(AN: All right, here it is: my first foray into the mostly dead world of Yu Yu Hakusho fanfiction! I think this is the first time I've written fic before experiencing the entirety of canon, so apologies if I screw anything up, but I'll try to just avoid things I'm not knowledgeable about. Also, just as a note: the video game in the fic is real! XD Thank you, Wikipedia.)

Sleeptalking, part 1

Kuwabara Kazuma started from his sleep suddenly, sitting bolt upright, hands clutching at the bedspread and sheets on either side of him. He was breaking out in a cold sweat; he was panting, just a little. He only had to think for a split second before making his decision.

He leapt out of bed, tugged on his shoes, and started running.

Kuwabara knew exactly where he was going. He just didn't know if he was going to make it there in time. Frantically, he wondered if anyone were awake to see him, barreling down the street in his thin white tank top and striped boxers. Even if it was three in the morning, there might still be someone out. But he just hadn't had the time to put on regular clothes. This was a matter of life and death.

Huffing and puffing but still not really tiring, Kuwabara thanked the powers that be - especially the ones that he knew personally - that his "after-school job" required him to be in such peak physical condition. If he'd been hindered by having to run any slower -

Shit, he almost missed the turn! Backpedaling as quickly as he could, Kuwabara righted himself and darted down the appropriate street. He was almost there, he was almost there...

At his destination, he all but dove for the mailbox, where he knew the house's less responsible occupant usually kept a spare key for when she wandered home too drunk to remember where hers was. He felt a little guilty bursting in unannounced - but no, now was not the time for guilt, because -- !!

Finally wrenching the door open with his fumbling, frantic hands, Kuwabara sped inside and up the stairs to the room in the house where he'd spent the most time. He had the door halfway open and the name halfway out of his mouth when it hit him.

Urameshi's spirit energy was still intact.

And the boy in question currently had his index finger leveled at the door, prepared to shoot whatever intruder was breaking into his house at three in the morning.

As Urameshi's eyes adjusted to the lack of light in his closed-in bedroom, he lowered his finger and pulled a face that was half irritated resignation and half angry confusion. "Kuwabara?"

"...Urameshi," he stammered, bewildered but sheepish nonetheless.

"What the hell are you doing here, Kuwabara? It's three o'clock in the friggin' morning! I thought we were getting hit with a B&E!"

Kuwabara was still having trouble getting his thoughts in order. "But...you're not dead!"

"What gave you that kind of stupid idea? Of course I'm not dead!"

"But - damnit, Urameshi, if you're not dead, then why would I have had that stupid dream where I had to - "

Oh.

Oh.

And as quickly as he had arrived, Kuwabara Kazuma turned tail and fled from the Urameshi household, sweating a little more, panting a little harder.

He did bother to lock the door behind him, though.

He traced his footsteps all the way back through the streets of town; but it was less like he was running to something, and more like he was running from something. And in a sense, he almost was - but it wasn't something he could ever escape. Not now.

When he got back to his house his sister was awake, fretting about his absence, but he assured her it was nothing, and that he was going back to bed. This was mostly true. He was going back to bed, but he wasn't going to get back to sleep, not after this. And it most certainly was not "nothing."

It is never "nothing" to have a dream about kissing your best friend.

-xxx-

A week later, neither of them had said anything about it.

Kuwabara knew that Urameshi knew. He'd said enough to give it away - that stupid dream had been enough to give it away. Heck, Urameshi probably remembered the dream better from last time than he did. Last time, of course, it had seemed completely ridiculous. Not to mention disgusting. Who in their right mind would ever kiss Urameshi? You'd have to be crazy. And the only people Kuwabara knew that ever had done it - Urameshi's well-meaning but totally alcoholic mom, and Urameshi's cute but super-nag girlfriend - well, they were both definitely crazy.

Kuwabara was definitely not crazy.

But he kind of wanted to kiss Urameshi.

They had just gotten out of school - Urameshi had actually come to school today, something about not wanting to fail this year because he didn't want to be a year behind Keiko and himself - and they were walking, not home, but to the arcade downtown, where they were going to meet Ookubo and Miyamoto. Kuwabara was stubbornly Not Thinking about the events that had transpired a week ago at three in the morning. He was trying instead to focus on their conversation. While at the same time not even looking at Urameshi.

"I'm telling you, your so-called 'high score' is crap and I'm gonna blow it out of the water," he insisted.

"Yeah right, Urameshi," said Kuwabara, kicking at a rock in the street. "You know I just got this game for my Super Famicom, right? I've been practicing with like, every ally character. There's no way you can beat me."

Urameshi's face twisted into a devious smirk. "Did you get all the way to the end and take the magic orb?"

