Full Summary: "My brother does not know I'm doing this and would walk right of here and not talk to me for a year if he did."
Questionable decisions aside, Yukina really only wants to help her brother (and to stop the endless moaning of the last two months). She's a good sister, she swears. She's just not sure if she's out to get her brother a date, chew Kurama out, or embarrass Hiei to death.
Fair warning: mild swearing with in and probably reads a bit like a crackfic. But if you'd like a story with Hiei and Yukina being wonderful siblings, you're in the right place. Originally posted on Ao3 on 9/14/17.
o0o0o0o
She hesitates over the post button on her phone, but eventually hits it anyways. She stares as Facebook uploads the pictures of the two piece swim suit and her own sell ad, waffling between leaving it up or deleting it as soon as the post was live. Though Botan had suggested it, Yukina wasn't so sure of the idea. The teal haired young woman flops down on her couch with a swirl of her blue stripped skirt.
The two piece swimsuit was certainly a color she likes (a few varying shades of blue she thought had a fantastic ocean look to it), but she had never meant to buy it. It was smaller than she was comfortable with, but she hadn't been able to get it back on the rack after determining that.
(The truth of the matter was she, Keiko, and Botan didn't know what exact set of whirlwind events had caused them all to walk out with items they hadn't intended to buy – what they did know was they'd left to police coming in and the store had been on the news that night for both fire damage and busted windows. They hadn't been back.)
But facts are that she has the swimsuit, she'd paid for it, and the receipt had been long gone by the time Yukina had worked up the nerve to return the item. And Shizuru had already helped her track down a more appealing swimsuit just a couple days later in time for the beach trip, so it wasn't as if going back to the shop for store credit or exchange had been appealing either.
So here she is, attempting to sell the small two piece blue swimsuit on a Facebook buying and selling page – the one she thought Botan had suggested but now she isn't quite so sure.
"I should have just donated it….." she mumbles into a throw pillow after stuffing her phone between the cushions, unable to look at it any longer. It wasn't as if the suit had ever been worn, somewhere would have taken it, right? Her phone buzzes once but she ignores it. It buzzes a second time, but she misses it entirely as her front door is slammed open.
If she was a betting woman, she would have place her money on their father being where her brother had gotten this particular set of melodramatics from.
Yukina can hear him muttering and cursing as he fights to kick off his shoes in her entry way. She gets no greeting as he shuffles across her apartment to flop half over the back of her couch with a groan and a whine. Despite her suggestions, she can see Hiei had opted to roll up his shirt sleeves but at least he had attempted to do so nicely. She digs her phone back up from the couch cushions and snaps a picture of the spectacular pout on his face. The shutter noise her phone insists on making is enough to force him out of his self-imposed pity party to stick his tongue out at her. Hiei hauls himself off the back of the couch with another groan and he begins to shuffle back towards her bedroom.
"Oh I'm sure Kazuma couldn't have been that bad!" Yukina calls behind him, busy moving the photo around in her phone files to group it with all the rest of her brother's pictures that the world is certainly not ready to see. The world would not survive knowing how much of a dork he could be when left with the right people (which is basically just her – being a twin has perks. She can see right through his facades so Hiei doesn't really try with her).
When she doesn't get a retort about her boyfriend, she knows it was something else. She ignores the two notifications for her Facebook post in favor of checking on her twin.
"Oh no…" She's so glad that a blanket burrito in the corner of the bed had become the new hiding place. (Once upon a time it had been a weird fort of a blanket and four pillows under a bed where she was only other one who could squeeze in there to reach him – they had both grown out of that embarrassingly late.)
"Are you telling me he managed to ignore you again?" Yukina would have been embarrassed to admit it came out as a shriek if wasn't for the whine that left the blankets taking up the corner of her bed. Her brother is miserable.
"But how?" The teal haired woman moves to her closet even as she asks the question. "And get out of that blanket – those are the only nice clothes you have!" She begins to look around for something of Hiei's that had been left behind on a previous night of frustration and planning. She has found a shirt by the time Hiei had gotten his head out of the blanket burrito she was sure he had almost literally rolled himself into. She tosses the dark shirt on to his newly uncovered head and digs around for literally anything else that can fit him.
