Thanks again for the reviews. I'll apologize in advance. This is the point in the story where the characters get a bit "out of character". Also, this is a "filler" chapter so it may not fit...but it does.

Three

The voices swirled as feathers, fading and falling far behind him. He had temporarily lost the aid of his senses to think and reason. As the aimless pace of his footsteps carried him farther from the house the wind greeted him with a sweet whistle. The crisp air wrapped around his legs and tickled his arms but could not calm him. Finally shock was subdued. Fear and sadness momentarily dissipated. Yoh's anger resonated from the lowest part of his being and violently erupted as reddened blemishes across his face. Through clenched teeth he mustered the nearly inaudible words, "Where is she?"

The wind continued its song. He wasn't expecting it to speak to him, but seemed disappointed with the tone. Everything seemed vastly out of focus. Even if he did find his fiancé, he had no idea what to say to her. The anger burned his ears, and had consumed his attention so much, he didn't realize he was about to step into the lake.

"Anna, where are you!" He screamed as if the he were being devoured by the trees in the distance.

"I'm right here."

Startled by the reply, he quickly spun around to find her.

"Anna," the rest of his sentence suffocated in his throat.

"I know you're angry, but there's no need to worry," she started.

"I talked to Ren," he finally managed to say.

"Yes, I know. He has a great deal of nerve telling you such a thing. I mean, he told you he was in love with me, right?" Anna's nonchalant tone pushed his anger away some and allowed confusion to cloud his thoughts.

She studied his dark brown eyes for a moment then continued. "So you're probably thinking we've had an affair or something? I'll answer any questions you have..." Anna began biting her bottom lip. She wasn't intending to say that.

"Are you in love with him?" his question escaped his lips as a slow whisper. She almost didn't hear the desperation in his voice. Studying his face again, she noticed he was no longer looking at her.

"Don't be ridiculous, Yoh. I told you there's nothing to worry about," She took a few steps closer but he moved away.

"Tell me the truth," he said slowly as if talking was causing him great pain.

Anna quickly folded her arms in disgust and replied, "What, do you want me to tell you I love him? Are you trying to get out of marrying me?"

Yoh's confused look became a permanent stance. His lips moved slightly but no words proceeded from his mouth. Blinking a few times he took one step forward and stared at her. He didn't realize she was manipulating him.

"Let's just go back home, Yoh. We need to talk about this. I want to put your mind at ease," she spoke with a frightfully cheerful tone and stepped closer to him. Yoh appeared to be clueless as to why he couldn't respond to his fiancé. He knew he should be angry, but for some reason he felt inadequate in doing so. Instead, he allowed her to hold his hand and lead him back to the house.

---

"What are you doing?" Tamao asked after entering his room unannounced.

"You know how to knock, don't you?" he replied, seemingly irritated.

Ignoring the bark, she slowly walked closer to the desk he was leaning against and sighed, "So...you're running away?" She asked.

"I'm not...running." Ren seemed very offended by her question, although it was warranted.

"You didn't unpack and now you're messing around with your bags as if you had. You're leaving, right?" Ren had to look at her to see if she was smirking. He felt it in her voice.

"It wasn't a good idea for me to come here. I'm going home for a while." He said blankly. His response did not satisfy her. She took a few steps forward, closing in on his personal space and making him extremely uncomfortable.

"It was a good idea for you to come. Your best friend is getting married. The bad idea was for you to open your mouth and anger him." She waited for him to respond and when he didn't she continued, "I don't know what you did to make him so mad, but now he's trying to find Anna and won't tell me why. Why did you have to come and ruin things for them?"

Ren looked at her again and could see she was hurt. "It wasn't my intention to..." finishing the statement made him feel worse so he stopped talking, "I'm going home. Things will be better once I leave."

"What did you say to him?" she tugged at his shirt because he turned his back on her again.

"Don't touch me." He replied sharply.

"Just tell me what you said...please?" her voice began to quiver from the onset of tears.

"Maybe Yoh will tell you someday. I don't want to talk about it." Unable to stay in the room with her any longer, he grabbed the bags that were sitting on the desk and stormed toward the door.

"Why do you hate her so much?" Tamao screamed at him just as he was leaving. The sudden outburst caught him completely off guard and he spun around slowly to face her.

"What?"

"I know you hate her. I know you don't want her to marry Yoh. They're happy! Why are you ruining this for them?" Ren had never heard her raise her voice before. It was...scary.

"That's not true," he replied breathlessly.

"If you don't hate her then what is it?"

He stood staring at her for a few moments. Tamao's eyes were too piercing for him to handle. Instead of giving her a direct answer he opted to flee for the stairs.