The Eyes of a Boy
Summary: The Shaman Fight is over, but is Hao really dead? Yoh doesn't think so, which in extension means neither does anyone else. With the unwilling Lyserg and uncertain but willing Tamao leading the way, Yoh and friends manage to locate the bleeding, fading, Hao Asakura on the outskirts of the Patch Village. The question is no longer whether or not Hao is alive, but if Hao can live a normal life after all that he's done. Is it even possible to form bonds of friendship and trust with those he'd once tried to kill, or will their inability to see past the older Asakura brother's misdeeds push him even further away?
Anime/Manga: Shaman King
Pairing: Yoh/Anna
Genre: Romance/Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Humor
Rated: M for Mature Content
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T "READ" THE "MANGA"!
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Chapter Three
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Ren looked down at the longer haired, more diabolical version of his best friend. Yoh was in the next room over, finally getting some sleep after Faust had checked up on Hao and given him just enough to help close his wounds. The strike had actually managed to avoid his pretty boy face, as Horohoro had called him, which in return had Anna staring at him with a raised brow. The fact that He and Yoh were twins had her thinking about his opinion of Yoh. After a few minutes of him explaining to Anna about the differences in their faces, she just rolled her eyes and walked away. Now, Anna had given strict orders to let Yoh sleep, and so, he, Horo, Ryu, Choco, and Manta, were on sentry duty.
Sitting on the floor, he watched over the older twin, waiting for any tell-tale signs of the boy waking up, and coming up empty handed after four hours of this.
~TapTap~
Ren looked at the door as Horo opened the door and peeked in, "Yo, Ren, you ready to switch? Anna said to go get something to eat."
Ren stood and stretched, "I guess that answers your question." He gave a tired laugh, "What her majesty says...goes..."
"You better believe it!" Horo sat on the end of the bed at Hao's feet. "I'll be watching sleeping beauty, you go grab a bite before the Queen Bee finds her way in here. She is particularly crabby today."
Ren nodded, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. He looked curiously at Yoh's door before curiosity got the better of him and he carefully cracked the door open to see if his friend was finally getting some sleep.
"He's out cold,"
Ren jumped a couple inches in the air and turned to see Anna standing behind him. "Anna,"
"You...go eat, I'll watch over Yoh for a while; I want to make sure he sleeps well."
Ren glanced inside the room once more and confirmed that his friend was truly asleep before nodding and leaving to eat.
Anna entered the room and looked on at her fiancé, sitting down beside him on her knees, she stared at the closed door, than back at Yoh, and finally, she lay down beside him and rested her head on his chest. She wasn't next to him in a way that her body was pressed against his. Quite the opposite, only her head was touching him, as she made more of a horizontal T, than anything.
She let her eyes drift closed and finally, she let sleep capture her, and drag her off to a world of her own creation. One that surprised her greatly, seeing as how it consisted of, herself, Yoh, Hao...and a child.
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Lyserg glared at anything and everything that was moving, if someone walked by him, he scowled, if someone laughed, he snarled, if someone touched him, he turned red with anger and moved out of their touch. Now, in his defense, he was just trying to cope with the fact that he wasn't allowed to kill Hao, which was highly understandable. The boy had killed his mother and father, and many other unlucky Shamans!
"They may think you can be trusted, but when you show your true colors, I'll be there to send you to hell!" he muttered hatefully, Morphea watched from the corner of the room, her master was doing the same thing as last time, acting as twisted as he had when joining the Iron Maiden. This scared her, and in her fear, she left the room to find her spirit friends.
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Horohoro looked at his friends twin, "You don't look so evil and conniving..." he sighed, "Dude, I know you're asleep and all, but it is probably best if I say this all the same, hopefully you'll hear it anyways. If you screw up, this is the last chance you'll get to live a life at all. You don't meet someone like Yoh every five hundred years, if you don't take this chance for what it is, and you die again...you will go through this all over again; reborn, to fight for the title of Shaman King...only to die a few inches from your goal." Horohoro scoffed, "You keep getting stronger when you are reincarnated...but the people who fight you get stronger and stronger too. There will always be someone...who will be there to bring you down...but this is the only time there will be someone to hold you up..."
"Wise words coming from an idiot."
Horohoro jumped and stared at Hao, his eyes were still shut, so he wasn't one hundred percent sure it had been Hao who had spoken, but then...no one else was in the room with them.
