-Murders and Cards-
The faint smell of a rose garden tickled Kuwabara May's nose and she turned her face in the direction of the man that had stirred the air as he passed by her. It felt strange, his aura but all she could see was his back, locks of red hair blowing in the winds of Tokyo. May shook her head, disregarding what she referred to as her "sixth sense" as she continued reading the headlines of the newspaper. Another killing spree had ensued, the fourth of such a violent nature in the last six months. Her eyebrows drew together as she read the list of victims. "Hazayaki Michiru, Masamune Yuke, Tatakani Kai…" she read under her breath. So many names of people she might have met in the future but whose lives had been snuffed out so prematurely. "…Po Misao!" she exclaimed, louder than she had meant to causing some nearby pigeons to startle.
Her eyes zoned out on the name. May had been classmates with the girl and had just talked to her in the local convenience store two days prior. It bothered her not just because she knew the person but also because that meant the killer had to be close by. "Unless he's moved on to the next piece of the city," she said quietly. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment before folding up the paper and walking over to a recycling bin.
"Hey, excuse me, but if you're done with that could I take a look?" spoke someone behind her. Having already felt him walk up to her May turned to look at the boy calmly. His aura is strange, too, May thought as she sized him up briefly. He had a raw look to his brown eyes that instilled trust and distrust at the same time. A punk, she thought without really searching for the word. She let out some air through her nose as she smiled to herself. Whatever.
"Be my guest," she said quietly, handing him the neatly folded paper.
"Heh, thanks," he said grinning taking the paper and sitting on the bench she'd just vacated. She turned to leave but glanced at his face to see his reaction to the headline on the front page. His grin had disappeared and he seemed to be reading intently, his dark brows lowering over his eyes. His hair was neatly combed back with gel and she wondered why someone would bother but then dropped the thought as she started to walk away. She breathed in the air, the smell of roses finally fading with the more prominent smell of the atmosphere before a heavy down pour.
May looked up at the sky, tilting her head in thought as she continued walking, the park transitioning into the busier part of the city. She was soon in the middle of a crowd which moved across a couple of intersections before they broke off into smaller groups heading to their destinations.
The remainder of the crowd which she continued to stand in stopped and she let her gaze drift back to earth as she waited for the crosswalk signal to change. It had been a while since she'd been in this part of Tokyo but she had been putting off visiting her relatives for long enough.
May had been living on her own for a year now and hadn't seen her cousins during that time. She sighed as she remembered the phone call she'd received from Kuwabara Shizuru. "You'd better get your butt back here to visit Kazuma and I! Oh, I know! This weekend, it's my birthday and Kazuma's treat. Be there!" She chuckled gently, hearing her cousin Kazuma shouting in the background that he had made no such promise but with Shizuru having said it, the war had already been won. And there's nothing wrong with a free meal now and then, May thought to herself as she crossed the street with the still smaller crowd. Feeling a drop of rain on her nose she rubbed the sleeve of her trench coat across it to dry it before popping out her clear-shell umbrella. Not two seconds later, it began to pour and May smiled. It had been some time since it rained.
The glory was short-lived though as she approached the small hole-in-the-wall café that Shizuru had picked out for the reunion/birthday/drain Kazuma's wallet date. Her smile became subdued as she walked in, carefully shaking out her umbrella before closing it and moving up to the receptionist's desk. "Hello, ma'am, how may I help you?" asked the young woman behind the desk.
"I'd like a table for three, please. And put it under Kuwabara so the rest of the party can use it for reference," she said quietly, her smile having hid itself as she crossed the threshold of the business. The hostess nodded and picking up three menus guided May to a small booth in the corner of the building, windows being on the one side.
"Will this do?" the hostess asked as May sat down on one of the benches. "Yes, thank you," May said quietly. She ordered a hot chocolate as she waited for Kazuma and Shizuru to arrive. May pulled out her cell phone and checked the time. Her cousins were running late, it already being fifteen minutes since they had planned to meet. Leaning back against her seat, May gazed outside and saw the rain still coming down in torrents.
"Ma'am, your chocolate," a waitress said and May looked over seeing a young woman, younger than herself putting the mug on the table. There was whipped cream atop the beverage with chocolate sprinkles and May had to smile just slightly.
"It looks wonderful," May said nodding to the girl. The girl grinned and nodded asking if there was anything else that she could get for May currently which May declined and sent the girl on her way. May swiped a finger into the whipped cream and stuck it in her mouth as she looked back outside. The sidewalks were still incredibly crowded in spite of the rain and she mildly envied them. She'd rather be out walking in it than waiting for her cousins to arrive.
