(A/N: So the same thing happened to Headspace that happened to its predecessor: the last chapter got insanely long compared to the other ones. However, unlike its predecessor, what has happened here in Headspace is that I've fully merited an M rating. Eheheh. So here it is, the final installment! Thanks for reading!)

Headspace, pt 4

He was in Kuwabara's room.

Yusuke was okay with this.

He was sort of half-sitting, half-lying down, propped up on his elbows on Kuwabara's bed.

Yusuke was okay with this, too. He'd been there before.

And Kuwabara, of course, was hovering half-next to him, half-overtop of him, using his extra inches of height to his advantage, and kissing Yusuke pretty hard.

Yusuke was definitely okay with this.

They pushed it to the limits of what it was. Kuwabara had that sliding subtlety sometimes, a trick his stupid hopeless romantic side must have honed just a little by kissing a couple girls before he got to Yusuke, something Yusuke didn't even bother with. He knew what he wanted and he got it, damnit, tongue blazing inside Kuwabara's mouth, and there was that spot over to the side that felt so damn good, and Yusuke could feel it when he pressed against it, and okay that was weird. For a second there he felt like he was inside Kuwabara's head, kissing...himself.

He pulled back.

Kuwabara looked, as usual, very confused. "Whassa matter, Urameshi?" he said thickly.

Detached, Yusuke couldn't really feel it any more. He could barely remember what had happened to make him stop - it must have been a damn good reason to make him stop doing that. "Uh, it's nothing," he stammered. "Never mind." And he cupped Kuwabara's face toward his own again, and they continued. Thoroughly. To the point that it wasn't too long before Kuwabara was less-than-half-next to him and more-than-half-overtop of him, and then there weren't even fractions at all, just knees and hips and subtle creakings of the bed, and Yusuke's pants starting to feel uncomfortably small.

And somehow, because his pants were too tight, this clearly meant the article of clothing he had to remove was Kuwabara's jacket.

He reached up, planning for the top button, but only made it to the one at the bottom. Yusuke decided this was better anyway. It was closer, for one - and for another, Kuwabara wore his damn jacket so long that Yusuke's heavy hands fumbling at the bottom button ended up extra close to the center of Kuwabara's heat and edginess, and every time his hands slipped too close to it he felt a jolt, just waiting for Yusuke to press closer, because what he needed most now was that crucial relief -

And there he was, inside Kuwabara's head again. Both of them. Again Yusuke pulled away, freaked.

This time, however, Kuwabara misinterpreted it in the worst way possible. "Oh geez, Urameshi, I guess I should have - I mean if you didn't want to - crap, I'm such an idiot - "

"No!" Yusuke insisted. "You big dumbass, don't stop now..." He craned his neck up to kiss the big dumbass again, and it was slow and urgent at the same time, somehow, but Yusuke decided that he really liked it. And sooner or later, Kuwabara's jacket had come off, and that was when Yusuke noticed it.

Kuwabara's ears were purple.

Suddenly it all made sense.

"Your ears are purple," he said, relieved.

Kuwabara chuckled at him, a little. "Oh, you...oh. Yeah, they are."

The clothes came off more easily after that. Every time Yusuke would fall into Kuwabara's brain, he'd just pause, wait for it to pass, and keep going. His shirt, his pants, Kuwabara's pants, and had they even been wearing shoes? It didn't matter once there weren't any fractions. Kuwabara's kisses were too subtle. Yusuke's extra-hard hard-on was not.

"Ahhh," groaned Yusuke when the palm of Kuwabara's hand found it, and since Kuwabara's ears were purple, Yusuke felt it from both sides.

"Damnit...Urameshi..." came the muffled response from the crook of Yusuke's neck. "Damnit."

"Ah, shit, okay - " Yusuke managed, and his heavy hand crept back to the center of Kuwabara's heat and edginess, and as soon as he was reciprocating, they might as well have been one being, because Kuwabara's ears were purple, and Yusuke could feel everything. Everything.

And then Shizuru walked in.

Yusuke's one relief was that they both managed to get their hands away from the goods before freaking out, and no death-grips ended up happening. He'd have felt it either way at this point. After making sure that was all okay, he was completely prepared to dive under the blankets and swear incessantly from embarrassment, but Kuwabara grabbed the top quilt, covered what needed to be covered, and stormed toward his sister.

"Damnit, Shizuru!" he yelled at her. She was mostly out in the hall, and Kuwabara had to stand in the doorway to speak to her. Yusuke could barely see her at all. "How many times have I told you not to come in here when Urameshi's over?"

