Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Ivy, Shaman Runaway ❯ Code Name: I,SR ( Chapter 73 )

Code Name: I,SR

“You can put her in here.” The pastor smiled warmly at my elder brother as he directed Hao to the spare room in the back of the Church.

 

Hao nodded, and carried Ivy's sleeping body into the room. My twin set the love of his life down gently on the bed, somewhat reluctant to let her go.

 

“She's not going to disappear.” I teased softly as I pulled the covers over Ivy.

 

“You don't know that.” Hao mumbled back at me, taking a seat in the chair next to Ivy's bed. His eyes never left the sleeping girl; he watched her like a hawk.

 

“Hmm... Maybe you're right.” I smiled cheerfully and took a seat on the opposite side of the bed. “Personally, I think you have a bit of an obsession with her—not that I blame you.”

 

Hao smiled lovingly down at Ivy, stroking the side of her face. I don't think he had heard me. “I thought I had lost her forever...How is she alive again, when I know for a fact that she died in my arms?”

 

“I can answer that.” A know-it-all voice echoed from the doorway. We both looked up at the speaker. It was that weird guy with the bright orangy-red hair, dressed like someone from The Matrix; I didn't know his name.

“My name is Raphael. You are Hao and Yoh Asakura; correct?” My brother and I nodded. “Good. All right then, if we could squeeze everyone who wants to know how Ivy is alive again into this room, I can start my explanation.”

 

Everyone smashed together in the small bedroom, gathering around, and waiting for Raphael to tell his story. The quarters were cramped; so many people ended up sitting on the ground and each other when we ran out of chairs. I smiled broadly as Anna sat on my lap.

 

Anna and Hao both seemed extremely worried about Ivy. Even I had to admit that she didn't look so good. Her skin was pale, and she tossed and turned in her sleep, moaning softly. Hao gave up his seat to the extremely anxious Ren (who was nervously biting his fingernails), and opted to sit on the bed right beside Ivy.

 

Raphael took a seat at the foot of the bed, and jumped into his explanation. “Okay. Let's see...where to begin? Well, I suppose that you all want to know how exactly Ivy is alive. Well I, Raphael the Arch Angel, am here to revel all. This is all a part of the Great Spirits plan for the future Shaman Kings and Shaman Queens. Yes, you heard me right, there are going to be two kings, and two queens. This is the first time this has ever happened in the history of history, but the Great Spirits have deemed both of the Asakura and Kyoyama twins fit to take the throne as co-rulers.”

 

Raphael paused to let the shock of what he had said sink in. I looked around the room at the depressed faces of Horo Horo, Chocolove, and Ren. My gaze then drifted to my parents, grandparents, the Tao family, and my other friends who had no desire to be King's faces. Tao En's face shone with pride, clearly saying `My baby's gonna be Shaman Queen!'. My grandfather looked relieved `Finally my hard work and training have paid off, and that lazy slacker is going to be Shaman King!'.

 

Anna looked ecstatic; she smiled broadly and hugged me. A shocked, but pleasantly surprised grin crept onto my lips, and Hao had the most priceless look on his face. My brother was clearly wondering if this was some sort of stupid joke.

 

“Wait...both Yoh,” Hao pointed toward me. “and I” He pointed to himself. “are going to be Shaman King?”

 

“Yep.” Raph nodded curtly, a slight smirk set on his face.

 

“Me? Out of all people?” Hao still couldn't believe it. “You're just going to give me the crown? I don't have to break into Patch headquarters, steal the secret file containing the location of the Great Spirits, eat peoples souls, merge with my other half, kill Yoh's annoying little friends, betray the ones closest to me, destroy Patch Village, or anything like that?”

 

“Uh, no.” The angel raised an eyebrow at my elder brother. “Were you planning on doing any of that stuff?”

 

Hao glared dangerously at Raphael. “If necessary.”

 

“Just one minute!” Ren stopped biting his nails long enough to yell angrily at the gothic angel. “Why the bloody hell are the Great Spirits choosing more than one King!”

 

“Cool yer jets, Short Pants; I'm getting to that. Let's see...Michael told me to explain it like this: Anna, Hao, Ivy, and Yoh all have their good and bad qualities, right?” Everyone nodded. “And, each is the opposite of their twin, right?” Another collective nod. “So if you had all four of them working together, they would negate all the bad qualities, and make up for each others short comings. So if they worked as a team the world should stay in order and we should have peace, prosperity and all that crap, right?” Everyone but Ren nodded.

