I took this list o' prompts from 30_kisses over on LJ and made sentence-y things to try and get my head back in Yu Yu Hakusho canon after many many years of writing an AU for my own amusement. This is Yuusuke's list - I may post others as I finish the lists off. Oh, and there may or may not be a couple of Abridged series quotes. I kind of fangirl them pretty hard.
Disclaimer: done.
1. whistling winds: Makai was never silent. The winds tore across the desert like knives, cutting across anything that happened to stand tall enough to catch them with an ear-splitting shriek. At first the shrieks woke him at night, panicked, casting around for the source of the screams. Eventually, he grew restless if there were none. As much doubt as this cast on his own mental well-being, being unable to sleep without the sound of screams, at least he no longer dreamed of blood.
2. paper: Yuusuke was already awake, restless and pacing for no fathomable reason, when Botan showed up outside his window with a sheet of paper in one hand, folded, with his name on the outside - and Genkai's hat in the other.
3. instrument: "I'm tired of being your tool," Yuusuke yelled at Koenma. "Five years now, five years I've run around, Yuusuke do this, Yuusuke do that, Yuusuke kill this deranged lunatic - and I have asked very few questions." His eyes were burning as he slammed his hands onto Koenma's desk. "I'm asking. And you damn well better give me some answers, binky-boy, because I swear I will walk out on this and never look back." "No you won't," Koenma said serenely, meeting Yuusuke's gaze with a fierceness of his own. "But you're right, you do deserve some answers. George, go get Yuusuke a chair. He's going to be here for a while."
4. excuse me: "Excuse me? What did you think I was doing all this time, Yuusuke, twiddling my thumbs?" "Knitting, actually." "Some of us were trying to make a life for ourselves in the real world."
5. mind's eye: He could see her, standing there on the beach, staring at the sunset. The yelling was a surprise, and when he finally opened his eyes, so was the hair.
6. calendar: Time traveled differently in Makai, but Yuusuke kept "real people time" as best he could, counting out three years on a roll of parchment.
7. dominoes: Suzaku, Toguro, Sensui - one by one they fell, one defeat setting up the next as Yuusuke grew less and less aware of that hazy line between power and rage.
8. silent as the grave: Hiei rarely spoke. After all these years, he rarely needed to. He and Yuusuke had reached a level of partnership akin to that of Hiei and Kurama's, and Hiei wasn't at all sure he was okay with that.
9. wax: Kurama described Yuusuke as a demon candle - his human exterior and morals were the wax, and there was a thin demon "wick" at the center that allowed him to burn so very brightly.
10. ceramic cow: "Kurama," Yuusuke said mildly, "Why is there a cow - " "My mother bought it for me," Kurama explained in a tone that said the subject was very much not up for discussion.
11. Why doesn't it fit?: So many things seemed so wrong after Yuusuke came back. The colors were different, the smells were sharper, and everyone looked at him with more fear than they ever had. "If it's my life," he muttered so that even Keiko could barely hear him, "why doesn't it fit where it used to?"
12. scissors: Kurama explained the Fates to him once, old crones that cut your life's thread when it was time. Sometimes, when he'd been knocked flat on his ass for the third time and was running out of tricks, Yuusuke could just see the scissors coming down.
13. Snakes and Ladders: Yuusuke felt like he had reached the top, climbing faster and faster to where the world levelled out, when all of a sudden he was back at the bottom where the world was made of filth and blood.
14. wrapping paper: "It's still me," Yuusuke assured Kuwabara as the toushin markings blossomed across his skin. "Just in a different wrapper."
15. pictionary: "Is it a horse?" "No." "Dog?" "No." "Goat?" "No." "Is it....oh, you are a sick motherfucker, Urameshi."
16. Hop it: "That," Kuwabara said decisively, "is a very tall fence." "So we jump it," Yuusuke said. "How?" Yuusuke shoved Kuwabara around, using him as a launchpad to clear the top of the fence. "Oh, to hell with you."
17. elven: "...Kurama, did you know your ears are pointed?" Kurama sighed. "You were bound to notice eventually. You get one, and only one elf joke."
18. perennial: Twice a year Yuusuke "stuck his head in the door", as he put it, checking on the general state of things. As he explained to Koenma, it usually took that long for the shit to hit the fan.
19. strange things: "Tell us again about the things you saw in Makai, Granddad." "Why d'you like hearing about all that weird shit so much?" "It's not weird, it's cool!" "...know what's weird? You. You're weird. Go get me a beer and I'll talk."
20. clock tower: "I swear to God, if one more person crosses the street to avoid walking next to me I'm finding a clock tower and taking them out with my Spirit Gun." "...that would be proving them right, Yuusuke." "They damn well better savor the feeling, then, 'cause it ain't gonna last long."
21. ruler: When he gave up his rights to Raizen's realm, Yuusuke only felt a small twinge of regret for the path not taken.
22. busted: The first thing Kuwabara did after they got out of the water was slam Yuusuke square in the jaw. The second thing he did was hug him and apologize for the busted lip.
23. purple in the face: After exactly three sparring sessions with Hokushin, Yuusuke thought fondly on the days when all it took to make his day better was to make Kuwabara's face turn purple, be it with his fists or a well-timed attack on his masculinity.
24. lampshade: "I did not." "New Year's, two years ago. I have pictures." "Doctored." "Eyewitnesses." "They were as drunk as I was." "Yuusuke, you put the lampshade on your head. You even pretended to be a lamp until you remembered that lamps don't drink." "...lamps don't know what they're missing." "You are impossible."
25. tortoise: Yuusuke stopped, staring at the huge tortoise in the middle of the sidewalk. "Don't mess with the turtle," the old guy leaning against the wall warned. "He'll kick your ass."
26. demon among angels: Kuwabara complained when Yuusuke insisted Hiei come with them on missions. Yuusuke never told him it was because Hiei made him feel that much more human by comparison, and it was a feeling he clung to with all his strength.
27. Just like a slug: He was a bottom-feeder, taking what he could get, moving very slowly, but very steadily, in the wrong direction. And then he died, and it was like strapping a slug to a rocket to the top. He wasn't sure he liked it.
28. torn: Ningenkai was where he felt human. Makai was where he felt alive. When he was one, he craved the other, and often wondered how Kurama kept from going mad.
29. fragrance: Makai smelled like death, and blood, and fear. By the time Yuusuke emerged from it, so did he. He didn't notice until Keiko refused to sleep next to him, claiming her skin crawled every time she inhaled.
30. jello: "...Kuwabara?" "What?" "Why are there jello shots in your fridge?" "...I like jello?" "Nobody likes jello, you idiot. I swear, if I find Barry Manilow in your CD player we're having a Talk."