Friday, August 24, 2007

LOVE THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In Patch village, there is nothing special about the temperature. It’s the same as its surrounding area and cities- cold in the winter, warm in the summer. So, at this time of the year, in the lead-up to summer, normally it would be fairly pleasantly warm.

That is, if you weren’t as unfortunate as Team Ren, who had to change hotels for the sake of being closer to their next battle spot. If you were on Team Ren, you’d be on one of the most unfortunate sides of Patch village, where the landscape consisted of sand dunes and the temperatures matched the desert’s- blazing hot like an oven in the daytime, and freezing cold like Hokkaido at night.

At least, Usui Horokeu figured it just about matched Hokkaido’s temperatures. He lay in his room (one large room, separated into three by two sliding paper doors; Chocolove on one side and Ren on the other) at the hotel, clad in only his boxers and wishing he had brought thicker pyjamas. It was nearly midnight and he’d been unable to sleep due to the cold- he could only just cope with it because he was used to the Ainu village’s temperatures. Although, he was warmer than most of the occupants of the hotel… well, he would have been warmer than most, if he wasn’t the only person who lacked a blanket.

He swore under his breath, staring at the ceiling and willing sleep to come. Choco had complained that he had nearly frozen to death the night before, and he had taken it upon himself to confiscate Horohoro’s blanket (and most likely some other people’s blankets, too). The blue-haired shaman sent a half-hearted glare in the direction of Choco’s room, not really meaning it since the Ainu wasn’t having nearly as much trouble with the cold as Choco would have been. At least he wasn’t being kept awake by Choco’s teeth chattering and his random outbursts of “It’s freezing!” like last night (and the random bad joke he would mutter about his situation).

Instead, it was relatively quiet. Horohoro enjoyed the silence- if it wasn’t for the smell of desert sand in the air, he could have easily pretended he was back home in Hokkaido. He wasn’t necessarily home sick, because he was having fun with his friends, but the thought of home still brought a smile to his face. Getting lost in his thoughts of home, he was startled when he realised that he could hear something coming from the room on his left. It was quiet, so he didn’t really notice it at first, but as the night grew increasingly silent he was eventually able to pinpoint exactly what it was… it was Ren’s shivering.

At first, he tried waiting it out, hoping Ren would eventually go to sleep, but Horohoro’s patience was thin and he barely lasted two minutes before he got up from his futon and crawled over to the door, sliding it open. His gaze fell upon Tao Ren’s bare, tattooed back, and quickly he found that the boy had curled himself up into a ball, and was rubbing his arms to try to warm himself.

It was stupid question, but it left the Ainu’s mouth abruptly before he could even think about it, “Where’s your blanket? Aren’t you cold?”

The Chinese boy’s hands froze, and delivered a curt reply, accented with a shiver, “Choco took it, and Taos do not get cold. I can control my body temperature perfectly well, thank you.”

“Right,” Horohoro crawled forward, reaching out and placing his hand on Ren’s shoulder, and he nearly threw his hand back as if it was burnt (but it was quite the opposite), “Jesus Ren! You’re freezing!”

Ren turned his head slightly to give the other a small glare over his shoulder, “And why are you so warm?”

He shrugged, “I guess it’s because I was brought up in Hokkaido amongst the snow, I’m used to cold temperatures like this. My body’s probably just adapted to keeping me warm, since most of our houses didn’t do much to keep the cold out.” The explanation came to Horohoro naturally- he didn’t really need to think about it, although normally he would have found something like that confusing to understand.

Whether or not Ren chose to believe him was unclear, as he just answered with a “Hm,” before continuing, “Give me your blanket then. Our team will be useless if I fall ill from the cold.”

The ice-shaman grinned sheepishly, “That’s the thing… I don’t have a blanket either. Choco took mine too.”

”Then go find one, you half-wit.”

The older boy stood reluctantly- his pride didn’t want to let him follow Ren’s orders, but he saw sense in Ren’s reasoning. Ren was by far (although he hated to admit it) the strongest on their team, and if he caught a cold and their Shaman Fight was announced tomorrow, he and Choco would be in some deep shit (that is, if their opponents were decent fighters).

He turned with an ‘okay’, forgetting to retort to the previous insult, and left the room, padding down the hallway quietly.
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That cold evening, Horohoro wasn’t the only one sent to fetch blankets. Team Asakura (and company) were also staying at the same hotel (as they believed it was better to stick together, especially with Hao about), and Anna had sent Yoh out to get blankets for her. The two shamans met outside the hall closet, Yoh arriving just moments before the other- and consequently ending up with the last blanket clutched in his arms.

Horo’s mouth gaped open as he pointed at the blanket in Yoh’s arms, “T-that! I need that!”

Yoh gave him a sad smile, but made no motion to hand the blanket over to the blue-haired boy, “Sorry man, I’d love to give it to you but Anna will kill me if I come back empty-handed...”

