By: Hokata Yuy
~~~~~
As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, Botan was finally finishing telling her summery of Spirit World. "Oh yes," she remembered, "When we arrive Koenma will assign you a specific duty that best suits your abilities-"
"Whoa whoa whoa!!!" he yelled, standing up, "You mean I've got to get a job even when I'm dead!? I thought when you die you get like 40 virgins, an island paradise, your own cloud and harp or something like that!"
She covered her face behind her hand and groaned, "Those are all just happy little thoughts created by men. I told you; basically the Mortal World and Spirit World aren't that different! Everyone needs to serve a purpose, or else we'd end up like the Mortal World. No offense," she added giggling, waving her hand trying to calm him. Waiting until he sat back down before continuing. Propping his head up with his hand, he listened, but still grumbled to himself.
"I don't see why you're getting so worked up about it. It's not like you have anything else to do except sit on your ass all day," she said, emphasizing this by poking him in side with her oar.
Letting out a growl he glared at her out of the side of his vision, making her take her oar away… and float another foot away just to be safe. Down below they heard a door open as they both floated over the edge to see whom it was.
~~~
Keiko had fallen asleep at Yusuke's side, crying even in her sleep. When she awoke in the morning, her tears had wet the sheets where her head had been Doing the only thing she could think of, since she didn't know where his mother was, she had carefully placed a white cloth over his face. With her head down, she slowly picked up each of her shoes from where she had flung them off last night. 'Stupid,' she thought, 'if I hadn't wasted time taking off my shoes I could have made it…' Feeling fresh tears start to form she shook her head quickly, trying to stop thinking about it… for now.
As she quietly shut the door to the apartment her cell phone went off from inside her bag. (A/N: even if they were the size of a brick back then…) "Hello?" she quietly asked.
"Oh Keiko! Thank god!" the sound of her father's voice exploded from the speaker, "We were so worried about you! They said you were with your mother then you suddenly ran out of the hospital before I could get there! Where are you?? Are you ok!?"
"…Yeah dad, I'm ok. My friend was having an emergency…" she said looking down at the ground.
"I see. Well I hope they're ok…" her father said, less worry and a bit more compassion in his voice.
"……I'll be home in a few minutes. Bye," she quickly hung-up before he could say anything more, turning off the phone and putting it in her bag. "Oh Yusuke… If you can hear me, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!!" she cried to the sky, then started running down the stairs and out the building, before she began crying again.
~~~
"Aww… It's so sweet… in a sad way," Botan said cutely.
"Just shut up." Yusuke growled and floated away, towards Kuwabara's school, glad knew at least that much about the oaf. While Botan slowly followed behind him, frowning, 'I didn't know it was such a touchy subject…' she wondered.
After a few minutes of flying over the town they found his school. It was roughly the same as Yusuke's, which actually surprised him. "I expected some run-down, spray-paint covered hell-hole," he commented, slowly moving towards the ground.
From behind him, Botan added, "Well if he was from that kind of school, don't you think he would have been a better fighter?"
"Who? Kuwabara?" he asked looking over his shoulder, then laughed, "all someone has to do is show him a kitten and that dope starts getting all teary eyed!"
~~~
A few blocks away, said dope and his three friends were walking to school. "AACHOOO!!" Kuwabara's sneezing filling the air, "Aw man… I don't why I've been sneezing so much lately," he said after blowing his nose on a tissue.
"Maybe you're allergic to cats? You have been spending a lot of time with that one you found last week," one of his friends suggested.
"No way! My luck might not be great but it's not that bad!" he grinned over his shoulder at his friends, who laughed, not really believing him but playing along.
~~~
"I think I see him!" Botan said, pointing to the wall that surrounded the school.
"Where? I don't see anything. Just a rat on top of that wall," he glanced over at her, "I think you need glasses…"
"I think you're the one needing glasses. That's not a rat, it's Kuwabara's hair," she said proudly with a smirk.
After squinting his eyes for a second, "Holy crap! It is!" After seeing something like this he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Even after Kuwabara came around the corner into view, sneezing once again. While behind him, Yusuke couldn't see Botan smile at him, 'Maybe he's taking this better than I gave him credit…'
~~~
And so Yusuke and Botan spent the day floating outside the school, tracking Kuwabara through the large windows. Toward the later half of school Kuwabara had a gym class, which Yusuke and Botan covered their eyes with both hands and their sleeves as he and the other guys changed. After the guys left the classroom, Botan started floating after them… then noticed that Yusuke wasn't with her. She flew back towards the classroom, and found him floating in front of the window, grinning ear-to-ear as the girls came in to change.
"Yusuke!" she yelled and swung her oar at him, clipping the left side of his head.
