Summary: Ren lost something at the En Inn…but he's reluctant to get more specific. And it involves Anna? You'll find out how…

Rating: T for mild language and romance.

Written: Finished at 4 am of 1/24/08. The all-nighters I pull for my fans! ;)

Notes: I apologize for the long wait between stories I've forced upon you. I hope this story's worth the wait! (See below for more notes)

Edit 1/29/08: Fixed a couple of typos and tried to make the plot a little clearer. (Spoiler alert: A few people have asked what Ren was "looking for." He's being purposely vague about this because he's a little ashamed, both of needing Yoh's help, and just for the fact that he has a crush on someone. I tried to suggest this embarrassment/shyness by having him slip up whenever Yoh addresses the topic, but I suppose I didn't do a very good job of it. In any case, the short answer is, Ren is "looking for" Yoh's advice on what to do about the girl he likes, that's all. He's just beating around the bush in telling Yoh as much.)

The First of Many

Kiss #22

The sunlight of the cloudless afternoon cascaded upon the tranquil suburban sidewalk of the Funbari Hill neighborhood. Birds congregated upon its mottled, warm surface, but dispersed in a frenzied flock as a lean figure loomed near. A cacophony of chirps and flutters abruptly interrupted the silence, but it was gone as quickly as it had sounded, and then only the sound of plastic bags crinkling in the gentle breeze could be heard.

A few hundred yards down the sidewalk, another young man, shorter than the first but well-built, trudged his way forward. His hands were empty, yet they were clenched as though trying to hold the breeze captive, and his eyes were narrowed although the glare was behind him.

Their paths inevitably crossed; the rustle of plastic bags shuddered through the air once more, and the taller boy gave a start of recognition. The shorter merely unclenched his fists.

"Hey, Ren," he acknowledged, giving him a slight nod. "What a surprise to see you here."

Ren returned his nod. "Not all that surprising, Yoh, seeing as I just came from your residence. Anna, I might add, was not at all amused by my presence. Or your apparent tardiness with the grocery shopping."

As though checking to make sure he was still in fact holding the aforementioned groceries, Yoh juggled the plastic bag handles in his hands. "I can't help it if the lines are long. But wait—why'd you go to my place? Forget something?"

"Ah—" Ren scratched the back of his head and looked away from Yoh's kindly gaze pointedly. "In a manner of speaking…"

"Oh? Well, I haven't seen anything out of place recently. But your memory might be jogged if we look for it together."

"Er—" He looked as though he wanted to clarify further, but settled for walking astride Yoh towards En Inn.

"So what is it, anyway?" Yoh asked, shifting one of the heavier bags from one hand to the other. "Not something small, is it?"

"I…no. It's a big deal," Ren replied after a moment's hesitation. As the words left his mouth, however, he gesticulated wildly and sputtered, "Uh, I mean, that is to say…never mind."

"Huh? So it is something small? That's fine, I was just hoping it wasn't. Once you lose things like that, they seem to be gone forever."

"Tell me about it." Once again, Ren did a double-take after he spoke, and hastened to amend, "Dah, I mean, keep a tight grasp on your small objects, yep."

"That's the story of my life," Yoh joked. "So I'm guessing it's something important to you?"

They passed beneath the archway of the En Inn enclave. "Very precious to me, yeah." Ren bonked himself on the forehead and added, "Erm, I mean, uh, well…"

He was spared scrutiny for his defensiveness as they entered Yoh's home. "I'm back!" Yoh called out as he shut the door behind his guest and himself.

"About damn time!" Anna's voice could freeze the surface of a lake. "You know what to do."

"Now then," he addressed his companion as he set the assemblage of bags upon the kitchen table. "I'd really love to help you find this misplaced object, but…Anna will kill me if dinner isn't prepared soon," he finished, lowering his voice conspiratorially. He pulled up a seat for Ren and poured him a glass of ice cold milk, and began arranging the groceries in the refrigerator. It was with some surprise, then, that Yoh turned to the cupboard and found Ren there, placing pots and pans upon the countertop.

"Are…Is everything alright, Ren?" Yoh inquired as he took one of the pans, feeling both gratitude and uneasiness.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" he countered, in a tone even stiffer than usual.

"Well, first of all," and Yoh chose his words carefully, "I don't mean to sound like an ass, but since when are you so eager to help me with making dinner?"

"We're friends, aren't we?" Ren's tone was earnest, but not convincing to Yoh's ear.

