Disclaimer: Shaman King isn't mine, but man, do I love it.

Author's Note: Very sad that this fandom isn't bigger. I absolutely love Yoh x Anna. It was difficult to get in her head and this is something a bit different for me.

Inspired by annria2002's (deviantart) picture titled Our Song.

Ten Years by HawkofNavarre

It's easier to hate than to love.

But…that's not true. I should know. I'd lived with so much hatred inside me for years. Everybody was greedy and everybody was evil. There was hardly difficulty in finding ways to support my cynicism. Thoughts of everything came to me, and I couldn't stop it. I hated it. I hated them. I created a monster from that feeling.

I can't hear those thoughts anymore; only mine. It's a distant memory now—a memory…I can't get rid of.

Sometimes I dream about it. I dream that all that hatred is inside of me again and it won't go away. I had that dream tonight and it's shaken me, because I don't want to hear those voices. I don't want to have that power.

So I stand in the rain because it's the only thing that calms me. It's cold and it hits like needles across my skin, but I can hear it, and that's what matters. I'm outside, there are no voices; just the sound of the rain against the pavement.

"Anna…?"

A voice. The voice of the man who freed me. I turn and his eyes catch mine. They're dark and filled with anxiety. He's been worrying. I can tell.

He hurries up to me, taking off his olive jacket at the same time and puts it around my shoulders. It's warm and still dry and now he's getting soaked with only his t-shirt on. It's his job to take care of me, I know, but I don't want him to get sick either. Still, I don't say anything. I know he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Jeez, you're freezing," he states when he wraps his arms around me and tries to get me warmer. "Why are you out here anyway?"

"I had a dream," I tell him softly. "I wanted to hear the rain."

I can feel him looking down at me sharply. He knows. His hands are on my shoulders now as I clutch his jacket tightly.

"You don't need to listen to them anymore."

I don't say anything again because he's right. Before, I hadn't had a choice. It's not that easy though, to forget how to listen. It's been six years since I've had to, but I haven't forgotten. That is something I hate. It makes me feel weak.

I don't like feeling weak.

"You don't need to listen to them," he whispers again. He pulls off his headphones and presses them against my ears, his forehead against mine. "I'll protect you."

You aren't supposed to fall in love when you're ten years old, but I did. I fell in love with him, and that searing hatred I lived in was no longer the only thing I knew. He saved me. He freed me. He protected me.

He isn't lying.

"I know."

Yoh smiles at me. It's gentle, comforting…the same way he is. "Let's go home."

So that's what we do. He holds me close until we get there, where Amidamaru is needlessly fretting like an idiot at the door. Yoh calms him and pulls me into the bathroom. He grabs a towel and dries me as well as he can before bringing me back to my room.

"Get some sleep," he says. He places one hand on my head and kisses my cheek. Audacious, but I let him get away with it for now.

He backs off and starts back to his own room, but I stop him.

"Yoh."

He pauses and looks back quizzically. I take off the orange headphones around my neck and hold them out, but he shakes his head with a smile.

"I said I'd protect you."

I watch as he disappears into his room before I retreat to my own. I change into dry clothes and settle into my futon, pulling the headphones over my ears. I close my eyes and I dream that the voices can't get to me.

He saves me. He frees me. He protects me.

Like when I was ten.