I haven't given up. Maybe forgotten but not completely….
Chapter 5
"Why hello again Yumi.."
"Don't you hello me! I want to talk to Anna."
"Um, well I'm afraid she can't talk right now she's…she's in the bathroom…taking a…a shower…"
"Dammit, don't tell me she is in the bathroom!! She was in the bathroom the last time I called and the
time before that! Its been three days and I haven't heard a word from her! I want to talk to my
daughter!!"
"I'm sure you do, but she can't come to the phone right now. Now If you excuse me, I have a very important call on the other line that I must answer so I will have to call you back…goodbye."
"DON'T YOU DARE HANG UP ON ME! I WANT TO TALK TO AN-"
Beep
"Whoo." Mr. K stood leaning against the porcelain kitchen counter top, phone in one hand, cup of coffee in the other.
"That bad huh dad?" He looked up at Anna sitting on the stool in front of him wearing her pajamas, her hair still messy from just having woken up a few minutes ago.
"Oh yeah. Couldn't have gone any worse I think… "
Anna sighed. "Can't you come up with anything other than the bathroom? I mean geez, even senior citizens don't go half as much…"
"Well, what would you rather have me say? Sorry but she is out buying feminine products at the store?"
Her eyes turned to dangerous slits. "That is so funny, I just forgot to laugh."
It was his turn to sigh. "I'm sorry Anna, you know I didn't mean anything by it, it's just… I…I don't know what to do, between your mother and Yoh…"
Yoh. After waking up after the surgery he had gone to sleep and remained there. Faust said it was only temporary, that after the whole ordeal his body needed to
rest and that he should wake up any day now but so far, he hadn't woken up.
" He is going to be just fine, Dad. " Anna had said it to her Dad to help reassure him but also to herself as well. She didn't know if it was after all completely normal for
someone to sleep through three whole days straight, not moving or anything.
"I Know. He's a strong kid. You two will get a long well when he finally decides to wake his lazy butt up…" He smiled but it wasn't one of those great carefree ones, his
eyes still showed worry in them. "Now to take care of your mother. I think its time you talk to her Anna. She deserves to know what's going on. I know that you might
not feel up to talking about what exactly happened back there but you have to at least tell her how your doing and that you plan on staying here."
"Do I really have to?"
He gave her a hard stare. "Here's my cell. I want you to call her today, okay. I have to go to work now but I'll be back at 6 o'clock." He headed to the door. "Today
Anna okay. Today."
She watched him from the window drive away until she could see him no longer.
Sigh. She picked up the phone and proceeded to go up to her room once again.
The time on the cell phone's screen read 2:12 and Anna had still not called her. Every time she had picked up the phone, she put it down again.
This is so pathetic! I have nothing to be afraid of , I'm just going to call say hello, I'm fine mom, I'm going to be staying here with dad a while, I'll talk to you soon and bye.
That's all.
"Okay…I can do this." She dialed in her mom's number, hit the talk button and took a deep breath. "Okay."
The phone hadn't even rung once before she heard her mother's voice on the other line. "Hello? "
Anna froze up.
"Hello?"
"Uh…"
"Anna? Is that you? Anna?!"
Beep
ARGH!! She flopped down on her bed. Stupid, stupid, STUPID!! She flung her pillow at the wall and shoved her face into her bed, smothering the sound of all the curse
words she was screaming out.
Crash!
Anna stopped screaming to lift her head up and look around her. Her window was closed and so would the sound from the outside world be. The sound had come from
downstairs…slowly she got up and tippy-toed her way out to the hallway.
"Crap!"
A male voice, harsh and raspy sounded from the kitchen. Burglar.
She looked around for something to defend herself with and saw an umbrella hanging on a hook on her door. She quickly grabbed it and proceeded down the steps
slowly, careful not to make any noise.
She stopped on the stairs halfway from the bottom of the first floor. Looking between the railings she saw the burglar sitting on the floor right next to the thousand
pieces of broken glass. Back propped by the kitchen cabinet, his shoulders moved slowly up and down with each breath he took. His medium length hair covered his
face but it didn't stop Anna from recognizing him.
"Shit."
She moved fast now, jumping down the last few steps before bounding into the kitchen and dropping to her knees in front of the figure.
"Are you okay?"
He flinched at her voice.
"Yoh?"
He looked up at her through his bangs, his eyes still covered, showing nothing.
"Let me help you up okay?"
She reached over and put her arm around his waist, dragging him to his feet. He winced.
