A/N: Okay, so chapter two wasn't too exciting either, but bear with me while I try to get some of Kasumi's back story out of the way. Not to mention I want to build on her, Keiko's, and Kazuma's relationship. Please excuse any mistakes I make regarding Japanese lifestyles and households, I'm American but I'm not completely ignorant about Japanese customs. I wish I knew more, but research only teaches me so much. So, as I branch out into Kasumi's classes and her time spent at the precinct, it might have more of a western feel to it, I'm sorry.
Expect to start seeing the boys more and more, but Hiei and Kurama will be around less than Kuwabara and Yusuke, at first anyway. There is a plot here (A little snippet was revealed during Kasumi's dream) and obviously the Tantei are all going to get sucked into it, whether they like it or not. Anyway, here is the next installment, please tell me what you think and happy reading!
Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, but Yoshihiro Togashi and Funamation do, those lucky bastards. I just have fun picking on the characters. I do own Kasumi and my other original characters, so please no stealing. I'm making no money by writing this.
Warnings: For all chapters there is foul language, adult themes, violence, and etc. At some point, the dreaded lemon may appear, but not for a long time. Enjoy!
. . .
I was upstairs with Keiko helping her unpack when the three men I had never met finally showed up. The only reason I noticed that they had arrived at all is because I could hear Kazuma's booming voice through one of the windows I had opened to air the place out. He was arguing back and forth with another male, but I didn't recognize the voice so when Keiko was busy in her room I went and stuck my head out of the window to be nosey.
On the sidewalk stood three men and one teenager, out of those four people one of them was Kazuma. I recognized Yusuke almost immediately just from the descriptions I had been given. He had Kazuma in a headlock and was giving the poor man a noogie, messing his pompadour up and making Kazuma's naturally curly hair fall around his head oddly.
Yusuke was shorter than Kazuma, with black hair slicked back on his head, and a shit eating grin plastered to his face as he tortured his friend. Even from this distance I could tell he was well built, muscular but lithe and devilishly attractive. He wore blue jeans, white trainers, a green t-shirt and a brown leather jacket.
I watched a little longer until I saw him let Kazuma go and then start a fist fight with him. Apparently Kazuma-kun hadn't been kidding when he told me they fought all the time.
I tried to get a look at the other two, but unfortunately both of them were turned away from my view and a bit behind the car they had arrived in. A white sedan that was almost immaculately clean.
The teenager was dressed entirely in black, right down to the black baseball cap he had over his head and that was all I could gather about him. As for the other man, the only thing I could tell from my current position is that he had bright red hair, much the same as the man I had bumped into the other night.
Actually, as I squinted to try and get a better look, he seemed to even have the same build as the man I had bumped into…and his hair was held up in a bun, so it was at least long enough to pull that particular style off.
A sudden sense of dread had settled itself into the pit of my stomach. I really hoped and prayed it was only a coincidence, but my cop persona was telling me that it wasn't possible.
Hopefully he wouldn't remember me, if that happened to be the case.
"Hey, Kasumi-chan what are you doing?" I nearly jumped straight out of my skin as Keiko snuck up behind me so she could look out of the window too.
"Oh, I see, you're spying!"
"I am not spying!"
She gave me a dubious look, "Sure you're not."
I shoved her away from me gently, making her giggle. I turned back to the window to resume my observation but by then I was too late, they had moved on, more than likely headed up to the apartment.
Keiko's hand landed on my shoulder so she could direct me away from the window and towards the door. Sure enough, I could hear voices coming from down the hallway through the open front entrance and I felt like I needed to run away. I didn't want to meet these people, I decided.
But Keiko's firm hand on my shoulder told me she knew what I was thinking and she wasn't going to just let me leave.
Kazuma entered first, his face telling me he was utterly irritated but when he spotted me he grinned. His curly locks hung almost to his chin, his pompadour long gone thanks to Yusuke's ministrations.
"Hey, Kasumi can I use the bathroom? I need to fix this – "He pointed to his hair and I just nodded, letting him know it was fine.
As he left the entry way, I was given a view of Yusuke up close and personal for the first time. Behind him stood exactly who I had dreaded – the redhead I had smashed into just the night before.
I tried my best to keep my eyes from straying, because Keiko was in the process of introducing us, as the three other men shuffled into the room.
"Yusuke," She shoved me forward, "This is Morimoto Kasumi, that friend I was telling you about the other day."
Hesitantly I bowed to him in greeting, which he snorted at and then I noticed a hand sticking out in front of my face. I straightened and stared at his hand in confusion, until he grabbed my own and placed it in his. He shook my hand vigorously and I couldn't help when my eyes shot up to his in surprised shock.
Yusuke had nice eyes, I discovered, they were a chocolaty brown and I could see a hint of some hidden turmoil buried deep beneath their surface. It made him look older than he actually was, like he had seen things that not many people should ever have to see in their lifetime. They also held kindness, mischief, and the tiniest bit of pain. This man has been through more than he was letting on with his bad boy demeanor.
I realized I had yet to say anything to him, so I took a deep breath and then tried to greet him properly. What came out wasn't exactly the most eloquent thing I've ever said. "U-uh, hi…it's nice to finally meet you! Keiko hasn't told me jack shit about you!"
