CHAPTER 2
Hao whistled a happy tune to himself, a bag of treats in one hand, the other free hand running itself through his hair. He reached the door of Yoh's house soon enough, pushed the sliding door to one side and. . .
Came face-to-face with his brother tied to a pole which was wrapped around the ceiling fan, gagged by a toilet roll.
Hao just blinked, looking up at him for several seconds before setting down the treats he brought down to the table, scratching his head uncomfortably. " I see the two of you are really getting progress." he muttered, almost to himself, ad he looked up at his brother from the front steps. " Do you need any help getting down, Yoh?" he asked.
" No, he's fine up there." came Anna's sharp voice from behind him, and Hao jumped, turning back.
" Good evening, Anna." Hao said timidly.
" Mmph." she muttered, promptly taking the snacks he brought to entertain himself and walked into the television room, and shut the door behind her. Hao just watched her leave soundlessly, his eyes following from the area where his food was kept, to Yoh who was tied to the ceiling fan, to the room where Anna was inside. He just sighed and took off his shoes, levitating off the ground to help his gagged brother out.
" Thanks." Yoh said gratefully, spitting the toilet roll out, wiping his mouth.
" You're welcome." Hao said. " I'm just hoping she doesn't come out anytime soon, though."
" Nah, she won't." Yoh said reassuringly. " Her TV show's on until 10."
" So do I tie you up there later again?"
" That'll be good."
They just sat there for a moment, before exchanging glances and Hao chuckled. " Anna's the same as usual." he said, scratching his head. " I still can't beleive that you're the male of the group."
" Anyone can be henpecked around the likes of Anna." Yoh said feverishly, getting up to enter the kitchen.
Hao followed.
" It's been really stressful lately." Yoh muttered, handing Hao a peach. " I think her period just started."
" That can't be good." Hao said, shivering at the thought. He bit into the peach and pursed his lips. " Damn, this peach is sour."
" Want a different one?" Yoh offered.
" I'm alright." Hao answered, taking another bite. " Usually the sour ones are sweet in the core."
" Says who?" Yoh said witheringly, taking a peach himself and bit into it.
" Me." Hao said. " Or maybe it's just that the inside is less sour than the outside, so it seems sweeter."
They just watched the moon for a short moment.
" So why did she hang you on the ceiling fan?" Hao asked.
Yoh paused, sighing again. " I'd rather not tell you."
" Why?" Hao asked, suddenly interested. " Come on, spill it out."
" It's. . .rather embarrasing." Yoh said, finishing his peach and threw the core away.
" We all have embarrasing moment, Yoh." Hao said, taking another bite.
" I peeked on her bathing."
Hao choked on his peach.
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Anna looked inside the bag of treats that hao brought.
" Lolipops. . ." she muttered, tossing them aside. " Ramen noodles. . .banana yohgurt. . .biscuts. . ."
She paused as her hands laid upon a packet of contraceptives before sweatdropping and throwing it deep into the bag, face flushed. " Men." she muttered, digging in deeper, and settled for a bag of chips and a small can of beer.
It was then when she sneezed.
She wiped her nose and frowned at her door.
What was her fiance and brother talking about?
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" You. . .yoh WHAT?" Hao spluttered.
" I peeked on her bathing and she caught me." he said gloomily.
Hao had a mixture of expressions which Yoh would have laughed at if he wasn't so gloomy. " Oh my God. . ." Hao whispered. " You're lucky that she only hung you on the fan! If it was me or somebody else!"
" Death." Yoh said, sighing. " Horo tried it once."
" Horo Horo?" Hao's eyes sparkled with amusement. " And he didn't get caught?"
" He's good at his work." Yoh said.
Silence as Hao took another bite of his peach.
" So was her body good?" Hao asked, enjoying the sight of his brother blushing beet red.
But Hao just smiled.
" I know she's beautiful." he said. " But how's her figure?"
Yoh spluttered at his brother. Only Hao could make that not sound pervertic.
He hung his head.
" Yeah." he said. " She's gorgeous."
Hao smiled fondly at his brother, before frowning.
" But I find it strange." he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. " You two are engaged, no?"