"And I don't believe you ever told me what you lost. Ren, what are you looking for?"

He did not immediately answer. Finally he said, "Why don't I assist you with the cooking? The work may…help me remember." Yoh looked mystified, but shrugged, and scooted over to make space for his erstwhile sous-chef.

Yoh ran the peeler and the grater under the stream of warm water cascading into the sink. Slivers of vibrant orange flecked into the basin as Yoh's dexterous hands smoothed over the carrots. Ren, still reticent, poured a measure of water into a blackened pot and trucked it over to the stove.

"You know, I could get used to this," Yoh mused, shearing the leaves off a stalk of celery and positioning it upon the cutting board. "It's nice having an extra pair of hands in the kitchen."

"Indeed, I don't mind assisting you. After all, cooking prowess is a trait much sought after by potential girlfriends." Ren's paring knife clattered noisily to the countertop. "Gah, I mean, hypothetically speaking of course. Just making an observation," he recovered, picking up the knife and clearing his throat overzealously.

"If…if you say so," Yoh frowned, returning his attention to the spice rack. "So did you remember?" he asked, adding a dash and a sprig to the boiling pot upon the stove. "What you were looking for, that is?" Keeping a lazy eye upon the pot, he pulled a stool out for himself and sat before Ren.

"Oh, sure," he answered, taking a pensive sip of milk, as though searching for the right words. "I lost, or rather I should say, I need you to help me find, the right thing for me to do next. You see," he finished, as Yoh filled a glass with water, "there's this girl I sort of like…"

Yoh spewed a mouthful of water clear across the kitchen in shock. His glass wobbled dangerously upon the table, and once he got a hand on it, he favored Ren with a bug-eyed stare. "Come again?"

"I'm afraid there isn't more to it than that," he offered, a bit bemused from Yoh's reaction. "Not the sort of thing I have very much experience with, so I was thinking you might be able to…broaden my horizons, so to speak." A smirk underlined his subtle pun.

"Well, I…don't know what to tell you." It was clear that Yoh, unsurprisingly, had missed out on Ren's double-entendre. "I don't have much experience with casting about for a girlfriend, myself. Arranged marriages are funny like that." Perhaps aware of the awkwardness of the situation, a cheesy grin sprouted upon his face.

"But clearly you have more experience with the fairer sex than I," the Chinese boy persisted behind a frosty, half-empty glass of milk. "Besides, Anna hasn't raised any objections I'm aware of over your arranged marriage. You must be doing something right, no?"

"Yes," came Yoh's stilted, sarcastic affirmation. With a gesture toward the parlor, from which the tinny sounds of a TV issued forth, he continued in a tone no less ironic, "Clearly we are the paragon of intimacy. In no way does Anna's penchant for watching primetime melodramas alone epitomize the lack of communication which, I might add, is definitely not juxtaposed upon this relationship."

This time, Ren looked as though it was his turn to perform a spit-take. "Such verbosity!"

Yoh shrugged. "Just wanted to make my point. Anna and I barely talk. And when we do, it's probably because I'm overdue for a chewing out."

"That, I think," offered Ren somewhat consolingly, "is her nature, more so than your actions. Neither can you deny the fact that, for all of her seeming insistence to the contrary, there is…something there."

Yoh looked uncomfortable and fidgeted with his collar for a few silent moments before standing up. He paced to the stove deliberately, and from behind him came Ren's surprisingly mellow voice again. "I would not be requesting your advice if I believed your love life unsuccessful. Protest all you wish, but I feel that Anna sincerely loves you." The slightest trace of bitterness crept into his voice as he said this.

Yoh said nothing and stirred the pot with a wooden spoon, somewhat more vigorously than was absolutely necessary. His gaze was transfixed upon the pot's swirling contents now, and he almost missed Ren's last comment: "You don't doubt this, do you?"

The wooden spoon clattered upon the surface of the range with a hollow thud. Yoh did not face Ren as he said, a little too aggressively to be a rhetorical question, "What does that matter?"

Ren sensed he had struck a nerve; normally he would revel in such a tactical advantage, but today his menace was soothed by romantic pursuits. "Forgive me my probing, Yoh, I wished merely to elucidate my decision to ask of your advice—"

"Then I'll give it." Yoh took a single deep breath, and then turned on Ren, his eyes glittering like warm coals. "Ren, if you like a girl, then ask her out. By all means. In my opinion love is overrated, but what do I know? Being able to choose your girlfriend for yourself—what a novel idea! Bask in your freedom! Sleep around! Find the right one! Don't end up like me!"

