Let It Snow
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Kurama finally forced himself to put down his English textbook. He had been studying for hours on end, only taking bathroom breaks and munching on some snacks. He received a call from Yusuke earlier that day; the spirit detective wanted to grab some lunch but Kurama refused. As much as he wanted to go, he really did need to study for finals after winter break. Not to mention, the weather was terrible. He hadn't seen a winter like this in Japan since he was a little human boy. The snow dropped endlessly from the sky, sometimes accompanied with harsh winds. Either way, he wouldn't have been able to get out of his apartment building even if he did go to lunch with Yusuke.
He closed his eyes and rubbed them for a moment before lifting his weary body out of the chair in the kitchen and walked to the front room. He sat down on the couch and yawned, turning on the television. Some sort of American Christmas special was on. He switched the language to English to further his studying. He had only been relaxing for a few minutes before he started dozing off, only to be rudely awakened by loud knocking outside his apartment. He raised a brow before getting up to answer the door. The very delinquent he had refused lunch with had shown up anyway.
"You should take a break from being the smartest good-looking guy in school," Yusuke said with a smirk. He had snow all in his hair and on his puffy winter coat. Kurama chuckled, although he wasn't sure how to respond to Yusuke's odd compliment. "We goin' to lunch or what?"
Kurama invited Yusuke into the apartment and walked over to the window. The weather didn't seem to have gotten any better and the door leading outside of the building had too much snow around it. There was no way to leave without having some sort of difficulty getting in and out. The fox demon shook his head. "It looks pretty bad out there." Yusuke shrugged, closing the door behind him before taking off his coat and hanging it up.
"Try walking all the way here in that blizzard," the younger man retorted. "All the subways are shut down so I just came here on my own. It's crazy out there." Kurama smiled and sat down on the couch, resuming his English studies by watching the American Christmas movies that were being broadcast. Yusuke sat next to him, comfortably putting his feet on the coffee table. "Got anything good to eat? I'm starving!" The fox demon laughed. It seemed like the spirit detective was always hungry.
"I have some popcorn," Kurama suggested. At Yusuke's nod he once again lifted himself up and went to the kitchen to make popcorn. It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I've bought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Kurama switched the language back to Japanese as soon as he returned to the living room with Yusuke's popcorn. He knew the detective would get irritated if he wasn't able to understand what was going on in the movie they were watching. Once the commercial breaks started up, the two talked casually about friends, school, work and whatever else there was to talk about. Since they missed the warning on the television, they weren't ready for the power to go out and leave them in complete darkness. Only the reflection of whiteness from the snow outside shone any light in the apartment.
"What the hell?" Yusuke stood up and walked carefully over to the light switch to flip it on and off, seeing if it would have any effect, though he ended up stubbing his toe on the leg of the coffee table on his way back. "Son of a-" he started to say, but Kurama interrupted him.
"I'll go get some candles," the fox demon said. He left the room for only a little while before returning with small, lit candles and a portable radio. He turned it on and the two listened to the weather broadcast which announced the obvious power outage they had just experienced.
"Well that's just great," Yusuke said. "Now what are we gonna do?"
"I don't know, but you should probably stay here until the power is working again. They're advising everyone to stay indoors until the storm passes." Yusuke scowled and sat back into the couch. It wasn't that Kurama was boring, but without the television to entertain them all they could do was talk. Or do more studying, which is exactly what Kurama intended to do.
"Oh no you don't, fox boy!" Yusuke exclaimed, snatching the textbook from Kurama's hands and throwing it across the room.
"Hey!"
"If we're gonna be stuck here in the dark for god knows how long, you have to entertain me." Kurama raised an eyebrow.
"…Entertain you how, exactly, Yusuke?" The spirit detective shrugged his shoulders. He knew he didn't like that husky sound in Kurama's voice, though.
"I dunno, just forget I said anything." Yusuke blushed, sighing before he stood up and grabbed a candle. "I'm gonna get something to drink from the vending machines. You want anything?"
"I'll take an orange soda," Kurama replied with a smirk. Once Yusuke closed the apartment door, he chuckled, walking across the room to retrieve his textbook. He could just wait for Yusuke to fall asleep before he started studying again. The spirit detective returned shortly with two sodas and some chips to munch on. The popcorn was mostly gone and already cold and stale as it was.
They sat down in the dark and talked for a while until Yusuke became bored and couldn't think of anything else to talk about. For once, it was nice to just hang out with a friend without having to worry about fighting the next demon that came along or saving Keiko or even the world again. It was a nice break, so Yusuke decided to simply relax. Unfortunately, without the heater keeping the apartment warm, Yusuke became extremely aware of how cold the whole place was.