Keiko smacked me in the back of the head and caused me to pitch forward toward Yusuke. It took some interesting maneuvering on my part not to fall head first into him. Instead, I dodged his body, hopped on one foot and then slammed my back into the wall.
Yusuke laughed raucously at my behavior and it caused me to blush in embarrassment. Will I ever not make a fool of myself?
He turned to smile at me, "It's nice to see someone else on the receiving end of that slap!"
"You'll be next Yusuke if you don't behave yourself!"
"Yeah, yeah Keiko…" Yusuke trailed off so he could eye me up and down one last time, his eyes narrowed and some hidden emotion flashed beneath their depths, but a second later it was gone and he moved on so he could take in the apartment.
"Woo, Keiko this is a pretty nice place!" Yusuke was standing in the middle of our living room, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, but a look of wonder had crossed his features.
As he started to wander around, to get a better look at everything, I pushed myself off the wall and collected my wits about me so I could make it through the next two introductions.
Keiko's eyes were following Yusuke around nervously and I could tell she wanted to go to him, so I decided to do this as quickly as possible, like ripping a band aide off after it's been stuck to your skin for too long.
"Oi Keiko, want to introduce me to your other two friends so Kazuma and I can go pick my stuff up?"
She still looked distracted but I had at least gained most of her attention. "Oh yeah, I'm sorry. Kasumi, this is Minamino Shuichi –"She pointed to the redhead who smiled at me knowingly, "And this is Hiei-san."
The sound of a scuffle behind us momentarily distracted Keiko from the introductions and we turned as a group to see Kazuma and Yusuke once again beating each other up. With her hands on her hips and flames in her eyes, Keiko stomped over to them to put a stop to it, leaving me alone with the other two.
"Uh…" I didn't really know what to say, but before I could blurt out something stupid Minamino-san stepped forward with his hand out stretched.
I grasped it gratefully, smiling shyly as I shook his hand.
"It's nice to see you again Morimoto-san, allow me to apologize once more for last night."
My face was burning, but I managed to spit out a semi-coherent sentence. "Oh no, it was completely my fault. What a coincidence that you ended up being the Minamino Shuichi-san that Keiko was telling me about earlier."
"Yes, coincidence indeed, I had not at all expected you to be the devil woman Morimoto Kasumi-san that Yusuke has been raving about for days."
"Devil woman?" What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Shuichi chuckled lightly, "Yes, he seems to think you are a bad person, though he's doing a remarkable job hiding it at the moment."
And for a moment there, I had actually thought all the talk about Yusuke being a bastard was just that, talk. But now, I had completely changed my mind. Where did he get off calling me names when he hadn't even met me yet? What a jerk.
Shuichi must have seen the anger boiling over into my eyes, so he attempted to placate me. "Please do not take anything he says to heart. He only worries for Keiko-chan; she is his most important person."
"Right, I'll keep that in mind." No, I probably wouldn't, but this guy didn't need to know that. "Minamino-san, if you'd like I prepared some coffee in the kitchen, please help yourself."
I directed him to the kitchen door, but he respectfully declined and then moved on so he could join the group in the middle of touring the apartment. Apparently Keiko had decided it would be easier just to show Yusuke around instead of letting him get into mischief on his own.
That left only the teen, Hiei-san was it, standing in the doorway. His entire demeanor screamed that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with what was going on. I couldn't see much of his face because he had pulled the visor of his ball cap down too far and he had his hands shoved into the pockets of his black jeans.
He looked like the textbook definition of an angst ridden teenager. The aura he was giving off was almost ominous and it took me a moment to remember my manners. Like I had done with Yusuke, I bowed to him because something in the back of my head told me not to shake his hand.
He bowed back and when we both rose from our greeting, I took stock of him once more. Now that I could see him up close I realized that I had been wrong earlier, this person was certainly not a teenager. He was just rather short for a full grown man (I would put him at about 5'4"), but the lean muscles, stance, and definition of his body told me that he was anything but a child.
The clothes he wore clung tantalizingly to his obviously well maintained physique, the black t-shirt showing off his pectoral muscles and his powerful arms (one of which was covered almost entirely in bandages, how strange). As for the jeans…well, they fit him very well, let's just say that. I just wished I could get a better look at his face.
The visor threw most of his features into shadow, leaving me with only a view of his chin and mouth. From what I could make out I saw high cheek bones and thin, but nice, lips set into an angular face. If I was being truthful, I would definitely say he was more attractive than Shuichi. If only I could see his eyes.
After a long moment of silence, where we just seemed to be sizing each other up, he nodded to me and then walked past. Not a single word had left his lips and I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't gotten to hear his voice.
I guess what Kazuma and Keiko had told me earlier was spot on – this man was not exactly the friendly sort. There was something extremely off about him, his presence alone made me uneasy. I shifted on my feet, unable to stop my eyes from following him as he went to stand beside Shuichi.
I couldn't stay here, not in this room, not with that man. I don't know what it was, but my trepidation was starting to make me paranoid. I needed to get out of here.
"Kazuma!" I barked loudly, making everyone turn to stare at me.
I blushed, but barreled on ahead anyway, "Can we go get my stuff now, please?"
