Ashuri: okay this is the last chapter of OOA. I want to thank you all for your reviews, you rock and I will be doing a sequel eventually, so I hope you can all can be patient with me and because people love that rabbit, the rabbit will make a comeback in the sequel. Thank you all again and sorry for my lateness. I've been lazy and needed to get back into my shaman king state of mind cause I started getting obsessive over naruto..

Naruto appears and sticks his tongue out at everyone: believe it!

Ashuri pushes him away: go away.

Hao: I'm bored.

Ashuri: just do it.

Hao grumbles: she does not own shaman king.

Chapter 17: Object of Affection.

Possibly one of the hardest things to do is telling yourself you love this person and even harder still is telling this person you love them. And as Ren was quickly figuring out it was defiantly turning out to be a lot harder then he thought it would be when he claimed to himself that was going to prove his love for Horo. And the way he went about trying to do this was sitting in front of a small mirror he had attached to the wall and trying to force the three words he could finally think out of his mouth. He had managed to say I and you. The L word would obviously take some time to get out but not being able to say it was beginning to annoy him.

And this annoyance was making him slam his head into the wall above the mirror, which in turn alerted Horo, if he was in the house at the time, to what he was doing, and therefor came upstairs to investigate and the conversation normally went like this.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!"

"It doesn't seem like nothing."

"Well its nothing. Leave me alone!"

"But-"

"Please!"

Basically it was very short because Horo didn't want to upset Ren too much and Ren tried not to insult Horo and upset him there by upsetting himself in the process. So Horo would go back downstairs and Ren would again try to say the three little words that were consuming his life at the present time. He hated being emotionally retarded and this was the only solution to his problem.

He wasn't getting anywhere fast.

One day in June, taking a break from trying to force the words out, Ren decided to go and lay on a towel on the back porch under a umbrella. Horo was out of the house so he could have a nice relaxing afternoon. It was incredibly hot outside. That was one thing about Japan. It had very hot summers. Stretching, he laid out his towel, opened the umbrella and laid down. It may have been hot but it was some what good. He put his sunglasses on placed his head on arms and basically fell asleep after about five minutes.

Which could have been a bad thing if Horo hadn't come home half an hour later. Horo stared down at the sleeping Ren, while he sipped in a very cold drink, one that had water on the outside of the cup and was dripping downward. Horo really wasn't paying much attention to his drink, as Ren, who was perspiring due to the heat, had captivated his attention, and so, droplets from his drink fell onto Ren's back and jolted him awake.

"Who-what-Horo?" was what he said.

Horo sat down beside him. "Oops. I'm sorry." He took a few sips of his drink, which Ren thieved and finished afterward. "You know it's not good to sleep in this heat," Horo commented.

"I was sleeping?" Ren asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh well, I have a lot on my mind, not to mention it hurts, so it must have contributed to my need for sleep."

"Ahuh." Horo nodded. "And banging your head into a wall could contribute to the pain in your head."

Ren sat up and looked at him. "Do you have any idea what I'm doing?"

"Banging your head against the wall?" Horo asked.

"No. Before that."

"Banging your head against the wall?"

"No. I'm trying to do something important."

"Banging your head against the wall?"

Ren sighed angrily. "You can stop anytime now."

Horo smiled. "Sorry."

"I'm not going to explain what it is that I'm doing too you," he said. "It's very complicated."

Horo nodded. "Okay. Well I think we should go inside, so that we don't melt."

He offered Ren his hand and together they went inside, blinking rapidly due to the sudden change from natural light to flourescent.

"Suddenly, I'm much cooler," Ren commented.

"Well you house does have an air conditioner," commented Horo, depositing the empty drink container into the garbage. "So its bound to feel quite different after walking in from that blazing inferno we call the outside."

Ren snorted and shook his head, which caused him to wince slightly. Maybe he should stop banging his head against the wall every time he got frustrated, if he didn't he might somehow damage his brain. And the pain he felt in it at this point didn't really make him happy about his attempts to say I love you.

"So," Horo said stretching. "What are we going to do for the rest of the day?"

Ren shrugged. "I don't know."

"Hmm." Horo crossed his arms and stared up at the ceiling. Ren just stood there, for about thirty seconds before he seated himself at the kitchen table and literally slammed his head into it, the pain pounding with the force of hoof beats in his head. Horo stared at him strangely. "What's wrong?"

Ren grumbled something about hoof beats and headaches and about needing aspirin.

Horo disappeared upstairs into the bathroom and returned shortly with the aspirin, which he almost had to force Ren to take, even though he complained about needing it. After that Ren just gazed out the window, his face imprinting onto the table. Horo sat down next to him.

