The earth was slippery from rain; the air had the strange coldness about it chilling him to the very core. And then there was the flames... the orange light that flickered along with his vision. A piercing pain at his side... then a floating sensation of him falling towards his doom.
'Am I dying?'
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Flames licked at the hem of his robes, as he called frantically for her. The house was in ruins, though the fire still blazed wildly clawing at the very sky itself. Spirit of Water loomed over the crackling wood and corpses of servants, small droplets of water fell from the sky obscuring the moon and muffling the jagged flames.
A small sound amongst the crumbling building, a sound he longed to hear, just not in so much pain.
She was there, with the heavy door crushing her tiny form to jelly. She had curled protectively around her stomach in a fetal position. Soot and blackening burns most of her body, a stark contrast against her usually delicate skin.
"I'm sorry..." her voice wracked with pain, he finally let loose the torrents of tears that had plagued him since he had caught side of the firestorm. She touched his face, the heat of the flames still left on them, and she was gone as if she had never been there...
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
'Why is it so dark?'
'Why?'
'Why?'
'Why?'
Anna murmured soothingly, unlike herself as she bathed him.
'An...na...' the sponge was bubbling with tickling foam as it was wiped across his back in a methodical way, never hesitating but never punishing as it washed away the last of the dirt upon his skin. He realized that he was naked,
'Anna!' the odd necklace was still around his neck, he couldn't feel the heat rush to his cheeks like it usually did when he was embarrassed.
"Don't worry," she said in a monotone without looking at him. Almost as if she knew he was listening, however remotely that was. "You will forget, you will forget about Tao Ren..." he would have gasped if he could, except now his body was no longer his to control. "Then you will answer only to me..."
'ANNA!'
It was selfish of her, she thought as she enlisted the help of a very shocked looking Tamao to haul Yoh off to bed. Tamao had blushed heavily, stammering politely before scurrying off.
She narrowed her eyes; it wasn't as if she didn't know what others were planning. It simply did not matter, she knew more, or so she thought, than what others were currently informed of. She knew that she loved Asakura Yoh in a sick, twisted way... no perhaps not love, but obsession can do many things to a person. Especially if one had chased it over five hundred years.
She had cleaned out Ren's room last night, watching in satisfaction as Yoh blankly burned away the belongings of the Chinese Shaman and neatly cleaned the room in a way he had never done in his life.
"Yoh..." she whispered softly looking down at her sleeping fiancé, "I lost to her but if I can't have him I will have you instead." She laughed softly as she lay across Yoh's stomach, "I am a bitch aren't I?" she faced him just inches away from direct contact. She buried her face in the crook of his neck breathing into his soapy scent. "But you're mine now..."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Asakura Hao gazed deeply into the flames and sighed, the memories of two girls, both inverses of each other, dancing across his mind. One an active blonde with sparkling hazel eyes that were eager to soak up the knowledge presented before her. The second, a demure girl-woman, the only one to have triumphed over him, even if it was because he was too busy trying to stem the flow of blood from both of his nostrils.
A flash of flames and a figure stumbles back, hissing in pain. Gold eyes narrow angrily as he resists the urge to suck on the burnt appendages.
A sigh,
"My dear Ren, haven't you learned that I am never off my guard?" with a gentle hand he caught the wrist of the retreating shaman in a firm grip. "Now look what you've done, you've hurt yourself."
"Correction Hao, you hurt me." Hao smiled, scanning Ren's face carefully to see that the fire has not caused damage to the Chinese shaman's beautiful visage.
"Aah but I wouldn't have if you weren't so intent on ramming that spear of yours into my head..." pulling Ren closer Hao nibbled on his ear to which Ren reacted by looking away, burning in shame at his weakness.
"Why can't you let me go? Why won't you?" the nibbling stopped, before it turned into a trail of kisses that burned through his neckline onto his collarbone.
"Ren..." breathed Hao through half lidded eyes, "do you find me that repulsive?"