Apologies for how long this took to post. A couple of new things have happened since the last chapter, one of them being we adopted a new cat! His name is Castiel and constantly batting at my fingers while I type. Not as cute or funny as you think it might be considering he still has his kitten claws. On top of figuring out the chapter, I now have bleeding pinpricks as well.
But worth it, he really is a snuggle bug, just tends to think everything his his toy right now. Anyhow, the other thing we've been dealing with is cleaning the entire house top to bottom, throwing away everything we don't need sort of deal. It was something that needed to be done ages ago, but just got around to it. So yeah, a bit wore out on that front as well.
FYI: I know some of the things in here are most likely not accurate, don't worry, I know I've written some kinda sketchy things but to be honest, I'm the writer here and I have a tiny bit of leeway when it comes to the story I'm writing. I want to apologize ahead of time for any of you that might be a little irritated.
Not much else to say other than to say onwards!
-I do NOT own YYH or it's character
-I DO own Shohei and some of the plot
~*~PLEASE REVIEW~*~
The school building in front of us seemed to tower into the sky the closer we drew, the windows gleaming bright under the mid morning sun. Anxiety welled up inside of me once I was faced with the daunting task of attending school... Again. In my entire life I never thought I would have to go back to it. Sensing my unease, Kurama's hand slipped into mine and squeezed gently, earning a weak smile for his efforts.
"I expect you two on your bet behavior, boys." Mother turned to us as we reached the doors, her usual smile replaced with a stern expression before relaxing into a more gentle one once we nodded, serious looks on our faces. "Good." Opening the doors for us, she ushered us inside the large building, the cool air brushing against our faces gently. We moved to sit near the other parents and would-be students to wait our turn to be called in the office.
"Mother?" Kurama piped up, making her look down at him curiously. "May we go to the park afterwards?" That question earned a small frown from me, Kurama hated going to the park, too many loud children he said. It was really the only reason I never went despite our Mother asking if we would like to go now and again. Not that I enjoyed playing with other children, but the welcome space to run off the energy that built up in me was enjoyable. I had hated running in my past life, but now I was seriously considering joining track once older.
"Of course, dear. Once we are finished here we can go. I think I saw one on the way over, and what I think might have been an ice-cream parlor across the street." Mother smiled at my sudden interest in the conversation. "How does that sound, Shohei?" Her warm hand brushed my hair gently, making me smile at her familiar touch.
"Minamino?" We looked over at the man standing in the office door, paper in hand. "We are ready for you."
"That was quick." I murmured to Kurama who nodded in agreement as we stood to follow Mother inside and settled into smaller chairs on the other side of the office, books and various items meant to distract and entertain us while our parent spoke about our possible enrollment to the school. Kurama and I shared a look, one born from the frustration of being adults in children bodies. We were expected to enjoy the children's books and toys during all of this, but it was far more boring than the idea of joining the conversation Mother was having.
An unspoken decision between us, we pulled two chairs over next to her and settled in, ignoring the curious look from the man across from us and Mother's exasperated amusement at our refusal to act like children in public most of the time. "Hm, as I stated in our phone call yesterday-" He adjusted his glasses and picked up a couple pieces of paper, looking them over closely while he spoke. "We would be delighted to have Shuichi and Shohei join our school. With their grades and scores from preschool, they promise to be very important students of ours."
He paused and placed the papers down only to pick up one more, scan it quickly then look at Mother with a serious expression on his face. "However, their aptitude tests show that working with other children is a weak point. We pride ourselves in teaching children how to work together, there are several group projects we encourage them to work on with other classes. If they fail to join in these activities there is a very high risk of them failing entirely." Folding his hands on top of the papers, he turned his gaze to us, an eyebrow raised when he saw the serious expressions on our faces.
"Do you believe you will be able to work with others?" He asked us directly, making me blink and look over at my twin with a small frown. "If not, then this school may not be the best choice for you."
"Of course, Sir." Kurama spoke up, hand squeezing mine lightly to coax me into adding to his statement. "It would be no problem for us."
"R-right, we can work with others." I nodded, glancing up at Mother quickly then back to the man. "It would not be an issue for us."
"Very good, boys." Standing up, he offered us a bow which we returned easily. "You may expect a call from us within the week. Thank you for coming." With a general good-bye, we were escorted from the office and back out into the sunlight. Stopping outside on the sidewalk, we took a moment to adjust our eyes to the brighter light and looked around.
"That was much faster than I thought it would be." Shaking my head, I looked up at Mother who smiled down at me, taking my hand with one of hers and Kurama's with the other. "It went much better than I expected." She explained, crossing the road once the traffic slowed. "You two certainly surprised him when you sat with me instead of with the books and things." She added, a light laugh coloring her words as we walked under the trees of the park.