 

“Ren?” Jun's voice held a puzzled tone.

 

“Yes, I suppose it could be a perfect world, but couldn't they just as easily all let their bad traits take over, and then the world would be thrown into disorder, chaos, and eternal darkness?” Ren looked pessimistically at Raphael.

 

“You just can't seem to look on the bright side of things can you?” Raphael took off his shades to glare at Ren, his emerald eyes looking like green fire.

 

“I prefer not to, thank you. Now, is that the only explanation you have for there being two Kings, or is there one that makes more logical sense? Hurry up now, I have much better things to do with my time.” I smiled lightly at Ren's blatant disrespect for the angel.

 

“Whatever.” Raphael glared a little more before a content smile spread upon his lips. “Well, the first explanation was Michael's. Maybe our friend Lenny will `prefer' Gabriel's explanation of events.”

 

“Don't. Call. Me. LENNY!”

 

A Hao-like smirk broke out upon Raph's face. “Very well. Gabriel says that since Yoh and Hao are technically `one', we have to have both of them because we can't have half a king on the throne, but since there are two bodies, each one needs a different wife, so thus the Kyoyama twins are Shaman Queens.”

 

The black-clad messenger of God took a sip of water from a glass that he had pulled out of thin air. “Now, the Great Spirits have been planning this for awhile, and everything was going swimmingly except for Yoh had no feelings for Anna, Anna wouldn't confess her feelings to Yoh, and Hao had lied to Ivy causing her to hate and fear him. All in all, both relationships were in peril. So, we angels in Heaven had to intervene. Thus came about our secret project to get the Shaman Kings and Queens together as couples. Code Name: I,SR, or Ivy, Shaman Runaway. Yoh and Anna were easy enough. Make Anna jealous; she plots against Ivy, blah, blah, blah; you all know that story. Now, Yoh and Anna were all set as fiancées, but that didn't do anything for the HaoIvy situation.”

 

“Unfortunately, even Cupid couldn't smooth things over with Ivy and Hao.” A new voice sang from the doorway. Everyone turned to face a tall man wearing white dress pants and a neatly pressed white dress shirt standing in the doorway. He had short brown hair and piercing blue eyes. As far as I could tell, this man was twice as old as the 21 looking Raphael.

“Ah...Hello Gabriel.” Raphael greeted the older angel, less than enthusiastically.

 

“Hello idiot.” Gabriel returned, not bothering to smile. “Greetings Shamans. I am the Arch Angel Gabriel, superior to this simple creature here.” Gabriel motioned toward the younger angel.

 

“I don't know about you all, but I like this angel better. He doesn't act like Horo Horo like the other one.” Ren smirked, amused at his own teasing of the Ainu.

 

“Thank you.” Gabriel smiled somewhat before going into his half of the explanation. “Ahem, you see we had to get human help to manage Hao on Earth while we higher beings worked with Ivy in Heaven.”

 

“Wait! Ren! Dude! That is so uncool! I'll get you for dissing me like that!” Horo had finally gotten that Ren had been making fun of him earlier. `Horo never was very quick on uptake.'

 

“AHEM! Don't interrupt superior beings when they are talking!” Gabriel unceremoniously whacked Horo upside the head, silencing him. “As I was saying, after Ivy's death we had to recruit a bunch of humans to look after Hao and make sure that he realized how he had tortured and mistreated Ivy. Hao's followers were the perfect choice.”

 

“And me! I helped some!” A cute, girlish voice rung high, coming from the doorway. Once again everyone turned to the door. There, just outside the room was Judo. She was see through like a ghost, but didn't let that stop her from running to Ran and En squealing delightedly “Mommy! Daddy!” The Taos embraced their adopted daughter, and past Judo around to hug Ching, Jun, Ren, and the Asakura family members.

 

“Yes, yes, Judo helped too. Now, young lady, what are you doing here when your older ego is present?” Gabe raised an eyebrow at the little ten year-old.

 

“She's out cold, and it's scary in there, so I came out here. I didn't think it would hurt anything...Sorry...Hey, does anyone have an orange?” Judo looked around, but getting a negative answer, sat on Ren's lap and sulked.

 

“What do you mean `scary in there'?” Ren asked his little sister.

 

“Well, it's really dark and cold at first, but then there's this big blast of light, and all these blurry colors. Then everything starts spinning, and all these quick flashbacks of my—er Ivy's life. There's also this big black hole thingy, eating all of this pretty red light. Like I said: scary.” Judo wrapped up her story by snuggling up against Ren's chest.

