Dane Soar
Summery: After the fight with Sensui, when his demon blood awakens Yusuke gets a haircut and a lecture from Kurama. Non-Yaoi.
If you watch the pictures in the end song The Sun Shall Shine Again (Or somehting like that)there's one of Kurama cutting Yusuke's hair I presume after he goes demon the first time. And then I was bitten by a plot bunny and couldn't help writing this.
Snip.
Snip.
Yusuke felt the two heavy hanks of hair fall to the floor. The newly sprouted thick black mane was waging a good fight against his haircutter, but it was no match for Kurama's well-wielded scissors.
Snip.
"Is something wrong?" Yusuke asked suddenly, " 'Cause I get real nervous when my hair dresser is quiet."
Sn-
Glancing over his shoulder, Yusuke's crooked smile fell off his face at Kurama's expression.
-ip
A few moments of silence followed, as Kurama seemed to be trying to find the right words to express whatever thoughts were behind that strange expression he wore. To gain time, he guided Yusuke to turn his head forward again.
Snip.
"You had me scared back there, Yusuke," he said at length.
Snip.
"You really thought I was dead, didn't you?" His chocolate brown eyes unreadable Yusuke pondered the floorboards at his feet.
Sn- pause- ip
"Yes." Kurama's voice was very soft, as if was admitting something he really didn't want to.
Snip.
"I played it over and over in my head," said Kurama and, as if to make sure he had the right words, paused. "There in that cave, I played it over and over, calculating a hundred different ways it could not be true. But all of them kept leading back to the same solution." His voice became even softer than before.
Snip.
The scissors closed this time with definite violence.
"A solution I didn't want to consider. One that I never wanted to become true."
Snip.
The scissors stopped, and there was a silence so long that Yusuke turned around in his chair uneasily.
"Kurama?"
But the youkai had backed up from him, deep green eyes watching the former spirit detective with a frown in them, scissors dangling limply from his fingers.
A small breeze drifted in through the open window, tugging at Kurama's crimson locks and Yusuke's half shorn ebony hair.
"You okay there?" A hint of concern crept into Yusuke's nonchalant question.
"I feel more as if I should be asking you that, Yusuke you haven't been acting anything like yourself since you fought Sensui."
Hiei might have caught the subtle subject change, but Yusuke didn't and was diverted. "I don't know, maybe it's just that I've felt like…" he shrugged, "I don't know; like maybe I don't know what acting like myself is anymore." Feeling his tired muscles protest at the awkward position, Yusuke shifted so he was leaning his side against the chair's back, "Looking at all this demon stuff now," Yusuke lifted his arm and for the millionth time that night eyed the strange tattoos that had imposed themselves on his skin, "I wonder if maybe the price of coming back was a little too much. Maybe I was supposed to be dead that time, like my number was really up that time. You know what I mean?" he asked. "I died once after all. Could it have been that the price for coming back again was a little higher than I thought?"
"Price?" Asked Kurama curiously.
Yusuke looked up from his arm to the youkai, "A long time there in that final bit of that battle with Sensui it wasn't me in there fighting him. There was someone else in me doing all of that. And I don't like that idea. Because I came back like this does it mean I'll always have this guy taking control of me? Is that what I'm going to have to deal with now, because of that choice I made? Looking back, was it really worth it?"
Kurama shook his head, "Yusuke, there is one thing that you learn when you live as long as I have," He knelt so that they were at the same eye level and put the scissors down. "And it's that you always make wrong choices, and do things you will later regret. But when you come back from dying, or very close to it, there is always a reason. Often it's that you've left something behind that you care so much about, it forces you to come back, in any form you can. You come back with another chance to set right what you couldn't before. Do you know what it was you were going to leave behind when you were about to go?"
Yusuke saw Kayko smiling at him, saw Kuwabara flirting with Yukina, saw Hiei sitting by Kurama, saw Genkai sipping tea leaning on Puu, saw Botan on her oar, saw Shizuru smoking, saw his mom drinking; all of them safe and alive.
