Mikau: Hello everyone! I'm feeling better today. I came home sick from school, then I rested up, did my six hours of homework, and now am posting this! I think I should be completely better by the end of the week. Thank you all so much for your get well wishes; it means a lot to me!
Disclaimer: I, Kara, do not own Shaman King.
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Moving In
The hospital did a few tests, but after they didn't find anything wrong, they let me go. Anna had called my house and had had my followers deliver Thorn, Hoshi, and my luggage to Funbari Onsen, so we didn't even have to stop by my mansion before we moved into the Inn.
When we arrived at our new home, Hoshi looked around the place with minimal interest. Thorn walked straight in, being all too familiar with the house. I lagged behind the others, not sure if I really wanted to go through with this. Mari, Macchi, Luca, and Opacho had gone back to the mansion, and Hoshi, Hane, Thorn, and I had gone with Yoh, Anna, Valerie, Hana, and Akira back to the hot-springs resort.
"Are you coming Hao?" My little brother popped his head out the door and smiled brightly at me. I smiled back and nodded. I remained silent as Yoh showed me around the Onsen. "To the left is the kitchen. There's a door there that leads to the backyard and another kitchen door leads into the basement. Iv—Val's lab is down there. Her room is this one right here just to the right of the kitchen. Your room is this one right next to hers. I don't know why, but Anna gave you the room that connects to Val's…so I guess you could use the door that links your rooms to go into her room any time you wanted and no one would know. I don't know why you'd want to though. There's nothing really in her room, but her bed is the comfiest in the house. It's a water bed."
"And how would you know that my adulterous little brother?" I lifted a suspicious eyebrow towards Yoh.
"Well sometimes when she's really depressed I—wait…adulterous! Aw crap! Hao, don't you dare tell Anna! Please! She'll divorce me for sure!" The terrified look in his eyes was enough to keep me from teasing him. He reminded me of myself and how scared I had been of losing Ivy.
"Don't worry. What do I care that you're cheating on your wife with her cousin?" I replied emotionlessly.
"Thanks Hao…Oh, and Hoshi and Thorn are staying upstairs. Anna and my bedroom is upstairs too. It's one of the bigger ones, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Hana is upstairs also, so you and Valerie have the whole floor to yourselves."
"Why do I have the feeling that Anna set this up?" I mused out loud.
"'Cause she did." Yoh answered truthfully, leading me into the kitchen. "Anna's trying to get you two together. You don't think she gave you two the conjoined rooms, and made sure you were the only ones on this floor for nothing, do you? She's trying to get you two together. That's also the reason she's making you stay here."
Anna awaited us in the kitchen with a mop and pail. "There you two are. What took you so long?" Her tone was cold and emotionless, and I didn't like the look she was giving us.
"Sorry Anna. I was just showing Hao around." Yoh placed a quick kiss on his wife's lips and smiled sheepishly.
She directed a small smile his way and nodded. "That's all right Yoh honey. I forgive you. Now go run 100 laps and we'll call it even."
"B-but…Anna! I'm already Shaman King! Why do I still have to train!" My twin looked exasperatedly at his wife.
"Because I said so. Get going, and no more whining or I'll double it." I felt sorry for my little bro that he fell in love with such a she-devil.
"Yes Anna…" Yoh sobbed, but did as Anna ordered of him.
I was left alone with the little witch. "What are you looking at?" She spit wickedly at me. I hadn't noticed that I was staring at her.
"Huh? Oh, nothing." I shrugged in an uninterested manner.
"Don't you have something better to do?" She baited me.
"No, not really." I fell for her trap hook, line, and sinker.
"Good." She threw the mop at me. Thankfully I caught it before it hit me in the face. "Then I want the Onsen spotless by dinner time. You have three hours; the baths are down the hall, third door to the right."
My cool façade shattered instantly. "What! You can't order me around like that! I'm a guest!"
"You're no guest; you're a lazy drunkard. You'll work if you expect to eat and sleep here." I would have slapped her if she weren't a woman.