"He seemed rather surprised." Kurama agreed, looking around the area curiously. A secluded park filled with trees and other plant life surrounding the play equipment currently being used by two other children at the moment.
Settling down on the bench, Mother rested her hands on our heads. "You two always surprise me, despite how many years it has been." Eyes dancing with good humor, she patted our hair and gently pushed us in the direction of the park. "Go play now, we can go and get ice cream once you are ready."
Grinning wide, I grab Kurama's hand and tug him towards the sand box, ignoring his quiet sigh of irritation. "Come on, just relax and play for a while." I grumble, plopping down and digging my hands into the cool sand with glee. I never had the chance to go to the beach in my former life, so playing in the sand was a guilty pleasure of mine. "I know your an ancient fox, but can you for once just be indulgent and be a kid with me?" Looking up at his frown, I smile lightly and start moving the sand around, making random designs in it with my fingers.
With another sigh, he sat down across from me and pushed some of the sand around half-heartedly. "I do not see the reason behind this." He finally admitted, watching as I put the finishing touches on my flower with a tilt to his head. "You are mentally near Mother's age but you enjoy this?"
"I didn't have much of a childhood." I shrugged, wiping away the flower and starting on a new picture of random swirls. "Not that many friends or anything, so this is fun to me. To do stuff that other kids got to do."
He was quiet a moment, simply watching me draw in the sad a while before he started adding his own designs beside my own, making it far more intricate than I had previously. "If it makes you happy, then I do not see the problem with it." He shook his head lightly, earning a wide grin from me.
We were so engrossed with our drawing, we failed to see Mother walk over and crouch beside the sandbox. "Would you two like to go and get ice-cream now? Or would you like to wait here while I get it?"
"I'll go, Mother." Kurama stood up immediately, earning a frown from me as he brushed the sand from his pants. Apparently his patience for playing a child only went so far, even for me.
"Shohei?" She turned to me next, making me glance away from Kurama and blink up at her curiously. "Would you like to come with us, or would you rather wait here?" Mother asked again, apparently realizing I had failed to understand her question right away.
"Oh... Can I wait here, Mother? I want to finish my drawing." I looked down at the loops and swirls with a tip to my head, trying to decide on what it was missing.
"Of course, darling. Stay in the park, we will be right back." She kissed my head and stood, Kurama's hand already in hers. "Chocolate?"
I smiled up at her and nodded eagerly. "Yes, please." With another pat to the head, she and Kurama headed off back across the street in the direction of the ice cream shop. Once sure they were safely across, I turned back to my art, seriously contemplating what was missing.
"Watch out!" The shout was my only warning before a small body landed in front of me with a spray of sand everywhere, including my eyes and mouth. "Ha! I told you I could land it!"
"Big dummy! look what you did!" Another voice called, scolding the other as I whined and rubbed at my eyes gently. "You should use water." Squinting against the tears and sand, I blinked at the blob in front of me before the familiar feeling of a bottle was pressed into my hand. "Here, I brought it from home."
Tipping my head back, I trickled the water into my eyes a little bit at a time before I was finally able to blink the last of the sand from them much to my relief. "Thank you." I rubbed the water from my eyes and handed the bottle back with a smile.
A young girl in pigtails smiled back at me, her eyes sparkling with relief when I was finally able to open my eyes all the way once again. "It was nothing. I am just glad I had a bottle of water."
"Who are you kidding, you always have one." The annoyed voice from earlier grumbled, drawing my gaze over to a familiar face. I squinted at the young boy standing there, a small frown tugging at my lips and making him twitch under my sudden scrutiny.
"What?" He finally snapped, earning a smack to the arm from the young girl. "Ow! What?!"
"Don't be rude! You just sprayed sand all over him from being reckless!"
"I wasn't! He was the one staring!"
"I know you!" I blurted out, cutting across their argument and making the two look over at me curiously. "You were that boy from daycare." Of course, once I realized his hair was longer than before, it obviously hadn't been cut in a while, but it was him. Same brown eyes, same cheeky look on his face. "The one that said my brother's hair was weird."
He blinked and squinted at me, seeming to try and recall the exact memory I said before his eyes widened, pointing in my face in surprise. "You! You're the weird guy with his brother that stayed in the corner!"
"Says the guy that cried when I said his face was weird." I deadpanned, earning a scowl from him and a giggle from the girl. "I did not cry!"
"You did, and then you ran to the teacher right away." I got to my feet and dusted sand off of my... Everything. "My name is Minamino Shohei, a pleasure to finally meet you." I stuck out my hand, shaking both his and the girl's with a light smile.
"My name is Yukimura Keiko and this is Urameshi Yusuke. Nice to meet you."