He was eyeing me like I had gone mad, but I didn't care. I felt like I was suffocating and I needed a breath of fresh air. Before he could even answer, I was out the door and headed down the stairs.
'What the hell is wrong with you Kasumi? You don't even know that guy but yet you're letting his mere presence affect you like this?'
I ran down all three flights of stairs, rushed out the door, and then stopped next to Kazuma's truck. I bent at the knee, grasped them with my hands and just breathed for a moment. My braid hung over my shoulder, and I flipped it away from my face in irritation.
Before I could start hyperventilating, a hand landed on my shoulder and caused me to jump. I swung behind me, trying to hit my assailant but my punch was grabbed in a hand much larger than my own.
"Kasumi, it's only me. Kami, are you alright!?"
It was only Kazuma, his hand gripped mine tightly and I wrenched it from his grasp so I could wrap my arms around his middle and hug him. Even though I knew he was confused he never hesitated to wrap his arms around me in return, crushing my tiny frame to his larger body.
I buried my face into his chest, just trying to catch my breath so I could form a coherent thought. What the hell was my problem? I couldn't even answer the question myself, how was I going to explain my behavior to my friends.
Kazuma respected that I wasn't ready to talk, he had always been very in tune with other people's emotions, and he just held me to him until I backed away.
I shuffled my feet, stared at the ground and blushed once again. I was being stupid.
"Let's head to your apartment to get your things. You can tell me why you're acting like this on the way, alright?"
All I could do was nod as he opened the passenger's door for me and waited for me to climb in before closing it behind me. A few seconds later he joined me in the cab and started the truck up.
It took a couple of minutes of silence as he drove before he finally asked, obviously not wishing to wait for me to finally open my mouth. "So, what was that back there?"
"Um…" What the hell was I going to tell him? 'Oh hey, your friend gives me the creeps!' Yeah, I'm sure that would go over real well.
"Kasumi, you can tell me."
I sighed; he wasn't going to let it go so I might as well be truthful. "Your friend made my spidey senses tingle."
The Spiderman joke was a long running one between us. My intuition about people was one of the reasons I had wanted to become a police officer. I prided myself on being a good judge of character and my friends had often accused me of having a sixth sense when it came to certain things.
I was slightly disappointed and a whole lot of confused when Kazuma didn't laugh at my joke, but instead only frowned worriedly at the windshield.
"It was more than that Kasumi and you know it."
"I don't think I do." Kazuma didn't need to know that his friend had an aura about him that was akin to an axe murderer's.
He took his eyes off the road for a moment so he could give me an unimpressed look. Kazuma's intuition was not unlike my own and I was positive he knew I was lying.
"Okay, fine. Your friend Hiei…he made me wary…and nervous. You can't tell me you haven't felt it yourself."
He was silent for a long while, the sounds of our breaths and the rush of wind as it flew over the truck the only thing I could hear.
"Kasumi…" He started slowly, "This happens a lot, yeah?"
"You know it does Kazuma-kun."
"Have you ever…seen anything strange…when you feel these things?"
What the hell was Kazuma going on about now? Why did our conversations seem to be taking weird turns lately? I didn't like it, not at all.
"What the fuck do you mean by strange?" He winced at my use of foul language, but I could care less at that point. I had become angry and my confusion certainly wasn't helping the situation.
"Nothing, never mind Kasumi."
"Oh like hell are you going to get off that easily, tell me!"
"I said it was nothing!" He snapped and it instantly shut me up. Kazuma didn't often yell at me, but when he did I knew better than to push him. It would get me nowhere.
The rest of the car ride to my old apartment was filled with awkward silence. Kazuma looked regretful for yelling at me, but I was so pissed off that he would be lucky if I talked to him again for the rest of the day.
As we pulled up to the curb in front of my old place I hopped out of the truck before he could come open the door and then ran all the way up to my apartment. By the time Kazuma had caught up to me I was already carrying a stack of boxes down to the truck. He tried to take them from my hands, but I danced around him, ignoring him completely.
He was quickly becoming irritated and I could see it every time we passed each other in the hall. I wouldn't be the first to break the silence, so I continued to give him the cold shoulder as we loaded my stuff into the bed of his truck.
Kazuma wasn't known for his patience, so I knew exactly when he had reached his limit. As I placed two more boxes into the bed of the truck he came up behind me and pinned me to the side of the vehicle. His hands splayed out over the black paint and his long arms caged me in. If I had really wanted to I could have ducked out from underneath them and been on my way, but I just stood there.
I refused to turn around and I heard him groan in frustration from behind me. "Kasumi, come on. You know I didn't mean to yell at you."
I stuck my nose up, adamantly refusing to acknowledge that he was speaking to me.
"Tch, don't be that way."
Oh, I totally was going to be that way. I didn't like when information was withheld from me and Kazuma was most definitely hiding something.
"Kasumi, I'm serious."
I continued to ignore him but that became much more difficult when he grabbed me by my shoulder and whirled me around to face him. Anger blazed in his light brown eyes but I stood my ground – unafraid.
His eyes softened a moment later, I wasn't sure what he saw that made him change his attitude but he backed away from me and gave me some space.
