A/N: hey guys! So I'm doing this just to blow off some steam, my stories are going to be on hiatus for awhile, but I've written some odds and ends here and there, and wanted to share them with all of you!

They have no place in the main fic and there isn't a specific timeline, so feel free to make them up yourself. They're unedited, mostly written on a mobile app, so excuse any mistakes.

This first piece is in Yusuke's POV. Enjoy.

Edit: UGH! I will NEVER use the mobile app to write or upload these again! I went in and fixed it because it was just that obnoxious!

Two creams, no sugar.

That was how Ettie took her coffee. Just enough cream of make it light and take an edge off the bitterness. But not enough to ruin the actual flavor of the coffee.

She preferred it heated in a percolator. Or a French press (whatever the hell that was). But she would take instant if that was all that was available.

She drank it out of chipped mugs or porcelain tea cups. She drank it straight from the pot if she needed the extra boost. Or, if she had company, she would set out the old handmade ceramic coffee cups and clutch her hands tightly around them as if she were trying to feel their warmth straight to her bones.

Ettie and coffee often went hand in hand. And her apartment always smelled like it, mixed with the drying herbs that hung from the ceiling and walls of her kitchen.

Stepping into Ettie's apartment was like stepping into another world—a world that was old and unfathomable to someone as young as me.

But it screamed Ettie from every corner and crevice. It spoke more of her character than the fake face she wore everyday or her general appearance ever did. I liked spending time here, it made me feel far less hollow. Being in my empty apartment made my stomach twist in unpleasant ways; the memories there still too thick.

On her days off she went about things like I wasn't even there most of the time. She tended to her herb garden, which sat out on the balcony during spring and summer, and then was gathered up and brought inside during fall and winter. She spent an insane amount of time just drawing, mostly morbid and dark things, and I often wondered if they were things from her old life, but I never asked.

Sometimes I would catch her sketching me...or even one of the guys. Hiei made an appearance in them a lot, but I'd seen her throw those in the trash more than once, as if ashamed of them. Her pictures of Kuwabara were nice and I considered telling him about it once or twice, but figured it was better kept to myself—wouldn't want his ego to inflate to astronomical proportions after all.

She even had a couple of Kurama—eyes shrewd and jawlines sharp.

But it was the ones of people I didn't know that interested me the most—the color splashed pages of ram horned demons, dark creatures with ravens on their arms, and women with wild hair. Bloodied hands clutching primitive weapons and eyes cruel as well as kind.

I kept the questions stuck to the tip of my tongue, knowing if I asked she would hide them away. But I suspected these people were long gone, possibly even dead. And it was best to let them rest, bringing up the past never did anyone any favors.

Though there was one...

Just one I couldn't resist opening my mouth about. "Who's that?"

Ettie was lost in her own little world, as she often was when she was high and in the mood to draw, but my question made her hand freeze. The piece of charcoal she was using tumbled from her fingers and rolled across the paper.

She cleared her throat, the surprise short lived, and picked it back up again.

"No one," she replied, eyes carefully trained on the table.

She continued to draw and for once in my life I shut my mouth and didn't open it again.

But the picture she drew today...it held a little more care to it, a little more detail than most of the others. And the eyes, I realized...

They were just like her's.

It was a woman, older, skin a deep tan just like Ettie's. A cousin? A sister? ...Her mother?

Either way, I was certain they were family.

When she was finished, Ettie carefully tore the page from her sketchbook with blackened fingers, and wandered into the other room. It was about to be put into that box, I knew, that one she rarely pulled out and never let me look inside. The one she kept locked up, the key so well hidden even Hiei couldn't find it.

I never saw her pull the key out or put it away, it was like it opened with pure magic alone. And maybe it did. Nothing would surprise me with her anymore.

Hiei made a plan to break into it sometime ago, but it mysteriously goes missing whenever Ettie isn't around.

It wasn't my place to butt into her life, I told myself this daily, but it still ate at me. I wanted to know everything about her, even the mundane everyday crap. Like how many creams she liked in her stupid coffee.

I guess that's just how I knew, ya know? That I was in love with her.

When Ettie came shuffling back into the kitchen, her shoulders slumped, I stood up without thinking and wrapped her in my arms.

She stiffened up like a board at first, but quickly fell into my embrace, her cold hands pressing into my shoulder blades when she reached up to grip me back. I hugged her tight, afraid to let her go. Afraid she would come to her senses in a second, just like she always did.

But stoned Ettie...she never reacted how I thought she would, no matter how much time I spent around her like this. She liked to keep me on my toes, I guessed. That was okay, I thought. Better on my toes than numb.

The hug lasted a long time, as if she desperately needed the comfort of another's touch. And I was all too happy to give it to her. I wanted to be her friend first...her prospective boyfriend second. I respected her choices, even if her hot and cold attitude annoyed the living crap out of me.

But, that was just her nature...wasn't it?

Loving her didn't give me the right to force her into anything. And loving her alone wasn't enough to make her suddenly love me back.

And I told myself that was okay, it had to be. Just so long as I never lost moments like these...