In spite of Yoh's tirade, Ren looked more scandalized than cowed. At the sight of Yoh's lunging figure, which convulsed violently with each labored breath, even the well-spoken Ren could find no words. At last he said, almost as though trying to convince himself, "You don't mean that, Yoh."

In one fluid motion, he strode over to his cup and drained it in a single swallow. "Take that girl out on a couple of dates. Then find out she's the kind of psycho that you've gotta always walk on eggshells around. Make a couple of honest mistakes now and then and see what kind of hell you get for them. Realize you've had enough, and then learn, surprise surprise, you're stuck with her the rest of your life. Then tell me I don't mean it."

Ren, who had always seen Yoh as the consummate happy-go-lucky kind of person, couldn't believe it. Through eyes wide as saucers he watched Yoh, perpetually cheerful Yoh, Yoh who cracked jokes in the face of death, rock back and forth on the balls of his feet, twitching and snarling with unsuppressed frustration. Hesitantly he rose, plucking up Yoh's empty cup like a taut violin string, and filled it from the sink. After some thought he placed it upon the table. "Yoh," he began in a tone that sounded equally foreign to both of their ears, "it is often said that familiarity breeds contempt."

"Ain't that the truth." Yoh's voice quavered with emotion, although his convulsing had been reined in after a few deep breaths and a gulp of the water Ren had proffered. "What don't I know about Anna? She's only happy when I'm perfectly miserable. Don't forget why we're engaged in the first place. By every definition, this is a marriage of convenience—hers, mostly."

Ren nodded, pulling his seat nearer to the table. "You are remarkably lucid when you're upset. Perhaps that accounts for your grace under fire."

"No," rebutted Yoh with a smooth shake of his head, "I'm not upset, really. I'm resigned to this. What can I do, really? My grandparents want this to happen. Even Anna does, if for all the wrong reasons."

Ren's mouth unhinged itself in abortive rebuttal. When he remained silent, Yoh spoke again.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're looking for dating advice, you've come to the wrong place. Sure, I'm still in high school and I'm engaged. But what's more important than a ring on a finger? Or saying 'I do' in front of an old guy wearing robes and a couple hundred distant relatives?"

Ren took in Yoh's every word yet did not acknowledge his query. Yoh sipped his water and continued. "I'll tell you. It's something that can't be summed up with jewelry or vows. Something that is at once free, and yet is the most valuable thing you'll ever own. Something which a fortunate few discover on their first try, many spend years searching for, and an unlucky handful never quite obtain. And it's something that can't be described with mere words, even though I just tried to explain it."

Never known for his patience, Ren appeared antsy after just a few seconds' pause. Not long after he burst out, "Well? What is it?"

"What is it?" asked Yoh, who tried to looked exasperated but instead just looked rather cutely flustered. "It's love, stupid! And don't ask me how you know when you've found it," he hastened to add, seeing that very question playing upon Ren's lips. "You don't need anyone to tell you, anyway. When it happens, you'll know. It'll just hit you, when you're on the beach watching the sun set beneath the pristine waves with her head in your lap. Or maybe during a picnic at the park, when you fight over the last sushi and end up tumbling together in the grass. Maybe at the movies, there'll be one magical line that just strikes a chord with both of you, and you look over at each other at the same time, your eyes meet and"—Yoh snapped his fingers—"nothing more needs to be said. That's love."

Yoh carefully studied the woodgrain of the kitchen floor for several moments; he was suddenly conscious of how embarrassingly candid he had just been.

"You are a hopeless romantic, Yoh."

He grinned his usual sheepish grin. "So I've been told—"

The smile was immediately replaced by a shocked expression entirely devoid of color. A lump coalesced in his throat; he realized that Ren hadn't made that observation.

"An—Anna?!"

"The one and only. Dinner smells better than usual this evening, Yoh. Maybe Ren could teach you a thing or two—although from the sound of it, you are the one who's been doing all the teaching today."

It seemed to Ren that Anna's voice could draw tension out of any situation so thickly that it could be cut by Harusame. He stood up shakily and said, "I thank you for your hospitality, Anna, but I really must be going—"

"Bye," Anna cut in with vicious haste. Ren gave Yoh a meaningful look; were he not so overcome with unease, he might have seen, along with a faint milk moustache, him mouthing the word "Thanks" just before he hastily headed to the door.

