(A/N: Hey all! Tis I, the Former Shinigami Goumon, now Hisa-me Kurai! Without further adieu, here's the next chappie!)
"Yuhi?" Miyasu said tentatively, noting the territorial look on her son's face at the sight of a man he did not know with his arm draped over her shoulder, "I believe that some introductions are in order. Hun? This man is your father – Aoshi."
If Miyasu had expected the look on her son's face to change, it didn't: it remained locked in that same, protective "get your freakin' hands off my mom" expression.
"Annnnnnnd?" Yuhi drawled, eyes locked on the offending arm, trying to psychically will it from it's position on his mother's shoulders.
"Well, um…he's-he's going to be living with us again, dear." Miyasu said awkwardly, "We're going to be a family again."
Now Yuhi's expression changed…into one of pure disbelief and horror.
"Do you just expect for me to accept this guy into our house after he walked out on us for ten freakin' years?" Yuhi asked incredulously, turning his gaze on Aoshi, "I hate you."
"Yuhi, c'mon." Aoshi said in an almost pleading tone as Yuhi flopped on his side, clamped both hands over his ears and began chanting, "LALALALALA! I-AM-NOT-LIST-EN-ING! LALALALA!"
"All I'm asking for is a chance, son." Aoshi begged, grabbing Yuhi carefully by the shoulders and turning him, with a degree of difficulty with all of his thrashing, to face him.
"Why should give you a chance?" Yuhi asked scathingly, "You're the reason I'll never be normal! The only normal one left in this effed up family of ours is oneechama and SHE'S sick in the head because of you!"
"I made a mistake!" Aoshi cried, now looking very angry, "Aren't I at least allowed a second chance?"
"Mistake?" Yuhi cried, laughing now, "You call ruining my life, and kaachan's, AND oneechama's a misTAKE? Oh this is too good."
"Yuhi! That. Is. Enough." Miyasu ground out quietly, silencing her child with a look, "The fact of the matter is I'm tired Yuhi. I can't keep relying on my paychecks alone to foot our medical bills anymore. We need to lean on each other."
Miyasu looped her arm with Aoshi's.
"And…you could use more positive male influences in your life..." She sighed, letting her head fall against his shoulder, "...buuuut I'm afraid this is the best I can do for the time being. Okay?"
"...he can stay as long as he wants." Yuhi mumbled, giving Aoshi's hand a good, hard pinch before flopping back on his side again, "Doesn't mean I'm gonna like it…or be the least bit nice about it."
"Whuh in Yama's name's goin' on?" Jin muttered curiously, pressing his pert nose against the glass of the window, fogging it slightly as her stared through it.
"What are you going on about Jin?" Touya yawned, having been forced to share a room with the wind imp since he was the only one used to his F-3 hurricane snores.
"There summat goin' on next door." Jin said, never removing his eyes from the house next door, "Urameshi's lass be o'er there as well. She sounds moiteh sore."
"What do you mean?" Touya asked blearily, fully intent on going back to sleep if it was the last thing he ever did; after all, a full night's sleep for a Shinobi such as himself was a rare occurrence indeed.
"Shh!" Jin hissed, waving a hand at the Juhyou Tsukai as an indication to hush up, "'m tryin' t' foind out."
Touya stared at the back of Jin's fuzzy head sleepily, feeling the lead weights sewing themselves into his eyelids as the began to slide shut of their own accord.
"WHAAAAA?" Jin cried loudly, startling Touya out of Happy-Shleepy-Time-Land and hurtling him ass-first into I'm-Awake-And-Pissed-Land, "Sh's leavin'?"
Touya fought down his first instinct to ensure the Kaze Tsukai would never procreate by freezing his balls off, and forced himself to take a deep, shuddering breath returning his mind to a far more tranquil state.
"Who is leaving Jin?" Touya asked calmly, face not revealing the inner struggle as he meditated to maintain his icy outlook.
"Tha' Yoru lassie!" Jin cried, not caring apparently if he roused the Mazoku and had him unleash his demonic fury on the Ningenkai at six fifteen in the morning, "Sh's movin' away"
"…are you sure Jin?" Youya asked, feeling his mind becoming calmler and calmer by the second as the effects of meditation set in.
"Urameshi's lass is tryna talk'er outta it." Jin said heatedly, pressing his large ear against the glass more, unaware of how dangerously close the glass was coming to giving way under the pressure, "Buh' sh's not 'avin much luck."
"Yoru come on! Be reasonable!" Keiko said in a pleading tone as the bull-headed girl stalked past her with a full, cardboard box in her arms.
