Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter One: Screw People I don't Like!

By: Me

Declaimer: I don't own.

"Getting castrated is really going to piss me off." Yusuke said aloud as he stood outside of Keiko's door. He had been there for several minuets now, clenching and unclenching his fists.

This woman, whom he loved, was the only person he feared. She had one hell of a right hook and was easily angered by the things Yusuke did with out thinking them through.

"I'm only…" Yusuke pulled out fingers and started to count on them how many demon tournaments he had taken part it, "five years late?"

'Okay Yusuke ol buddy, it's time to just get this part over with. It's going to hurt but then it will all be over worth.' The mental pep talk was ended with a heavy sigh before he knocked hard on the door with his clenched fist.

"Honey some one is at the door!" It was a man's voice on the other side.

Was this the right address? Yusuke pulled out the paper her had scribbled the numbers on after talking to Keiko's mother. He looked at the number on the wall and it matched. This was where he was meant to go.

"Could you get it? I'm unloading the dishwasher." Yusuke knew that was Keiko's voice. He was in the right place.

He heard the creaking of a chair to his left where he assumed the living room was, then the heavy footsteps of a man coming towards the door. This good hearing was useful in demon world, but in human world it was a little annoying.

"Hello."

Standing at the door was a man in his late twenties with broad shoulders and thick hair, there was a hint of a five o'clock shadow on his chin. Over all he was bigger than Yusuke, but it was because Yusuke had stopped aging after his late teens due to his demon blood.

"Uh, yeah, is Keiko here?" Yusuke asked, shifting one foot from the other. He was getting nervous.

"Yeah she is just finishing up the dishes." He walked back into the house, there was muffled speaking but Yusuke heard every word.

Keiko wasn't the type to live with someone casually, and considering she was 23 the signs were pointing to something so obvious that even Yusuke was having a hard time over looking it.

"Hello?"

Keiko was standing in the doorway, the light shinning behind her now long hair. Her face was a little rounder and her clothes weren't the same as he remembered. Styles change though.

"Hey." He said, seeing her face made him relax slightly. There was still pain to come, but he had missed her so much.

"Yusuke?" she breathed.

"Who did you think it was?" his smile changed to a shit eating grin.

Keiko moved forward to see his face better, it was still so young. "You haven't changed at all."

"Yeah, demon blood, better than Botox."

Keiko hugged him close, "I missed you."

Just when Yusuke started to wrap his arms back around her she jerked away, tears hiding in the corner of her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" Yusuke's hands began to sweat. "I came to see you."

"Yusuke you are five years late!"

"Better late then never right?"

"Wrong!" she almost shouted, Keiko turned, not wanting to alarm her husband she shut the door. "Yusuke, I never expected you to come back here, and now that I've moved on you come back."

"Didn't Kurama tell you I was coming?"

"Oh yeah he did. He told me plenty of times you were coming but then days later he would call me back up and say 'Yusuke has something he needs to take care of, his return will be delayed' then it went from delayed to canceled." She put her hands on her hips, a stance he was quite used to at this point. "I was through waiting for you long ago and nothing has changed. Go back to your demons you aren't wanted here."

Yusuke wished she had slapped him.

"I'm sorry Keiko; I didn't mean to mess up your life. I just missed you."

"Get out of here." She said, tears were starting to leak from her eyes and roll down her cheeks. "How dare you come back Yusuke!"

Before Yusuke could say anything she turned back to her apartment and ran in, when the door was shut behind her he could hear hard sobs. Instantly her husband was at her side consoling her. Keiko chocked it up to bad news.

Yusuke didn't want to hear any more of it, he turned and ran away from the complex and didn't stop until he couldn't hear her voice any more.

Why hadn't any one warned him?

She had looked so sad and instantly that man was there to console her, something he had never done. Yusuke knew he wouldn't be able to change. The demon world tournament would be held again in a year and he would be there fighting to rule demon world.

And if he won…

Yusuke slammed his fist hard into the concrete wall causing splinters to break off and litter the ground. How did he think he was the man for her?

Down the street Yusuke saw something that would bring him great cheer. It was a bar complete with neon lights and someone throwing up in front of it. Just the place he needed to be, of course it wouldn't be like drinking with Jin and Chu but this was the only thing he was going to get.