"You know Ren, you've been acting very weird this month."

Ren grunted to show he was listening, though he kinda just wanted to drop off to sleep.

"Why?"

"If you knew what I was doing, you wouldn't question me," Ren said tiredly.

"Yeah, but you said you wouldn't tell me. Its too complicated you said," replied Horo.

"It is complicated," he mumbled, flipping his head around to stare up at Horo. "Very complicated."

"Can I help in anyway?"

"No. Cause you can already do it."

Horo stared at him, greatly confused.

"I'll be able to do it, eventually," said Ren.

They fell silent and then Horo sighed and placed his head on Ren's shoulder. "I hope for your shake, that it happens soon," he muttered.

Ren smiled slightly. "Thank you."

They really didn't do much for the rest of the day except eat and lounge around and watch movies. The next day they were invited to go to a beach in Shonan in Kanagawa prefecture, which was just a an hour out of Tokyo, with Rio, Chocolove, Yoh, and Manta. Because Horo wanted to get out of the house and go surfing, Ren was forced to go and abandon his attempt at saying I love you for the time being.

It could have been worse. It was tourist season so the beach was packed, but they found a good spot. Everyone but Ren and Manta headed straight for the water the second they got there. Manta had decided to watch for a while before he too joined the group in the water. Ren wasn't in the mood to swim right away, so he sat on the towel thinking.

As much as he enjoyed spending time with his friends, he had more pressing matters to deal with and he rather he was at home, with Horo or alone and working on his problem. He wanted to be able to say it and not worry about it. He wanted to say it when he meant it and not force it. He wanted to be thankful to the person who loved him, even though he was mentally unstable and had spent time in a mental institution.

Sighing he looked up to see Rio and Chocolove dunk Horo and Yoh under the water. Issuing a small laugh, Ren got up and dusted himself off and decided to go for a walk and get a drink from the concession stand. Standing there he realized that the line was too long and that he was hungry. Five minutes later the line had gotten smaller and his stomach was growling. I knew I should have eaten breakfast. He thought.

Ten minutes later, the line again was smaller, and Horo had joined him in line. "Hey there you are. I was looking for you."

"Sorry I've been stuck in this god forsaken line for fifteen minutes!" Ren exclaimed. "Move faster!" Ten people turned around and gave him evil looks which he returned. "Turn around," he said. "Don't look at me." The people shock their heads and turned around.

"Ren, you could be a little more pleasant to strangers," Horo said folding his arms and gazing upward at the menu.

"Why?" Ren asked as the line moved forward.

"Cause its generally proper to be nice to people you don't know," replied Horo.

Ren rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Right."

"However, same thing should be applied to you, they don't know you and people should never be mean to mentally unstable people," Horo added. The people in the line looked at Ren again and moved away.

"Oh thanks Horo." Ren muttered.

"What?" He looked around and saw that people where either bunched together or they had left the line completely.

"However that comment made part of the line dissipate," Ren added moving forward toward the counter, making more people move closer together as though they were afraid that Ren would suddenly attack them.

"Well then that's a good thing," Horo said.

"Yes. It means I get food."

"I thought you didn't let your stomach win fights?" asked Horo deciding to link hands with Ren.

"I don't. I figured, after I got into line, that I would get something to eat, since I was hungry and didn't eat breakfast," explained Ren, eyeing his and Horo's joined hands as though to touch in public was a bad thing.

"Well that will teach you to not eat in the morning."

Ren rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I could hardly do anything this morning because I had to stop you from bouncing off the walls, cause you were so excited about going surfing."

Horo smiled at him. "But surfing's cool. Its just like snowboarding except on water."

"I know. You've told me ten times already."

Horo continued to smile and randomly kissed Ren on the cheek. Ren give him and look and finally reached the counter where he order his drink and some food then got forced into buying something for Horo.

They returned to where the had sent down their stuff and ate their newly bought items. After about three minutes, "Aw man now I can't swim for a while!" exclaimed Horo suddenly.

Ren laughed. "You should have thought about that before you asked me to buy you food."

Horo whined, "But I was hungry. Swimming made me hungry."

"Well then you'll have to wait," Ren said, finishing his own food, putting his sunglasses on and laying down on his beach towel.

Horo groaned and flopped down beside him. "Fine."

Ren smiled. Horo really was childish sometimes. Even though it sometimes got on Ren's nerves it didn't bother him that much anymore. After a few minutes, Horo muttered something about being bored and surfing which made Ren chuckle slightly before elbowing him playfully in the side. "Oof."

"Stop whining," Ren said. "It'll only make time go slower."

