Kirei na Kanjou
~ Beautiful Feeling ~
by feifu
01/14/2003
homepage: www.freewebs.com/killersrant
email: domain_of_fire@yahoo.com
Disclaimers: (Can't make a fanfic without putting this) Yuyu Hakusho, and all its characters and plot, is the original creation of Yoshiro Togashi. I do not claim to own any of the characters in this story except for Faith Phillipp and Annette Barton, who are my own creations and are inspired by people I know in real life. Any similarities to real life people/events or if you by chance know anybody whose names are similar to the two characters, I avow that these are mere coincidences. I don't profit from writing this fanfiction so please don't sue.
4
About a week later, Faith was miraculously back on her feet. She still harbored some scars and a few bruises and thus took to wearing long-sleeved shirts and blouses to hide them, but she was otherwise feeling the same, maybe even better than before the attack.
Soon enough she was back to her usual activities. She was now hounding Annette to accompany her to the Minamino's house to give him the "thank you" gift she had bought that same day.
"Come on! Let's go." Faith was dragging her much put-upon roommate towards the door.
"Why can't you go by yourself?!"
"I don't want to go by myself that's why!"
"Faith, really…"
"Aw, come on! I owe that guy my life, if what you and that doctor guy told me is true, so I have to thank him, else I'll look extremely ungrateful! I don't want that. Besides," Faith said, a mischievous gleam entering her eyes, "now you have a perfectly good excuse to see him! Just think, Ann-chan! We'll get to see what the inside of his house looks like! Maybe even meet that mysterious guy we see coming out of his window at night sometimes! Come on! Let's go!!" She hauled Annette across the street towards the Minamino household.
"Mou, Faith…!"
"Ara!! Kireiiii! Look at all these flowers!" Faith gushed at the sight of dozens upon dozens of flower bearing shrubs that surrounded the short walkway towards the Minamino's house.
Annette had to agree that they truly were beautiful to look at. "Minamino-san's mom must be really into gardening."
"Actually," said a male voice, "it's my brother who's in charge of the garden."
"Eh?!" Faith stepped back in surprise.
"Hi," the young man stood up from where he was sitting against the trunk of a maple tree apparently reading a book. "Can I help you with anything?"
"Hi! I'm Faith Phillipp," Faith said after her initial surprise, "and this is my friend, Annette Barton. We're looking for Shuuichi-san."
"Ore boku." He stood up.
"Um, maybe we got the wrong house?" Annette whispered to her roommate.
"Oh, you must mean my older brother," Shuuichi said. "Long red hair, green eyes; is that the one?"
"Hai desu… And you are… Oh! You're his younger brother, am I right?"
Shuuichi nodded.
"We're just here to thank him, you see—"
"You're the girls from across the street! The ones who moved in recently, right?"
"Yes! We live right there," Faith said pointing to their house.
"That's the house that they said was burglarized…"
"Well," Faith scratched her head. "We didn't actually find anything missing so I can't rightly say we were burglarized now, can we Ann-chan?"
Annette just shook her head. There was nothing else she could do since Faith was still holding her arm in a vise grip.
"I heard my brother say one of you was hospitalized," he looked from one girl to the other curiously.
"Heheh! That's me!!! That's why I'm here today to give this to your brother." She rummaged through her coat pocket and her hand came out with a small expensively wrapped package. "If we can talk to your brother, I'd appreciate it very much," she smiled.
"Oops! Sorry. I'll call my brother now," he motioned them towards the door. "Why don't you come in?" He hurried ahead and the two girls heard him holler upstairs, "Niichan! You have visitors! They're girls!"
Faith snickered at that while Annette curiously blushed. When the young man came downstairs again, he sheepishly winked at them and Faith beamed back at him. His older brother followed him a few minutes later.
"Hey," Kurama slowed his walk as he came down the stair's landing. He casually walked towards his two guests.
"Konnichiwa, Minamino-san," Faith greeted with a mega-watt smile. She went up and handed the gift-wrapped package to him and said, "It's not much, just a small token of my eternal gratitude for saving my life. I've been lax in saying thank you the past week coz its only recently I learned about what you did." She scratched the tip of her nose in embarrassment when he just continued to look at her. "Eh heh heh… I guess all I'm saying is thanks, for saving my life."
"You didn't have to…" Kurama told her with a small smile.
"Ah, but then my conscience will hound me forever for not giving you even this small token. Ne, just take it, ok? I never realized how embarrassing it actually is to thank someone who saved your life…"
Kurama calmly took the proffered gift and nodded, saying, "So you're feeling alright now?"
"Never better!" Faith said happily. "I've a few scratches here and there, and lord they're itchy! But the doctor told me not to touch them so much or scratch them coz he says it's only normal for wounds that're healing to feel itchy. It means they're healing, he said. So there. Aside from feeling terribly itchy most of the time, I'm perfectly alright!" She then laughed.
Kurama couldn't help but smile and admire her spirit. Despite her having been attacked by a still unknown assailant, Faith seemed just like she was before, a somewhat nervous ball of energy. He then turned to her companion who was silently looking at the floor. "What about you, Barton-san? Are you feeling ok?"
