You're Mine
Summary: AU "Just remember that you're mine." It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Shaman King. However, I do own a rabid Shaman King fan, or at least pwn one. So, er, rawr. Beware.
Author's Note: Back from a little vacation of Hao/Jeanne-ness! (If you want to see it, it's already up; a little piece called By Moonlight.) Not that I didn't enjoy it or anything, but I think I'm safer in this world. I can see Hao and Jeanne together, but I can never see them coming together. It always occurs to me that they'd kill each other first.
Sometimes I think that I'm too sensible for my own good.
Votes: 11 Yoh x Anna, 6 Yoh x Tamao, 11 Hao x Anna, 6 Hao x Tamao.
In total and separately, we have two ties again. Somebody better break these soon! xD I'm closing the voting at chapter seven.
Chapter Four: Too Close for Comfort
"But you don't understand!" Desperation tempered by a breathlessly romantic tone colored her voice as she turned to him, wringing her hands in a manner that had long been out of date since women's suffrage had been established in America. "Oh darling, how I love you… couldn't you find it in your heart to make a little room for me at all?"
"Now, now, dear." His voice was resonant with dislike as he carefully fiddled with the collar of his shirt. "Careful, sweetheart, you'll mess up my hair."
"Oh God, however could I let that happen…" Fingers entwining into dark locks, words spoken in a sensual, throaty tone.
"For Christ's sakes, woman, I said not to mess up my hair!"
Dark eyes surveyed the pair with something akin to quiet derision as a lean form sprawled before the television, staring blankly up at the drama playing upon the screen. Though she had occupied many an hour surveying their antics, this evening, their voices seemed too tinny, the lines that discharged from their lips spoken once too often, in too dramatic a tone. The world itself seemed discolored with an incomprehensible trouble – one that did not exist… or one that the blonde simply refused to admit to.
"Great Spirits, what fools these humans be," A voice murmured near her ear, the whisper a caress of the twilight that enfolded the world outside. She felt the brush of a light, cavalier breeze against her extended legs as the shaman's canvas-colored mantle settled upon the ground – and in a moment recognized the voice that had spoken with such soft mockery so close to her cheek, and other, more sensual features.
"Shut up, Hao." Anna said aloud, her voice cold with dismissive spirit. "I haven't recorded this episode, and I will not be made to miss it."
"It's merely another human-made drama." The voice that could seduce millions simply with its sensual sound continued, rebuffing her snub with as great an ease as she had spurned him with. "There's nothing about it that separates it from any other show. Surely you have more interesting tasks to do…" Or people. His voice implied, though only the light quirk to his lips gave the allusion that the thought had occurred to him at all. Under some unnamable compulsion, her gaze turned from the glassy screen to encounter the vision of casual carnality to her side. The body that he wore was too young for the air of corporeal knowledge that glittered within his level gaze, though he seemed not to care for what mattered and what did not – and seemed never to have done so. What Hao wanted was what he received, lest he rise on his own to take it forcibly.
The itako had never been made to understand how a pair of twins could be made to look so wholly different. It seemed something about the spirit that dwelled beneath the flesh – even had the two brothers switched bodies, the differences would have been distinct immediately. Yoh, for example, could have never gained the dark, desirable knowledge that lurked beneath his brother's gaze – a secret promise that rested intimately between he and she alone.
"Save your tricks." Anna was mildly scornful as she returned her attention to the television, though the aura of wariness about her sinewy body intensified; the blonde was hardly a fool. "You have enough of a fan-club at school and I hear enough about what you say of them to know that I don't want to be among them. Why are you trying to recruit me into it?"
"Do you really think yourself a low enough standard to fit among them?" The boy inquired nonchalantly. "As a matter of fact, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about, Anna…" Pausing audibly, deliberately, there was a very distinct silence where ordinarily the '-san' would have fitted.
"If you're here to talk to me about that bastard, don't bother." There was an angry harshness to the way she spoke, a clipped sound that hardly fitted with the easy way she had spurned his advances earlier. Her knuckles seemed brittle alabaster as she gripped the remote, eyes boring into the television screen with such strength that it was miracle indeed that it did not shatter beneath her gaze. "I don't want to hear about him."
"But you do." His voice was carefully persuasive, and cloyingly soft. Unwillingly, she raised her head, eyes darting towards him in a brief, reluctant glance. "You want to hear his name so badly, to talk and to let all of this go. Remember, I know what kind of person you are; you've lived a while with us; how could I not?"