"Be mad at me if you want but I need to let you know something. That feeling you got earlier…don't worry about it. Hiei isn't exactly friendly, but he won't hurt you if you don't provoke him."
'If I don't provoke him? What the hell? Is he telling me that if I were to provoke him he would hurt me?'
I really wanted to keep giving him the cold shoulder, but that little bit of information he had just given me had opened up a whole slew of new questions.
"What do you mean by that, Kazuma?"
"All I'm saying is if you stay out of his way, he will stay out of yours."
"But…why would you want someone like that around?"
"We're not really friends Kasumi, at least me and Hiei aren't. He's more Yusuke's friend than mine and he's best friends with Shuichi."
"So you're friends by association then?"
"Yeah…something like that."
"Why did I feel like there was something…off about him?"
"You know how you're kind of socially challenged?"
"Yeah…" I wasn't sure where he was going with this.
"Well, think of him that way except one thousand times worse."
I blinked at him, taking a minute to process what he'd just said before I nodded in satisfaction. That would placate me for a while, but I knew there was more to this Hiei character than just that. There was something strange about all of them, actually and I planned to figure out what that something was, even if I had to use my influence as a cop to do it.
I schooled my features into a fake mask of understanding and smiled up at Kazuma. "Okay, I accept that explanation."
He breathed a sigh of relief that only made him look more suspicious in my eyes, but I let it drop for now. We had too much hard work left to do, the day wasn't nearly over yet and fighting with Kazuma was not one of my top priorities.
"Gee, Kasumi you know I hate fighting with you. Let's not do this again, huh?" He checked the watch attached to his wrist and his eyes widened, "Oh shit, we only have half an hour before the movers get there with your new furniture, we better hurry!"
Then he was off to grab the rest of my crap. I followed behind him at a much slower pace, lost in thought. I needed to come up with a plan on how to obtain more information on these new people that had suddenly entered my life…and in the process, I think I need to learn more about my friends too. I guess I didn't know them as well as I thought I had.
. . .
We ended up missing the movers, who had just dropped everything off on the curb in front of the building. That left the boys with the job of carrying it up the three flights of stairs. To my utter amazement they made it look easy. Seeing Hiei carry my mattress without the assistance of another had truly been something to marvel at. He hadn't even broken a sweat by the time he got it up to the apartment.
All I had been able to do is stutter out a quick thank you, which he had answered with a monosyllabic "hn," when he had got it through the door and I had been forced to direct him to my room so he could put it down. Yusuke followed after him a few minutes later with all the pieces to my bedframe held in his muscular arms.
These men were something else. Even the feminine Shuichi could hold his own, carrying heavy items up the stairs like they weighed less than a sack of feathers.
What should have taken all day was practically cut in half thanks to the extra hands. Though Yusuke and Hiei both looked like they would rather be gouging out their own eyeballs with spoons than helping carry our stuff they both diligently continued to bring up boxes and furniture.
The couch had been the only item that presented a problem and not because they had trouble carrying it. Yusuke and Kazuma had grabbed it off the curb, the final piece of furniture and ultimately the heaviest. All the arm chairs had been carried up one by one by Hiei or Shuichi and by then all the boxes had been brought up and stacked around the apartment.
It took some interesting maneuvering to first get it up the stairs, because they weren't quite wide enough to carry the couch normally, so the two boys had been forced to lift it above their heads and at an angle. Keiko had laughed at my look of utter astonishment at the feat they had pulled off – I was unable to believe my eyes.
Who the hell is strong enough to lift a couch of that size almost above their heads? These two were apparently – I would have to give Kazuma shit later for always taking it easy on me during training. I knew he was strong, but this was something else.
Once they had gotten it up the stairs Shuichi decided to act like a foreman and direct where the two men went as they tried to shove the large item through our front door. It ended with all three of them arguing with each other on the best way to get it through the entrance.
Yusuke took things into his own hands and (after having Kazuma help him turn it sideways again) pushed it bodily through the door. To this day, if you look closely enough, you can see the nick in the wood of the doorframe he had made from this stupid stunt. Keiko and I decided it was best not to mention it to baba Chiyo in fear our hides would be tanned if she were to find out.
I let Keiko direct everyone on where to place our furniture and soon enough our apartment was starting to look a lot less empty and much more homey. The dining table and chairs were set up by the windows near the kitchen door and the couch, along with two arm chairs, had been placed a short distance away from the fireplace. In lieu of a coffee table we put our brand new kotatsu down in front of the couch. Two of Keiko's bookshelves (the third having been placed in her room) lined the wall to the far right of the living space.
Our beds had yet to be assembled but all it took to get them put together was begging Kazuma to do it for me. He agreed readily, probably having already assumed he would get roped into doing it anyway. It took a little more convincing on Keiko's part to get Yusuke to put hers back together and what eventually clinched it was Kazuma offering to do it because "Yusuke obviously wasn't man enough to take care of his woman."
I don't think I've ever seen two men make a chore into a competition, but I did that day and Kazuma's ultimate triumph over Yusuke had made all of us laugh – all except for the dark and sinister Hiei, of course.
