NOTE: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. If I did, I would be putting this story in the anime/manga, not here, no? I do however, own any characters that are not in the anime/manga, whose names are too numerous for me to bother listing right now.
Thanks to everyone who has continued to read this series, and more thanks to everyone who has reviewed, both good and bad reviews. As long as they are constructive, I don't mind people telling what I'm doing wrong!
Hope you all enjoy chapter eleven (wow, we're already to eleven!)!
I awoke on the bed in Shuichi's room. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Shuichi were still there with me. I sat up slowly. "What happened?" I asked groggily, trying to clear the sleep from my mind.
"You fainted," Kuwabara answered.
"I blinked slowly. "Oh, yeah."
Shuichi placed a gentle but firm hand on my shoulder and pushed me back into the pillows. "You just passed out; you need to sleep," he said.
"I'm fine, I promise. I fainted because it was a little too much information to handle at one, but I'm fine now. I was just a bit shocked," I assured them. "So what did I miss?"
"Well, we-" Kuwabara began.
"Not much," Shuichi interrupted, cutting off what Kuwabara had been about to say. "After you fainted, we just watched over you to make sure that you were alright."
My eyes narrowed. There was something that he wasn't telling me; I could sense it. I turned to Kuwabara, the one that I knew wouldn't take Shuichi's hint not to tell me. "So, what were you saying, Kuwabara?"
"Um…actually, I don't really remember. I wasn't paying all that much attention," he admitted sheepishly.
Everyone sweatdropped, and I sighed angry that my one shot at finding out what they had been talking about while I was unconscious hadn't been paying attention!
Shuichi noticed my stressed out appearance, and sighed. "I suppose you would be just as stressed out if we didn't tell as if we did, if not more. So I'll tell you.
"From what Yoko said and what I could gather from his mind, you and Yoko were fairly close. You apparently helped him out during some of his more difficult raids. It seems as though you, too may have been wanted by the Reikai police, but I'll have to ask Koenma about that," he confessed.
I raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"
Shuichi nodded.
I blinked a few more times. "That was nothing. So, did you guys come up with any other shocking conclusions while I was busy sleeping? Anything that maybe isn't about my 'past life' or whatever?"
"Well, we talked about Takeshi being back in town, but you already knew that," Yusuke commented.
"And we talked about who could have attacked me," Kuwabara added. "I still think it was the Shrimp."
"I told you it wasn't me, you oaf," Hiei responded, bored. "Believe me, I wouldn't have missed."
Kuwabara stood up to attack Hiei, but Yusuke and Shuichi got him to sit back down before he hurt himself.
"Well, do you guys have any enemies?" I asked.
They all turned and looked at me like I was crazy.
"Only most of the Makai and part of the Ningenkai and Reikai," Yusuke said sarcastically.
"Oh." I glanced casually at the clock on Shuichi's bedside table, then did a double-take. "Is that really what time it is?" I screeched.
Yusuke nodded. "You've been out of it most of the day," he said to me.
"I've gotta get home!" I quickly stood and started towards the door.
Hiei caught my arm. "Are you sure you have enough strength to make it home alright?"
I nodded and pulled my arm gently away. "I'll be fine."
Yusuke stood up before Shuichi could say anything. "I'm on it, Kurama. Wouldn't want Yoko's…friend to get hurt."
I looked at him, wondering why he hesitated (He is Yusuke after all), then I realized why: none of us were exactly sure how I knew the strange and scary kitsune. Although I found it rather hard to believe that we were close; he terrified me.
We got home rather late, but not so late that my mom started yelling at me. Early enough to eat dinner. The dinner table was silent for a few minutes, which slightly disturbed me. My mother usually tried to keep up a cheery conversation at the dinner table. Not that I missed the cheery conversation, but it's absence was strange. She finally broke with the comment that I least expected to come out of her mouth:
"I can't believe you've been keeping this from me."
I looked up from my food. "Keeping what from you?"
"You know very well what I mean, Riku," she said sternly.
"Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about."
She sighed. "Your relationship with…that boy." She said the words as if they left a foul taste in her mouth.
I tilted my head. "Shuichi?" I asked. I furrowed my brow, confused.
"Riku, I know that you're not really with Shuichi when you say that's where you're going."
By this time, I was completely and totally lost. "Mom, what are you talking about? I am really hanging out with Shuichi and his friends."
My mother sighed. "Riku, I know you don't think I would approve, and I don't, but I would rather have you tell me about it than keep it from me."
"Mom, could you at least tell me who you think I'm hanging out with?"
"I know that you're dating that punk kid, Yusuke," she finally explained.
I froze. "What?" I began to laugh, a hard, that's-the-most-ridiculous-thing-I've-ever-heard laugh that brought tears to my eyes.
"This isn't funny, Riku; I've heard the rumors about that Yusuke kid, don't think I don't know what he's like. He's not anyone I want my daughter to be dating."
"Good, because one: I don't want to date him, and two: he already has a girlfriend. Mom, Yusuke is one of Shuichi's friends. He walks me home every night because our house is on the way to his from Shuichi's. We're not dating, I promise."
"Riku, if you're going to lie, at least make up a believable one. Shuichi is such a sweet boy, and would never get mixed up with characters like Yusuke, unlike some of your friends."
I knew she was referring to Takeshi. "First of all, you're wrong: they are friends, and second of all, Takeshi is a good person! In fact, he just came back to town to visit his grandma, and I'm going to hang out with him tomorrow."
My mother sighed again and tut-tutted. "Whatever you say, Riku," she said, but I could tell that she didn't believe me and she thought I was becoming an 'uncontrollable teenager.'
"I stood up. "Good-night, Mom," I said, not wanting to have to bear any more of this. I angrily stomped up the stairs and went into my room, flopping onto my bed and staring at the blank ceiling. You would think that she would trust me after fifteen years of my being a good kid I thought, filled with rage. After a few hours of ceiling-watching, I fell into a fitful sleep.