When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight,
All the way home I'll be warm.
"Don't you have blankets or something? I've got my coat on and I'm still freezing cold!" the spirit detective complained. Kurama nodded – barely visible to Yusuke in the dim candlelight – and ventured off to bring out lots of thick blankets that could keep them warm.
"Most of them are small – only made for one person to use them, so it looks like we'll have to share," Kurama said when he emerged from the bedroom with four or five blankets. Yusuke made a face, warily allowing Kurama to sit close to him so that they would both be kept warm underneath the blankets. But even with multiple layers of clothing, coats, and five blankets thrown over him, he was still cold!
Pulling the blankets up to his nose, he tried to sneak his way closer to Kurama. The fox demon had already begun reading his textbooks again; Yusuke figured he wouldn't notice, but it was quite the contrary. If anything, Yusuke noticed that Kurama was moving closer to him as well. "This never leaves the cave," Yusuke said, quoting a character from a Japanese-dubbed American comedy he had once seen with foreign exchange students. Kurama laughed.
"Whatever you say, Yusuke."
The hours went by slowly; it was nearly two in the morning and the power was still out. Kurama was beginning to doze off, but he forced himself to try to finish the last few pages of the chapter he was on. He would have finished it, but he soon realized that there was no chance he'd memorize what he read if he was this drowsy. He sighed, marking the page he left off on and placed the book on the coffee table. It was only then that he noticed Yusuke had fallen asleep on his shoulder. His head was very heavy, Kurama thought. He chuckled quietly before running his hands through the spirit detective's hair. He was glad that Yusuke had thought twice before using gel that day. His hair was so soft without all that gooey muck in it.
Kurama was mesmerized by how calm the spirit detective looked while he slept. When he was awake, he was either angry or… Well, mostly just angry. Kurama loved all the sides of Yusuke, whether he was angry or goofing off, but he especially liked those rare occasions that rose during missions where he showed compassion toward his friends. Somehow, as little as they saw each other nowadays, Kurama felt something more for the spirit detective. He couldn't put a name on just what that was.
Yusuke moved a little bit, seemingly snuggling more into Kurama's shoulder. The fox demon blushed, then cautiously rested his arm around Yusuke's shoulders. He was incredibly warm, and Kurama was thankful for that. It was below twenty degrees in his apartment, according to the last time he checked the thermostat. Relaxing his own muscles, Kurama drifted off into a lovely, dreamless slumber.
A loud noise coming from the television woke Yusuke up. He yawned and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his coat. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and immediately noticed that the power was turned back on. He looked to the clock: it was seven in the morning, judging by the sunlight shining through the windows. "Hey, Kurama, it stopped snowing," he said. Looking down, Yusuke realized that they were both lying on the fox demon's very small couch… And the spirit detective had been lying on top of Kurama's warm, sleeping body. "Gah!" He jumped up, falling clumsily off of the couch. His fall woke Kurama, who sat up in alarm.
"Yusuke, are you okay?" he asked, helping his friend up. The spirit detective looked away, his cheeks all red.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, I better get going. My mom will wonder where I was… Ah, who am I kidding, she doesn't give a damn." He chuckled awkwardly, quickly sliding his shoes on. "Uh, thanks for the popcorn."
Kurama smiled. "You're welcome." They stood in the living room for a long while, the sound of Christmas carols from the television filling the silence. Kurama glanced at Yusuke before slowly closing the space between them. He wrapped his arms around Yusuke's waist, their lips so close to touching. Yusuke's body went numb, his eyes wide. He didn't know what to do, but he noticed that Kurama had stopped advancing.
So Yusuke finished what was started and pressed his lips to Kurama's, his hands tightly gripping the fox demon's shoulders. It lasted a lot longer than he thought it would. Their arms tightly wrapped around each other, Yusuke pushed Kurama back onto the couch. He ran his rough hands through Kurama's silky smooth hair; Kurama could barely hide the moan that escaped his throat. Something about that made Yusuke go wild, and he was considering staying there all day. He broke away from Kurama, pushing himself up to look at the foxy man beneath him. Smirking, Yusuke asked, "Guess I should stay 'til that storm passes, huh?"
Kurama smirked back. "Of course," he replied.
Needless to say, the two were kept very warm and stayed contentedly inside Kurama's apartment the whole day. Luckily for them, the storm started up again later that night.
The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still good-bying,
But as long as you love me so,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!