"I don't know!" Hiei is making an embarrassing habit of whining his way through these almost daily conversations. Turning back with a pair of sweatpants she is almost certain are Hiei's (she doesn't own much grey), Yukina catches sight of his miserable expression. Hiei had disentangled enough from the blankets to remove the t-shirt she had thrown him but is idly fidgeting with the buttons on his dress shirt with a mournful expression rather than saving the only button down he owns from wrinkly extinction.
"I was serious, change clothes before we have to replace half of the only suit you own." Yukina is kind enough to actually hand him the sweatpants this time. But looking at his face causes her to pause. She can count the number of times Hiei has cried on one hand, but the frustration has clearly moved to a whole new level because, try as he might, he has to actually bite his lip and keep his glossy eyes impossibly wide to keep it all contained.
Yukina sits on her bed with a sigh. She has a few choice words for the object of her brother's affections if he's this close to frustration tears.
"I have never seen you this infatuated with someone," she says instead. Hiei snorts, but its watery. He finally moves to actually take off his blue button down and pull the burgundy t-shirt over his head.
"Me neither," he mutters in annoyance when his head pops back out. Yukina's phone buzzes again in her hands. She busies herself with it to let her brother change. Among the replies is an interested woman who wants to know the size of the suit – Yukina double checks and sure enough she did leave the information in the ad. She gives a reply anyways. Hiei has wriggled from his blanket prison, changed to the sweatpants, and carefully laid out his dress pants in the time it takes for her to answer. Yukina watches him for a moment.
"Wouldn't it be easier to ask him on a date instead of attempting to seduce him – or whatever you seem to be aiming for?" she gives her brother a pointed look, "He sees you half naked three times a week already." Hiei's face goes vaguely scarlet and in one fluid movement he moves the blanket back over himself.
"I'm not seducing him," she can hear him mumble.
"Not successfully." He lifts the blanket enough to sort of pout-glare at her. Yukina can't help giggling. She snaps another photo. It's a blurred mess of the blanket coming back up to hide Hiei from any more of her incriminating shots.
"But seriously, Hiei," she starts, deleting her unsuccessful picture, "just ask Kurama out on a date. Kazuma couldn't speak more highly of him; he's not going to react badly. It has to be more productive than trying every outfit combination you have in your closet."
(Literally every combination – his most flattering shirts, his tightest pants; from the colors that bring out his eyes to Yukina's best attempts to bring out a groomed and sophisticated look on a man that some days looked like he never brushed his hair. Anything to convey to Kurama that, while short, Hiei was strong, capable, and hopelessly wanting. It would have been embarrassing if she hadn't put him through the same ordeal the day before her first date with Kazuma. They had always played petty revenge tit for tat after all.)
Hiei mumbles something under the blanket. She gives him a moment before prodding.
"Loud enough for people to hear?" She grimaces, realizing she sounds like their mother. Her brother seems to chuckle for a moment. She clears her throat.
"Please?" She expects exaggerated melodramatics – partially because her brother has chosen that route for dealing with the extended frustration but also because she just mom'd him by accident. Instead, he speaks just loudly enough for her to hear him.
"I did…" She pulls the blanket back enough to see his face – cherry red from embarrassment but still absolutely miserable. There are so many things she wants to say, to ask, but Yukina bites her tongue instead and waits for him. Lifelong history says it's the better choice for dealing with her brother anyways.
Finally he rubs at his face with a sigh.
"A couple months ago I tried to ask him to that botanical garden because I know he loves plants and there was no way he'd already be going with Yusuke or Kuwabara. Maybe someone else, but the season was just starting, Yukina, so I didn't think it would be a big chance." Yukina nods along encouragingly. Gardening is not her brother's first choice of outdoor activity, he'd clearly thought more about Kurama in the location choice than himself.
"I knew exactly what was going to be in bloom, what other plants would be there – they were going to have an exhibit of tropical plants in the special greenhouse even – I checked for restaurants nearby so maybe we could get food if he was actually willing to spend more time with me after I floundered the whole god damn morning away in a botanical garden of all places and –," Hiei lets go a great big sigh. "And I went to meet up with him and Yusuke and Kuwabara were there and we'd apparently 'changed our minds' and were going to the amusement park a train ride away." He lifts his hands from his face.