She was about half way done with the chocolate when she finally heard the hostess saying, "And here she still sits, waiting." Her tone was cheery but there was a slight undercurrent as if she were chastising the late comers. May looked up to see Shizuru looking bored at the hostess while Kazuma was going goo-goo over the poor girl. May laughed slightly through her nose as she stood up. "Better late than never as I always say," she said warmly.
"Ah, May! I'm sorry we were late; it was this blockhead's fault. He neglected to tell his employer that he needed to get off early today to accommodate our schedules," Shizuru explained, knocking Kazuma in the head before embracing her tiny cousin.
"Like I said, Shiz, it's better than if you had stood me up," May said turning her gaze to her male cousin. Kazuma stopped rubbing his head where his sister had knocked him and looked down at May with a slightly shocked expression before bursting into laughter.
May's eyebrow rose slightly as she looked at him. "I don't see what's so funny, Kazuma," she said quietly with the undercurrent of danger she usually spoke to him with when he laughed at her or for no apparent reason. He pointed at her, teary-eyed.
"You haven't grown at all!" he said rather loudly. After looking at him for a moment more, May decked him before sitting down calmly across from Shizuru. May had never been very tall but she had been perfectly content with her 5'5". Shizuru ordered a Diet Coke from the waitress and sent the girl on her way when Kazuma hadn't gotten up from the floor.
"Man, May, you might not have grown height wise but you're sure a lot stronger than you were a year ago," Shizuru said as she looked at her kindly. May looked up with a slight light of surprise in her eyes.
"Is that so?" she asked softly before turning back to her cocoa for a sip before giving a soft "oh" and reaching into her trench coat pocket. She handed a small, meticulously wrapped gift to Shizuru. "Happy Birthday, you old lady," she teased lightly, wrapping both hands around her mug after her brown haired cousin took the present from her.
"You didn't have to, May," Shizuru said opening it in spite of her words. May simply shrugged, her red tipped curls slipping off her shoulders. "By the way," Shizuru continued as she unwrapped the present slowly, "I like what you've done with your hair, it suits you although people who don't know you would beg to differ."
'Thanks," May said smiling a little more brightly. Her hair, which was naturally black, had currently acquired red, two-inch long tips, thanks to her hairdresser. May was generally very quiet but she had an edge to her that only her closest friends and family knew about. Others simply saw the sweet girl image they expected of her and she delivered like a skilled actress.
"Ah, May! It's the movie, Blood Tears that we saw before you moved out and on your own. You're always thinking," she said with a warm smile. May returned it adding a shrug as she looked away to see Kazuma had finally joined them at the booth. He had a new swelling on his cheek from where she'd decked him and she shook her head mentally. The waitress had come back with Shizuru's drink and asked for Kazuma's and to see if they had their orders figured out. "The Chicken Ponzite with an egg roll and wantons, please?" May ordered. She always looked at a café/restaurant's menu before going and thus was always ready.
Shizuru ordered something with steak as did Kazuma and the waitress nodded before walking away. The three of them made small talk mainly consisting of the siblings asking May about her time living by herself. It hadn't been too exciting. She'd gotten a job and worked for her living but was soon going to quit so that she could spend her time at the music academy just a few hours away.
"You're going to go even farther away?" Kazuma exclaimed over their food. May stopped her fork halfway to her mouth and lowered it looking at her cousin and nodding.
"It's not like I come to visit that often anyway so it won't be much different, Kazuma. Besides, I need to do something with myself other than arranging flowers for the rest of my life." Kazuma continued to mutter and May wrinkled her forehead in confusion. Why did it matter so much to him?
"Well, I'm behind you, May. Besides you shouldn't let your talent go to waste so the music academy will be just the thing," Shizuru said elbowing Kazuma in the side. May hummed shortly nodding her head before letting her gaze move to her almost empty plate. There were a few pieces of cabbage and leek left and she pushed it away, drinking the rest of her chocolate before moving to stand.
"It was nice catching up with you two, but the last subway home tonight leaves in about fifteen minutes and it'll take me at least ten to walk to the station," May said moving out of the booth and looking down at her cousins. Kazuma was still muttering but Shizuru blinked once before saying, "I don't think so, May." May looked at Shizuru in shock. "What I mean to say, hun, is that you are staying at our house tonight."
"But I have work tomorrow!" exclaimed May, her blue eyes flashing with alarm as Shizuru shook her head.