I had taken today, as well as tomorrow, off of work so I could get our new place situated and spend some much needed time with my friends. What I hadn't expected was for everyone to stick around, even after all was said and done. While Keiko and I busied ourselves with putting our new as well as old (but well loved) items in their rightful places the boys sat around chatting amicably with one another.
I noticed in passing that Hiei didn't much participate (if at all, I really couldn't tell if he was just speaking when I wasn't in the room or if he was just not talking in general) in the conversation, but at some point during the time Keiko and I spent putting our apartment to rights, one of the boys had gone out and gotten firewood (don't ask me from where).
As I trekked through the living room to put away our bath towels I had to stop and stare as Hiei started a fire in the fireplace. I don't know who asked him to, or if he had just taken it upon himself, but he had it roaring in no time flat. As he fed the hungry flames several small logs his face was illuminated underneath his cap just enough for me to finally get a look at his eyes.
I stood there floored at what I saw. Hiei's eyes were huge, surrounded by thick lashes and unbelievably gorgeous (enough to make me a bit jealous, I will admit). What had stunned me in the first place was not so much the shape, but the color, of those eyes embedded into his tanned skin.
'It must be a trick of the light. The flames reflecting off his irises or something, because no one has eyes that color!'
But as he stood up and away from the flames, I knew that it wasn't an illusion caused by the lighting, his eyes really were a deep crimson red, like cherries or freshly spilled blood.
'They have to be contacts, that color is far too unnatural to be anything else.'
I must have looked like a complete moron standing there the way I was, in the middle of the living room and as pale as a sheet. My feelings of stupidity only multiplied when I got to hear him speak for the first time a second later.
"What are you staring at, onna?"
It was rude and gruff, but it still caused a blush to spread across my cheeks. His voice was pure sex – just as dark and rough as he seemed to be.
When I didn't immediately answer him his face screwed up into a look of annoyance and he barked in that same sensually deep voice, "Are you an idiot or something? Most people speak when they are spoken to."
"Hiei!" Shuichi looked absolutely appalled at his friend's words as he admonished him. He grabbed Hiei by his arm and pulled him down to sit in one of the armchairs.
Hiei wrenched his arm from Shuichi's grasp and for a moment I truly thought the man might hit the redhead. Instead he just reached up to pull the ball cap down further and shielded his eyes from view once more.
The room fell into an awkward silence and I could feel my blood boiling beneath the surface of my skin. Who the hell did this guy think he was, talking to me like that? I was so pissed I could feel myself shaking as I clenched my hands into fists and tried to prevent myself from beating the shit out of the guy.
Kazuma, having sensed my distress, rose from his seat on the couch and walked over to me. I didn't even acknowledge his presence; I was too busy attempting to bore holes into the back of Hiei's head. The other man studiously ignored me, not even caring that he had been so damn rude.
"Kasumi just let it go." Kazuma whispered to me, as if he were afraid the short man might hear.
Even though he had spoken so quietly Hiei's head still whipped around in our direction, a glare could be seen from beneath the ball cap, his red eyes narrowed and dangerous.
I allowed my features to morph into a facsimile of his own, animosity rolled off me in waves and it took Kazuma grabbing me by the arm to stop the staring contest we had been locked in. He dragged me from the room and into the kitchen. If the door hadn't been one that swung he probably would have slammed it behind him.
Keiko was still in there putting away our dishes and she jumped practically into the air, shocked by our sudden appearance. Kazuma didn't stop to explain to her as he laid into me.
"What did I say to you earlier?! I told you to leave him alone and there wouldn't be any problems!"
"Tch, really Kazuma?! So I was supposed to just let him talk to me like that, in my own home no less!"
Apparently our truce from earlier was now null and void, but this time I wasn't going to sit down and take it. I had settled on hating Hiei, his presence alone made me extremely uncomfortable, but his attitude had made that almost dissipate completely. Now all I wanted to do was wrap my hands around his neck and choke him.
"Kasumi, that's just how he is! He's rude and an asshole, but if you're not careful you're going to get hurt!"
"Are you fucking kidding me? I'm going to get hurt? Have you forgotten who the hell I am Kazuma?!"
Keiko tried to put herself in between us, but I just stepped around her so I could get into Kazuma's face again.
"If I wanted to I could kill that scrawny piece of shit with my bare hands!" I continued.
"Kasumi cut it out! Kazuma, go back out to the living room and do damage control. I'm positive everyone out there can hear you two. This is ridiculous!" Keiko interjected, stopping Kazuma from retorting.
When he tried to open his mouth, more than likely to spew something else at me, Keiko stomped her foot hard enough to make the floor shake. She pointed at the door and that was all it took to get Kazuma to high tail it out of the room, but not before shooting me a glance that told me we weren't done arguing just yet.
"Kasumi, what was that all about?" I was still so angry that I almost didn't even catch what Keiko had said. I glared at the door in the hope that Kazuma would return so maybe I could kick his ass instead.
"Kasumi, did you hear me?" She placed a hand on my shoulder and shook me gently. I brushed her off so I could pull myself up onto the counter. I sat, my legs dangling and not quite touching the floor.
I wouldn't look at my friend, letting my fringe hide my eyes from view and stewing in my anger. I wouldn't be surprised if she could feel it rolling off me.