"What are you having?" the bartender asked once Yusuke sat down on the stool.

"The good stuff, and don't give me any crap about dates and fist loves or whatever the hell he goes on about in that song."

The bar tender laughed and handed Yusuke a strong shot of liquor, Yusuke made the motion to keep it coming and he was not disappointed.

It wasn't long until she came into the room. Who she was exactly Yusuke wasn't sure but she seemed to like Yusuke, his mind was slightly foggy so listening to her was a little hard.

"Who are you?" she asked,

"Yusuke… you?"

"Sarah." She leaned into his side, "You from around here?"

"Born and raised."

"Next shot is on me."

"I'm not really in the mood for whatever it is you are trying to do here." Yusuke was nothing if not frank.

"I'm not looking for a relationship." She said with a wink, "I'm just looking for something to do a little later tonight."

Yusuke laughed, he hadn't ever done that before. Sure he wasn't waiting for anything stupid like marriage. If he wanted to he would but he hadn't ever wanted to yet. Well… that was a strong statement. He had wanted to plenty of times, when girls wore short shorts, but his conscience got in the way of that.

A better way to put it was he hadn't wanted to do that with both body and mind.

"Don't be such a prude." Sarah said before taking a shot. With a quick glance towards the bartender she pulled out her own silver flask. "This stuff if a little stronger, try it."

"Are you not listening to me?" Yusuke stood up, he was ready to bitch this chick out. How thick could you get?

"Hey you! Get off my man!"

"What?" Yusuke and Sarah both asked at the same time. They turned to see a blonde American standing just behind them. Her blue eyes were wide with anger as she pointed her finger at Sarah.

"You heard me!" she shouted, pressing her finger into Sarah's chest. "Go find another man to give the clap to."

The blonde grabbed Yusuke's arm and pulled him toward the other end of the bar. "I'll deal with you in a minuet." She said to Yusuke. Once they were a safe distance away from the Sarah girl she let go of him and laughed.

"Sorry about that, you looked like you were going to slap her so I thought I would intervene."

"Yeah… she didn't get the hint."

Yusuke still wasn't that talkative. His mind left the blonde and went back to Keiko's tearful face as she ran back into her apartment. Back into his arms.

"Are you ok?" she asked, one eyebrow was raised with concern. "You look like someone ran over your dog."

He laughed, "I look that bad?"

"Sure do. Andy."

"Yusuke."

"So Yusuke, I'm not going to ask you about her, but I am going to ask you to get shit faced with me. How does that sound?"

"Sounds awesome."

Yusuke took a second more concentrated look at Andy, she had glossy hair and a white dress that hung like the ones those movie stars wore. Her shoes had five inch heels and were bright red.

She was a pretty girl with expensive things. So pretty that most guys here were looking at him with jealousy, he found it funny that even with a girl like this all he could think about was Keiko.

"Here." Andy handed him a very familiar looking flask.

"Wait. Wasn't this?"

"Shh! Yeah, well there was another reason I wanted to assault her besides saving you from a nasty incurable STD."

Yusuke took the flask and drank deeply from it. There was an instant burning sensation as it landed in the pit of his stomach.

"So why are you out here drinking?"

"I thought we weren't going to talk about it." She said with a smile.

"I just want to hear your depressing story so I won't feel so bad."

"Well… there is a guy that I know and he doesn't pay attention to me."

"He doesn't pay attention to you?"

"Shut up!" Andy said playfully. "You wouldn't understand. I'm just here to drink and say screw you to people I don't like."

"I can agree to that." Yusuke said grabbing the newest shot. "Screw them."

The two clinked their glasses and drank deep.

The next morning Yusuke awoke with a great pounding in his head, rays of sun light were dancing across his face making his eyes hurt even if they were closed.

"The sun shouldn't be aloud to shine this early in the morning."

"Uh huh." Andy moaned from beside him. She was still half way asleep.

Yusuke stretched his arms high above his head when two and two finally added up in his head.

Strange surroundings.

Blonde girl lying in bed with him.

Sun shinning in a window after a night of drinking.

"Ah!"

Yusuke was out of that bed and on the floor before anyone could blink. What the hell had happened here? Did he? Did they?

They did!

"Shit shit shit!"