"I don't know what the hell I did, Yukina," the confusion is evident on his face. "I asked him on a date. Somehow it became a group outing and nobody else thought it was weird…." He looks at her and it's a face she's seen so many times in their childhood – absolute confusion. Her phone buzzes annoyingly in her hands and without hesitation she stuffs it under one of her pillows and motions for her brother to move over. It's only after they are securely hidden under her fuzzy blanket that she says anything.
"You are just so unlucky with people…. How does that even happen?" Well, she knows one way it happens, but it's not one she would have expected out of Kazuma's friends. Her brother groans and stuffs his face into her shoulder. It's a common occurrence for her brother to have a social miscommunication with another person but this probably took the cake in the weird department. (And normally it was because he was something of a sarcastic asshole.)
"Well, I know you're perfectly capable of asking people do things with you without inviting other people into it, so even if you didn't call it a date there's still no reason for it to have become that." She begins to card her fingers through his dark hair. She hums.
"I could have a word with Kazuma…." Hiei groans into her shoulder again. "I know that's not the answer you want, but he'd probably set up a fix-it date if I asked…." She feels her twin shake his head.
"I don't want a 'fix-it' date – especially one set up by Kuwabara," Hiei speaks without lifting his head. Then he sighs heavily. "I don't know what I want. All I've figured out is Kurama is fucking blind and Yusuke can't run out of jokes."
(This part she knows, because Kazuma tells her the better ones – half the time she can't tell if Yusuke is trying to flatter or embarrass Hiei. She even bets that one of the many buzzes from her phone since her brother arrived is whatever decent "joke" Yusuke made that day about the dress clothes.)
Yukina continues to play with the hair at the nape of his neck. It's clear that Hiei had decided against asking for a second (replacement?) date until he could gauge interest but the plan has led to nothing but moping. Her twin is, normally, perfectly capable of fixing things himself (for better or worse, though often it seems to be worse) so she decides against offering more suggestions until this moping spell is over. Probably whenever he gets hungry or her own stomach rumbles loud enough for him to notice. Additionally, it's stuffy under the blanket but she doubts he, the walking space heater he is, will notice before his stomach kicks in instead. In a way, she's perfectly content to sit there with him – stuffy as it is – especially now that she feels caught up on entire story.
However, it's the resulting silence that lets her know that her phone is still happily pulling in notifications, causing it to vibrate under the pillows. She ignores it and settles down to her brother's pillow as long as he decides he wants one. It's nice – they don't get to do this much anymore. A buzz here or there should be easy enough to ignore, Yukina decides.
She dozes off at some point, waking only when there is a sudden loss of heat. Bleary red eyes finally focus on her brother who is pulling her phone from under her pillows. Hiei lays back down and pulls the blanket back around them, looking no more awake than Yukina feels. Finally, he hands her the phone.
"It won't stop buzzing," he complains before curling back up at her side. Yukina pops up her screen and enters her passcode. She's promptly greeted by a dozen Facebook notifications, two texts from Kazuma over LINE (one she notes is a sticker and she wonders what funny cat she'll be greeted with today) and oddly enough several Facebook messages from a new contact. It's clearly the messages that had woken her brother as their time stamps are the newest.
Their content however causes her to make a high, squeaky noise in the back of her throat and her twin is immediately awake and grabbing for her phone. Hiei makes a noise of disgust as he reads down the line.
"Ew, creepy fuck," Hiei pulls a face. Without asking, he immediately blocks the sender.
"Hey!" she grouses at him more to reestablish that it's her phone and account than over any actual objection over blocking the man.
"Oh come on," Hiei sneers at the screen, still going through the messages. "First off, who's bright idea was it to have you list that swimsuit on Facebook? Second, who the hell asks for pictures, especially like that? Asking for a model doesn't exactly hide any intent, idiot." Hiei scoffs the last bit under his breath.
(Yukina decides against answering the first question for Botan's safety.)
"You already answered the second question," she reminds him. "I thought I had the settings so I couldn't get random messages…." Hiei is already looking through her privacy settings for just that. She snatches her phone back before he can go into any kind of overprotective mode. The teal haired woman gives Hiei a hard look she hopes will keep him from her phone in the future, makes mental note to change up her passcode, and sets about answering the other Facebook notifications – which thankfully do not include anyone else being creepy. Hiei sticks his tongue out at her and goes to dig his own phone out of his dress pants.
