For michi, who started this whole fiasco.

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
-- Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)

It's almost midnight and she can't sleep so she sits in a tree and watches the moon. She takes care not to lean against the trunk of the tree, wary of the fact that it could probably stain her clothing and give her an unbearable rash. She used to do this often as a little girl when she couldn't hear silence long enough to sleep, and though the time has past, she revives the habit tonight for her birthday.

She checks her watch. It's quarter past twelve, and she's also a year older than she was fifteen minutes ago. She never takes great notice in her birthday, but she enjoys it when other people do. Her lips curve into a faint smile at the thought of Yoh's present; he'd be sure to get her something useless but something pretty. She knows that she'll scold him for it, that she'll demand one of the many gifts from the list she's given him weeks before, but her fiancée will merely smile that dangerous smile and say that the gift reminded him of her. She's unreasonable like that, but only because he's unreasonable with her.

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks!"

She narrows her eyes at the intruder. She had expected him. "What do you want Hao?" From her vantage point, he looks small, but perspective is a funny thing in the world of Shamans. He stands just far enough from the tree so that the moon drenches him. Not that this surprises her; Hao enjoys his dramatics far more than anyone else she knows, even Ryu.

"Why, to see you, Anna. It's your birthday after all." His tone is cheerful and in the moonlight, he looks bleached and pale. It's a disconcerting effect.

She's not surprised he knows. "You've seen me. Now leave."

He raises an eyebrow. "Without a kiss?" he pouts, though something tells her that he is not kidding. "Juliet promised her undying devotion to her Romeo." She recoils inwardly at the thought.

"Juliet killed herself." Her tone is frosted with elegiac hatred, but it melts off of him easily, as if his spirit took the brunt of her formidable blow.

"And the romantic Romeo took a vial of poison because he could not bear to live without his lover." Hao looks up at her, a wry smile playing at the edges of his lips. "I'd take poison if I thought you had died."

"Then do so."

Even as the last syllable leaves her lips, he's sitting beside her on the branch, dangerously close. She angles her body away from his as much as possible, and he pretends to ignore this. They both know that she's not suicidal but nor is she afraid and that makes her far more perilous than Juliet.

"It's a beautiful night," he says. Then adds coyly in her direction, "Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon." She doesn't reply but her form is almost as stiff as her silence. He laughs and for a brief, corrosive moment, she remembers that he is Yoh's brother. "If you were anyone else, I think I'd be insulted by your reticence."

"Then leave. I'm not keeping you here," she snaps, tilting her head towards his direction. "Leave before I push you off this tree."

"Oh?" He reaches over with his right hand and tilts her chin so she is forced to look at him. "It's not like you to give warning."

She raises her right arm to strike, but he catches her wrist in an easy grip. "The same thing won't work on me twice, Anna," he warns as he releases her chin to capture her left arm.

"Release me and leave." Her tone is sharp and she tries not to leave him room for argument.

"Very well." She's not fooled by his deferring tone as she can see the glint of mischief in his eyes and even as she realizes what is happening, it's too late. "But first…"

Her first kiss is something that she'll forever try to forget. It's a hard kiss and he gives her no room to struggle even as he pins her against the trunk of the tree so that she can feel her clothing catch against the grooves of the bark. "Happy birthday, Anna," he whispers when his lips leave hers, his breath hot on her flushed and sensitized skin.

She spits in his face. He laughs even as he wipes his countenance on his sleeve and she sees shades of red. When her vision clears, the only thing that is left is the moon, the tree and the angry marks on her arms and wrists that are beginning to disappear.

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. It's a long moment before she can climb down.

November 2003