Horo nodded and rubbed his side. "Okay."

Then Ren closed his eyes and fell into a doze, which resulted in sleep in about ten minutes. Eventually Horo woke him up. "What did I tell you about sleeping in the sun Ren?"

"Something about not doing it," Ren said groggily, trying to sit up and failing due to the fact that Horo had covered his torso in a large pile of sand.

Ren gave a very weird laugh caught between anger and the hilarity of his predicament. "Horo."

"Yes, Ren precious?" Horo asked as though he hadn't done nothing wrong.

"I think you want to get this sand off me."

Horo smiled. "Do you really? Well sorry no can I do. I seem to have miss placed my hands." And he hid his hands behind his back.

Ren gave him a look. "I believe I found them. They're behind your back."

Horo pulled his hands back out. "Oh would you look at that."

Ren issued a noise caught between a laugh and a sigh. "Horo, do you want me to suffocate?"

"Your not going too," replied Horo, writing things in the pile of sand with his finger.

"How do you know?"

"Cause...well...just cause."

Ren sighed and stared at him until Horo looked at him and smiled. "Come on Renny. Its fun."

"For you maybe."

"Well then I'll make it fun for you too."

Horo leaned downward and captured Ren's lips in a kiss. If Ren had been free from the sand pile, he would have hit Horo in the head for doing this in public, but he wasn't so he just let him carry on, enjoying the moment as well. When they broke apart, Horo licked his lips and said, "See Ren. Fun."

"Oh very," answered Ren. "Now release me."

Horo pouted and started clearing the sand off Ren. "Party pooper."

Ren snorted at his word use. "Sorry. I just don't think that me being stuck under sand is remotely as fun as you think it is."

Horo nodded and sighed. "Yes." When the sand was cleared Ren sat up, and against his own state of mind, kissed Horo full on the mouth. When they pulled away that time, Ren looked him square in the eyes and said, "Don't do that again." Horo nodded hurriedly.

After a few minutes of sitting there, Horo was dragged off to go surfing and Ren, well Ren sat and watched, not entirely interested in whether or not Horo was any good at surfing, but rather if he fell or not. Which he did. Twice. When Horo came back to land, Ren was standing there by the waters edge and he was smiling.

"Not exactly like snowboarding is it?"

"No," Horo said hanging his head in defeat, soaking wet hair covering his face.

"Well, maybe next time you won't annoying someone about how great it is," Ren said still smiling. Horo nodded. "Good."

They fell silent and Ren look off to the side down the beach at all the people and Horo, stood there, and eventually grabbed Ren around this waist and swung him into his arms, bridal style.

"Ack! Horo what are you doing!?" Ren said loudly.

"Oh nothing," replied Horo, carrying Ren into the water.

Ren quickly really realized what Horo was doing and started to flail. "Horokeu Usui! If you so much as get me wet I will hate you forever!" Ren yelled.

Horo stopped walking and looked at Ren who smiled evilly. Horo pouted and dropped Ren in the water.

Ren surfaced and spat water out of his mouth. "Horo, you are so dead!" And he proceeded to chase Horo around in the water trying to attack him for a very long time until they both got tired and decided to call it quits for the day.

The group had decided that they were going to stay at a hotel for the night and return to Tokyo the next day, so they headed to their hotel, where they changed and went out again. This time to a restaurant where their group immediately became the center of attention to the female gender of their species. A lot of them tired to get Ren's attention but he just ignored them and looked off the side lost in thought and only came back when those same females started trying to get Horo's attention.

Ren tired to ignore it, but it didn't work that well. Soon he was glaring at them, wishing he hadn't left his kawn do at home and trying to figure out which of his awesome kung fu moves would suffice in beating them up, and not act like a mentally unstable person, all at the same time. No one noticed Ren's apparent change in demeanor.

It was like they were ignoring him purposely. And Ren didn't like it.

First he tried to get their attention, calmly, but that didn't work. Then he tired being loud, that didn't work either, finally he tired being rude, that still didn't work. Getting fed up and not arriving at a viable conclusion as to what he should do about being ignored, Ren left. It seemed, that in these situations, he was always leaving.

On the way back to the hotel, he finally had the time to think to himself however all he could think about was how stupid he was for leaving the restaurant, just because some stupid females wanted attention. He was hopeless in theses situations. He didn't know how to handle being jealous very well, it was one of those new feelings to him, and he hated having to feel the negative ones. Why couldn't being in love, just stop at being in love.

