Mikau: Hello! It's been awhile hasn't it… I'm a little sick. I was at the hospital, and they had to draw blood, and I fainted. They say only boys usually faint when they have to draw blood, so I guess that means I'm sort of boyish…hmm. Oh well. So that's where I've been. I just can't seem to stay well. Oh well, it's sort of a short chapter, but I worked hard on it, so I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King.

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Heartbroken

I descended the stairwell and looked for my sister and her Lucifer among the various faces in the vast crowd. I spotted them over by the bubble machine, and went to join them.

"Hey, have either of you seen Lian?" I chewed lightly on my bottom lip.

Hoshi looked around, scanning the crowd. "Nope. I'll tell Lian you're looking for him if I do see him though. Hey, Lucy, entertain Thorn for awhile while I go talk to some people." My sister walked off.

"Sure Hosh. I'll meet up with you later. Come on Thorn." Lucifer waved a brief goodbye to my sister and put his arm around my waist. "Let's dance."

I blushed heavily. Lucifer seemed to notice my discomfort at his touch. "What's the matter? You still shaken up about me being the 'Lord of the Underworld'?"

"Mm? Oh! No, it's not that…It's just that…" I pulled away from him, slightly embarrassed, "…It's that you're my sister's boyfriend. I don't think she'd like it if we danced together." I looked down at my feet and blushed.

Lucifer smiled his dashingly handsome smile at me as he tipped my chin upwards. "Look, Hoshi told me to entertain you, so that's what I'm going to do, and right now there are only two things we could do that would be entertaining, so take your pick: we can either go out onto the dance floor, or to a spare bed room. Which would you prefer Thorn?"

His smile weakened my knees, and I felt my heart's pace quicken. My breath came to me in short puffs, and hormones raced through my system. My mouth went dry, and my pupils turned to tiny pinpricks. I was absolutely terrified of that man, but somehow I managed to stutter a labored, "D-da-dance fl-oor, p-p-please."

"That's what I thought." The same confident grin played upon the devil's face.

He escorted me out onto the dance floor where they were playing some romantic slow song. I shuddered when he wrapped his arms around me and pulled us close together. I let my arms drape over his shoulders, but didn't make eye contact, instead gazing to the side. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time we danced. He didn't look away; he stared and stared and stared until I thought he would burn a hole through me. His cold black eyes seemed to burn through me with their scorching frost.

The silence between us was awkward and uncomfortable; I had to break it or risk dying of an anxiety attack brought on by the hundreds of thoughts flying through my head at the same time. And so I asked a question that I needed the answer to before I could trust him with my elder twin.

"Lucifer?" I looked him in the eye for the first time that entire song.

"Yes?" His two playful, black orbs greeted me, smiling their devilish grin.

I swallowed—gulped, and let the words slide off my tongue and past my lips. "Do you really love my sister?"

It was a completely serious question, so the response I got from him was more than unexpected. He laughed at me! Not outright peals of obnoxious laughter, but Lucifer's own brand of laughter. Audibly, he only chuckled, but his eyes were rolling on their sides laughing.

I glared at the insensitive demon. "WHAT—may I ask—is so funny?" I didn't appreciate his boorishness.

"Nothing." The laughter in his eyes ceased, and the smile returned. "It's just that you had such a serious air, and all you wanted to know was if I loved Hoshi. It's a simple question, but you quite over exaggerated."

"And your answer is…?" I pressed him.

"Yes. You see, I told you it was a simple question, and a simple question merits a simple answer." He chuckled to himself as he bopped me on the nose with an index finger.

I blinked, a bit jarred by his treating me like a child. I soon recovered my composure, and moved on to my next question. "But do you love only her?"

"Huh?" The smile from his eyes dimmed until I could hardly see it, and then it was gone. His expression turned grave.

"I mean would you ever cheat on her?" I gulped again, not feeling very secure with him giving me that look.

"What makes you say that?" His eyes delved into my skull, searching my brain for answers. I could almost feel him picking through my thoughts.