Her dainty hands appeared on my knees a second later, squeezing in comfort but as I peered out from beneath my bangs her face told me I was about to get reprimanded. Keiko was like that with me sometimes; she would first try to make it clear she cared about me but then proceed to tell me what I had done wrong.
"So, was it Yusuke or Hiei-san that said something?"
My grimace at the short man's name clued her in to which boy had managed to get me so riled up and she just shook her head, her lovely brown locks swishing around her features. I sat up straighter so I could reach out and play with a few of the strands next to her cheek. I twirled them around my fingers, my anger suddenly deflated so I was just left with a feeling of shame caused by my behavior.
My shoulders slumped and after giving Keiko's silky hair one last tug, I let my hand fall too. I released a puff of air from my mouth, "I think I might have anger issues."
A laugh bubbled over her lips at my statement and she smiled warmly, "That's an understatement."
I pouted, causing Keiko to giggle again and then muss up my hair like Kazuma always does. I swear, they both think I'm some little kid or something. She had managed to mess up my hair pretty badly, so I was forced to take out the hair tie and let my braid unweave itself into messy, long waves. Keiko took the opportunity to run her fingers through the lengths, smoothing my hair down and making it look less like a rats nest.
"Are you ready to tell me what started all this?" She asked as her fingers pulled at a particularly tough knot.
"Hiei-san's eyes…"
"Huh?" She tried her best to look confused, but I could see it was just for show. There's no way she didn't know about the odd color of his irises.
"Don't pretend you haven't seen them. They're contacts, right?"
She nodded slowly, "Oh yes, they're definitely contacts. He likes to scare people or perhaps at least shock them a bit."
One of Keiko's eyes had twitched in the beginning, indicating that she was lying to me again. Why would she lie about this though? His eyes couldn't actually be red, could they? That led me to think of ways it could be possible – a birth defect, experiment gone wrong, poked himself in the eyes too many times, permanently blown capillaries, or maybe he was an alien. I laughed silently to myself at that last one – an alien, yeah right.
My eyes had narrowed and Keiko was starting to look nervous, I watched as a bead of sweat slid down her brow. She shuffled her feet, her hands freeing themselves from my hair so she could wring them together in another telling sign.
I opened my mouth to confront her about her extremely obvious unease but a loud shout of, "Urameshi, put that down!" Interrupted me completely, making me lose my train of thought.
Keiko's eyes shot worriedly to the door and I jumped from the counter so I could sprint out to the other room and see what Kazuma had been yelling about. What I saw instantly made my anger reappear tenfold and this time nothing was going to stop me from hurting someone.
Standing next to the couch was Yusuke, which was innocent enough, until you noticed what he held in his hands. I had forgotten all about it and it was such a rookie mistake that not only was I angry at him, but myself.
"Urameshi, I'm serious, put that damn thing down!" Kazuma was cowering behind one of the arm chairs, peeking out only occasionally so he could yell at Yusuke again.
Yusuke only laughed, waving my gun around like it was a toy. "Oh come on Kuwabara, this is just a BB gun right? Don't be such a pansy!" And apparently he thought it was a toy too.
I heard Keiko gasp from behind me but I sure as hell wasn't going to wait for one of these other idiots to stop him. Hiei sat in the armchair directly next to Yusuke looking bored and Shuichi had pushed himself as far away from the other man on the couch as he could get. Like that would save him, the moron. Even Kazuma, hiding behind the chair, should know better. If the gun were to go off it would tear through just about anything.
I launched myself across the room, pulling Yusuke into a grapple I had practiced hundreds of times. While I had him pinned I disarmed him, knocking the gun from his hand and sending it skittering across the floor. I used my legs to wrap around his own and pulled him down hard to the ground. He landed with an "Oomph" and I kept him pinned long enough to roll over so I was straddling his waist. When he tried to buck me off I punched him.
He looked more shocked than hurt, which is what I had been aiming for in the first place, but that look of shock was soon replaced with one of anger. An eerie light danced in the young man's eyes, unnatural and strange and undeniably dangerous. I wasn't going to give him the chance to try anything, so I rose off him as calmly as I could.
He was on his feet not even a second later, his fists clenched and eyes narrowed into a glare. "What the fuck did you do that for, you bitch?"
I ignored him; I had been called a bitch more than once in my lifetime and it held no impact over me. I walked over to where my gun had come to rest, picked it up, made sure the safety was still on, and then emptied it of its clip. When Yusuke saw the very real bullets in the magazine his eyes widened to something akin to saucers.
"Oh shit, that thing's real!" His anger was long forgotten in the face of the danger he could have potentially put himself and all his friends in.
Kazuma had shot up from his hiding spot after seeing me take apart my weapon and he rounded on Yusuke, "I told you that you moron! This is what happens when you don't listen; do you think I was crouching behind the chair because I was afraid a stray BB might hit me? And you call me stupid!"
"You are stupid Kuwabara, if you hadn't been screaming like a little girl after I picked it up maybe I would have heard that part about it being a real goddamn gun!" Yusuke was waving his hands around in frustration, but his eyes certainly hadn't shrunk in size and they hadn't strayed from the bits of metal death I held in my hands.
I was absolutely seething, "Why the hell did you think you had the right to touch anything here that doesn't belong to you, let alone something like this?"