"I'm not a drunk, and I'm not lazy! At my house we had servants to clean and stuff, but that doesn't make me lazy! I refuse to clean your house." I glared dangerously.
She glared back with murder in her eyes. "Well in my house, I make my own servants. Consider yourself enslaved."
There was no fighting that sort of look. I was stuck doing her every whim if I wanted to survive. "But…but…the Onsen is huuuuuuge! I'll never finish it by myself!" I resorted to pleading with her.
"God, Hao! I knew Ivy was slack with you, but please! Did she have no control over you at all? How did she get you to do anything?" Anna tried to guilt me into doing the work.
'Well, before we were married she threatened to leave me. After we were married she locked me out of the bedroom.' I glared viciously at her, but didn't answer.
"Fine. If you still insist on being stubborn I'll get you a little help." Anna turned to the basement door and opened it a crack. "VALERIE!"
"YES?" An annoyed screech echoed up the stairway.
"GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE!" Anna called back to her cousin.
"Give me half an hour! I can't stop this experiment for even a few seconds or it will ex—" A relatively small boom shook the house and smoke wafted its way up the stairwell. A noisy set of footsteps accompanied by bursts of coughing followed the smoke up the steps until a very ticked looking Valerie appeared in the kitchen. "—explode. What did you want Anna that was so important that you had to interrupt my research when I was making a breakthrough!" Her voice rose in volume as she continued her sentence.
"Your research is pointless anyway. You've been working on the same project for several years, and you've made no real advances. It's time to give up and face reality. I don't want you doing any more of those stupid experiments; now go help Hao scrub the Onsen. I want it spotless, and you have until dinner time." Anna shoved the pail into Valerie's hands and started to walk away.
The silver-haired woman looked crestfallen. With that one paragraph, Anna had killed Valerie's spirit, and now the chemist just stood there like a Jang-si corpse awaiting orders.
Anna looked back at the motionless girl. "Well? What are you waiting for? Tie your hair up and get going! The both of you!" She threw two red rubber bands at us and left Valerie to cry.
I caught the band and did as Anna said, tying my hair up in a high ponytail on top of my head, but Valerie just let the tie hit her in the face and drop to the floor without a sound. I picked up the band, lying useless at her feet, and quickly braided her hair so it would stay out of her face. It looked really good on her. It had been a few years since I had actually braided anyone's hair, but I wasn't as rusty as I thought I might be. I had grown up with Mari and Macchi playing beauty salon, and of course my lavish locks had suffered many of their stylings, so I in turn had learned to style hair. I later taught my daughters how to braid and do buns and ponytails when they were little.
This seemed to wake Valerie from her depression, for she blinked three times and gave me the strangest look. "Thanks." She whispered, drawing her gaze away from mine. "Let's go." She grabbed my shirt collar and dragged me off to the bathhouse.
Valerie sighed pathetically as she filled the bucket with water and soap. She set it on the tile floor, got down on her hands and knees, and started scrubbing. It was a robotic motion at best. Back and forth with the same long, sharp strokes. She looked and behaved like a machine. Back and forth, back and forth with the brush on the floor.
"I'm sorry." I instinctively apologized, dipping my mop into the bucket, and starting to clean the hard tiled floor of the Onsen.
She halted her mechanic motion for a brief moment to process what I had said. She didn't raise her gaze from the floor to look at me. "You've done nothing wrong." As soon as she replied she was back to her robotic scrubbing motion.
"But Anna wouldn't have interrupted you if I hadn't have complained about not being able to finish on my own." I mopped around the hot spring pool's edge.
"She would have anyway. She's been out to get me this whole month, and it's only half over." I detected a faint, sarcastic laugh in her voice.
"I still think it's my fault. I guess you're not up to going out to dinner tonight anymore, are you?" I held my breath and prayed she still would go. I really wanted to go somewhere alone with her.
Valerie paused to look up, quizzically gazing at me. "Why would I not go out to dinner with you? It's not like anything has changed. Actually, I kind of want to get out of here." I think I saw her smile; her smile was beautiful.