Arriving at the hotel, he went inside and upstairs to the room his was sharing with Horo and flopped down onto the bed. Staring grumpily at the ceiling he started to hate himself for being stupid, and started to wonder what he could do about not being stupid. Then his head started to hurt, telling him that he was thinking about too many things and should stop right away before his brain exploded. He desisted his thinking and laid there in the quiet room thinking that it was way to quiet.

After a while, the door to the room opened and Horo entered. "There you are, Ren," he said closing the door. "Why did you suddenly leave? I got really worried."

Ren turned his head away from the door and curled up into a ball. "I'll tell you when you stop letting women flirt with you."

"Is that why you left? Cause those girls were there?"

"Ding ding we have a winner. You know what you win? Air! Breathe away!" Ren said.

Horo crossed the room and looked down at Ren. "Ren, you know I don't care about the girls. They weren't there cause I wanted them there. The others did."

"You still let them flirt with you."

"Ren, their girls. They do that."

"You could have told them to get lost," Ren said growing more jealous with every passing second and feeling incredibly stupid.

"They would have still been at the table. They were there cause the others wanted them to be," Horo said growing annoyed. "There was nothing I could do."

"I highly doubt that," Ren muttered. "What's wrong with you? Why aren't you listening to what I'm saying?"

"I am listening. I'm listening very clearly. And you know what I hear? I hear someone making up stupid excuses as to why he's still interested in girls even though he says he isn't," replied Ren getting off the bed and wandering over to the mini fridge.

"You know that's not true," Horo said angrily. "You know I love you very much and want to be with you."

"Oh yes," Answered Ren with his head in the fridge. "I know it so well that I have to question every little thing you do in public."

"Well maybe you wouldn't have to if you understood your own bloody feelings," Horo said loudly. "Oh wait you can't, cause your emotionally retarded."

Ren looked down at the floor, hurt, then straigthted up and slammed the fridge shut. Then he turned and looked at Horo who was apparantly stunned.

"I'm sorry Ren. I didn't mean to say that."

"No," Ren said sadly. "No, but its true though, isn't it." He looked down at the floor. "I mean, I can't even properly convey my feelings so it must be."

He felt horrible, he felt like his heart was going to break with the realization that he would never be able to tell Horo that he loved him. Horo came over and hugged him, but Ren didn't want him too and pushed him away. Shaking his head, he moved backwards and turned around and headed for the door, but Horo grabbed his arm.

"Your not going to run away from me, Ren," he said and pulled him into a kiss.

Ren tried to pull away, part of him breaking and the other trying to get him to stay. The two parts battled for awhile but then gave up and he stood there. When they were finished Horo hugged him tightly.

"I don't care," he said. "I don't care if you can't say it. Just stay here with me. Don't leave."

Ren tired to pull away again. "You deserve better Horo. Someone who can say it. Someone who isn't stupid."

"Your not stupid Ren. And I don't care. I don't want anyone else. I want you. I will always want you forvever and for all eternity."

Ren groaned into Horo's shoulder. He was making this harder then it should have been. He should just let him go and move on. Move on and forget that he loved him. And now he sounded like they were at an alter and were saying vows.

"I won't let you leave me Ren. If you leave I will follow you. I will follow you to the ends of the earth. I love you."

Ren's resolve finally broke from the pressure of insanity and inability to covey emotions and he started to cry and through his arms around Horo, and still was able to feel stupid and childish at the same time.

Whether Horo was shocked about Ren crying or not, he hid it and held Ren tightly, unwilling to let him go. They sunk to the floor, and there they stayed until Ren had ceased his emotional break down.

"Better?" Horo asked.

Ren nodded and pulled away to sit on his knees. Horo ran his fingers over Ren's cheek the leaned closer and kissed him a few times. "Thank you for not letting me leave," Ren said when he had finished. "I don't really want to be parted from you either."

Horo nodded.

"You know," Ren said after a minute. "Ignoring the fact that most of our fights are pointless, to think I almost left because I got jealous and can't tell you that I love you."

Horo's jaw dropped.

Ren looked at him. "What?"

Horo pointed at him. "You just...you just said I love you."

Ren gawked at him. "Did I really?"

Horo nodded, still dumbfounded and the evening ended in total confusion.

The next morning however. "I love you, Horo."

"I love you too, Ren," Horo said smiling happily and pulling Ren into a hug.

Ren smiled as well, latching on to his loved one, the one who kept him sane, the one who made him happy and angry at the same time.

Ren's Object of Affection.

Ashuri: and so here we are. 17 chapters later and it's the end of OOA. Kind of a quick ending but...they love each other and that's that. Thank you all again. And sooner or later I will get around to doing the sequel. But you'll have to wait cause I have a lot of things to do. So thank you for reading OOA and I'm glad you enjoyed it.