Title: Remuneration
Author: sereace
Disclaimers: YuYu Hakusho does not belong to me. Though if I did, I wouldn't be writing this fic now, would I? .
Warnings: Oh dear. Here I am again. Though this is my first fic in this…fandom, it certainly is NOT conventional, as is most of my ships.
Prologue
Autumn was nearly ending.
Petals of the sakura no hana covered nearly every inch of the pavement, road, roof, backyard, and their fragrance had yet to fail to bring a smile to any passerby's face.
The wilting of the cherry blossom trees has always stood as a sign of change.
Winter was fast approaching.
And with it, some promises were made, some dreams brought into culmination, some expectations are unfulfilled.
Some stories end where others begin, just as some stories begin where others end.
It mattered not to her how it was spoken, or whoever spoke it to try to abate her grief...and her joy.
Because for her, a promise was made just as another was broken, a dream came true just as another came crashing down, and expectations went as high as hit absolute zero.
She shivered as the breeze flew by. Once upon a time, that action would have triggered a reaction that just in itself would have spread warmth all throughout her entire being. At that moment, all it did was rob her of the warmth she was so desperately clinging on by way of the leather coat that served as a dress for someone whose stature was as short as hers.
'It's not fair,' she started, spitefully staring at the tree across the lot, as if it had anything to do with her situation. 'I didn't ask for anything but for him…just him. I never wanted anything more that him—I couldn't. He was everything…' She trailed off as she felt a solitary, traitorous tear make its way down now-pallid, gaunt cheeks, that were, only a few months ago, pale, but healthy.
"You shouldn't be here, you know."
She smiled, full, but almost colorless lips curving upwards. That voice was familiar—overly familiar, in fact, it was beginning to be increasingly so the past few months, and it gave her the comfort she needed, craved for, almost. The reprimanding tone in the low timbre of the baritone amused her, though if she were any lesser woman, they would have fainted. If not out of fear, then of something else, and who was she but a mortal woman to deny of the fact the man—youkai, if you permit it—behind her is as gorgeous as any red or silver-haired Adonis any sculptor in the world, present or past era could ever conjure.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that sneaking up on women isn't polite?" She kept her tone light, knowing that the topic she treaded was delicate, but they had gone past the borders of formalities. If one were to think about it, formalities shouldn't have existed between two people, be it a man and a woman, or a youkai and a human, if they have known each other for very well a decade of their lives. But it existed between them, and only recently had taken into calling each other without honorifics, their relationship growing into more platonic friendship than it ever was.
"Oh, I don't know…perhaps because the lesson did not include leaving a beautiful woman alone, seated on a bench in the gardens of her workplace, practically freezing to death, who also happens to be in a very special condition…" The humor was evident now, the bait that he threw which she thought she could throw back working on his full advantage.
She turned, an arm resting at the back of the bench, chocolate brown meeting emerald green. She pouted at the resolute expression on his face, knowing that the reprimand was coming now, and the only probable way out of it was to use whatever wiles she has…and the pouting usually worked. "I just wanted some fresh air…it was getting pretty closed up in the office, and the weatherman didn't mention anything about the temperature rising…"
He held up his hands, palms up, callused, but elegantly long, in a placating gesture as he chuckled. "Alright, alright, no need to go all weepy on me, I was just concerned, is all. Kami-sama knows I get enough of those speeches with my mother."
She raised her brows inquiringly at that, as she patted the space beside her. She had the bench all alone to herself the whole afternoon; it wouldn't do any harm to share it. He smiled at her as he rounded and sat down. She shifted, bringing a leg up to rest on the bench, the back of the knees of her other leg hooked on the foot that hung from the ledge. Even then there was ample space between them, and he copied her stance, only with more grace than, she thought, she ever could muster.
"She gives those speeches?" She started, smiling, a glint in her eyes. "Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that another of her subtle clues for you to abandon bachelorhood and give her her precious grandchildren."
He caught on. He merely returned the smile, a quirk on his lips as he did so, a hand reaching out to play with a tendril that escaped the simple French twist that held the rest of brown hair that reaches half-way past her back, let loose.
"Subtlety gets less and less, if she continues as she does."
"Maybe she just thinks that her son is getting more and more daft, as the years go by."
He laughed, and she couldn't help but join him—his joy was contagious, as was everything about him.
"You do know that you are the first living creature to accuse me of being daft, don't you?"
"Hm. It is in human nature to be blind to its faults."
He raised a brow, smirking. "Again, you do know that I am not human, don't you?"
She blinked, before she shook her head, another smile forming. She never seemed to stop smiling when he was around. She slapped her forehead with her palm in mock frustration. "Right! Oh, how could I have forgotten?! The great and glorious Kurama, the renowned thief-turned-over-a-new-leaf-Rei-Kai-Tantei, could of course not have been a ningen—how could he be of the lesser kind—"
He cut her off with a hand over her mouth, his eyes alight with mirth and laughter. "Secrets, my lady, thou should not forget, are to be as they are, secret."
She gasped, again with mock chagrin. "You are right, good sir—of course! After all, what would happen to all of youkai should ningens get wind of exactly how youkai look like?" She smirked naughtily, winking at him.
"As long as they don't happen to trip any of the youkai who are a shame to youkai-kind."