"Yeah, me too." I smiled back at her, but I don't think she saw. She had already returned to her jerky scrubbing motions, gazing emotionlessly at the floor.
I slowed my mopping pace so that I could still work, but think while I was cleaning. My eyes automatically fell to gaze longingly at Valerie, scrubbing the floor. 'You know, if she cut and dyed her hair, and got some of those contacts that changed your eye color…she'd look just like her… Only Ivy wasn't that thin. Sure she was thin, but Valerie is almost skin and bones. Doesn't she eat enough? Ivy never really ate anything either, but she wasn't that anorexic. And Valerie seems more depressed than Ivy was. Ivy was always so…energetic and saucy. Well, up until the end anyway, she was.' I let my gaze wander over every part of Valerie's body. I took in everything from her unscarred thighs to her gracefully arched back as she scrubbed the floor. I tried not to look down her shirt as she leaned forward, giving me a clear view.
"What are you thinking about?" Her voice shook me from my fantasizings.
I blinked several times before realizing I had stopped mopping completely and was staring at her, resting my chin on the mop handle. "Uh…nothing!" I coughed nervously and looked away.
"Of course you're not." She smiled wryly at me, giving me a look that said that she knew exactly what I was looking at and thinking. "You're such a pervert; I don't know why I like you so much."
"You like me?" A disbelieving look came to my face.
"Did I say that out loud?" She shrugged it off, casually smirking.
"I do believe you did." I smirked back, slowly approaching her.
Valerie stood, placing her hands on my shoulders. "Whoops." Hormones took over and in a matter of seconds we were centimeters from each other's lips. "Hao?" Her voice deepened to a desperate whisper.
"Yeah?" I could feel her warm breath on my lips.
She giggled playfully. "Close your eyes…"
I did as she said and waited for a kiss or something, but it never came. What she did instead made me gasp, sharply intaking a breath, and causing shivers to run up and down my spine. All of the sudden a bucket of cold water splashed me in the face. I opened my eyes and glared at Valerie as she laughed at my wetness. "Why you little…" I growled.
She only laughed and berated me. "That's what you get for thinking dirty thoughts about me."
"Is that so?" I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder.
"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" Valerie squirmed and panicked as I carried her over to the bath.
"Make sure to hold your breath." I advised sadistically, throwing her into the water.
Seconds later, she broke through to the surface, completely soaked, and with see-through clothing. "You are so dead Asakura!" She fumed.
I loomed, looking her over like a horny vulture, and not even bothering to be discrete about it. "Oh really. What are you gonna do about it?" I made a point of checking out her chest.
"You perverted—grrrr!" She stood up, grabbed me by my belt buckle, and pulled me into the water almost on top of her.
"AHHH!" When I surfaced, she was laughing her sides off…up until when I dunked her underwater. A full out water war ensued. It was at least fifteen minutes later until we had to stop the slapping and the splashing and pulling each other under water. She leaned up against the side of the bath panting. I leaned up on the wall beside her, equally out of breath. The chemist rest her head on my chest and closed her eyes.
"Val-erie?" I inhaled sharply. She looked up tiredly into my eyes.
We both tentatively leaned forward until our lips timidly brushed together. Instant electricity flew between us and the kiss automatically seemed to come to life. 'Ivy…' The feel of her kiss was too similar to not be the same person. She seemed to melt into my embrace as the kiss got more intense.
She broke away and gasped for breath. "Actually, Hao…" I nibbled lightly at her neck, leaving her lips alone so she could speak. "I'm…not really…"
"HAO! VALERIE!" Anna glared angrily down at us. I immediately took my hand out from under her shirt, and she let go of my pants zipper.
"Anna!" Valerie looked a mixture of shocked, confused, and embarrassed that her cousin had caught us making out.
'At least it wasn't one of my daughters.' I stared up uncomfortably at my sister-in-law.
"I told you two to clean this room, not start some kind of kinky make out session!" The blonde's cold gaze pierced through my skull, incinerating my insides.
"Anna…" Valerie pleaded.
