Disclaimer: walks up to mic, taps on it Testing, 1 2 3. I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho. That is all.
The uncomfrotable feeling that had been lingering around was beginning to slowly disappear, the longer Ericka stayed with Keiko and Kuwabara. While she didn't dislike them, as she watched them on the show, she never knew how...cool they were. They weren't cool in the sense that Yusuke and Kurama were, but they were kind, easy to hang around with. The only barrier she felt with them was the language one, and she thought that if they spoke the same language there wouldn't be any discomfrot between them.
She wasn't saying that they were all buddy-buddy. She was still a strange forigner to them and they were still anime characters suddenly turned real to her, but it wasn't as if they treated one another as if they had the plague. Keiko was still playing the interpeter between Ericka and Kuwabara, and even though it was hard speaking so slowly, Ericka knew that this was the way it was going to be till something changed.
Keiko suddenly brought up a question, that had Ericka pausing in her thoughts and making her really think about this situation. The older girl had asked if she had a visa, or passort. She was simply asking, trying to be helpful, thinking that maybe they could learn a bit more about Ericka and get someone better qualified to help her. Ericka cursed. She didn't have any of that. She found herself wishing that this situation was more like one of the those fanfictions she had read before, where the character wouldn't have to worry about passports and ID and could travel where ever they wanted to go.
'This isn't good. I can't do anything without some type of paper. I'd be arrested and I'd get Keiko and Kuwabara in trouble for it.' she thought in dismay.
The two looked at her as they waited for an answer, seeing several emotions flash through the girl's face. She quietly said that she didn't have any type papers, and this caused Keiko's eyes to widened slightly and for her to look over at Kuwabara worriedly. Ericka sighed as the two began to converse in Japanese again. She could only sit quietly and wait for the fate the two would decide for her. Techniqucally, she was an illegal alien. Ericka thought that they would turn her into the proper authorities, not that she could blame them.
'I mean it's not their fault I'm here. And me being in Keiko's house could put her and her family in some serious trouble and I don't want to get them into trouble seeing as how kind they've been.'
It's times like these Ericka wished she was a good liar. If she could lie she could have told them something clever then slipped out and made her way, trying to find a way back home. But no, she had to be truthful and now she was going to be deported off to an America where she didn't exsist!
'No wait, they would hand me over to the governemnt once they find I don't have any files! They're going to send me to the F.B.I. or someplace and then there they're going to do test and experiments on me to see where the hell I come from and I'll be looked and gawked at!' she thought frantically.
She jumped when Keiko called out to her and looked over at the other two, a blush covering her cheeks. The two looked at her strangely before Keiko started to speak again, in her broken English.
Ericka had to listen hard to try and catch the meaning in Keiko's words. She heard something about it being alright that she didn't have a visa, not to worry and that she was going to Kuwabara'a house. Ericka smiled in relief and nodded. She didn't really know why she was going to Kuwabara's house but that wasn't what mattered now. She wasn't going to be deported!
'Yay! I get to stay in the freaky messed up real world anime world!' she thought, half in relief and half in sarcasim.
She then asked, as best she could, why she was going over Kuwabara's house. Keiko explained that her parents would be a problem, because they would ask for a visa and her not having one would send them into a panic and get them all in trouble. Kuwabara didn't really have parental control, only his older sister and once she heard the story she would probably let her stay with them for a little awhile.
Ericka nodded and said her thanks to Kuwabara, over and over again. This left the young man very flustered and he was nearly as red as a cherry by the time he asked her to stop. She had the feeling that she was embrassing him greatly but she was truely greatful for what he was doing. They had just met and yet they were showing more kindness to her than anyone, aside her family, had ever shown her. She thought to herself, that if Shizuru would let her stay, she would earn her keep there. Cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, anything that will express the thanks she felt, that she is unable to tell them personally.
