Dachi Part 3-I understand the bad things, although I believe I continue to help if I always keep silent

Yusuke decided not to visit Kuwabara's that night feeling that it just wouldn't have been appropriate. Not that he was appropriate normally, but when it came to Kuwabara he often wasn't the same. So, when he woke the next morning he only had one thought on his mind: 'Find Kuwabara and figure out what the fuck's up with him.'

He went through his daily routine much faster then normal eager to get to school on time and talk to his friend. He wasn't expecting the knock on the door a few minutes after he'd left the shower. When he opened the door he suddenly remembered the morning before.

There was Keiko, in her school uniform with a smile on her face. "Good morning, Yusuke-kun!"

Yusuke threw out a weak 'good mornin' in return. Was this going to happen everyday from now on? Suddenly the words Kuwabara had spoken to him came back. She needs you. 'I guess that means I'll be walking her to school from now on. Right?' He looked apprehensive for a moment before grabbing his school bag and stepping outside. He grabbed onto Keiko's arm and started walking.

"So, did you sleep well?", she asked genuinely curious.

Yusuke shrugged.

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

"I usually don't unless Shizuru's fixing."

"Oh." She paused. "That's Kuwabara-san's sister, right?"

Yusuke nodded. The two walked in silence.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Keiko stopped walking in order to dig something out of her bag. "I made another special lunch for you!" She grinned at him extending out the blue lunchbox.

Yusuke took it, not planning on saying anything when once again Kuwabara's words surfaced from his memory. Just enjoy her damn company! "Thanks Keiko-chan." He grinned at her in return. They started walking again. "Yanno normally I wouldn't have lunch and all cuz I can't cook my way out of a wet paper bag or whatever. So a while back Kuwabara started fixin' it for me so I'd stop beating younger kids out of their lunches. Now I have you, so still no beating and no hunger."

"Oh... well that's good."

He was surprised to see that she was staring straight ahead and looked... put out? He'd thought that opening up and talking more was going to make her happy, not this. "Your lunch is really good, though. I wouldn't take another kid's lunch again if I didn't have to."

She looked at him. "Really?" Yusuke nodded. Keiko's eyes narrowed slightly, but only just. "Not even from Kuwabara-san?"

The look in her eyes bothered him. It felt as though she were asking a much more than about whose lunch was the best. 'Well, I like there's both. Her's is good, but honestly Kuwa knows what I like better... I'd hafta say I like his best.' Despite his thoughts he felt it unwise to say what was really on his mind.

"Not even from Kuwabara." She seemed satisfied with this answer and kissed him on his cheek. He smiled though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

As luck would have it, he didn't get a chance to see Kuwabara that morning. He'd dragged Keiko all around the school looking for the orange haired boy before class was to start, but never could spot him amongst the other students. He asked some of Kuwabara's other friends and not even they knew where he was that morning. But when the bell rang, there he was, sitting in his seat a row away from Yusuke.

'What's his deal today? He won't even look at me. Least he could do is say good morning.' Realizing that glaring holes into the back of his head wouldn't make him look, Yusuke looked down at the book they were reading from. 'Blah blah blah forbidden love blah blah... Is this a romance novel or something cuz it sure as hell sounds like one!' He looked up at where Keiko was sitting and found her absorbed in the book. A few more seconds of staring and she turned her head to look at him. She winked and went back to reading.

'Sure, the girl without spirit awareness looks up, but Mister dumb fuck I-can-sense-the-spirit-of-a-cockroach-from-20-miles-away won't even flinch!'

"Mr. Urameshi, are you having a problem with the text?"

Yusuke was about to say 'no', but then thought better of it. "Actually, I do." All eyes turned to him. "This thing reads like a friggin' romance novel! What the eff do I care about love!"

"Mr. Urameshi-"

"I mean, seriously, how many people in here are positive that they're in love with somebody? Well, not me. I can't even say that I love my mom yet much less another person." Many of the boys in class were nodding along with some of the girls, though less of them.