She's in the middle of answering Kazuma's messages, giggling over the dark cat rocking out on a guitar her boyfriend had found to express his excitement over a new Megallica CD, when her twin speaks up again.
"You know," he drawls without looking up from his phone, "We could fuck with him." Yukina eyes her brother warily. Hiei puts his phone down and rests his head in his hands with a grin that never leads to anything good. "He said he wanted a model, he didn't say it had to be you."
(Someday Yukina will learn to turn down her brother's suggestions – today is not that day.)
o0o0o0o
Yukina had sent her brother home before the trains stopped operating – Hiei had gotten into a far better mood after their warning prank to her creepy message guy. A decent dinner had put him in even better spirits and she had even weedled a promise to reassess the Kurama situation with a clearer head the next day. She had been sure it was bright, promising chance to end all his moping.
Yusuke had apparently destroyed it with a single group LINE message for coffee and some extra workouts. Kazuma had promptly invited her along to the café to give them a chance to see each other before he was off for another day of training for whatever martial arts tournament Yusuke had dragged the four of them into this time. Hiei didn't even send her a flurry of messages for advice so she arrived to the coffee shop feeling optimistic.
In retrospect, no messages from her brother should have been a warning.
"Did you even look in a mirror before you left?" Yukina asks as she digs out a hairbrush from her purse. She hopes her tone conveys the worry she has over him instead of sounding like she cares more about his appearance in public. Most of his wardrobe can mix and match and she always has a ready hair brush to wrangle her own hair back into its ponytail, so there's little that can truly go wrong. But today he looks like he rolled out of bed, fell into his closet, and walked out the door. Hiei takes the brush from her and pulls it through his hair without an argument.
"What happened?" Yukina touches his elbow, worrying about his sudden disheartened look. Hiei hands her his phone along with the hair brush. He unlocks the pattern for her and she's greeted to a LINE message screen – one between her brother and Kurama. The last two messages are from the red head. One is a happy fox sticker. The other reads "You're a good friend Hiei."
(Both she realizes are from late last night – before Yusuke had sent the morning message calling the group together for coffee, for extra training. Before the rest day had been cancelled forcing him into awkward close quarters with Kurama.)
"Got my answer, that's all," her twin finally says. Yukina lets him take his phone back. Hiei shrugs and gestures to the coffee shop, where the others are waiting.
"I'm fine, we should go in."
She watches as her brother plasters his usual façade into place and then holds the door open for her. She squeezes his hand before she enters.
"Yukina!" Kazuma greets her with his usual enthusiasm and bright smile. Yusuke's on the phone in line and he gives her a quick wave as she and her brother move towards them.
"Oh be quiet, you're damn loud," Hiei grouses with half his usual venom at her boyfriend. It throws both men in line off for a moment, but then Kazuma answers with his usual retort and before they even manage to stand beside their friends, Hiei's attitude is back on point much to the disappointment of the baristas (who, Yukina is positive, are rather tired of dealing with her brother and boyfriend). Yukina spots Kurama at a booth, already sitting with his own drink. The red head shakes his head at the scene and then gives her a smile and wave in greeting.
She doesn't realize she's staring until Hiei jostles her to answer Kazuma. Her twin eyes her with concern so she gives him a small smile before focusing on her taller boyfriend.
"You okay?" Kazuma asks her. All three of them are watching her and she's sure Kurama is too.
"I'm fine! I was trying to remember if I got all my papers sorted the other day at work and didn't realize I was staring off." It's a simple lie and it rolls of her tongue easily. Working at a bird sanctuary, where no one in the group but her brother had a full idea of what she does, comes in handy at times. (Even handier is that her brother would not call her on her lie – certainly not today.)
"I'm sure you did!" Kazuma says with confidence and it makes Yukina smile. He knows she can worry about work a little too much sometimes and his reassurances are often quite welcome – today they are especially welcome if they bolster her fib. "What would you like today? I can buy!"
She's momentarily startled, because as much as Kazuma would love to pay for everything on their outings and meet ups, normally they split the bills – especially something as simple as coffee. Yukina wonders if she looks as off as her brother for some reason. She sees Kurama move out of the corner of her eye and makes a split second decision.
