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1.
It started, as always, with an argument.
“Fuck you, you pointy bastard!”
“Get your fucking hands off me, idiot.”
“Not until you give it back!”
“It’s my umeboshi. I had it first. Now get out of my way.”
The raised voices echoed down the corridor and Manta looked up from his omelette just in time to see Anna rolling her eyes in disgust as Horohoro and Ren crashed into the room, still furiously bickering over the umeboshi.
“You are literally impossible.” Horo snarled, shoving furiously at Ren’s shoulder as he pulled back and threw his hands up in defeat, stomping angrily around to the other side of the long table and slumping down beside a bemused Chocolove.
“You’re the only who attacked me over breakfast. I don’t even know how I tolerated your presence for the entire shaman tournament!” Ren retorted, but the smirk on his face betrayed a quiet smugness in his breakfast success, whilst Horo continued to bristle with fury.
The two shaman continued to growl angrily and shout threats at each other over the table until a particularly sharp look from Anna made the two finally simmer down, a hush falling over the now much calmer room. Satisfied that her morning peace had been restored, Anna nodded approvingly as Tamao served tea to everyone and Ryu appeared periodically to distribute more omelettes and rice to grateful smiles and murmurs of appreciation. It was, Manta mused, the smooth and precise routine of a normal morning in the Funbari onsen.
But he wasn’t sure whatever was happening further down the table was normal at all. Disguised behind a steaming mug of tea, half lidded golden eyes were gazing deeply and intensely across the table, icy blue matching the passionate stare and refusing to break eye contact in between mouthfuls of omelette.
“What is up with those two?” Manta mused to himself, eyes narrowing in confusion. “First they hate each other, now they’re staring at each other like they want to…”
His eyes widened and he gasped softly as a potential realisation dawned on him. Surely it couldn’t be that?
“You okay Manta?” Yoh enquired, head cocked to the side in confusion.
“Y…yeah,” he squeaked, “absolutely fine…”
2.
“Hurry up,” Anna snapped, “we’ll never get a good spot at this rate.” The itako stood, tapping her foot with unbridled irritation at the hustle and bustle around her.
“Miss Anna?” Tamao timidly ventured, slinking into the narrow hallway, “the picnic basket is ready.”
“Good,” Anna’s eyes narrowed as she spotted who she was looking for.
“Manta!” Anna bellowed. “Get these idiots out of this onsen! Now!”
He sighed as he scurried back through the corridors, spotting Yoh and Ryu relaxing still over tea in the dining room, laughing with their ghosts.
“Guys we have got to go or Anna will kill us!” he hissed into the room, before carrying on to round up the various inn inhabitants like the well trained sheep dog he was for the wrath of Anna. He found Chocolove performing terrible jokes to Lyserg and Mic in the living room and herded them round to the front entrance to leave. However, by the time he had gotten them there Yoh had disappeared and Manta, driven to despair by the continued tapping fury of Anna’s foot, ran the length of the onsen once more, finally finding Yoh in the bathroom and flying off once more in search of the last two missing shamans.
Now he thought about it, Manta hadn’t really seen much of either Horo or Ren that morning. They had been awfully quiet since their breakfast argument a couple of days ago, and seemed to be avoiding each other, which was very odd, even for them.
Huffing and puffing, Manta slid back the back doors that led onto the back engawa and poked his head out, immediately spotted the two men he was looking for. They were stood back along the length of the wooden platform, away from prying eyes, deep in intense conversation. As he stepped out to join them, Manta noticed the way they were stood unusually close together, Horo’s arm slung over Ren’s shoulder and the other’s arm wrapped around Horo’s waist, almost…
“Intimate,” Manta thought, “this looks very…intimate.”
Shaking the thought away, he thundered into the cozy atmosphere. “You guys! Come on we have to go or Anna is gonna choke you with a cherry blossom!”
At once the two shaman sprung apart under Manta’s curious scrutiny, Horo’s eyes widening in shock and coughing in surprise as a guilty expression crept across his face. Ren managed to keep a straight face under Manta’s curious gawp, but he couldn’t hide the pink that coloured his cheeks.
“Was it intimate?” Manta mused as reflected on their odd behaviour later, eyes shimmering as he looked up at the gorgeous blossoms that had begun to spread across the spring sky. “That sure was weird. Maybe they were just making up after their argument?”
3.
“Are there any dumplings left?” Horo asked, brow narrowed in concentration as he focused on balancing his already precariously overloaded plate.
