Disclaimer: I don't own any of the YuYu Hakusho characters, (unfortunately) so please don't sue me.

Separation Kills

It had been one whole year since Yusuke had came back from for the world of the Makai. He and Keiko were finally an official couple, and loving every minute of it. Despite objections from Keiko's parents, she and Yusuke had gotten an apartment to together in the city not to far from where Keiko was going to school. Yusuke was working full time at the Yukimura Raman House, and was trying to save money so he could open his own ramen house and give Keiko the life he felt she deserved. He was also trying very hard to prove to everyone, especially Keiko, that he wanted a normal life with her and that was all. No more cases from Reikai, no more fighting youkai, just living each day with the woman he loved. Keiko was just as content to keep it that way. She loved the idea of coming home each night to the man she had waited three years, actually her whole life for. Lying down beside him in their bed, having him hold her and keep her safe. Everything was fine until one morning she awoke and Yusuke was gone.

She looked around the room for any sign of him, but she found none. "Perhaps he went into work early today," she thought to herself. She decided to stop at the restaurant on her way to school. When she arrived she found her parents working busily in the kitchen.

"Mom, dad," she called in the kitchen. "Well hello dear," said her father giving his daughter a kiss on the cheek. "Have you seen Yusuke today?" She asked her parents trying not to sound worried. "No," her mother replied. "But he has today off, so I didn't expect to see him either." "Of course, well if you see him before I do, please tell him to call me. Don't want to be late for school. I love you guys." And with that she left for her classes.

Once she got there it seemed that her hurrying was just a waste of time. She was unable to focus on any of her studies. Her thoughts kept going back to Yusuke. Where was he? Why did he leave without saying goodbye? She hadn't been this preoccupied in a long time, not since Yusuke had left for the Makai four years ago. Then a thought occurred to her, what if he had gone back? She felt her heart sink. He wouldn't, would he? Something deep down told her that was the only explanation. Buy why? And why didn't he tell her? Suddenly she became very angry. She left school early to go hunt down Kurama. If Yusuke were up to something, he would be the one who would know.

She found him in his own very nice apartment studying some kind of book about plants. He offered her some tea and a seat. She sat down at the kitchen table and looked at the floor.

"Kurama," she mumbled in a low voice, " do you know where Yusuke is? He left this morning with out telling me where he was going. He didn't even wake me up before he left. Believe it or not, that is not like him."

" I'm sorry Keiko; I do not know where he is. I have not heard from him since the last time we all got together a few days ago. If I knew I would tell you. I am sure Yusuke is fine. If he wasn't you know that Hiei and I would have been notified. However, if I hear anything I promise I will tell you."

He noticed tears were starting to well up in her eyes,

She looked up at him and started to cry. "I can't do this again," she said sobbing, "It was so hard to wait for him all of those years, not knowing if he was hurt or worse. I can't do it anymore. I don't have the strength left to handle it."

By this time she was hysterical. Kurama did the only thing he could think to do at the time and walked across the room to give her a hug. He had comforted her many times before when Yusuke was gone before. He led her over to the couch and went to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. She began to calm down when he returned. He handed her the glass.

"Thank you," she said in a very shaky voice. " I don't know where that came from. I haven't broke down like that since" she cut herself off and took a sip water.

" Keiko," Kurama said in his soft, comforting voice, " There is one thing you must remember always, and that is that Yusuke loves you. You are the most important thing to him in all worlds. He would die for you. Surly you know that."

Keiko nodded.

"And besides, he knows if he were to do anything stupid, he would have to face you eventually, and trust me of all the people Yusuke has ever had to face in battle, you are the one he has never been able to beat."

This brought a small smile to Keiko's face.

"Thanks again Kurama. You are a good friend. If you hear anything, please let me know"

He nodded. She got up, gave him a kiss in the cheek and slowly walked home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two months passed, and Keiko had begun to give up hope. She had used most of it up last time he left. She had just left Kuwabara's house after having a long talk with Yukina and Botan. Yukina was reassuring her that he would come back, and that he must have a very good explanation for his absence. Botan agreed.

She remembered what Botan had said to her. Although at the time her words seemed to give little comfort.

"If anything bad were to hav happened to him, Koenma would have been notified and so would I."

Keiko kept walking. It was beginning to get colder with fall coming. Rain clouds appeared over her head. "How fitting," she thought to herself as she lowered her heard and kept walking. Suddenly she looked up and much to her surprise, there he stood with a grin on his face.

"Hey beautiful, long time no see," he chuckled and he approached her.

She stood there with a very strange look on her face. It was a cross between surprise, hurt, relief, and pure anger.

Yusuke reached out his arms for her. She stepped back. A very confused Yusuke looked at her and said, " What's the matter, aren't you glad to see me?"

Tears began to swell in Keiko's eyes as she turned away from him and said in a very shaky, angry voice, "Where have you been all this time? I was so worried about you. How could you leave like that and not say a word to me. I thought we were being honest with each other. I thought you trusted me, I thought you lov..." she choked on her voice and began to cry.

Yusuke reached for her again very concerned yet she pulled farther away. " What do you mean," he said as he was beginning to worry. "I do trust you, more than anyone. I do love you. I didn't plan on being gone that long. I'm sorry if I made you worry. But I'm back now and everything is fine."

"Fine? Everything is not fine!" Keiko yelled through her tears turning to look him square in the eye. " Everything is not okay. You promised me when you came back last time that you would never leave me again, and you did!" With that being said she turned and ran away from him.

"Keiko," he yelled after her, but his shouts went unheard because she was long gone. Now being an upper S-class half demon, he could have run after her and caught up to her with out any trouble, but something in his gut told him to let her be for her moment. He shoved his hands in pockets in classic Yusuke fashion and continued to walk on. It began to rain. "Damn it," he growled. He hated getting wet. He decided to pay Kurama a visit since he was in the neighborhood. Besides Kurama had always given him very good advice in the past when it came to love and relationships. Yusuke may be one of the most powerful fighters in any world, but when it comes to love he is clueless.