He had the sense to look a bit sheepish, but I could tell he didn't much care for my tone of voice. "Oh, and what gave you the right to pin me down and hit me, you psycho?!"
"You're lucky that's all I did. If you had shot someone it would have been on my head."
"How do you figure?"
"This is my gun and I am responsible for it." I walked over and set the pieces down on the kotatsu, now that I had it taken apart I might as well clean the damn thing.
I made short work of pulling the chamber out of my police issued Glock 19, pulling it all apart until I could access the inside of the weapon. Yusuke had come to stand behind me as I sat and skillfully disassembled the gun, bit by bit.
"Why in seven hells do you have a gun in the first place? That's fucking dangerous!"
I didn't bother to answer because Keiko had come up behind him, tugged on his ear and pulled him into the kitchen with her. I could hear her yell at him from all the way out here. Snippets of, "Yusuke you dolt!" and "You're lucky you didn't kill someone!" provided some nice background noise as I went to hunt through my still unpacked boxes for my gun's cleaning kit.
I found the box marked 'Uniforms' where I had packed all my police related items and luckily enough the kit was on top of everything. I grabbed it, checked it over to make sure I had all I needed and then returned to the kotatsu.
By the time I made it back to the table, Kazuma was sitting at one end, his legs neatly tucked underneath it. He had emptied the magazine of its bullets so he could roll them around the table like a child would with marbles.
I sat back down beside him and arranged the items I would be using so they were close at hand.
"What are you doing, Kazuma-kun?" He looked away from me, obviously still being petty about our fight earlier.
"Fine, I prefer to do this in silence anyway."
I cleaned and oiled the gun until it was practically pristine, all the while aware of the eyes that were bored into the back of my skull as I worked. Apparently, both Hiei and Shuichi thought what I was doing was interesting, but it was starting to grate on my nerves.
As I snatched the bullets back from Kazuma so I could put them back into the magazine Keiko and Yusuke came stomping out of the kitchen. She must have been in there yelling at him for a good half an hour. It was a wonder his ears hadn't fallen off in the process.
Keiko took a seat across from Kazuma and next to me, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing in irritation. I felt Yusuke sit down behind me on the couch, but when he leaned over me to see what I was doing I was sorely tempted to head-butt him in the face.
"So you never answered my question, why do you have a gun? I don't particularly like that my girlfriend might be living with a mobster."
He was so close to my ear that it took every ounce of my self-control not to jump when he spoke, but his question had made the room fall silent. Both Kazuma and Keiko looked a bit guilty and I realized a moment later why that was.
'Those two never bothered to tell Yusuke I was a cop! I frowned to myself, disturbed by this revelation, 'But why…?'
The awkward silence stretched on and on…so I decided I might as well tell him the truth. I didn't really understand why neither of my friends had bothered to inform him but I was about to find out why.
"I'm a police officer; I work for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department."
This got a strange reaction out of him (and if I had bothered to notice, Hiei and Shuichi as well), he shot up in his seat so he was straight backed and I couldn't help but turn around to look at his face. His eyes were wide once more and a grimace of distaste had graced his features. "A cop…you've got to be kidding me." He mumbled to himself.
My eyes darted from Yusuke back to Keiko and Kazuma, who both had identical looks of trepidation. I got it now…why they hadn't wanted me to meet Yusuke – he was a criminal.
I turned back to the black haired, olive skinned man, and let a sneer cross over my lips. "Oh, are you afraid of police officers Urameshi-san? Is there something in your past you've wanted to keep hidden?"
His eyes had narrowed into a scathing glare; his lips pursed and face a mask of hatred. It only caused me to smile, because I believed I had hit the nail directly on its head. "That's it isn't it? So what did you do? Are you a thief…no, something worse than that…a member of a gang perhaps?"
"Kasumi…" Kazuma's voice was low – a warning.
I rounded on him then, sick and tired of the secrecy. "Is this why neither of you bothered to tell me much about him? Why you have obviously been hiding my identity as well?"
"It's not that Kasumi-chan…I promise Yusuke isn't a criminal."
"I'm sorry Keiko, but I think you're lying. Just like you have been since the day I met you. You should know how I feel about liars!"
I shot up from my seat, taking my gun with me so I could stuff it back in the waist band of my pants. I couldn't deal with this now. Not in front of all these people I didn't know. I marched over to the door, grabbing my police issued jacket as I went and studiously ignoring my friends.
"Kasumi, where are you going?" Keiko and Kazuma had risen to follow me, but I would have none of that.
"I'm going to the precinct; I can't be around you right now."
Keiko was clearly upset, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "But I thought you took today off?"
"Yeah well, I changed my mind. I don't know when I'll be back. Don't wait up."
And then I walked out the door, making it a point to slam it behind me. If they wanted to harbor a criminal that was their prerogative, but I wasn't going to stick around and watch as they did. I would get to the bottom of the mystery that was Urameshi Yusuke or I would turn in my badge and gun and give up on being a police officer. If I can't figure this out I wasn't worthy anyway.
. . .
I had called my partner to come pick me up after I had started the long walk to the precinct, while it was only about a ten to fifteen minute drive (could take up to half an hour in heavy traffic though) it would take significantly longer to walk. I didn't particularly want to be lost in my anger filled thoughts for that length of time so I had pulled out my cell phone and called my rival up.
