So this isn't quite my campus, these aren't quite my friends, and it's not my dorm, but everything's based more or less on my college experience so far. Sorry if the settings get a bit too descriptive, but I have to figure out where things are for myself and make sure we're all on the same page with the general layout of our darling '… College'.
"His name's Kurama, just go with it for right now," the girl whispered quickly and her friend shot her a skeptical look.
"Hello Shelly," Mrs. Finnegan said with a smile. "Still bringing things in?"
"No, actually I just finished and was going to start unpacking, but I can help you all unload the car first."
"Oh that would be great, we'll have everything up here in no time!"
Mrs. Finnegan led the way back outside followed by Kurama. Shelly grabbed her roommate's arm and slowed her walk to a stroll as they followed.
"So what's going on here?"
"Um, can you not ask any questions about him, just for right now, until my mom leaves. I'll explain Everything as soon as she's gone. It's kind of complicated, screw that, really complicated. I also have the hugest favor ever to ask you and I'm hoping you won't kill me."
"Gwen," Shelly said as the heat hit them again and someone carrying a refrigerator squeezed through the door after them. "You didn't kill anybody did you?"
"No."
"Ok, as long as I'm not covering for murder it can't be that bad, right?"
"Uh, right," Gwen said quickly, hoping her friend would still feel that way when she found out what the favor was.
They finished unloading the car and piling all of Gwen's bags and boxes into the room. The place looked something like a battle zone on the move with four people uncomfortably packed into the few open spaces.
"Well I guess I should be on my way," Kurama said as Shelly tried to find where her clothes had gotten to.
"I'll walk you out," Gwen squeaked. She shot a serious look at her roommate then smiled at her mom. "Be right back!" They walked out into the hall and out of earshot as quickly as possible. "Okay, so I have to get rid of my mom, talk to my roommate (which might involve begging and pleading), and get some of my stuff out of the way. So you're going to need to wait somewhere for a while. Ahh! Uh, where? Damnit." She started fidgeting and bouncing up and down on her toes as she fluttered her hands.
"What is the closest public building where someone could spend several hours without causing suspicion?"
"I guess it's out University Center, the bookstore is further away, and the coffee shops—"
"How do I get to the University Center?" he asked, trying to remain very sedate in an effort to get the girl to calm down.
"Go out the doors here, walk across the quad and towards the big row of academic buildings, off on the right is one that looks more modern, there's always people wandering in and out. On the second floor is the dinning hall, but right outside of that it a big lounge area with couches and TVs. I'll find you there as soon as I can."
He nodded and she watched with apprehension as he walked out through the door and across the grassy area between dorm buildings. A minute later she was upstairs again chatting with her mother and her friend. Her mom stayed a little longer, helping the girls to unpack and organize things. Then Gwen was saying a loving goodbye as Mrs. Finnegan prepared to drive back home. As soon as she came back from seeing her mom off, Shelly turned to her with an expectant look.
"Okay, explain."
The University Center was a bustling place with students walking in every direction and quite a few parents wandering around. The building was obviously much younger that most of the other structures he had seen so far, with wide windows and high skylights that let in the light. The air conditioning was on at full blast in the building, making it almost unpleasantly chilly by the boy's standards as he sat in one of the arm chairs and watched the people going by. There was a large TV off to his left and several of the other people sitting down were watching the news. He was sitting in a group of couches and arm chairs in the middle of a large, open space, with a curving staircase to his right. It went down to the lower floor where he had come in and where the student mailboxes were and continued up to the third floor, which was mainly an open gallery that looked down on where he was sitting and some rooms that opened off of it. Further to his left and behind him was the dinning hall and a steady flow of people went in the open doors that led to the food. There were doors in the wall across from him, between large pieces of student art, and he was attempting to guess what might lie behind them when he heard several girls walk up behind him and stop.
"So where is this guy who Shelly says is so hot?"
"Guys, you're really getting overexcited, I'm sure you'll be disappointed when you see him, I mean everyone prefers the whole dark and mysterious look." That was definitely Gwen's voice. Kurama had to prevent himself from turning around to look at them since it sounded like they were right behind him.
"Just shut up and point him out!" a different girl laughed as she spoke.
"Yeah, right now I trust Shelly more than you, hoe. Who'd have thought you'd actually bring a guy back from summer vacation and then force your roommate to put up with him?!" said a third.
"I said I'm sorry a million times!" Gwen exclaimed almost frantically. It sounded like she was standing directly behind him, but facing the opposite direction.
"It's ok Gwen, calm down, I said your little 'friend' could stay didn't I?" That was Shelly's voice. "I'm surprised you can't find him, he's got that Bright red hair and it's so long."
"So he blends in with the girls?" came a cynical snicker from the third speaker. "Then you have nothing to worry about Shell. Personally I prefer my guys to be guys."
"Shut up Bev, he doesn't look like a girl. You know what, he probably saw you all coming and hid, I know I would."
"You mean he ditched you," the first one spoke again. "I'm hungry and starting to doubt Gwen's mysterious little foreign boyfriend exists. You guys are pretty twisted, making up a story like that."
"Damnit shut up Diana! I didn't make him up."
"Gwen, we're all hungry. How bout when you find him you bring him in to lunch," the second one said in an attempt to make peace.
"You know that's not her plan. After she finds him they're going to run back to her room to-muffgh."
"That's enough out of you!" Gwen yelled, and apparently had covered her friend Bev's mouth before she could finish. "You all go ahead, I'll catch up later."
He heard the girls moving off towards the dinning hall and glanced back.
