Disclaimer: If I owned Shaman King, I won't have to bother about writing fanfiction now, would I?

Note: Yes, ff.net hates me. Insisted on hating me. Let's hope the posting is successful this time around.

Midnight Interlude
written by: da*mouse ®

Chapter 1: Cold

It was night.

She stood in the blowing, chilly wind. It was a cold, cold night, but yet, not cold enough to snow. She closed her eyes, and felt the wind whipping through her hair, the bitter cold biting into her skin, her bare arms and legs.

She wasn't wearing a jacket, she didn't need one. This was her element, the icy coldness. Her element, her world, her persona.

Her.

She grew, she survived through it, in it.

Cold.

That she had always been. And saw herself as always will be.

And it didn't bother her.

She saw nothing wrong with being cold. Indifferent. Detached.

There was nothing wrong with the way she was.

It was by choice.

There was no need to draw on anything else.

It was by choice.

The wind blew harder, the knife-like iciness almost cutting into her skin. Yet she didn't flinch, didn't move, didn't feel the pain. Continued standing there, allowing.

She was incapable of feeling anything, including pain.

Cold.

Time passed, she didn't know how long she had been standing in the cold. All she knew that she felt…almost peaceful. Being out there, in the wintry night.

It was her.

Behind her, there was a flicker of light, indicating that someone had switched on the porch light.

The door creaked opened.

A shadow fell.

Her fiancé.

She continued standing rigidly against the wind. Giving no indication she knew he was there. Paying him no attention.

He walked up to her, and placed a coat around her slim shoulders.

Still she didn't move, nor did she turn around.

"Anna, come in. It's cold." He urged.

"Let me be."

He sighed, a wisp of cloud escaping his mouth, and then he was silent.

They stood in the cold, neither moving nor speaking. He was the one who then turned to leave. "Good night," he said softly.

There was no answer from her.

He pushed open the door, and paused for a moment, looking at her. As always, wondering what he could do. And as always, having no answer.

She chose that moment to turn around, and caught the pained expression on his face.

Her own face was expressionless, as she turned away from him and once again faced the bitter night and wind.

Cold.

A quiet thud told her that she was alone again in the dark.

Left alone.

By choice.

She felt something then, stabbing at her chest. Bringing on the sensation that the harsh wind failed to produce within her.

Pain.

Pain.

She closed her eyes, and let the jacket slipped off her shoulders.

She still couldn't feel the cold.

I'm sorry, Yoh.

-To be continued-

da*mouse ®
posted 4th November 2003
12.28 a.m.

Yes, I am depressed. Yes, I hate exams. Yes, there's no point in writing this.

Would be something of a three-part, aimed to be completed before my first freaking paper on freaking Friday. All three chapters would be freakingly short, though. Yes, I am a freak. A depressed one.

Urm, would it be too much to ask to review/comment/flame/whatever?

P.S. Yes, Yoh is very OOC, sorry about that. And would be even more so in time to come…sigh. If depression lessens, I'll probably delete this fic. It's depressing to write an OOC Yoh that is OOC in a negative way, if you get what I mean…