Mikau: Hello! This is a really short chapter/quick update. My updating speed seems to be getting faster and faster lately.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King.

Dedication: This one's for my mommy.

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A Mother and Daughter Heart to Heart

It had been a fairly eventful day. All the kids had auditioned for the school musical, Grease, and they rode home together, arriving at the house at the same time. We were all gathered in the dinning room for dinner, and Hana, Hoshi, Ivory, and Makoto came in and sat down to eat, but Thorn and Akira both ran upstairs, intent on skipping dinner.

Anna glared up the stairs as the two teenagers raced to their rooms. She looked pointedly at me and I smiled at my sister. She shook her head and took her seat next to her husband.

Hao sat down next to me and as our eyes met I couldn't suppress a smile and a light giggle. His lips gently brushed my cheek and he whispered "Love you." in my ear.

"I love you more." I whispered back. God, how I had missed him.

"No you don't. I love you more." His lips somehow found mine and I couldn't argue with him.

"Hao! Valerie!" Anna yelled at us from across the table.

I momentarily got my tongue out of Hao's mouth to stick it out at my older sister. She didn't look too happy about that. Luckily for me, Yoh was sitting next to her. He somehow managed to placate her so that she didn't kill me.

The blonde simply shook her head at me, got up, and went over to the stairway. She called up to Akira and Thorn to come and eat dinner.

Hao turned to me, a serious look in his eyes. "Hey…do you…think I'm an okay father?"

His question shocked me. "Where did this topic come from?"

"Well…it's just that…I don't think I'm doing a good job at all, and I wanted to know what you think." He looked at me for my opinion.

I smiled and shook my head. "You know, you can only do so much. All you can do is love them and hope they turn out okay. I think you're doing the best job that you can."

He wouldn't let the subject drop at that. "But you didn't answer the question. Am I a good father or not?"

"Of course you're a good father." I looked away and mumbled under my breath, "You're a better father than I am a mother…"

"Don't say that." He tilted my chin up and smiled at me. "It's not your fault; we've been over this."

His smile put me at ease. "Thank you." I leaned in to kiss him again, but thought better of it. "We'd better not. Anna already looks mad."

He nodded and returned to his food. "You know, if you want to be a good mother, you could talk to Hoshi for me. She looks depressed, and if it's for the reason I'm thinking of, she's not going to want to talk to me. I'm just her father, and there are some things that a girl needs her mother for to talk about."

I looked over at Hoshi, sitting there, playing with her food. She did look depressed. And indecisive. And troubled. And lost, and scared, and desperate all in one. Hao was right. She did need me. I nodded, got up, and walked over to her.

"Hey." I tried smiling brightly at her, but she didn't seem to be in a mood to respond.

"Hey." Her tone was dry, dull, and almost dead.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I kneeled next to her and placed a hand on her back for support.

"There's nothing to talk about." She continued playing with her food, but not eating anything.

"You seem depressed." I tried making pointless observations just to keep the conversation going.

"I am depressed." She wasn't making this any easier on me.

"Care to say why?" I bit my lip, trying to find a way to make her talk to me.

"No. Not really. I just am." Her dead-end replies were getting me nowhere.

"You seemed perfectly happy the other day." Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt I had seen a case like hers before.

"Really? Well I'm not now." She let out a heartbreaking sigh.

'Heartbreaking…I've got it!' "So, what's his name?" I knew I had seen the symptoms before; I had shown the same signs that she was showing. She was in love, and it looked like it was a pretty complicated relationship too, not unlike my rocky relationship with Hao.

She looked up at me, and the dead look drained from her eyes. "How did you…? Come with me." She took my hand and dragged me outside under the sakura tree in the backyard.

"You're in love." I smiled as she shook her head denying it.

"No. I can't be in love. Not with this guy. It's just a bit of lust, that's all. It's nothing." She sat down at the tree's base.

I sat next to her. "Mmhm…keep telling yourself that. You know it's not true. So who is this guy? Come on, tell your mother."

She shook her head and tightly squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm not in love." Tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Tell me about him." I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry.

