"You're a real asshole, you know that?!"
Haku's voice rang through the hallways and Yuusuke numbly made his way toward breakfast, or whatever was left of it at this hour. The night before he'd literally torn his clothes in a frenzy to get them off and stuffed them in the garbage. That was it, he was done, and woe to that damned silver fox if he saw him within the next year. Because he would show him exactly how he felt about those words, with his fists!
But Yuusuke couldn't help himself pausing in the hall as he heard Haku yell. He'd never heard the boy swear. In fact, he'd never heard the boy be anything but pleasant before. So this was something big, and sadly, something worth listening into.
"I understand the need to be alone and the need to just shrug everyone else, but even a kid like me knows that went too far!"
Triton's voice responded lowly, he sounded calm and he was almost too quiet to hear. "I didn't ask you."
"I didn't need to be asked. I happen to like him, as a friend, and I'm sick of being pushed around by the damn prize of this entire place. What makes you so high anyway? You're just the same as the rest of us! We're all freaks! Turning around and treating him like that makes you just as bad as the people out there who were trying to kill you!"
Yuusuke held his breath. They were talking about him, or rather, they were fighting about what Triton had said to him the other night. The phrase that had caused him to run out, and even debate leaving without telling anyone. The last person he'd expected to stand up for him was Haku, because he was always so used to the boy being so sweet and calm. Part of him wanted to go in there and help Haku, while the other part wanted to leave.
He didn't want to hear Triton's excuses.
"Haku, shut up. I saved him. I understand you're younger, and you're lucky, because you don't know what that one does. If that's what it takes to keep someone out of Karasu's bed, then I'll do it. You and him can hate me all you want and think whatever you like. But the truth of the matter is I'm not making anyone else go through that."
"There were a lot nicer ways to do it. I know you saw the look on his face." Haku's anger had seemed to cool a bit, if the tone of his voice was any indication, but Yuusuke doubted that mattered much.
A moment later Triton stepped from the room, apparently ending the conversation. He stopped, as he noticed Yuusuke standing outside listening and just looked at him for a long moment with those deep green eyes, then he walked past, disappearing down the hall.
"I'm sorry, Yuusuke."
Yuusuke turned to find Haku standing in the doorway, a sad look in his face. But Yuusuke just smiled and reached over, ruffling his hair a bit. "Don't worry about it. Thanks for standing up for me though."
Haku shook his head. "It's still not right. He does that to everyone, any time you get close he shoots them down, hard. And then he goes around like nothing happened."
So that explained exactly what Kuronue had been saying. It wasn't just the blond kid that Triton acted like that too, it was everyone. In spite of the harsh words from the night before, Yuusuke found himself almost feeling sorry for Triton. Almost. He gave Haku a shrug and a smile. "His loss, he's the one without friends."
"You sure?"
"Trust me kid, I've dealt with a lot of jerks in my life. He's not the worst, and in the end it's still his loss and his problem to deal with."
Haku seemed to consider that for a moment, then gave his own nod, apparently agreeing with Yuusuke's logic. "I guess… Oh! Taski wanted to see you."
"Well then, lead the way, kid."
Months passed and Yuusuke dropped into a steady pattern. His first night 'on the job' wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it would be, but he also discovered first had that it certainly wasn't a glamorous job either. He got used to it, and he learned to tune certain things out, and soon it seemed like just another nightly activity to him.
Something about sleeping for money being passed off as just a nightly activity bothered him at times, but he managed to get through it by talking with the others and getting tips from them. Koenma, especially ended up becoming one of his closest friends and the easiest one he could talk to in the group, and both seemed to like it that way. Yuusuke shared his worries and troubles with the 'job' and Koenma shared what the other occupants, that only he could see, thought of the place. This soon grew into a huge amount of inside jokes that the others were left out of. It annoyed Botan to no end, which they both took even more pleasure in.
Yuusuke hadn't spoken to Triton since that night. Ever since the small spat with Haku, the youko seemed to become even more antisocial, not even meeting Yuusuke's eyes when he entered the rooms at night. Yuusuke wasn't sure if it had to do with him or with the fact that Quatre was showing up less and less as time went by. There was actually a whole month where he hadn't shown up and Triton had actually seemed to be upset the few times Yuusuke saw him, but he wasn't about to ask. As mean as it sounded, he felt like karma or whatever was giving the youko a nice boot to the ass for the way he treated people. It was a mean thought, but it kept Yuusuke from getting mad again.