"I want to be able to get through my teenage years without some girl hanging all over me and asking me how much I love her! And even if I do love the girl I won't know for sure till I'm an old fart or whatever! It's just effing easier to hang out with my best friend for the rest of my life! At least he doesn't expect anything out of me." At this moment he noticed that Keiko had turned and was now glaring angrily at him. Seeing this look made him pause long enough for the teacher to speak again.

He cleared his throat. "As passionate as you may feel about this Mr. Urameshi, I'm afraid it's not appropriate in class. I'd give you a detention if I thought it would do any good, so if you would please sit down..."

Yusuke hadn't realized he'd stood up, but with little of his passion left, he slumped down into his seat. Keiko glared at him for a moment longer before tossing her head and going back to reading. His eyes traveled over to where Kuwabara sat.

During his whole tirade, Kuwabara never even glanced up from his reading.

Lunch didn't prove to be better for Yusuke and his quest, for Kuwabara was, once again, nowhere to be found. Not that he had time to search for him since he was to make an appearance in the classroom with his girlfriend who seemed hell-bent on smothering him. He couldn't understand why she was so extra touchy. He was unable to say that it bothered him too much because honestly she was a very pretty girl and she was all over him. Still, he wanted to talk to his friend terribly.

Before he knew it, it was the end of the day again and time for phys ed. He wasn't too surprised to see that Kuwabara had already dressed and was outside running his laps for the day. Yusuke wasted no time in dressing and blocked out whatever the idiots around him were saying and raced out to the track. He jogged up to Kuwabara and fell into step with him.

"What the hell's with you today?"

Kuwabara ignored him.

"I haven't seen you all day and I've been wanting to ask you about yesterday."

Silence met him.

"Really, man, I wanted to know what was up. And I'm sorry for being stupid, but I really do count on you for stuff like that."

Still more silence.

"And I do take your advice, cuz me and Keiko are doing better now-"

"Yusuke." He skidded to a stop noticing Kuwabara had stopped a few steps behind him. "You don't have the time to be around me anymore." Kuwabara said this without looking into his eyes.

He looked up at his friend incredulously for what seemed to be the third or fourth time within a few days. "And just why wouldn't I have time for you?"

"Because, Yusuke." He still wouldn't look up.

"Cuz wha- fuck!" One hand flew up to clutch his nose while his other came up ready to block and attack. The rest of his body had fallen into his fighting stance as well. When the pain in his face ebbed some he looked up to see that Kuwabara was no longer beside him, nor was he running around the track. In fact Kuwabara was nowhere to be found.

"He left... the bastard left..." Yusuke didn't know whether to be angry or indignant or sad or what. He just stood where he was, staring, his hand touching at the fast-forming bruise on his face.

Despite all that had happened, Yusuke went to his and Kuwabara's meeting spot. Like every other day he rushed over and stood waiting for his friend to arrive. Like every other day his eyes searched wildly looking for him. Like every other day he couldn't wait to see him.

Unlike every other day Kuwabara never showed up that afternoon. Yusuke waited as long as he could, even after Keiko had arrived to drag him off to the noodle shop. He still stood there making up excuses about some thing they'd planned months ago or something of that nature. His girlfriend eventually won and managed to get him walking.

After they'd been walking for a while, she decided to address something that she'd been holding in all day.

"Yusuke...", she trailed off hoping to get his attention. He made a sound signaling that he was paying attention. However she called his name again. He made a similar sound of acknowledgement but still she called his name. "Yusuke!"

"What?", he snapped. He'd already shown he was listening. Why call out his name so many times?

"That's just what I figured..." she trailed off again hoping for some type of reaction.

"Figured what?", he asked truly curious.

She sighed loudly. "Oh, you don't get it. I didn't think you would!"

He stopped walking. "Don't get what?"

"You'd never get it, I'm sure! Just keep walking." She grabbed his hand and started walking again only to stop when she found that her boyfriend wouldn't budge. "Yusuke, it's ok, I'm not mad at you. Just come on!" She tugged at his hand again.

"No, I wanna know what it is that I'm too stupid to get."

