You people seriously have no idea how much I've fallen in LOVE with Yu Yu Hakusho. My fandom is larger than any fandom I've ever held before (yes, even Invader Zim and Star Fox). I'm excited to post a "Fifty Short Stories" challenge, and I really do hope you enjoy them. Most of these, as said earlier, will be Romance/Friendship. I want to keep them as light as possible, since this is my first time doing this, but maybe with a little more experience I'll pump it up a little. Maybe.

Critique? A comment on how I need to approve my grammar? A quick "please update"? A two novel long review on how I need to just pack my bags and leave Fanfiction? A review is a review, my good men. Review away.

Like most authors on fanfiction, I do not own the series I am writing a story on. Yu Yu Hakusho does not belong to me.

Short Story #1: Homecoming.

Genre: Friendship.

Pairing: Yusuke/Kuwabara.

Scenerio: Now in his early thirties, Yusuke has come back to his hometown, which has a name that I am unsure of, after he left over ten years ago. His relationship with Keiko faltered and the death of his mother didn't help his sanity level. So he left without telling anybody, and now has come back to face Kuwabara for the first time since leaving.

Song for inspiration: Hometown Glory by Adele.


It was a small park. Smaller than Yusuke remembered. But in the bitter wintertime, most everything in the retired spirit detective's hometown seemed smaller than usual. He sat contently on a bench, a bench that had been in the park since it's opening, that was directly under the solitary shadow of a leave-barren tree. The sun was gently resting in it's place among a pale blue sky, burning brightly, yet Yusuke was tightening his heavy coat around his shoulders as much as he could. It was freezing- especially in the early morning.

Yusuke Urameshi couldn't remember the last time he had been to this park. Nor did he care too. He had left his hometown a good many years ago to pursue career in the big city. Yusuke was determined to let the city harden his already solid soul, and he made a promise to himself not to rely on anyone. He had grown and matured so much in that time; but even he had to admit he was still a playful child at heart. And coming back here- this town Yusuke once thought wretched- brought back innumerable memories. Some of these memories brought smiles to his face. Some brought pain. Some brought both.

Yusuke tried to count the years that had passed since he had boarded the next plane to Tokyo and left his childhood behind. It had to be well over ten years; Yusuke was in his early thirties now. He had celebrated his birthday a few months back, with a few co-workers. It wasn't the cliché "blow out the candles and make a wish" crap he had done as a kid. The boys took him out for beers and a few lady friends of his made him dinner. Nothing overly festive. He couldn't complain, but none of those people could compare to the friends he had back here.

Yusuke checked his wrist watch with tired eyes. Maybe he isn't coming. He thought with a sigh. With that he tossed his head back gently and looked upward. Clouds were starting to move in, and when they finally blocked the sun, he faced forward again and looked around. He was alone in this cold, unfurnished park- the unforgiving winter taking all of its furnishings and plants away. Yusuke could easily relate the situation to his life- with the park being his life and he being, well, himself. The Winter is just the course of events that have taken place throughout his thirty years of time among earth, and it had taken everything away that Yusuke once thought beautiful.

Yusuke remembered it like it was yesterday- he came back when he was eighteen, received a kiss from the girl he loved on the warm beach, and then was greeted by the rest of his friends. And in four years time, everything had crashed- Keiko and he stopped seeing eachother. His mother had died. Bullshit ensued and eventually Yusuke got in trouble with the law. Sick and tired of seeing the same town that took away everything from him, he left. He left without saying goodbye to anyone.

Just as he was about to rise from his place among the bench, he noticed a tall figure coming up the pathway- a brawny man with his hands deep in his pockets and his collar up to block his pale face from the cold. His skin clashed with his bright orange hair, and when he reached a certain place on the path he looked frantically around, facing Yusuke's direction multiple times. Yusuke chuckled lightly. The old boy didn't even recognize him.

"Good to see you again, old friend." The detective said with a smile. As if he had heard his name being called to win the lottery, Yusuke watched with a smile as the man in front of him turned to face him with wide eyes- Kuwabara had seen him sitting there, but he didn't believe it to be Yusuke. When he saw the man who had called out to him, a massive grin appeared on his old friend's face- a face Yusuke could have sworn hadn't changed in ten years.