"Ow! Damnit what's the big deal!? I'm dead now, what harm is it going to do taking a peek at the last humans (well… high school girls) I'll see for 55 years!?" he screamed, 'standing' in front of her.
"Because if I let you go around peeking at girls during your incredibly extended time on earth, my record will get a nice big red stamp saying 'UNRESPONSABLE' on it!" she yelled back, 'standing' toe-to-toe with him.
"So I can't look at humans anymore eh? What about you spirits?" he said with a look Botan couldn't think of as anything but evil and perverted…. earning him a matching oar mark on the right side of his head. After that she 'dragged' a stunned Yusuke by the collar back to follow Kuwabara. 'Yep, he's still the same old Yusuke,' she thought grudgingly.
~~~
The final bell rang, releasing the students. Both stalkers waited from the roof, looking in the crowd of blue uniforms for a redheaded rat, which the thought of still made them both grin. "Ah, there he goes," Yusuke said as he floated off, Botan following him. "I wonder where his friends are?" she wondered.
"Well I remember one of them had a job, who knows? Maybe the others got jobs too," he said with a shrug.
They followed him to the arcade, and watched him play mostly racing games. During the third race on one game he finally was in first place. "Oh yeah! Don't mess with the great Kuwabara!" he shouted to the other racers, all of which were between 10 and 13 years old.
"You know... that's really sad," Botan commented.
"What is? The fact he's racing little kids? Or that he got lapped by them in the past two games?" Yusuke said laughing.
"Yusuke! That's not very nice!" she scolded, smiling even as she said it.
"Hmm.. let's see if he can still feel us," he said with a grin and punched Kuwabara through the head, making him freeze and spinout his car, crashing and loosing the game.
"Whoa… I just got that creepy feeling again," he said in a shaky voice, quickly running out of the arcade.
"Ok, maybe now he'll go home," Yusuke muttered as the followed him down alleys and through backyards. But of course they ended up in an abandoned lot, where I half-constructed building stood. "It's not exactly cozy," Botan remarked, scratching her head.
After looking left and right a few times to see if he was being followed, he slowly walked into the building. "What do you think he's doing?" she asked, which Yusuke could only shrug.
They moved closer and could hear his voice through the incomplete walls. "Oh you like that huh? How about some more then? Hehe. Wow, you sure can hold a lot for someone so small."
With red faces Botan and Yusuke looked at each other, "You don't think…" she started.
"No way… h-he couldn't be…"
But as they got closer they could hear more, "That's it, use your tongue, just like that…. Haha! You got it all over your face, you look so cute like that… that's it, make sure to lick it all off or it'll get sticky and leave a mess."
"Are you sure? Because that sounds a lot like.." Botan asked, gripping the shoulder of Yusuke's shirt as they got to the room he was in.
"I-I'm telling you, there's no-way in hell he would…. He couldn't be.." he answered, his voice shaking. They slowly leaned in the doorway, fearing what they'd see.
What they found was Kuwabara on his knees facing a corner. Now with Botan clenching his shirt with both hands, they kept watching, faces red and hearts beating rapidly (A/N: …do spirits have hearts? Or blood for that matter?). "I'm sorry, but that's all I've got today, don't worry, I'll come back with more tomorrow, I promise!" he said standing up and turned back towards the door.
When they could finally see what he'd been hiding they both gasped… and burst out laughing. A tiny kitten sat in the corner with a bowl next to it and an empty milk carton tossed a few feet away. It started sadly mewing to his back, "I'm sorry, but I don't have anymore, I told you, I'll be back tomorrow," Kuwabara said, his eyes watering up before he took off running out the building.
Meanwhile his watchers were still trying to catch their breath from too much laugh, their faces still red. "I-I can't believe you thought that he had a-" Botan said between gasps.
"Me-me!? You should have seen yourself! I think I've got bruises from you digging your fingers in my skin!" Yusuke countered, still laughing himself. Their laughter slowly faded away and they stayed in the silence a few seconds before realizing their 'pray' was escaping. They quickly flew out of the lot, chasing after the fleeing boy, still smiling lightly.
Once they left the maze of alleys they finally came to a stop in front of the building he lives in. "About damned time," Yusuke grumbled, "it took us all day just to get here!? I can see my house from here! Literally, look!" he said pointing to a charred building less than a mile away.
"At least that means we don't have to waste time for much longer, right?" she added, floating towards his room. They waited as he ate dinner, watched tv, tried to beat Shizuru at a racing game (loosing terribly). Finally it was time for him to go to sleep, the lights when out and the gave him about ten minutes.
"Ok.. He should be out by now," Botan whispered, "go ahead and see if you can talk to him now." With that she pushed him towards the apartment window.
