Small Pink World
By: Kowareta
I wanted to write an uncanon relationship, and so here it is. Story is nothing but prose and for that I apologize.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.
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The trees had managed to wreathe themselves in the candy-colors they've always worn once every year. Their cherry blossoms bubbled down to decorate the heads of children who tried catching the small pink dancers in their clumsy hands. Keiko sighed and loosened her light blue scarf. Only a year without Yusuke and already the world knew calm.
And somehow, these small things seemed so strange.
The children ran faster as the blossoms twirled wildly out of control, and both became part of the pink world. Part of the calm world where snow was petal-pink.
The blossom-dressed sprites whirled madly around her, swallowing her in a storm of rose-colored gowns and soft white shawls. If only for a moment, Keiko had become one of them, clothed in a pillar of cherry blossoms dancing mindlessly past. And it is in these small moments, and perhaps these worthless things, that a bizarre magic happens where the world transforms itself.
The dancers left Keiko, like wisps of smoke, and began to dance with its partner the wind. The brown-haired schoolgirl had been abandoned in her normality.
"Keiko?"
Small words, a name.
She turned to find a crimson-haired boy, older than she and dressed in pale casual clothes, who stood out among the pink.
"Oh, hello," she hesitated before saying his name, "Kurama."
Kurama smiled, reached out, and took a blossom from her hair. Normality doesn't allow the adornment of wondrous, floral crowns.
"Do you miss him?"
For someone who is usually subtle, so blunt a question seemed perplexing. Though, so did many things.
"Of course," responded Keiko. "Why wouldn't I?"
The pink world stilled. Under a blanket of flowers, it slumbered. Kurama nodded to himself, cryptically, of course. He didn't say anything. He merely accompanied Keiko as he'd done several times before when she walked along the sidewalk under the line of cherry blossom trees. They'd been spending a lot of time together, she and Kurama. At first it seemed to be nothing. A companionship that embraced the fact they had nothing to do with each other. An unspoken friendship that did not seem in any way normal. The rain of petals persisted and pursued the two figures passionately. A short distance away, the teenagers could still hear the children's cries of delight.
Most would compare Kurama to a flower--a rose--Keiko wouldn't. She'd gone to the Dark Tournament, she'd seen him fight, and she knew what he really was. She thought of him much like his closest companions did. A fox.
Not like the plush toys they sold in department stores; not like the arrogant tricksters overconfident tricksters in anime; a genuine fox. In the simplest words, a fox is a false prophet that leads others astray in the world of truth. And the truth, as told by a fox, isn't told because it is right, but because it is convenient. Truth on the lips of a liar are sometimes the most addictive words to believe.
The flowers still showered down and both soon wore floral crowns. Keiko didn't much mind the flowers, but the redhead kept brushing a hand through his hair, perhaps irritated by them.
"It must be hard for you, waiting so long. Even if I were as devoted as you are, I feel as if it'd be painful. Why endure pain if you don't have to?"
Keiko almost glared at the young man, but instead stated, "I had to let him go. There is both strength and virtue in patience. He will come back."
"Two years," murmured Kurama. "It's a long time to wait."
The schoolgirl's lip quivered a moment before she sighed softly.
"Some things are best not measured in time."
They turned a corner and found themselves under yet another row of cherry blossom trees. Their sweet aroma streaming past the teens' heads. The sidewalk was beginning to merge into the industrial side of town. Kurama took a surreptitious look at the tranquil, blue sky.
"Time," he said, "is a measurement the heart never uses."
Keiko trembled. If it weren't for her pride and her determination, she would have cried. She ripped the flowers out of her hair. Too normal to have even love.
The green-eyed youth watched the girl cautiously. A string of words hung around her neck, the very string of words she'd never allow herself to say. But the schoolgirl surprised Kurama. She asked anyway.
"Will he… will he be different when he comes back?"
The boy smiled poignantly, elegantly, and answered her with a question.
"Through the year he's been gone, have you changed?"
It took her a while before she answered him. She had to think about it first. Had she changed? Yes, she realized, of course. Nothing was permanent after all. Before all of Yusuke's Spirit Detective business, they had been on some rather loose terms with each other, despite having grown up together. They had regarded each other as anonymous entities that they knew little about but could give a good argument concerning themselves. During the Dark Tournament, they had both matured drastically, developing a sense of awareness for each other. Keiko had discovered Yusuke's frightening strength and Yusuke her pillar of determination. Even now, a year without him, Keiko had become radically mature and independent. A strong young woman who was waiting for something to happen to her world. Or perhaps, something in her world, not another's, worth holding on to.
Hesitantly, she slipped her hand into Kurama's. This hadn't been the first time he'd walked with her and, she hoped, it wouldn't be the last.
Around them, petal-dressed fairies continued to twirl languidly throughout her small pink and slumbering world. A normal world disguised.
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