The longer Yuusuke stayed in the warehouse, the better the place looked. He still worked as a makeshift repair person during the day and within the next few months he'd taught himself how to fix most things around the place. And most times, they stayed fixed. Taski seemed quite happy about this as it helped them avoid repair bills, and the money problems seemed to settle down. Well, at least until the point that Taski wasn't throwing weekly fits when he had to fill out the papers.
Things seemed to be dropping into a normal flow, like most of life did after a time, and Yuusuke found he was actually enjoying himself in his new home. And even better, it felt like home.
A knock sounded on Yuusuke's door.
"Just a sec!" Yuusuke ducked back into the bathroom to grab his shirt from the towel rack and threw it over his head, ignoring the fact that he was only halfway dried off from the shower he'd just taken. Grabbing a pair of jeans, he tugged them on as he walked to the door and managed not to fall on his face, but only because he'd had a life time of practice. Upon reaching the door he opened it…
And quickly closed it again.
"Shit." Yuusuke leaned against the door, taking a deep breath. He had not just…
"Yuusuke?"
That voice sounded familiar, far too familiar. And he'd only caught a glimpse, but a glimpse had been just enough to know exactly who seemed to be standing on the other side of that door.
"Yuusuke Urameshi," the voice took on a familiar scolding tone. "I know you're in there."
Yuusuke groaned loudly, definitely not wanting to open the door now. What was he doing here? How in the world had he gotten here? Hell, who'd let him in?! Yuusuke took a deep breath to relax himself then turned and opened the door, giving a nervous smile. "Hey Kurama."
Kurama looked no different from when Yuusuke had left his home without a word. The other teen still had his red hair growing long down his back where it seemed a bit untamed, in spite of the fact that Kurama took quite good care of it. He still had deep green eyes, that always struck Yuuuske as looking intelligent and yet not high and mighty. Kurama had been, and apparently was still the school nerd that somehow managed to draw all the attention. No one could compare to Shuuichi Minamino, which was his real name. Kurama was just a nick name that he insisted Yuusuke call him by.
But all of that didn't explain why Kurama was standing here now in his maroon school uniform looking right at Yuusuke. There should have been cities between them. Yuusuke had left his past behind, but apparently something had possessed his past to come looking for him.
"Don't hey me, where the hell have you been?"
Yuusuke smiled a bit more nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Umm, here and there, around. You know," he answered lamely. How exactly do you explain to a best friend where you've been for the last year or so. Hell, hadn't it been more then a year? Yuusuke didn't even try to do the mental math. He hated math, and even in this situation, avoided it as much as he could.
He expected Kurama to punch him, to yell at him, to be mad… or something. What he didn't expect was for the red head to step forward and hug him tightly. And what he least expected was exactly what Kurama did. Yuusuke soon found himself clutched in a tight hug, Kurama holding him close. He stood there in shock for just a moment, then gave in and simply hugged him back.
It felt good. Something about hugging Kurama felt comfortable, and even like home. The hug seemed to open the door to memories of school. Not the memories of falling asleep in class and failing his tests and beating up jerks for their lunches that usually accompanied his trips down memory lane, but instead good memories that he always seemed to over look.
He remembered eating lunch with Kurama on the roof, both of them looking down and making comments about the students below. He remembered going to pick up Kurama so they could walk home from school together, and always having to pull him out of one textbook or another, or try and convince him to walk home instead of doing even more extra credit that he didn't need. There were the walks home, the movies, the sleepovers, the times Yuusuke would throw rocks at his window in the middle of the night because he'd gotten tired of dealing with his drunken mom. All the good memories came back, and Yuusuke found himself clutching tightly at Kurama, as if it would help him gain those moments of his life back.
He hadn't realized how much he'd missed them until he'd seen Kurama again.
"Hey… Yuusuke… I'm the one who's supposed to be breaking down. Not you."
Yuusuke gave a small sound that sounded like something between a laugh and a snort and mostly sounded forced. He pulled back and smiled at Kurama, then stepped back and sat on the bed, not really sure what else to do. Kurama simply smiled back and sat down next to him, glancing around the room.
"So this is where you've been hiding? It's… not bad." Those green eyes settled back on him. "Have you been here all this time?"
