Disclaimer: I do not own YYH or its characters/events that have happened.
The Dream: Chapter 2
Lilly screamed, jerking up from her sleeping position, her body dripping with sweat and her mind racing from the nightmare's horrific scenes. It was a little before 7AM, the rain had stopped sometime while she slept and the sun was starting to peek over the tall buildings of the city.
To her surprise, her bedroom door flung open without any warning and two men stood in front of her with panicked looks on their wide awake faces. "Lilly what is it? Is someone here?" Kuwabara's voice was far too loud for the time of day and his stance showing he was ready for a fight. With Yusuke standing behind him scanning the room from top to bottom, but when he noticed nothing was out of place he slowly turned to the sweating girl.
"Lilly?" She seemed in her own world, her eyes glazed over as though she was unaware of their presences. Kuwabara slowly sat at the edge of her bed and placed a hand on top of her shaking shoulder. The contact seemed to awaken her from her comatose state, "Uhh K..Kuwabara?"
"Lilly are you okay? We heard you scream and came to check on you." The woman's eyes lazily drifted over Kuwabara towards Yusuke and back, "Ohh y..yea I'm fine, just well… just the dream again." Kuwabara gripped her shoulder tighter, drawing her eyes back up towards his. "Does this happen a lot?" She paused for a moment taking in her surroundings, both men were still in only their boxers and she was in her normally sleeping attire, a crop top with only a pair of panties on; feeling slightly embarrassed she decided it was nothing to comment on, having a feeling the two men wouldn't leave until they got an answer they were satisfied with.
"Well yea..I mean yes. I have had the same dream turned nightmare since I can remember, just lately.." she paused trying to steady her breathing, "Lately they have been getting worse."
Kuwabara, knowing she was not lying to them, nodded his head and quickly got off her bed. "We will just let you get dressed then, sorry for bargaining in like that." His hand reached up behind his head and he scratched his neck awkwardly, "We will just be down stairs." Kuwabara turned towards the door ready to take his gentlemanly leave; but before his finally exit he grabbed Yusuke's shoulder forcefully and dragged him out of the room while muttering about a moral code and a half naked woman.
Once the two men left, Lilly slowly crawled out from underneath her covers and walked over to the window staring up at the sky. Why are they getting so bad? It doesn't make since, nothing I do is going to make them stop. But how can I keep living like this, it's breaking my spirit.
Lilly was on the bottom step of her stairs dumping out between the kitchen and living room, she stopped when she heard Yusuke's low whispers. "We have to tell them, after all it is about them isn't it?" "Urameshi, I told you last night. I will not bring her into this, it's bad enough my sister and Keiko are involved." The two boys bickered back and forth, something they had done all night after hearing Lilly's dream. With a low and annoyed sigh Yusuke gave up, "Fine, but we have to at least tell Koenma about her energy." Without hearing a response from Kuwabara, she knew he must have agreed.
Lilly took that last step and walked into the living room, "Good morning, sorry about earlier. I hope I didn't worry you boys too much." Her smile was bright for something so dark happening to her every night. The boys both fidgeted and waved their hands around, reassuring her it was no big deal. "Well would you like some breakfast before you leave? I can make pancakes." "Oh hell yeah!"
After breakfast and Kuwabara offering to clean the dishes, the three took to their separate ways. Yusuke calling Botan for a ride to Reiki, Kuwabara headed to the school trying to get a hold of his professor as to why he missed morning class, and Lilly started her long walk to work.
Even though she lived on the higher end of town, she refused to buy a car. After both her parents died in a car accident, she swore off them; they were an added risk of danger that she didn't want in her life. It took her a little shy of an hour to finally arrive at work; walking into the restaurant the door bell rang loudly and her boss appeared right next to her.
"You are late Rose, where the hell where you? Your shift started 10 minutes ago and this is the second time this week?" Her boss was a tall, broad man with salt and pepper hair and a glint of anger in his eyes. He always looked the same, never faltering in his anger towards her and it made her wonder why he even kept her as a waitress, other than the boost of business he received when she started.