“For Anna?” a pained expression came to the ice-shaman’s face, realising that they were in the same boat, and that the other boy wasn’t exaggerating at all about the killing part, “But what will I do? Neither Ren or I have a blanket and he’s freezing…”

Yoh blinked, slightly surprised upon realising Horohoro’s situation, but a lazy grin quickly came to his face. He stepped towards Horo (who briefly for a second thought that Yoh had changed his mind about the blanket), before reaching out and pulling him down by the shoulder so they were level. The taller boy blinked, about to open his mouth to voice his confusion when Yoh whispered to him.

“You’ll just have to keep him warm yourself then. Trust me on this.”

The two pulled away from eachother, Horokeu’s face flushed and Yoh’s honest smile in place, before the brunette turned and headed back into the direction of his room. He was already half-way down the hall before Horohoro really grasped what was happening, before he cried out ,”Eh! What does that mean!”

But he didn’t need a reply to know exactly what Yoh meant.
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Slipping back into the room, Horohoro was quick with his apology, his explanation being that there were no blankets, and he made sure not to mention Yoh. Ren’s retort was typical of him, being that he wasn’t cold anyway. The bluenette rolled his eyes at his friend’s stubbornness, as he knew it was a lie. They let an awkward silence drift between them; Ren was unnerved by the other’s silence, and Horohoro was willing up his courage for what he was about to do next.

Dropping to his knees, he neared Ren, whose back was still facing him. His eyes drifted over the tattoo on the boy’s back, and he bit his lip. He had no idea how the younger boy was going to react, but he knew if things went wrong he could just laugh it off and things would be fine within a few days. But his courage was mainly made up of Yoh’s faith in him, because when Yoh says it’ll be alright you knew you could trust him. So, swallowing hard, he laid down next to Ren, and draped an arm across the boy’s waist.

“W-what do you think--” Ren stammered, hands immediately moving to push the offending arm away from his waist.

Horohoro cut in, “Keeping you warm, after all, our team is useless without you.”

There was a long silence. Ren’s hands stopped dead in their tracks, shoulders stiff and hands hovering centimetres away from the Ainu’s. Despite his obvious discomfort, Ren had accepted Horohoro’s actions in the way that he didn’t start screaming at him and keeping him at kwan-do length, which was a good sign. But Ren’s rigid figure annoyed the older boy, and he eventually spoke up.

“Relax, what are you so unnerved about?”

He got a curt reply that he could easily imagine with narrowed eyes and a sneer, “I don’t usually like being touched by you.”

It was Horohoro’s turn for his eyes to narrow, but he covered it up sarcastically, “Oh, thanks, I love you too.”

“Shut up.”

“Like that’ll happen.”

Ren rolled over to face him, golden eyes narrowed as expected but the sneer replaced with a victorious smirk as Horohoro went silent and stiff. He found at first that it wasn’t so easy to tease Ren when face-to-face like this, and being so close brought a small tinge of pink to the ice-shaman’s cheeks.

“Why so tense, Horohoro?” he was mocking him, that smirk still in place, “I think you’re the one who should relax, Ho-ro-ho-ro,” the syllables of his name were dragged out painstakingly and the blush on the other boy’s face flooded. Ren was obviously having fun with the revenge for the previous teasing, but both boys knew that they couldn’t erupt into a fight, as it’d awake the whole household. That’d mean that they’d have to explain their current situation to the others, which undoubtedly would be embarrassing.

Both boys went silent, contemplating this. Horohoro started to relax, both boys now calm and unconsciously enjoying each other’s closeness. Ren shivered, not from the cold, but Horohoro misinterpreted this and pulled him closer so they were touching again.

About to shiver again from their intimacy, the purpled-haired boy quickly covered it up with a threat, “Keep in mind you’re dead if anyone finds out about this.”

“Oh, about how the mighty Tao Ren got a chill and forced me to keep him warm?”

‘Forced’ struck a pain in Ren’s stomach, and he suddenly felt that it was hard to breathe. He was hoping that Horohoro had been doing this willingly, not simply because he had pretty much been ordered to. Covering up his sadness with anger, he snapped back quickly.

“More like how the stupid Ainu molested me in the middle of the night!”

”Oh, right, I bet you’ve never even been touched remotely in that way your whole life.”

“Shut up--”

The smirking Ainu continued, cutting the younger boy off with a playful tone, “If you want, I could change that”

Ren’s face was flushed with embarrassment, his voice too shaky to be interpreted as anger, “Shut up or I’ll make you.”

Horohoro was unwavered by Ren’s threat, his voice still playful as he mimicked Ren’s previous drag on the syllables of his name, “I’d like to see you try that, Ren.”

“Fine, I will,” Ren’s voice was firm and serious, but Horohoro failed to notice as he continued his teasing.

“Yeah, sur--” he was cut off when Ren linked his arms around the older
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