"That would be coming from the youkai who had won the 'Most Gorgeous Youkai' since he was born, of course." She said flippantly, twirling the errant tendril he had abandoned moments ago between two fingers.
He leveled her with a gaze, and she looked back. It lasted for a few seconds before they couldn't hold back the hilarity of it all—it started this way with them, since after her world as she knew it came crumbling down on her shoulders, threatening to bury her alive—and it will remain to be their own sanctuary, their won personal masks, from the reality that one of them did not yet know, and the other did not want to face.
He watched as she flipped over a page in the report she was reading, the only sign of awareness on her face was the eyes, darting back and forth across the paper. The occasional raising of an eyebrow, a small smile, an astonished whispered gasp were enough to give him a vague idea on the contents of the said report given to her by the receptionist down at the lobby of their office. After all, he wouldn't be the son, albeit only by law, of the President of the Board of Directors if he didn't know about certain state of affairs that would be revealed only to a selected few, which were, often than not, less than a handful. She started reading when they boarded the elevator—the executive elevator, that is—and she was on her second page when the signal that it was their floor rang out. Only then did she raise her head and stepped outside the encasement, instinctively turning around and looking at him, before she neatly folded the papers and closed the folder.
"You knew about this, didn't you?" The tone was almost accusing, if he didn't know any better. But he did, so he merely shrugged it off, and led her forward, a hand on her back.
"What kind of member of the Board am I if I didn't know about it?" He started smoothly, resonating. "I had to have been informed, you know."
She smiled at him as they turned round the corner, back into the public access areas. "As member of the boars, surely you would have, just as sure as you'd be informed being just the son."
He quirked a brow at her direction, knowing she was watching him at the corner of her eyes. "I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment or an insult," he said, keeping his tone light as he nodded at someone who greeted them.
She smiled back. "Take it as both." He chuckled as she waved to the personnel he nodded at, and gestured her to approach them. "Kimigure-san, please inform Doctor Takamura that I require the medical background of the patient he referred to me a week ago. He'll know who it is. I expect the reports on my desk by noon tomorrow, if it's not so much trouble."
The petite, raven-haired woman smiled back, and nodded. "Hai, Doctor Yukimura. By the way, Doctor Takamura sends his regards and good luck to you…regarding that…special case."
She practically sniggered, eliciting a curious look from her red-haired companion, who, in turn, garnered a look from Kimigure. "Special case indeed, don't you think, Kimigure-san?"
Kimigure-san merely smiled, the sight of the two together were both normal and compelling, "He's been thinking of ways how to drop the special case, but he had been unfortunate, until the appeal came. You were the only qualified professional in the area, and if it weren't as publicized as it was—is—excuse me, he wouldn't have given it to you."
She sighed, still smiling. "It is beginning to be the bane of my existence."
"Again, good luck, Doctor. You have to excuse me…I have to reach the parking area in," she glanced at her watched, exaggeratedly counting the minutes, "Five minutes, since the daughter of my boss could not, for the life of her, carry the package she has for her father because her nails might break."
"Well then, Kimigure-san, you're excused. We have to get going now, anyway, for an appointment that should have taken place approximately one minute ago," he glanced at the woman beside him who was staring back at him, eyes slanted, "Not that it matters…"
"Alright! We're going, we're going. You don't have to act so conscience-mighty on me you know. Just a simple reminder would have worked." She spun on her heel with a last wave to Kimigure, grabbing the arm of her companion.
"Keiko, I think we're one minute late for your appointment, can you please stop chattering with an old friend so we can go on our way?"
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?!"
She looked at him, her eyes shining with mischief, before walking, staring straight ahead. "Maybe I should send a message to Kimigure's cell phone…tell her to subtly drop clues as to why she was late…" She stole a glance at him, before pausing in front of a door. "Maybe saying 'I'm sorry, Takamura-san, but I'm late because Doctor Minamino had asked me to run an errand before meeting you here,' would be enough to send another fnatic right at your heels, wouldn't it, Shuuichi" A sly smile played along her lips, and before he could think of an equally low-blow reply, she yanked the door open, let go of his arm, stepped inside, and slammed the door gently, if it was possible, right at her face. All in two blinks of a second, he had stared, lost sight, and is again staring, at the bronze nameplate on the door that said 'Kirisawa Migami, M.D., OB-Gynecologist'.
He laughed to himself quietly, as he composed himself, brushing the bangs back from his face uselessly, before he reached for the knob and let himself in.
"Why, hello, Doctor Minamino. I was wondering where you stuck yourself with."
He rolled his eyes at his colleague, who had acted as his second mother when he was first inducted into the Board. "Whatever happened to Shuuichi, Migami-san?"
The three laughed together, the sounds reverberating through the walls of the furnished, white-painted office.
Author's Notes: This plot came from the deepest recesses of my imaginations, given visuals thru a dream, and I have been thinking of ways on how to get this particular plot and pairing out of my system since then. This fic is my frustration, actually, because the dream I had was when I was still in first year high school, and guess what? I'm in my second year college now, taking my second semester in a course that I didn't personally choose but is beginning to be okay with. And please don't hate me, and please, don't read this if you're not open-minded. Or you will hate me, which I wouldn't want to happen because if it does, well, we'll just hate each other, won't we? Thanks for those who have read as far as this one.