"No. Go get changed into dry clothes and then meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes. No exceptions." The blonde-headed demon stormed out of the bathhouse, only to peak her head by in seconds later. "And Hao, keep your hands to yourself."
I snuck a quick look at Valerie. She cracked a smile back at me. We both broke out into sidesplitting laughter. "She really is out to get you!"
"I know! God Anna, I'm not some dumb teenager anymore; I don't need her approval if I want to kiss someone. She's not my mother." The chemist sent a mock death-glare at the doorway even if her cousin had already left.
"You call that a kiss! I think that was a little more than just a 'kiss'." I teased, poking fun at her.
She looked at me as if I was plotting something. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I think you know what I mean." I gave her 'the look' back.
"I haven't the foggiest." She denied.
I didn't bother hiding the fact that I rolled my eyes at her. "OH really?"
"Really."
"Who had their tongue half-way down my throat, then?" I challenged.
She instantly retaliated; I knew she would. "Uh! No, no, no! That was YOU with your tongue down my throat!" It seemed as if I would be getting the heated argument I wanted out of her.
I retorted. "I think not."
"Fine. Be that way. Where were your hands the entire time then!" You could almost see the flames in her eyes; the cold embers, long left unheated over the years were almost the roaring fire that they once were back before we were married.
"The question, Val, is where were your hands?" I remained icy cool, keeping my calm, as she lit up like a roman candle soaked in kerosene.
"Oh no, you are NOT turning that around on me!" The Kyôyama woman resorted to physical abuse and shoved me.
I hadn't been prepared for that, so I toppled over, completely losing my balance. Not that she shoved me hard, but being shoved while standing in a pool of water was slick, so I slid more than stumbled backwards. "You just can't keep your hands off of me can you?" I chuckled at her expense.
"That's NOT the case! I swear, I will—" My lips cut her off in mid-threat. At first she struggled, but totally submitted to me when I forced her up against the pool wall. 'Just like old times Ivy…' I teased her a little with my tongue before pulling away, leaving her wanting more.
She gave me a 'What the hell? Is that it!' look. I smiled my manipulating grin and nuzzled her neck. "Anna said she would give us ten minutes. I don't think girls are capable of getting ready in that amount of time…especially since you just wasted five minutes arguing with me."
"She also told you to keep your hands to yourself; then you go and molest me!" Valerie steamed as she climbed out of the Onsen.
"Is it really molestation if you enjoyed it?" I climbed out after her.
She kept her back to me as she reached for a towel. I could tell she was blushing some bright shade of red. She always turned away when she didn't want me to know she was blushing. "Are you like this with all women?"
"No, only you. I don't have to be this way with other women because any other woman besides you would have been in bed with me several hours ago." A well-aimed towel hit me square in the face.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm not that easy…not like the other sluts you sleep with."
I pretended not to be phased by her hostility. "Right…you know you want to though. No woman can resist me. Oh, I get it! You just don't want anyone else to know that you want me! You know, there's a door inside my room that connects to the inside of yours. If you want, I could sneak into your room tonight, and no one would have to know. Yoh says your bed is the most comfortable in the house, and I'd really like to give it a try. What do you say? I'll be sure to make it worth your while."
Silence. She didn't even bother arguing. Of course I hadn't really meant a word of it; I was just being perverted to annoy her, thinking that maybe I'd get to see her angry. She was so beautiful when she was angry. I didn't think that she'd take it so seriously, or badly for that matter. I took a few hesitant steps toward her, not sure what to make of her silence.
"Valerie?" Nothing. "Val?" Nada. "Ai?" Zip. "V?" Zilch. "Ivy…" My last call was almost a whisper, an entreating plea carried off into the wind with the growing softness of my voice. If she heard, she ignored me.
"You know, I really didn't…" I let my voice trail off as she undid the buttons and zipper on her tight blue-jean shorts. "What…are you…" I let the question hang as she let the shorts drop to the floor. My mouth fell open as she easily stepped out of her shorts and turned next to unbuttoning her shirt. It looked like one of Yoh's old school shirts; the white ones that he always left unbuttoned. A lump formed in my throat as she reached the last button and let the clothing article slide to the ground, joining her shorts.
