16. You Remain the Same
"Hey, Anna!" Yoh called cheerfully, stamping his feet on the concrete in an effort to get his circulation flowing a bit more efficiently and generate some amount of body warmth. (Needless to say, this attempt proved fruitless.)
Anna, sulky as ever since they had left the house and party, slowly turned around and glared at him. Though, Yoh couldn't help but notice that the intensity of said glare was very mild in comparison to those she had shot him in the past. "What…" she grumbled, rather than snapping at him.
Yoh laughed nervously, wondering if he should test his luck. Anna had been very miserable ever since Yoh had more than eagerly accepted his mother's invitation to join her on an expedition to the grocery store downtown to restock on sake (which had magically depleted ever since Anna's enraged outburst). Well, what could I do? There were way too many close calls already…I'm running out of hiding spaces for me and Anna whenever I hear grandma approaching… Yoh lamely justified to himself. In reality, he simply wanted more time to spend with Anna without the doom and gloom of the inevitable showdown with his grandmother. For someone who lived in the mountains all her life, she sure hates the cold…
"What do you want?" she asked, sounding more like herself.
"Huh?"
She rolled her eyes and grit her teeth, her face looking somewhat akin to a wet, wretched cat. "You called my name earlier?" Her voice lowered so that Keiko couldn't hear her. "Ever the slow one…"
He shrugged happily. "You're pretty much the same too since the last time I saw you."
She muttered something again as the three of them approached a pedestrian crosswalk.
"Did you know that it's good luck to step on the black spaces?"
She turned her head and stared at him long and hard. "What? Where did you get that idiotic superstition from?" She briskly set out as they began crossing the street, deliberately stepping on the white painted lines.
He placed his hands behind his head. "Suit yourself. Oh and by the way it's bad luck if you step on the white spaces." He could hardly contain himself as he saw that she faltered behind him, momentarily pausing before she resumed her trek across the street. Except this time, she was paying particular attention to making sure she stepped on the black asphalt gaps in between the white painted lines.
As soon as Anna rejoined Yoh and Keiko on the other side, the boy exploded into a violent fit of laughter. "No way!"
Anna crossed her arms in front of her defensively, self-conscious and yet still murderous. "What?"
"I can't believe you…" Here, Yoh paused to wipe away tears that were forming in his eyes. "I can't believe you actually…" He doubled over, clutching at his stomach. "You fell for it!"
Anna drew her eyebrows together crossly and reddened in embarrassment, her hands curling into outraged fists. "I…I did not!" she huffed, storming forth only to stop after a few seconds since she realized she had no idea where the grocery store was.
They didn't speak to each other until they entered the huge supermarket. "I didn't know you were so gullible."
"I didn't know you were so immature." She sniffed. "Ever the same." She looked in awe at the fluorescent and linoleum haven that stood before her. "This…this is where you go to buy your food?"
"Yeah…weird, isn't it?"
"What is that…" She asked rather flatly, stopping before the escalators that led to the second floor of the store.
"An escalator…They're moving stairs," Yoh explained as he hopped onto the mobile steps, enjoying the curious expression that she always had whenever he introduced her to something new. Still the same…
Anna hesitantly jumped onto them, scared that she might slip and cause further damage to her already wounded pride. She grumbled something along the lines of, "What, are people now too lazy to even climb stairs by themselves?" Or something.
Yoh's eyes momentarily lit up as he was stuck by yet another just flat out brilliant idea. "You know actually…this supermarket is actually kind of famous for something…"
"Not interested," Anna stated monotonously but her expression reflected that she was, indeed, interested.
"Aw, come on, aren't you gonna ask what it's famous for?"
Anna could have won a prize for standing remarkably still if they held contests for that sort of thing.
"It takes exactly one minute and sixteen seconds to reach the top…They say that if you can hold your breath that long, then whatever you wish for comes true!"
"Mmhmm."
Yoh frowned, trying to suppress a smile. "It's up to you."
Anna clutched at the rubberized handle of the escalator as she began shaking a little. Yoh could've sworn her face was almost blue.
He looked at her quizzically. "What are you doing?"
She simply turned away from him.
He poked at her. "Anna…"
She began gasping for air.
Yoh froze, his finger still pointed out at her before he grabbed onto the side of the escalator to prevent himself from falling. "You fell for it again!"
"You're still such a child!" Anna, still shuddering from her lack of oxygen intake, hopped off the escalator and smacked him upside the head. "I did no such thing!" She looked up at Keiko when the older woman began smiling at her. "I didn't!" she protested to her future mother-in-law.
Anna walked ahead as Keiko hung back and stared at Yoh.
"Come on, mom, I was just teasing…"
Her mother raised an eyebrow.
"Fine, I'll stop…Do you think she's actually upset?"
Keiko motioned in Anna's general direction. "You're asking the wrong person."
Yoh jogged a bit to catch up with his surprisingly calm fiancée. He opened his mouth to apologize but was promptly cut off. "Did you know that if your palm is larger than your face, you have a longer life expectancy?"
Yoh blinked. He was not expecting…this. "Huh?"
"It's true. People live longer if they do for some reason." Her poker face was as unmoving as a glacier. Yoh studied her but she was absolutely unreadable. Besides, the thought intrigued him. "Really?" He lifted his palm to his face and then—
Anna smacked his face using his own hand. Yoh opened and shut his eyes, trying to make the pretty, flashing stars disappear from his vision. "I…suppose I deserved that."
Keiko smiled down at her. "Feel better?"
Anna didn't even bother trying to hide the grin on her face. "Yes. I do." But for once, there wasn't a hint of sadism or malice in her voice as she turned to Yoh.
A/N: because all couples tease each other. even Yoh and Anna. loosely based on a scene from the Korean drama My Girl. also, this is the result of me spending four hours babysitting my two six year old cousins (which would explain a lot in this chapter haha).
I would like to point out that my Master List of Fanfiction has been updated (link on my profile page) and is now very thorough and in detail. It took me several days but now it's pretty. and nice. and I'm happy with it. and according to it, I have 49 stories that are planned, in progress or completed. so go take a look and tell me which planned story you'd like me to start (other than Bad Romance...I've gotten quite a few requests for me to start on that already haha).
I'm discontinuing All My Heart because...and this is rather embarrassing...I forgot entirely where I was going with the story (I should probably start writing down actual notes and outlines from now on...sigh). It really tears me up to do this because I hate scrapping stories but I honest to god only came to this decision after thinking about it for several days. Anyone want to adopt it?
don't forget about the SK fanfic contest! and check out my livejournal for other updates concerning my other stories (because this author's note is getting too long)
Check out my latest YohAnna one-shot, Boxes! Thank you very much. It's also very exciting that people are actually asking me questions on my formspring!
Please leave me a review! As much as it makes me very, very happy indeed to see that people are putting my stories on their faves or alerts, that happiness is rather short lived since I realize that I don't know what you guys actually think about the story. So please, tell me what you think and leave a review! ;)
Happy days!