Hours later found Kurama and I home in our room, Mother downstairs watching something on TV. "What happened at the park?" I glanced up from my book and over to Kurama where he sat in the middle of his bed, green eyes firmly settled on me from where he was, refusing anything other than the truth.
"I have no idea what you mean." I tried to brush it off, turning back to the book in front of me, trying to dive back into the world of Stephen King and The Shining. It was just starting to get good and I didn't want to be distracted from it.
A hand appeared in front of me a moment later, sliding a bookmark in place and shutting the cover in front of me before taking the book away despite my protests. "Tell me what happened. When Mother and I came back, you were just sitting on the bench."
"I got tired of playing, not give me my book back." I sat up, taking a swipe for the book in his hand and missing by a mile as he stepped back out of my reach. "Kurama!"
"What happened." His cool tone left no room for arguments, arms folded as I sat up completely, legs dangling over the edge of my bed as I stared down at my feet with a sigh. "I don't want to talk about it."
"I do." He set my book on his bed and settled down beside me, a sigh escaping him when I refused to say anything. "Shohei-"
"Nick." I cut him off, not looking up from my feet where they dangled just above the carpet of our bedroom floor. "You uh, you have your own name, that's mine."
He was silent a moment then reached over to tug my hair lightly to get me to look up at him. "Nick." He stressed my name, a light flicker of a smile on his lips. "What happened?"
"I... It's just- Well-" I blew out a frustrated breath and fell back against my bed. "It has something to do with the story."
"Ah. I see." Kurama fell silent once again, leaving me to my thoughts for a few moments then laid back beside me, staring at the ceiling fan circling overhead. "Very well, I will not ask anymore."
"Thanks..." I sighed and closed my eyes, the stress from earlier melting away somewhat at his words. "I just don't think it would be good to-"
"I understand, Nick. Relax." A smile touched his tone, his body shifted and lifted from the bed, followed closely by a soft thump of something landing beside me. A familiar sound that made me smile, hand closing around the book he tossed back to me. "You had better finish that before Mother realizes it's missing from the shelf."
"You know... All this time, I had no idea she would like these kinds of books." I admitted, sitting up and studying the cover with a curious expression. She watches all of those romantic dramas all the time." A chuckle made me look over to him with a raised eyebrow.
"I may have introduced her to them when you mentioned liking his books from before..." Kurama refused to look over at me, tugging out some bedclothes from his dresser while he spoke. "I thought it may cheer you up to know there are some books you could read that were familiar."
A wide grin spread across my face, rolling over onto my stomach I propped my chin up with my hands and watched as he shuffled around in his drawers. "What a loving brother I have. Whatever would I do without you?"
"Sit in the room and do nothing at all." He stated simply, glancing over his shoulder to see me scowl with a cheeky smirk. "I do believe I am the only reason you even do anything aside of sit in here and read."
"Not true." I pouted, rolling away and picking up my book again. "And just because I'm reading right now doesn't prove your point one bit." I added when he laughed at me, turning my head just enough to stick my tongue out at him as he stepped out to take his shower. Rolling my eyes, I turned back over and opened the book once more, loosing myself in the plight of the family once more.
I knew full well I was using the book as an excuse not to think about how I had met Yusuke face to face not once, but twice already. How the second I heard his voice I felt my stomach drop out and the ground fall away from under me. How for the ten minutes Kurama and Mother were gone, we had sat in the sandbox, talking like nothing was wrong, learning how he and Keiko took the train here because they were tired of the park near their houses and wanted to see what others there were around the city.
How Yusuke had punched my shoulder in a friendly way before he and Keiko left moments before Kurama and Mother came back, ice cream in hand, because it was beginning to get late and they didn't want to ride the trains in the dark.
How I honestly thought for a single moment, that this boy would grow up only to die several times and save the Earth more than he cared to count all for nothing more than the opportunity to fight.
And how his meeting me was possibly the most important thing that happened in my life here. For once, I wasn't just a tiny blip in the story with no meaning, for once, I had a place in it, even if it was just the strange boy that Yusuke got along with while he was a child for a few minutes.
I closed the book again and carefully tucked it into the drawer of my nightstand before rolling over to bury my face in the pillow there, a long sigh escaping me at the tumultuous thoughts rolling around my mind. I hated how I felt so left out of the entire story I found myself in, how Kurama and Mother didn't truly need me around and how things would be perfectly find without my being here.
More than that, I hated how I felt jealous at the idea of Kurama and Yusuke meeting in the future, and how close they would be.
Pushing me out once again to the sidelines like I knew it would happen. What was my purpose being here? What was the point of my being reborn in this story? Who thought this would be a good idea? Didn't I suffer through enough of feeling inadequate before all of this? Apparently not, once again, I became the butt of the universe's jokes.
Useless. Pointless. Unimportant...
Human.