My breath caught in my throat when I got a good look at her. Scars. Not big, but numerous. It was as if someone had cut her open and sewn her up a thousand times over. It looked like someone had been operating on her heart, lungs, and stomach even. The tiny scars were especially prevalent around where her heart should be. 'What happened to you?…'
Valerie picked up the wet clothes lying on the floor and rung the excess water out of them. It seemed almost as if she had forgotten I was even in the room with her. She reached for her towel and wrapped it around her so that I wouldn't see as she shed the rest of her clothing. My mouth was practically watering. Just what exactly did she have in mind? After ringing out her bra, she sauntered right up to me and slapped me hard across the face. Then without a word, Valerie stalked out of the room, leaving me dazed and oblivious to what had just happened.
A quick burst of flames surrounded me and I was dry in a matter of seconds. 'Way to screw it up with her Hao…What was I thinking treating her like the others? She never has been like them…Have I forgotten that over the years?' I let out a defeated sigh and wandered into the kitchen to face my punishment from Anna.
I walked in just as Anna and 'Valerie' were wrapping up an important conversation. "But Anna!" The silver-haired woman pleaded.
"It's not time yet. Don't tell him anything." Anna's words seemed so final that even Ivy couldn't argue with her elder sibling. "Now, go get changed and make sure 'Valerie' is in a good mood to cook dinner."
A nod came from the chemist and then she walked in a depressed stupor out of the room into her bedroom. I pretended to not have heard anything. If it were against Anna's master plan for me to recognize Ivy, then I would continue to play stupid. "Hello Anna. What did you want me for?"
"Oh. You." My sister-in-law looked less than enthusiastic to see me. "What did you do to her?"
"I went a little too far teasing her. I plan to make it up to Val when I take her out to dinner tonight." I reassured.
"About that: you won't be going out. The both of you are under house arrest unless I say otherwise. There will be no leaving unless the little sojourn is cleared by me first." Her heartlessness never ceased to surprise me.
"I thought that you wanted us to get together!" I complained.
"I never said that." The blonde turned her back to me and walked away. "Go make dinner Hao. Valerie should be joining you in the next ten minutes. I'll be back to check up on the both of you then.
Just as Anna had said, Valerie joined me in the kitchen to cook in less than the allotted amount of time. "Val?" I looked pleadingly into her cold eyes, much like her sister's.
Ivy didn't bother looking up from dicing carrots to see my pathetic look. "Yes?" She didn't sound angry. An indifferent emotion filled her voice. It was as if nothing had happened between us.
I didn't exactly know how to react to this. I was rusty at dealing with her after so many years apart. I decided to follow through with the apology plan. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to offend you…back in the bathhouse…V?"
"Val is fine, but not 'V'." She scolded lightly, not seeming to hear anything but my nickname for her.
"Did you even hear what I said?" My voice lapsed into a desperate plead.
"It's always times like these when I think of you and wonder if you ever think of me. Cause everything's so wrong, and I don't belong living in your precious memory." She sung in a whisper, just under her breath.
"Wha?" I sent a quizzical look in her direction, but she seemed to be ignoring me. "I—er—Valerie?"
"Hmm?" She looked up and took earpieces out of her ears. "I'm sorry, did you say something, Hao?"
I could have strangled her. There I was, trying to apologize, and she was listening to music! "YES!"
"Well, if you're going to be so snippy about it, then maybe I don't want to listen." She shrugged off my heart-felt apology as if I was trying to talk about the weather.
"SNIPPY! You're the one being snippy! You're always snippy!" Sixteen years and she still knew how to make my blood boil.
"Relax. You know that I don't mean it." Her voice leveled and a pleasant smile graced her lips. She returned to preparing the meal, but kept an ear open to what I had to say.
I stood utterly confused. I had had no idea she was joking. 'Are we really that out of touch? Maybe I don't really know her like I use to anymore. Sometimes I just wish I could read her mind…' I had never read her mind before since she had always considered it an 'invasion of her privacy'.