"I never said you were stupid, I just think you wouldn't understand." She tried futilely and perhaps too dramatically to get him to move.

"Ok, I know I'm not a frickin' genius or anything, but if you could just explain things to me." He actually sounded put out, not so proud of the idiot persona he presented to everyone. "I mean, Kuwabara always slowed things down for me or explained it how I would understand... Maybe if you could..." He didn't know what to say after that for Keiko's face had grown cold and she was glaring at him.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Whaddya mean Keiko?"

"It's always Kuwabara isn't it?", she spat out.

"He's my best friend!"

She wrenched her hand away from his as if she'd been burned. "And me being your girlfriend isn't important enough? Or I guess I just hang on you too much and I shouldn't rush you into a decision!" Yusuke looked taken aback as his words came back to bite him. He was surprised when they stung less then he thought.

"Keiko, I didn't mean... I was just talking..."

"Right," she sniffed. "I know who you really like better and I've known it all along." Her voice began to waver as she kept talking. "Kuwabara-san was always more honorable than me I guess. I guess he's prettier than me too, isn't he!" She let out a sob.

Yusuke noticed that they were gaining the attention of quite a few passer by and tried to tug his girlfriend close to make their conversation more private. His plan backfired when she jerked away from him. "C'mon Keiko, it's just Kuwabara-"

"No, it's NOT just Kuwabara! It's all the time you devote to him instead of me! You act like he's so much more important than I am, but he's-he's a boy, Yusuke! He's a boy!" It was becoming very obvious to those around the couple that no matter how upset she seemed, her antics were just too much. However, Yusuke didn't quite understand how girls tended to function.

"Keiko, he's not more important than you, he's just..."

"Just what Yusuke?" She spoke again before he even had a chance to think of a proper response. "I've waited patiently all these years for you to finally realize how I feel about you and I'm still not good enough! I thought I'd given you time to be yourself and to grow up. I thought I could finally have a chance at being with the fine young man you turned out to be!" She sobbed hard into her hands.

Everyone around them was looking openly. Most had bored but curious looks on their faces, anticipating what Yusuke would do. Yusuke, himself, was at a loss having never dealt with a crying girl before. At least not like this. If she'd skinned her knee, that'd be easy to take care of, but crying over the comparison of time he spent with his best friend and his girlfriend... He couldn't make heads or tails of the situation.

He knew he had to think quick- had to think of something that would both calm and reassure her in the limited time he had. He didn't want to lose her after all. He tentatively reached out a hand, becoming more bold mid-gesture and enveloped her in a tight, one-armed embrace. She struggled a bit too half-heartedly for her to have really been against being in his arms.

Yusuke rested his head on top of Keiko's. "Keiko, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you thought that..." 'Sorry you thought Kuwabara was prettier!' "You thought I didn't care for you enough. And I'm sorry you had to wait so long." 'Sorry I'm such a damn street punk that you had to wait for me to grow up.'

Keiko sniffled into his chest. "But-but who comes first?" She sniffled pitifully again and turned watery eyes on him.

He froze up. What kind of question was that? How could he possibly answer that question. Still the words Kuwabara had told him rang loud and clear. I'm just convenient. I could leave and you could get over me. She's special. 'If she's special then I know what I should say...'

"Your first Keiko. Always first." He smiled gently at her.

She gave him a watery smile, but looked terribly happy nonetheless. "Thank you Yusuke-kun. You don't know how much that means to me."

Honestly, Yusuke didn't know and maybe he didn't want to know.

The next few weeks went fast for Yusuke. Every day another facet of his and Keiko's relationship seemed to be added on and he was weighed down with the extra responsibility. Not that he minded much. Sure, it was stressful, but life was stressful too. This was just a different type of stress and it came with awesome rewards. A kiss on the cheek here, or a special lunch there, or an outing with just the two of them.

Life wasn't going too bad for him. Maybe except for those awkward moments he tended to have when he saw Kuwabara. Often times Kuwabara wouldn't even acknowledge him anymore and he couldn't understand why. He could understand on a base level that they'd had a fight the last time they'd spoken, but could the orange haired boy still be mad at him over that? He'd even tried to apologize from before, but still no reaction.