Kurama opened the door with a look that told Yusuke that he was expecting him.

"So have you seen Keiko yet?" Kurama asked him already knowing the answer by the look on Yusuke's face. He handed him a towel and invited him in.

"Yeah, and she's really pissed at me, but I don't know why. She ran away from me and I was going to go after her, but at the time that seemed like a bad idea, now I have a feeling if I don't find her soon, I will lose her."

Kurama whacked him upside the back of the head.

"Ouch, that hurt. What the hell did you do that for?" He asked his possibly soon to be former friend.

" Yusuke, if you can't figure out why she is mad at you, then maybe you don't deserve her. If you truly loved her, you would know why she was mad and know how to fix it." Kurama said.

"What do you mean IF I love her? You know she means more to me that anything," replied Yusuke getting quite angry, "I need her in my life. I don't know where I'd be without her."

"Then go find her and tell her before it's too late." He said shoving Yusuke out the door back out into the rain.

"He's right" Yusuke realized.

He began running frantically. It was getting late now. He looked for her everywhere. He checked their apartment, the restaurant, around school, Kuwabara's house, and everywhere in between, yet despite his best efforts he could not find her. He began to worry. "What if something happened to her? What if she is hurt, or worse? "No," he said to himself. "She can't be." He kept running his entire body was drenched but he didn't care. His only thoughts were only of Keiko and whether or not she was she safe and how much he had screwed up. Then he found himself by the river where he had talked to Keiko the day he left four years before.

For a moment it seemed like time had stopped and he recalled that day in his mind. "This was where I told her was leaving and she got pissed at me then to. She said she would introduce me to her new boyfriend when I returned. That was the moment I realized that I loved her, and I would not have some other guy take her from me. So doing what I do best which is screw up and apologize, I went to the restaurant and did just that, only I made a promise, a declaration and asked a question. I promised I would return in three years, told her I loved her for the first time, and asked her to marry me. She agreed. But now I was in danger of losing it all. I have to find her."

Suddenly he looked up and there she was. She was sitting by a tree with her knees held tightly up against her chest. She was soaked to the bone and shivering. Yusuke stood there and watched her for a moment. She had not seen him. He realized once again how beautiful she was and how lucky he was to have her, if he still had her. He slowly crept up behind her and dropped his wet jacket on her shoulders. Startled, she jumped up and slipped on the wet ground and fell into him. He grabbed her pulled her close into him and held her as tight as he could without crushing her body. She was too weak to fight him off.

"Keiko," he gently whispered, "I am so sorry I made you worry like that. I never knew how you felt all that time I was gone. I didn't realize how hard it was until I couldn't find you and I thought something bad had happened you. While I was gone those three years, I never worried about you, because I knew you were here safe and waiting for me to come back. Besides, I knew that Kurama and Hiei were here to keep an eye on you, you are stronger than you give yourself credit for. But today, when I couldn't find you anywhere, I realized that I don't know what I would do without you. You are my best friend, my love, and my life. I need you, more than you know. Throughout my whole messed-up life there has been one constant, you. I never wanted to make you cry again. And I did. I am so sorry. I am a fool. I just took for granted that you knew I would come back. That was wrong. I should have let you know everything was fine I was and that I was okay." His grip tightened around her. "Please don't leave me. I would be lost without you."

" I just wish you had told me you were leaving." Keiko said softly. "When you left the first time, you promised me you would come back, and you kept your promise. I at least knew where you were. This time I had no idea where you were or if you were alive or dead. It was more than I could bear. The fear of you never coming back almost killed me." She said now beginning to hold on to his drenched white t-shirt.

The rain began to slowly die down and the sun started to set. Keiko began to cry once again. This time so did Yusuke. Keiko looked up at him and began to calm down. In all the time she has known him, she had never seen him cry in front of her.

He was still holding her when he said, "I never want to leave you again. I shouldn't ever have to go back to my father's kingdom again. I was there to tie up some loose ends, but it only should have taken a few hours. However the last of Raizen's enemies decided to make one more go for the throne. But they are all gone now. I made sure of it this time. Now I can stay with you for the rest of our lives, if you still want me. Please tell me you do. I love you Keiko. I love you more than anything, and I promise I will never leave again."

Another tear rolled down his cheek and Keiko reached up with her small, soft hand to brush it away. Then she pulled him down and kissed him gently on the lips. It was a kiss that let him know she still loved him and that he was forgiven because she could never stay mad at him for long. He reached down and grabbed her hand and held it close to his heart. She could feel it beating rapidly. They pulled apart and they looked deep into each other's eyes. He tucked a dripping brown lock of her hair back behind her ear.

"Yusuke," Keiko finally said, "can we go home please? I am freezing."

Yusuke looked down at his poor, freezing girl, and swept her up off her feet and right into his arms like she was a feather. She wrapped her arms around his neck. She looked at his face for a moment. The gel that usually kept his hair slicked up was gone and his wet bangs were plastered to his forehead. He looked so good. It took her breath away for a moment

"Yeah," he said with a smile," lets go home."

With that Keiko closed her eyes because she knew how fast Yusuke was and she was afraid of heights. Noticing her eyes were closed Yusuke whispered in to her ear, "I want you to promise me that you will never leave me again. I couldn't bear it."

She nodded slowly and with that he leaped away from the river. He held on to her tighter than he normally would for fear her wet body might accidentally slip from his arms, but she understood and tightened her own grip around his neck. As they held on to each other a feeling of relief swept over both of them as they realized that as long as they were together, that was all they needed.