This is my first Shaman King story, so please be gentle. NOTE: The first line is similar to ' Smells Like Rain' by ' pinkpuruu'. I did not copy anything else but that line, and I think if I did I could not have done it as well as he/she did it either.

STORY

It was raining.

That sounded like nothing much, just the precipitation of clouds in the forms of drops of water formed by the condensation of water vapour in the atmosphere. Simple concept. But it was a big deal when you're approximately 50 meters away from your house, and the rain is already seeping through your undergarments. Lucky ones would be at home, probably with a cup of hot milk by their side, sipping it peacefully with a roof above their heads.

Consider Yoh an exception.

The young shaman was sighing loudly while dashing his way across the road. Finally he reached the shelter of his house, and he shut the gate behind him as he made his way to the doorstep. He was about to go inside when he noticed Horo Horo and Ren standing before the door, looks of absolute pity on their faces.

"What's wrong?" he asked his very disturbed-looking friends. "Is everything alright?"

"Maybe not for you," Horo Horo answered, folding his arms loosely against his chest. "You didn't go back home with Anna today."

"Yeah," he said, smiling as peacefully as he could with water dripping all the way from his hair to the very atoms of his toes. "I had something on."

"Who was that girl you were walking in the park with?" Ren asked, keeping the suspicion out of his tone.

"Ah, her," Yoh said gently, smiling. "I had a favour to ask from her, and she agreed to meet me. How did the two of you know? You don't even come to my school."

"Manta told us everything about it." Horo Horo said.

"Oh..." Yoh said. "Is that right..."

Silence came over the conversation, the two other shamans waiting for their half-witted friend to finally notice what they were getting at.

Yoh's face grew pale and green all of a sudden, like a crab out of water. "Don't tell me..." he whispered, almost struggling to speak. "Anna...she saw me...with her...in the park...with...?"

"The girl," Horo Horo confirmed, nodding his head. "I tell you, Manta said that he had never seen her that angry before. It was almost like she was jealous or something. She just kicked the rubbish bin in front of her and walked away. She's been up in her room ever since."

Ren nodded feverishly, face sullen. "I TOLD you that that girl was bad news."

"Be glad that that wasn't your skull she kicked," Horo Horo said somberly. "Or maybe she was imagining it to be."

Yoh shuddered at the thought. "Where is she now?"

The two raised their eyebrows at him.

"In her room." they said at the same time.

Silence once more.

"Should I go apologize to her?" he asked, grinning, almost helplessly.

"I think you should," Ren said. "Because you skipped training..."

"Didn't do the dishes..." Horo Horo chipped in.

"Didn't walk home with her..." Ren continued.

"Was seen walking in a park with a girl..."

"…And came home late."

Yoh smiled and nodded, opening the door, getting ready to walk inside when he stopped. He turned around, smiling sheepishly. "Where is----"

"In her room." the two said again, exasperated. Yoh nodded, and shut the door behind him.

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Yoh walked up the steps slowly and carefully, biting his lip as he shivered from the cold. Never mind that Anna would be mad that he was wetting the floor—he knew he would rather polish the floors all night than let her sleep with the assumption of him cheating on her. That had happened once in their relationship, and she had almost ended it between the two of them. And he was pretty sure she would not have changed her mind, if not for the many apologies of him and the girl accused; and all of his friends popped up to defend him.

His fist was curled up in a ball, ready to knock before he sighed, breathing in and out. He knew that Anna was not one of the best people to approach in a bad mood. Hell, she was bad enough when she was in a good mood. He nodded confidently to himself. "Good luck," he muttered, before rapping his fist on the door. There was silence for a short moment when he heard her soft whisper.

"Enter," she said, voice more silky than ever.

He opened the door silently, peeking inside as the sliding door was opened to the bare minimum, almost expecting her to be inside, facing him with a mallet, an angry look on her face. However, she was not facing him; there was no mallet in her hands, and she there was no angry look on her face.

Well, there could have been. But he couldn't tell. She was facing away from him, her hands behind her back as she looked out the window, in a strangely formal standing position. He opened the door wider now, opened it wide enough so he could enter and shut it behind him. He gulped. There was no strange aura of anger bursting around her. In fact it was the direct opposite. She was as calm as she always was, and if it wasn't for Horo Horo and Manta, he wouldn't have guessed that she was angry. Hurt. Jealous...?

"You didn't meet me after school today," she said quietly.

It was not an accusation. Nor was it a point.

It was just a sentence, requesting for an answer.

"Er, yeah," he said, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry."

At that moment lightning struck.

He would have laughed, if the situation was not so dire. Not to mention the fact that if he laughed, Anna would have clocked him with anything that she saw first. Which was not a good thing, because there was a really, really, REALLY sharp-edged table just behind her.

If Yoh wasn't as dim-witted as he always was, he would have noticed her fingers gripping the curtains at the sides of the window, almost shredding it to pieces with her fingernails. She shut her eyes, trying her best to remain calm, trying to keep her jealousy and anger and pain inside as much as possible. She licked her dry lips, still staring out the window.

"Who was that girl at the park?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Oh, her. She's Madeline."

She didn't answer, one of her hands pressing against the thin glass, rain splattering on it.

"Why were you with her?" she asked, the words spilling out.

It was too bad for him that he was as slow in the mind as a sloth in hibernation, or else he would have felt true hurt in her words.

"She was giving me something," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, extremely relieved that Anna had not lost her temper by now. "We talked about you for a point of time." he added, in a hope to improve her mood.

"Oh?" she said piercingly. " How flattering."

Even a person who had slower reflexes out of battle than a sloth would have noticed anger in her voice, and the huge stress in the last word.

"Anna," he whispered. "Are you still angry at me?"

