Another chapter yay! Thank you to everyone who sent reviews. I'm so glad you are all enjoying this very strange, even twisted, romance.

A part of me has always wanted to do a story where great enemies become lovers, but I had to find just the right pair where the chemistry was believable.

Tell me, does anyone else have troubles remembering to keep the spirit allies in the story as I do? I'm forever forgetting to add Morphine when she goes everywhere with Lyserg. It's very frustrating, because I find myself having to fix a chapter just to make sure she has been added.

Possession – Chapter 9

I spent the better part of the day trying to get rid of my houseguests, but they were proving to be every bit as difficult to get rid of as Hao. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, only a complete fool would let their greatest adversary go free. Especially one with Hao's reputation of continually coming back like a bad boomerang to smack the unsuspecting upside the head.

I tried to hide my frustration, but they were ruining my plans. Finally Yoh pulled his head out of my fridge that he was raiding and gave me one of his rare, direct looks.

"You can stop trying to get rid of us Lyserg, because we're not going anywhere and we're not going to let you kill yourself." He stated quite bluntly. Ren, who was sitting at my table drinking tea made a small snorting sound.

I know my mouth must have fallen open, because his direct look changed to one of amusement. "What? Did you really think no one could tell what you were planning? Even Manta guessed your plans." Well damn, if they were able to guess, then it was a sure bet that Hao did as well.

Giving up all pretense of secrecy, I listed all of the reasons why my death would be the best solution, but they cut my arguments down every time.

"Fool," Ren said in an exasperated tone, "He would just comeback again. If not now, then in half a millennia. No, we need to deal with him now while we have somewhat control over him."

That's when I lost my temper. "Control! You call this control?" I yelled at him while gesturing to the bruises on my face. "Everyday I'm loosing more control of myself to him! Do you even know what he's done? What I've been -" I cut the end of that thought off before it got too far. Neither of them were stupid, they'd seen Hao grope me would have been able to easily put two and two together from there. Judging by the way they were suddenly avoiding direct eye contact, I wasn't wrong.

Yoh was the one to break the awkward silence first. "I know your angry Lyserg, my brother has taken and done more things to you than most, but we've had a few years to think about this, and we all agreed that we either need to make him give up his quest to be Shaman King, or we will have to banish his soul."

I stood there shocked to the core. Banish Hao? Would Yoh even be capable of that? Trap his brother's soul in limbo for eternity? I only had vague recollections of the time when the X-Laws had tried to trap Hao, and the little I did remember disturbed me greatly. I remember feeling like I was dissolving. My sense of self disappearing like sugar in water.

Shuddering, I also remembered that at full power, Hao and Yoh were able to retain their sense of self and break themselves and everyone else free.

But Hao was nowhere near full strength.

"Why are you telling me this? What I know, Hao knows." I asked, although to be truthful, Hao had somehow pulled himself deep inside me to plot so I was virtually alone at the moment.

"He might as well get used to it. And while you're at it, you can tell him to not bother trying to subvert anyone. Not only because he failed last time, but because we're all agreed that this is the best course of action." Ren answered calmly although he was clear he was still offended by Hao's former interest in him.

"Funny you should mention that," I said, shifting my glare back and forth between the two "was there some reason all of you felt the need to NOT advise me that you had found Hao's body? Did you think I wouldn't want to know something like that before he started taking over my body and killing other shamans again?" I asked pitching my tone into a false sweetness and was rewarded with twin expressions of horror.

"Oh, I'm sorry did I forget to mention that? It's strange, but as a law student I can verify with absolute certainty that no accused murderer has ever been acquitted on the plea of 'Innocent due to spiritual possession'. I wonder why."

I watched regret flow over Yoh's face and transform itself into resignation. "So that's how he's been getting stronger." He muttered, then to me "I am sorry my friend. At the time we thought we were protecting you. My brother has always been a sore issue for you, and we thought we could save you from more pain by letting you live your own life. In the end it only hurt you more. I know I'm sorry won't mean anything, but…"

"You're damn right it doesn't." I snapped at him and stormed out of my kitchen. I had never felt so betrayed or alone in my life.

I tried to go into the living room but Anna, Manta and Choco were in there fighting over what they were going to watch on TV. And by that I mean Anna was telling the others what they were going to watch and he was going to like it 'or else'.

Not wanting to see any of them, I stalked towards the back door only to bump into Ryu.

"Lyserg!" he greeted, though his tone and his voice were coated with false happiness.

"Not now" I growled, not wanting to talk to him any more than I did the others. Doing an about face I stormed off upstairs hoping not to run into anymore of my so called friends.

How could they do that? How could they shut me out like that? Even if we had grown apart, they should have at least told me about Hao still being alive after all we had been through together.