Yuusuke shook his head. "I spent a while hoping from place to place. It's hard to find a job or a place to live when you have no income, and no real way to prove you are who you say you are."
Kurama nodded. "Yuusuke… why did you leave? You didn't even say anything to me. It well… I got worried. And I should kick your ass for it, because it hurt."
"I'm sorry." Somehow, saying those words only made Yuusuke feel worse. He pulled up one of his knees and hugged it loosely, resting his chin on his knee. "I had a fight with my mom and it just blew up. More so then it used to and well… she compared me to my dad and I guess that was just the last straw. I couldn't stand it anymore, and I left."
Kurama nodded, not really looking at him, but rather focusing his attention on his hands which were twisting together in his lap. Yuusuke had told Kurama every story about his mom and his family so the red head knew everything that had gone on. So it didn't surprise him when Kurama responded with "I understand. That's what I figured, but well, it still hurt to not hear it from you. Did you really need to leave town? You could have come and stayed with me."
He shook his head. "For how long? Your mom's understanding and nice, but you don't have much room in that house, especially with her new husband and your new brother. You're already sharing a room, I can't do that."
"But there had to have been some place…" Kurama stopped and sighed. "I guess here works too. I mean, you seem comfortable, and it's huge. How do you pay for this?"
Oh shit. Yuusuke froze at those words as he felt a chill crawl down his spine. He hadn't wrapped his mind around telling Kurama about where he lived now… or the people he lived with. "I'm kinda earning my room by repairing stuff. I share it… with the boy who answered the door, Haku." Mentally Yuusuke crossed his fingers, hoping Haku had been the one who answered the door.
"Oh, he seemed really nice." Yuusuke nearly breathed a sigh of relief at that. "But repairing? I heard stuff about this place when I was passing through town, that's how I found you."
Yuusuke took a deep breath. Perhaps the best thing was to just spit it out. But in the end, he couldn't. He couldn't make himself say it, or admit it. Hell, he still had trouble admitting to himself what he actually did every night. How was he supposed to admit it to his best friend?
Simple. He couldn't.
"Yeah, they're a bit… different. But they are some of the best people in the world." Yuusuke stood up quickly before Kurama could confront him about the slight veering in subject and grabbed his arm. "Come on, I'll introduce you."
"Oh… ok."
Kurama didn't make any protest as Yuusuke dragged him down the hallway toward the other large room in the back. It was the area that served as a kind of living room for everyone when they weren't busy. In truth Yuusuke didn't know how many people would be there, but it was the best place to find everyone, so it was a good start. On the way there, Yuusuke couldn't help but make a silent wish that it was someone less shocking. He had no real idea how Kurama would react to the other residents' more non human aspects. It would probably be best to slowly introduce him, but he would probably just have to accept who ever was there.
They arrived at the room, which was filled with a mishmash of different worn but comfy couches, to find only a few people. Koenma was sitting in one corner with a notebook, smiling as he chatted with whoever was invisibly floating next to him. Across from him Kuronue was relaxing on the couch reading a book, and luckily he was laying on his wings, so they weren't clearly noticeable right away.
And to Yuusuke's surprise, Triton was standing off to the other side in his human shape. He looked up as soon as both of them entered and immediately a strange expression crossed his face, one that Yuusuke couldn't completely decipher. A second later Triton quickly stood up and left the room, not saying a single word. Kuronue looked up and watched him leave, then turned to look at the source. When he spotted Yuusuke and Kurama he flashed a smile.
"You can bring her in, we don't bite."
Yuusuke visibly winced as he walked over with Kurama. "Actually, Kuronue-"
"I'm a guy." Kurama cut in with a small frown. Yuusuke remembered that Kurama's body shape and his long red hair had always gotten him mistaken for a girl in the past. The year or two that Yuusuke had been gone seemed to really only have made things worse.
"My mistake. Sorry about that. So, dropping by to see an old friend?" Kuronue, Yuusuke noticed, continued to lay on the couch as if it was perfectly natural for him to hold a conversation laying down. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he was doing it to hide his wings and Yuusuke reminded himself that he'd have to thank Kuronue later on.
Kurama nodded. "I was actually hoping to stay a bit. Since Yuusuke disappeared without telling me, we have a lot to catch up on." Kurama's eyes slid to Yuusuke with those words and he resisted the urge to wince again. He was going to get yelled at again next time they were alone…
"Fine by me, I'm sure Taski won't mind, but you probably still want to tell him. Just one small thing, how open minded are you?"