"Damn right I am," she snapped.

He flinched.

Then he hung his head.

"I'm sorry, Anna."

"I'm sure you are." she said, whipping her head around, voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm. "Being with a beautiful girl in the park, eating ice cream, feeding birds at the side of the road...what were you talking to her about me for? Hopes of divorce?"

"Anna," he started, startled at the sight of her losing control.

"I mean, of course you would rather hang out with a cheerful bimbo that with me," she said scathingly, unknowingly pouring her heart out.

"Anna..." he said again.

"After all, she doesn't push you to work harder, training you to become the Shaman King..."

"A----"

"She doesn't hit you all the time," she cut in, stopping him in mid-sentence once more.

"Anna, I..." he said.

"And she doesn't bore the hell out of you, right?" she finished, almost like a lawyer in a courtroom.

"Anna! I do- - -"

"SHUT UP!" she screamed.

He stopped, the smile finally sliding off his face as he watched her, shocked.

She turned around, biting her lip to hold the tears which were welling up in her eyes.

They just stayed there for a moment before she sighed, a small sad smile on her face. "Now get out of my room." she whispered. "Dinner's ready."

He just stopped.

"I tell you," came Horo Horo's voice in his head. "Manta said that he had never seen her that angry before. It was almost like she was jealous or something."

"Anna..." he whispered. "Are you jealous?"

She whipped around, her tears falling from her eyes. "Yes," she snapped. "I am, are you happy?"

He swallowed.

There was a total length of a ten-minute silence after that; Yoh not daring to say another word, and Anna not wanting to.

"I never cook." She started an almost new conversation, wringing her arms in mid-air, choking as her tears won her over. "But I thought that I would give it a try, since today was such an...eventful occasion."

He blinked. Occasion?

"Is it your birthday?" he asked. She didn't answer.

"I thought it was possible for the two of us to spend the day together...being the fact that, well, it doesn't matter. To you, not me, for that matter."

"A-----"

"Don't say my name!" she cried, running past him and dashing down the stairs.

He bit his lip, turning around to chase her. "Anna!" he yelled.

She dashed past Horo Horo and Ren, who looked at her, speechless, as she ran into the rain, tears falling from her eyes. The two of them watched Yoh came up next, gritting his teeth. They looked stunned.

"And I thought I'd seen it all." Ren said softly.

Horo Horo nodded, and opened the door. "Let's get back inside." he said.

Ren looked at the pouring rain once more before nodding.

"Ah." he said. "I guess you're right."

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Yoh caught up with her soon enough, grasping her hand just as she was ready to take another step.

She promptly spun around and whipped her hand across his face, and her eyes widened in shock as his grip on her still didn't let go, except for the look of pain on his face. Just the opposite actually; his grip on her tightened, so hard that she winced in pain at that. But that famous slap of hers did not graze his cheeks this time.

" Let. Go. Of. Me," she hissed out.

He never thought that she would look so angry in his life. Sure, she lost her temper on him from time to time. But this was beyond whatever she had ever looked like, and for once her ice-cold eyes were burning with hate. He didn't know what made him do what he did next. Maybe it was just the huge amount of guilt swarming inside him, or the fact that the very place they were currently standing was where they had first met...possibly because at that moment tears falling from her face, her hair wet by the rain, and the look of innocence at pain in her eyes made the young shaman spout out his true feelings. "God, you're beautiful." he said aloud.

She opened her mouth to snap at him, but turned it into a gasp as she felt him yank her hand towards him, wrapping an arm around her waist, pressing his lips against hers, her hands pressed against his chest.

She should have been furious.

She could have slapped him.

Plus, her legs had a perfect aim right to where his crotch was.

But once again, she gave into her very weakness, him, and answered to his kiss, moaning out loud as his tongue swooped into her mouth. She whimpered as the kiss became rougher, her fingers clawing into his shirt. There were times where she wondered where all his passion came from. One minute he was apologizing to her pitifully, and the next second he was kissing her so forcefully and with such abandonment that it scared her.

"Anna," he moaned, his lips leaving hers, trailing small kisses on her neck. She cradled him in her arms, whimpering and moaning at every touch, kiss, bite that he made on her. The next second she was on the ground, in his arms, her back pressed against his chest, her body between his two legs.

"I'm killing you later after this." she muttered, red tinges on her cheeks.

He smiled softly, feeling into his pocket, and pulled out a small box.

He dropped it on her lap, and she turned around, confused.

"I spent all afternoon looking for it." he whispered, threading his fingers through her silky hair.

Her eyes widened. "Did that girl have anything to do with it?"

"Yeah..." he said sheepishly. "I asked her to help me a few weeks back, and we found it today. The most perfect one." He chuckled at her bewildered expression.

"I couldn't have forgotten, Anna." he said.

She opened it, her face impassive until she looked at what was inside.

"Yoh..." she whispered.

He smiled.

"Happy Anniversary, Anna." he whispered into her ear.

And she cried once more.

"You stupid liar!" she burst out, slapping him weakly on his cheek.

He smiled through his own tears.

It was no ordinary wedding anniversary present.

This time it finally meant something.

The two of them walked back to the house, finding Horo Horo and Ren at the front gate ready to invite them back in. Both were expecting to see bruises all over Yoh's face. But their eyes widened at the many strange things about the current situation, and they counted them off silently with their fingers. One, as said before, Yoh was not injured. In fact, he was grinning widely.

Secondly, Anna was biting her lip, a small blush on her cheeks, trying to keep a smile from appearing on her face.

Lastly, as they watched the two of them enter the house without them, the two shamans noticed the true difference between the Anna when she left, and the Anna when she returned.

On Anna's fourth finger was a wedding ring.

END STORY

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