"I am being reasonable." Yoru said calmly as she loaded the box onto the moving van, "I swore to myself that if that man ever came back into my mother's life and wormed his way back into the house, I would move out."
"Yoru, do you even have the means to afford an apartment?" Keiko sputtered as Yoru went back into the house to get another box, "And what about food? Did you even think about that?"
"Keiko, I've been saving up for a house since I was fourteen." Yoru called from somewhere upstairs, "I haven't spent a single yen from any of my paychecks. And I've already called the apartment manager in Shibuya and set everything up."
"But what about YUHI?" Keiko cried as Yoru appeared at the top of the stair s with another box, "Did you think about him at all? How will he handle all this with you gone?"
"Oh, I'll still visit him." Yoru replied calmly as she walked carefully downstairs, "I'll even bring him over to visit. And if I get even the slightest suspicions that that man is leeching off of mom, I'll take them both to court and fight for custody."
"But…but…" Keiko sputtered as Yoru slid into the passenger seat of the moving van, slamming the door shut, "THIS IS COMPLETELY INSANE!"
"Here." Yoru said with a smile, extending a piece of paper out the window, "This is my new address. I'll give ya a buzz when I'm settled."
The driver started up the van and backed out of the driveway.
"Later Keiko!" Yoru called from the window, waving furiously, "I'll see ya in school!"
"Yoru! ANATA BAKA!" Keiko shouted after the vehicle as it left her in a flurry of dust.
"Miya-chan?" a nurse asked from the doorway, holding a cordless phone in her hand, "You have a phone call from someone named Yukimura Keiko. She sounds pretty desperate to talk to you. Do you want to-"
"Kei-chan?" Miyasu asked, holding out her hand to accept the phone, "Sure. Wonder what the fuss is about. Yello?…moved ow-whaddya mean moved out?"
Both Aoshi and Yuhi's heads whipped around at those words.
"I…I see…" Miyasu murmured shakily, "Thank you…for letting me know. Ja."
"She's…she's gone?" Aoshi asked numbly, barely registering as Miyasu nodded shakilly, "But…but how?"
"Simple." Yuhi droned out monotonously, "She found an apartment, called a moving company and hauled her crap out of the house."
"YUHI!" Miyasu said sharply, glaring at the back of his head piercingly, "This is no joking matter."
"I wasn't joking." Yuhi muttered, letting his eyes slide shut, "I think that you're just blowing the whole thing out of hand."
"What are you saying?" Aoshi ground out, not invading Yuhi's personal bubble: he knew better than to attempt crossing that boundary yet.
"I'm saying…that oneechama's been basically taking care of herself since she was…well…my age." Yuhi said coolly, "Since the two of us were almost constantly in the hospital and/or at work, kaachan, she's been fending for herself, by herself, right?"
"…I suppose so." Miyasu sighed, hating how the disease had forced her son to mature precipitately, "It's just…I thought it would be at least another year or so before she…"
"I believe I may have some influence on her decision." Aoshi sighed, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "I thought you might have been exaggerating slightly, hun, but it seems that I was-"
"Sadly…mistaken." Miyasu groaned, letting herself slump forward, "Lord, this sucks. And I only had two more days before I was gonna be released from here. Damn it all."
"Nice language, kaachan." Yuhi snorted, rolling his eyes, letting them rest on his father, "I suppose you kiss him with that mouth?"
"That's enough of that." Aoshi said quickly, cheeks reddening slightly.
"Hey girly, Wheredya want this?" a mover asked, shifting from foot to foot as he and another man supported the weight of her mattress.
"First room on the left." Yoru said vaguely as she checked her front pocket to make sure that Bonita was still sleeping soundly inside.
The location of her hamster still known, she took in the nine-hundred and twenty square feet of her apartment a look of approval in her eyes.
Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a very roomy living room that she would need to purchase furniture for, a decent sized kitchen and a laundry room down the hall in room L4 (she's in room 402, on the fourth floor…you do the math)
"Not too shabby if I do say so myself." Yoru said with a small smile as she felt her pocket twitch as a tiny head popped out of it.
"HOMIGOD!" A mover yelped as she extracted the tiny rodent from her pocket and popped her into the red hamster ball, "A RAT!"
Yoru shot a withering look at the man and set the plastic ball on the floor.
"How do you mistake a hamster for a rat?" she muttered as a knock came at the door, "IT'S OPEN!" she yelled, watching with a tiny smirk and a certain amount of satisfaction as the mover danced out of the way of Bonita as she rolled down the hall.
"Hey there, new neighbor!" a cheerful, dimly familiar male voice called cheerfully, "I'm a member of this building's Welcoming Committee."
