Summary: At the generous behest of Ryu, Yoh and Anna pay a visit to the carnival. There are games galore, but will Yoh get the prize he really wants?

Written: Uh, you know, maybe I should quit saying when I wrote these. This one took almost two months. School really sucks. And don't start playing World of Warcraft, or you'll never spend your free time writing. Trust me. (Finished 3/17/08.)

Rating: T for mild language and (as usual) romantic themes.

Notes: I intend for this to be a two-shot (mostly because I have a hard time coming up with new plots, but I also like the carnival setting). Don't expect the second part anytime soon, but I hope you enjoy this story, and feel free to comment, please!

Midway Mayhem

Kiss #24

Yoh was accustomed to hearing unsettling sounds while arranging plates upon the dish rack—the high-pitched whine of scraping porcelain, the sudden chip of plaster like a skipped heartbeat, or the jarring shatter of a dish smacking the floor—but this time, he actually avoided major disaster. No, the sound he heard was much softer, almost gentle, but potentially far worse.

Anna had sighed. Yoh knew all too well that any signal of discontentment on her part was uncomfortable, not to mention nearly always his fault somehow. Clearing his throat hesitantly, he turned around, the linen towel in his hands drooping languidly along with his enthusiasm for the afternoon.

"Is something the matter, Anna?" Upon turning to face her, Yoh dropped his towel. The expression on her face was not the disgruntled frown he had expected. Rather, she was leaning forward—slouching, really—with elbows propped upon her lap, terminating in dainty fists that supported her delicate chin. The television was reflected in her listless eyes, until she cocked her head sideways.

"Just a little…bored, that's all."

Easy for you to say, Yoh thought bitterly for a second. If you want something to do so badly, help me wash the dishes. He shook his head violently at these thoughts, a little disgusted with himself, but Anna misread his gesture.

"Ugh, Yoh, I know what you're thinking."

He gave a startled hop backwards; his foot snagged on the towel he had dropped and he stumbled awkwardly for a second. Trying to look as innocent as possible—a difficult task, given how precariously he was now balanced—he coyly asked, "Y-you do?"

"Of course! How stupid do you think I am?" The idyllic, sedate figure of Anna sprung off the couch and now appeared as martial as ever. Her hands did not unclench, although they migrated from her chin to her hips, and rather than the television, Yoh's startled face shone off of her dangerously narrowed eyes. "Oh," she began, making an almost comical face and lowering her voice in a rough imitation of Yoh's, "since you're so bored, why don't we make out?"

The words came as such a shock to Yoh that he completely missed the fact that she was trying to imitate him, not come on to him. "Huh? Yeah, why don't we?"

Somewhere between then and the sudden stinging sensation he felt on his cheek, he realized the truth of the situation. Oops.

"There's one part of me that you can kiss," she hissed, gesturing towards her rather shapely rear, "and it's not my lips. Got that?"

Yoh didn't quite know what to say. He thought of explaining what had just happened, but realized even he didn't know for sure. Anyhow, thinking about it made his head hurt, even more than Anna's slap. He could swear that the throbbing was making his pulse pound in his ears, so loudly that it sounded to him like someone was rapping on the front door…

"Yoh! Are you just gonna stand there all day? Someone's at the door. Get it."

Yoh drifted, still somewhat dazed, to the door, and slid it open. He looked up into what can only be described as a wave of hair, permanently suspended mid-crest by a truly heroic mass of hair spray. Yoh would know that coiffure anywhere. "Ryu!"

"Master Yoh, it is certainly a pleasure to see you again. Your training progresses smoothly as usual, I take it?"

"Give or take. How about you? Getting any closer to your Best Place?"

"Ah!" Ryu's bushy eyebrows arched in excitement. "Funny you should mention that. For the time being, I have, in fact, stumbled upon a first-rate candidate for my Best Place."

"Where's that?"

"Why tell you, when I can take you there myself? You, and your esteemed fiancée."

Yoh risked a glance over his shoulder. Oh, she's steamed, all right.

Anna piped up at that moment, and Yoh cringed anticipatorily. Geez, did she see me looking over at her? She probably thinks I still want to make out with her…wait, I never did want to…at least not today…okay, at least not at the moment she thought I did…crap, I'm confusing myself again… "So what is this 'best place' of yours, Ryu? Spill the beans."

