What Once Was
By: Setsuna-X

Summary: "We were one once Yoh, in more ways than one." Hao x Yoh twincest
Warning: Boy x Boy (that means: gay, yaoi, shonen-ai, boys' love, slash, etc.) & names (jap and eng) might cross sometimes. Please point out any mistakes. Thanks. Also cases of OOC, simply b/c it can't be helped
Disclaimer: Shaman King and it's characters do not belong to me—doesn't stop me from wishing it did.

Chapter 2- Tell Me

Leaving the rest of his party behind Yoh reappeared on a high canyon. The only light around was from the bountiful stars that littered the dark blue sky. He hopped off the Fire Spirits hand as soon as he was close to the ground, making sure the height didn't hurt him.

Amidamaru appeared directly next to him immediately, surprised that he was transported as well when the Fire Spirit has teleported them from their friends. The samurai spirit looked on toward his master in confusion, wishing he knew exactly what was going through his usual easy going companion. Yoh rarely looked as tense as he did now, but Amidamaru guessed that it was all within good reason. He was all alone with Hao and one of his shaman followers and even he had to admit that fighting Hao alone was not a very smart thing to do.

Hao calmly remained standing on his spirits hand, enjoying the view of Yoh becoming increasingly impatient. It was such a rare sight to see the normally easy going boy becoming anxious and annoyed. Hao turned to the tiny Apacho and asked him to go and fetch some wood he had spotted nearby. The brown-haired boy hopped off his Fire Spirits hand gracefully, using the air currents to slow down his gravitational fall.

Amidamaru continued trying to gain Yoh's attention, still trying to figure out why the teen had suddenly decided to talk to the evil Hao after so many attempts on the other teens. What made this time any different?

Apacho returned with the wood promptly, letting it fall into a small pile of brown sticks. Hao snapped his fingers and his Fire Spirit lit the wood easily, allowing the small flame to consume it slowly and therefore letting it burn longer.

"Yoh," began Hao, approching the teen slowly, "I'm so glad you have finally decided to talk to me without your friends around," said Hao, forcing out the word 'friends' as if jealous.

Yoh tried to gather himself. This wasn't like him at all. He never lost his cool, even in the most dire situations he was able to maintain great control over his emotions. He only really lost himself where his friends were involved, like that one time with Manta and Faust. But then after entering that annoyingly long cave with only himself and his thoughts he was able to think things more clearly and was able to learn about himself more intimately. The odd thing was that while within that infinite darkness he never felt truly alone. It was as if there was always someone there, someone he knew for a long time and who was protecting him. Even after escaping the stone cavern walls he still hadn't figured out who that presence was.

Yet now after being with Hao, alone like this, he began to feel that same feeling all over again. That feeling that they have known each other for such a long time, and it confused him to no end! Hadn't he just met Hao right before the second round of the Shaman Fight? Because of all these confusing questions that he had no answers to his emotions were wracked and caused him to feel slightly out of character.

"Hao," finally spoke Yoh, "Why do I feel this way?" he prompted right away, taking a step closer to his brother and placing a hand over his wildly beating heart. The closer he got to the slightly older teen the more his heart pounded in his chest.

"And how exactly do you feel?" responded Hao with a smile on his face and suppressing a light chuckle. He really wanted to hear the words come out of those sweet lips he longed to kiss.

Amidamaru looked between both boys, becoming increasingly confused than when he had first arrived there. He noticed that the little sidekick that always followed Hao was nowhere to be seen. The samurai spirit then spun around, looking deep into the overwhelming darkness that was not lit by the small flame located just a ways from the two other shamans. If this was a trap to attack his Master Yoh to rid him of the Shaman tournament Amidamaru was not going to go down without a fight. He grasped the transparent sword on his hip, an unconscious reaction he acquired from his living days, and strained to see past the blanket of night.

Yoh's face heated up slightly, his sun-tanned skin taking on a light rosy color over his cheeks. He really didn't want to answer that. He hoped that Hao would already know how he was feeling since he had alluded to it before leaving his friends. If anything, that was the sole reason on why he had agreed to leave at all! Did that mean that Hao really didn't know and simply made a lucky guess? The thought itself annoyed him to know end, making him feel a bit annoyed at himself too for falling for it.