"You know nothing about me." The words were forced out mechanically before she could retract them and hold them in check.
His lips curled into a tight, secret smile. "Are you so sure about that?" Seeing that she would give him no sensible response, the shaman caught her right hand before it could reach his cheek.
And smiled.
"Would you simply listen to me and not play the part of the distraught fiancée so well?" The dark-haired shaman requested mildly, though there was no leniency to the heat that blazed within his gaze; the heat that seemed to have always been present.
"I'm not distraught." Anna seemed to have regained some semblance of calmness, for her muscles untensed briefly before shifting into position for a second attack. "Merely mildly annoyed. You're not worth much more than that, Hao." And a second hand was outthrown, the legendary left that was required only once to bring about an opponent's unconsciousness. Yet it seemed as though that one, too, were of little consideration; Hao captured it with seeming effortlessness, clasping it with his other hand.
"It seems," the shaman murmured, "as though we are at an impasse." And suddenly he was too close – had he always been so close, so that she could see the faint difference between his retinas and his pupils? – their noses almost touching, and their lips even closer... "What would you propose that I do now?" He breathed, a question that was more sigh than spoken words. The scent of him, familiar after dwelling within the same house with him for so many years, wafted over her, but it was stronger now than ever it had been.
There was a tang to the aroma that suggested a musky chocolate; profound, not without its hint of bitterness, and deeply intoxicating in its fashion. But most strongly, it alluded to him, the boy-who-was-no-longer-quite-a-boy who held her wrists in check and was close enough to touch, was unnervingly corporeal.
Returning to herself abruptly, the young itako wrenched her hands free from his grip, unconsciously massaging the places where slender fingers had pressured her flesh too strongly. "I would propose that you try to avoid making me miss the rest of my show." She responded, and her manner had transformed her to an unbreakable statue of wintry frost. "I have better things to do than play your games."
"But you are playing my games now, like it or not." He replied languidly, propping himself up from where he sat with a single elbow. His regard was undeniably bland, though she felt that there was a slight insolence within his gaze, somehow. "You're playing them, and you cannot break free until the day that you yourself let everything that holds you here go.."
"Playing the mystic doesn't suit you." Anna retorted icily.
Amusement seemed to overcome his features briefly. "Was I being mystic?" He asked lightly, rising from his seat. "And here I thought that I was being lucid…" All business once more, his gaze implied a pitying contempt that was mirrored in his abrupt gentleness as he paused at the door. "Whenever you feel that these games are enough," he offered, seemingly to the air, though there was no doubt that his words reached her ears, "You're always welcome to join my side."
And he was gone, but not entirely, for his words were still drifting through her thoughts. And somewhere, deeper within, perhaps they were engraving words into a gravestone beneath which certain recent dreams were buried…
She was staring at a screen across which credits rolled too swiftly to be read. Staring, with eyes wide and blank as diamond crowns, and seeing nothing of that which passed before it.
Safely ensconced within the darkness of the corridor, a catlike smile touched his lips.
It had begun.
Author's Note: I think writing By Moonlight completely fried my brain circuits. Ah well; hope this chapter was bearable and suitably enigmatic. Next chapter features them actually going to school. Hurrah, or not? It might be slower in updating than these few days have been, because unfortunately, my Winter-break is coming to an end. (I know; you lot probably have one that goes on for another week. My school skimped on ours.) I'm pending grounding, so it'll be even slower. However, bear with me, have patience, and try not to kill me when I say that I'm planning the fic out, and it's at about twenty-one chapters so far, with more still coming.
Drop a review inside my mailbox and I'll love thee to the brink of eternity. ;) Particularly since this is my favorite chapter. (Not including chapter 13.) And now the replies (oh the ironies; my review replies are getting to be longer than the chapters themselves):
Momorio: YohTamao is cute. Not cute enough for a one-shot, but cute enough to provide loads and loads of angst for this fic. –chuckles evilly-
shamanprincess: Lucky! I want the PS2 Shaman King game! ..Unfortunately I don't even own a PS2.. ; I'm planning on asking for the GBA SK game if it exists, for my birthday, though. X3
Cindy Asakura: -bows- Sankyuu?