 

“I was afraid this might happen. That's why I came down here.” The entire group of Shamans and myself turned to look at whoever had just walked in as was becoming the routine.

 

“Hello Sir.” The two previously introduced angels chorused.

 

“Hello.” An elderly angel stepped into the room, and made his way over to the bedside to inspect Ivy. Ivy moaned softly and rolled over closer to Hao. “Even in sleep she's drawn to you.” The new comer teased Hao good-naturedly.

 

Hao blushed lightly as Ivy's hand subconsciously wandered to his thigh. My brother carefully picked up the hand, and set it down at Ivy's side. “So I've noticed...but she's not nearly this affectionate when she's awake.”

“And just what do you mean by that!” Ren handed Judo to Jun, and held his Kwan Dao to Hao's throat. “What have you been doing to my innocent little baby sister?”

 

“I swear I haven't done anything to her yet! We've been over this!” Hao snorted indignantly at Ren's accusations. “Now, get that thing away from my hair before you accidentally cut some of it off!” Hao stood to challenge Ren.

 

“Oh that's not the only thing I'm gonna cut off! What do you mean `yet'! Stop thinking indecent thoughts about my sister!” Ren shot back.

Judo sighed heavily as Jun set her down. The little girl pushed her way between the two boys, and attached herself to Hao. It was quite cute, Judo's arms wrapped around Hao's waist, but her head only came up to the middle of his torso. “Ren, stop it! Ivy is not a child anymore. You don't need to be so protective of her. She's grown up, and she's gonna get married. Ivy can take care of herself.”

 

“Judo...I know.” Ren's eyes softened as he looked at his baby sister. “She may be able to take care of herself around normal men, but Hao is anything but normal. You don't know what he's capable of, and he's just so much older and more powerful. I can't let you marry him. He's a horrible person.”

 

“Oh Ren...he's not that bad. Sure he's done horrible things, but he's had horrible things done to him. You don't understand what he's been through, or why he is the way he is. Ivy does, and she loves him despite all his bad qualities. Ivy sees the good in him. He's handsome, charming, caring, and he can even be romantic. Plus he really loves her; think of all the times he's almost died because of her. Brother, you should be happy that Ivy found someone so in love with her. She's found someone that'll make her happy.”

“Well...I suppose that I can't argue with you Judo. Ivy is old enough to make her own decisions, and I don't have any say in it. Very well.” Ren lowered his Kwan Dao, and approached Hao with a hateful look in his golden eyes. Ren grabbed Hao by the collar of his shirt and looked menacingly at the brown-eyed demon. “If you hurt her even the slightest I will make you suffer worse pain than that of Hell itself.”

 

“I promise to take care of her. I wouldn't dream of hurting her `even the slightest'.” Hao removed Ren's hands, straightened his collar, loosened Judo's hold on him, and sat down beside Ivy. Judo sat on his lap, resting her head on his shoulder.

 

Hao raised an eyebrow at the young Tao. “I thought you said that you hated me, and couldn't see what Ivy had seen in me in the first place.”

Judo raised her head to look Hao in the face. “I said all that, but then I decided you're cute.” Judo placed a quick kiss on Hao's lips before laying her head back down on his shoulder.

 

“You really are Ivy...” Hao ruffled Judo's hair lightly as she fell asleep in his arms. Hao passed Judo's body back to Jun without waking the child.

I looked over at the elderly gentleman standing beside me and asked, “Uh...who are you again, and what's happening to Ivy?”

 

“Oh, yes!” The man smiled warmly in a way that reminded me of a kindly grandfather. “I am Michael. I am the head angel, and about Ivy: having her soul separated from her body, and then putting her soul back in after the body being soulless for several days was a risky move by us angels, but it was a necessary part of the plan. Her body isn't dealing well with the stress and strain of having her soul back. Her body has shut down, and is eating her furyoku in order to keep her alive.”

 

“Will she be okay!” Anna looked worriedly up at the angel, her eyes begging for her sister's safety.

 

“Oh yes, she'll be fine. She should wake up soon, but she'll be weak for a few days. The only real problem is...Hao?” Michael looked across the bed at my brother.

 

“Yes?” Hao raised an eyebrow at the head angel, wanting for the other to just `spit it out'.

 

“Would you love Ivy even if she was one of those pathetic, dirty, humans you hate so much?” Hao looked at Michael, not getting where the conversation was going.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean if she couldn't see ghosts or anything. Would you still love her? The Great Hao Asakura, Shaman King, in love with a human?”

