Disclaimer: This isn't my sandbox, I'm just playing in it for a while.

Notes: I stole these prompts. You hear me? I stole them like the dirty thief that I am. This is the 4th prompt (excuse me) from the Delta List at 30kisses on LJ, and I haven't properly signed up for a challenge there, I stole the list because I needed something to get my creativity going. I did a Yuusuke-focused set of sentences for that list, and the first few lines came from that list. Check my profile if you wanna read it!

This chapter contains spoilers for the end of the series and Yuusuke/Keiko.

"Excuse me? What did you think I was doing all this time, Yuusuke, twiddling my thumbs?"

"Knitting, actually."

"Some of us were trying to make a life for ourselves in the real world." Yuusuke stilled. Keiko did the same in response. She would never get used to how very still he could be. He was always so full of energy - even now, while she'd been yelling, he'd been playing with a coffee cup, spinning it on its edge. The cup was flat on the table, clutched in Yuusuke's hand.

"What did you think I was doing, Keiko? Playing pretend?"

"I didn't mean that."

"While you were busy with your school and your new boyfriends - "

"Oh, that's really mature." It leapt from her before she could stop it, and she turned to the sink so he couldn't see her face. She heard the chair scrape across the floor and Yuusuke stood, radiating anger.

"Look at me." She turned, eyes on the floor. "Look at me, Keiko." Slowly, her eyes moved upwards, towards his face. He'd always been angry, almost constantly in fact, but it had never been directed at her before. It was a physical presence in the room, and it weighed down on her. "I am not the kid that left you behind three years ago, Keiko. I have changed, and if this is going to work we both need to realize something."

"What's that?" Keiko hated her voice briefly, for being so small.

"You need to realize that I didn't ask for any of this. I just wanted some kid not to get hit with a car, and it put me on the most fucked-up path I think anyone has ever been on. You also need to realize that it was all very, very real. I kept you out of it, even when you insisted on tagging along, so I can kind of see how you might think I was off hallucinating somewhere. But dammit, if I have to take you to Makai myself to make you see how real it is, I will." He was slipping back into a ranting mode, and Keiko instantly felt more at ease. I shouldn't be afraid of him, something in her head whispered. That's not how this works. "You've seen what I can do, you've seen what Kuwabara and Kurama and Hiei can do, you've seen what I could have had and I gave it up for you. Realize that, Keiko." Her anger swelled, ever so slightly.

"That was technically three things," she muttered. "And what do you mean, you gave it up for me? You mean could have had better than me? You settled for me? Am I a consolation prize?" Yuusuke gritted his teeth.

"Sometimes, Keiko, you're stupider than me." He moved forward. Keiko flinched. He stopped. "...oh." He turned away, focusing now on the coffee cup on the table, the stain on the tablecloth just to the right of the cup, the pattern on the tablecloth itself. "I get it," he said softly.

"Yuusuke, I - "

"No, it's cool. I get it. Kurama said I was moving differently - guess the demon in me took hold." He walked suddenly out of the kitchen, towards the front door.

"Yuusuke, where are you going?"

"To drink myself stupid somewhere."

"Yuusuke, come back."

He paused, coat halfway on, and just looked at her. Something in his gaze, something she couldn't name - hurt, perhaps - made it burn into her, making her breath hitch. When he spoke, it was quietly, almost so she couldn't hear.

"I always do."

Keiko watched the door close with tears in her eyes and sat at the kitchen table, staring at that damned coffee cup. It was probably stained at the bottom. Yuusuke never washed his cups out, just kept reusing them until they disintegrated.

Keiko buried her face in her arms and cried.

She was never sure weather or not the words came to her in a dream, but when she woke from where she had fallen asleep at the table, Yuusuke was asleep on the couch and the news was winding down on the TV.

What I need to realize is how damned lucky I am that you waited for me. What other girl would do that, seriously?