Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Ivy, Shaman Runaway ❯ Long Overdue Introductions ( Chapter 52 )

 

Long Overdue Introductions

I woke up in Yoh's arms. I couldn't quite read the look on his face. He looked down at me and smiled. I tried to speak, but he cut me off.

 

“You don't have to say anything. There's noting you could say that could change my mind about what you did.” I nodded, sitting up in his embrace, and casting my gaze downward. I noticed that we were the only two in the room.

 

“I'm disappointed in you Anna, but you already know that don't you?” I nodded again. “Is this what you tried so hard to tell me?” Another nod. “Then I'm sorry that I cut you off so many times. I made it pretty hard for you to talk to me.” I nodded. “I'm sorry.”

 

He paused to let me speak. “So when do you want me gone by? I can leave tomorrow morning if you want.”

 

Yoh looked innocently shocked at me. “What are you talking about? Why are you leaving?”

 

It was hard, but I looked him in the eye, “Don't you want me to leave?! I mean, you're getting married, and I'd be in the way—“

 

“—Anna!! Don't you ever say that!! You're never in the way!!” He held me like I would fade away in a matter of seconds. It scared me how angry he sounded. He looked so scared…

 

“But…what I did to Ivy…” I started.

 

“—She's obviously forgiven you; she even tried to cover for you.”

 

“But you must hate me…” I insisted.

 

“No!” He cried. “You've tried to say how sorry you were so many times before, and I didn't let you. I could never hate you Anna! Please don't hurt yourself. Not over me…not over something like this…” He held me tighter.

 

“Yoh…I…”

 

“Shhhhh…Like I told you before, you don't have to say anything. I don't like it when you beg…I like it better when you're barking orders…”

 

“I…I order you to kiss me.” I tried to hold back a smile, but one broke out on my face anyway as he happily replied,

 

“Yes ma'am.” He smiled broadly before kissing me lightly on the lips. When he pulled away, he stood up saying, “I have to go check on Ivy. I sent Horo up to comfort her, and there's no telling what she's doing to him.”

 

“I'll go with you.” I hastily blurted. “I'd like to talk with my…my sister.” I hesitated at the word, it felt strange, yet familiar on my tongue.

 

Yoh smiled and nodded, putting an arm around my waist. “So you really do forgive me…for being such a witch to your fiancée?” I asked tentatively.

 

“I don't even know if Ivy wants to marry me or not. I don't know how I really feel about the situation either…How can I be mad at one fiancée for hating the other? The way I see it, it's my fault, but Ivy forgives us both…who am I to judge?” Yoh lead me up to Ivy's room on the top floor, and paused when we heard laughter coming from inside.

 

A voice that sounded distinctly like Ivy's could be heard saying, “Come on Snow Bunny! Whacha got? Anti up the shirt, Cat boy's got `nuthin' on ya! Hahaha!!”

 

Yoh raised an eyebrow at the odd words. He slowly pushed open the door, and I will never forget the site I saw before me. There in Ivy's room, gathered around a card table were all of the guys sitting in practically undergarments. Ivy sat, missing only her shirt, at the head of the table. All of them were holding playing cards.

 

Yoh sighed at his promiscuous fiancée. “Strip Poker, Ivy? Honestly…”

 

“Hey Yoh, Anna! Wanna join next round? As you can tell, Lenny, Horo, and I are the only ones still in the game. The others didn't want to part with their boxers.” Ivy teased.

 

“Some innocent sister indeed.” `Cat boy' sighed at his sister's behavior.

 

“God she's good…who taught you to play?!” `Snow Bunny' complained.

 

“You wouldn't guess it, but Mikihisa plays a mean hand of Poker! Hahaha!!” Ivy seemed to be nowhere near as upset as she was when she teleported up here.

 

“And how are we related again?” I sighed.

 

“You're my older twin sister.” She reminded me with a goofy grin on her face to rival Yoh's. “If that's okay with you, that is…” she added, waiting for a sign of my approval.

 

“I've always wanted a family.” I gave in and smiled at my newfound younger twin.

 

“Oh Anna!!” Ivy jumped from her seat and tackled me to the ground.

 

“Get off of me!!” I screeched.

 

“Sorry.” She smiled sheepishly.

 

I shook my head sadly at her. “You're hopeless.”

 

“I know.”

 

“So you really do forgive me for everything I did to you?” I pressed, needing to hear it from her lips.

 

She looked thoughtful for a moment, but then smiled her dazzling smile and shrugged, “Sure, no biggie.”