The Summer Stars: Trust me; the thought 'fangirly' never crossed my mind. I was absorbed by your username, which I rather liked. :) And I would never change my storyline unless a better plotline came and conked me over the head – it's hard enough to write without writing inspirationlessly.
asn water: Hey, this is Anna we're talking about. She could find a way to bring an elephant to its knees. So there. :P And yes, she's in this one. And, unless something drastic comes up, the next one. And the next. And the next. In fact, I think the only time we get a break from Anna are Chapters 8 and 9.
KristiexxNguyen: I'll make sure to take a peek when next you write one, then; it's hard to find quality Yohna these days. ;) Hope you recover from whatever Keiko did, too.
Koneko-Koneko: I didn't mean to accuse you of going with the fashion, Koneko! ; Die-hard Yohna fans should be allowed to be die-hard Yohna fans without being accused of fad-following. No, you may not vote again, but I'll take the sentiment and engrave it into a perfume bottle all the same. The next few chapters probably won't be your favorites, either, considering there's not really a lot of Yoh/Anna.
bOw-doWn-tO-KeiKO: I appreciate the comment on my LJ. And hey.. you get to see Faust and Eliza reincarnated in this AU world as a teacher and teacher's assistant in one of the chapters ahead! (-guiltily gives this away-) Feel free to speculate on what subject they teach until then, however..
I don't think Yoh/Tamao would be good for him in the long run, so it's quite probable that if the fic becomes Yoh/Tamao, there'll be a sequel with more angst than the original. x3 Until then, however, I'll just mysteriously repeat "We'll seee.." and try not to get whapped with any blunt objects.
flower-girl018: There is something terribly charming about a Hao/Anna thought, isn't there?
Axianxperxuaxion: There's no guarantee; even the votes are teetering quite precariously. At the very least, however, there'll be an alternate ending with the two of them.
Fate's Companion: Oh dear.. ; I was trying so hard to avoid that, particularly in this chapter. I suppose I'll just have to work on it.
Snow-girl: -grins- Now there's a first. Someone reviewing a romance fic who doesn't care about the pairings. Ah well, I'm glad to hear from you all the same!
Trisyl: Since you're the only person I've heard from, and your logic makes sense.. Shaman it stays, then.
anime-obsession260: It was leaning towards HaoxAnna, and now, thanks to you, it's tied again. xD Hope that works for you.
Betty: You just broke the tie! It's favoring Yoh/Anna again.
niCE—TL: I feel like a voting booth.. –laughs- It's favoring Yoh/Anna again. I'm wondering if I should stop people from voting at one point or another.
Kamikaze Jeanne-Fan: Can I ask you a question? What does Kamikaze mean? I've always wanted to know and always been too lazy to get around to looking it up. And yes, I'm going to try to fit everyone in. Even if a lot of them have minor parts, I want the whole SK cast involved, since most fanfics tend to focus only on their main pairings and completely ignore/eclipse the more interesting of the minor characters. Don't get me started on my rant about that. xD
Meisha: Yeah, Hao/Anna is winning.. and hope this chapter was enough Hao/Anna for you. :P
Kawaii Koneko92：Just so you know.. you only get one vote, and no negative votes. ;) Aww.. poor Yoh – Fate's Companion and Kristie both agree with you. –pets him- He's really a sweetheart; just in a bad position right now. And I think of Tamao more as a refreshing change from the bold, beautiful, bold and beautiful, and not-so-beautiful amongst the SK cast. But then again, you'd be hard put to find me a SK character to dislike.
Akira: Sankyuu. Tis lovely of you to say so.
pandachan: Hope this is soon enough for you. ;)
Inulover4eva: I know that there will be at least a little HxA action because the fanfic as a whole is supposed to be ambiguous. However. According to the plan, it might not happen any time soon. The soonest to come is some chit-chat even bitter-er than the things seen in this chapter. Ah well. :)
Ravendream: Oh dear.. I'm beginning to forget whether you've already voted or not. ; Mass confusion abounds. And I'm.. glad you're happy? Heh; rather in a confused state today.
Ruby27: Yes, Ren and Horo will be in the fic. I'm contemplating rather evil things for The Boy With the Spike On His Head, however, so he's avoiding me as much as possible right now. Chapter after the next at the latest, I promise. :)
Me: Wow.. short review. xD Anyway, much as I suspect you to be, oh, say, Keiko or someone like that, I'll take the vote and hope that you enjoyed this chapter, H/A-ness notwithstanding.