By animeninjaNIPPON

Well, here's another Choco/Ren fic, not only 'cuz this pairing is one of my faves, but also because there aren't that many stories for this ship out there.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shaman King. If I did, that would be cool, though... And I tried to keep the characters as IC as possible, but I'm not the creator, and I can't do it perfectly...Ah well, enjoy.

"That's just ridiculous!" Ren scoffed, poking Chocolove in the nose with his Kwan Dao.

"OW!" Chocolove cried, grasping his nose. "That really hurt!"

"What kind of a pun was that, anyway?" Ren continued. "Rhyming 'shitsurei' with 'parfait'?"

"Come on...have a sense of humor."

"If you don't mind, I have to train." Ren turned to leave. "Bason!"

"Yes, Young Master," the spirit ally replied.

The two of them left Chocolove and his jaguar spirit ally, Mic, alone. The former of the remaining duo turned turned to the other with a sigh. "What am I doing wrong, Mic? Should I have tried to match it with a Japanese word? Hmm..."

Ren had never laughed at a single one of Chocolove's jokes, and most likely, he never would. Actually, no one in that group of shaman really found him funny - if anything, they found him rather aggravating. Of course, no one else would poke him with their oversoul media - mostly, they just ignored him. If they were in the middle of something important, Yoh would usually say something like "Now's not the time for that." Otherwise, only Ren paid attention. In fact, Ren paid attention a lot...

Somewhere along the line, Chocolove felt himself being drawn to the elusive Chinese shaman. And from what he had been told about the time Yoh and the others had gone to save Ren from the clutches of his malevolent father, he felt he could relate to some of the things Ren was feeling. "He doesn't like to show it," Ryu once said, "but his family influences him a good deal."

It was only recently - perhaps only days ago - that Chocolove realized how much he really cared about Ren, despite the latter's reactions to Chocolove's puns. He was by no means a masochist, he was certain, but he continued to tell his English-Japanese puns because, it seemed, only Ren would listen to his silliness. But what he really wanted to do, just once to see if it was possible, was to see Ren laugh.

"I've got it!" Chocolove exclaimed. "Maybe if I use a Chinese phrase..." He trailed off sadly. He could tell jokes in English, he could tell them in Japanese, he could even tell them in Spanish - growing up in as diverse a city as New York gave him knowledge in many tongues. But Chinese was difficult - so many dialects, so many tones that the pronunciation depended on - he hadn't managed to pick up much of it.

But there was one term he knew pretty well. And it was perfectly fitting for the scenario...

Meanwhile, Ren was taking a break from his workout. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with a dry towel and sat down with a bottle of milk. He sipped it slowly, savoring its creamy flavor, then set it down as Chocolove approached him.

"Can't you bother someone else?" Ren sighed, not even looking at the dark-skinned teen. "I'm busy."

"You don't look busy," Chocolove said cooly.

Ren glanced up skeptically. "Go away."

Chocolove frowned. He was waiting for an opening, and Ren knew it, so they both remained silent for a few minutes.

Finally, the pointy-haired boy spoke. "What do you want?"

"I never said I wanted anything. I'm just here."

Ren stood up. "Just tell me what you want."

Chocolove knew he couldn't stall for time any longer, but he needed to wait until Ren said something that could be twisted into a pun. And not just anything - something that rhymed with the one Chinese phrase Chocolove knew...

"I don't have time for your stupidity," Ren said, now looking Chocolove square in the eye. "Just tell your damn joke and be done with it." He was getting a little uneasy - not only because he was sure that Chocolove was planning some great gag, but also because the eye contact was stirring up butterflies in his stomach.

Ren was always the solemn one - HoroHoro, Ryu, and Yoh were more at ease with each other; comfortable joking around and whatnot. But Ren, though no longer attempting to kill any of them, sometimes felt out of place in their conversations. And he noticed that Chocolove, though a self-proclaimed comedian, didn't always seem to fit into what the others were doing either. On such occasions, they often wound up in the same place at the same time, taking note of each other, like they were in the standstill they were in at that moment.

With one step to the side, Ren picked up his bottle of milk and took a drink. "I'm leaving now. Sayonara."

Sayonara. Chocolove grinned deviously, an expression that went unnoticed by the other teen.

"Ai lian."

With that, the milk bottle slipped from Ren's grip and crashed at his feet, splattering milk all over his shoes and pants. Chocolove froze in shock. Had he pronounced it right? What if he said it wrong and accidentally uttered some Chinese obscenity? That was the last thing he wanted to do... Or maybe it was the wrong dialect?

"What did you say?" Ren glared at Chocolove.

"Ai lian. Did I say it correctly?" Chocolove tried to move, but he was trapped beneath Ren's gaze. As he took a slight step back, the Kwan Dao halted mere millimeters from his nose.

"Do you know what that means?" Ren called from the other side, the slightest trace of anguish detectable in his voice.

Chocolove smiled brightly. "If I said it right, it means...I love you."

Ren lowered his weapon while looking at the white puddle and shards of glass on the ground. "You...love me?"

Chocolove nodded. "Yeah. For a while now, I think."

"...What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, I care about you. I like being with you. You're not as serious as you want me to think you are..." He gave another mischievous grin.

Ren sighed and gently dropped his Kwan Dao to the ground. "I can't believe you go out of your way to make stupid jokes like that. Such simple puns." He took a few steps closer to the darker shaman and, much to said shaman's surprise, gave a mischievous smile of his own. In his best English, Ren replied, "I love you, too."

"You mean..." Chocolove could not believe what he heard.

"You heard me."

"Right." He pulled Ren into an embrace, which was awkward at first, but the Chinese teen quickly got used to it.

Some distance away, Bason and Mic watched their shaman counterparts in disbelief, at a complete loss for words.

The End