As the Rain Fell
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, its universe or any of its characters.
Author's Note: This is a Yusuke/Kurama, Yusuke/Keiko, Kuwabara/Keiko story. Nothing graphic, just a bit angsty. Let me know your thoughts on this. Thank you and enjoy...
Kurama woke, a bit startled, to find the other side of his bed vacant. "Yusuke?" he called softly, hesitantly. Upon the lack of a response, Kurama slid from the bed, glancing at bedside clock as he got to his feet. 3:29 AM glittered in neon light. It was much to early for his lover to be awake for the day. Curious and just a bit apprehensive, he walked from the room in search of him.
"Yusuke?" he called again as he reached the end of the hall that opened up into the living room.
"In here, Kurama," came the quiet response. Yusuke faced the large bay window in their living room, his back turned towards Kurama, his eyes intent on the falling rain.
"What's wrong?" the fox asked as he came to stand behind him.
For a few moments, he didn't reply and continued to gaze out into the storm. Finally, with a sigh, he murmured, "Tomorrow is Keiko's wedding."
"I know. We were both invited. Are you having second thoughts about agreeing to go?" There was a long silence after his question. So, he whispered, "We don't have to go, Yusuke. No one would blame you; especially me."
"It's not that." Another sigh. "I don't know how to explain it."
"Try," his tone was gentle, pleading and understanding.
"It's just... It's Keiko. And while I do want her to be happy, I just wish..."
"You just wish she wouldn't have found happiness in the arms of your best friend."
Yusuke shot him a wry half-smile. "You know me too well."
Kurama returned the smile. "No, Yusuke. I just understand how the situation must make you feel."
Yusuke considered what he had said in silence for a while. Finally, he spoke again, "Kurama?"
He had his face nuzzled into Yusuke's neck. "Hmm?"
"Am I a terrible person?"
The fox shook his head slightly, tracing his tongue lightly along the junction of Yusuke's neck and shoulder, in a succeeding attempt to distract the toushin. "Hardly. In fact, I will admit that, in agreeing to attend in the first place, you're a better man than I."
"You wouldn't have agreed?" Chills were racing up and down his spine. He doubted the things Kurama could do with his tongue were legal.
"Definitely not. In fact, though I am not even involved at all with what she did, were it not for your attending, I would not be going either."
A thoughtful pause. "It wasn't really her fault."
A fine eyebrow raised, "His then?"
"No... My own."
"Yusuke-" was the start of his argument, but Yusuke cut him off.
"No. It's true. I made her wait far too long. I was never there as much as I should have been. And... he was. It isn't difficult to see why she turned to Kuwabara."
Sensing Yusuke was finished for the moment, Kurama said with a frown, "That doesn't justify what was done. It doesn't matter if it was easy or comforting; she was your wife and he was your best friend. That is inexcusable on both parts." He would not stand by and allow Yusuke to take the blame for this. Kurama had never particularly liked Keiko; he simply understood that she was important to Yusuke. For a while, that granted her much leeway in the fox's eyes. No longer.
"I never told you this... But... I knew Keiko was cheating from the beginning."
"I know."
Yusuke turned his head, expression confused, "You knew?"
Kurama sighed. "You occasionally speak in your sleep."
"Oh."
Kurama pulled him closer, held him tighter. "It's alright, Yusuke. Everything will be alright."
"The past is so hard to let go of."
"Believe me, I know." With a gentle sigh, the fox tugged at his shoulders. "Come back to bed."
A frown drifted across his face, "Fox-boy, I-"
"I'll make it worth your while, I promise you," was the husky interruption.
A slight grin replaced the frown. "Fine... You win."
Chuckling into the darkness, green eyes glittered gold for the briefest of moments, "I usually do, Yusuke." Tonight, he would make the younger demon forget.
The dark-haired half-demon followed his red-headed companion back into their bedroom in silence. He still didn't completely understand why this wedding suddenly bothered him so much. He and Keiko had called it quits years ago. In fact, it was even longer since he first realized that their marriage was a failure. He should be over it by now, shouldn't he?
