Sorry this has taken so long, but I was actually considering giving this story up, and then BOOM! Inspiration hit. I did my best to make it long, but, I don't know…

I don't own anything!

Chapter 3

{In a cave deep beneath the ocean's surface, hundreds of sirens were gathered. In the center of them was a strange, smoke-like figure; she was giving them orders, but he couldn't hear what they were. Behind the smoky figure was another one; long brown hair, dark eyes-}

Yoh shot up in bed, sweating. That dream…he thought. …was that…?

Before he could give his dream any more thought, however, the smell of pancakes drifted in from the hallway, distracting him. Getting up, he walked out of his room (still slightly sore from the training before bed) and into the kitchen, to find Shay cooking a breakfast consisting of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. Manta was helping Shay by stirring the pancake batter; Horo Horo and Chocolove were sitting at the table, watching Shay like she was heaven-sent. Yoh had just taken his seat when Anna came in. She looked at Shay, and the breakfast she was preparing, and then sat down next to Yoh.

The wait wasn't long; breakfast was served after about five minutes. As everyone ate, they took the chance to get to know Shay.

"You're a shaman?" That was Anna.

"Mm, not really. I have a little bit of sixth sense, though, so I can see spirits. They told me about the Shaman Fight."

"So what did you think?" Horo Horo asked.

"It sounded kind of stupid. I mean, I've always believed that the more power you have, the more corrupt you're apt to be." Before anyone could argue, they thought of all the strongest shamans in the Shaman Fight, and realized the wisdom in Shay's belief. The table fell into an awkward silence.

"But," Manta said. "Hao was the strongest, and Yoh-kun beat him…" If anything, the silence became more awkward; they'd even stopped eating.

"Hao, huh?" Shay said, after a moment. "I've heard of him. His ideals had the right idea, but they had a lot of flaws."

Thinking it was time for a change of topic, Yoh spoke up. "This food is good."

"Agreed." Yoh blinked, not expecting Anna's support. Anna fixed her steady gaze on Shay, who met it unblinkingly. "From now on, you make breakfast, and help with lunch and dinner."

"Yes, ma'am." Shay said, with a somewhat mocking salute. Everyone watched this, startled; they hadn't expected Shay to be so openly sarcastic, especially in front of Anna.

Anna lifted an eyebrow, but continued. "Last night, you mentioned a diary. I'd like to read it." Shay got up from the table and went to get it from her bag. Anna turned to Yoh and the others. "I…like her." And with that, she got up as well.

The boys and Tamao (who had woken up late) watched her go, with varied expressions of confusion.

Later, Shay joined the boys on their run (since the attack, Anna had relented and allowed them to run together). As they ran (with Manta on his bike), they talked, mostly about where Shay was from, how she learned to cook, etc. When they came to the place where the siren attacked, they stopped and looked around; all that was left of the fight was a damp spot of earth, where the frozen siren had melted. As they began to turn back, Horo Horo stopped.

"What's wrong?" Yoh asked.

"Well…" Horo Horo cut off, and oversouling, re-froze the water on the ground. They all stared.

On the ground, written in the water, and thus in the ice, was:

Miss Me?

The run home was completely silent; it was only as they were entering Yoh's house that Manta finally spoke up. "Say, Horo Horo-kun, how did you know that message was there?"

"Well," Horo Horo replied. "The puddle looked kind of weird to me, so I figured if I froze it, I could see why."

"That's pretty good thinking." Yoh said, and everyone nodded as they walked into the living room.

"Hmph. Figured the world would end before this moron did something that made sense."

Everyone looked over to see Ren seated on a chair; being wrapped up in conversation, they'd failed to notice his shoes in the doorway.

As Horo Horo bristled from the insult, Yoh walked over and said hi, while Chocolove tried (in vain) to calm Horo Horo down. As Shay walked in (she'd stopped by the kitchen to get a glass of water), Ren looked up. "Who's this?"

"Name's Shay. Nice to meet you." Apparently deciding introductions were over, she took a seat across the room. As everyone else took a seat, they began filling Ren in on what had happened the past couple of days. When they got to the message in the ice, Ren scowled. "Who wrote it?"

"We don't know." Manta said.

Shay spoke up. "They had to have come after we all left-"

"Obviously-"

"-but they also would have had to know we would come back." Shay finished, with a slight glare at Ren for interrupting her. The room grew quiet as everyone thought about that.

"…Which would mean they had to know us pretty well…" Yoh's sentence faded into silence.

Lunch was tense; almost nobody spoke. Shay, disconnected from the tension, explained everything to Anna and Tamao as they ate. As Yoh had feared, Anna's worry manifested itself in the form of extra training; as his friends had feared, they ended up suckered in to it. Shay laughed at the somewhat comical reaction of her new friends.

"Come on, her training can't be that bad." The shamans just looked at her; words couldn't express how bad Anna's training could be. The only one that seemed unaffected was Ren.

"Hmph. Her training is nothing compared to what I do everyday." Ren bragged. Shay glanced at Anna, and couldn't help but notice the Challenge Accepted look on her face. She sipped her drink to hide her smirk.

"Your fiancé is petty." Ren said to Yoh; while everyone else was holding their arms out straight while wearing weights, Ren was forced to do the same, but with weights also around his ankles, and standing on top of a wooden pole on one foot. Naturally, he was the only one not to see the humor in the situation.