"I'm sorry, bro, I heard screaming and I felt like I needed to make sure you guys weren't killing each other!"

"I know your awareness is better than that!" he insisted. "You couldn't...tell?!"

"Well geez, okay, next time I'll make sure to check if my baby brother is having awkward teenage sex before I bust his door open!" she shot back with a growl.

"You do that!" said Kuwabara, and he slammed the door shut on her.

Yusuke watched the whole thing in shock and vague horror. The expression stayed on his face even as Kuwabara started crossing back toward him.

"I'm sorry, Urameshi, I'm so sorry," he kept saying. "I had no idea she was going to barge in here, are you still - I mean could we maybe still - "

"She knows," Yusuke said faintly. He closed his eyes - he couldn't believe this was happening.

"I...I had to tell her," he said. "I had to tell somebody. I'm just no good at keeping secrets, y'know? Especially from my sister - "

"You told her." The room was falling away from him now, and he felt something inside him plummet - a sinking feeling you usually get in the pit of your stomach, but that was hitting Yusuke in the back of his mind.

"She woulda figured it out anyway, don't you think? Geez, what is so wrong with this? Damnit, Urameshi!"

Damnit, Urameshi.

Yusuke woke up.

-xxx-

"Shit."

The assessment of the situation came to Yusuke fairly quickly. The knockout side effect of the poison's antidote had not only, well, knocked him out, but in his unconscious state he'd had a really weird dream (which, embarrassingly, Kurama had probably heard bits and pieces of). It had seemed very real at the time - real enough that Yusuke's real-world pants felt a little snug for reasons other than drying mud - but now that he was awake its artificiality seemed painfully obvious. And the more Yusuke thought about it...

The more it wasn't just his dream.

...Kuwabara? he ventured. Are you awake too? Were you asleep too?

Yes...and yes, came his answer. That dream was...freakin' weird.

I'll say, thought Yusuke. He gulped, behind his newly constructed wall of ice. You...have that kinda dream much?

Kuwabara's curtain wafted with what was definitely a sigh of defeat. Yeah, Urameshi, he confessed. Yeah I do.

Yusuke puffed out a pretty big sigh himself and swept his fingers back through his hair, making sure most of it was still in place. This was so not the time or the place to be dealing with this. Damn purple bug pod...things. Why did the freaky Botan gadget for this case have to be the one thing that messed with him and Kuwabara so hard?

He didn't know how he felt about that dream. Behind his wall, Yusuke figured he probably should have assumed that Kuwabara's dirty mind was leaning that direction. His own kind of was, too. But that didn't make it any less gay. If Yusuke went that far...well, the further he went, the harder it got to write it off later if things didn't work out. And that was what screwed with his head the most: dream-Kuwabara had seemed perfectly okay with the fact that his sister knew everything about them, and didn't bother trying to cover it up or convince her otherwise. He actually seemed...pretty happy about telling people.

A single sentence from earlier came back to Yusuke, almost as if Kuwabara's mental voice were consciously repeating it: I just wish we weren't keepin' so many secrets.

You...you want to tell, Yusuke finally realized.

Yeah, so what if I do? thought Kuwabara. Face it, Urameshi, both of us are kinda too hot on each other to keep acting like nothin's happening.

I...but... Thoughts were flitting through Yusuke's mind too incoherently for him to send a concrete message to Kuwabara's curtain.

Look...this thing, with you, it makes me like...really happy. Singing in the shower happy. Smiling even when I'm getting my ass kicked happy.

...Shouting it to the world happy, added Yusuke.

Exactly.

Yusuke's wall crackled. No offense, Kuwabara, but this is all happening at like, the shittiest time ever.

I know, he thought.

So you think maybe we can go kick some demon ass, and then I can get back to you on the whole happiness deal?

Kuwabara laughed a little, behind his curtain. Sure, Urameshi. It is kinda what we do best.

It totally is.

Scratching his head again, Yusuke rolled his neck a little and then rose to his feet. Kuwabara's senses were leaking into his again, and he could feel the faintest of trails from the creepazoid twins heading far off to the right. He was about to sprint off and follow it when something occurred to him.

"...Sorry about all of this, Kurama," he mumbled.

The demon gave him a weak smile. "At least it kept me assured that you hadn't died."

-xxx-

So I'm guessing they're kind of expecting me this time.

Yeah, pretty much, thought Kuwabara. You gotta be a little sneakier now.

Damnit, thought Yusuke, I should have asked Kurama if he had some kinda smelly plant that would cover up my scent.

