How about another chapter of Busy Vacation! Not a lot of LenxPilica, actually. It rather surprised me. But when I started to write, it took me in a totally different direction than what I had planned.
There's only a few chapters to go, so...
REVIEW!
Disclaimer: Standard
Onto the fic...
The next morning, breakfast was awfully silent.
Everyone cast glances around the table at respective people.
The silence was broken only with the clattering of plates and cups, and utensils.
Day Five
"Erm-" Len coughed, breaking the silence, and drawing sharp looks from everyone. He flinched a little at the sudden attention. "I was thinking..." he started, pausing momentarily as if wondering whether to say it or not. "Maybe we should do something today,"
"Like what?" Pilica asked, joining the silence-breaking.
"Maybe we should do stuff with the same gender today," he said, staring at his plate.
"Whaa!" half of the table shouted.
"Dumbells!" Anna shouted afterward. "He means that maybe the girls should go shopping or something and they boys could go... golf!"
"Ooooh," they quieted.
Then Trey spoke up.
"I don't know how to play golf..."
"Too bad!" Anna shouted back.
"I just mean that some of us have been spending a lot of time with certain others of us, and I think that maybe these certain people should spend some time apart, or with other friends, on this vacation. After all, there is really only one day left, and then you will have to go home," Len justified.
And they had to admit, it made sense.
"Erm- what's this?" Trey asked, lifting up his club. As the hot spring had a golf course, Len had challenged the boys. And Trey being Trey, he didn't back down from Len's challenge.
And Yoh... was just there because Anna was going shopping. And he didn't like going shopping with her. Honestly, the piles and piles of boxes and bags still haunted him.
"It's called a golf club. This one is a putter. You use it for relatively short-distances,"
"Alright. So all I have to do is hit the ball with the- club- and into the hole, and I win?"
Len smacked himself on the forehead. "You don't win, Trey. Once we've been to all eighteen holes, then we tally how many swings it took us to get the ball in the hole for each turn. Then the person with the lowest number wins,"
"...Oh, is that all?"
"...Yes, that's all,"
"Okay then, Len! Be prepared to be defeated!"
"I should warn you, I'm very good at this game," Len replied.
"Mini-golf, Len? I never would have pinned that hobby on you," Yoh spoke for the first time.
"What's that giant clown's-head for?"
"Now, who to pick..." Anna mused as she got out of the limo. The cheauffer had driven them to the nearest mall. And of course, it was big, and they would certainly need a pack mule.
"Ooh! How about him! He looks strong," Pilica said, pointing.
"Pilica!" Tamora urged. "It's impolite to point. Plus, Len would kill you for picking him,"
"He wouldn't kill me, he loves me too much!"
"Well, well, well. Look what the limo dragged in," an unexpected voice sounded from behind them.
Anna's lip twitched, almost smiling. Pack mule, coming right up.
"You're still alive, Hao?" she said casually, turning to face him.
"Is that really any way to treat me, your future brother-in-law?"
"After the Shaman tournament, yes," she replied.
Hao scoffed, she had him there. What was it about her that gave her this authority over absolutely everyone?
"Is there something you wanted, Hao? Usually you wouldn't talk to anyone unless you needed something from them,"
"What? I can't pop in on my brother's fiancee unannounced?"
"Actually, Hao, it is a very odd thing to do. Especially since Yoh isn't with me, and brothers, not their fiancees, are usually the people one would wish to see,"
Dangit. She had him there too. "Isn't it possible that I just happened to be here when you arrived?"
"No, not really. What with this being China and you either being used to Japan or America. I would doubt that you'd decide to come and stay here, especially since it's so close to the Tao estate,"
The fustration was visible on Hao's face now, and Tamora, Pilica and Jun were having fun watching the show.
"How about this," Anna said, sounding like she was bargaining. "You come and be our pack mule on this trip to the mall, and there will be no more questions about why you're here,"
Hao didn't like the tone she was using. It sounded more like he should prefer the questions rather than being the mule, but she had him backed into a corner. There was no other option, besides disappearing, but Anna would kill him the next time she saw him if he tried that. And he didn't want to miss his littel brother's wedding, or the birth of their children, or any of that kind of stuff...
... Pack Mule it is.
"Alright, Anna. I'll be your pack mule,"
A trickle of sweat poured down his forehead. His eyes nervously glanced from the ball to the windmill, the beating of his heart in time with the blocking and opening of the hole that led through the obstacle. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes...
... and swung.
Trey watched it in slow motion as the ball neared the windmill... and bounced back.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" the duo next to him shouted.
"Trey! I can't believe it! You missed AGAIN!" Len taunted through his laughing.
"So what does this make?" Yoh asked Len, keeling over.
"Thirteen," he replied, falling to his knees. "And just on this hole. That doesn't count the twenty-seven he used on the last hole, or the ten he took on the first hole!"
"No offense, Trey, but I think you're losing," Yoh said.
"Yeah well, it's my first time trying this so-"
"Your first time and you were already betting I, master of mini-golf, would be defeated?"
"Need I point out, Len-" Trey said, pointing a finger up toward the sky and mimicing a "factual" pose. "-That Yoh is five points ahead of you,"
"Huh?" Len said, taking out the score card and quickly adding the numbers in his head. "What! How can that be!"
"Don't take it personally, old buddy, after all, you still have fifteen holes to go!" Trey said, patting him on the back as Len glared daggers at the scorecard.
"If we ever get there," Yoh mumbled.