It took me a moment to realize I had gotten lost in my thoughts and hadn't spoken for a good minute. "Oh…um…well…I'm sorry. You know, for what I said. I didn't mean to make you angry."
"Oh, you didn't. I'm just not feeling well, that's all, and I don't know; I'm really spacey today, so my mind's really not all there." She grinned sheepishly; I returned the slight smile. "You've really done nothing wrong." 'Except break my heart you bastard!'
I did a double take. 'Did she just say what I think she said?' "I'm sorry, what!"
"I said 'you've done nothing wrong.'" Ivy replied casually.
"No, after that."
Ivy raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me. "I didn't say anything. There was nothing else."
"Oh. Sorry. Must be hearing things." I smiled softly, returning to the pot on the stove.
She returned the gesture. 'Right. Go on and smile at me like you're totally innocent. Ignore me as I die of a broken heart right in front of you! Do you even care anymore!'
"I do." I looked up to find a very puzzled Ivy staring at me.
"You do what?" She set down the knife and walked slowly forward, inspecting me.
"Care." I stated.
"About?" A cold hand brushed gingerly up against my cheeks and forehead.
"Didn't you say…? I thought…You didn't say anything did you?" I held her hand up against my cheek.
"No…Hao? Are you okay? You're acting really weird all of the sudden." 'He's really hot…but his body temperature has always been above normal. Paranoia and hallucinations are symptoms of…what's it called again? I can't remember what Faust called it. It was that thing that he thinks I have…'
Her mouth wasn't moving, but I could hear her speaking. It suddenly dawned on me. 'Her thoughts.'
'God I can't remember anything about it except it can be fatal. Oh God I hope it's not that! Maybe is some kind of STD he got from sleeping with all those tramps? Serves him right! That will teach him for betraying me like that!...But am I any better? I mean sleeping with his BROTHER! Yoh…I really have no right to blame him that way. It's not completely his fault, but maybe—wow…I feel really light headed all of the sudden…It's like someone's picking my brain. Maybe if I just….' Ivy's eyes glazed over and she stumbled forward.
She practically fell into my arms unconscious. "Iv—Valerie!" I instinctively almost called her by her real name instead of the pseudonym. She was in a pretty easy position to carry; I picked her up and carted her off to her room. The door was unlocked, and I was able to waltz right in and set her down on the bed. Ivy needed to be checked out by a doctor, so I set out to find Faust. At least, that was what I was going to do, but as soon as I turned around, I found Anna standing in the doorway.
"Go back to cooking dinner. I'll take care of her." The elder Kyôyama sister pledged.
"But...she…" I was extremely hesitant in leaving my X-wife.
"She's been like this for awhile. She gets sick off and on, but there's nothing we can really do to help it. She'll be much better when she wakes up; she always is. The best thing you can do for her is to go make dinner. Valerie will be awake in maybe half an hour tops." Anna practically pushed me out the door.
"Right…" I nodded half-heartedly and returned to my post.
Yoh (who had finally returned from his laps after Anna made him run extra) helped me finish dinner, and everything was ready to eat within the hour. I purposely bumped into Anna so I would have an excuse to talk to her.
"Watch where you're going star-boy!" The blonde sniffed indignantly.
"Sorry. I'm a little out of it." I shrugged and set down the dish I was carrying.
"Thoughts somewhere else?" She raised her teacup to her thin, pink lips. "On a certain cousin of mine perhaps?" If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that Anna Kyôyama-Asakura was teasing me.
"How'd ya guess? No, don't tell me—you know everything, right?" She nodded, giving me a half-smile, half-frown. 'She must be a completely different woman in bed, or else I don't know how Yoh could stand her….' "If you know everything, then where's Valerie?" I finally got to the question I had wanted to ask.
"Down in the lab. She's fine now, but someone needs to go tell her it's dinner time." Anna subtly hinted.
"Way ahead of you." I turned toward the basement doors leading down into the lab.