"No way, dude! If you take the orb, you get the bad ending! You have to be a good guy and destroy the orb!"

"Yeah, but the video sequence is so not as cool."

"Whatever, Urameshi. I can't believe you would give up doing the right thing just to look at some cool graphics." Kuwabara crossed his arms with a hmph.

"Relax, man, it's just a video game."

He sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

They kept walking, falling silent again. Kuwabara was still stewing about the game, but he consoled himself with the fact that there was no way Urameshi could beat his high score if he picked the bad ending. It just wasn't physically possible. He couldn't wait to -

Behind them, and slightly to the right, something was there. Something Kuwabara had missed before when he'd been refusing to pay attention to...certain things. Certain things that suddenly re-entered his mind now that he wasn't distracted thinking about Magic Sword. Damnit!

But that wasn't important now. The important thing was that the presence, behind them and slightly to the right, was still there twenty paces later.

"Hey, Urameshi," he murmured, trying to be subtle. "I, uh, think we're being followed."

Urameshi said nothing for a moment, concentrating on trying to feel out the presence with his weaker awareness. "Oh yeah. How about that."

Kuwabara focused a little harder, too, thankful for another distraction. "Feels like a bunch of 'em. But nothin' too serious. We could probably take 'em."

"You think?" chuckled Urameshi. "I dunno, there might be some big scary demons lurking around in the shopping district."

Kuwabara grinned to match Urameshi's. "Maybe we should find out."

They slowed in their walking, and sure enough, the presence behind them - five guys, Kuwabara determined, now that they were closer - started gaining on them. As the shadows closed the gap between them, Kuwabara and Urameshi stopped walking altogether.

"On three," hissed Urameshi.

"Right," said Kuwabara.

"One...two..."

"Three!" they cried at once, and spun around to face the attackers. It was an unfortunate gang of street punks, probably from the high school or just barely out of it if Kuwabara was judging the age gap correctly. He almost laughed. It was a little embarrassing that these guys were planning to beat up on some junior high schoolers in the first place. It was going to be even more embarrassing when those junior high schoolers kicked their asses.

Pinpointing the ringleader was easy: he was exactly in the middle of the five in terms of height, with hair spiked up and bleached blond - thought it was turning a sick sort of green color, like he'd used some bad chemicals. Without even speaking, Kuwabara seemed to agree with Urameshi that they'd take out the other goons first and then head for the guy that actually seemed like he could accomplish something.

"Afternoon, fellas," Urameshi said casually. "Picked kind of a bad time to go scrounging for lunch money, didn't you? Considering most people had lunch about three hours ago?"

"Shut it, punk," said the shortest, twitchiest of the group. "We know you got more on you than that."

"We were just goin' to the arcade," said Kuwabara. "Hope you don't mind that it's all in quarters."

"Ugh, that's enough, twerp!" said the biggest guy, who also looked extra-twitchy. That was odd... "Just shut up and prepare to get beat!"

"Funny, I was gonna say the same to you!" Urameshi punctuated his final word with a lunge toward the big guy - but at the last minute, he dodged left and hit the short guy instead. With the bigger guy distracted, Kuwabara took his cue and caught him underneath his jaw with an elbow. He followed that with a kick to the guy's giant gut that sent him barreling into the tall weedy guy that stood behind him. Urameshi, meanwhile, was taking out the guy with the ponytail. They made quick work of the four lackies, and then turned on the guy in charge - who, oddly, hadn't said anything the entire time, or even jumped to the defense of his "friends."

"All right, blondy, the jig's up," said Urameshi as he closed in on the last guy standing. Kuwabara was grinning, about to help out, when suddenly a feeling like a freezing-cold bolt of lightning shot up his spine. Combined with the way the blond guy's eyes seemed to flicker whitish-green for a second, something was definitely wrong.

"Urameshi, look out!" he shouted, tackling him to the ground in the middle of a flying kick. That's when it happened, narrowly missing both of them: a gross-looking blast of purple-white powdery goo launched out of the guy's mouth and hit the back wall of the adjacent building. There, it slid to the ground like a wad of wet sand, leaving a streak down the wall where all the paint had been eaten off.

Urameshi gulped. "Uh, thanks...for that..."

Kuwabara was equally terrified. "N...no problem." They scrambled to their feet, readying their spirit weapons, only to be greeted by another gooey blast flying straight for them. Screaming, they just barely dodged.

"What the hell is this guy?" Urameshi stammered.

"I dunno, but I really don't wanna get hit by any of that purple stuff!" Kuwabara dodged yet another shot that was coming in his direction.

"What do you want?" Urameshi demanded of the thing, but it said nothing. "Oh, great, you don't speak human language, that's just terrific!"