It wasn't all bad, though. Keiko seemed to be much happier now that he was seeing less of his friend. Yusuke figured she was just glad to have more time with him and didn't suspect anything sinister amiss. And why should he? Their relationship had been nothing but perfect since the fight they had in the street that day. Perfect.

It was nearing the end of the third week of Keiko dating Yusuke that he was finally given a chance to talk to Kuwabara. Koenma had contacted Yusuke earlier that week with information on their latest mission. He had been asked by the toddler god to alert his other teammates on the matter. Thus, an excuse for him to finally talk with his best friend.

So, during lunch Thursday afternoon, Yusuke pardoned himself from lunch with Keiko claiming that he had lost his wallet and had to go search for it. In actuality he went searching for Kuwabara who didn't seem to be anywhere. Yusuke had checked all of the classrooms they'd ever been admitted into, outside near the track, most of the storage closets they'd ever broken into, and down next to the front gates. The only place he hadn't checked he wouldn't have expected to find him there.

'He hasn't been up on the roof in days. All his friends told me so.' Though his and Keiko's relationship had been utterly blissful and lacking in Kuwabara, Yusuke never stopped trying to speak with him. He often came up with excuses to look for the tall teen, each time turning up empty. Even when he couldn't look himself, he made sure to check with his friends as to the whereabouts of the cat-loving teenager.

Full of doubt, Yusuke climbed up the staircase leading to the roof in hoping to find his friend but very sure that he wouldn't. He kicked open the door to the roof and immediately started searching around. His search didn't take him long. There, sitting by the railing where the two boys had once spent their lunchtimes, was Kuwabara.

Yusuke paused, surprised and relieved to have finally found him. He began walking towards his friend a smile already creeping over his features. Finally he was right behind the one he'd been looking for and was extending a hand to tap him on the shoulder when a sudden wave of apprehension hit him. What if Kuwabara really didn't want to speak with him anymore? Maybe he'd been ignoring him all this time because the friendship they'd felt was no longer there. Yusuke shook his head thinking it couldn't be true. It couldn't possibly, not while he still had such strong feelings for Kuwabara.

Before Yusuke could think another word on the matter, Kuwabara spoke. "Hey Urameshi."

Yusuke jumped, forgetting that his friend had probably sensed him from the time he came through the door. "Hey Kuwabara."

They lapsed into silence, Yusuke feeling more nervous than he'd ever been and Kuwabara being practically unreadable.

Eventually Kuwabara sighed and addressed his friend. "What do ya want Urameshi?"

Yusuke perked up, knowing what to say in answer to his question. "Well the toddler bitch called and we have a mission. See these demon thie-"

"When?"

"What?" He blinked.

"Tell me when and where it is."

"Oh." Yusuke turned his gaze downward. "We leave on Friday evening and it'll be through Saturday."

"Ok. I'll be there." Kuwabara's tone had a sort of finality to it that ended the conversation too quick for Yusuke's liking.

"Kuwabara... I... What've you been up to lately?", Yusuke asked not entirely expecting an answer.

Silence reigned for what seemed like an eternity before Kuwabara spoke. "Sorry bout all this..." He sighed. "I really shouldn't be ignoring you, should I? Not that it's an easy feat, not with your big mouth."

Yusuke crossed his arms over his chest. "So you have been ignoring me? Why? Me too butch for ya?" He grinned slightly.

"Yeah... yeah that's it for sure." Kuwabara turned around to face Yusuke, their eyes meeting for the first time in weeks. They stared at each other for a good while as though taking in each other's faces for the first time in years. They both seemed as thought they wanted to commit these images to memory so as to never forget them.

Yusuke took a tentative step closer to his friend. "So where've you been lately?"

Though the question itself was broad and vague, they both understood what it meant. Where and what had Kuwabara been doing. "You know, beating up kids for their lunch money while cheating my way through exams." He let out a strained chuckle.

