Author's Note: There were some questions regarding the last chapter, and here's my answer- read and find out. All will be revealed, because, I for one, hate stories that leave things unexplained.

This has a Yoh/Anna scene at the end. !WARNING! Mature implications at the end.

Macchi froze, and stared at Mari. What should she do? She could melt the ice, but she didn't have good control, and she could accidently hurt Mari. She could pull Mari out of the room, but Macchi had a sixth sense on when she should or shouldn't do things, and it was telling her moving Mari would be bad. She could (should) get Hao-sama, but what if he got mad? Casting a look at her friend, Macchi decided helping Mari was worth Hao-sama's anger.

At a normal pace, it would take a vampire twelve minutes to get from the eight floor to the first. Running, it would take seven, top speed, four. Macchi made it in three minutes and fifty-four seconds.

Stopping before she entered the main parlor, she took a deep breath and walked in. Heading straight for Hao-sama, she didn't pause until she was right next the chair her lord was sitting in. Leaning over, she whispered, "Hao-sama, there's a small problem with Mari."

Hao-sama frowned slightly, and Macchi briefly wondered if getting Hao-sama was the best idea.

"What do you mean?" he asked, just as softly.

"Well, it's, ah- Hao-sama really should see it for himself." Note to self: prolonged exposure to Mari results in talking like her.

"Can't you take care of it?"

"Nooo...I don't think I can."

Hao-sama sat still for a moment, then stood up. "I'm sorry, there's something I must attend to." His brother, Yoh-sama, looked curious, but wisely didn't ask anything. Macchi caught Kanna's inquisitive look, and slightly shook her head. She'd explain later, but now, she had to follow Hao-sama. Dimmly, she noticed Opacho-san following as well.

It wasn't often that Hao was grateful his brother's clan had their own share of mishaps, but now was one of those times. Yoh had enough issues with the Ainu and Tao trying to kill each other (and consequently destroying everything around them) that he wouldn't ask questions unless Hao offered answers.

"Hao-sama...what-" Opacho began, but stopped.

"See, Hao-sama! I definately couldn't take care of this on my own," Macchi said. She was managing to keep her emotions at bay, but Hao could tell she was close to breaking down. It wasn't everyday she found her best friend in a room full of ice.

Hao nodded briefly, then walked carefully over the ice to kneel next to Mari's huddled form. Opacho followed.

"Mari? Mari, are you okay?" she asked while Hao examined the ice. Strangely, it all stopped evenly about six inches from Mari. "Mari? Mari, you need to answer me," Opacho urged, shaking the girl. Not that it made much of a difference. She was already shaking worse than a leaf in a hurricane.

"Mari," Hao said, leaning forward a bit. "Answer Opacho."

Mari stopped shaking. "Ha...o? Sama?"

"Yes. Mari, what happened?" Hao watched as Opacho helped Mari sit up. The girl's face was paler than normal, he noticed, and some black powder covered her hands.

"Mari doesn't- Mari doesn't know."

Strange, Hao thought. She wasn't meeting anyone's eyes.

"Mari! Are you okay?" Macchi called from across the room.

Mari blinked. "Macchi? Why is Macchi so far away?"

Hao chuckled. Ten feet wasn't far. "She's scared of ice, Mari. She has a habit of slipping."

"Painfully," Macchi added ruefully.

"Not to interrupt or anyting, but has anyone else noticed that we're in the only warm spot in the room?" Opacho interjected. Now that she mentioned it, it was rather warm.

"Now that you mention it," Hao said. "Yeah. Macchi, is it cold over there?"

Macchi shot him a scathing look, and he briefly caught her thoughts (is it cold- of course it's cold the fricken' room is covered in ice-) before she nodded.

"Mari, what exactly happened before Macchi found you?" Opacho asked.

"Mari was...cold..." the girl mused.

"I wonder why?" Hao said dryly.

Mari scowled. "The ice didn't appear until after Mari was cold."

"Its cryokinesis." A voice said. Everyone turned.

"Hello, Anna." Hao greeted the speaker.

Mari stared at this 'Anna'. Her hair was blonde, a few shades darker than Mari's own, and her eyes were coal black. She wore a red bandana around her neck, and a black dress.

"Hao," she nodded to him.

"What was that you said?" Hao asked.

Mari looked at Macchi, then Anna, then back to Macchi, who mouthed 'Yoh-sama's mate'.

Oh. No wonder she didn't address Hao as Hao-sama (Mari didn't either, but Mari was Mari, therefore entitled to be...odd).

"Cryokinesis. It's a mental gift that involves pulling heat out of objects."

The youngest vampire frowned. She had just found out she had two gifts, now she had three? Great. Why couldn't she be normal? Well, as normal as a vampire could get.