“I’m so sorry Horo-sama,” Tamao bowed deeply in apology, “I think Ren-sama just took the last 3 dumplings.”
“Ren can I have a dumpling?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Pleeeeease?”
‘Shut up. I said no. You have enough food on your plate as it is.” Ren snapped back, scowling at the other, although Manta, who liked to observe them with a closer scrutiny these days as he tried to figure out what on earth their deal was, swore there was a glimmer of mischief in those golden eyes, not anger.
Horo pouted, but he obeyed, sitting back down and proceeding to dig into the plate in front of him, ogling the precious dumplings that were sat tantalisingly opposite him on the other side of the table.
“Stop eyeballing my food, idiot. You’re not having a dumpling.” Ren scoffed, chopsticks clinking delicately as he slowly ate, a refined and restrained contrast to Horo’s insufferable and wild table manners opposite him. Horo remained silent, mischievous eyes flitting between the dumplings and Ren’s death glare as he gobbled his food down.
A sudden crashing sound shattered the silence, reverberating from the direction of the kitchen and causing everyone gathered around the table to jump. It was echoed moments later by a crow of victory as Horo, having seized the opportunity of distraction from Tamao dropping a cup, held up a dumpling deftly stolen from Ren’s plate firmly between his chopsticks.
“You thieving bastard!” Ren shouted, hair spiking extra pointy as Horo cackled with laughter, dancing around the table in delight and proceeding to launch into a big show of eating his stolen contraband, causing Chocolove and Ryu to howl in unison at the spectacle.
Ren simply huffed before returning to his meal, but eagled eyed Manta saw past the daggers he resumed shooting at Horo and saw the tiny little smirk that tugged at his lips, barely visible to anyone aside from the person whom it was intended for.
“Did he intend for Horo to have the dumpling all along?” he wondered. “Stupid stubborn Ren, why couldn’t he just give it to him…”
Manta was still pondering this a short while later when Chocolove wandered past Ren, fingers shot out towards the solitary dumpling still waiting to be eaten.
“I see you’re in the sharing mood with your wonderful team mates this evening Ren?” he cackled.
Chocolove howled once more as he was violently punched into the wall in response.
4.
The snow crunched pleasingly under Manta’s feet as they ambled through the crowds towards the shrine at the top of the hill. The atmosphere was joyous that evening, thronged with greetings and well wishes, tantalising smells wafting from the food stalls and the low hum of both human and spirits alike gathered to ring in the new year.
“What are you wishing for this year, Manta?” Yoh smiled down at his friend having paused briefly to let him catch up.
“Oh I don’t know, the usual. Maybe I’ll magically grow another cm?”
“Ah come on! There must be something you’d like to have!” Yoh laughed.
“Well,” Manta began, “there was one thing…” trailing off as he spotted Horohoro, Ren and Chocolove coming over the brow of the hill behind them.
The three shaman were huddled up together as they walked and as bundled up as the rest of them, although Horo’s legs were still bare as he insisted it was not cold at all compared to Hokkaido’s harsh winters. Mic slunk around Chocolove’s ankles as if his fur could actually keep his human companion warm, who was grumbling under his breath about something and looking thoroughly unhappy.
“How much further do we have to go?” Chocolove whined, his voice carrying to where Yoh and Manta still stood ahead of them.
“Its not that far. Now shut up unless you want me to knock you unconscious and drag you up there.” Ren snapped back.
“Hey guys! Stop bickering, look the shrine is right there!” Yoh’s face burst into a wide grin, as the trio caught up to them, pointing to the flickering lanterns that lit the way ahead.
“All right!” Chocolove beamed with renewed enthusiasm, feet sliding on the compacted snow with residual smacks as he dashed off into the distance, Yoh laughing and running off after him.
Remembering his wish, for a brief moment Manta looked back to the two shaman behind him.
They had paused, gazing softly at one another in an amused way that indicated they thought they were alone, if only for a brief moment. A calm silence hung in the air for a few seconds until Ren stepped forward and softly picked an invisible piece of fluff from Horo’s jacket, releasing the fluff into the cold air and smoothing down the fabric as he did so. A gentle smile tugged at his lips and then he reached up, cupped Horo’s jaw and even more softly, kissed him.
Manta gasped as it all finally made sense, and with a deep blush he ran off in the direction of Yoh and Chocolove, laughing all the way as he realised the spirits had granted him his new year’s wish after all.