With her boss towering over her, she made her way to the back room to gather her apron, pen and paper she would need to take orders. "I'm sorry I am late, I know how much of an inconvenience it is for you to actually have to do work for that 10 minutes, but I'm here now so let me do my job." Her words came out strong and dripped with sarcasm, she didn't really need this job and hated when she was scolded for little things – after all the restaurant was never too busy during the in between hours of breakfast and lunch. She pushed her way past the large man she walked over to happily greet the kitchen crew and asked what the specials were for the day. The man followed her like a shadow, continually scolding her for her mouth and blatant disrespect; but once the door bell rang again she left him near the kitchen to greet her first costumer.
The long 10 hour shift had drug on for what seemed like days instead of hours, her boss never giving her a moment of peace from his ranting. On her walk back home after she stayed late to help close, she wondered why she even put up with that man. She knew that with the money left to her from her parents she could just buy the restaurant out from underneath his nose and fire him for his anger issues, but she wouldn't let his attitude get the best of her, especially since she hated spending her parents' money on such frugal things.
As she turned the last corner and headed down her street she saw someone sitting on her front steps, slowing her pace she wondered who the strange figure could be; she questioned if she should go home or call up a co-worker to come get her. Never the less she continued towards her house, after getting a few houses closer she saw a mess of orange hair on top of the strangers head. "Kuwabara?" The figure turned towards her, "Hey Lilly!" waving his hand in the air with his normal goofy smile plastered on his face. She walked up to him and gave him a small hug, "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" He fumbled for the right words to say when he finally sighed and let his shoulders slum.
"Actually I was hoping I could help you with your nightmare problem."
"What," taken back by the offer she couldn't help but let out a giggle. "You want to help me?"
"Well of course, Kazuma Kuwabara can't just sit by and let a beautiful girl be in pain." Classic Kuwabara, always the knight in shining armor kind of gentleman. "Well okay, what do you have planned?"
As Kuwabara started ranting on about this friend of his who had just finished with schooling to become a doctor, the two entered Lilly's house and she made them some tea as they sat down on the couch.
"Okay so let me get this straight. You have some mysterious friend who you think can help me because he works with herbal medicine?" To say Lilly was confused would have been an understatement. Although Kuwabara was a friend it seemed very strange that one his friend would want to help, or that he would even agree to talk to her.
"Well yea, Urameshi and I were talking about it last night and we think he could really help." Kuwabara seemed tense and completely unsure of himself, his hand was rubbing the back of his neck the whole time as he talked and even though he was smiling it never seemed to reach his eyes.
Lilly's voice was dry, as though she had rehearsed her little speech hundreds of times. "Well, I've been to many doctors over the years and they never seemed to help. They all tell me it is a psychological after math effect of my parent's death and that with the right counseling I can get over it. Never have they explained why I remember having the dream before they died, but in my experience, no offense to your friend, doctors aren't worth much other than one high bill after another. And besides why do you think your friend would even talk to me? He doesn't know me."
Kuwabara laughed, it was a genuine laugh this time seemly to come from some deep part of his soul, "Kurama wouldn't say no and I already called him, he is eagger to try out some of his newest herbs on someone other than himself and well..us!"
Lilly sat in silence thinking over the proposition for a few minutes and asked one final question, "Where would we have to go to met Mr. Kurama?"
Knowing she was on the verge of saying yes, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, "We will be going a few hours out of town to an old temple. Master Genkai lives there and Kurama stays with her from time to time. He will be there tomorrow; we can go up and spend the weekend. You will love it there I promise."
After a few more minutes of consideration, Lilly agreed. It couldn't hurt to get another professional opinion, plus it would get me out of work for the weekend. So why the hell not!
"Ohh Yea!" He threw his fist up in the air, "We will be leaving tomorrow at noon on the train, meet me there?"
"Okay, see you there."
After Lilly showed him out she went upstairs to pack, she had a small duffle bag full of clothes and hygiene products. Well I guess tomorrow starts a new adventure of trial and error; I just hope this Kurama will finally be the one who can help. With a heavy sigh she drifted off to sleep.
So there is no confusion, I have put Kuwabara in graduate school, not too sure what for yet, but I like the idea of him still being in school. Something I was actually proud of in the show – that he got his shit together and was doing well in school, even after all the demon fighting.