3. Love by Default
It's been mistaken for being one-sided. And now it can be misinterpreted as love by default.
The florescent orange headphones—music's obsolete tool, long left behind by rapidly advancing technology—rest next to his miles of mahogany locks. She watches him rustle a bit against his pillow, his consciousness riding the waves of sleep.
Love by default was too simple of a phrase; it was undermining.
There are many facts to consider. For instance, her loving him had seeped in as realization long ago. She knew, but like all other emotions she felt, it was repressed. Truthfully, she is a very emotional person. And quite fortunately, she is good at hiding it.
Her love for him was the one she wanted kept hidden. Her love for Yoh was the one she proudly upheld.
First, her feelings started out as mere annoyance. He had been the only one to stop her mid slap. Luckily, the left hand still connected with his cheek. She couldn't let his fire smother her own.
Then the annoyance grew into utter disdain, something that hinted a little bit of something else. Attraction.
So she brushed it off as shallow attraction, the meaningless kind that only she need know about.
On their second meeting, face to face, his fingers clamped roughly around her wrists and his menacing tone demanded to know who she was. Then, the trickling of her feelings had turned into an onslaught of undeniable truth. It didn't make sense; it jolted her. The idea of simultaneously loving two people was truly repulsive.
Standing on the sandy seashore behind his casually seated figure that day, the clarity began to make the illogical more logical. She loved him because she loved Yoh, and Yoh was half of him to begin with.
She loved them as separate entities. And she loved them as one whole being.
She draws the fallen covers back over her husband's shivering body.
Now she can also accept that she loved Yoh because Yoh was half of Hao to begin with.
AN: This is just based on my own epiphany; it's a different interpretation than chap 2. It's debatable, but I really think Anna would have loved the original Hao. Her loving Yoh shows one aspect of her loving Hao, because I really think Yoh's current personality was a part of him that became repressed by his hatred for humans.