"And you know this how?" Hao sounded doubtful, Mari was delighted to hear. Maybe he wouldn't believe her, and they would forget, and-

"I study gifts as a hobby, dimwit."

Mari mentally threw up her hands. And of course, things never went her way.

"Oh." Although, the chance to see Hao get told (an expression Ashil seemed to adore, for whatever reason) might be worth it.

Anna stared directly at Mari and (was that Mari's imagination?) smiled. Anna didn't seem like the type to smile, so Mari decided to believe it was just her imagination. Turning, she called over her shoulder, "She's cute, Hao. Better than I thought you would have chosen."

And for whatever reason, one Mari couldn't fathom, Hao turned a very interesting shade of red, Opacho snorted, and Macchi stared at Mari with wide eyes.

Due to the night's earlier...incident, it was decided that Yoh's clan would meet Mari the next night (Though those who run into her during the day should take the chance and talk to her), and that night Hao's clan would meet Manta, the other newly turned vampire. Though since he had been a vampire for nearly two years, he wasn't new. Manta was an intelligent boy- (and though he claimed he was fifteen, he only looked twelve), and his unique gift was that he remembered everything he learned. Not really a vampiric gift, but since it only developed recently, they had no other choice than to believe him.

'Weird midget,' Macchi had thought.

'What a big head,' Kanna thought.

'He's shorted than me!' Opacho had whined mentally, stopping only when Hao gave her a quick glare. Even favorites could get annoying.

Blocken's thoughts- 'Build, build, must build' were normal, but after Hao heard Bill's thought's- 'What a nice football that kid make' he stopped listening to others opinions.

Manta may not have been a very talented vampire, but it was obvious his clan was fond of him. Yoh adored him (Hao briefly wondered that if he had gotten Yoh that puppy he had wanted while they were still human, would he have chosen Manta to join his clan?), and the fact that Anna liked him (shown by how she only hit him twice) told Hao's clan that they had to be nice to the boy. They had all been hit by Anna at least once (and in BoZ's case, several times), and none of them were anxious to repeat it.

Hao spent the rest of the night discussing a variety of things with the Tao siblings, Ren and Jun (who really paid more attention to Pyron than the conversation), Tamao (who couldn't stop staring at HoroHoro- what is it with these people? Hao thought), and Borris. HoroHoro goofed off with Chocolove, Ashil and Zen, while the remaining females, Opacho, Kanna, Pirika, and Eliza (Macchi had refused to leave Mari, claiming she was 'too tired to entertain the guests'), dragged Anna off into another room (to question her on her love-life, Hao supposed). Blocken, Faust, and Manta were putting something together, and everyone else (Yoh, Nichrome, Ryo, Peyote, Zang-ching, Turbine, and Ryu) mainly discussed recent happenings among the 'lesser' clans.

Basically, it was exactly like what happened each time the two clans got together.

Yoh watched as his wife chose her nightgown. She moved gracefully, yet slowly, as if whichever choice she made would have a great impact on the rest of her life. Though he found it amusing, Yoh knew better than to say so. Plus, he enjoyed the few minutes of silence, which he used to admire his wife and wonder what he did to deserve her. He knew (and had been told quite often) that Anna often thought the same thing. Both considered themselves lucky to have the other. Eventually, she decided on a slinky blue gown, and shimmied into it quickly.

As she crawled into their bed, Yoh said lazily, "So, I heard you met the new girl today."

Anna nodded slightly.

"And?"

"And what?" she mumbled, pulling the down comforter up.

"And what is your professional opinion of her?" Yoh chuckled as Anna rolled her eyes.

"Why is it so important to you what I think?"

Rolling onto his back, Yoh listed the reasons using his fingers. "You have a good judge of character. You can tell what people are thinking. You're honest. And you're my wife. Why wouldn't I care about your opinion?"

Anna smiled softly, and moved over to lay partially on Yoh's stomach. "Well, that's all true, normally, but...well, let's jst say this girl is different. I couldn't read her mind, or tell what type of character she had. But, I can say this, I think your brother is very fond of her."

"Oh?" Yoh's voice still held it's normal, lazy tone, but he was very interested in what Anna had to say on that subject.

"Yep. He was right next to her, and before I let them know I was there, she called him Hao, no honorifics, and he let her get away with it, and he chuckled. And you know I don't use the word chuckled very often."

"Well, its about time." Yoh laughed. Anna gave him another one of her rare smiles, and he shifted so they were face-to-face. "Now, we have all day. What would you like to do?"

Anna kissed him quickly, then curled up under the covers. "For now, I want to sleep. But, later...we'll see."