I would have locked myself up in my room, but unfortunately the door was hanging off of it in splinters. Instead I just sat in the slight gloom on the floor against the wall, staring at the charred remains of my furniture.

By the time my little pity party was in full swing Horo decided to make an appearance. "Hey Lyserg?"

Go away. I thought, rolling my eyes and gritting my teeth why couldn't these jerks just leave me alone? "What?" I snapped.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Wasn't that just a question? I made a noncommittal sound that he seemed to think was an assent.

"Are you really… you know…" the trailed off.

I know… what? Am I really possessed by my nemesis, am I really pissed that they left me alone to deal with him, am I really pissed that they never told me he was still alive? I pick 'D' all the above.

"gay?"

Okay that surprised me. I never would have figured anyone would have asked that. Well eventually they would, but not right now. At that point I'd REALLY had it with my so called friends and leveled my most hostile glare at him.

But the effect was lost on him since he wasn't looking at me. Instead he was staring into space looking so unsure; I lost my interest in trying to kill him with a glance. "How did you know?" he asked timidly, a state I didn't think anyone with the title 'Kamikaze' would know.

Damn, there went my bad mood up in smoke. Just because they abandoned me doesn't mean I could abandon them. Actually, in some ways you could say I had already abandoned them during the Shaman tournament, so maybe I did deserve to be left out of the loop this time. Let me just point out right now it really sucks to have a moment of clarity after feeling sorry for one's self, only to find you had no right feeling sorry for yourself.

Back to Horo's question.

"I didn't know. Why, is there a problem Horo?"

"I kissed Ren."

"And you're still alive?" I blurted. Honestly, can you blame me for being unable to stop myself from asking that?

Horo seemed to catch the humor in that and gave me a half-hearted grin. "He was kinda forced to laugh it off as a joke, but…"

"You liked it." I finished for him. It didn't take my new mind reading abilities to know what he was trying to say. Taking a deep breath he launched into his little story.

"A couple of months back I was in a competition, it was awesome I totally landed my…" he broke off his story with a sheepish look and I could tell that his performance in the competition wasn't the part he was wanting to tell me. "…anyway, afterwards there was a party like always and there were girls everywhere, so I thought it would be funny if I walked past and kissed all of them. Like an assembly line." I raised my brow at that, but let him continue. What kind of parties does he go to anyway?

"Most of them were groupies, so a lot of them really latched on like they were planning to give me an oral exam. I was really getting going, five girls, then six, and then I turned into the next one… only it was Ren." He said and I winced for him thinking what Ren might have done to him. I couldn't have been pretty.

"I had my eyes closed for most of the time so I didn't really notice any difference until I heard all of the yelling and whistling from everyone else. I even remember thinking 'wow, she's a damn good kisser' until 'she' shoved me onto my ass." Yep that would be Ren alright. Horo's just lucky there were so many potential witnesses, or it would have been worse.

"I didn't know what to do. My brain just froze on 'shit I just kissed Ren' so I said something like "Blech Ren!" and everybody laughed and thought it was just some kind of joke."

"But you liked it." I repeated, and he gave me a miserable look that affirmed my statement. "You should talk to him."

"Are you nuts? I want to live!"

"If you don't talk to him you will never know, and you will always wonder."

At this he gave me a very searching look. "That sounds like the voice of experience. How did you find out you liked guys?"

"I didn't know at first. Or at least I wasn't willing to admit it to myself. I tried dating girls, even had a few girlfriends, but I was more interested in someone else."

"Yoh."

Horo may look and act like an idiot, but he can be annoyingly clever at times. I didn't bother admitting it; the truth was probably plainly visible on my face. Then he went back to being an idiot. "Hey maybe you and I should go on a date." He suggested nervously and I could tell he didn't mean it. Even if he had it wouldn't have mattered, because Hao chose that moment to come out of his plotting to join the conversation.

"Only if you want to die an extremely horrible and painful death." He said, surprising the both of us. Horo recovered quicker than me.

"Jealous Hao?"

I felt more than saw my little puppet master extract himself from my body enough to face him directly. As if on cue, our minute spirit allies appeared looking ready to do battle.

As soon as he saw them I could hear Hao almost keeling over with laughter and something that sounded like 'tiny runts'.

"They whipped you before ghost boy, they can do it again." Horo threatened, making Hao's mirth fizzle.

"Understand this snow flake, Lyserg is mine. Mine to do with as I please. If you idiots keep me from my body I will just continue with my original plan to take over Lyserg's I may even keep him in it, since he's proven to be somewhat entertaining. Touch any part of my body and you will die." And then he was off, like the snake he was, crawling back under the rock that was me.

Tbc

Good news! The next chapter is already half done and it should be out soon!