"Yeah, I guess I do." He said after a minute.
"Now that you remember your reason, does this," Kurama plucked a stand of Yusuke's hair, "Seem like a heavy price to pay to come back to what you left?"
The ex-spirit detective's brown eyes were unreadable for a long moment before he nodded. "Your right, I guess. But you always are, so I guess I'm not surprised." This made Kurama smile slightly, till Yusuke asked, "You said you almost died a long time ago. What was the thing you were going to leave behind?"
In response, the fox youkai smiled and picked up the scissors from the floor, starting on Yusuke's over grown bangs.
Snip.
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"That's not an answer." Yusuke muttered and Kurama chuckled evilly.
Snip.
"What a second something just occurred to me." Said Yusuke suddenly a few minutes later, "You changed the subject back there didn't you?"
Slow snip.
"I want a verbal answer Kurama, no trying to wiggle out of this one. You've gotten me off track but now I remember what I asked you. What's the matter with you now?"
"Nothing."
Yusuke snorted.
"Alright, maybe something small, but nothing you need to worry over."
Snip.
"Kurama, you have a habit of under exaggerating. When you say small, I think of the sort of thing that's been really bugging you."
Sni-pause-p
"Your observant as always, Yusuke."
"Don't you change the subject on me again, I know what you're up to now." Yusuke made his 'I'm an evil demon fear me' face at Kurama, who seemed to think it was rather amusing.
Snip.
"Well?" prompted Yusuke when no answer came.
Snip.
"Kurama?"
Snip.
"Hey get verbal again, or I'll be the one cutting your hair," Yusuke threatened.
Kurama put the scissors on the floor again and when he looked up he had that strange look back on his face that had been there earlier in the conversation.
"I don't think I… like seeing you die Yusuke." he said, and there was a flicker of grief in his eyes. "I'd rather not have you do it again."
"You and me both."
"I thought for a while that you had no reason to come back to all of us again. That this time you were gone for good, and the human world was going to be destroyed. We would fight, but I knew that in the end, it had to be you that defeat Sensui, none of us could. Without you Yusuke, there's little chance." Kurama shook his head sadly, "The rest of us could manage for a while, but eventually someone would come along that only you could fight. You aren't the only hope for the world. But you are the best hope right now. Losing you, even for a brief time, was not good."
"Ow, that stung." Yusuke joked, trying to lighten the mood, but Kurama was not to be cheered, putting his hands on Yusuke's shoulders and forcing him to look right into his eyes.
"I want a promise from you."
"Promise?" asked Yusuke, watching, entranced as the fox demon's eyes slowly traded green for an intense gold.
"Promise me you'll never just stand there again and let yourself die. Promise that you wouldn't go without a fight."
Yusuke nodded and earned a release from Kurama's grasp. The fox demon picked up the scissors yet again to slice off another piece of Yusuke's slowly diminishing bush of hair.
Snip.
"I'm going to hold you to that." Kurama said at length.
"You do that."
Snip.
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"I hear footsteps on in the hall, I believe Kayko is here with the camera."
"Camera?" Yusuke yelped, "What camera!"
Kurama wore an amused expression. "She said that she wanted a few pictures of you as you got your hair cut, so I told her that you had asked me to do it for you. She asked me if she could come, and I gave her my address."
"Traitor." Yusuke muttered, "Think I could get away before she comes in?" He started to get up but was stopped by a quick hand on his shoulder.
"Don't even try it, you won't get far."
With a sigh, Yusuke sank back into his chair, "Damn you. I hate the way you're always right."
With no comment Kurama went back to work with his scissors.
Snip.
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"Don't forget your promise, Yusuke."
Snip.
"Don't worry. I won't."
Snip.
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Life can only be understood backwards,
But it must be lived forwards
(S. A Cuprigard)