"If you're talking about the wings you've been laying on, then I'd say pretty open minded."
Yuusuke whirled to face Kurama, just blinking in surprise. A second later it occurred to him. Of course Kurama had noticed. Damn red head never let anything get by him.
"Oh, so you noticed." Kuronue, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered. He simply sat up and unfolded his wings to they crossed against the back of the couch and so Kurama could see them. Kurama's eyes widened a bit at the sight and he smiled as he reached out and lightly touched them.
"Nice." He said softly.
Kuronue grinned and glanced at Yuusuke. "I like him already."
Behind them Koenma walked up with a nervous smile. "Yuusuke, who's your friend?"
Yuusuke turned and smiled. "Koenma, this is Kurama my best friend from home. Kurama, this is Koenma, and he's got this super cool power to see the dead."
"Yuusuke!" Koenma's cheeks flushed a bit red at that as he shook his head, apparently embarrassed at Yuusuke's compliment.
"You can see the dead?" Kurama, however seemed very interested. "Can I… ask a question?"
Nearly everyone in the room blinked at Kurama for that, just watching him for a moment. Then Koenma gave a small nod.
"Dead people usually stick around the living right? Is there… can you see…?"
Koenma frowned and shook his head. "If you're asking if there's anyone around you, there's not. Least not that I can see right now."
"Oh. Umm, thanks."
What the heck was that? Yuusuke couldn't help but just watch Kurama for a moment in wonder. As far as he knew Kurama didn't have anyone close to him that had died. And had it been a family member, the last place he would be right now was standing right next to Yuusuke. Kurama was the type of person to put other people first. He made them happy before he worried about himself, and that included if someone in his family or one of his friends died. He would have put off searching for his best friend to comfort them, so why was he asking such a thing.
It occurred to Yuusuke a second later that he now had ammo. As shallow as it sounded he now had something that Kurama apparently hadn't told him about that he could use when Kurama confronted him about his job, which he would find out about soon. Especially if he stayed for a while. Yuusuke was not looking forward to it, but at least he was now somewhat prepared.
Haku's voice rang through the hallways and Yuusuke numbly made his way toward breakfast, or whatever was left of it at this hour. The night before he'd literally torn his clothes in a frenzy to get them off and stuffed them in the garbage. That was it, he was done, and woe to that damned silver fox if he saw him within the next year. Because he would show him exactly how he felt about those words, with his fists!
But Yuusuke couldn't help himself pausing in the hall as he heard Haku yell. He'd never heard the boy swear. In fact, he'd never heard the boy be anything but pleasant before. So this was something big, and sadly, something worth listening into.
"I understand the need to be alone and the need to just shrug everyone else, but even a kid like me knows that went too far!"
Triton's voice responded lowly, he sounded calm and he was almost too quiet to hear. "I didn't ask you."
"I didn't need to be asked. I happen to like him, as a friend, and I'm sick of being pushed around by the damn prize of this entire place. What makes you so high anyway? You're just the same as the rest of us! We're all freaks! Turning around and treating him like that makes you just as bad as the people out there who were trying to kill you!"
Yuusuke held his breath. They were talking about him, or rather, they were fighting about what Triton had said to him the other night. The phrase that had caused him to run out, and even debate leaving without telling anyone. The last person he'd expected to stand up for him was Haku, because he was always so used to the boy being so sweet and calm. Part of him wanted to go in there and help Haku, while the other part wanted to leave.
He didn't want to hear Triton's excuses.
"Haku, shut up. I saved him. I understand you're younger, and you're lucky, because you don't know what that one does. If that's what it takes to keep someone out of Karasu's bed, then I'll do it. You and him can hate me all you want and think whatever you like. But the truth of the matter is I'm not making anyone else go through that."
"There were a lot nicer ways to do it. I know you saw the look on his face." Haku's anger had seemed to cool a bit, if the tone of his voice was any indication, but Yuusuke doubted that mattered much.
A moment later Triton stepped from the room, apparently ending the conversation. He stopped, as he noticed Yuusuke standing outside listening and just looked at him for a long moment with those deep green eyes, then he walked past, disappearing down the hall.
"I'm sorry, Yuusuke."