"It's not like he can hear us you know!" Yusuke shouted before slipping through the glass and into his room. "Ok.. let's see.. how does this go again?" he muttered, putting his hand on Kuwabara's forehead.
~~~
"Hey wait! Come back!" Kuwabara shouted at a girl who's face he couldn't see, he was finally about to catch her! Finally! After a week of the same thing over and over he would finally-
"Hey stupid!" Urameshi's voice shouted from behind him, "You'll never catch her," he said with a laugh.
When he turned to yell at Urameshi, he realized what he'd done and snapped his head back to look for his unknown girl to see she was gone. "Darn you Urameshi!" he yelled, clenching his fist, "I almost had her! The girl of my dreams!"
"You idiot! This is your dream!"
"Wait.. then that means I'm dreaming you… AAAHH!! This can't be!" he screamed, pulling his hair. "I mean, I remember I dreamt of kissing you once when you were all sparkly gold and stuff.. but I thought that was my mind play tricks on me!!"
"Hey! I don't know what you dream on your own, but I'm actually in your dream stupid! Now if you can shut up, I've got something important to tell you!"
This got his attention and he stopped screaming and dancing around, "What's so important you make me stop chasing my girl??"
All the humor left Yusuke's face and he looked down slightly, "I… I'm not coming back to life. Well, at least not right away…"
"Wh-what do you mean? I thought you said you were coming back real soon? What happened..?" he asked confused.
"Yeah well… that plan screwed up. But that's not the point… What matters is.. I'm not going to see you again for a long time."
"Huh? What's a long time? You mean when I die?? That'd better be a long long way away then!"
Despite the tension, Yusuke couldn't help chuckling, "Yeah, if that was the only way to see you then I'd never want to see your ugly mug again, but I have a chance of coming back still. The problem is… it won't be for 55 years."
"So…you're saying.." he said slowly, thinking it through, "the next time I'll see you, you'll be some wrinkly old geezer?"
"Haha… yeah that's right, when we'll meet again we'll both have long beards and bad backs." Urameshi smiled, holding his hand down at stomach level to show how long his beard would be.
"Well, I don't care if it's 55 or 75 years, I'll still fight you and kick your ass one day!" Kuwabara grinned, holding up his fist, his eyes just now starting to shimmer as it fully hit him.
"Sure you will," he grinned and nodded mockingly, "I'll even toss my cane aside and let you keep your walker to make it fair."
Kuwabara reached his hand out, sniffling a bit, "I'm looking forward to it…"
Yusuke shook his hand tightly, "Yeah, me too.." They patted each other on the back with their free hand. As they let go and Yusuke turned and started to walk away, he stopped and looked over his shoulder, "One last thing…"
"Yeah? What is it?" he said looking up, still trying to hold back his tears.
"Can you look after my mom… and Keiko…? Since I can't do it… I want you to…" he said softly, smiling.
"Y-yeah, I'll protect them no matter what, but in 55 years you'd better get your ass back here and do it yourself ok?" his voice was shaking and the tears started falling down his face. "You're the only real friend I've had… I'm going to miss you Urameshi."
"Yeah… me too," he quietly said. With that he kept walking until he faded away, leaving Kuwabara alone in the middle of nowhere.
~~~
Outside Botan silently waited, hovering on her oar until she saw Yusuke float out of the building and towards her, "How did it go?" she asked lightly.
"Oh you know, he took it like the man he says he is," he said smiling a little bit.
"I see…" she trailed off, "Well you still have 2 hours left…. Where to next?"
"… I guess I'll go see my mom now," he said floating past her towards his temporary apartment.
As he passed her, Botan could see the waver in his eyes, and couldn't help but feel helpless for him, "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine, don't worry about it," he answered bluntly.
As they floated she lightly put her hand on his back, rubbing softly. While he didn't say he liked it, he didn't try to make her stop either as the traveled to his second stop, neither saying anything.
~~~
ooooowww!!! My hands!! X_x I've been writing for over 5 hours straight now, but I got another chapter done in one night! Go me!!
Ok.. so I can't remember if Yusuke and Kuwabara went to the same school or not, I don't think so because they never saw each other there. Um… what else..? Oh yeah, and I couldn't help but pick on the poor oaf so much, he's my second favorite character and he's just so much fun to poke fun at ^_^
And only one of you reviewers got part of my future goals right ;)
I love AU stories because bad things don't happen if you don't want them too…. Which means… I don't have to write a single word about Hiei or Kurama!! MWHAHAAA!!!!
And so, before I pass out into a coma…. REVIEW ME PLEASE! This is the most fun I've had with a fic ever J