to eat. She'd sent Bailong to get more firewood.

Once he'd had it ignited, the older boy stood up and sat in front of Ren. He'd changed his own clothes as well, since he'd gotten pretty wet and cold trying to pull Ren out of the ice. He pulled over a small stool, and took one of the pillows, placing it atop it. He gently lifted Ren's ankle, to elevate it. Then, he took a blanket Jun had brought to him from the bedroom, and covered his foot with it. He then sat beside him snuggling over into him since he was now just a big ball of spike-headed warmth.

The two sat watching the fire for more than a minute when Horohoro broke the silence, which he usually seemed to do. "You still haven't thanked me." Ren was surprised by this statement, not only because it was true, but because he'd forgotten about all the things that had happened, really-- Horohoro had gone out to find firewood for him, he saved him, he carried him home. Is anyone else noticing a trend here?

At this point the frowned, because he realized he really didn't have a way to properly thank Horohoro other than with words. If it hadn't been for him, then he would most likely have been dead, and all that time he had been giving him trouble about having come with he and his sister to China. "Horohoro, I…"

"No, it's okay. Tao Ren doesn't apologize. It's just not in your nature."

"You're wrong."

"Eh?"

"You're wrong."

"How am I----"

Before his sentence was finished, Horohoro's lips were closed by another set brushing upon his, another set of hands on his, another chest pressed against his own. Horohoro's mind raced, his heartbeat quickened, and slowly, he closed his eyes.

But not for long, considering the kiss was over as lashes met lashes.

Both boys turned from each other, blushing deeply.

"Uh.. … … You're welcome?"

"No problem.

Author's Notes And it's done!! Chapter 6 is complete, after all that toil and hard work, and I hope it's worth it, since I tried to make it so long so everyone would be happy. Unfortunately, as much as I would love it, I can't run this fanfic forever.. As a matter of fact, there will probably only be one or two more dances.. ^^; But, I have an ending planned and also, a special additional chapter as a thanks for everyone who has reviewed and put up with me and my fickle muse.

Oh yeah. Happy Birthday, Horohoro! I meant to do something for you, my love, but I was just.. @_@; Ugh, it's been rough. I'll probably give you a late birthday present, but never fear, because I still love you!

Stay tuned for dance 7, don't forget to review and keep being such good little readers! ^^