"Urameshi, I don't think it really matters what it wants when it's trying to kill us!"

"Well then we'll just have to shoot first and ask questions later! Spirit Gun!" But the demon...thing fired off another blast just as Urameshi's spirit bullet raced toward it, and when the two collided they negated each other completely.

"That's...new..." said Urameshi, clearly unnerved by the weird goo-spitting thing.

"I guess I'll have to take care of this one!" Kuwabara cried, launching himself toward it. Another bolt of gross stuff came flying at him as he ran, but a well-placed shot from Urameshi rendered it useless before it could reach him. Kuwabara shouted his thanks as he lunged toward the creature with his spirits sword, making a rather large slice into its stomach. From the wound, it bled more of the purple-white goo.

"Gross," Urameshi commented as it let loose horrific squealing noises of pain.

"Tell me about it," Kuwabara agreed, coming to stand next to Urameshi and watch the thing writhe.

But then Urameshi frowned. "I hate to say it, but that almost seemed a little too...easy--"

And as soon as the words had left his mouth, the thing disappeared. Not in a puff of smoke or with any sort of shimmering teleportation - it just completely vanished from sight. As if it had never been there.

"Hey, where'd it go?"

"I dunno, man!" said Kuwabara. "But I'd hate for it to sneak up on us - no, wait," he corrected suddenly. "I can still sense its spirit energy. It's still here!"

"So the thing that spits acid goo at us can go invisible. That's reassuring."

"Shut up for a second, will you?" Kuwabara told him. "I'm trying to sense it out. I think it's too hurt to come back and attack us any more...but it's probably not going to die. Oh, there it goes!" He pointed off down an alleyway. "It's slinking away."

"Well let's go kill it!"

"We'd never catch it. Let's just let it go." He bent down to pick up his school bag from where he'd tossed it when the fight had started. "If it comes back for us we'll just kick its ass then." He stood up and smiled at Urameshi.

And suddenly, it was as if the fight had never happened, because Kuwabara was right back to square one: nothing to distract him from thinking about that horrible, awful, crazy, kind of awesome dream every time he made eye contact with Urameshi. Or thinking about how flawlessly they worked together in a fight any more, without even thinking about it. Or thinking about tackling Urameshi to the ground, and the way they'd been sprawled on top of one another, even if it had been to save his life. And this time, he could feel it coming: he knew Urameshi was going to say something about it. After all, he was practically staring, wasn't he? And he'd been distant all week, just a little. It was going to take some kind of crazy bonding moment like getting attacked by a demon to make Urameshi finally say something about it. He opened his mouth to speak and Kuwabara braced himself for the worst.

"Hey," he said. "You've got blood on your face there."

Kuwabara blinked. "I do? Where?"

"Right there, by the corner of your mouth." Kuwabara reached up to wipe it away, but his hand came back clean. "No, the other side." He kept trying to get it, but nothing was working. "Further down. No, not that far. Damnit, it's right here!"

And then Urameshi's hand was gripping his face - not gently, because Urameshi didn't do gentle, but not with any intent to harm, either. Hand around the right side of his jaw, Urameshi's thumb wiped away the little smear of blood from the one spot by Kuwabara's mouth that he'd managed to miss consistently.

He couldn't help it. He bit his lip. Urameshi's hand was there, on his face, and his eyes were there, staring back into Kuwabara's own, and then -

Kuwabara had never known that you could do something slowly and still have it be so sudden. But there was no other way to describe what happened next.

Suddenly, Urameshi slowly closed the gap between their faces, and pressed his lips against Kuwabara's. About three seconds passed before Kuwabara really understood what was going on. Then he reciprocated. Vigorously.

Then Urameshi's face and hand pulled away, suddenly, slowly, and he picked up his school bag, too. "So which ally is your best?" he said, turning and starting back off toward the arcade. "I mean, obviously you want the Knight, but you can't get him until later, so I usually use the Wizard even though he's so slow..."

Kuwabara just stood motionless for a couple of seconds, and then silently scrambled to catch up.

He could already tell they wouldn't be talking about this, either.

-xxx-

"BOTAN!" Koenma screamed for the third and loudest time. Oh, this was just not good. Not good at all. Why did the boy have to turn into such a celebrity?

"Yes, yes, I heard you, Koenma!" she fussed, stumbling into the room as best she could trying to run in her kimono. "Whatever is the problem?"

"You need to find Yusuke at once," he whined, wringing his hands and leaping up to pace in midair several inches above his desk. "Oh dear oh dear oh dear..."

"Sir, what is it? What's the matter with Yusuke?"

"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S THE MATTER!" he shouted suddenly, unable to take it any more. "SOMEONE'S TRYING TO HAVE HIM ASSASSINATED!"