Keiko's name was called, by someone Ericka could only guess was her mother. The brown haired girl excused herself and went to go see what her mother wanted. This left Kuwabara and Ericka alone. There was that uncomfrotable feeling again, seeing as how the room was quiet. Ericka wouldn't dare try to talk to the other in the room, too afraid to either look like a fool trying to speak in Japanese, or speaking in English and making the other upset.
Kuwabara turned to her and opened his mouth. She was surprized to hear a few words in even more broken English than Keiko's. She remembered that at the end of the series, Kuwabara was well into highschool and that they did take classes in learning english in Japanese schools. Ericka smiled as Kuwabara tried to make her feel less uncomfrotable by talking to her. She had liked Kuwabara a bit in her world, but she now thought him to be the perfect sweety, an over all good person.
He had pointed to her bookbag, that she now relized was in a corner near the door to the room. She looked at Kuwabara as he tried to say something along the lines of it being heavy. He gave this face that had Ericka giggling. She waved her hands in front of her as Kuwabara gave her a look that said he thought she was laughing at how he talked. She tried to explain as best she could, that she was laughing at the fact that he thought her bookbag was heavy as well. He didn't get why it was funny and she just shrugged. Some things couldn't be explained.
Keiko came back in and smiled at the two. She said something on the lines that her parents were stepping out for awhile and asked her to take care of the shop. It was around closing time for them and she told Ericka that she could come to the front and have something to eat seeing as how there were only a few people.
At the thought of food Ericka quickly agreed and moved from her spot from the couch. She staggered a bit, getting slightly dizzy and moved catiuosly towards the front. Ericka looked around at the Yukimaru noodle house and couldn't help but show an excited grin. She was actually standing in a background that was in the anime! Though it looked like what she guessed a noodle house would look like in the real world's Japan, seeing as how everything looked well...real, there was still that feeling of being surrounded by a hologram but she pushed that thought to the side.
She noticed that she was getting a few stares from the remaining customers and wondered if it was because she was foriegn or because she looked a mess from the beating she got. She still hadn't looked at herself, there not being a mirror around, but she knew she must have looked a messed. Keiko sat her down at the counter near the kitchen and Kuwabara sat down next to her a chair between them. Keiko asked if she had anything in particular that she wanted and Ericka shook her head, saying that she'd eat anything. It was noodles, there couldn't be too much of a differance that she wouldn't like them. And besides, Ericka had ramen before. She even ate one of those swirly fish slices are whatever they were called that came in the ramen. They didn't really taste like anything so they weren't all that bad.
Ericka waited as Keiko went to made the ramen for her. She sat up straight and a bit stiff, focusing on one point in the wall. She had the feeling she was being looked at and looked out the corner of her eye at Kuwabara. He was staring at her, not really in an impolite way, he was staring at her as if he was trying to figure something out. She blinked and gave him an uneasy smile which caused him to snap out of his daze and turn away quickly. He mumbled something of an apolgy and Ericka nodded.
Keiko came back with two of the largest bowls she ever saw. Ericka looked down at the stemming bowls of noodles wondering if she could eat it all. She didn't want to seem rude, not eating all of the food Keiko made for for her, when the girl wasn't even asking for payment. Ericka took one of the disposable set of chopsticks from the container at the counter, broke them apart and began to eat. She blew on the noodles before putting them into her mouth, slurping them up.
She looked up at Kuwabara and Keiko who looked slightly surprized before they smiled and seemed to nod in agreement. They probaly didn't think she new how to use chopsticks. Well, she would show them that she wasn't just some dumb foriegner...
Ericka was brought out of her prideful mind rant when the door to the diner opened and in walked a certain raven haired hanyou we all know and love. Ericka stopped her slurping of the noddles and wiped her mouth off.
'It's Yusuke!' she thought in surprize.
Why it was a surprize she really didn't know. I mean, this was the world of Yu Yu Hakusho and she was bound to meet the shows protaganist sometime, and this was the place where his love-interst lived it...
'It's just weird seeing him. He looks the same from the show but he doesn't...he looks real...'