That's right…my partner was the enemy… or the devil, whichever way you wanted to look at it. He had graduated top of our class in the academy (only beating me just barely in one subject!) and had been given a job right off the bat at the same precinct that hired me. He might be a rookie like me, but our Captain certainly didn't treat him like he was.
They had given my partner his own squad car even; my jealousy was well known in the precinct because I absolutely couldn't stand the guy. We fought constantly and when I had been informed by our Commander that he was to be my new partner…I might have blown a gasket if it had been anyone other than that man who told me.
I was still walking when he finally pulled up beside me, following me with the squad car and a stupid, triumphant grin could be seen on his face through the window. He rolled the passenger side window down as he pulled to a stop beside me, but as I tugged on the door's handle to try and enter the vehicle I found it locked.
"What, are you going to make me crawl through the window you asshole?"
"As entertaining as that would be to watch, no I won't make you do that."
I heard the locks unlatch and sighed in relief that he wasn't going to play some stupid game with me, so I climbed in beside him and did my best to ignore the quizzical look on his face.
"So…I'm kind of surprised you called. You must have been desperate."
I glared at him, Amano Ren was the biggest jerk I had ever met and I had no qualms letting him know what I thought of him.
"Shut the hell up and drive Ren."
"Fine, fine…no need to be so impatient."
He pulled back out onto the street and we didn't speak again for a good long while. I occupied myself by sneaking glances at him. I had known Ren for a while now, a little over a year, but he had changed quite a bit since graduating from the academy. When he had entered he had been this scrawny, tall, almost frail looking man, but now he was completely different.
His body had filled out, with new muscle and strength he had been lacking before the training the academy provided. Now, his height and body size combined made him look anything but frail – he looked much more formidable and intimidating. His black hair was kept in a military style buzz cut, but it happened to be quite attractive when combined with his rugged features. His eyes were a tantalizing shade of blue and his full lips as well as defined jaw made quite the picture. Women tended to fawn over him whenever possible.
I was not one of those women, though I found him highly attractive, his personality was an utter turn off.
"You know Kasumi, I can't let you go into work dressed the way you are."
I looked down at my attire – besides my police jacket I did not have a single piece of my uniform on. I hadn't even thought to bring my badge. Though I hated to admit it, Ren was right. The Captain wouldn't even let me set foot into the office let alone go out on patrol without the proper garments.
"Can I just ride along with you then?"
Ren laughed at me derisively, "Are you kidding? No."
"Oh come on, I'm your partner for Christ sakes!"
He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, a smirk stretching his lips across his teeth. "I suppose I could let you ride around with me for a while…for a price."
This was one of the issues I had with working with Ren. He was always trying to find new ways to one up me or embarrass me. Especially in front of the others at the precinct – it was practically his favorite past time.
"Screw that, just drop me off here and I'll walk the rest of the way."
"Don't be like that, I promise it won't be anything too horrible."
I didn't trust him, not for a second but I decided to go along with it anyway. If it would get me out of my apartment for a couple of hours so I could calm down it might be worth it…I hope.
"…Well, what is it then?"
He smiled, his eyes crinkling up in joy. "Let me take you out on a date this weekend."
I choked on my own spit, sputtering and coughing like some idiot. I must not have heard that correctly! There is no way Amano Ren just asked me out on a date, no way in hell!
"That's not funny Ren! Tell me what you really want!" I managed to choke out between coughing fits.
"That is what I really want so if you don't agree to those terms I can turn back around and drop you off…"
"But I hate you! And you hate me!" This just didn't make sense; I must be stuck in some nightmare.
"You've made it clear over the past year how much you dislike me, but I never said I hated you in return."
This floored me…I had to admit it was true. While Ren spent a good portion of his time picking on me or competing with me, he had never once done so with malicious intent. I had always taken his ribbing as a challenge and his attitude towards me had caused me to feel less than friendly towards him. Did this mean he had romantic feelings for me then?
'Oh Kami, I hope not.'
"So, yes or no Kasumi?"
"I don't know! I don't like you, why would I want to spend an entire day with you?"
"I never said it had to be a whole day, a few hours would suffice."
I placed a hand to my chin in contemplation. Either I could agree to his terms and be required to spend several, more than likely painstaking, hours with this man over the weekend or I could go back to the apartment and deal with the Keiko and Kazuma situation.
I settled on what I felt was the lesser of two evils and would not end with me losing my two best friends. With a grimace of disgust I turned back to my partner, "Fine, I'll go out on a date with you. But nowhere too fancy, I hate dressing up."
As he pulled up to a red light and came to a stop he turned to me and smiled. I think this might have been the first time he had directed such a stunningly genuine smile towards me and it made my heart skip a beat. Maybe the date wouldn't be so bad after all…
. . .
A/N: Uh oh…Kasumi is going on a date! Ren will be seen more and more as the story progresses. Sorry about another boring chapter, but at least all the boys finally showed their pretty faces! As for Hiei's strange/human outfit, Kurama dressed him of course, lol. Please read and review, I'd love to know what everyone thought! Thanks!