"Urameshi!!" Kuwabara yelled with his typical deep voice. He dashed over to Yusuke, who was now standing to greet his friend. Yusuke was shocked to find himself in a deep, tight, painful hug, in which he replied by returning the hug with a slap in the back that could have broken Kuwabara's spine- a masculine gesture that said "it's good to see you, man." Knowing Kuwabara not to be an affectionate person, Yusuke was, for lack of a better term, flattered.

Kuwabara released the detective to grab his shoulders and look him straight in the eyes. "Where have you been, Urameshi?!"

Yusuke sighed and sat back down, gesturing for his old friend to do the same. "Man, I…" Yusuke struggled for the right words. It was hard to face Kuwabara after he had left abruptly without warning. But if anyone knew that Yusuke had a reason to leave, it was Kuwabara. Sitting slowly, his oldest and dearest friend continued to meet Yusuke's gaze. But Yusuke averted his gaze and looked downward, ashamed.

"Everything fell apart…" he sighed. Kuwabara looked downward too, because he knew. He, too, would have left. Yusuke just closed his eyes and hoped he could find, inside himself, a way to tell Kuwabara how he felt and how leaving, at the time, was the best option. "My life was a wreck."

Kuwabara sat in silence. Not out of disrespect, in any case. He just simply wanted Yusuke to continue.

Yusuke watched his own feet shuffle lightly."Mom… she…had it coming. She was a partying drunk with little self-respect." Kuwabara inhaled sharply to protest, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Yusuke was telling the truth.

"But Keiko…" still facing downward, the men both sighed simultaneously at the mention of the girl's name. And afterwards, Kuwabara decided to interrupt the detective.

"You loved her, Urameshi."

Yusuke buried his face in his hands and groaned. "She meant the world to you, and losing her was one of your the biggest fears." Yusuke could sense an accusing tone in his words, and that angered him. Kuwabara leaned in. "Right?"

Yusuke shot up and glared at his friend. "Of course! I was ruined when she left me!"

"I know. As I said-"

"I guess you share the opinion f everyone else in this town- Keiko can do no wrong. it's all that Urameshi kid's fault."

"…"

"Kuwabara, SHE left ME! There was nothing I could do to stop her! I did nothing wrong!"

"And then, to fix your problems, you left?"

At this, Yusuke was silenced.

"She still loved you, ya know." He looked upward, to find the answers to his friend's misery in the cloudy white sky. "She just felt trapped, as if every little thing she did had to make you happy. She was terrified of you getting hurt while you were spirit detective, but she tolerated it. And then she lived in even more fear after you came back. She was afraid this solemn life would bore you. And that you would leave her."

"That's absolutely ridiculous."

"Keiko's ridiculous," Kuwabara chuckled. "But she loved you."

"What a crazy bi-" Yusuke stopped himself and bit his bottom lip out of frustration.

"Does she know you came back?"

"She probably has yet to realize that I even left."

"Don't be an idiot, Urameshi."

Kuwabara checked his watch, and then slapped Yusuke on the back. "Im sick of sitting here. Let's take a walk."

"Fine, but I don't wanna talk about Keiko anymore."

"If you say so."

The two men then went to walk about the park, Yusuke at Kuwabara's left. About two minutes into their walk, the orange-headed brute spoke.

"So, where exactly did you go?"

Thankfully, a question Yusuke couldn't possibly give the wrong answer to. "The city. Tokyo." His words were quick and blunt. "I've got a pretty swell job down there… got some good friends."

Kuwabara nodded. "Mmhm." He took a left when they reached the exit to the park, and Yusuke mindlessly followed.

"It's like the city that never sleeps- and there are so many people." He continued, not knowing where he and his old friend were going, and not really caring either. "Takes a lot of giving used to, especially when I had been here."

Kuwabara chuckled lightly. "How did you celebrate your birthday?"

Yusuke stopped in his tracks to stare puzzled at Kuwabara. The auburn-haired man just returned his gaze with a confused look of his own. "Not to change the subject or anything…"

"Kuwabara… you remembered?" was all Yusuke could manage to say. His old friend just dropped his confused look and raised an eyebrow.

"Puh!" he spat, looking forward again and resuming his walk. Yusuke followed, but still couldn't wrap his mind around Kuwabara remembering his birthday after all these years. "As if I'd forget! Have you forgotten that I was your best mate back then, Urameshi?"

Yusuke looked rather sheepish then, because in all honesty, he couldn't remember Kuwabara's birthday.

