9
So i put off studying for a chem midterm to write this, oh well hahahahaha, it's mostly stuff i remember from high school but taught much less effectively here, probably because it's 'easy chem' of course it means i'm also putting off studying for my lab test, which is under a different proff and promises to be the hard test T.T Anyways, hope you like the chapter and reviews are appreciated!
A dark, rather nondescript sedan sat down at the curb and Gwen took off across the grass towards it, calling back to Kurama to make sure to close the door. With two clicks of a button the car doors unlocked and the girl pulled open the driver's door, tossing her purse across to the passenger's seat, then she looked up at him with an embarrassed smile.
"Whoops, not used to having someone sitting there. Just toss it in the back." She dropped into her seat and jammed the key into the ignition as she dragged her legs into the car.
Kurama eased himself into his seat, carefully moving the purse as he watched his hostess. Her rather careless movements were making him somewhat nervous. He buckled his seatbelt quickly as she revved the engine and shifted into gear. "Ready?" she asked with a smile that made him question the sanity of getting in the car in the first place. If he had been catholic he would have crossed himself.
The car shot away from the curb and did a rapid u-turn, but after that the driving was calm. It seemed Gwen enjoyed frightening her passengers, that is when she was not busy cursing at people who cut her off. They arrived safely in the shopping center dominated by the building marked by red and white concentric circles.
"Okay, so you go find, um, stuff, to wear and then I guess I'll meet you back at the front," she said as they walked into the building and she grabbed a shopping cart.
"That might prove difficult, especially as I do not have a watch."
"Ah, and I don't want you getting stolen, but then you probably don't want me coming with you." She continued walking towards a large display of purses, leaning forward on the cart's handle. Kurama followed after her. It was a large building filled with milling shoppers and if they were separated it would be frustrating to try and find her again.
"And what if you are the one stolen Gwen?"
She burst out laughing like this was some great joke and shook her head. "That's what my parents are always saying. Crazy, just crazy."
"I think it would be best if we stayed together, and," he paused trying to phrase the next part correctly, "it might be helpful if you would advise me as to what is fashionable here since I don't know."
She pursed her lips and looked back at him thoughtfully. "Wow, you're going to let me dress you, that's kinda scary. But there's a difference between fashionable and tasteful, and I'm not buying any pink fucking shorts because they are an offense to God and all that is natural."
"Pink shorts?"
"Yeah, and pink plaid with bright purple polos, it isn't pretty. Well let's go to the guys department then. We can get fun t-shirts! The guys always have cooler t-shirts than the girl's department but I haven't got the balls to walk over and grab one for myself."
She turned the cart abruptly and he hurried after her as they set off towards the other side of the aisle. Kurama found himself at a bit of a loss, the dress clothes looked the same as the ones he was used to, but almost all the casual clothing was completely different. The jeans were baggy and loose, the shorts all came down to the knees and half of them had bright plaid patterns and there was a whole section of polos. Gwen kept up a running commentary as she sorted through clothes and held things up, talking about color, cut, size and price. He didn't know American sizes so he just shrugged and watched as she threw three of everything into the cart.
"Why don't you go be useful and get some underwear or something," she muttered, gesturing with one arm to an area behind him.
"Go where?" he asked, glancing around.
"Over there," she waved a bit more while pointedly not looking at the area.
"And get what?" He smiled innocently as she glowered at him.
"You do know I can just leave you here, right?"
"I was only joking with you," he said, holding up his hands in defeat. She continued to glower as he walked away. He wandered back over a few minutes later.
"Gwen? I believe I need your assistance."
"Yeah?" she asked, looking up from the rack she was rooting through. He held up two packages and she started.
"I'm not sure about these sizes."
"Ah! I don't know anything about that!" She threw up her hands and looked away.
"Well I was thinking you could take a look-"
"No, no-no, can't help you there."
"But-"
"Why don't you go try on some pairs of pants and then you'll have a better idea." He let her push him into the fitting room and hand him a mound of clothes with the instructions "If it fits come out here and let me make sure it matches."
Somehow they managed to get out of there in under three hours with a decent haul and Gwen's bank only minimally broken.
"To celebrate let's go out for lunch!" Gwen called as they threw the bags into the back seat of the car. "Where do you want to go?"
Kurama looked at her with a thoughtful expression as they got into their seats. "I really wouldn't know. I have no experience with your American restaurants."
"Uh, well I'll pick somewhere good then and just hope you like it."
The ended up at a little table in a sandwich and subs shop. Gwen had ordered cheese steaks and was trying to convince Kurama that it was one of humanity's best inventions.