"HEY!" Trey turned on him. Yoh sniggered. "Fine," he pouted. "If you're so inconsiderate and don't want me here, I'll just go back to my Tammy,"
"NO!" Len shouted, earning strange looks from both Yoh and Trey. "...Look, we promised that today, we'd do something fun, just the three of us, without girls. Right? There must be something fun that we can do without them!"
A few hours later...
"No more boxes... Please, no more boxes," a very tired, and very unhappy Hao Asakura.
Anna smirked as he dropped the many, many boxes he'd been holding into the front hall of the onsen, and crashed to the floor. "Come on, Hao. Not even someone like you can handle us shopping? I'm ashamed to call you brother-in-law,"
"Well maybe I don't want to be your brother-in-law anymore, if it means more boxes," he spoke mostly to the hard floor upon which he lay.
"Well, Anna," Pilica spoke up. "I think I've spent enough time away from my Len, where do you think the boys are?"
"Good question, Pilica... Hao! Find them!"
"Noooo, Annnnaaa!" Hao moaned.
"GO!"
"I'm up! I'm up!" he said, running past them and out the back door.
It didn't take him long to find them. The Tao estate was some good property and, if Hao knew his brother, he'd be lazing around watching the now multi-colored sky. Therefore, it was only natural that when Hao found the first cliff, that the boys would be laying there.
"This is the life, huh guys?" Yoh said, staring up at a cloud.
"I quite agree," Len said, "Who knew not working or training could be this much... fun,"
"There's only one thing that could make this better," Trey said.
"It wouldn't happen to be me, would it?" Hao said, startling Len and Trey. Yoh, however, looked like he knew Hao would be there, and greeted him casually.
"Hello, otouto," he said, his eyes not breaking contact with the sky.
"Aniki," Hao acknowledged, laying beside them so they were all in a row.
"When did you get here!" Trey insisted.
"And why are you on my estate!" Len demanded.
"C'mon, guys. Couldn't you sense him? He's kind of a hard person to miss. Especially in the peace and quiet we were just laying in. So, Hao, girls got you working?"
"I never want to see another box in my life. You forgot to warn me that when Anna gets in a mall, I don't want to be there,"
"Sorry, brother. But they did need a pack mule," he said, tossing his lopsided grin at his older brother.
Hao looked questioningly at him, wondering why he knew this.
"I'm not the Shaman King for nothing, Hao," Yoh said, returning his gaze to the sky.
"Ah... sometimes I forget," Hao said, watching the sky too.
"So what are you here for?" Len asked, seeming to have gotten used to Hao's presence.
"Actually, the girls wanted me to find you, but I much prefer doing this," he replied.
"Yeah,"
"Yeah,"
"Yeah,"
A pause.
"...Aw, who am I kidding? Tamora!" Trey shouted, starting to run at break-neck speed back toward the onsen.
"Pilica," Len whispered, getting up and following Trey at a slower pace.
Hao and Yoh looked at each other and got up simultaneously.
Hao started heading back toward the hot spring, but when Yoh didn't follow, he turned back. "You coming?" he questioned.
"Nah," Yoh said, sitting down and leaning on the trunk of a nearby tree.
As he didn't supply a reason, Hao just turned, not questioning why.
Yoh returned his gaze to the beautiful sunset as his favorite person sat down next to him.
"For a minute there, I thought they wouldn't leave," Anna said, leaning on Yoh's chest as he put his arm around her.
"Honestly, I don't know why they didn't sense you. Maybe their shamanic powers aren't what they used to be," Yoh joked.
"Hm, maybe," Anna smiled, looking out into the darkening sky. "It's pretty here,"
"Sure is," he replied to her comment. "And this is a perfect spot to watch the beauty of it all,"
"Mmm," Anna agreed, snuggling closer to him as a chilled wind passed by. Yoh smiled down at her.
"Cold?" he asked.
"No," Anna replied.
"Anna, you were shivering,"
"No I wasn't,"
"You have goosebumps on your arms,"
"Stupipd short sleeves," she cursed, drawing a laugh from Yoh. "That's funny, is it?" she asked.
"Actually, yeah," Yoh replied.
"Yoh Asakura!" she said, sounding apalled.
"Come on, Anna!" Yoh laughed. He leaned down, capturing her lips and caressing them with his as he had learned she loved.
"Mmm," she moaned into his mouth, clutching his unbuttoned shirt and pulling him toward her. Yoh smiled upon her lips, taking the shirt off. Breaking the kiss, he placed it around her shoulders and pulled it tight.
"Still cold?" he whispered.
"Hmmm...yes. Have any other clothes you could take off for me?" she asked seductively.
"Ah," Yoh responded, catching her drift. "Plenty. But we'd have to go someplace more comfortable, I do require payment for my charitable distributions. Perhaps you could take some clothes off for me too?"
"I think that could be arranged," she said, hands running up and down his bare chest as she came in for another kiss, one more passionate than the last. She parted his lips easily and protruded into his mouth, drawing a pleasurable moan from him. "Hehe," she giggled, breaking off the steamy kiss and making Yoh whimper. "Follow me," she taunted, standing up and running back toward the hot spring.
TBConcluded.
LAST CHAPTER NEXT! OH NO! WHAT WILL I DO?
Thanks for all the great reviews guys! I'm glad to see some still like this fic after making you wait... umm how long was it... for the next chapter! Hope this satisfies you!
Next Chapter: Departure and Homecoming
P.S. I promise to update more quickly this time. After all, I have no other fics to work on!
animebookworm44!