Yuusuke turned to find Haku standing in the doorway, a sad look in his face. But Yuusuke just smiled and reached over, ruffling his hair a bit. "Don't worry about it. Thanks for standing up for me though."
Haku shook his head. "It's still not right. He does that to everyone, any time you get close he shoots them down, hard. And then he goes around like nothing happened."
So that explained exactly what Kuronue had been saying. It wasn't just the blond kid that Triton acted like that too, it was everyone. In spite of the harsh words from the night before, Yuusuke found himself almost feeling sorry for Triton. Almost. He gave Haku a shrug and a smile. "His loss, he's the one without friends."
"You sure?"
"Trust me kid, I've dealt with a lot of jerks in my life. He's not the worst, and in the end it's still his loss and his problem to deal with."
Haku seemed to consider that for a moment, then gave his own nod, apparently agreeing with Yuusuke's logic. "I guess… Oh! Taski wanted to see you."
"Well then, lead the way, kid."
Months passed and Yuusuke dropped into a steady pattern. His first night 'on the job' wasn't nearly as bad as he thought it would be, but he also discovered first had that it certainly wasn't a glamorous job either. He got used to it, and he learned to tune certain things out, and soon it seemed like just another nightly activity to him.
Something about sleeping for money being passed off as just a nightly activity bothered him at times, but he managed to get through it by talking with the others and getting tips from them. Koenma, especially ended up becoming one of his closest friends and the easiest one he could talk to in the group, and both seemed to like it that way. Yuusuke shared his worries and troubles with the 'job' and Koenma shared what the other occupants, that only he could see, thought of the place. This soon grew into a huge amount of inside jokes that the others were left out of. It annoyed Botan to no end, which they both took even more pleasure in.
Yuusuke hadn't spoken to Triton since that night. Ever since the small spat with Haku, the youko seemed to become even more antisocial, not even meeting Yuusuke's eyes when he entered the rooms at night. Yuusuke wasn't sure if it had to do with him or with the fact that Quatre was showing up less and less as time went by. There was actually a whole month where he hadn't shown up and Triton had actually seemed to be upset the few times Yuusuke saw him, but he wasn't about to ask. As mean as it sounded, he felt like karma or whatever was giving the youko a nice boot to the ass for the way he treated people. It was a mean thought, but it kept Yuusuke from getting mad again.
The longer Yuusuke stayed in the warehouse, the better the place looked. He still worked as a makeshift repair person during the day and within the next few months he'd taught himself how to fix most things around the place. And most times, they stayed fixed. Taski seemed quite happy about this as it helped them avoid repair bills, and the money problems seemed to settle down. Well, at least until the point that Taski wasn't throwing weekly fits when he had to fill out the papers.
Things seemed to be dropping into a normal flow, like most of life did after a time, and Yuusuke found he was actually enjoying himself in his new home. And even better, it felt like home.
A knock sounded on Yuusuke's door.
"Just a sec!" Yuusuke ducked back into the bathroom to grab his shirt from the towel rack and threw it over his head, ignoring the fact that he was only halfway dried off from the shower he'd just taken. Grabbing a pair of jeans, he tugged them on as he walked to the door and managed not to fall on his face, but only because he'd had a life time of practice. Upon reaching the door he opened it…
And quickly closed it again.
"Shit." Yuusuke leaned against the door, taking a deep breath. He had not just…
"Yuusuke?"
That voice sounded familiar, far too familiar. And he'd only caught a glimpse, but a glimpse had been just enough to know exactly who seemed to be standing on the other side of that door.
"Yuusuke Urameshi," the voice took on a familiar scolding tone. "I know you're in there."
Yuusuke groaned loudly, definitely not wanting to open the door now. What was he doing here? How in the world had he gotten here? Hell, who'd let him in?! Yuusuke took a deep breath to relax himself then turned and opened the door, giving a nervous smile. "Hey Kurama."
Kurama looked no different from when Yuusuke had left his home without a word. The other teen still had his red hair growing long down his back where it seemed a bit untamed, in spite of the fact that Kurama took quite good care of it. He still had deep green eyes, that always struck Yuuuske as looking intelligent and yet not high and mighty. Kurama had been, and apparently was still the school nerd that somehow managed to draw all the attention. No one could compare to Shuuichi Minamino, which was his real name. Kurama was just a nick name that he insisted Yuusuke call him by.