"It's not bad."
"Not bad? My God have you got rocks for taste buds? I don't know what I'm going to do with you, you're hopeless!" she cried dramatically.
"I would not object to having another in future," he offered.
She sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe you, definitely not normal."
"You wouldn't be the first to say such a thing," he laughed gently as she took a bite of her own food. She frowned as best she could with her mouth full and looked off across the restaurant.
She was trying very hard to eat normally but found it difficult to take bites of food with him sitting across from her, looking at her. 'I will Not stare at him,' she told herself as her eyes drifted over the other people in the restaurant. 'I have no idea how I'm going to pull this off. Shelly's going to kill me, if not tomorrow then very soon.'
"Gwen, is everything alright?"
"Hm?" She swallowed and looked back at him. "I was just worry about my roommate killing me in my sleep."
"You think she will not like our arrangement?"
'Our arrangement. That sounds wrong.' She stopped herself from snorting. "She sure as Hell is going to be uncomfortable, and if you're with us for a long time she's going to get pissed."
"I think you should tell me a bit about your friends so I know what to be prepared for."
"Yeah, well my roommate is Shelly, she's really nice, a bit prudish at times, and has a serious boyfriend, they're almost to a year. She's always running around, which is probably good for us. Then there are four main girls you need to be ready for."
She smirked quite evilly and laughed at some memory. He thought these must be the friends she had once threatened to turn him over to if he misbehaved. Gwen gave him a rundown of the people she spent the most time with at school, those who were in her larger circle of friends and random people she knew. When they left the restaurant she was still talking, relating anecdotes about the heights on insanity bored college students could reach. She finished describing a late-night romp through the academic buildings as they pulled out of the parking lot and began heading back towards the house.
"So what about you? Any very crazy stories since you headed off to college?" She glanced at him expectantly but had to return her attention to the road and missed his frown. There was a pause in which she assumed he was thinking before he started talking.
"Well there was this one time when Yusuke and Keiko stopped by to wish me a happy birthday. I was more than a little surprised because I hadn't seen either of them in quite a while and Kuwabara had informed me that they were fighting again. It was really quite entertaining-"
A sudden beeping cut him off and he quickly reached into his coat pocket. He withdrew the beeping communicator and flipped it open. "Kurama," was the one word she caught, the rest was a spatter of some strange language she assumed to be Japanese. Kurama responded in the same vein and Gwen found herself listening in as if she could figure out what was going on. Oddly enough, it sounded to her like the demon was having an argument with whoever was on the other end.
"Gwen," he said at length and she glanced over, but he wasn't talking to her. Then he looked at her, obviously unhappy. "Gwen, they're asking for your information. Botan says it's necessary for figuring out where I am and for any arrangements they make with your world. I didn't want to get you involved in this mess and I'll understand if you don't want me to tell them about you."
"Oh," she said, changing lanes suddenly. "No, it's okay, they need it to get you home. I mean it's not like Spirit World will want anything more to do with me. I haven't got any kind of powers or anything."
Kurama made a noncommittal noise and turned back to his communicator. "Finnegan Gwen," he reported. Gwen found it eerie to listen to him reciting her age, home address and college address, to some unseen official. It was also slightly unnerving that he remembered everything, including her zip code, which she had never told him. 'He must have looked at the mail,' she thought darkly as she pulled up to the curb in front of her house. As she turned off the car it sounded like Kurama was giving a strong negative and she could hear a pleading whine from the communicator. The boy abruptly snapped his communicator closed and got out of the car.
"Is everything alright?" Gwen asked as she got out as well.
He turned to her abruptly and she was taken aback by the intensity of his expression. "Gwen, I will not let them know any more about you than I have to. You are in danger because of me and I will do everything in my power to keep this information from spreading. I have already made Botan swear not share what I told her with anyone except Koenma, not even Yusuke and Kuwabara."
She smiled and let out a breath. "Kurama, the only monsters here are the human kind. You don't have to worry that I'm going to be attacked because of you, unless you're worried some girls are going to want me out of the way." She missed his exasperated expression as she grabbed the bags from the back seat and headed for the door.
Her parents came home at about the same time as the day before and her little sister headed straight for Kurama as Gwen was busy greeting her mother. It only took a moment however, for her to forcefully remove the girl and send her off with some kind of vague threats. After dinner Mrs. Finnegan bundled Bella upstairs for a bath and bedtime. Mr. Finnegan settled onto the couch to watch TV and Gwen made her way upstairs. Kurama was about to follow her when her father caught his attention.