Yoru tore her amber eyes away from the site of the mover nearly wetting himself to see…
"Kamiyama-sensei?" she murmured, recalling him as the sub for her Studio Arts Class as she quirked an eyebrow and folding her arms over her chest, "You live here, too?"
"Eh?" the Literary Arts teacher blinked in surprise at seeing the familiar face of his Teacher's Aid from two weeks before, "Yaminade-kun? You're the new tenant?"
"Hey Touya, whatcha doin'?" Yusuke asked, peering at the Juhyou Tsukai over the sofa.
"Reading." The ice youkai replied, never shifting his gaze from the pages which held him spellbound.
"What kinda book is it?" Yusuke asked in a uncertain tone that said, 'I'm-Trying-To-Make-Myself-Care-But-I-Really-Really-Don't'.
"Les Miserable." Touya replied in a detached voice as she turned another page, "Kurama loaned it to me. It's plot is strangely compelling for a ningen manuscript."
"Talk about watching paint dry..." Yusuke thought sheepishly, "Wanna take a break and train with me, Jin and Chuu for a bit?"
"Mm-mm." Touya replied, shaking his head slightly, "In sharing a room with Jin for as long as I have, I've learned that if I do not do my reading while he's preoccupied, I won't be doing it at all."
"Your loss." Yusuke shrugged, leaving Touya to his reading.
Alone at last, Touya sighed contentedly, preparing himself to enjoy the Ningenkai piece of literature, when he was rudely interrupted by-
-CRASH-BANG-BOOM-
The book flew from his hands and he fumbled with it wildly, catching it after a moment and letting a breath he had been subconsciously holding free.
"SHISHI! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!"
"Ahhh…behold the wonders of the rare Shishiwakamaru and his habitual early morning primping..." Touya thought to himself, mimicking the fashion of a ningen television host, switching himself off the sofa and striding towards the foot of the.
He saw Suzuki standing before the closed, obviously locked, bathroom door, in little more than a towel and a furious scowl, pounding at the kekkai that protected it with his fist like a madman.
"SHISHI! I WAS STILL USING THAT! OPEN UP!"
No response.
"I HAVE A RIGHT TO THE BATHROOM TOO, I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW!"
This time, he was greeted by the sound of Shishi's loud, off key singing.
"SHISHI!"
-BANG-BANG-BANG-
The only sound was Shishiwakamaru singing even louder to the ningen karaoke tune he had gotten stuck in his head last night after watching Karaoke Is Nihongo For Off Key.
As Touya grew closer to the stairs he heard the strains of, "Furi tsudzuku ame no naka de…Utsuroge ni sora wo miageteita..."
"Hmph! Be that way! Conceited bastard!" Suzuka turned up his nose, folded his arms across his chest and stomped childishly down the stairs.
"Suddenly, I'm reminded of a story about a pot and a kettle..." Touya muttered absentmindedly, his eyes still on the book.
-CRASH!-
"What in the world?" Touya murmured as Keiko streaked down the stairs past him, plastering herself against the wind: to the Juhyou Tsukai, it sounded like a tree had fallen out back.
Keiko loosed a shriek and shot out the back door, screamed, "YUUUSUKE!"
"What now?" Touya wondered mildly, placing a bookmark and tearing his eyes from the pages to look out the window.
His ice blue eyes widened slightly, before sliding shut as he shook his head in incredulity.
A tree had indeed fallen, and near the far end that used to be the top, Jin was struggling, head down, and yelling incomprehensible profanities at his captor.
Doubled up on the ground, laughing so hard he couldn't stand anymore, was Chuu.
Currently being whooped upside the head by his girlfriend for destroying a twenty year old hinoki cyprus, was Yusuke.
"Trying to beat his best time again, no doubt," said a slightly exasperated, yet, faintly amused Touya.
"It looks as though he zigged when he shoulda zagged...again." Suzuki said between chuckles.
"I think he may have gotten his hair tangled in the branches as well." Touya smirked, "Let's offer him some assistance."
"We may as well, but do you think we could possibly wait until I get Yusuke's camera?" Suzuki asked, trying the puppy dog eyes out on the Juhyou Tsukai just for kicks.
"Tempting…but it appears to me as though he's suffering enough humiliation as is." Touya replied placidly, "Besides, do not forget who has to deal with him when he vents his dissatisfaction later. Believe me when I say that that ningen stereotype about redheads and short tempers holds some degree of truth to it…at least in his case."
(A/N: Yoru adjusts easily to living alone, but due to stress, Miyasu's health takes a serious down swing. Her grandparents are willing to help, but only if she agrees to go on an omiai with someone they've arranged. R&R!)