Meanwhile, Shay and Manta were sitting on the porch, sipping lemonade - an act which earned them many death glares. Anna was in a lawn chair, wearing sunglasses and reading a magazine. She looked up at Ren and, lowering her sunglasses, glared at him.

"Hey, is time almost up?" Yoh asked. Anna looked down at her stop watch; it hadn't been started yet. "No. Another ten minutes." Everyone groaned, but no one moved from their spot.

"Shay." Anna looked over her shoulder at the girl, and held up an empty glass. "More lemonade."

Shay raised an eyebrow, and, unable to resist, smiled and replied "What's the magic word?" Anna didn't even bother glaring. Slightly disappointed, Shay nevertheless grabbed the pitcher of lemonade beside her and walked over to where Anna was. But as she was walking, she suddenly stepped wrong, and lost her balance. Yoh, being closest to her, went to catch her, but found he didn't have to; Shay spun, putting all her weight on her other leg, and arched her back to keep the pitcher from spilling.

Surprised, Yoh instead took the pitcher from Shay in one arm and helped her right herself with the other. "Thanks." Shay said, smiling at him. She then took back the pitcher and refilled Anna's cup. Looking up, she saw that everyone (including Anna) was looking at her. Slightly embarrassed, she hugged the lemonade pitcher to herself.

"Care to explain that?" Ren said. Shay raised an eyebrow at his tone, but decided to let it slide. "Well, when I was a little girl I took ballet, then when I turned 10, I decided to switch to karate. Then a few months ago, I went to New York and learned break dancing."

"You went from karate to break dancing?" Horo Horo said, looking a little puzzled. "Isn't that kind of a step down?"

Shay just rolled her eyes. "It actually takes a lot of discipline to properly break dance. It requires flexibility, and strength. I actually use both ballet and karate in my routine, as they have similar rules-" Shay didn't even need to look up to know which shaman had just snorted. Turning a surprisingly hard glare at Ren, she said "There something you want to add to that?"

"How is ballet similar to karate?"

"For your information, ballet is a difficult dance that requires years of practice and willpower. You have to be able to put your body into awkward and uncomfortable positions and be able to hold that position for as long as you have to. In a lot of ways, I found karate actually easier than ballet; it wasn't as demanding."

"Hmph, maybe you're just weak." The dead silence that followed was broken by Shay, who said in a dangerously quiet voice, "Want to bet? How about you and I try this: I will take a ballet pose, and you have to take that same pose. We'll hold that pose for as long as possible, and whoever breaks it first does the dishes."

Ren scoffed. "How juvenile."

"Oh, come on," Shay said, and suddenly she was all mischief. "I'll even let you come down from that pole and take the weights off, so it'll be even. Or…" And here her eyes sparkled. "Are you afraid you'll lose?" Shay smiled triumphantly as Ren fixed his gaze on her; she now had his undivided attention. "Aw, it's okay. I'll go easy on you-"

Shay was cut off by Ren, who immediately jumped down and took the weights off. Grinning, Shay stepped over to a more spacious part of the yard. Closing her eyes, she thought for a moment. Then she leaned forward, pulling her left leg behind her until it looked like an extension of her back. Then she pulled her torso back up a bit, and posed her arms in a circular position, letting her hands hang down just above her head. Lastly, she moved her leg to her side, and lifted it up a little. Smiling, eyes still closed, she said "Your turn."

Ren, frowning, attempted to imitate Shay. After a few minutes, he succeeded, somewhat; wobbling slightly, he managed to replicate Shay's pose, even down to the arm and hand placement (hearing his friends stifling their laughs, he attempted to glare at them, which only made them laugh outright).

Anna grabbed her stopwatch, and this time actually started it. Then she turned to Yoh and the others. "I don't remember dismissing you from training." They all sweat dropped. "You haven't done your run for today. Do it." They hurried to obey, forgetting they were still wearing the weights on their arms. As Manta followed, Anna sat back down on her lawn chair, picked up her magazine and sipped her lemonade.

After fifteen minutes, Ren felt his leg begin to shake. Sneaking a glance at Shay, he felt a prick of envy at how relaxed she looked. Attempting to focus, he instead felt his knee finally give, and he fell on the ground.

Anna looked up from her magazine, and stopped her watch. Shay lowered her leg and arms and reached out to Ren to help him up. He glared up at her, but swallowed his pride and took her hand. After helping Ren up, Shay turned to Anna. "How long?"

"Fifteen minutes, thirty seconds."

"Hey, not bad!" She clapped Ren on the shoulder. "My first time I could only do it for two and a half minutes." She then rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. "Sheesh, I can't remember the last time I held a pose that long." She stopped suddenly and looked at Ren. "Hey, I know we made a bet, but I really am cool with doing the dishes."

"Rules are rules. I lost, I wash them." Ren stated.

"Well, I'm still making dinner. Tell you what, how about I let you pick what we have?" While Ren gave her a somewhat blank look, Anna was looking at Shay over the rims of her sunglasses; while she normally let whoever cooked choose the meal, they always needed her to pre-approve it.

However, Shay wasn't taking no for an answer, and it wasn't long before she and Ren were in the kitchen discussing how to make the Chinese dish he'd picked, and Anna was in watching a program on T.V., having left them to it.