Kuwabara's curtain ruffled with a gust of uncertainty. Nah, the way Botan talked about it, they're good enough that they could pick you out from behind the flowers or whatever.

These guys suck, thought Yusuke.

Yeah, no kidding.

Yusuke kept running, following the trail of Kouji and Jikou. He ran, and ran, and ran, and then suddenly stopped running - because they stopped running.

I'm...kinda gaining on them?

Maybe! thought Kuwabara, excited. Geez, please can we just get this over with. All right, Urameshi, what's your plan this time?

I figure if I wrap around them - if they're not moving - I can get up in a tree in this next patch of forest and..ambush them from above?

Kuwabara's curtain couldn't contain his mental wince. Yeah, that'd be great if that actually was a patch of forest, but look harder! Geez, you're blind...

Yusuke looked harder...and it wasn't forest at all. It was a spread of little huts and houses, taking up a good chunk of the horizon, all of them about the same height with thatched roofs and elaborate markings in brown and black on the outside walls, almost like war paint.

You don't think it's...!!

It must be, thought Kuwabara. That village they're going to attack.

Okay, so I get there, hide out on the first roof I reach, and jump them before they get close enough to use that poison tooth thing, Yusuke revised. Still no big deal, right?

Kuwabara thought about it. I guess there really isn't somethin' better to do.

So, making sure to give the twins a wide berth, Yusuke dashed off again, running in a broad arc around a small copse of (probably poisonous) berry bushes and then back toward the demon village, where he crept onto the roof closest to the edge and waited.

And waited some more. And tried not to think about Kuwabara, but failed, and indeed barely managed to keep it inside his igloo wall. And just when he didn't think Kouji and Jikou were actually going to show up, they appeared almost instantaneously, their speed still impressing him.

He leapt from the house and kicked Kouji (or at least, he thought) solidly in the face.

"We poisoned you, yet you live!" shrieked Jikou, proving him right. "How?"

Yusuke turned to face her and rose up to his full height. "See, lady, the thing you gotta know about me is that I've gotten pretty good at dying over and over again and yet not ending up dead." He smiled at her, then at both of them as Kouji rose from the ground and stood way too close beside her.

Keep your guard up, Urameshi, Kuwabara warned.

What are you, Grandma?

"Leave the fool boy," Kouji said to his sister. "We're too close to our goal now to be hindered by this insect." She nodded, and they geared up to invade the village, when Yusuke came flying at them from behind and elbowed Jikou in the spine.

"I don't think so!" he said. "I did not come all the way out here, land in the mud, get this cockroach thing attached to my ear and nearly die just for you guys to go through with this!"

Kouji and Jikou tensed, looked at the purple device clamped onto Yusuke's left ear, and then looked at each other and grinned. Kuwabara and Yusuke's thoughts were one:

Oh shit.

She came at him first, with her lightning speed and her razor-sharp claws. Yusuke yelped and rolled right and Jikou blitzed past him, but this only seemed to put him right in Kouji's path, and he had to hit the ground hard to dodge again. He was flailing all over the place, and the demons didn't seem to be breaking a sweat.

Damnit, Kuwabara, how come you got two helpings of sixth sense and I didn't get any?! he screamed inside his head. If anything happens to this purple thing I'm toast!

Yeah, well if my instincts are so important then keep usin' 'em! Kuwabara shot back. They're all that's saving your ass now, stupid!

Kuwabara was right. Every insanely necessary dodge Yusuke managed to make was a direct result of Kuwabara's awareness at the edge of his consciousness, letting him anticipate moves mere seconds quicker, enough to let him get out of the way. Jikou flew over his head; Kouji stabbed the air where his stomach had been seconds before. But the more they moved, the more Yusuke started to employ the strategies of another of his friends: Kurama's technique of analyzing the enemy's pattern of attack to render it more predictable and easier to defend against.

And the more Yusuke thought about it, the more he realized he didn't even really have to defend. He just had to steal.

His eyes - Kuwabara's eyes, really - focused on the pouch at Kouji's waist. If he could just snatch it away, he could turn the poison on its current owners, off them nice and quick, and then put the Great Swan's Tooth back where it belonged and go home. He just had to anticipate. He had to use himself and Kuwabara. Kouji swept past him on the left - Kouji faked right, then darted downward - Kouji was going to come at him from high and to the right -

And Jikou, whom he'd completely forgotten about, sliced past him from behind and cut the purple sensor from his ear, shattering it.

Yusuke's head throbbed. The sound rang in his ear like it had been twenty times louder, and then he started to panic. Without Kuwabara metaphorically whispering in his ear, this fight was going to be impossible. The case would end in disaster with thousands dead, and one of those thousands would probably be Yusuke.

