CHAPTER 5
Yoh blinked.
There was a moment of silence that befell the two of them as he watched her with that usually dim expression on his face, except with the sudden adding of raised eyebrows. Then he suddenly snapped out of his trance, face reddening, eyes widening. " W. . .What?" he asked, spluttering out the simple word that seemed to tear through the entire conversation.
" What?" she snapped impatiently, unable to hold the red shade that appeared on her face. " I saw you, shouldn't you have every right to see me back?"
" That might be the point. . ." he started off, coughing uncomfortably. " But wouldn't you feel embarrased?"
" Why should I be?" she asked, shrugging. " I'm your fiance."
" You certainly were angry when I peeked on you." he said, then regret saying it soon after, by the murderous look on her face. Daggers seemed to come out of her eyes before her lips pursed and pouted.
" You were being a pervert." she said.
" So you wouldn't mind if I asked you up front?"
" Not that much, I wouldn't."
" Then why did you deny me that day at dinner?"
Her mouth opened to say something, before she shut it. " That's different." she said sulkily.
" In what way?" he pressed on.
" Look, do you want to see me naked or what?" she snapped.
" I always did." he said back, but blushed harder at the sight of her raised eyebrows. " But the point is, is that if you would do this, you might as well tell me why you did not give into me that night."
" I was not ready for that, alright?" she began hotly.
" And you're ready for this?" he inquired.
" The point is that I feel guilty for popping into you in the shower." she said, aware that for once she was on the losing end of the argument, and Yoh was simply on a roll today. " And if you don't want to complete the transection and let it be, I'm totally fine with it."
" Transection?" he asked, blinking.
" Oh, gnaw on a bone." she snapped. She was blushing from her head to her toe, and she had to admit that she had never felt this embarrased before. She thought that he would just agree, and they would get the whole thing over with. But he was persistant to find answers with stupid question, and all she wanted to do was to ram a hammer down his throat and kick him out of her room and hide herself under her blankets.
But things were already until this stage, and there was no turning back.
" Look, let's just get this over and done with, alright?" she said briskly, getting up.
" Anna. . ." he whispered, gulping as he noticed her pull her bandana off her head, her hair bouncing down to her shoulders.
She looked at him, nodding for him to continue.
" You're beautiful." he whispered, and she bit her lip to hold back her smile.
" I'm not going to sleep with you just because you said that," she said, a grin creeping on her lips as he noticed him shift uneasily as she unbuttoned the first button on her robe. She was at the second button when suddenly there was a knock on the door, and the both of them inwardly groaned.
" Come in." Anna muttered, buttoning up her shirt once more.
Manta appeared at the door , a bag of groceries in his hands, grinning up at them cheerfully, clearly not knowing what he had barged into. " Sorry." Manta said, holding up the bag above his shoulders. " But Anna told me that she wanted some groceries for tomorrow's dinner, and I decided I would just give it to you tonight instead of tomorrow, like Anna requested."
Yoh couldn't beleive it.
This was the first time he had wanted to kick Manta out of his house.
Manta blinked. " Did I come at a bad time?" he asked worriedly.
' Yes.' Yoh almost said to him.
" No," Anna said blantly. " No you didn't. Come on in."
She turned around and left the room, and shut the door behind her without even looking at the both of them.
They just stayed there in silence.
" I came at a bad time, didn't I?" Manta said.
" Yeah you did." Yoh said, sighing.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Anna shut herself in her room, biting her lip, trying her best to stop her heart from beating out of the regular, which at the moment was a very hard thing to do. What the Hell was she thinking by forcing him to see her naked? That was so unlike her that it was not funny. Not that it would have been funny if it was like her either. She gripped the beads across her chest tightly, shutting her eyes.
The image of Yoh's horrified face when she told him of her solution to their problem flashed into her mind, and her eyes opened slowly. She sighed and walked over to her bed, and fell onto it. The way he was staring at her. . .
It was almost like he was unwilling.
Was she THAT unattractive?
She almost slapped herself for thinking of that. No she wasn't. She was beautiful enough for Yoh to want to peek at her in the shower wasn't she? She sat up right, rubbing her temples tiredly. " Damn, I'm tired." she muttered, and she snapped to rapt attention at the sound of the knocking on her door. It was then when she knew straight away that it was Yoh. She always knew when it was him who knocked on her door or called her. . .sometimes she could tell when he was thinking of her. Sexually or not. Sometimes she would get goosebumps all of a sudden, and she suspected that. . .
But that was a different story.
" Come in." she said, straining her voice to stay calm.
Yoh appeared at the door, a plate of takoyaki in his hands.
She raised her eyebrows at it for a second before looking at him curiously.
He laughed.
" Manta brought them over to apologize." he said, walking over to her. " He just left."
She stabbed one with a toothpick and popped it into her mouth. " Apologize?" she asked, licking her lips to wipe off the takoyaki sauce from them. " What for?"