Hao opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before his eyes turned to Horohoro who lost color to his face.
"Where is he...?"
Calming his heart, he breathed in and out before standing, "Yoh is sleeping, he wouldn't sleep before because he couldn't stop thinking of you, he was too worried, so finally, he told us and we went out looking for you. He's next door to you..."
Hao made to stand only to cry out softly and fall back, his hand moving to his chest.
"It still hurts, doesn't it," Not a question, Horohoro stared at the once demented teen.
"No, I just decided to make an obscene noise of weakness for fun."
Horohoro laughed, "Well, get used to that wound, it'll scar for sure, and hopefully it will be a reminder of what could have happened. You were given a second chance, Hao, and do you know who gave you that chance?"
Hao turned away, looking out the window, he was really wishing the boy beside him would stop breathing all together, or at the least stop talking.
"Answer me!"
Ren entered the room a few moments later, Anna and a sleepy Yoh behind him.
"Yes..."
"Then tell me," he demanded, "you have no clue, we weren't thrilled about hearing you were still alive, your brother was, so tell me, tell me who it is who has given you this second chance, because quite honestly, I'm not sure you deserve it!"
"...Yoh..." Hao's voice came out hard, "My brother gave me this second chance, and I will take it for what it is..."
Horohoro scoffed, "And what is that?"
"..."
Horohoro looked down to see that the boy had fallen back to sleep and growled out irritably, "Che...of course he'd fall back to sleep..."
Ren walked in, making himself known to the ice Shaman by dragging him out of the room.
"I'll stay this time, Anna." Yoh said, taking a seat beside Hao's bed.
Anna sighed, but nodded all the same. Clearly, the only ones who could watch Hao without loosing their head would be herself, Ren and Yoh.
Leaving the room, she made her way back to Yoh's room where she laid down on his futon and fell back to sleep in the warm confines of his blanket and the safety of his scent.
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(The Next Morning)
Everyone was saying their farewells to the Iron Maiden, who...in accordance to Ren...would be coming down to visit them once everything settled down. 'Of course she will,' Anna sighed, knowing full well that the Iron Maiden was bound to make this difficult if she found out about Hao.
She gave a hug to the girl and watched as she made her way to the other X-Laws, climbing into the Iron Maiden, she was pulled away with an awkward silence left behind.
"We need to leave," Ren said as he stepped up behind her, "My family's plane is here, we will be taking it instead of the Patch Plane."
"Good! I'm tired of being here, let's go!"
Ren nodded and made his way to Hao's room, finding Yoh still awake, watching over his brother with sleepy eyes fighting to stay awake. It was something of a slow-motion movie reel as he smiled, watching Yoh finally lay his head down next to his brothers hand which Yoh had been holding. Ren came over to the two and poked gently at Yoh, nothing...with a small nod, he picked his friend up as Ryu walked in to check on them. "Grab Hao, will you,"
Ryu sighed and nodded, picking up the older twin, he followed Ren out the door and over to a large Plane. Climbing the steps, they entered and stopped in their tracks, shocked to find that Anna had already put Manta to work on cooking her something with the food on the plane. She had ironically, placed her in the first class section of the plane, which was technically where Ren's mother and father normally sat while he and Jun would sit in the second class part of the plane, keeping to themselves.
"What took you both so long!?"
'Still a slave driver!' Ren rolled his eyes and placed Yoh in the seat beside Anna, who watched him carefully.
"Miss. Anna, what should I do with Master Yoh's brother?"
"...over there, I think it's my turn to watch him anyways," she pointed to the seat on the other side of the isle from her.
Ryu nodded and gently, carefully, placed the crazed Shaman down so not to wake him up.
"Everyone who is awake will be in the back part of the plane, hopefully, we can get home before Hao wakes up; it won't do any of us any good if he gains enough energy to blow the plane up or something." Ren looked out the window as Tameo, Horohoro, Parika, Lyserg, and Choco made their way up the other steps that led to the second class passenger seats. "I'll check with the Captain to see if we are ready to go,"
Anna nodded, "Be quick, you are right about Hao, and I'm still not sure about him. I trust Yoh...but..."
Ren smirked, "yeah, I know."
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Me: So their going home...I wonder how Hao will take his second chance at life...