 

Hao paused a moment to look down at Ivy coldly. “You said that her body is eating her furyoku to keep her alive?”

 

“Yes.” Gabriel answered for his superior.

 

“She's not going to get that furyoku back is she?” Hao kept looking at Ivy, never releasing her face from his piercing gaze.

 

“No.” Raphael jumped in on the conversation.

 

“I see...” Hao continued to stare into Ivy's pale face, absent-mindedly brushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes.

 

“I've got my subordinates up in Heaven running tests on how much power she will lose, but there's a good chance that she'll lose it all. But, there is also a chance that she'll get lucky, and only lose everything besides her Allure powers. There's no way of telling for sure. Hao? Can you love a human weakling?”

 

All eyes were on Hao as he looked back down at Ivy's sleeping form. “It doesn't matter what she is, I can't not love her. Ivy will always be Ivy, regardless of her human/shaman status.” A sad smile broke out on my other half's face. “I will always love her.”

 

“Oh thank Heavens!” Gabriel breathed a huge sigh of relief. “I would hate to have all of our planning and plotting go to waste because that evil monster couldn't fall in love with a human.”

 

“Gabe! Don't insult the Shaman King like that!” Raphael glared at his superior.

 

“Don't call me `Gabe'!” Gabe returned the glare.

 

“Please Boys, don't fight...” Michael tried to break up the oncoming brawl between the angels. “Gabriel, why don't you explain what we did with Ivy in Heaven while Hao's followers worked with Hao on earth?”

 

“Certainly, Sir.” Gabriel nodded to the older angel before throwing one last dirty look at Raphael. “Well, while in Heaven Ivy watched life continue without her, and she also saw some quaint little flashbacks of Hao's past. At the end of the three-day period Michael gave Ivy a choice: Yoh or Hao? Ivy chose you, Hao.”

 

“Michael asked if she would give up the chance of ever being happy again to be with you,” The redheaded angel picked up the story line. “and she even demanded to be sent to Hell with you if you killed yourself. She was prepared to give up her chance at Heaven for you. I can hardly believe it myself, but she turned down the Devil himself for you.”

 

“Wait! Lucifer?” Hao's face took on a look of rage. “What did he do to her!”

 

“Well...he tried to seduce her and make her the newest addition to his harem, but all he did to her was make out with her a little. Nothing more; don't worry, we stopped him.” Michael attempted to calm Hao.

 

“That bastard. I never did like him; remind me to torture him cruelly next time I kick his ass off the throne of Hell.” Hao growled softly at the thought of the Devil kissing his fiancée.

 

“You know the Devil?” I raised a surprised brow at my elder half.

“Yeah, Lucy and I go waaaaaay back. I always take over Hell when I'm sent down there, and he's been looking for a way to get back at me for years.”

“Well, he's finally found a way to get at you: hit on your fiancée.” Gabriel chimed in, and then just had to state his own personal opinion: “Personally I think she would have made a great Queen of Hell. She's scary enough when she gets mad.”

 

“My Ivy is not going to marry that seductive bastard.” Hao spat at Gabriel, a thin layer of fire radiating off of his skin.

 

“Now, now, Hao. He didn't mean it.” Michael smiled good-naturedly at the fire-wielder. “But even you must admit she does get quite scary when she's mad. I was a bit scared for my life when she got mad at me after I told her that she had passed the test when she agreed to go to Hell with Hao. She was pretty angry that we had been setting her up the whole time to realize how in love she really was with Hao.”

 

“Thank you so much.” Hao smiled gratefully at the angels and his followers. “For everything.”

 

“Yeah, thanks, but could you all discuss this somewhere else? I'm trying to sleep.” Ivy rolled over again, and muttered sleepily.

 

“Ivy!” Everyone crammed around the bed to see Ivy open her eyes, looking groggy.

 

“Not so loud.” Ivy propped herself up against the pillows.

 

“How do you feel?” Hao brushed a few strands of Ivy's hair out of her face.

 

“Fine, thanks. I really feel kind of weak though.” Ivy lay her head on Hao's shoulder. Hao automatically wrapped his arms around her.

 

“That is to be expected. We don't know how much furyoku you lost, but there is a good chance that you no longer have any Shamanic powers what so ever. Can you see Amidamaru floating over there?” Michael put a concerned hand to Ivy's forehead, checking for fever.

 

“Yes.” Ivy nodded, but stopped when her head began to hurt her. “Does anyone have some pain killers?”

