disclaimer: disclaimed.
dedication: to waiting.
notes: FFFFFF DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I SHIP THIS?
notes2: five hundred words of disgusting cuteness.

title: the stars blink just for us
summary: She's got the looks and I've got the time. — Yoh/Anna.

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Anna appeared in a rush of smoke and steam. The ends of her hair curled damply down her back, turned dark with humidity over one of his biggest hoari. It was late in the evening; the sky black already and dotted with pin-prick lights outside the window, and Yoh looked over his shoulder at her, trying not to smile.

"You look cozy," he said, gentle.

"Mmnh," she made a small sound of acknowledgement at the back of her throat. "It's cold. Move over."

"You grew up on a mountain, Anna," he reminded her, but scooted over anyway. He looped an arm over her shoulder as she settled next to him, curling up to a tiny ball of soft-sweet female underneath the bedroll quilt.

"So what?" she demanded. It came out more like a whisper—she was already falling asleep. And she was lovely, like this, when she was half-asleep in his arms and not planning punishment or glaring or any of the other things Anna did most of the time. When she was like this, small and quiet and pale and precious, he remembered that she tried and tried. When she was like this, he remembered why he loved her.

"So nothing," said Yoh. He tucked the thick quilt more securely around her. She was still so very small; a marvel of a woman, not yet mother but princess, queen, ruler of all. That was Anna, though, all over.

She looked up at him with solemn eyes. "We have to make the world a better place, Yoh. For everyone."

"I know."

"For this one, too," she murmured, and pressed her fingers to her abdomen. And she knew he knew that, but sometimes it needed to be said. Her hands did not tremble. There was not a justification for it; she did not need to tremble, but maybe, she thought, maybe it would be easier.

"I love you," she said softly.

Yoh looked down at her, coloured dusky gold and crimson and dark; his beautiful violent girl who'd once listened to thoughts and been so terribly lonely. She was everything important, the only one of his best friends who remained.

She was his family, now.

Yoh bent and pressed his lips to the top of her head.

"It'll work out, Anna," he said.

She closed her eyes, and almost smiled.

Outside the window, the stars twinkled brightly.

fin.