"Sorry," Anna said.
He leaned heavily upon her as she helped him to the living room couch where she set him down.
"What were you doing?"
Yoh laid his head back on the couch. His hair parted to the sides revealing his face, pale and worn.
"Water."
Anna glanced back to the kitchen and saw the glass cupboard door wide open. She put the two and two together.
"Okay." Getting up Anna went back to the kitchen. Walking around the other side to avoid the glass, she grabbed a cup and filled it with water. She handed that to
Yoh. He drank it slowly with some of it escaping his mouth and trickling down to his shirt. "So…Yoh.."
"So…uh…what's your name?"
"Anna."
"Anna…your vibrating."
"What?"
Yoh pointed to her crotch. "Your vibrating." He saw the confusion and anger starting to well up on her face, "phone?"
"Oh!" She grabbed the phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. Mom.
Yoh saw the hesitation on her face. "Aren't you going the answer that? Anna?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah…."
He stared at her. "Well?"
The phone stopped vibrating. "Later." She put the phone back in her pocket. "You hungry?"
Yoh looked down at his stomach. "Yeah. A little I guess."
"Well then come on. Let's go get something to eat." She stared at him, "Do you have any other clothes?"
Yoh wore a matching white shirt and pants. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"
"Well I'm not going to be seen with a person who looks like they just got out of a metal institute. Just wait here a sec." Anna went away and came back with a dark
blue button up shirt and black slacks, "Here put these on." She left them on the couch and walked away. "Hurry up!! I get grumpy when I'm hungry and you wont like
me grumpy…"
Yoh smiled. "Aye Ma'am."
"What's a good place to eat at?"
Yoh shifted uncomfortably in the chair. It wasn't exactly his thing to be riding in a car going 50 miles an hour. "Uh…there's this one good place that me and my friends
go all the time called Okazuya. Just keep going straight for now and I'll tell you when to turn…you might also wanna slow down so we won't miss it."
Anna slowed down a little. "Your friends…are they all like that blue haired idiot?"
Yoh chuckled, "Ahh so you met HoroHoro…and no they are not all like that. Well most of us aren't like that…we each have our own little quirks you could say…left here."
"Oh and which are you? The incredibly insulting one? "
Yoh looked at her. "I'm sorry about what happened back at the party. I didn't mean to go off on you like that."
Anna kept driving undisturbed by his apology, "Now where?"
"Make a right turn here and its that kinda orange, reddish building over there. The parking lot's in the back."
Anna sped through the gates and braked harshly turning the wheel at the same time causing the car to slide into a free stall. She swung open her door and got out,
walking towards the entrance. Yoh followed after her. When they got to the entrance however he stepped in front of the door and blocked it.
"Okay, what are you doing?"
"Anna I really am sorry about what happened back at Izumo. I didn't mean to be such an ass to you."
Anna looked him in the face and saw that he really was sorry. She sighed and looked at the ground. "Let's just forget it ever happened all right?"
Yoh was taken slightly aback by this answer. He was expecting something more like 'Damn right you better be sorry' from the fiery girl and that he would actually have
to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. "Yeah well, okay then…" he pulled open the door by the handle and let her walk through.
The place was just like one of those English pubs she'd seen in one of those gangster films that Hao had made her watch. On one wall was a bar with two bartenders
catering to some drunken fools sitting on stools. The other wall was lined with booths and in the middle was a bunch of raised tables and stools. It was a pretty small
place and wasn't exactly the best in looks but it had a sort of homey feel to it.
Anna started towards a booth in the corner when she heard a familiar voice. "YOH!!" She stopped to turn around and saw that ridiculous blue haired freak. The ainu
saw her as well. "and YOU!!" He pointed a trembling finger at her that she would have snapped in half had Yoh not pulled his arm down.
"Relax Horo. This is Anna. Anna is good ole Mr. K's daughter."
Horohoro tensed up at this. "Daughter?"
Yoh nodded his head. "Daughter."
Horohoro looked at Anna and smiled meekly. "Hi there, Anna. What brings you all the way down here to Tokyo for?"
" I have a job here in the city now."
"Yeah?" He propped up his elbow against Yoh's shoulder, "What are you doing?"
"Working for the radio station."
"Oh!" sweat could be seen forming on Horohoro's forehead by the pale incandescent light, "That makes sense cause you know your dad owns the station…."
"Yeah I do know."