"Don't come back up here without her. You don't eat until she does." Anna instructed.
"Why?" I stopped in mid-step 'What's all this, now?'
"She'll never come up here unless she has to; she's making a 'break-through' on her research, so she won't leave until it does exactly what she wants it to do. Also, she's been working on the same thing for some while now, and it's never done anything that she wants it to. In other words, she'll not come up unless I give her a reason to. So, basically she'll come if you get hungry enough." I thought I could detect a mocking smirk on Anna's face before she looked away from me.
I shrugged it off and disappeared down the stairs wondering how the hell Yoh could stand that woman and her annoyingness.
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Mikau: I liked this chapter. It was a bit 'ishy', but for the most part I'm happy with it. I think the next chapter will be a whole lot better. Thank you all for your reviews! Sorry if I don't respond to many this time.
Thanks To: Hemila-Rose, Touch of the Wind, Andrea Nefisto, haoxivy 4 eva, Danny, yo wuz up, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, MaiValentinefan, DarkPisces33, My beloved flamer D: (Lyserg must die), IvyAsakura13, and Firebane5.
To Andrea Nefisto: Good luck on your exams! I have testing tomorrow, so I really can't answer your review more fully. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the chapter. Also, I will hate pink until the day I die. I usually dress differently from day to day like you do. I've never tried goth before though. I'd be a perky goth if I were ever to try the goth look out. I had a great time at the dance, thanks!
To MaiValentinefan: I agree, love/hate relationships are so interesting to do. So much fun! So sorry to hear that you lost all your documents. That happened to me once back when I first started writing. Thankfully I didn't lose too much. I really wish we could chat back and forth in long reviews too…I really miss being able to freely converse will all my reviewer friends.
To IvyAsakura13: I have to make this quick since I'm technically supposed to be asleep, but HGHD is a really good fanfiction about Hao getting amnesia and taking on the name Hoshi. The story is called 'Hoshi Ga Hoshii Desu' It means 'I want the stars' in Japanese. It should be on my favorite stories page, so you should check it out if you have some free time. It's one of my favorites. Osorezan is about the first time that Anna and Yoh met. It's hard to explain, but I think someone did a translation of the first three (out of four) tracks on the CD. Go to search, search titles, and type in Osorezan. Thank you so much, but I'm getting better slowly but surely. I hope you enjoy reading those two stories (especially HGHD Hugs 'Hoshi' who is actually Hao).
To Firebane5: Thank you so much! The dance was great, and I'm feeling better. Your reviews are always very helpful to me. You're one of the few that give me really good insight to my own writing as well as helpful advice. I'm just glad that my knowledge came in handy with your story. (Can't wait for next chapter!) Feel free to email me anytime you need any more information. After TBT is over I'm thinking about doing a short Judo fic, maybe jus ten or fifteen chapters. Maybe less. Just to give Judo fans a little insight into her life and how she ended up as the Ivy we all know and love today. I must admit, I really had fun doing the creepy Hao/stalker bit. You can make him say the creepiest things and have it be sort of in character at the moment, you know what I mean? So much fun! Actually, if you want to get technical, Hao didn't steal Judo's first first kiss. It was only her first real kiss. (Her first first kiss was with Yoh when they were little, but that's to be explained in my Judo fic.) Anyway, Hao thought it was her first kiss, and Judo didn't really remember Yoh's kiss (for plotline reasons), and that's all that really matters. Someone, I forget who, has been nagging at me for a HaoxIvy wedding one-shot. I think if I do write it (I should say when since I know I'm going to do it eventually), I'll include it as a bonus chapter of either the Thorn or Judo story. Anyway, about Thorn and Akira: I'm not going to reveal to much, but I'll tell you, it's gonna be fun setting them up. Also, I'm planning on having Hoshi and Hana having a lot to do with the relationship. And again, when I first read your review I was in the school library, and when I read the 'lock them in a small room together for a couple of days' I burst out laughing. Yeah, I got a few funny looks, but I'm use to it by now. Lol! .! Thank you so much for the review!