Their marriage had been, he would admit, a hasty one. He had returned from Demon World the first time, and they'd gotten married a few months after they turned 18. The first few years were fine. Then, Yusuke was called back to his father's lands. He was, after all, still a ruler there. So, he began leaving more and more often, was gone for longer and longer periods of time. He should have known how lonely his wife would be. He just never in his life would expect her to turn to... him...
Yusuke had suspected Keiko's affair since he had returned from Demon World once and smelled another man's scent on her skin. At first, he hadn't wanted to believe it. He had turned to Kurama and confided in him. He wouldn't soon forget the flame of anger that had tainted those emerald eyes gold, either. In fact, he firmly believed the fox was more angry than even he, himself, had ever been.
Kurama, though he never told Yusuke, had gone to visit Kuwabara the day after the toushin had told him the truth of what he believed was going on. He was sure Kuwabara would have an explanation about what was going on. The fox always believed the oaf had a stronger moral code than nearly any human he'd ever met. Surely, he had told himself while waiting for Kuwabara to get home, surely this was all just a mistake.
But it wasn't. In fact, a guilt-ridden Kuwabara had confessed to the whole thing. He informed the fox that Keiko was pregnant, and there was no plausible chance it could have been Yusuke's. Anger floored Kurama; he was outraged. How could these two humans, so dear to Yusuke, stab him so thoroughly in the back like this?
"Kurama, believe me when I tell you the first time was an accident. We were both really drunk. Keiko was lonely, and Urameshi hadn't been home in over four months. And after that night..." It became a habit. Something neither was proud of but couldn't stop, either. "Then I found out Keiko was pregnant. And Yusuke hadn't been home in the weeks around the time it was conceived... The baby's mine."
Anger flashing dangerously in his nearly golden eyes, Kurama struggled to control his tone as he hissed, "You need to tell Yusuke."
Kuwabara began to fidget, shuffle his feet, scratch the back of his neck. "I know... But, Kurama, I... I can't face him. Not after this... It'll kill him. I... I can't do that to him."
"But you already have. He has a right to know what is going on behind his back. Perhaps then, he will be able to find happiness of his own."
Two weeks later, Keiko arranged a dinner in which both Yusuke and Kuwabara would be present. To ease her husband's suspicions, she even invited Kurama, as well. To his credit, the fox stayed silent throughout the vast majority of the two's confession to Yusuke.
Though Yusuke did his damnedest not to show the devastation this news brought him, Kurama could see vividly how those deep brown eyes faded and dulled. The light in them effectively extinguished as he forced a smile and whispered, "Well, I hope it works out for you two..."
It was only hours later with Yusuke sitting alone in a vacant park, that the tears came forth, bitter and hot. Kurama waited while the worst of the sobs vacated the broken man before stepping forward and pulling Yusuke to his chest, allowing his silk shirt to soak up the dark-haired man's tears. From that moment forward, Kurama was determined he would be the one Yusuke turned to.
Blinking away the reverie, Kurama moved his eyes onto Yusuke as he guided them firmly but gently to the bed. The brown eyes he loved so dearly were clouded, something he simply wouldn't allow to continue. "Listen to me, Yusuke Urameshi. I love you, and all I ask in return is that you allow me to continue loving you." He followed those quiet words with a tender kiss. Though he knew Yusuke might never, ever be his completely, the piece of the ex-detective's heart he did have would just have to be enough.
As the rain fell outside their house, Kurama gave Yusuke a reason to forget everything else for a while. As the rain fell, Yusuke belonged to Kurama, even if it was just for the night, even if it was just something to ease the loneliness, even if he didn't love him...
Tomorrow, the rain would fall even harder, if only inside Yusuke's soul, and Kurama would stand at his side and do his best to fend it off. But the fox knew, without a doubt, that the toushin's heart was much too broken for him to piece back together. No matter how many years passed, it would always be Keiko Yusuke's shattered remains would long for.
Though both of them, on some level, were aware of the those facts, it didn't stop any of it. Kurama would profess his love just as often as Yusuke would stay silent but allow it. And, in turn, though he never spoke those three words to his bed-mate, he treated Kurama the exact same way Kurama always treated him. And though some human girl had stolen all he had to give of his fractured heart, he would allow Kurama to believe he had as much of it as he wanted. Because in the middle of the night, as the rain fell, it was always Kurama he turned to.
End?