A/N So, this chapter is completely original, 100 percent from my head. I just love the dynamic between Kurama and Yusuke and how the mischievous fox loves to pick on him.

Kurama started as his doorbell rang. He frowned. He wasn't expecting any visitors today. Buttoning his white shirt, for he had just been dressing his wound, he answered the door. He was surprised to see Yusuke standing before him, carrying a large bowl and grinning.

"Hey, you told me you were on house arrest, so I thought I'd check up on you and bring you some food. It's homemade…" Yusuke waved the covered bowl invitingly in front of the demon's nose.

"Should I be worried?" Kurama teased gently, looking at the bowl with feigned apprehension.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I'm a great cook!" Yusuke huffed indignantly, pushing past the ungrateful fox and into the house.

"Like you're a great strategist?" Kurama mocked dubiously with a smirk.

Yusuke turned back with a growl to fix him with a surly glare. "Shut it, Fox-boy!"

"What's with that nickname, anyway?" Kurama asked in mild consternation. There was a familiarity about it that confused him.

Yusuke shrugged as he fished in the kitchen drawers for silverware and set a place for two. Please, make yourself at home, Kurama thought wryly.

"It's just my way to try and annoy you back."

Kurama laughed and joined Yusuke at the table.

"I hope you like ramen. It's my specialty," Yusuke announced as he scooped up some noodles for himself and dug in. "My mom always made it for me when I wasn't feelin' good. 'Course hers was from a package…"

"Your maternal instincts have awed me," Kurama joked, laughing.

Yusuke just glared, not dignifying that with a response.

"You didn't have to do this, Detective. I was merely repaying a debt I owed you."

Yusuke shook his head and looked at Kurama in mild reproach. "You can call me Yusuke, you know. We are friends now."

Kurama blinked at this statement. "Friends?"

"Yeah, someone doesn't almost give their life for someone else and then have that someone turn around and get stabbed for the other someone for just anybody." Despite the grumbled mess of speech, Kurama could vaguely see what he was getting at, but he was still baffled by his logic. When Kurama continued to look dumbfounded, Yusuke regarded him askance. "Friendship's a foreign concept to a demon, huh?"

With a pang Kurama remembered the last person he had considered a friend. He resolved never to betray Yusuke as he had Hiei. Kurama shook his head as he took a bite of the ramen Yusuke had prepared. It was good. "Yes, but I'm just marveling at your choice of friends."

"That reminds me, are there many demons like you?"

Kurama furrowed his brow at this question. "What exactly do you mean by that, Yusuke?" He obliged the detective by using his first name.

Yusuke considered this for a minute before speaking again, taking several bites of noodles in the meantime. "Well, you don't seem evil or bent on word domination, or killing, or intimidation, or anything...well, demonic. I mean, for a demon you're a pretty decent guy."

Kurama smiled at the compliment. "I've been tempered by living in this realm, but tell me, how many demons have you encountered?"

Yusuke gave a sheepish smile. "Counting you three…?"

Kurama nodded.

"Three."

Kurama balked at this revelation, his green eyes wide as saucers. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it shortly after. Seeing this Yusuke continued. "This was my first case as Spirit Detective."

"Your…first?"

"Yup…" Then with a mischievous expression, Yusuke continued, "You guys poped my cherry."

Suddenly Kurama burst out laughing, losing his prized composer to fits of inelegant giggles. Disregarding the lewd analogy, he marveled at the boys uncanny luck. "Inari, we could have destroyed you! It was only series of flukes that saved you! You truly are a lucky fool!"

Yusuke looked annoyed at this abrupt outburst. "Hey!"

Sobering, Kurama asked the question that had been troubling him for a while now. "Yusuke, why did you trust me?"

"Well, you know, I heard everything you were saying about how you copped out of the evil trio as I turned up in the woods. I stepped in cuz I thought Ugly was gunna crush you after you had a change of heart," Yusuke confessed.

Kurama laughed again, harder this time. "Ha, you should have let me take him. It would have spared you some trouble."

Yusuke scoffed at his boastful sounding words. "There's no way you could have taken that monster."

"I'm a demon, Yusuke," Kurama reiterated. "And you haven't seen me fight."

"You can't be tougher than Hiei," Yusuke insisted stubbornly.