Yoh shrugged. " He thought that he ran into us doing something important."
" Oh?" she said, smirking slightly at him. " And was he right?"
He blushed, but smiled at her all the same. " Whatever I do with you is important to me, Anna." he said.
Now it was her turn to blush.
But she hid it much better than Yoh did, though. She turned her attention back to the takoyaki, and gave another stab to a piece near the far end of the plate and bit into it, munching on it between her teeth.
They stayed in their usual form of silence for the next few minutes before Anna spoke up.
" Yoh." she said.
" Mm?" he muttered, still looking up at the sky.
" Why are you physically attracted to me?"
He choked on a piece of octopus at that moment, and it landed right beside where Anna was sitting. She looked it for a solid minute before turning her attention back to him, her face wrinkled with disgust. " Charming." she said curtly.
" Sorry about that." he muttered. " You just shocked me, that's all."
She bit her lip. Again that shred of hesitation came again.
" Are you even attracted to me at all?" she blurted out.
He spun around, blushing furiously. " I am, Anna!" he said, and she blinked. " Your body is perfect, from head to toe!"
Then at the sight of her raised eyebrows, he just realized how stupid and pervertic he sounded. " Er. . ." he spluttered. " I'm not saying that I watch you when you don't know or something. . ."
She suddenly looked even more weary.
" I don't!" he said, aware of her scorching stare. " But. . .I'm just saying that. . .if I had to ever be with a body, I would be with yours."
Her eyebrows raised, if possible, even higher.
" Not just your body of course!" he said, inwardly cursing himself again. " I meant. . .with. . .you too."
" Okay." she muttered, getting up. " How very. . .flattering."
He swung an imaginary baseball bat at himself.
She walked to the door when he stared at her from behind for a moment, before speaking up. " Where are you going?" he asked her.
" For a walk." she said simply.
He nodded mutely, watching her leave, and blinked in surprise as she stopped slowly.
She turned, and Yoh swore he saw a slight blush appear on her cheeks.
" Do you. . ." she said, biting her bottom lip. " Want to follow me?"
He looked shocked for a moment before his face split into a huge grin, getting up. " Sure." he said.
She shook herself before making her way down the stairs.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Kino raised her eyebrows as she looked inside her drawer, surprising herself when she found that the thing she was looking for was not where she last placed it. Yohmei walked up to her, a grin on his face. " Well, if I have to believe everything I see," he muttereed amusingly. " It seems that for once you seemed to have misplaced something."
" Don't be stupid." Kino said irritatibly. " That's impossible."
" That's what they said about the earth not being flat." Yohmei said, smirking.
She pursed her lips before sighing. " I told you to not touch my things."
" Wouldn't have done it even if you asked me to."
" Then where is that damn thing?" she muttered angrily, slamming the drawer shut, growling at a nearby flower vase, which which seemed to wither away at her menanching look. Yohmei let out a whistle as he tagged along behind her as she entered Anna's room.
" So what were you looking for?" he asked.
" The spare candles that I always kept in the fifth drawer from the photo of Inoue the Itako are missing." she cursed.
" So what are we doing in Anna's room?" Yohmei asked.
" I kept several of them in Anna's sock drawer." she said simply.
" And why in all things Holy did you pick Anna's SOCK drawer to keep those in?" he asked.
" She never touched that drawer anyway." Kino said, almost to herself as she opened up the drawer, and blinked.
" There's none here either." she said.
" That's funny." he frowned. " It's bad enough that you're wrong once, but twice. . .?"
" I'm NOT wrong." she spat. " Anna must have moved it."
His lips twitched. " Oh?" he said. " Took up space didn't they?"
She glared at her husband for a moment before turning her attention back to rummaging through the amazingly huge number of socks that Anna had. Yohmei just smiled to himself, admiring his wife once again from afar. There were many times where he just stood in a corner and watched her at work, admired by the will of a blind woman to be able to see without seeing at the same time. She knew where things were kept in the house any better than anybody around, who had perfect visions of both eyes, thank you very much.
She spun around, and he could almost feel her frown from behind her sunglasses.
" Yohmei. . .check this out." she said.
He walked over to her and peered over her shoulder. He started to look around her sock drawer when Kino whacked him on the head impatiently. " THIS is what you need to be looking at." she said, pointing to four thin feathers above Anna's kimono drawer. It was almost invisible, glimmering dimly in the light, and was only caught by Yohmei's eye when he looked at that spot closely.
" Very smart." he said, obviously impressed.
" It was this heart-tracker that I had created so I could check up on Anna's corespondense."
" Right. . ." he said.
" And whenever her heart has removed another mental boulder from within, one of them would disappear."
" Nice." Yohmei said, rubbing his chin. " You thought of this yourself?"
" Not really." Kino said, looking sheepish. " Matamune told me about a book last time, and I got the idea from there. ' Beauty and the Beast was its name."
" Matamune eh?" Kino said, smiling fondly. " I remember him."