" Yeah, we are." Yoh said, nodding.
" Then isn't it allowed that you see her naked?" Hao said cheekily. " I mean, I see girls bare bodied, and WE aren't even engaged."
" But, you're different!" Yoh exclamied, flustered.
" In what ways?" Hao said testingly. " You're a man, aren't you?"
" Yeah. . ." Yoh said, cocking his brow.
" She's a lady, right?"
" Yeah. . ."
" So what's wrong with the picture?"
Yoh blushed and shivered. " She's scary." he said.
He grinned, amused. " I know that. But even so, you must have some control over her. Picture what's going to happen in bed."
Yoh had never blushed so hard in his life. But yet, in some strange, twisted way, he knew that his brother was caring for him.
" Here, look. . ." Hao said, scratching the back of his head. " I'll talk to her."
Yoh's eyes widened. " You would?"
Hao shrugged. " Sure. I'll tell you if I have any results. Now, before I go meet her, I have to tie you back up before. . .hey, what's wrong? Are you alright?"
It was ten o'clock.
He stopped dead in his sentence as he heard the sounds of knuckles cracking behind him, and as he turned he finally realized why Yoh was so fearful of this woman. " Asakura Yoh." was all that Yoh heard before the world's most painful slap whipped across his face.
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" Geez, you didn't have to hit him THAT hard."
" Hmph."
Hao sat comfortable on one of the cushions found inside Anna's room, watching her as she slammed the door shut, slapping her hands together in a matter-of-fact kind of way. He laughed and reached out for one of the crackers that he had bought and bit into it. " So the two of you still sleep in seperate rooms and beds eh?" Hao said, flipping the channels, looking at the television. " I thought that by now the two of you would. . ."
" Do you want to get hanged up on the tree as well?" Anna growled, pointing at Yoh, who was strapped on the tree, easily visible from Anna's bedroom window.
" No thank you." Hao said, popping the remains of the cracker into his mouth.
" So whta did you come here for?" Anna asked, sighing.
Hao smiled and leaned back in his cushion, the back of his head rested by his two hands.
" Just came to talk to my little brother." he said.
" A pervertic little shit he is too." she muttered.
Hao grinned and sat up right. " Well, he IS your fiance and future husband, isn't he?" he said, taking the opportunity straight away. " I guess in a way he HAS the right to see you naked, am I not wrong?"
Now it was her turn to blush.
' Damn Hao for being so smooth.' she muttered to herself. " Still. . ." she started. " He shouldn't have been such a voyuer."
" You'd rather him walk right up to you and undress you?" he said.
Damn.
Anna wanted to strangle Hao right now, but he was right, in whatever he said.
" But somewhere, deep down, you feel flattered, don't you?"
" I don't!" she snapped, turning crimson.
He smirked at her. " Are you sure?"
When she had no answer to that, he slowly got up to his feet, and tied his hair up in a bundle, just like Yoh usually did. Her eyes widened.
" What are you!" she started, but was cut short by Hao covering her mouth with his hand, the other hand on the first button of her shirt, his body sprawled upon her. He smirked down at her.
" What if it was Yoh doing this to you now?" he whispered.
His finegrs had already cleverly unbuttoned the first two buttons of her shirt, which had now seemed to trail down from her shirt to her upper thigh which was clearly seen through the thin, black dress she always wore.
She just seemed to blank out for a moment as Yoh appeared before her, expect without that calming smile; in its place was Hao's smirk. She smiled back, and he blinked.
" It's obvious, isn't it?" she whispered.
" Eh?" Hao asked.
But she said nothing more but lift her leg upwards, ramming him right in the crotch.
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Yoh sighed.
Hao sighed.
Ren sighed.
Horo sighed.
Ryu sighed.
The five of them were sitting in the nearby cafe the next day, untouched cups of coffee before them. Yoh turned to his brother, an apologetic look on his face. " I'm sorry," he said, rather sheepishly. " Onne-chan."
Hao just grinned. " It's alright." he said, yet his hand unknowingly went back to his aching groin. " But I really pity you, for the first time in my life."
The others looked up at him and Hao laughed.
