Discialmer: I only own my own characters and the plot, that's it.
Iris's POV
We were at my house, in the living room. Everybody was present, the entire team, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and even Botan, Keiko and Shizuru joined in.
We were in a circle, roughly, Botan sitting on the armchair and me right beside her, leaning on its arm. Kuwabara was sprawled carelessly on a bean bag on the floor looking sulky, no doubt because Yukina couldn't join us. Yusuke was taking up the entire left side of the corner couch and with Shizuru, Kuwabara's sister, sprawled on the right side in a position not much unlike her brother's, Keiko was forced to take the middle. Hiei, who initially sat on the floor, was now in the second arm chair because Yusuke made fun that his hair barely surpassed the height of the table that was in the middle. Kurama was sitting right by our arm chair in a high chair that he got from the kitchen, towering over us all. Jack on the other hand was sleeping peacefully on the rug in the hall, unaffected by the racket that we were making.
We were playing Truth or Dare, all my idea. We would spin the bottle and the person it pointed at had to choose between truth or dare. The person it landed previously on had to think of a question or dare for the new victim.
Right now we were anxiously watching the bottle spin. The previous victim was Botan and was dared by Shizuru to fly upside down for 5 minutes. When she was done, her face was red and she could barely stand up. We, on the other hand, could barely stop laughing at her dazed expression, though it wasn't like it was something we rarely saw on Botan's face.
Next it landed on Hiei.
Botan was grinning. "Truth or dare?"
Hiei didn't look away from the window as he said what we all knew he was going to say, "Dare."
Botan needed some help with a good dare for him and I was nice enough to give her some ideas. Finally, she decided on one, "I dare you to go to the nearest store and get a drink for all of us." After we all chipped in the money, she said, "You better hurry, because you only have one minute and I'm thirsty." She waved a hand to shoo him and I laughed. Hiei glared at her, but didn't say anything else.
As I watched him disappear, I thought about him agreeing to play with us in the first place. Well, technically, he didn't agree at first. He didn't want to be a part of our little game, but when I told him the part about dares and how that person has to do whatever it's told, he agreed almost cheerfully – for Hiei, that would be a "whatever" – to join.
He was back in less than a minute, naturally, our drinks in a bag in his hand. I opened my can of Pepsi and raised it up in the air toward Hiei and said, "Thanks!" before I took the first sip. He didn't show any sign that he'd heard me, except that his crimson red eyes met mine for the shortest moment.
We continued like that until the bottle stopped and it pointed at me. I didn't even debate on what I would choose.
"Truth or dare?" Yusuke challenged in more of a routine, but nobody chose truth yet.
I held my chin up and grinned. "Dare." Bring it on, I thought.
His mouth curled into an evil grin that I saw so many times, then he said, "Kiss Kurama."
The room fell silent. My mouth was slightly open, eves completely wide, I was staring at him dumbfounded. I didn't dare look at Kurama. "What?" I asked, thinking I hadn't heard him right.
Keiko's slap brought me back to reality. "Yusuke!" she scowled at him as he was rubbing the back of his head.
"What?" he said defensively, "I can ask whatever dare I want!"
I had to say, I was shocked, yes, but disappointed too. I was expecting more a dare along the lines of "drink a gallon of grape juice" (I hated grape juice) or "jump off a bridge."
Once again, Keiko woke me up. "They're just friends!" she said in a loud whisper. At that my eyes flickered to Kurama and I noticed him watching me with an expression I didn't recognize.
"I know that, what's the big deal? You and me are just friends and we kissed before," he said, matter-of-factly. Keiko blushed deeply, but I saw everybody else roll their eyes. Yusuke took her silence as if she didn't recall that moment. "Remember?" Yusuke prompted, completely unperturbed by the awkward silence. "You saved my life once by doing just that." He looked at her expectantly, waving his hand around. "I was unconscious, that's true, but still," he went on until Keiko interrupted his rambling.
"Yes, yes, I remember!" Keiko's face was, if that was even possible, even redder and looked exasperated.
"The point is, it's just a little kiss. If you don't do it," he looked away in mock defeat, but I could see the evil gleam in his eye, "I might think they're something going on."
I looked at him very closely to see if he actually knew something or he was bluffing. When his expression didn't give me the answers that I wanted, I turned to his thoughts. I normally shut them out – now it was effortless to me – because my friends deserved the privacy. Before I had time to scan his thoughts, Luna spoke. He doesn't know anything, he's just pretending like he does.
I sighed and turned everybody's thoughts back off. "No," I said
"Oh, c'mon!" he whined, leaving all pretenses behind to convince me to put up the show for him. "I saw you beat up a B class demon—"
"It was a low B and I didn't do it by myself—" I interrupted him, but he took no notice and continued where he left off, "Surely you can manage a kiss! Look!" Before I knew what he meant, he turned to Keiko, pulled her close gentler than I thought he can handle a girl and kissed her full on the mouth.
Her eyes were wide in disbelief, and before she had time to process what just happened, Yusuke broke apart and faced me. "See how easy it is?" he grinned, as if he just put up a demonstration for a magic trick.
Keiko looked like she was in an internal struggle between hugging him and slapping him again. She decided on the latter.
"Would you quit hitting me, woman?" Yusuke bellowed at her angrily. "What the hell do you think I am, your piñata?" He groaned loudly and rubbed the back of his head.
I sighed. I knew he wasn't going to let it go. Prolonging the awkwardness wouldn't make the game enjoyable either. I took hold of a boldness I didn't know I had, and I got to my feet and went to Kurama. I was fully aware that all paid of eyes in the room – except Hiei's – were on me, expectant for some action. Kurama watched me closely, his eyes growing wider with each step I took in his direction. Then I did, just like that. I gave him a swift kiss on the cheek.
Kurama had an odd expression on his face, unfocused, and dreamy as he absentmindedly touched his check where I kissed him. He snapped out it quickly, took his drink, said, "Excuse me," and went in the kitchen in three quick strides, not meeting my eyes or anybody else's.
I looked at Yusuke and saw that he was disappointed and angry – with himself mostly, because he forgot to mention where I should've planted the kiss. I cracked a grin.
Kurama came back not very long after, with a tall glass, his drink inside, and I heard ice cubes bumping into each other. After all awkwardness was gone, we could continue the game, and exactly my luck: it landed back on Yusuke.
"Sweet! Payback time, baby! This bottle really likes you," I told him, grinning to myself as I thought of a good dare.
"Maybe his stupidity acts as a magnetic force," commented Hiei and we all laughed, quietly agreeing with him.