"His hair is chocolate brown and long, almost half-way down his back, but he pulls it up in a pony tail and lets his bangs fall in his eyes. His eyes are so dark brown that they look black. He's got the cutest little nose, and his face is thin, and his smile makes my heart do back-flips. He's got the worst personality though. He's so sweet when we're alone, but he's just plain awful in front of other people. The way he teases me is just horrible, but I still can't get him out of my head. I don't know if he feels the same way I do or if he's just using me. I fell in love with him so fast…I don't know if it's real or just some sort of wild fling. What do you think?" She gazed at me with such a naïve look in her eyes, most unbefitting of Hoshi. For a second I though to what I would say if it was Thorn instead.

"How old is he?"

"I don't know."

"Does he drink or smoke?"

She smiled slightly. "No. He's such a wuss. He's still a virgin."

I smiled. 'He doesn't sound too bad.' "What about a name?"

Her smile disappeared. "You wouldn't approve."

"Who cares if I approve? You're in love, and it doesn't really matter what I say. No one can make you fall out of love with someone. So, give me the dirt; what's his name?" She was probably wrong. I would be happy for her no matter who she married as long as he made her happy and didn't break her heart.

"No. You don't understand. Dad would disown me if he found out." Her eyes filled with fear at the thought.

I rolled my own dark green orbs. "Hao loves you. He wouldn't disown you for falling in love with a guy he doesn't approve of."

"But he hates this guy." She argued softly. "Promise you won't tell Dad."

"I promise." There was no other way to get the information out of her.

She looked away, burying her face in my chest and crying. "It's Lucifer."

My jaw dropped. My eyes went wide. "Oh Hoshi…" My throat suddenly went dry and I forced a swallow. "Oh sweetheart…you poor thing."

"Now you see why you can't tell Hao. He'd hate me." My daughter stifled a sob.

"He wouldn't hate you…He'd probably hang himself for failing you as a father though…" I bit the inside of my cheek. "Sorry. I'm not helping, am I?"

"No, not really. It's okay though. Lucifer probably doesn't feel the same way, and he's so much older than I am, and he…he's evil." Hoshi choked down a sob.

I chewed my lip, debating whether or not to encourage her love of the demon or not. I decided to do what was best for my daughter. "You know, Hao is a couple hundred years older than me, and before we got married, most people thought he was evil too."

She dried her eyes and looked me over, determining if I was telling her the truth. "You're right…and you two love each other…" She bit her bottom lip. As her teeth touched her lip she jumped slightly. Hoshi slowly raised her fingers to caress a tiny cut on her bottom lip. Her smile returned. "Maybe it won't be so bad. I don't know how the hell things could possibly work out between the two of us, but who knows? You and Hao got together, so maybe there is still a chance. Thanks Mom."

I got to my feet and smiled. 'Well. That went well.' "No problem." I winked and walked back to the dinning room.

"So?" Hao greeted as I took my seat next to him.

"I think things are going to be fine." I smiled and got back to my meal.

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Thanks To: HAO-Addictive, GothicShamaness13, UntitledSorrow, yo wuz up, Touch of the Wind, isa18, MaiValentinefan, demon thing, kari tao(ren's little sister), and Andrea Nefisto.

To HAO-Addictive: Yeah it has been a long time since we've talked. I haven't been keeping up with my emails lately, and I've probably got hundreds just piling up. Hopefully over Christmas Break I'll get to answering some of them…hopefully.

To yo wuz up: Yeah, Hao and Damien know each other. They aren't on very good terms though.

To kari tao(ren's little sister): Akira's little sister will be making her appearance shortly. Well…it'll be a while still, but in a few chapters.

To Andrea Nefisto: About the "Plus that one day you visited the Asakura Mansion, I saw you kissing my father dressed as Ivy. You're a cross dresser too, aren't you?" That was back in the chapter called "Delusional". Also 'Fern' is the name of one of my OCs for a fic that I'm thinking of doing after I get the Judo fic up and running. Sorry I can't talk more, but I have limited space for reviews.

PLEASE REVIEW! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!