Author's Note: I do not own Shaman King. That being said, this was one of the strangest fics I've ever worked out? Enjoy. :)
Pairings still to be done: Ryu x Jun, Ryu x Tamao, Ren x Lyserg, RenxChocolove, Ren x Pirika, Ren x Bason, RenxTamao, Jeanne x Tamao, LysergxTamao, KororoxManta, Anna x Manta, Anna x Chocolove, Anna x Amidamaru, Faust x Anna, Hao x Nichrome, HaoxSquirrel, HaoxLyserg, HaoxAmidamaru (YohxSpirit of Fire), HaoxManta, Yoh x Lyserg, Bason x Amidamaru, ChocolovexPirika, (Haox)YohxRen, YohxOC, HorohoroxManta, Horo x Macchi, YohxHoro, HoroxRen, HaoxAnna, YohxTamao, YohxAnna.
Beautiful
Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.
Tamao lies through dawn and dusk alike, noticing that the sun has dropped into slumber only because Yoh shines brighter then, the careful points of his face wry and light. She slips between their fingers, her soul like sand, dusty and soft so that she fades away into the shadows. (A granule of sand, she is a granule of sand, and in the scattered stars she is shattered and gone.)
They are older now (or has he always been so gawky clumsy beautiful?) and go walking in the grounds often. She follows them rarely, only when the sun beats heavy down on the trees so that they sweat shadows in which she can hide.
He goes walking past and never sees her. Anna catches her eyes and watches.
-
"Yoh is mine."
Startled (bird), she glances up. Anna's eyes are like stone, like diamond, something hard that she might break herself upon, over and over again until she is the dust of stars upon which Yoh might wish.
"I-I know." The acknowledgement is a murmur and the murmur is bile on her tongue as she thinks of his stricken, horrified looks and the soft, silk-struck grin that touches his features when he thinks that she (Anna) does not see.
The world holds balance. Mikihisa had told her once, on his rare stops in the place where his father-in-law dwells. When it does not, when a single whit is disturbed, the result is anarchy and darkness and chaos.
She thinks of what Anna has ever done to deserve that sweet, waiting love that would linger in the rain until he can see the path back to her. And Tamao thinks of chaos.
Anna walks away, seeing the spark of fire like Hao's in the soft eyes of a girl that she would have never hesitated in crushing. (There is hesitation now. She does not think, steps over it. She is fevered, it is morning, there are a million excuses and she dismisses them and goes off to shout at Yoh for not exercising hard enough.)
-
She begins to watch her as Yoh does, seeing the small, million graces in the every day movements; the crook of her arm, the tilt of her skull. Between dawn and dusk Anna never changes; a rigid, splintered statue that stands everywhere, watching and waiting. Her eyes are haunted by ghosts, but then that is not special; they are the shaman, the children that will heal the world, and the ghosts with the bones of the lost are part of what they must listen to.
(Tamao is best of all of them at this; she knows the feeling of shadows in the enveloping dark and the sweep that pushes them away and bids them stay. She knows how to bring them back from the raw, jagged edges, into safe things where they may linger and laugh.)
Yoh does not seem to see that brokenness; he stands on it, he leans against it, and he waits for her to push him before he is willing to go. She wonders at her strength, her patience, that unbreaking, unflinching tautness that never fails her. (Monotone and dead, crisp and clean and forgotten.)
Between dawn and dusk Anna smiles, scowls, threatens, sighs, without ever changing expression. And Tamao, who has never understood the other definition of the little death, wonders at how Anna is fading by inches as Yoh wears her away into weakness.
(Someday she will break, thinks Tamao, and then Yoh will crash and fade. Her heart throbs painfully at this, but it is the hard truth that if Yoh leaned on her, he would pass through; she is the fragile ghost that has always haunted him like a memory and a dream, and has forgotten how to solidify.)
She does not notice when Anna becomes her standard for beauty, only wonders (a little vaguely) why she has never seen before, the hard, sharp loveliness of eyes like splintered shadows and the thin mouth that can offer nothing like a smile for the girl who is nothing but a fan.
