Chapter 5: French-fries

Yusuke and Kuwabara sat outside McDonalds eating their over sized cheeseburgers. Kuwabara sat next to his over sized backpack, his burger in one hand, and his history book in the other. Yusuke eyed his friend suspiciously over his burger.

"What's with the book?" he asked.

"I failed my last history test and I'm gonna have to retake it on Friday. I can't figure out all these names and dates and… stuff." Kuwabara replied.

"Relax man, just ask Kurama about it. That guy knows every thing." Yusuke said reassuringly.

Kuwabara nodded and stuffed his history book back into his backpack and took a sip of his soda. "Where is he anyway?"

"His new school is a bit farther away, he should be getting here soon though." Yusuke answered.

There was a long silence, and the two boys attacked their lunch with a vigor found only in wolves… and teenage boys. Finally Kuwabara asked, "So how'd your mission go?"

"Huh?" Yusuke asked.

"You said you and Kurama had to go chase down a shadow demon this morning. How'd it go?" Kuwabara clarified.

"I was stuck wandering around aimlessly for hours, and by the time I found the demon it was already kicking the crap out of Kurama. On top of that the damn thing got away. Kurama said it was trying to separate him from the fox and other than that he hasn't really told me what's going on. All and all not one of my better days." Yusuke replied.

"Wow that sucks."

"Yeah kinda."

"Kurama better get here soon or else I'm gonna eat his French fries." Kuwabara finally announced after a few moments silence.

"You wouldn't dare." Came a soft growl from behind them.

"Damn it Kurama! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Yusuke snapped.

Kurama laughed and dug around in the giant McDonalds bag for the French fries he was promised. Yusuke raised an eyebrow at Kurama's uncharacteristic antics and handed the misbehaving fox his drink.

"They didn't have Dr. Pepper, is Mr. Pib ok?" Yusuke asked.

"Its all the same." Kurama replied with a shrug, and took a sip of the drink in question. Kurama would always get French fries whenever the three met at places like McDonalds or Burger King. Yuoko disapproved of fast food, and so Kurama had learned at a young age not to eat those super fattening death burgers. Youko was always a very persuasive parental when Kurama was a child and he never had a problem with resorting to mean tricks to get his way. Mean tricks like telling Kurama that foxes were allergic to cheese burgers and that Kurama would spontaneously combust if he ate one. Of course Kurama eventually learned that he would not die if he ate a cheeseburger, but he still avoided fast food. Yuoko, however did not seem to have a problem with French fries and thus Kurama delighted in the delicious deep-fried salty potatoey goodness.

"So did you have a nice day at school Suiichi dear?" Yusuke asked, with his best imitation of an old lady voice.

"Did you even go to school today Yusuke dear?" Kurama asked, not bothering to change his voice.

"Nope." Yusuke replied with a disinterested yawn.

"Keikos gonna kick your ass if you keep skipping Yusuke." Kuwabara said.

"She hasn't really been talking to me much lately, I wonder if she's still mad about the whole me being stuck in demon world for three years thing…"

"You idiot! She forgave you for that months ago, she's mad because you wont get your act together man!" Kuwabara snapped, with a rare moment of wisdom.

"She said she'd marry me after I graduated from high school, so that's in umm…" Yusuke counted the months off on his fingers. "Five and a half months." He concluded. "I got my act together."

"Well, you gotta show Keiko that!" Kuwabara declared.

'I told you all he talks about is girls.' Yuoko muttered.

'At least he has something to talk about. All you ever do is complain.' Kurama replied, munching happily on his french-fries.

'I do not!' Youko cried.

'Your complaining right now.'

'Am not, am not, am not."

'Real mature Youko.'

"So Kurama it looks like you're the only single guy left on the team. Yusuke's got Keiko, and I got Yukina. Its time for us to find you a girl ya know." Kurama almost choked on his fries as Kuwabara said this.

"What about Hiei? Or did he hook up with that creepy lady from the tournament… umm Mukuro?" Yusuke asked.

"Who shrimp? Shrimp doesn't count. He's never gonna get a girl, and what girl from the tournament? I didn't get to go remember? Me being human and all… what's with that any way? How come I'm the only one who's completely human in the group?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hiei is the only one in the group whose completely demon." Yusuke added.