Ryu interpreted her rather ambivalent query as an invitation. Stepping around Yoh to enter the inn, his bell bottoms seemed to swell with excitement along with the rest of his animated figure. "I'm sure you'll love it! Such amusement! Such whimsy! The allure of prizes and the comforts of food and drink! Yes, there's—"

"Stop it! Enough! Damn, you sound like a fan fiction writer. Just tell me what this place is already!"

Ryu looked wounded. His rigid hairdo even seemed to sag slightly. "Why, my dear lady, the carnival is in town this weekend, and I happen to have fistfuls of tickets in my pockets for my most esteemed mentor and his fiancée extraordinaire. But I suppose you tire of such worldly pleasures, your grace, in which case I'll be taking my leave—"

"We're going."

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Yoh didn't know how he had missed the local park's sudden transformation from tranquil nook of nature to bustling carnival ground, but transform it had. And "bustling" was, if anything, an understatement. Yoh found independent movement nearly impossible, and after awhile discovered that by offering no resistance and simply standing still, the masses around him would eventually push him towards the midway.

"Yoh? Yoh?"

No reply. Anna felt a bit as though she were trying to catch the attention of the lead singer at a rock concert.

"YOH!"

He cocked an eyebrow at the scream. The background noise was enough to render Anna's normally bloodcurdling yell almost inaudible.

"Where's Ryu?" Or at least that's what he thought she was trying to say; Yoh wasn't much of a lip-reader. He shrugged. Anna looked exasperated. Something warm and silky, yet viselike, seized his hand and tugged, and despite the roughness Yoh gave an impassioned gasp. Scarcely able to believe it, Yoh looked down, then up a little…Anna's holding my hand!

Indeed she was, and with her trademark glares she managed to cut a path for the two of them through the crowd. Yoh was perfectly capable of snaking his way through on his own, but he feigned helplessness so that Anna would need to hold his hand longer. Soon they found themselves on a somewhat less crowded path lined on both sides with stock carnival games. The air was still thick with the sounds of pellet guns, clattering milk bottles, popping balloons and ringing bells, but at least Yoh could hear himself think here. They strolled past the striped tents and the hopeful contestants. Every so often Anna would stop before a tent, surveying the players' acumen, and Yoh would look too, except his eyes would wander to Anna's face. Somehow the flashing, multitudinous carnival lights produced an effect not unlike sunlight upon her flawless complexion, and Yoh's imagination carried his mind off to distant realms…

"Heh, what a cute monkey," Anna muttered to herself.

Yoh's presence of mind wobbled precariously for a second. "H-huh?"

"Oh, never mind," Anna shrugged, blushing so slightly that Yoh didn't notice even under the carnival lights, but her eyes swooped over the display of stuffed animal monkeys at one of the game booths. Yoh was not quite so out of it as to miss the implication. Fishing a strip of tickets out of his pocket, Yoh approached the tent.

"Step right up! Your tickets buy one dart. Pop a balloon and you walk home with a plush monkey. Cute as the dickens. Simple as that. Step right up!"

Yoh did as he was suggested. "Best of luck, kiddo."

Standing before the row of balloons mounted onto the back of the tent, it almost seemed as though an otherworldly presence were gracing Yoh as he dexterously twiddled and spun the dart in his fingertips. Then, in a flurry of motion so quick it almost looked like a before-and-after slideshow, Yoh delivered a mighty throw, upon which the dart found itself lodged into a strand of rubber. The balloon's pop punctuated the scene, and as the air left the balloon, so too did the mysterious presence vacate Yoh, who grinned childishly at his success.

"F-for you, Anna," Yoh stuttered, his hand quivering, extending to offer the stuffed animal to Anna.

"But you cheated!" Anna scolded, and Yoh could not tell whether or not her effrontery was genuine or in jest. He was about to rebut her accusation, but a different voice spoke at that moment—the unmistakable lofty tones of Yoh's samurai companion.

"Lady Anna, I have reason to believe my ears have deceived me! Certainly you are not accusing Yoh-dono of integrating with me to exploit my shuriken training? (1) Let me assure you, such chicanery is beneath such honorable personages as Yoh-dono and myself—"

"Yes," Anna cut in, her voice flat and mirthless, "I'm sure the integration was an accident, huh?"

For a second or two the background noise filtered back into their hearing range. Amidamaru said at last, "Yoh-dono, I apologize for my indiscretion. Lady Anna is most astute."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You're always cutting in whenever you think I need help, even when my life isn't in mortal danger. Force of habit, and a good one at that."