"I've beaten him in a fight before…" Kurama hinted cryptically, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Really?" Yusuke asked in astonished disbelief.

"You don't believe me?" When Yusuke shook his head cheekily, Kurama added, "Should I demonstrate?"

"Is that a challenge?" Yusuke asked cockily, a matching gleam in his own eyes.

"Ha, maybe once I've healed up," Kurama replied. He cupped his chin in his hand as he studied the detective. "Now back to your original question… Well, I don't mean to disillusion you, but I find that demons are very like humans. They come in all types and flavors, though I imagine most are as you have seen. I'm hardly the standard. Demons are primal creatures that are governed by instinct, not emotions as humans are."

Yusuke listened as Kurama patiently explained that. He nodded, accepting this answer easier than Kurama had thought. He certainly was different. Normally, humans feared that which is different from them. Yet, he held no prejudice against demons like most of his race. How refreshing.

"You're quite open-minded, Yusuke. I'm impressed." The boy blushed slightly at this praise, moving to change the subject.

"How's the wound healing?"

Kurama gave him a tight-lipped smile for his concern. "It will be better in perhaps a few weeks. The main problem had been trying to hide it from Mother."

"Yeah, she'd freak if she saw it. It looks like you tried to perform hara-kiri (1)…" Yusuke chuckled ruefully. "How is she?" He immediately followed-up.

"Thank you for your concern. She is making a full recovery. She has the doctors baffled, but they've agreed to release her in a week if her condition doesn't worsen, which you've ensured that it won't."

Yusuke smiled in pride, but Kurama felt a sudden twinge of guilt. He felt he had better come clean in light of this newly kindled friendship.

"Yusuke, I need to confess something…" Yusuke looked at him expectantly, prompting Kurama to continue. He sighed and plunged onward. "I may have had ulterior motives for seeking you out and telling you my story. You see, my wish was for Shiori's happiness…and the mirror could not take away my life, for my death would make her unhappy. So I callously found you and hoped you would do as you did…"

Kurama waited for Yusuke to get angry and storm out, but he was waiting in vain. "Well, that was real sneaky of you, you manipulative fox…but no harm done. You were only tryin' to save your mom, and I can't fault you for that. But you should have just asked…"

Kurama looked up at Yusuke's sincere face and smiled warmly. His answer was better than he had expected or deserved."Thank you."

He just rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed and muttered, "No problem."

"Well, there is one more thing I must apologize for…" Yusuke's eyes narrowed at this. "When you had sacrificed your life, I didn't spare you a second thought as I ran to check on my mother. After what you did for me, I should have at least checked that you were breathing, but I completely forgot, and for that I am immensely sorry."

Yusuke shook his head, perplexed. "That's been bothering you?" When Kurama inclined his head, it was Yusuke's turn to laugh. "Oh come on, you were worried about your mom, and I was just some idiot stranger. Don't feel bad; I don't!"

Kurama stared in wonder at this truly special boy. He smiled once more. Smiling was a habit formed from his human childhood that he had long since broke following his mother's illness. It would seem being around this boy was causing it to relapse. "Thank you, Yusuke, you truly are something else."

He looked uncomfortable again at the praise, and they finished eating in companionable silence.

When they finished eating, Kurama took the silverware and bowl to the kitchen and told Yusuke to come by later to pick up the cleaned bowl. Yusuke hesitated as if he wanted to say something.

"What is it, Yusuke?"

He paused for a moment before he began, "It guess I have something to apologize for, too. Back on the roof, I called you a monster. But after all you've done and talking to you just now, I know that that isn't true. Sorry." He mumbled the last word awkwardly.

Kurama smiled the biggest smile by far and clapped the boy on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Yusuke. You didn't offend me, and you have nothing to apologize for." Yusuke answered the smile with a giddy grin and with a final farewell, departed. As Kurama watched him leave, he was as sure that they would meet again as he was that this would begin a new and exciting chapter in his life.

A/N

Harakiri is the Japanese ritual slicing of ones belly to commit suicide. It is usually reserved for samurai who have dishonored themselves or brought shame on their clan.

So that's it for this story, but I'll be posting a sequel soon called Second Chances. It will be a trial mission Kurama and Hiei undertake while Yusuke trains with Genkai.