"You seem like a nice enough boy, but I doubt there will ever be anyone nice enough for my little girl." Kurama didn't quite know how to respond as Mr. Finnegan's stern countenance made plain that he was being very serious. "If you break my little Gwen's heart you'll be sorry."
"Sir, I can assure you that is the last thing I would ever want to do."
"Just keep that in mind. Now get going before she yells at me for threatening you."
Kurama nodded and hurried up the stairs just as Gwen was looking around for him. "Oh there you are. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." He almost added 'why do you ask?' but realized that would be ridiculous.
"Are you sure? We had a long day. Maybe you should go to bed." She frowned and looked confused for a moment. "Do you need your bandages changed again? I've just remembered them, God I'm stupid."
He chuckled and placed a hand on her back. "Gwen, don't insult yourself. I might need help with my arm, if you would be so kind."
"Of course," she replied, letting him steer her into the guest room.
She half-closed the door, it blocked them from casual view without looking suspicious. 'She's rather sneaky herself,' Kurama thought as he sat down on the bed and she retrieved the bandaged from his suitcase. She was lending him one of hers and they had packed it with his new clothes and a few other necessities earlier, including extra bandages. She sat down in front of him and began unwinding the old bandage. By this point Kurama probably could have accomplished this task himself but it was far easier letting the human do it for him.
"Wow, you really do heal fast," she remarked as she began winding on the new strip of gauze. "And it doesn't look like there'll be much of a scar. Is your stomach doing as well?"
He came out of his reprieve at her voice. He had been deep in thought, his unfocused eyes fixed on the patterned fabric of her fanned out skirt. "Almost. Thank you very much Gwen. I believe I will take your advice and retire early."
She smiled and patted his head. "Good boy. Next we'll work on house training you."
He frowned at her as she hopped off the bed and traipsed to the door. "And don't sleep in your clothes tonight, you have pj's for a reason!" she ordered as she stepped out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her. The next day would bring the big move.
Gwen's mother was up early. Apparently when it came to getting places she preferred to get on the road early. By the time either woman thought of waking Kurama the car was packed, they were both dressed and had already eaten breakfast. The red-head came downstairs to find that Gwen and her mother were trying to think of anything Gwen might have forgotten.
"You should have woken me," Kurama said as he sunk into a chair at the kitchen table.
"Well apparently we did, you are up," Gwen replied as she slid him a mug of tea.
"We weren't ready to go, so we thought we'd let you sleep in," her mother added.
"Yeah, but you weren't going to let me sleep in, thanks Mom."
"Hush dear."
It was a bright and hot August day when the three set out a little later. Thankfully the car had a strong AC system, but that didn't stop the sun from beating in through the windows. After a little under two hours in the packed car with the radio blaring between spates of directions they arrived at the leafy campus. It looked green and welcoming, until they stepped out of the car and the full blast of humid heat overwhelmed them. The parking lot around them was bustling with people unloading their cars, rushing back and forth to the tall buildings with bulky bags and oversized boxes, sweating profusely in the heat.
"Woo I'm home!" Gwen called as a man went rushing by with a rolled up carpet. This earned her a smack upside her head from her mother.
"Well let's get to work, everybody grab something and we'll follow Gwen in." Mrs. Finnegan picked up a storage tub while her daughter swung her backpack onto her back and dragged her suitcase from the back of the car. Kurama lifted it from her hands and replaced it with his lighter bag.
"Don't hurt yourself!" she exclaimed.
"The same to you Gwen, you will strain your back. Now please lead the way."
Gwen pursed her lips but complied. They pushed past the stream of people leaving the red-brick structure through the propped door and fought their way up the stairs to the second floor. Gwen led the way down a hall, reading off the numbers on the doors until she reached one at the far end. The door was open and her roommates' belongings were scattered over half the room and piled onto one of the bunked beds but the girl was nowhere in sight. Gwen shrugged and dropped her things on the unclaimed desk. They all filed out of the room again and were walking back towards the stairs when Gwen let out a delighted squeal and sprinted forward. She embraced a slightly taller girl with dark blonde hair who had been walking towards them. The girl was rather pretty with pale blue eyes and was wearing a long skirt. In spite of the heat she looked unruffled and poised.
"Gwen! I didn't expect you for another hour!"
"Shelly! I'm so happy to see you. How are you doing?"
"Great." Shelly's eyes looked past her roommate to take in Mrs. Finnegan and Kurama. Her expression took on a slightly knowing look as her eyes returned to her friend. "So, who's your friend?"
Love to my lovely reviewers! I was actually good about hitting the 'reply' button this time
Cuteness: thanks :D, but if you do have critical feedback I'd be happy to hear it too