" At first I envied you for taking away the one girl that I fell in love with." Hao started, taking a sip of his coffee. " But now I'm pretty glad that I didn't marry her. An almost infertile Hao is bad news to girls all round."
" Yeah, I know what you mean." Horo said, shivering.
The others stared at him and he blushed.
" About the Anna part, not the infertile part." he said.
Hao breathed a sigh of relief.
" She's really beautiful." Horo said, grinning at Yoh, who just turned another shade of red. " I would have gone after her long ago if it wasn't for the facts that she was Yoh's fiance and that. . .well. . .she was so. . ."
" Scary." Ryu finished for him.
" And that if she wasn't Yoh's fiance, I would be with her anyway." Hao said calmly.
" Says who?" Horo asked, cocking his brow.
" Me." he said, grinning at Horo from the top of his coffee cup.
" Oh, stop being babies"
Ren, who had stayed silent until then, said. " We're here to help Yoh on how to win her over, not on who would be suitable for her if Yoh was dead or non-existant."
They raised their eyebrows.
" Wow, you really cut to the core, Ren." Ryu said, nodding.
Ren smirked.
Hao crossed his legs, looking sulky for a moment before smiling once again. " Just go up to her, Yoh." he said.
Yoh blinked.
" What?"
" He's telling you to just go for it, Yoh-donno." Amidamaru said confidently.
Yoh sweatdropped. " What?"
" He means to just bring things to an end." Ryu said.
" Wha. . .?" Yoh asked, more confused than ever.
" Oh, they mean for you to just make love to her, Yoh." Ren snapped, annoyed by Yoh's denseness.
Hao spat out the drink in his mouth, spraying Horo all over.
" Sorry." he said.
But Horo wasn't even listening. He was googling at Ren. " How the Hell do you say that without getting red?" he asked.
Ren smirked. " I'm more grown up than any of you." he said.
" Not TOO grown up, in any case." Hao said, wiping the coffee from his mouth. " You said ' make love' and not 'sex.' "
Watching Ren blush, he smirked. " You're mature, but sure are not a man."
The others burst into laughter.
Hao turned to his brother. " She loves you." he said. " You know that."
Yoh looked pouty. " She sure doesn't show it."
Hao smiled. " Do people like Ren show to you acts of kindness?"
Ren stopped trying to ambush Hao from behind and paused.
" But yet you know he's your friend." Hao finished.
Silence.
Ren sighed. " You're really good with words, aren't you?"
" And am proud of it." Hao said, smirking.
He got up, picking up his bag. " I'm leaving now." he said softly. " Coffee's on me."
The others but Yoh and Ren cheered.
Hao winked at Yoh. " Try it tonight." he said.
" I'll drop by tomorrow to see how the progress is."
And he disappeared, the money for the coffee on the table.
Ren sighed again and sat down beside Yoh. " Your brother's cooler than you, that's for one."
Yoh nodded, before smiling, rather confidently.
" But what he said about Anna was true, right?"
Ren's eyes widened.
" Yoh!" he exclamied. " Don't tell me you're going to listen to him. . .?"
Yoh nodded and got up. " Yep." he said.
" Tonight's the night where Yoh turns from a boy into a man."
And with one last smile he walked off, disappearing behind the door of the shop.
The three stayed silent for a while.
" So who had a better exit?" Ryu asked, scratching his chin.
" Hao." the others said, almost instantly, before laughing and finishing their drinks.
" I just hope Anna doesn't kill Yoh when he tries to seduce her." Ren said, sweatdropping.
" Yeah." Horo said.
" Good luck to him, ne?"
Good luck indeed.
Because Yoh was going to need it.
END CHAPTER 2
Finally something's going to happen between Yoh and Anna! I've been wanting to put it into chapter 1, but decided I should just develop the storyline first, right? Okay. Here's chapter 2 everyone! Did you enjoy it? Hopefully it was funny, because the next chapter's going to be mostly about Yoh trying to. . .well. . .yeah. . .Anna. (Blinks, coughs at uncomfortable silence.) Please look foward to chapter 3 and KEEP READING AND REVIEWING!