"Nah, I already took care of it. I called your mother to ask for the name of the flower shop you work for and called in to say you were taking vacation. You're here for the weekend," Shizuru said with a wry smile. "And don't worry about clothes. Mom discovered some you left behind when you moved out and she also said if you need more it would be her treat for us to go shopping." May rubbed her face with her hand. "Well, Kazuma, we'll leave the bill to you seeing as you're going out with the guys. Make sure you actually come home tonight, will ya?" Shizuru said as she and her brother stood. He began to protest but a sharp look silenced him and grumbled.
"Fine fine, but Urameshi might crash at our place." May raised a curious brow but Shizuru shrugged her shoulders and towed May out of the café into the sprinkling rain by her elbow.
May barely glanced at the exterior of the Kuwabara residence before Shizuru pushed open the door and towed her in behind her. She shrugged out of her jacket, looking around the place. It was exactly as she had left it a year before and she smiled slightly in appreciation. Ditching her shoes at the entry way, May followed Shizuru into the living room and sat down at the low table as her cousin pulled out a deck of cards. It triggered another smile as May remembered their long conversation filled nights during which they would play random card games.
Shizuru began to deal easily into two separate decks and, handing one to May, turned over a card from her own stack and a game of War commenced. They played quietly for a few minutes before Shizuru got up and turned on the radio onto her favorite station and sat back down. They continued their game like that for a bit before May thought about Kazuma.
"So, Shiz. Is the job Kazuma's doing the same as the one he's been into these last few years?" she asked, thinking back to how Kazuma used to come home with various nicks and scratches and sometimes even broken bones after disappearing for a couple weeks at a time.
"Yep, same one. It pays well enough so I don't complain. I just wish he would come home a little more often than he does. He actually just got back from being gone for a month and I told him that he better be around for longer than two weeks before his next assignment. He assured me that his latest assignment has been made to keep him here for a good couple months at the least," the older girl explained as she swiped her tenth win in a row. May hummed lightly at this and let their silence fill with the radio's music.
"Neh, Shiz?" May asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah May?"
"What is the name of the work Kazuma does?" May asked, keeping her eyes on the cards and table. Shizuru froze momentarily before flipping over a two to which May flipped a five and won the round. May had been really thinking about her male cousin's work a lot the last few months after realizing that she wasn't going to be able to keep up work at her own job while at the same time going to the academy.
"Well, I guess he calls it detective work," Shizuru said rather vaguely. May placed her cards on the table and looked up at her cousin. "Why do you ask, May?"
"Oh, I'm looking into a part time job so that I keep the money coming in while I attend the academy," she said, watching for Shizuru's reaction. It was subtle but May saw her cousin's gaze shift slightly to the right.
"I'd keep looking, if I were you. I don't think Kazuma's employer is hiring currently," Shizuru said putting her cards on the table and looking May in the eye. May hummed quietly, neutrally as the sound of people outside the door to the residence sounded and Shizuru looked up behind May. The door opened and May heard Kazuma complaining about something and she laughed through her nose lightly, turning her body to look at the entryway.
Kazuma walked in with a familiar looking boy with honest brown eyes. "Hey," May said. The boy looked directly at her for a moment then, mirroring each other, they pointed and said, "It's you." Kazuma looked at May then his friend then exclaimed, "You know each other?!"
"Well, 'know' would be a relative description," May said shrugging.
"Yeah, we interacted earlier this afternoon," the boy said at the same time May said, "He asked for my newspaper." They looked at each other and the boy laughed. "Gosh, Kuwabara. I thought it was amazing that Shizuru was your sister but if this one is the cousin you mentioned then it really begs the question, 'what went wrong with you?' now doesn't it?" the boy asked and Shizuru laughed as Kazuma looked about ready to kill.
"And if you're the friend Kazuma referred to earlier then you're Urameshi," May said easily, standing up and taking a few steps closer. The boy grinned and nodded.
"You got that right. Urameshi Yusuke," he said extending his hand to her.
"Kuwabara May," she answered taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. He smiled but it faded suddenly. He looked confused.
"You're the one I've been sensing this whole time?" he asked. It was May's turn to look confused as Kazuma shrugged.
"May's always felt like that," Kazuma said looking at Shizuru who nodded in agreement. "Felt like that"? What did they mean? May looked from one to the other and then back at Yusuke. Kazuma caught his eye though and shook his head almost imperceptibly. Before May could remark on the exchange, Yusuke shrugged.
"Right right, I guess it doesn't matter." He looked down at the table to see their cards and asked, "Were you playing a game before we came?" May only nodded as Kazuma decided rather loudly that he wanted to play too and thus the topic they'd been discussing was swept under the rug and they sat down to a game of Go-Fish.
Casidhe here! I know... another fanfiction for me to keep up on? But never fear! I will continue to write the other two. Let me know what you think! 3