"That would be great Kazuma, thank you!" Hiei gives her another look, but gets taken away by Yusuke to move up in line. She can hear the taller man working conspiratorially with Hiei to find out Kurama's mystery drink order even as she gives her own to Kazuma.
(He looks so happy to buy her coffee she almost wonders if she should let him do it more often. Or maybe he just doesn't want to get dragged into Yusuke's never ending quest to figure out Kurama's order again.)
She lets Kazuma move up the line to order and pulls out her phone. As she walks to sit with Kurama at the booth, she unhesitatingly sends three of the photos from the prank the night before. She watches Kurama check his buzzing phone and nearly spit out his drink as she sits down.
(After last night, she now knows her brother could probably pull off a speedo if he wanted to. It's more than she ever wanted to know, but it's true. Apparently Kurama is more appreciative than she is of this information. Or so she wants to believe with the red that's come to his face.)
Kurama coughs a little before he manages to say anything to her. Yukina fixes the wrinkles in her long, dark skirt and simply fixes Kurama with a far too innocent look, phone back in her hand.
"Yu-yukina what-?" She quickly supplements the pictures of her brother in the skimpy two piece suit with one of him making faces at her through a window. Then another of one of the many outfits she had helped him pick out. One of him in the full suit before they both remembered that as much as Kurama clearly enjoyed dressing nicely (at least, sometimes, his jacket is bright orange today), he would stand out way too much. Another of her brother doing the splits, a random ability of his she's envied since childhood and she knows he doesn't show off. Yukina tops it off with a short video clip of her brother dancing to the radio in her apartment – one she swore to him she deleted. She celebrates a victory that Kurama has his phone set to stay lit far longer than any of the rest.
Kurama's face has gotten redder and redder with every picture and he grips his drink cup tightly at the still for the video – her brother half way through some kind of dance move in his boxers and a too big t-shirt he'd never leave the house in.
"Yukina," he says in a strangled, embarrassed tone.
"My brother does not know I'm doing this and would walk right of here and not talk to me for a year if he did."
"Then why are you…?" Yukina almost regrets her rash decision with how confused Kurama looks. Yukina looks at her phone and sends the picture of her brother's pouting face from the night before. She stares the red head down as his phone buzzes and simply waits. If there's a weak point to Kurama, it's that his curiosity is often too strong – he doesn't manage to leave the text alone. He looks at the picture and then back at her, still trying to catch up.
"Him, last night, after he spent a whole bunch of time with me picking an outfit and got to listen to Yusuke crack jokes instead of getting any kind of compliment from you." She starts to send more pictures of more outfits – outfits she knows Kurama will recognize if he eyes work at all.
"The same thing that's been happening for, like, two months now." She sends him pictures of almost every outfit they ever considered – some are even from Hiei himself, taken in a mirror to get her opinion. She doesn't look at Kurama until his phone stops vibrating in his hands.
When Yukina looks back up, it's to Kurama's still confused face. She starts to get angry at that when it hits her. She is angry on her brother's behalf, of this she is certain. But she has no idea what she's trying to accomplish by doing this. In fact, the only thing she knows she has accomplished is sending personal photos of her brother to a man who's only interested in a friendship and possibly shaking the trust between two people about to partake in some kind of crazy fighting tournament together. Not talking to her for a year? Yukina will be lucky if her brother doesn't die of embarrassment. She flushes and tries to find something to say. (And they say her brother is the one who rushes through things…)
She looks down at her phone. There's a preview for a picture of her brother, double peace signs and his tongue stuck out in the doorway of his apartment – probably the day he'd moved in and moved from her previous phone. She sends it and Kurama checks it despite himself.
"I know he can be a good friend, Kurama. But couldn't you have said that when he asked you out?" It's all she can think to say. It's probably all she actually wants to know. Just so she can pick her brother back up and dust him off – be whatever support he'll accept.
Understanding blooms across Kurama's face.
"The garden, I-"
"Yes the garden, the date you said yes to!"
"No, Yukina, you don't understand, we-" Yukina cuts him off again.
"Of course I don't understand!" She sets her phone down roughly and it makes a louder noise than expected. She pushes on anyways, feeling her anger flare on Hiei's behalf again. "I don't know why you couldn't have just turned him down, or tried to change it then if you didn't want to go on date with him. Why would you change it without telling him? Why would you do that?"
