So. Yusuke's spirit is with the grim reaper. Kagome wonders if he knows, if he can feel the way death curdles the air around her. Death is something natural, so it doesn't upset as much as it unsettles her. She seems sweet, however, the reaper's violet eyes blinking curiously at her. She will reserve judgement- after all, Koenma trusts her.
Besides, the last time Kagome had seen her wasn't under the best circumstances. It wasn't fair to judge the spirit for doing her job.
"Yusuke," Kagome says, "who is your friend?"
"Uh, this is Botan." He seems thrown for a loop that she isn't freaking out or demanding answers.
There's something hungry in his expression as she keeps eye contact with him, and the second she understands her heart aches: he's lonely. This is a fourteen year old boy and he's dead, no one he knows can see him, and Kagome has the urge to wrap her arms around him and protect him-
"She's a grim reaper, she's helping me out. Holy shit, you can see me, and you can see Botan-"
"Yusuke-!" Botan looks anxious, but Kagome cuts a hand through the air.
"Enough," she says firmly. "Urameshi and I are casual acquaintances, so discussion of him coming back to life won't affect your process. I don't know much about this business," a lie, "but I know that much from what I've read." A truth. Kagome lies instinctually, because Botan's confusion means Koenma hasn't told her everything.
Still, it leaves Botan looking befuddled and uncertain of how to continue. Yusuke's expression has melted into something of satisfaction, and some of his loneliness ebbs. The sight of it has Kagome standing up and walking over to the guardrail. She stretches her arms up, and beckons Yusuke closer. He cocks his head, confused, but drifts closer nonetheless.
"Yusuke, be careful," Botan warns, and the boy scoffs.
"He can't touch me, anyways," he bites, and he floats over to sit on the guardrail in front of his friend. Yusuke sits, and watches Kagome curiously.
To his surprise, Kagome wraps her arms around him- one around his shoulders and the other cupping his head- and tugs him- tugs him- into an embrace, his head fitting perfectly in the crook of her neck, her fingers sifting through his hair. He feels her heartbeat. Something hollow strikes him, but he won't allow himself to name it. It's almost grief, but it's not. It's almost fear, but it's not. Kagome hits him on the back, a harsh thump that brings tears to his eyes because someone is touching him.
Slowly, like she was the ghost and he the living, he reaches up and hugs her back.
When he has to go, Kagome doesn't cry. Not now, when she knows it's not forever. Not now, when he's coming back.
Yusuke tells her to watch over Keiko for him. "And my mom," he adds in, "and that idiot Kuwabara." She promises she will.
Kagome tells him to be good, to try and not do anything stupid. To come back soon. That he has people who miss him.
"But not me," she says, her eyes misty and her smile tiny with mischief. "We're only casual acquaintances, Urameshi."
Yusuke returns her smile with a private one of his own. It's not as cocky as it usually is- it's as though something's gentled it. Death has weathered his temper for now, at least when faced with her own understanding. "We'll get to know each other soon," the dead boy promises, and then the reaper whisks him away.
Kagome's missed half her classes that day, but she doesn't care.
The door behind her opens, and she hears a shuffle of school shoes. Kagome turns around to face the newcomer on the roof, with her long brown hair and honest, reddened eyes.
"Hi. Miss Keiko, right?"