But all of that didn't explain why Kurama was standing here now in his maroon school uniform looking right at Yuusuke. There should have been cities between them. Yuusuke had left his past behind, but apparently something had possessed his past to come looking for him.
"Don't hey me, where the hell have you been?"
Yuusuke smiled a bit more nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Umm, here and there, around. You know," he answered lamely. How exactly do you explain to a best friend where you've been for the last year or so. Hell, hadn't it been more then a year? Yuusuke didn't even try to do the mental math. He hated math, and even in this situation, avoided it as much as he could.
He expected Kurama to punch him, to yell at him, to be mad… or something. What he didn't expect was for the red head to step forward and hug him tightly. And what he least expected was exactly what Kurama did. Yuusuke soon found himself clutched in a tight hug, Kurama holding him close. He stood there in shock for just a moment, then gave in and simply hugged him back.
It felt good. Something about hugging Kurama felt comfortable, and even like home. The hug seemed to open the door to memories of school. Not the memories of falling asleep in class and failing his tests and beating up jerks for their lunches that usually accompanied his trips down memory lane, but instead good memories that he always seemed to over look.
He remembered eating lunch with Kurama on the roof, both of them looking down and making comments about the students below. He remembered going to pick up Kurama so they could walk home from school together, and always having to pull him out of one textbook or another, or try and convince him to walk home instead of doing even more extra credit that he didn't need. There were the walks home, the movies, the sleepovers, the times Yuusuke would throw rocks at his window in the middle of the night because he'd gotten tired of dealing with his drunken mom. All the good memories came back, and Yuusuke found himself clutching tightly at Kurama, as if it would help him gain those moments of his life back.
He hadn't realized how much he'd missed them until he'd seen Kurama again.
"Hey… Yuusuke… I'm the one who's supposed to be breaking down. Not you."
Yuusuke gave a small sound that sounded like something between a laugh and a snort and mostly sounded forced. He pulled back and smiled at Kurama, then stepped back and sat on the bed, not really sure what else to do. Kurama simply smiled back and sat down next to him, glancing around the room.
"So this is where you've been hiding? It's… not bad." Those green eyes settled back on him. "Have you been here all this time?"
Yuusuke shook his head. "I spent a while hoping from place to place. It's hard to find a job or a place to live when you have no income, and no real way to prove you are who you say you are."
Kurama nodded. "Yuusuke… why did you leave? You didn't even say anything to me. It well… I got worried. And I should kick your ass for it, because it hurt."
"I'm sorry." Somehow, saying those words only made Yuusuke feel worse. He pulled up one of his knees and hugged it loosely, resting his chin on his knee. "I had a fight with my mom and it just blew up. More so then it used to and well… she compared me to my dad and I guess that was just the last straw. I couldn't stand it anymore, and I left."
Kurama nodded, not really looking at him, but rather focusing his attention on his hands which were twisting together in his lap. Yuusuke had told Kurama every story about his mom and his family so the red head knew everything that had gone on. So it didn't surprise him when Kurama responded with "I understand. That's what I figured, but well, it still hurt to not hear it from you. Did you really need to leave town? You could have come and stayed with me."
He shook his head. "For how long? Your mom's understanding and nice, but you don't have much room in that house, especially with her new husband and your new brother. You're already sharing a room, I can't do that."
"But there had to have been some place…" Kurama stopped and sighed. "I guess here works too. I mean, you seem comfortable, and it's huge. How do you pay for this?"
Oh shit. Yuusuke froze at those words as he felt a chill crawl down his spine. He hadn't wrapped his mind around telling Kurama about where he lived now… or the people he lived with. "I'm kinda earning my room by repairing stuff. I share it… with the boy who answered the door, Haku." Mentally Yuusuke crossed his fingers, hoping Haku had been the one who answered the door.
"Oh, he seemed really nice." Yuusuke nearly breathed a sigh of relief at that. "But repairing? I heard stuff about this place when I was passing through town, that's how I found you."
Yuusuke took a deep breath. Perhaps the best thing was to just spit it out. But in the end, he couldn't. He couldn't make himself say it, or admit it. Hell, he still had trouble admitting to himself what he actually did every night. How was he supposed to admit it to his best friend?
Simple. He couldn't.
"Yeah, they're a bit… different. But they are some of the best people in the world." Yuusuke stood up quickly before Kurama could confront him about the slight veering in subject and grabbed his arm. "Come on, I'll introduce you."
