Disclaimer: I still do not own Shaman King.

The Beauty of Silence — Chapter 21

The winter passed fairly pleasantly enough, sans being ordered around as usual by Anna and the daily bickering occurring in nearly every part of her popular inn. Many 'firsts' for the couple (even if neither of them have explicitly admitted to being what that term implies yet) had happened, and they reflected the slowly evolving relationship for the pair. Everyone save the densest ones of them all could see how the two were becoming happier with each day while getting closer to one another; putting two and two together wasn't too hard from that point onwards. Of course, only the Ainu and Chinese shaman themselves had no clue as to how obvious they were being.

Horohoro did not particularly mind if others knew of their relationship, though he respected Ren's decision to keep a low profile while on their 'dates'. From Ren's first snowball fight (though he wasn't a willing participant initially), the first time the word 'date' was used on their outings alone with each other to the first time they held hands (it was for keeping warm amidst the cold, wet snow really), they had come a pretty long way. Each incident was significant to him (not that he was the overly sappy kind of person), and Horohoro knew Ren treasured the memories of them too. The foremost mentioned snowball fight was the first time the Chinese had looked carefree and genuinely had fun in a long time, and the ice shaman was proud to say the credit was all his. He had provoked Ren into playing a little in the snow; especially since it was one thing that Horohoro would definitely be better at than the other, but mostly because he guessed that the younger shaman would enjoy himself if he just tried that new activity. When the word 'date' slipped into their conversation while planning for the next day's activities for the first time, the both of them realised just how much they had already been subconsciously seeing themselves as an 'item', and this prompted them to abandon enough of their pride to stop pretending otherwise.

Up until the moment that it had happened, Ren did not believe himself capable of holding hands with another person for romantic reasons. Sure, he could fathom the idea of grasping someone else's hands if it was a life-or-death situation, such as preventing said guy from falling off a cliff, but never if it was for the sake of just holding hands. Horohoro had been the bolder of the two, grabbing Ren's hand in a burst of courage and claiming afterwards it was for warmth, though they both knew otherwise.And Ren was secretly glad for the ice shaman's action. It was un-Ren like, but he had already resigned himself to this possibly unwelcome fate of softening up day by day. To be honest, not much had changed; it isn't as easy as it seemed in those dramas whereby people can change dramatically over a short period of time, but he knew things were now different. How, he could not say, having far too little experience in such 'trivial' matters, but he did know he was happy with the Ainu. Of course, those blessed moments did not exactly include times when they were arguing (which remained a part of their routine and seemed to be a constant that will forever remain), but Ren isn't about to complain. Too much change in too little time will just make this whole experience none too surreal after all, and he wanted to treasure it.

As the last big date at the mountainside café was nearly as fairytale-like as real life cases can go, both of them had secretly wondered if they would be hard pressed to come up with even better plans and subsequently dates in the future. To their surprise and a significant amount of relief (since when were they feeling pressurised?), each did not receive any stress from the other, and had come to simply accepting the time spent in the company of each other as they were. Knowing that the other felt the same way was an added bonus, and they know they would be contented even as another recently-turned-big day — Valentine's Day, drew closer.

Author's Note:

As usual, I have to humbly and most sincerely apologise for the delay of this chapter. I swear I'm not trying to break my record for the longest period of inactivity, and once again would like to reassure my readers (if there are any left) that this story will definitely be completed.

This chapter is some sort of a transitional chapter, and the lull in activity may mean that something bigger is about to happen. Remember the letter mentioned ages ago? Well, to compensate for the short length of this chapter, I promise to update again after about two weeks. It will be done; especially since my A level examinations would have ended by then.

For anyone who actually read this unusually long note till its end, here's the expected call for reviews. xD