-
For Yoh's birthday, Tamao wants to draw him something beautiful. She begins with flowers, sweetpeas in the garden and lilies in the yard that fade into each other in one smooth swathe and wilt away.
She goes on with the jagged, glinting edge of a knife, the wispy trails of a ghost in the air, and the paintings of the moments that flow between twilight and evening.
One morning, she wakes sobbing from a dream of black eyes, shattered on the floor, and realizes:
Anna.
-
"Not like that," the itako said irritably. She had been trying to school Tamao into doing it properly for hours, it seemed, and there were things other than this to be done; things that were not being done as she waited. "Like this." And without further ado, she slid her fingers to grasp Tamao's own brittle-slender digits and draw the few, hard strokes that the picture had needed. The warmth of her body swept over that of the young fortuneteller's and overwhelmed it as she bent close to guide her fingers, her breasts heavy and soft as they brushed against the girl's back.
Tamao shivered, turned her head back, and accidentally met Anna's coming as the itako drew close to correct her.
There was silence, soft as the dawn, heavy as nightfall over the world. Anna's lips were silent as they drew Tamao's mouth, the shivering arc of her bones with the familiarity of instinct. She didn't understand why she was doing this, and perhaps that was as good a reason as any to do it.
"I-I'm sorry," Tamao began, timidly, starting into a blush, "I—Anna—"
She meets Tamao's eyes coming. And though she doesn't smile, there is something like calm in the distant storm of dusk as she touches her lips gently and nods.
-
"You got her perfectly." The shaman beamed, his smile prideful and pleased. "How do you know Anna so well?"
Tamao flushed – he would never guess. At least, her hopes were that he wouldn't.
(Between dawn and dusk, there is the sun.
They are older now, and go walking in the woods. Occasionally they pass by strangers; Tamao never sees them.)
(end)
Note: Wow, first update in a long time. –guilt- However, I recently updated You're Mine anyway; go read, as I am being productive, so you should take advantage of it while it lasts! (And go read You're Mine and reassure me that I'm not seeing phantom hits by telling me you were there. :P)
Also, I realize it was a little abrupt. Call it laziness catching up?
Review Replies:
The Summer Stars: My apologies; I'm picking up my own laptop in March, so I feel your pain. D: Sorry it's late; your Ryuquests (bwah, fear the puns) shall be forthcoming. And you are not crazy! You are the standard by which I judge my sanity. (I am, in case you are wondering, very, very sane.)
Nekoian: -laughs- I don't mind long reviews; I actually enjoy them, sadist that I am. And Tokageroh has NEVER had his own pairing. Admittedly he is green, but this is still very depressing! We must find him the perfect mate!
love-chibis: Hey, thanks. :) Just remember that when it comes to minor characters, Chocolove is so completely mine.
Emic192: Quite welcome. :)
Black Hikari: What, really? There's like this whole angst-niche in that pairing! It's practically an angst-valley! Why hasn't anyone excavated it yet? And I've tacked on Hao to the YohxRen pairing, although I'm not sure how I'll pull that off…
Inulover4eva: Poor Ren. –hugs him- -is stabbed through heart by hair-
Ren F and Spirit of Darkness: Really, what IS it with everyone and ghostly love? I'll give it a try, provided you give me your Japanese art. ;)
Sentai Squirrel: You ought to. Him and Roger Zelazny, who is singularly the most brilliant person ever to give his character a sword.
Deathlioness: Of course. That, and Horo stabbing him through because he doesn't want Ren dating his ickle sister. –snicker-
Bibliomaniac: You are a small, evil Anna-fan, aren't you? I've added all the pairings and will give them tries, although I suspect the Anna x Hao is just self-indulgence; that one should be easy enough.
Azalee: Mm… I don't run across HaoxHoros very often. But Hao's got it all figured out; there was no reason to keep with Horo once his use was up. Dark angst coming at you soon. Ryu is full of it. xD
Gladiel: Neither do I, but Yoh is really a strong personality around which his group revolves, though he doesn't show it. It'd be like the sun going away.
Blah: Suggestion taken. :)
Notnow: Thank you. –grin-
Faustine: Hehehe?