"Huh? Ah," Annette managed to meet his gaze for a second before she turned to look at the floor again. "Hai. Daijobu desu."
"Glad to hear you're both fine." He turned to his younger brother, "Shuuichi-kun, can you do me a favor?"
"Un," his younger brother nodded once.
"Eh? So it's true," Faith laughed as she scratched her head, "I thought he was making a joke. So your name's also Shuuichi?" she asked the younger one, who nodded. "Isn't that confusing? Giving two brothers the same name?"
"It does get so sometimes, ne?" said the younger male. "Niichan's my stepbrother, so our parents technically didn't give us similar names."
"Mom calls him Shun-chan to avoid confusion," Kurama grinned.
The younger man scrunched up his face in distaste, "She and Dad are the only ones I allow to call me that. If you start to…"
Kurama reached over and fondly tousled up his brother's hair, "I won't. Ne, could you ready some refreshments for our guests?"
"Oh! You needn't have to!" Annette waved her hands. "We just dropped by to give you the gift," she smiled shyly and ushered, i.e. dragged, her sputtering roommate towards the door. "Faith here has several make-up tests she needs to study for. If I don't get her home and into those books she'll later hound me about not making her study."
"I don't do that!" Faith complained. Annette elbowed her, hard. "Ow! Right," she said with mock severity, "I do have those darned tests."
Kurama and his brother looked on in silent amusement as Annette tried once again to drag her friend to the door.
Faith easily resisted as she said, "Minamino-san, hontou ni iroiro domo arigatou gozaimasu." She bowed deeply. As she straightened, she said, "I can never repay you for what you did for me, but if you ever need anything. As in anything! Please don't hesitate to ask me, ok?" She then impulsively ran up to him and tiptoed to give him a smack on the lips. Smiling impishly, she whispered, "Wanted to do that since I realized you were a guy."
He nodded weakly, looking somewhat dumbstruck. His younger brother started to laugh at the expression on his face.
She chuckled and murmured, "That was also to make Ann-chan jealous. She really does like you, you know. She's just too shy to show it." She gave him a wink and then rushed out of the house towards a glaring Annette.
Kurama shook his head and turned to see his brother still grinning up at him.
"About time," the younger Shuuichi's smile couldn't possibly have gone any bigger.
"What do you mean?" he asked as he turned and walked towards the kitchen to get an early dinner or a snack, whichever he found first.
The young man chuckled, "Mom and Dad will be thrilled, you know. And relieved."
"Huh?"
"Aw, come on! Don't be so dense!"
"What?"
"They've been curious as to why you've never introduced any of your friends to them. Let alone girls. That one right there," he nodded towards the front door where the two girls had gone out. "Well, she's something. You haven't known her long have you?"
"What are you babbling about now?"
"So you don't really know?"
"Know what?"
"Well, I don't really know if I should tell you…"
"Tell me what?"
"People talk, you know." Shuuichi hedged.
"About what?"
"You."
"Me?" Kurama rummaged through the refrigerator, got an apple, and bit into it. It would seem that he would have to settle for the fruit. "And why would they want to talk about me?"
"Well…"
"Spill it."
"Just don't get mad at me coz it isn't me who's saying it, ok?"
"Just tell me."
"Promise you won't get mad."
"Alright. I promise I won't get mad."
"Well," the younger man paused and winced, "people are saying that you're gay."
Kurama slowly chewed on his apple and just looked at his younger stepbrother who was growing more uncomfortable as the seconds passed.
"Coz you never seem interested in girls! Gods, 'nii-chan! I know several girls who'd just kill to have you talk to them for more than a polite greeting, let alone for a boyfriend! But you never even give them a second glance. And boys ask you out thinking you're a girl. What do you expect people to think?"
"I don't expect them to think anything, except to mind their own business."
Shuuichi winced. His older brother had an annoying habit at times of being splendidly aloof.
He seemed a perfectly good guy. In fact, the older Shuuichi was a model person. Great looks, extremely intelligent, and from his experience here at home and what he hears from other people, a kind-hearted and polite person. But one thing almost always bothered the younger man about his older brother, his constant aloofness. Always friendly, never impolite, but an invisible yet solid wall existed between his older brother and the world at large. The fact that he didn't seem interested in females was also the butt of jokes among certain circles who, as far as he could ascertain, were just jealous of Minamino Shuuichi.
"So… are you or are you not?"
"Am I what?"
"Gay? Homo?"
Kurama snorted, "No."
"And are you going out with anyone in particular right now?"
"Why are you so interested in my love life?"
"Just asking," said the younger man, waving his hands as though warding off the hard glare coming his way that came from the emerald eyes. "Nothing wrong in asking, right? And you're my brother, so I have a familial right to ask, so to speak."
"No. I'm not going out with anyone."
"What about that girl?"
"Which girl?"
"The vivacious blonde that just kissed you."
"I'm not going out with her."
"And the brunette?"
Kurama smiled, "Mind your own business, kid." He stood up and was about to leave the kitchen when he turned back and asked, "So Mom and Dad are actually worried about this?"
"Hell, yeah."
"How come?"
"I guess they'd like a couple or so grandchildren from you or something," said the younger brother who smirked and ducked when his older brother playfully tried to hit him in the head.