You're Mine
Summary: AU "Just remember that you're mine." It begins with those words, but rapidly becomes something deeper and far more complicated than a mere promise to get back the boy of her dreams.. YohxAnnaxHaoxTamao
Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King the anime, manga, soundtrack, etc. However, I do own a rather ugly piece of colored fanart for the show. If you want to see it, you can just email me or something.
Author's Note: Okay, so I've succumbed to the series of romantic pairings dancing about the world. The ending pairings aren't set yet; you're free to vote on who'll end up with whom. Side-pairings will probably be included in the course of the fic, but they won't be given much attention, although depending, I may write side-ficlets for them.
For now, just tell me what you think.
Chapter One: You're Dating.. Who?
"Anna?"
He was standing by the doorway, trapped and bracketed by the wood. Automatically, the blonde looked up, eyes rising to meet his own automatically. There was something in him that called to her naturally, the way she might be idly interested in the antics of a bird locked away in a cage. He was not a peacock, brilliantly-plumed, touched by all the colors of a rainbow.. but there was something in him that was beautiful all the same.
No, it didn't mean that he looked feminine, although sometimes Anna thought that it would have been better if he did. There would have been something more understandable about a man who looked feminine than one whose features were exquisite but simple.
She did not understand him; but then again, it wasn't required that she do so. All that they had asked of her was that she marry him, and certainly theirs would not be the first marriage in which the two married understood each other not at all.
Normally, there was no pretense of equality between them; Anna would wear the pants in the marriage, and it seemed as though both knew this. (Though again, Yoh refused to wear a dress, and Anna refused to abandon her traditional black skirt. It was a metaphor, and one that Yoh had sulked about for an entire day before understanding that he wouldn't be forced to wear frills after they were married, unless, for whatever obscure reason, Anna wanted him to.) Certainly he did; whenever she had pushed him to say it, he had always given in. He was like that: kind, willing to give her what he thought that she needed to hear.
But today, his gaze was warm, bright, the cheerful matte black that he bestowed upon everyone. Moreover, it was intense with a spill of love that she understood still less than the way he looked. What she grasped automatically, however, was that the warmth was not for her. Like a stream in the springtime, it flowed like some river turned black, onwards and past her, towards a source that she did not see.
"Yes?" This had better be important, and even if it is, you'd better make it snappy. Her deathly glare implied. One of the men in the soap opera is in the process of breaking it off with the cold, abusive woman he should have gotten away from three seasons ago. If you make me miss this..
Seeming to see this, he cocked his head to the side in a wry, sheepish smile, and cut to the chase.
"I'm dating Tamao."
Click.
The remote control in her hand wavered momentarily. Her hands convulsing, pressing several buttons in the process, permitted the television screen to flicker and dim into blackness.
Anna, however, didn't seem to notice.
"What did you say?" The blonde inquired icily, and there was a dangerous edge to her voice as she moved towards him.
"I think you heard me very well, Anna." His voice had softened. The easy, graceful smile had faded away again, leaving him devoid of protection against the suddenly dagger-sharp quality of her stare. "I'm dating Tamao. You know, the pink-haired girl who lives with my grandfather because her parents wanted her to learn his trade? The one who moved here with my grandparents just a little while ago?"
Shock threatened to transform her eyes into circles of bewildered astonishment, but she would not allow them that much. The first question that occurred to her, however, was Why? Tamao was pretty and vaguely intelligent in the way that flowers and cute, fluffy animals were vaguely intelligent, but she was spineless and weak, wanting to be protected all the time..
Just the kind of girl that a man who had been forced into a dress would probably want, come to think of it.. (i.e. One that wouldn't put him into another dress.)
"I know who she is." Anna said, in a voice of cold precision. "I'm not deaf, Yoh. Or an idiot." The words Unlike you.. hung in the air, unspoken but unfazed by the lack of acknowledgement. "But what does your grandfather say?" And how weak she was, to fall back on the authority of some old man who couldn't even keep all his hair on his head..
"Anna," He said, with that faintly inane smile, "I'm sixteen. He can't dictate everything about my life to me, or else I would never have time to live. In any case, Tamao fills about the same requirements as you did, so they shouldn't mind too much."
"And she's prettier, too." The blonde interjected sarcastically. "A vision of flowery beauty." She could not help but be scornful, scornful of the way that he met her gaze calmly, as though he had expected everything she wanted to say.
Automatically, the girl found words coming to her lips, angry, bitter words. Words that had always been there, but she had never had cause to use. Now, however, she did, and she used them with a vengeance. "Flirt with all the pretty girls you like, Yoh; I could honestly care less where you spend your time," What a liar she was. "Just remember this: no matter what happens, you're mine and always will be."
"Things can change." She could not tell if he was mocking her; his voice had an evenness that she could not remember hearing before.
Her voice came in an unconscious softness as she replied. "Not this. Never this."
"You'll get over this quickly; it wasn't as though we ever did anything.." Later, she would never remember if he'd actually said those cheerfully callous words, or whether she had simply dreamt them into the scenario. In either situation, she knew that she could see his dreams in his gaze. And in them, tendrils of pink hair draped casually over his shoulder, a delicately structured face upturned to receive his kiss.
She did not need to speak aloud to ask him whether he'd actually touched Tamao yet; it was implicit in the way he moved, the slight, secret way he smiled.
Mechanically, a hand flew upwards, seemingly of its own accord, scoring him sharply across the cheek. It seemed as though he had expected the blow, for at the last moment, Yoh turned his head slightly, accepting the full force of the blow, as though in penance for the anger that raged still, that demanded blood, not merely bruises.
Blood sang within her ears as she studied him again, roaring with a deadly force. Scanning his gaze for any change, she humphed softly and moved upwards, up the winding stairs. Moments later, a slam echoed through the house as a screen door was crashed shut.
It was only then that Yoh allowed himself a weak smile. All in all, it had gone better than he had anticipated.
He wasn't lying dead in a ditch, for one thing.
Author's Note: Well.. that wasn't so painful.. R & R, please! Tell me what you think.. or just vote on the pairings. :P