"Yukina, it's not like that!"
"What else can it be?!" She throws her hands in the air, swept up in her own confusion and the miserable look on her brother's face from the night before.
"A lot else!" Kurama says indignantly.
"Oh yea, then prove it to me!" Her challenge is louder than she meant it to be but she doesn't back down from the look she's pinned Kurama with.
"I-"
"Oh come on!" Yusuke groans loudly from the registers, failing again to drag Kurama's usual order from the barista. The sudden interruption causes both of them to jump and pause their arguing. The couple of occupied tables nearby are not so discretely looking at them, eavesdropping. But to their luck, Hiei and Kazuma look to be too wrapped up in Yusuke's pleading to notice the heated conversation.
Kurama's face goes red again and he sinks down a little in the booth. Yukina is sorely tempted to follow him.
(People are sorely wrong to think she doesn't have a temper to rival her brother's – but her fuse is much longer in the end. A healthy dose of embarrassment also drives her off far easier than Hiei. She hadn't meant to get so loud!)
The red head across the table groans and rubs at his face. Yukina watches him stare at his phone for a moment and then swiftly unlock it, open his conversation with Hiei on LINE, and push the phone for her to look at. She doesn't want to. She is still angry with him and the entire situation – even if she's now acutely aware of their onlookers – what good will it do to see the conversation from his side?
Kurama bites his lip.
"Please?"
It's only knowing she can't get any answers from just looking at him angrily that gets her to pick up Kurama's phone. She runs down the conversation without really reading it – a few stickers, Hiei answering some question the red head had sent him, the message that had put such a damper on her brother's hopes. There's nothing after that message, no text that didn't send that would have made a better ending for Hiei. Yukina almost passes it back to Kurama to demand an actual explanation, when she realizes that something is sitting in the message box, waiting to be sent.
'Hey, so, would you like to get dinner with me sometime?' The text ends with one of LINE's many emojis for the word 'date' – Yukina knows most of them from Kazuma's texts. There's no ambiguity in the little image. She looks back up to Kurama who is idly playing with his drink cup waiting for her response.
He catches her eye and flushes heavily. Sinking into his seat again he begins to mumble to her.
"I have been trying to ask him that since the amusement park date went so badly. I swear I type it at the end of every conversation but then I can never hit send. I never even shut my phone down last night – it's been sitting there, mocking me since midnight"
"Then…why…?" Yukina passes the phone back to him. Kurama shrugs, refusing to meet her eyes.
"…I got home after Hiei asked me to garden and realized it was where I was taking my mother for her birthday literally the day before the date. I'd been so surprised I had completely forgotten about it. I couldn't cancel on my mother, we'd been talking about it for months and flowers are a passion I got from her. But I didn't want to call your brother up and look like I'd just been unable to turn him down in person."
Yukina checks on the rest of the group at the counter before she responds.
"Then how did you end up at an amusement park." If it's possible, Yukina is almost positive Kurama looks even more embarrassed.
"I may have asked Yusuke for help."
(It takes a lot of willpower for Yukina not to smack her face into the table.)
"Why in the world-"
"I had four places," Kurama cuts her off in a rush, "and Kuwabara was at classes so I called Yusuke and between the two of us I got down to the amusement park. It would be open, the timing was good, it wasn't too far away…. I should have called him then, I know I should have." Finally the red head makes eye contact with her. He grimaces before he admits, "I chickened out, ok?"
"Why did Yusuke and Kazuma come?"
"That….was not actually planned." If it's possible, the red head looks even more embarrassed. "Kuwabara came in when Yusuke was trying to get me to call Hiei and somehow we got the grand idea to pretend Yusuke had won tickets and was using them as a group surprise. We knew Hiei hadn't mentioned the date to anyone so we were just going to use that to lure him there and then Yusuke and Kuwabara were to get accidentally 'separated' from us and….. Look, it was a terrible plan, I was too nervous and completely misjudged it," he haphazardly tries to defend the final thought process.
"Can any of you handle social situations?" she blurts out. Kurama chuckles uncomfortably.
"I'm almost positive it's why the four of us work so well together. We run on the same wavelength."