 

I sat staring, shocked at her. “You are amazing.”

 

“Thanks. I am sumthin' aren't I?” She smirked.

 

“And conceded.” I grabbed a random stuffed animal from the pile by the door and threw it at her.

 

She gasped and looked scandalized. “Well you're disagreeable!” She threw a different stuffed animal at me.

 

“Home-wrecker.” I threw another animal at her.

 

“Bossy!” I could see Yoh herd the others out of the room so we could have a sister-sister moment in private.

 

“Flirty!”

 

“Icy!”

 

“Sluty!”

 

“Bitch!”

 

“Fiancée-stealer!”

 

“Traitor!”

 

“Hussy!”

 

“Prude!”

 

“You are so dead!!” I lunged at her and we rolled around on the ground trying to pin each other. I don't know who pushed whom off of whom, but before I knew it, we were both lying on our backs panting for air.

 

Ivy regained her voice first, and sighed, “I've always wanted to have a cat fight with my sister.”

 

“Me too.” I replied.

 

An awkward silence followed, but it was soon broken by the sound of us laughing at our own stupidity and childishness.

 

Silence ensued yet again, and Ivy, again, spoke first. “Anna?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“What about Yoh?” Ivy sat down on her bed and looked up through the skylight at the stars. “And has that skylight always been there because it's directly over my bed, and if someone sat up on the roof and looked down through the skylight they could watch me sleep and that would be soooo weird. No, but seriously: What are we going to do about Yoh?”

 

I got up and sat down next to my younger sister. “I don't know…I guess it's up to Yoh to choose which one of us gets to be the bride, and which one gets to be the household maid…” I silently hoped that the maid's uniform that I would have to wear wouldn't be too ugly.

 

“Well…bigamy isn't such a horrible sin now is it?” My gaze snapped from the stars, down to look at Ivy's face. She was totally serious. “And there are seven days in a week…so I call Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and we can alternate every other Saturday.”

 

“What?!” I couldn't help but stare at her.

 

She looked back at me and repeated what she had said. “I said that you could have Yoh on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We can alternate every other Saturday. That way we get him an equal number of days.”

 

I rolled my eyes at my ridiculous sister. “You know he'll choose you.” I sighed.

 

“He doesn't have to.” Ivy looked back up at the stars.

 

“But he will…” I insisted.

 

“How do you really feel about it Anna? You won't kill yourself the night of the wedding, will you?” Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, but still she looked up at the stars.

 

“I don't care. I suppose now that everything is out in the open…I want my little sister to be happy, and I want Yoh to be happy too, but I want him to be happy with me. I don't want to give him up to you…but somehow I know that I have to…” Hot, briny tears fell from my eyes like a waterfall of sorrow. “I promise to try not to kill myself, but…it's gonna be hard.”

 

“I'm here for you, Sis…” Ivy hugged my arm, letting me know I wasn't completely alone.

 

“At least he's marrying my sister and not just some hussy from off of the street…” I mused. “I know nothing about you…I just realized that…yet you seem to know an awful lot about me…Could you tell me who you are? Where did you come from? What did you do as a child? What's your favorite color? How did you become the person you are today?”

 

We talked for hours getting to know each other. We talked and talked and talked. We talked about clothes, we talked about flowers, animals, colors, shopping, growing up, shamanic powers, what our parents must have looked like, favorite foods, the weather, places we had traveled to, first crushes, Yoh, boys, Hao, and anything else that came to mind.

 

I learned so much about Ivy, and saw how much suffering she had been through her entire life. She really did have it worse off than I had. I felt better knowing that Yoh was going to marry such a girl. She needed someone to love her and take care of her. I was glad that she would be with someone who would take care of her. Somehow, getting to know Ivy made the thought of losing Yoh a lot easier on me.

 

It was past sunset when I left her, and I could tell that she was exhausted. She fell into a deep sleep as soon as I was out the door, and I soon began feeling the effects of the stressful day on myself as well. I retreated to my room, and tried to sleep, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that someone else was in the house.

 

I got out of bed and searched the entire house for the intruder, but I found no one. I tried to sense their Shamanic Aura, but there was none present. Everyone else was already asleep in her or his bed except me, but if that was true, what was this presence that I felt? It had no Shamanic power what so ever, but I could still sense it was a threat.

 

I rounded the corner into the kitchen, and ran smack dab into someone, knocking me to the ground. I looked up and glared at the unwelcome guest. “You!”