"Oh… ok."
Kurama didn't make any protest as Yuusuke dragged him down the hallway toward the other large room in the back. It was the area that served as a kind of living room for everyone when they weren't busy. In truth Yuusuke didn't know how many people would be there, but it was the best place to find everyone, so it was a good start. On the way there, Yuusuke couldn't help but make a silent wish that it was someone less shocking. He had no real idea how Kurama would react to the other residents' more non human aspects. It would probably be best to slowly introduce him, but he would probably just have to accept who ever was there.
They arrived at the room, which was filled with a mishmash of different worn but comfy couches, to find only a few people. Koenma was sitting in one corner with a notebook, smiling as he chatted with whoever was invisibly floating next to him. Across from him Kuronue was relaxing on the couch reading a book, and luckily he was laying on his wings, so they weren't clearly noticeable right away.
And to Yuusuke's surprise, Triton was standing off to the other side in his human shape. He looked up as soon as both of them entered and immediately a strange expression crossed his face, one that Yuusuke couldn't completely decipher. A second later Triton quickly stood up and left the room, not saying a single word. Kuronue looked up and watched him leave, then turned to look at the source. When he spotted Yuusuke and Kurama he flashed a smile.
"You can bring her in, we don't bite."
Yuusuke visibly winced as he walked over with Kurama. "Actually, Kuronue-"
"I'm a guy." Kurama cut in with a small frown. Yuusuke remembered that Kurama's body shape and his long red hair had always gotten him mistaken for a girl in the past. The year or two that Yuusuke had been gone seemed to really only have made things worse.
"My mistake. Sorry about that. So, dropping by to see an old friend?" Kuronue, Yuusuke noticed, continued to lay on the couch as if it was perfectly natural for him to hold a conversation laying down. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he was doing it to hide his wings and Yuusuke reminded himself that he'd have to thank Kuronue later on.
Kurama nodded. "I was actually hoping to stay a bit. Since Yuusuke disappeared without telling me, we have a lot to catch up on." Kurama's eyes slid to Yuusuke with those words and he resisted the urge to wince again. He was going to get yelled at again next time they were alone…
"Fine by me, I'm sure Taski won't mind, but you probably still want to tell him. Just one small thing, how open minded are you?"
"If you're talking about the wings you've been laying on, then I'd say pretty open minded."
Yuusuke whirled to face Kurama, just blinking in surprise. A second later it occurred to him. Of course Kurama had noticed. Damn red head never let anything get by him.
"Oh, so you noticed." Kuronue, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered. He simply sat up and unfolded his wings to they crossed against the back of the couch and so Kurama could see them. Kurama's eyes widened a bit at the sight and he smiled as he reached out and lightly touched them.
"Nice." He said softly.
Kuronue grinned and glanced at Yuusuke. "I like him already."
Behind them Koenma walked up with a nervous smile. "Yuusuke, who's your friend?"
Yuusuke turned and smiled. "Koenma, this is Kurama my best friend from home. Kurama, this is Koenma, and he's got this super cool power to see the dead."
"Yuusuke!" Koenma's cheeks flushed a bit red at that as he shook his head, apparently embarrassed at Yuusuke's compliment.
"You can see the dead?" Kurama, however seemed very interested. "Can I… ask a question?"
Nearly everyone in the room blinked at Kurama for that, just watching him for a moment. Then Koenma gave a small nod.
"Dead people usually stick around the living right? Is there… can you see…?"
Koenma frowned and shook his head. "If you're asking if there's anyone around you, there's not. Least not that I can see right now."
"Oh. Umm, thanks."
What the heck was that? Yuusuke couldn't help but just watch Kurama for a moment in wonder. As far as he knew Kurama didn't have anyone close to him that had died. And had it been a family member, the last place he would be right now was standing right next to Yuusuke. Kurama was the type of person to put other people first. He made them happy before he worried about himself, and that included if someone in his family or one of his friends died. He would have put off searching for his best friend to comfort them, so why was he asking such a thing.
It occurred to Yuusuke a second later that he now had ammo. As shallow as it sounded he now had something that Kurama apparently hadn't told him about that he could use when Kurama confronted him about his job, which he would find out about soon. Especially if he stayed for a while. Yuusuke was not looking forward to it, but at least he was now somewhat prepared.