"Yeah….um Yoh! Can I…uh… talk to you for a bit?" The ainu looked at Yoh with pleading eyes. " Sure, I don't see why not…" HoroHoro smiled and turned to look at
Anna " It'll just be one minute" he said before hauling Yoh all the way to the other side of the room.
Safely out of Anna's hearing range Horohoro burst. "Dude! What are you doing with the blair witch over there? And more importantly where have you been!? Do you
know how worried I was?!"
Prying Horohoro's grip off himself he held the boy by his shoulders as he spoke. "Okay first, Anna isn't all that bad."
"Isn't all that bad…Isn't all that bad?" Horohoro shook his head violently, his eyes bulging from their sockets. "Isn't all that bad?! Did you not see the black eye she
gave me?! Aww man. She's brain washed you hasn't she? She's fricken brain washed you! "
Yoh struggled to keep hold of the ainu's shoulders. "No. She hasn't all right and calm down. Your making a scene." They looked around and saw a couple of ladies by
the bar whispering and eyeing them out weird.
Horohoro adjusted his collar and ran his hand through his hair. "Okay bro, I'm cool, I'm cool."
"Okay then" Yoh took his hold off the boy. "I'm sorry I made you worry so much. I just went…out of town and I didn't have anyway to contact you or anybody else for
that matter.."
Horohoro looked at Yoh very concerned now. "You didn't…you didn't do anything I should know about did you?"
Yoh looked at his friend and smiled. "No. I didn't. Still clean."
The ainu smiled. "Good cause you know, I would smack you so hard upside the head and then tell your momma to do the same." They both laughed. "Now you should
get back to blai-" Yoh gave him a warning stare, "Anna, over there. She's waited long enough"
Yoh looked back to where Anna was sitting, "Yeah…see you at work?"
"Oh yeah man." They bumped fists and Yoh watched Horohoro leave before walking back over to Anna.
"Shall we order?"
Later on in the car ride home.
"So you and Horohoro are pretty close right?"
Yoh looked at Anna. "I guess so. Why?"
"Oh nothing really, just your conversation looked a little heated…intense…close." She smirked in the darkness.
"I'm not gay if that's what your implying." He turned his gaze to out of the window. "Horohoro has just been a good friend for me; always looking after my back and
making sure I don't get into any trouble. I'm sure you have had a friend like that right?"
The words stung Anna and wiped the smirk off of her face. How could she say that she never really had any friends at all? That the one friend she thought she had
turned out to be the biggest liar?
Just then as if on cue her pocket began to vibrate. "Shit." She pulled out the phone, looked at the screen and saw once again her mom's name. Double Shit. As if things
hadn't been going badly enough already.
Anna put the phone down in one of the cup holders, the display still showing her mother's name on its screen for Yoh to see it.
"Yumi huh? Is that the name of your girlfriend?" It was his turn to smirk.
"No. Try 'mother' you dork. " Anna growled between her clenched jaws.
Yoh looked at her puzzled. "Are you mad at your mom?"
Anna griped the steering wheel a little tighter. "No."
"Well then why are you avoiding her?"
"BECAUSE I JUST AM!!" Anna yelled. She glanced at Yoh seeing his frightened face before turning back to looking at the road. "Argh! Look, things are just complicated
okay, and I really don't want to talk about it with you so just drop it!"
For the rest of the ride they drove home in silence until she pulled into the driveway and Yoh finally broke it. "Anna, I don't know what might have happened or what
was done but I know that whatever it was, it won't matter to your mom when she hears that you are safe and okay. Trust me on that one. Mothers will love their child
no matter what crimes they may have commited or blood that they have shed. They simply are the one person who will overlook whatever imperfections you have and
love you no matter what. Well good mothers anyway…" He stopped looked at Anna and got out of the car, leaving her and the cell alone together.
"You bastard. How dare you. How dare you just offer her to stay without even consolidating with me! Giving her some lousy job!"
"First it is not a "lousy" job my dear and Second, Anna is old enough and not to mention incredibly smart to make her own decisions…"
"Old enough? OLD ENOUGH?! She has barely been eighteen for a month! She doesn't know what she wants!"
"And you do?"
"…"
" Look, I know this may be tough for you but, you have to learn to let go of her eventually. She made this decision by herself so let her see it through."
"You don't understand, she's…she's still my little girl."
"Its time you realize that she is not so little anymore…stop worrying so much, I'll take care of her, I promise."
"You better or I will personally make sure that you will never see the light of day again!! Do you understand me?! "
"Loud and clear."