"I-I," he stuttered out, mentally smacking himself for sounding so ineloquent. He turned his head slightly to look behind him, trying to gain some kind of support from Amidamaru. He noticed that his spirit was currently looking at the darkness intently, as if searching for something.

Yoh then turned his body fully to his transparent samurai spirit. "Is something wrong, Amidamaru?" he asked genuinely, feeling a little guilty at not explaining things to his, what he liked to call, 'guardian spirit'. Amidamaru turned to look at Yoh swiftly, surprised at the sudden question directed at him.

"Yes, everything is fine," he answered, shooting Hao a quick warning glare, "it's just that I don't trust us being alone out here, numbered two to one in their favor and without any support from our friends."

Yoh looked at Amidamaru sadly and a bit apologetic. It was his fault that they were in this position, but the thing was that he didn't feel the least bit threatened by his supposed sworn enemy Hao. "It's alright Amidamaru," the brown-haired boy said, "everything will be fine," he added with his usual lopsided grin. Amidamaru looked at him dubiously, but really had nothing to say back to that.

"Perhaps we should talk about your feelings in private, Yoh," quipped Hao from behind them. "Apacho has already left, wishing to give us more privacy. I don't think you'll be able to speak truthfully while your own spirit is around," he said with a knowing look in his eyes. Both shaman and spirit stared at Hao, but with different expressions on their faces. Amidamaru was ready to attack the fire wielding teen, regardless of him only being a spirit, while Yoh's face looked more contemplative than anything.

Yoh turned the statement around in his head, trying to figure what he should really do. He wasn't nervous at all when he was around Hao, but thinking that Amidamaru would hear the thoughts and feelings he had been keeping with in him made him extremely anxious. Would he be able to fully explain himself to Hao and be completely truthful with the other shaman while his guardian ghost was nearby? Probably not. Yoh steeled himself for an inevitable explosion.

"Amidamaru," began Yoh, turning away from his spirit and bowing his head slightly, his face aligned horizontally with the ground and his eyes scrunched up tight, "can you please leave Hao and I alone so we can talk more privately?"

Amidamaru just sputtered nonsense words at his master while his eyes bulged from their sockets. "But Yoh!" exclaimed Amidamaru, "You can't possibly mean that! I can't leave you alone with him," he said, pointing at Hao rudely. Hao just smirked in return, knowing that he would get his way at being able to talk to his Yoh alone. "I won't leave," the spirit stated sharply while crossing his arms over his chest, unwilling to let any harm come to his master. Who knew what sort of evil, twisted things Hao would do to Yoh without him there to protect him.

"Amidamaru," began Yoh again, this time with more steel in his voice; a tone he had never used before. "Please leave Hao and I alone," he stated evenly as his body was wracked with tension, his muscles tightening from the sheer will to not turn around.

Amidamaru opened his mouth to speak again, but Yoh turned suddenly with a pleading look in his eyes. Amidamaru had never seen his master act this way before and he had to admit it scared him a bit, but he really could not go against those exceedingly pleading eyes. He looked at his master intently then nodded his head once before turning toward Hao and sending him a glare just for good measure before his melted away into the shadows.

Yoh let out a breath he hadn't known that he was holding and took some time to collect himself. He turned back to look at his brother, uncertainty blooming in his eyes. Did he really do the right thing by sending his guardian ghost away? But he still felt no ill-intent coming from Hao, nor did he feel threatened at all by his presence. It was all too confusing considering they were supposed to be enemies.

"Now then," began Hao, taking the lead in the conversation, "What is it that you're feeling Yoh?" he asked with knowing eyes.

Yoh looked a little annoyed and embarrassed at having to answer the question, but he knew that if he didn't answer truthfully then this 'little talk' would lead them nowhere and would be nothing but a big waste of time. The short-brown haired boy took in a deep breath, calming his fraying nerves and slowly released the air from his lungs.