They stayed in silence for a moment before Kino cleared her throat.
" Anyway," she said curtly. " It started off with seven."
" Right." Yohmei said.
" One was lost not too long after the appearance of Yoh." she said clearly, counting it off with her fingers. " Another was lost after she met with Yoh once again. That's only two. Now one more is missing."
Yohmei smiled. " It seems like Yoh-kun is making progress."
Kino allowed a small grin to grace her face.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
" It's cold."
" Yes. . .so it is."
They strolled along the lake that connected the town with the next, and stopped as they reached the small bridge that would soon bring them into the district of a town that they had never entered before. They stopped before it, and leaned against the right railing of the bridge and looked down at the water that lapped the shore below. Yoh stuffed his hands in his pockets, shivering slightly with the cold, hoping that this small action could go unnoticed.
But Anna never missed anything.
Especially if the person doing it was Yoh.
He just watched the moon in silence for a short moment, unaware of Anna's sudden disappearence, and was only brought back to earth by the warm feel of something gainst his cheek. He jumped slightly and turned to the direction of the action, and looked at Anna in surprise as he noticed her smiling softly, a can of drink in her hands. " Here." she said.
He took it from her. " Thanks." he said.
She nodded and leaned against the railing once more.
He smiled and opened it, and drank it.
" From what I recall, what I gave you was decafe."
She raised her eyebrows at looked at him. " What?" she asked.
" Deja vu. . ." he said. " Don't you feel it?"
" No." she said simply.
He nodded and looked back up at the skies. " You agreed to go out for a walk with me. . ." he said softly. " It was the day just before the Shaman King competition. You agreed even though it was freezing cold outside."
She remained silent for a while.
" Just like you're doing now?" she asked.
" Just like I'm doing now." he said, grinning cheekily at her.
She managed a smile back.
He blushed at the sight, watching her intently as his eyes caught her side-profile, her beautiful face illuminating with the moonlight. He finished drinking the coffee and placed it on the railing beside him. He looked at Anna thoughtfully for a while before his fingers threaded trough her hair. She turned to him quizzingly, a look of confusion on her face.
" Yoh?" she asked, and Yoh was thanking the Lord she had not hit him yet.
" Shh," he whispered, his fingers threading through enough to cup her cheek. " Just stay still for a moment. I want to do something."
" What. . .?" she asked, somewhat nervously now.
" I'm going to kiss you." he whispered, closing in on her.
She could have slapped him.
She could have kicked him in the groin.
She could have punched him.
She could have grabbed the coffee can which was just nearby and thrown it at him. . .all of the above seemed rather appealing. . .yet she did the one thing that would have shocked the world.
She shut her eyes.
His lips pressed onto hers, his right hand still cupping her cheek, the other gently placing itself on her waist. Her hands wrapped around his neck, almost eager to deepen the kiss. She knew she would regret this somehow, but at the moment she was not thinking right.
Not thinking straight.
Just accepting his kiss, taking in his love. . .
Enjoying their bodies gently entwined in the moonlight.
END CHAPTER 5
What did you think? Hao's seduction lessons will be coming up right up and pronto, so keep reading and reviewing! P.S. I'm thinking of moving the rating up, just in case. Tell me if I should!
ReAdEr ReSpOnSeS
xxmoonlight-angelxx- - -Thanks.
superskittles123- - -Hehe. Clueless? Really?
HaNaGuMi- - -How many chapters. . .I'm not sure really. Not too long, that's for sure. Unless you all want more, that is.
utterbliss- - -grins Why, arigato.
merissala- - -Hahaha, that's an insult in a compliment. Gross? Really? Is that bad?
pendulumxswing- - -I'm glad you knew it was her, some thought Yoh said it.
Orphen27- - -Lolz, yeah, I always thought he was naughty. But likeable, all the same.
hannami08- - -Yep, whatever you said. Lolz.
Anna- - -Gee thanks! I will!
ANNA KYOUYAMA A- - -My history? When? Thanks for the review anyway.
dark-midnight-sky- - -You can bet on that.
Exploded toilet bowl- - -Lolz. LOVE your nickname by the way. Haha.
Jojo-Kyoyama- - -Grins We don't know about that, do we?
hannah-asakura- - -Whoops, sorry about the confusion. Anna said it, not Yoh. I don't think Yoh wanted to die that fast. Lolz.
rumia- - -Thank you. :)
catesy- - -I try. It's tiring, though.
Peacemaker- - -Yeah, sorry about that, once again.
azimataiji- - -Lolz. That was a line from Anna to Hao, right?
racer- - -Lolz. My guess is as good as yours.
tone- - -I'm trying.
BlackIcyRoses- - -Thank you.
Lushi- - -Crap. I'm not too hot at japanese. My apologies.
Anna - - -Yes. Smirks
blackyuki- - -And here it is.
Kasumi Nishikao- - -Lolz, yeah, in this way. But I'm never giving you my e-mail, ever. Hahaha. . . .