'I'm completely demon!' Youko snapped.

"And why the hell dose Koenma think he can fire us anyway?" Kuwabara continued his rant.

"Because you're the only one in the group who's completely human. And I guess its bad form having the leader of a group of spirit detectives be the kid whose going to be the sole ruler of demon world one day." Yusuke replied.

'In your dreams monkey boy!' Youko growled, now thoroughly annoyed.

Kuwabara gave Yusuke a searching glance, but shrugged it off and took a sip of his drink. Kurama sighed in relief at the fact that Kuwabara only directed his attention at his social life for a moment before changing the subject. Kurama was truly thankful for Kuwabara's short attention span.

"But seriously Kurama, what's the deal? Your like some kind of girl magnet, so why are you still single?" Yusuke asked innocently. Kurama had some how managed to forget that Yusuke, aside from all outward appearances, did not have as short an attention span as Kuwabara's.

"Well I'm afraid it's because my magnetism only attracts the insane girls who desire only to follow me around at a distance, and collect strands of my hair." Kurama explained.

"Oooh the creepy stocker girls!" Yusuke said with a laugh. "Yeah, that could be a problem. Sorry man."

"Umm why are you complaining about having a bunch of girls following you around all the time? Are you sure you're not gay?" Kuwabara asked, completely missing Kurama's point.

"No, no, no, not just any girls. The creepy stocker girls. Their creepy." Yusuke clarified.

"Oh." Kuabara replied.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Kurama asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm gonna go see my Yukina." Kuwabara answered.

"Yeah, I promised Keiko I'd go to the mall with her today." Yusuke said.

"What are you gonna do Kurama?" Kuwabara asked.

'Yeah Youko what are we going to do today?' Kurama asked sarcastically.

'It's not my fault you don't have a life, don't bother me over it.' Youko drawled.

"I'm just going to go home and catch up on some homework." Kurama answered.

'See, even the humans think you're sad.'

'Shut up Youko.'

"Well I gotta go. Keiko will kill me if I'm late." Yusuke said, as he gathered up his trash and tossed it in the garbage.

"Yeah I should probably go too, bye guys." Kuwabara added. They all exchanged good byes, and Yusuke and Kuwabara left Kurama sitting in front of McDonalds finishing off the last of his french-fries.

'So… you wanna go play around in Makai? It could be fun.' Youko asked playfully.

'Maybe.' Kurama laughed at the pure excitement that was coming off the fox in waves. 'But we have to go home first so I can drop off my back pack, and we should call mother and tell her we'll be at a friends house or something… and I have a math worksheet I should do before we go…"

'I'm thinking you should leave out the "we" part when your talking to Shiori san. I don't think she'll quite understand.' Youko laughed

'I know that!'

After another brief argument with the fox, Kurama headed home. He dropped his backpack off by the front door and tried to turn on the living room lights, but they wouldn't work. He flipped the light switch back and forth a few times for good measure and banged his fist against the wall with a frustrated sigh.

'Afraid of the dark Kurama?' Youko taunted.

'Shut up Youko.' Kurama snapped.

'The powers probably out, I don't sense anything odd and I doubt that bitch would try anything so soon .' Youko said reassuringly.

Kurama shrugged and went to open a window, but the surface was covered in a thick metallic black substance. 'Do you still think the powers just out?' Kurama hissed.

'My mistake.' Youko amended.

"Well, well, well. It looks like the fox has fallen into my trap twice in one day! How convenient." The woman from before was leaning idly against a wall on the other side of the room, examining her fingernails.

'I really hate this woman.' Youko growled. 'When I get my claws on her…'

Kurama nodded his agreement and withdrew a rose from his hair and attempted to transform it into his rose whip, but as expected nothing happened.

'It was worth a try.' He muttered. 'Now what?'

'I don't know, kill her?' Youko hissed back.

'How?'

'Figure it out!'

The shadow demon stepped gracefully away from the wall and walked towards Kurama, the shadows rolling and thickening in her wake till there was nothing but blackness. She gathered her energy and threw it at Kurama before he could react.

Then Kurama was aware of nothing but the maddening pain and he knew it was all over. It was the same as before only this time there would be no one to save him. The pain was more than he could bear, and he soon fell into blissful unconsciousness.