"Huh?" Andy opened her eyes slowly, much like Yusuke it took a few moments for two and two to register and again her reaction was much like her own.

"Did you?" she asked pointing at him.

"Did I? You are the one that got me drunk."

"Yeah! But I'm the woman and I didn't say yes so there wasn't consent!"

"Oh I think I heard you say yes a few times last night." Even in this unpleasant situation he found time to be a smart ass.

Andy was about to shout something like 'you're an ass' back but instead she took a deep breath to calm herself then said, "All right I just need to calm down." She took the sheets and wrapped them around her naked body.

That was almost painless. Yusuke had expected something to be thrown at his head, but Andy wasn't like most girls she was treating this much more rational that he would have originally thought.

"Yeah… you're right." He grabbed the comforter and pulled it up over his waist.

They were sitting beside one another in complete silence before Andy fell backwards onto the bed. "I'm a jezebel!" she finally shouted, rubbing her temples.

"Who uses that word anymore?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised

"Shut up!" she said pinching his arm. "It's a perfectly common word."

"Ow! You're getting more upset over this than the fact that we had sex."

Andy didn't respond with words. Instead she shot him an icy blue glare; it was one fierce enough to make him apologize.

"Hey! It's ok! We stayed at a Holiday Inn express."

Andy couldn't help but laugh. "I'm going to use the shower, do you think you could take me home?" her cheeks were slightly flushed at the mention of a ride.

"Yeah, sure."

Andy tip toed into the bathroom, Yusuke barley even heard her as she moved around the bathroom. When the water turned on he pulled out the cell phone he had gotten when arriving in living world. It wasn't something he had ever really dealt with before but Koenma had insisted since he wasn't spirit detective anymore he didn't get any of the neat tools like before and Koenma wanted to be able to reach him.

There was a text message, and after a minuet of searching he finally figured out how to open it. The message was from Koenma stating that Keiko was trying to reach him and to call her back.

Yusuke had her number dialed and was calling her before he even realized what he was doing.

"Yusuke?"

"Do you always answer the phone like that?" he decided the joke was a much better way to start today's conversation.

"You need to come over here quick! Something has happened."

"What?"

"One of your friends broke into my house." There was a few moments of silence before she choked out, "We are fine, but I think they were looking for you, I managed to wound one."

"I'm on my way."

Yusuke pulled on his clothes and ran out the door. No second thought as to the blonde in the bathroom.

When Andy came out looking more decent than any one about to make the walk of shame should she saw that she was in fact alone.

"Shit!" she muttered.

Andy called for a cab and made her way home. She tip toed as quietly as she could into her parent's home but a voice echoed behind her.

"André."

She stopped in mid step before turning around. "What?"

"Did you do what I asked?"

The man addressing her was a tall, grey haired man who could have been handsome once but now his cheeks were so sunken in and his skin was a grey color only obtained from never going out side.

He was her father's assistant, William, but as the years had gone on she had found out something horrible about him. He was also dabbling in things that were less than human in nature. Andy had originally ignored it but once she knew what he did he used it to imprison her.

"Yes." She said flatly.

"Then where is he?"

"I asked him for a ride home and he ditched me." Her voice didn't sound so much heart as irritated.

"Hah." He snickered, "It looks like your womanly wiles aren't all that they are cracked up to be."

Andy took in another deep breath trying to calm her anger. "My womanly wiles are just as good as any other girls, if not better. Now you and I both know getting a man to do what a woman wants isn't something that happens over night. Give it a few days and I'll figure it out."

"You had better or else your father will find out how un-American his little girl is."

"I don't need to hear you constant threats." She said, suddenly quite tired. "I will take care of everything if you would just shut up occasionally."

"Women… so pretty… and then they talk."

Andy watched as he turned and left the entry room. When he was out of ear shot she groaned.

Yusuke Urameshi. She had pretended not to know him last night but he was legendary in the demon world. Many sought after him but when he was in the demon world it was too hard to get to him. Now here in living world a bounty had been put on his head instantly.

William wanted the money badly, so bad in fact he was blackmailing Andy into getting Yusuke here for them to take care of.

Andy stomped up the stairs, she didn't like being out of control, nor did she like doing this to a guy like Yusuke. Especially since he seemed like the guy who would give everyone their paybacks, even if you were a girl.