"Really Kuwabara, where've ya been?"

His expression turned serious as he answered. "Trying to stay out of the way, Yusuke." Yusuke looked surprised both at the use of his first name and the answer. "I knew what you'd say if I'd told you that we should spend less time together so I just figured to not spend anytime with you at all."

The black haired boy gasped as he realized what was going on. "That's what you meant that day? You wanted me to spend more time with Keiko."

"Yeah," Kuwabara said sheepishly. "Did it work?"

Yusuke punched him in the arm. Hard. "Yes it worked you bastard but what the hell were you thinking not talking to me like that?" The proud teen looked ashamed. "What made you think I'd be ok with skipping out on beating your face in? You're my best friend dammit and being away from you is like...like..."

"Torture?"

"Yeah! It's like being strapped to a wall and being whipped and butt raped." Despite the queer use of language Yusuke looked totally serious. "Kuwabara," he placed a hand on his friends shoulder, "I really did miss you. You're important to me. You said yourself that if someone is important to you then you should spend time with them."

"I did say that didn't I?"

"Yup." He grinned. "Guess that means we gotta spend time together doesn't it?"

Kuwabara smiled weakly back but nodded. "Guess we do."

"'Sides, I'm sure Keiko won't miss me for one weekend. And maybe you can go out with me and Keiko certain afternoons. It'll be great!" Yusuke grinned up at him the way he does after he'd done some stupid move that nearly killed him but saved him and his friends instead.

"Uh... Sure, Yusuke, anything you want."

Yusuke blinked at him and started poking him in the chest. "Oi, what's with all this calling me by my first name stuff?" Kuwabara, however, was paying very little attention to what his friend was saying as his gaze was fixed to a point beyond his shoulder.

"I... I'm pretty sure Keiko's been wondering where you are so you'd better go see her", Kuwabara let out quickly before turning back to the railing.

Yusuke opened his mouth to blurt something out when he thought better of it and turned to where Kuwabara had been looking. There was Keiko standing next to the door that led to the roof. She didn't look particularly happy.

Yusuke rushed over to her and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey Kei-chan." She didn't respond for a moment her eyes revealing that she was thinking very carefully about something. When the answer became clear to her she smiled sweetly. Maybe a little too sweetly. She threw her arms around Yusuke burying her face in his chest.

"Hey Yusuke-kun!", she said, her voice much deeper then normal. "I've been looking for you."

Yusuke had wrapped his arms around her but was a little taken aback by her display of affection. "Why were you-" He was cut off by a pair of soft lips closing over his. Yusuke and Keiko were sharing their first real kiss. Her eyes were closed as her mouth moved gently against her boyfriends and soon he too had his eyes shut. When they finally parted she had a soft smile on her face and her cheeks were flushed. Yusuke wore a look of pleased bewilderment at the sudden touching of lips, but he certainly wasn't disappointed.

Yusuke looked up to see if Kuwabara had witnessed all this but was disappointed to find that he'd disappeared again. But he was glad too. Strangely glad.

"We'd better get to class Yusuke-kun." With that she led him back into the building to start afternoon classes. As they descended the steps of the darkened stairwell, a satisfied smirk formed on her face. 'I'm winning.'

who wants to kill keiko! I do dammit! and i wrote this damn thing!
big big big ol' fat thanx to these ppl here: Bit-blackmage(dun worri, i dun NEED fanart, just asking dear), JovianShe-Wolf(somin bad will happen to dear Kazu-chan evil gryn), Kazi-chan(i'll let u read the rest if u wanna ho-face), Zelia Theb(boys locker rooms are like that, only smellier and with gratuitous nudity twitches), Icefox1, and LaDiDaanifan. thank u guys so much! i feel all special-like! actually i'm feeling quite drunk andlonely but that's cuz i haven't seen Kazi-chan in 3 friggin dayz. thanx kiddos. XD

is anyone paying attention to the titles of this thing? the italic parts? maybe? no?...the next part will b posted on thurzdizzle(thursday). i quit my job. smiles