But his attention was now focused entirely on the black-clad young woman who stood, slender yet deadly arms akimbo, propping a shoulder against the kitchen threshold. Her face was impassive, but as he had told Ren a few minutes ago, he knew Anna very well indeed—and this seemingly neutral stance usually boded ill for him.

"I, well, um," he stammered into Anna's unmoving expression. "How long were you there, incidentally?"

"Just a minute or so before you saw me," she answered, her face still betraying no emotion. It was a distinct contrast from Yoh's, which brightened noticeably when he realized this meant he might just be off the hook. Had Anna only heard his waxing romantic, and not his complaint session before that?

"I didn't need to be standing right in the doorway," she pressed on, "to hear your entire tirade, however." She, contrary to his expectations, ignored his crestfallen expression. "I'm surprised you never expressed your unhappiness earlier. But then again, as you told Ren, communication between the two of us has never been great."

Yoh shook his head, but not as agreement to Anna; rather, he simply could not believe that the usual quarrel was not to come.

"You're always surprising me, Yoh. You described love in such…well, it was so perfect, the way you put it for Ren. I'd say you have a pretty good idea of what love is." Yoh was mystified as to why Anna looked so pensive, even sad, as she pointed this out.

"So I have to know, then. As far as I recall," she began slowly, removing her hands from her hips and meandering towards Yoh in short steps, "we've never watched a sunset at the beach together. Neither have we fought over sushi in the park, or looked into each other's eyes at the movie theater." Anna's hands reached out for Yoh's, and upon feeling her palms upon his, he recoiled reflexively before he reassured himself it was alright this time, the tenderness of her palms would not strike him on the cheek for once…

"All that said, then," she said, and her smooth palms felt clammy to Yoh now, "what is it that we have?"

Yoh was mesmerized by Anna's bright eyes, but they began to cloud at the edges just as his mind started to clear and an answer formulated itself upon his lips. "Anna, I'm not going to lie," he spoke, softly, timidly, yet earnestly, "I'd love for us to have some nice, peaceful, happy memories. But I think I'm expecting too much from us. There aren't a lot of opportunities to sunbathe or go picnicking along the way to becoming Shaman King, and I think…well," he said, faltering, and sensing his palms beginning to twitch in Anna's tender grasp, "I think it's good we're getting all the unpleasant stuff out of the way now. There will be plenty of time for the beach later. And the fact that you're willing to invest so much in someone who's such a screwup, and could very well end up gone tomorrow, says a lot about 'what we have.'"

Her eyes were clear once again, and his next words were equally unambiguous. "It's love, Anna."

He thought he saw a glint of incredulousness flash behind her pupils, so he added, "This…is one of those moments. The first of many, I hope."

Anna looked up at Yoh's vacant, blissful smile and released his palms; her hands joined behind his back, and his slightly shaking torso warmed her. "But not the last."

The convergence of their lips took them both by surprise, although both of them had leaned into each other, and their eyes opened wide briefly before shutting with passion once more. An observer would not be able to discern that Anna was no longer in fear of losing Yoh from how tightly she embraced him. Yoh, for his part, was too busy suckling her supple lips with his own to notice her surprising strength. They didn't need the sunset upon the beach or the picnic basket at the park, they realized; all they needed was each other, and their lips were signing a covenant of unconditional love.

Their lips parted, but they still held one another. "You definitely know what you're talking about," Anna said into Yoh's ear. "Ren's lucky to have your advice."

"Not as lucky as I am to have you."

"You are such," she whispered, nuzzling his cheek with her nose for emphasis, "a hopeless romantic!"

"Nothing's hopeless as long as I've got you."

"Oh, geez, enough already…"

"But I can't get enough…of your love!"

"Okay, really, you can stop."

But there was no stopping their love, she knew, and she was happy for it. Their embrace, that ephemeral moment where only two people in the entire world matter, needed to end, but she knew there would be many more to come…


You may have noticed the extremely long delay between this story and the last. Well, I've started school again (a bunch of upper-division English courses; lots of reading, writing, caffeine overdoses and contemplating suicide) and that accounts for some of the delay. But to be honest, once I got the idea for this story, it only took three nights to write. Well OK, the last night stretched on till 4 am, but you know what I mean.

What I'm trying to say is, it's not the stories that take forever to write, it's brainstorming for plots that's time-consuming. Therefore, if you have any ideas whatsoever for stories you'd like to see in "A Shower of Kisses," then please, don't hold out on me. Let me know and I'll get cracking! Thanks.

-Kefra