"But you're usually so good at this…"
"Too much practice and a level head. Neither of which I had that day, believe me." Kurama sips his drink awkwardly. Yukina looks him up and down.
"So, you do want to go on a date with Hiei, right?" Kurama swallows roughly.
"Yes, but I keep putting my foot in my mouth." The red head looks over to Hiei, waiting for his drink to be called. Yusuke is going down the list of drinks to him, though for what reason they can't tell. Hiei doesn't look to be quite as into it as when Yukina had left him with the other two to order. Finally, Kurama turns back to her.
"You think there's any chance after what I did last night?"
(Yukina wants to scream yes, to tell Kurama just how badly her brother had been pining. She wants to point out that they're both morons who can't properly talk to each other but she's almost positive it's just that both of them are overthinking everything. She wants to march her brother over there right that moment and personally secure the date herself. They're perfect for each other, Yukina just knows it.)
Before she can say anything, the barista rattle off the names of their companions and Kazuma bounces over with her latte and his coffee. Yusuke and Hiei are not far behind. Reluctantly, they let the conversation go as everyone maneuvers into the booth.
Yukina stands and insists on Kazuma sitting all the way in and Hiei forces Yusuke to sit by Kurama by dawdling on his way over. He grabs a chair from an empty table and sits at the end of the table. They aren't busy enough for it to be a bother, yet Yukina notices that all three of their companions give him an odd look for it anyways. Kurama slumps a little after its clear this will be the arrangement and begins to fiddle with his drink cup again. Hiei is staring at his own drink and notices nothing. Yusuke tries to move things forward by loudly, almost too loudly, trying to pry Kurama's drink order out of him. Kazuma groans, trying to figure out why he's so obsessed. The atmosphere at their table is awkward, but they press on.
(It occurs to her that Yusuke, and perhaps Kazuma as well, has been attempting to play wingman since they had caused the first date to go belly up. They don't seem to know what they are doing.)
Fifteen minutes later, when Yusuke and Kazuma have started a heated argument over training and what qualifies as too much and her brother has gone back to the counter to get something to eat (he skipped breakfast, which Yukina has to admit is probably the most usual part of the entire morning), the teal haired woman takes a chance. With half the table distracted, her brother waiting at the counter, and Kurama silently watching on, she knows she probably won't get another chance before they leave to head to the local gym.
She texts Kurama under the table.
'I have a date plan, do you want it?' Yukina watches Kurama grab his vibrating phone and check it lazily – there hasn't been much enthusiasm from that corner of the table since the rest had sat down. He blinks at the message and then slowly lowers the phone so the other two can't look over and read his screen.
Kurama's reply is probably the most enthusiastic yes fox sticker LINE has. Green eyes flicker to hers and she smiles before looking back down to her phone.
'Take him to the aquarium.' Kurama only sends a question mark back.
'Take him to the aquarium, he'll love it because we haven't gone in forever. YOU HAVE TO TELL HIM IT'S A DATE. Don't you dare not tell him it's a date, Kurama, I will know. It'll make him nervous but you two can't afford anymore miscommunication. Now this isn't going to be the nervous you know, trust me. Be polite when he spouts forty minutes of stingray facts because he thinks the date is bombing. Take him to lunch/dinner because you know he'll skip breakfast at the very least. He likes you, so please, don't chicken out this time.' She sends and then pauses.
'Also I'm serious; I really hope you don't hate stingrays.' She knows she should leave it at that, but can't help adding on again.
'Be glad they don't have the space for manta rays.' Yukina flashes him a quick smile. Kurama mouths a thank you just as Hiei comes back from the counter with a breakfast sandwich.
o0o0o0o
Her apartment door swings open unexpectedly just as she finalizes the sale of the swimsuit. Yukina listens to her brother once again haphazardly kick off his shoes in her entry way before he shuffles further into her apartment.
"The suit sold," she announces to him once the message is marked as sent and read. However, she doesn't get an answer and Hiei doesn't come to the couch. She can hear him bouncing on his heels in his socks from the doorway. She's already begun composing the scolding of Kurama's life in her head before she turns around.
Instead she gives her brother a long once over, raises her phone, and snaps a picture.
(She assumes by the sheer size of the stuffed stingray in her brother's arms that the date went very, very well.)