"Nothing! It's just that…You could have any woman, why just settle for one?" Somehow I found some sort of strength inside of me, and my voice steadied, and grew more confident. "You mean everything to my sister, and I don't want her getting hurt."

Lucifer looked at me for a minute—not staring like before, but just looking, as if considering. A slow smile spread a little reluctantly across his lips, but the smile wasn't potent enough to reach his eyes, which remained somber. "I see. Looking out for your sister are you? Well, you've no reason to worry. I'll be faithful." His arms tightened around me, seeming to contradict his words.

I looked back up into his eyes, but they were empty. He was staring off over my left shoulder at nothing in particular. His tightened grip hadn't meant anything. I looked away in the opposite direction as the slow song continued to hum over the muffled noise of the other couples on the dance floor as they whispered sweet nothings in each others' ears.

"Umm…Thorn?" I jumped at the sudden reentrance of my sister's boyfriend's voice.

"Uh…Yes?" My brownish eyes again made contact with his obsidian ones.

"I'm really sorry for any pain that I will cause you." His once empty eyes were now full of guilt. It was enough to make me extremely uneasy.

I tried hard to find my voice again. "W-why do you say that?" I managed to keep most of the fear out of my voice.

A small, ironic grin parted his lips a fraction of an inch. "Oh nothing. It's just that I have an extremely guilty consciousness, and I like apologizing in advance." He kissed me delicately on the side of my neck, leaving a small red mark in the shape of a phoenix. I didn't notice the mark at the time as it was well concealed. Lucifer also tucked a red rose behind my ear as he smiled impishly.

I felt faint. I swore I was going to pass out at any second. But then the song ended, and another, faster one started up. "There you two are." Hoshi appeared, as if, out of nowhere, and rejoined our group. "I couldn't find the person that I wanted to see. She's probably busy though…giving orders to anyone within a mile or two."

"You mean Anna?" Lucifer smirked at his girlfriend, his grave air completely dissolved.

"Why yes." Hoshi wrapped her arms around her lover's waist as she closed her eyes and kissed him on the cheek.

Lucifer enveloped Hoshi in his own set of arms, but somehow managed to lift a finger to his lips, motioning for me not to tell my sister about the strange conversation I had just had with him.

I nodded, showing I had understood, but my face was still a bit blank from confusion and the like.

Hoshi pulled away from Lucifer and smiled brightly at me. "So, what were you two up to Thorn? Has my Lucifer been behaving himself?"

I blinked, at first not realizing that she was speaking to me, even though she had addressed me by name. "Oh? Oh! Well—"

My incomplete sentence was broken unexpectedly by a man dressed as a knight in shining armor. "Hey you! Demon-boy!"

Lucifer smiled maliciously at the unwelcome guest. "Why hello Lian. What can we do for you this beautiful night?"

Lian glared bitterly back. "You can keep your paws off of my girlfriend for starters you bastard." My boyfriend stepped in front of me, separating me from Lucifer.

Lucifer's smiled turned to a full-fledged smirk, oozing venom. "You know, where I come from, those are fighting words."

Lian clenched his fists and raised one at my sister's boyfriend. "You want a fight? I'll give you a fight!"

The devil chuckled condescendingly at my boyfriend. "Nah! You're not worth my time."

"Why you!" Lian lunged at Lucifer, intent to kill, but both Hoshi and I grabbed at Lian, holding him back. "Let me at him! Let me at him, I say!"

I stepped in front of Lian and blocked his way. "Please stop. Don't fight him!"

Hoshi glared at Lucifer. The demon shrunk back from her like a puppy retreating with its tail between its legs. "What?"

"You know what." Hoshi chided half-heartedly, a smile behind her disapproving looks. "Don't egg him on. You know he's only a mortal, and he wouldn't stand a chance against you in a fight."

Lucy smirked with pride at his girlfriend's words. Lian glared daggers at my sister, screeching, "That's it! I've had enough of you woman!"