"Oh my god," Gwen said, looking down at him and shaking her head. "They're crazy. Shelly said you could stay, I promised there wouldn't be any sex or anything like that and Bev offered to let you sleep over at her room whenever you drive Shelly crazy. You might be better off sleeping outside than in Bev's room, though."
"Gwen, I can't tell you how grateful I am."
"Don't think you're getting off completely easy. Shelly and I have furniture we need moved Mr. Big-Strong-Boy."
"I'd be happy to help," he said with some reservation.
"Good, you can bunk beds right?"
"Wow, you guys have been busy, and not in the way that Bev kept saying."
Gwen and Kurama looked up from where they were sitting on the dorm room floor, holding oddly shaped pieced of metal.
"I told you it's nothing like that!" Gwen exclaimed, nearly dropping the screwdriver she was gesturing with. "Look we got the beds bunked, the dressers stacked and the futon's almost together!"
"And you got most of your stuff put away, wow. All we really have left to do is hang up our pictures, and I need to go shopping. Um, did we decide who's taking which bunk?"
"No, I said you could pick. I don't care either way," Gwen replied with a nervous adjustment to the base of the couch she was holding. She glanced up at her roommate, who was considering the bunked beds. She felt terrible about the position she had put her friend in and knew she would feel resentful and frustrated in a similar position. 'But I can't say she wouldn't do the same thing,' she thought as she slid the final bolt into place. 'Her boyfriend practically lived with her last year and she was probably planning on the same thing again this year.' That made her feel slightly better, along with the knowledge that Peter was arriving the very next day.
"I guess I'll take the top bunk. I think I'm the only person who likes it!"
"You're not the only one, I'm just afraid of falling out of bed. Ah, done!" She sat back and leaned her hands on the carpet with a relieved sigh.
"All it needs is the final part." Kurama picked up the futon pad and dragged it onto the couch. "There, a very respectable couch."
"It's the best futon in the world!" Gwen exclaimed, leaning forward to pat it fondly.
"And gives us way more seating," Shelly smiled. "Ok guys, now where do I put this poster?"
They spent the rest of the afternoon placing posters around the room, centering them over furniture and trying to get everything level. There was a debate over which one should go over the futon and both girls kept dragging Kurama into the argument though he refused to make any definite statements or side with either of them. In the end they had one poster over each side. And then Gwen pulled out a few more she wanted to put on the ceiling.
"It's going to fall on you while you're sitting at your desk and I'm going to laugh," Shelly said as Gwen was standing on her desk, jumping up push the poster against the surface just out of normal reach.
"Yeah, but then you'll help me put it back up!" At last they finished and Gwen glanced at the clock. "Oh no wonder I'm hungry, it's dinner time!"
"And where are you going?" Shelly asked as she watched her roommate grab her keys and her boy and head for the door.
"I dunno, I guess we'll grab some fast food or something. Kurama I still have to show you around campus!"
He was wondering how she planned to feed them both at this point. He hadn't heard back from Spirit World and was starting to worry that Koenma had forgotten. There was always the possibility that there was some new crisis that the young ruler had to handle and his latest spirit detective was nothing compared to Yusuke. That's why he was in this situation to begin with, the kid hadn't been able to keep up with all his assignments, a demon got lose that shouldn't have and the old detectives, the three of them who thought they were retired, had to come out to defeat it. He looked around the hall he was walking down as Gwen pushed open the door into the stairwell and held it for him. In fact, compared to the rest of his human life this was the most 'retired' he had ever been. He hadn't even so much as sensed a demon once since arriving.
Gwen was walking down the stairs before him, she glanced back to say something about a building he just had to see. He saw her face and motion change at the same moment and reacted immediately as she tripped.
Gwen let out a squeak as she felt the familiar sensation of one foot sliding out from under her while there was nothing beneath the other. 'God hates me,' she thought as images of her tumbling down the stairs, brains and blood everywhere, flooded her mind. She couldn't steady herself and was falling forward towards the length of metal stairs and the surprised person coming up them. Then someone was crashing into her and all she could do was close her eyes as her mind went momentarily blank. She felt both her feet leave the ground, felt herself being spun around but she didn't hit the ground, didn't go tumbling head-first down the stairs.
"Nice catch man," she heard an unfamiliar voice say and opened her eyes.
"Arigato," Kurama's voice replied from right above her. He had his right arm firmly around her waist, holding onto her tightly, while he had thrown out his left hand to catch the railing. He was hanging onto it with only one foot firmly on a stair, the other dangling out over emptiness. She could see the tension in his arm and thanked her lucky stars that he was so strong.
"Ohmygod, ohmygod, oh my god," Gwen panted. "I can't believe I almost fell down the stairs again!"
"This is a frequent occurrence?" the demon demanded.
"Well not frequent, but it does happen. Normally I just slide down a few…" She trailed off, remembering a few of her nastier encounters with the uneven menace.
She heard the guy who had been coming up the stairs walk past them and in spite of her own racing heart and frightened panting she could feel that Kurama was breathing heavily too. 'I must have really scared him,' she thought. She rested her head against his shoulder as she tried to catch her breath.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a bit freaked out. I thought I was in for a concussion there."
"Well, everything turned out fine."
He let go of her and she stepped down to the next stair. Kurama let out a deep breath and let go of the railing. He rubbed his arm with a faint smile at Gwen before stepping down beside her and putting a hand on her back.
"Now you must be more careful of your footing Gwen. Watch where you are going."
"Yeah, I know," she said as a faint pink tinged her cheeks. "If something happens to me who'll feed you?" she laughed and skipped ahead of him down the stairs.