 

“Here you go, Darling.” Ran held out the pills to her adoptive daughter.

 

“Thanks.”

 

A scratching was heard at the door and someone yelled, “Hey! Let me in! God, I need to get an opposable thumb and a step ladder!”

 

“That will be Feather with the test results. Could someone let him in?” Gabriel looked uninterestedly at the door.

 

Ryu, who was closest to the door, opened it, and in waltzed a little Jack Russell Terrier. “Gabe, I told you to call me `Hane'.” The puppy froze when he spotted my brother. “Hao!” A huge smile broke out on the little dog's face, and he ran to his master, jumping into my brother's arms, and licking at his face.

 

“Hane!” Hao pet the dog uncertainly, shocked that his pet was talking.

 

“Yep. It's me. I was sent to look over you while Ivy was away, and I must admit, I absolutely loved being your pet. Michael finally agreed that if you said it was okay, I could stay with you and Ivy as your dog! What do you say? Huh? Huh?” Hane looked up eagerly at Hao.

 

My brother smiled warmly and ruffled the puppy's ears. “Why not? What do you say Ivy? Want a dog?”

 

“So cute!” Ivy cooed softly, stroking Hane's silky coat. “Let's keep him.”

 

“Oh if it isn't that damn little mutt!” Ren glared evilly at the dog.

 

Hane cocked his head to the side, “Who are—OH, WAIT! I remember you!” The puppy smirked mischievously back at Ren. “You're Dao Lian! How's your arm?”

 

“My arm is fine; no thanks to you!” Ren spat back.

 

“Hane, do you have the test results?” Gabriel reminded Hane what he had come for.

 

“Oh, yes.” The little dog's ears perked up. “I have good news! Ivy's furyoku dropped drastically, but she still has around 13,333 left. She's retained her Allure and Itako powers, but all the other types of voodoo and junk that she mastered...uh...well there's a good chance she will never regain all of her abilities. Also, she still has her Allure powers, but she no longer has control over them. She'll need to be retrained.”

 

I set a supportive hand on Ivy's shoulder. “I'm sorry that you lost so much power. It must be horrible, training to master so many shamanic fields, but then losing all of your abilities in a matter of minutes.”

 

“Uh...yeah...horrible.” The girl in question put on a fake smile.

 

Ivy blushed lightly as Hao chuckled. “Ivy, what does my brother mean that you `mastered so many shamanic fields'?”

 

“Can't you just let it go Hao?” The Allure cast an annoyed glare at her fiancée.

 

“Of course not.” Hao smirked lovingly back. “Are you going to tell them, or shall I?” After getting only a cold glare from Ivy, Hao decided to explain. “It seems that my little Ivy, among other things, is a bit of a liar. I don't know what she told you, but she only dabbles in other shaman forms besides Allure and Itako. She's never mastered anything besides being an Allure.”

 

“Ah, yes.” My grandfather, Yohmei spoke up about training Judo. “She's done amazing things such as getting through the Tunnel in fewer days than it was suppose to take, and learning a little about so many different forms of shamanic powers in so little time, but she really doesn't have much skill. All the amazing things she's done are done through luck. Both Ivy and Judo were lucky girls.”

 

“Of course I'm lucky; that's the only reason that I'm still alive. Now, could we stop talking about me like I'm not in the room?” Ivy glared at both Hao and Yohmei. “And...can I talk to you Hao?”

 

“Sure.” Hao answered back. Everyone stepped in closer to get a good seat for the romantic scene that was sure to unfold.

 

“ALONE?” Ivy hinted for the rest of us to leave; no one moved.

 

“EVERYONE OUT! God.” The girl rolled her eyes as everyone exited the room.

 

I whispered a quick “Good luck.” to my brother as I walked past him.

 

“I'll need it.” He smiled nervously back.

 

 

 

 

 

“Hao?” I got shivers up and down my spine as she said my name.

 

“Yes Ivy?” I brushed a stray bang from my face as I gulped. `God why am I so nervous all of the sudden? Maybe it's because we're alone. In a bedroom. In a Church. And she's in bed. Not many people can say “My first time was in one of the back bedrooms of a Church.”' I mentally slapped myself for such thoughts.

 

“Are you okay?” Ivy felt of my face for fever; her touch made me blush, and my body temperature shot through the roof. My pants tightened painfully. “You're really hot.”

 

My face flushed as I took her words the wrong way. “Not nearly as hott as you.” I leaned in closer to her with the intention of stealing a kiss.