I tried to hold my boyfriend back as I hissed under my breath to my sister, "Hoshi! NOT. Helping!"

My twin smiled mock-sweetly back at me. "I can't help it if it's true." She motioned to her pet, "Come on Lucifer, let's leave them alone."

"Sure." The demon king nodded, wrapping an arm around my sister's waist possessively, and smirking back at Lian over his shoulder.

Lian stopped struggling as he watched his opponent walk away. He called after the demon, "I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, punk!"

"Not a lot of people do." Lucifer stuck his tongue out.

That seemed to set Lian off all over again. "That…little…bas—"

"Lian!" I looked pleadingly into his eyes.

He looked away. "Sorry."

"It's okay." I smiled, and that seemed to make everything all right.

"Your real name is Thorn, isn't it?" He smiled sweetly, and I blushed at being caught lying to him.

"Yes. It is…. How did you find out?" I looked down to my feet and played with the hem of my dress nervously.

He tilted my chin back upwards and chuckled kindly. "I'm a friend of your cousin's and an acquaintance of your sister. Hana told me."

"Oh." For the first time I felt awkward talking to him. It was a strange feeling, and I would give anything to keep from feeling it. "Do you want to dance?" I offered. It was the only thing I could think of to keep from feeling awkward with him.

"Sure." As if by magic, the previous song ended, and a slow song, Natsu no E, started up. Lian put an arm around my waist as I rested one hand on his shoulder. He took my free hand in his own. It was all so mechanical, and I wasn't nearly as happy as I thought I would be to be dancing with him again.

"Something the matter?" Lian gazed at me with worry overflowing in his eyes.

"Huh? Oh…no. Nothing…" 'What's the matter with me?' I was so lacking energy. It was as if I had become another, more somber, person. But then I remembered, and a bright smile came to my face. "Hey, you promised you would take your mask off for me tonight!"

His reaction was not as I had expected. The whites of his eyes grew and grew until the bright blue I loved so much was almost completely consumed by a blizzard of white. It was as if he were staring down the barrel of a gun, and my finger was tightly pressed against the trigger.

"Something wrong?" The colorlessness of his face worried me.

He came out of his daze with the sound of my voice. "No, nothing's wrong. It's just that…. Well, maybe we should wait a little longer until I take this mask off. Don't you think we're rushing things already?"

"No." I smiled sweetly, making him nervous. "Come on! Most couples have at least seen each other's faces. It's not like I'm asking for something drastic." I reached up to remove his mask.

He moved out of the way, evading my hands. "Thorn. Please. I'm not really who you think I am."

I froze, my hands inches from his face. I slowly lowered them. "What do you mean?" An uncertain smile painted my face.

"Look, Thorn, Lian isn't my real name." My stomach lurched. "I didn't mean to lie to you. When we first met at the other party, I didn't know it was you I had met. I didn't know I had fallen in love with Thorn Asakura." I gulped. His voice had lowered, informing me that he had been speaking using a fake high voice all along. This voice, his real voice was familiar to me, and it scared me. Now it was my turn to have my eyes widen. "I'm actually—Thorn, I'm really sorry. I do love you, I do, and I hope that you can still love me too. My real name is—" He slowly lifted the mask from his face. I gasped. "Tao Akira."

The world stopped turning. I wish that I fainted then and there. It would have been so much easier on me. But I remained conscious. Tears blurred my vision, and my feet started moving of their own will. I could distantly hear him call after me, but I ignored the painful wail of his voice. I willed it not to be true, but it was. I just couldn't accept him for what he was. My Lian couldn't be Akira. He just couldn't. But he was.

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Mikau: Okay, I replied to reviews using the reply link, so I hope you all got your replies.

Thanks To: Tippy-chan, thoughtless dreamer, Sonseray, DarkPisces33, RainAngelSing, yo wuz up, Untitled Sorrow, isa18, MaiValentinefan, Shamanbabe, none, HAO-Addictive, Marina, acho)bl3ssU, and Andrea Nefisto.

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