They walked and talked for about half an hour. Their conversation included how Kurama had gone into a career of medicine, and how Hiei visited Yukina from time to time. Yusuke was just finishing up his description of how chaotic his office back at Tokyo was when Kuwabara turned on to a neighborhood street. The houses were about medium-sized, one to two stories, and ranged from white to beige to greenish beige. Yusuke was silent, looking around to see if he could recognize the street. He couldn't.

Kuwabara stopped in front of the fifth house on the left that they had passed, and it had decent amounts of greenery and a big white front door. It was the oldest house he had seen on the street, which wasn't very old, but it had a certain homely charm to it. Yusuke was a bit worried that this house had some significance that Kuwabara would never let him live down if he forgot, so he searched his brain for possibilities. It wasn't Kuwabara's old home, that was for sure. And it certainly wasn't the apartment Yusuke's mother had gotten after the house burnt down.

Noticing his friend's confusion, Kuwabara laughed. "Nice, eh?"

Yusuke responded with a nod. "Don't kill me, man, but I don't remember this place. At all."

Right then, Yusuke looked over to see Kuwabara's eyes sparkle. Yusuke had never seen Kuwabara look upon something with such modest, quiet pride. "It's our house."

Yusuke, shocked, turned his full body to look at his past comrade. "Our?"

Kuwabara nodded, and looked downward with a smile. Yusuke continued to stare, with a heavy heart, at his old friend. "Our. As in me, and my family." Yusuke, frozen, did not move.

"Me and Shizuru bought this place a while after you left. Soon Yukina moved in to make it feel really at home." Kuwabara's eyes caught light as he looked forward again at his home, and moved forward to it and used his head to notify Yusuke that he was welcome to join him in his walk.

"This… is where I find peace. After a hard day at work, or simply a bad day in general, I come home to this place- where I can find my sister, and the love of my life. Two things that keep me going every day." Kuwabara just sighed softly and moved to stand in front of the front door. "You never had a place like this… a sanctuary, a home… did you, Urameshi?"

Yusuke, incapable of words, stuttered while his mouth trembled. Not only was Kuwabara actually making a speech that was soft toned and gentle, but he was also telling the truth. The retired Spirit Detective eventually gave up on a reply, and, not looking his old partner in the eye, shook his head sadly.

Yusuke Urameshi and Kazuma Kuwabara stood in the space in front of the front door in silence. Yusuke had come home to see old friends again and maybe to see his hometown for one last time before moving back to the city forever. He had not come here to smile at Kuwabara's insanely happy and perfect life, and to pat him on the back and tell him that he had desperately wished to be like him. He had not come here to be informed that it wasn't this town that made Yusuke leave- It was Yusuke himself. Yusuke couldn't find happiness because he was to lazy to look for it. And, though he wished he didn't, he realized that now.

"Urameshi," Kuwabara said gently, putting a firm hand on his friend's shoulder. "You know… I had planned some long speech for you, to, you know, convince you…"

Yusuke looked up to meet Kuwabara's gaze.

"…But I forgot it. So I might as well just ask."

Kuwabara cleared his throat and his eyes turned serious.

"I want to know… if…" he sighed, the seriousness slipping as he struggled to fight tears. "…you wanted this to be your home, too, Urameshi."

Yusuke did not reply to Kuwabara's question for a long time. Instead, he focused on an empty nest rocking back and forth in a tree limb, the wind threatening to throw it to the ground. He wondered if the family it once held would miss it when and if they returned. He sighed with bliss as he realized that the birds that the nest once housed would return fully grown and matured, and would build their own nest for their own family. Though he wasn't about to degrade himself and decide the baby bird was he and the mother was Kuwabara in his metaphor, he did decide that, for the time being, that this was a nest that another bird was inviting him into, and that he would be a fool to decline.

Yusuke then focused back on Kuwabara, whose solemn look of question was replaced with an offended one. "By GOD, man, answer me!"

Yusuke laughed loudly and genuinely for the first time in a while. Without word, he threw himself at his old partner, forcing him into a hug.

Kuwabara hesitated, and then awkwardly hugged back. "…Is that a yes?"


The End. :D

Please Review… and tell me if this was a bad place to stop. I appreciate honesty more than anyone on this site.

And if it was too long, I severely apologize. I don't plan on all of them to be this length. :/

For now, this is this. After a review or two, or five, if I need to rewrite I will. Thank yous.