Yusuke walked in and headed staright for them, Ericka bowed her head down, suddenly very shy and looked down at her bowl. She liked Yusuke, he was at the top of her favorite chracters list and seeing him there, so close was weird in a good way...
She noticed that he stopped in front of her and she lifted her head up slowly to meet the brown eyes of his. But something made her heart skip a beat and a shiver to run down her spine, but not in the good way. His eyes...they were showing a look of distrust, dislike and promising pain to her if she did anything he didn't like.
She wanted to move away, get away from that look but she found herself frozen. This must be the way all those fighters felt when they managed to piss Yusuke off. But why was he looking at her like that? What had she done to make him so mad to make him not like her when they just met? Kuwabara's booming voice scared her and caused her to tear her eyes away from Yusuke and to Kuwabara.
The carrot top had an annoyed look on his face and the growls and over all gruffiness of his voice told her that he was saying a few words to Yusuke that she could only dub as 'fighting words'.
Yusuke looked at Kuwabara a smirk coming to his face. The cold look he had given her disappeared and the look that she was used to seeing, the chanlleging one, the one with fire and passion in it, was back. He said something that almost sounded like teasing, which had Kuwabara going off in an angry rant. She was sure that he would have already ran over to try and pummel the shorter of the two if it wasn't for the fact that she was between them.
Yusuke turned his attetion away from Kuwabara to Keiko. He paused in what he was saying and looked at Ericka an almost cruel smile coming to his face. His eyes turned icy cold and he continued with his speech nodding over at Ericka before chuckling. Ericka had the suspesion that he was talking about her unkindly, and looked down at the counter, her head bowed. She heard cries of outrage form both Keiko and Kuwabara and listened as they yelled at him in Japanese. He said something else before snorting and walking away.
Ericka still had her head bowed as Kuwabara calmed down and started muttering what she thought was curses at the raven haired boy. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into the eyes of Keiko. She said something of an apolgy to her, confirming that Yusuke had, infact, said something nasty about her.
Burning hot rage and hatred built inside her. Why? Why did Yusuke not like her? Why was he so cold and mean to her? Did she do anything wrong? And what excatly did he say? How dare he insult her! Insult her while she was right there next to him but not to her face, how low can someone be! At this point she hated him, hated him with a burning passion. If she had the power to she would rip him to shrewds, beat him into submission over and over again so he could feel the pain of humilation.
Her hands balled up into tight fists, the pressure so tight she was sure her knuckles were turning white. And even though she was feeling this intense anger she managed to hold it in. They didn't need to see that pathetic side of her, that ugly hateful side...
"It's alright." she said with a forced smile and she kept her anger in, letting it build and swirl inside her.
Ending Notes: Oh...I feel as if Yusuke fans might not like me after this...I have a reason for Yusuke acting like this, which will be revealed later on. Also, as a note for later on. I will rarely use the phonetic words for Japanese words.(ex. baka, inu...)
The only time this will happen is if Ericka is speaking and she knows the word. Anyone else will automatically be speaking Japanese or in other cases, if specified, something else. My knowledge of Japanese is very limited so I can't do full conversations. I'll start to change the point of view for the story as early as the next chapter.
Now to the reveiwers:
Queen Sweet Snow(Your name changes everytime...laughs):Don't hang yourself! I'm getting the chapters out as fast as possible! And yes, the nerve of some people not acting the way they should...silently thanks Hiei.
Catie-brie: Thanks alot! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Yeah, that was my inspiration for this fic, I wanted a more down to earth take to the genre. And Keiko and Kuwabara are going to have big parts through out the story. They're really important in the show and I think people forget that sometimes. I hope I don't anger you with my rendition of Yusuke in this chapter...
KaboomingKitsune: Ah...your first review confused me...but I'm sure it's meant to be nice. laughs nervously Thanks for the other review also, and the British accent is a nice touch. You remind me of a friend of mine...
Anyway, thanks to all my reveiwers and be sure to READ & REVIEW!