"I feel, I feel as if I know you from a long time ago. I have this feeling in my chest that tightens whenever I look at you. And despite being declared enemies I just know that you would do nothing to hurt me unless it was to strengthen me," said Yoh, completely honest, although he did omit the part of where he was attracted to the other teen.

Hao, on the other hand, was surprised by the complete confidence is brother had in him. He practically laid his heart right in the open to be either rescued or destroyed; very risky. Hao tried to suppress the slight blush that was over coming his face from the declaration, but sprinkles of pink had filtered onto his face regardless. He let out a sharp grin at Yoh's direction as he walked closer to the other boy.

"Yoh," began Hao, stepping even closer to Yoh, only an arms length away from the boy. He could feel his own heart thumping in his chest in anticipation. He wasn't even sure if he should even begin revealing their past, or it was the right moment to do so, but he did know that this would be the best chance he had to do so. Who knew, maybe he would even win over the other shaman and they would rule over the new world of only shamans. Hao looked deeply into swimming chocolate eyes opposite him that brimmed with emotion. He could hear Yoh's own heart beating against his chest faster, as if trying to synchronize with his own. Hao breathed out the other teens name again, moving even closer and extending his hand to the others' face.

Yoh felt his own feet moving of their own accord, stepping even closer to his brother. Once the long haired teen had extended his surprisingly warm hand to his face he found himself leaning into the touch, savoring something that felt as if he had lost it a long time ago.

Hao finally stepped so close that their chests were grazing each other, their respective shirts touching each other heavily. Yoh had closed his eyes once the palm of Hao's hand cradled his face softly, holding his head upright. Yoh felt an arm circling around his waist, pulling him even closer against the hard chest he laid upon and gripping him in a tight embrace. He managed to free one of his arms which had been stuck between them and wrapped it around Hao's shoulder and behind the other boy's neck. He opened his eyes only to find himself staring into softened chocolate eyes and a small, satisfied, yet sad, smile playing on Hao's lips.

Yoh opened his mouth to ask why the other teen was smiling, but found his mouth covered my soft and slightly moist lips. The gentle, closed lips pressed lightly against his own. Yoh found his eyes becoming wider from the sensation. Once the lips hit his own it felt as if something snapped around him; it was as if he had been in a sort of trance before. What was he doing here kissing his enemy of all people!? Hadn't he confirmed to himself that these type of feelings were wrong? They were both boys—they were identical brothers! Wasn't this like kissing himself?

'But it really wasn't,' he thought to himself, 'Hao is completely different from me. We may have similar features, but personality-wise we really vary.'

Yoh found himself throwing the rough logic out into the wind as he pressed his own slightly chapped lips against Hao's. He felt, more than heard, when the other boy let out a satisfied sigh that he was finally responding.

Yoh knew that the conversation they were supposed to be having had become heavily side-tracked, but this was pretty nice too and figured that their little talk could wait, for a while at least.

TBC

A/N: Thank you so much to my readers and reviewers! I didn't actually think this would be a big enough hit as it turned out. I actually thought that the Shaman King fandom was pretty much over, but I guess not and I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Special thanks, as always, goes out to my reviewers since this story probably wouldn't have gotten updated without you guys.

ryuchi-shuichi41-Thanks, I like this pairing too, although I have no clue how I got into it.
KiraLacus Forever- Heh heh, thanks. Hope you enjoyed the chapter...more to come in the third one.
Hikariri-Thanks! And yeah, I'll try to post more often...
Lost To Reality- thanks for liking this story, hope you continue reading (and I know how it is to not update stories looks in direction of SFL and SR so its alright
SK Lurker- actually when I first wrote the summary into my profile page I thought the same thing, but I really couldn't come up with a better summary, but yeah, thanks for reading!
Trustyou.- I'll try to update sooner, but I'm really busy with a lot of things, so no promises, sorry.
Kyo lover101- haha, yeah, well here it is! Please look forward to chapter 3.
Komichi- Thanks, and I promise to you and others that there's a good reason for all this stuff, like an actual plot gasps heh heh.

Thanks everyone who read, please continue to do so, and remember that reviewing gets me to typing faster since this is for others (and partially for my own) amusement.