"Damn! Brother, this device does not seem to be a weak point after all." Jikou came to rest standing next to her brother, huddling into his chest.

"Do not worry, sister. It was a valiant effort, and we will beat him." He, in turn, stroked her hair.

Yusuke blinked. Why could he still see them, even with the purple pod broken?

Urameshi? Dude, they're just standing there! Fight them!

Oh my god, Kuwabara was still in his head.

"Okay, that is it! This is officially the weirdest fucking case ever! But I'll be damned if I let some creepy incest demons get in the way of me going home, taking a shower, and getting back to my boyfriend!" And before he knew it, Yusuke was charging at the twins.

And he was faster.

He elbowed Jikou in her cheekbone and punched her brother in his jaw. He followed through with the swipe at Kouji to reach down and snatch the pouch away from his belt. Then he kicked him back toward his sister so they were lined up back-to-front. Yusuke's image of them started to flicker at that point - Kuwabara was finally disconnecting from his brain, and he was losing his sixth sense - so he did what he had to do as quickly as possible, before they disappeared from his sight.

"Spirit gun!"

The bullet, still tinged with a hint of Kuwabara's gold, pierced through them both.

-xxx-

Yusuke made a face at himself in Kuwabara's bathroom mirror. His hair was messy and still mostly wet - he was going to have to wait for a while, and then ask Kuwabara where he kept his hair gel, because in the mess of Shizuru's cosmetics he sure as hell couldn't find it. Kuwabara had loaned him a change of pants, and though they were a little too long, they were pretty damn comfortable.

Stepping out of the bathroom door in a cloud of steam, Yusuke decided that most things about Kuwabara were pretty damn comfortable.

He was half falling asleep on his bed, so Yusuke threw his damp towel at him and hit him in the face. "Hey."

Kuwabara sat up and smiled at him. "Hey."

Yusuke crossed over and sat next to him on the bed, close enough where he could nudge at Kuwabara's foot with his own from time to time. "So you took yours off, too."

It took Kuwabara a moment to figure out what Yusuke had meant. "Oh. Yeah. It was kinda awkward, especially sleeping with it on. My ear still hurts."

"Yeah, about that..." Yusuke brushed back the hair from the top of his left ear, where instead of the purple device, there now sat a tiny silver ring, that circled through both the holes the pod had left.

"Whoa! Hey, where'd you get that?"

"I picked it up in the spirit world before Botan brought me back," Yusuke said. He turned from Kuwabara and grinned. "Whaddya think, does it make me more badass?"

"It kinda makes you more gay."

"Well I thought that's kinda the way we were playing it now."

The humor was gone, and Yusuke and Kuwabara kind of stared at each other. Kuwabara looked a little conflicted, and Yusuke found himself missing already the ability to just peer inside his head.

"I told Botan."

"You...you did what?"

"Yeah," said Yusuke, "that's right. I figure if anybody's got a problem with this - " he scooted closer to Kuwabara, putting them flush hip-to-hip and resting his hand firmly on Kuwabara's thigh - "then they should reconsider who they've decided to have a problem with. It's just their bad luck that the resident queers also happen to be the resident ass-kickers."

Kuwabara blinked at Yusuke, then looked down to his hand and blinked again. Slowly, as if he thought any minute now Yusuke would change his mind, he slipped his own hand overtop of Yusuke's. When Yusuke stayed, Kuwabara snapped, and tugged him down practically on top of him, Yusuke's wet hair shaking droplets everywhere. Then, of course, they were kissing. And somehow it felt...different. Like Kuwabara knew for the first time that everything was going to be okay.

At least, that's what it seemed like to Yusuke. He still couldn't be quite sure.

"Mmm, I miss being able to read your mind," he joked softly against Kuwabara's lips.

"Idiot," Kuwabara told him. "You're still here. And that means you still are."

There was only so long Yusuke could take that. "...Okay, that kinda makes you gay," he said, laughing. "You use that line on all the boys?"

"Hey, shut up!" said Kuwabara. "It just kinda...came over me, okay?"

"Stupid hopeless romantic," said Yusuke, and went back to kissing him. It was the easiest way to shut him up. To Yusuke's surprise, though, it only lasted for a couple of heated seconds before Kuwabara jumped back up and headed toward the door.

"Hey, what gives?" said Yusuke. "We were gettin' to the good part!"

"I know," said Kuwabara, as he turned the lock on the door. "That's why we gotta keep Shizuru out."