 

We were just inches apart when she pulled away. “What? Oh! No, thank you, but I meant your temperature is higher than normal, and your skin is warm.”

 

“So, what did you want to talk about.” I quickly changed topics, dropping all illusions of doing anything with her.

 

“Well I was wondering...do you still have that engagement ring?” A sly smile graced her lips as she looked lovingly into my eyes.

 

I resisted the urge to pounce upon her as I took the ring case out of my jacket pocket and slid the ring onto her finger. “Ivy...” My fingers gently caressed her lips.

 

“Hao...I...” I silenced her by taking her lips in a fiery kiss. She returned the kiss, just as passionately as she had before I had told her my name. I slipped my shoes and jacket off without breaking the kiss as I climbed on top of her, gently so that I wouldn't put any strain on her in her weakened state.

 

Ivy pulled away and pushed me off. “Hao! Not that again!”

 

“Oh, why not?” I sat down beside her on the bed, holding her chin.

 

“Because. One we're not married yet, and two, I'm so tired I could pass out.” Ivy lay back down, and turned away from me.

 

“Okay...All right...I can wait.” I sighed heavily as I ran my fingers through my long dark hair. I knew I was trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince her. “And when do you plan on marrying me? I'm sure that the pastor can marry us as soon as you're able to stand and walk again. We could be married by tomorrow if you like, and tomorrow night we can—“

 

“—Hao?” Ivy sat up again and looked me in the eyes. Something about the way she gazed at me was off. I didn't like it one bit.

 

“Ivy?” I raised an eyebrow suspiciously at her.

 

“We're too young to get married.”

 

“W-what!” My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “Tell me you're joking.” I pleaded.

 

“Give me two years.” She pleaded back.

 

“T-TWO YEARS?” I felt all the color drain from my face.

 

“Hao...I'm sorry...I just...You may be thousands of years old, but I'm only fifteen. I'm not ready yet. Please give me two years; I'll be seventeen, and then I'll marry you.” She smiled sweetly at me, like she hadn't just condemned me to two years of pure torture.

 

“One.” I tried to bargain.

 

“One and a half.” She caved slightly.

 

“One and a half.” I sighed heavily, and wished I could make time pass faster.

 

“Thank you for understanding. I love you.” She kissed me lightly on the lips before lying down and falling back asleep.

 

`Damn, I need a cold shower.' I thought as I walked out of the room downtrodden.

 

As I opened the door I almost ran over my little brother who was standing right outside. “Uh...Hi Hao. How'd it go?”

 

“Horribly.” A wry smile danced across lips.

 

“What! Aren't you two getting married? What did she say!” Yoh followed just a step behind me as I walked down the long Church corridor, away from the bedroom.

 

“Yes, we are getting married. In one and a half years.” The tone in my voice was, to say the least, frustrated.

 

“What's so horrible about that?” My little brother totally missed the entire point.

 

“Yoh...you and Anna will probably have a kid or two before I even get my hands on Ivy.”

 

Yoh only rolled his eyes and smiled cheerfully at me. “Hao, you really need to clean up your thoughts. Then maybe you'll have a better shot at her sooner. Marry her because you want to spend the rest of your life with her, not just because you want to sleep with her.” Yoh put an arm around my shoulders, and smiled even brighter. His cheerful smile was beginning to make me sick.

 

“How can you say that to me when you get to marry Anna in a matter of weeks?” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye; a sullen look embedded in my very pores.

 

“You shouldn't think of it like that. What you should do is take Ivy to tour the world. You never know when or where you might get lucky.” My brother winked suggestively at me.

 

I couldn't help but think how out of character that was of Yoh. `Maybe he's more like me than I thought...' “Thanks for the advice...I never thought I'd be getting advice about girls from you of all people.”

 

The thought seemed to amuse Yoh, and his kind smile widened if that was even possible. “Well I'm your brother, and pretty soon we'll be co-rulers, so you better start learning to ask my advice.”

 

“Yoh! Come here! We need to talk!” A female voice rang from inside one of the various bedroom doors in the long hallway.

 

“Looks like Anna wants me.” I could have sworn I saw a perverted grin flash on Yoh's face, but when I took a double take, only a cheeky smile remained. “Gotta go. I guess I'll see you later. Oh and like I said before: Good luck with Ivy.”

 

I wanted to hit him, but refrained from smashing in his cheerful little face. `How can he say that! He's not the one who has to wait for one and a half years!' “This only proves how much I love her.” `God I need that shower.' I wandered off down the long Church corridor in search for a bathroom.