Anna sighed. "How heartwarming. You still cheated, Yoh."

"Yeah," Yoh said, his eyes now fixed upon the muddy, sodden ground beneath Anna's feet. "I guess I did. Sorry, Anna." He placed the scorned stuffed animal on the countertop of the game tent.

Anna looked contrite for just an instant, but by the time Yoh's eyes returned to meet her gaze a second later, her expression was as steely as ever. "Well, why don't you stand in line for one of the rides? I'll be back in a minute. I, uh, I'm off to the little girls' room…"

"Sure, Anna."

She waited until Yoh was around fifty paces away, standing at the rear of a long, winding string of carnival goers. Then, even though she knew he had to still be standing off in the distance, she gave a furtive glance behind her, snatched up the abandoned monkey from the countertop, and crammed it into her purse. Then, taking a deep breath, she sauntered over to Yoh's side in line.

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"Whee!" exclaimed Yoh as he staggered out of the dome-shaped gondola of the Tilt-A-Whirl. (2) The centrifugal forces of the ride had spun his sense of balance upon its head, but his flushed, exhilarated expression plainly stated he didn't care. Anna, on the other hand, looked quite a bit worse for wear.

"Ugh," she deadpanned, pirouetting at Yoh's side. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of her graceful yet perilous spin—but she wasn't done yet. She swooned laterally this time, bending backwards violently, then overcompensating, pitching forward on a collision course with the muddy grass before her.

"Whoa," Yoh muttered, hopping forward to intercept Anna's fall. Wrapping both his arms around her torso from behind, he dug in his heels in an attempt to gain some traction on the slick ground. Still he felt the soles of his shoes gliding in the mud, and he knew their forward motion wouldn't stop from anything other than friction or the ground, and the latter seemed most likely. Sure enough, Yoh felt the unfurling tumble play out in slow motion. His feet kicked up ever so slightly, and, in an attempt to break the fall he realized was coming, his arms' grip relented, sending Anna spinning in the air. With a muffled yell of alarm, Yoh once again encircled his arms around Anna, but it was too late, and besides they had both pitched sideways from the momentum of the tumble.

On his side and mired in the gooey mud, Yoh was dimly aware of the ignominy of his position for a moment, but the shame was shoved out of his mind when he became cognizant of who else was in the mud with him…and just how near she was. Still in his arms, in fact. As Yoh watched slack-jawed with shock and a measure of excitement, Anna's facial expression progressed from disgusted to alarmed, until they were both staring directly into each other's eyes, neither daring to speak, not that any words were necessary. Both were immersed in the moment, much deeper than they were immersed in the filthy mud, and both were oblivious to the many pairs of eyes that had stopped to witness their tumble and were now transfixed upon the backs of Yoh's and Anna's heads.

Finally Anna spoke, tugging Yoh back to his senses. "Yoh…you tried to break my fall, but you fell too." She laughed then, a delicate, softly lilting laugh, gentle yet uproarious, and Yoh didn't see the humor in her declaration, but couldn't help laughing as well.

"If Amidamaru had been behind what you just tried to do…you would've stayed right on your feet."

And Yoh started to see what Anna had seen all along.

"You, and only you, tried to stop me from falling. Thanks for your concern, Yoh. And thanks for not cheating when it really counts."

And then, not caring that Yoh looked genuinely touched, and certainly not caring that at least twenty onlookers were gawking at them, Anna pried one of her arms from the suction of the mud and circled it around Yoh's back. Somewhere in that motion, their lips met, and Yoh's eyes sprung wide open at the contact, but only for an instant; soon his eyes were shut with passion as tightly as Anna's were.

Gingerly, though they were both liberally splattered with mud, they eventually made their way to their feet. The assembled onlookers collectively drew back a step when they arose, but did not disperse—at least, not until Anna adopted her trademark no-nonsense expression and asked, as coldly as only she could, "What are you looking at?"

Yoh could only smile as Anna took a couple of tentative steps down the midway. "Come on, Yoh, there's plenty of carnival left." Nodding, he advanced to join her. Somewhere in the crowd a young man with an outrageous hairdo was looking for a precocious shaman and his fiancée, and he had no idea just how different they now felt, and not just because of the mud that was caking on their skin…

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(1) A shuriken is a Japanese throwing star.

(2) A common carnival ride consisting of a circular platform that spins, on top of which several gondolas are mounted that spin in random directions, resulting in considerable dizziness on the rider's part.