Disclaimer: YYH's rightful owner is Yoshihiro Togashi.

Title: Do You Miss Me?

By: WonderfulDemon123

Chapter 3

"Hey, Bo. You seem a little tired. Are you okay?" Kuwabara asked as soon as he saw her.

Everyone had arrived, even Yusuke who had been unexpectedly early. The carrot top was the first one that spoke to her about how she looked. As they walked into the train into the train, Botan just gave him a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Kuwabara," she lied. She didn't want to worry him. But to be honest, Botan, for the lack of better words in the morning, felt like complete shit. Her eyes were sore, and she didn't think she had any energy at all from the lack of sleep she got the night before. She wanted to sleep but decided to wait until she got to her seat.

Though the main reason she didn't feel fine was because of a certain redhead. She hated to admit it, but in her tired state of mind didn't want to deny it either.

The minute he saw her, Kurama didn't even say anything. He gave her a mere glance; and even though it was fleeting, Botan knew he noticed how awful she looked. She thought he would at least, reacted a little… maybe asked her what was wrong. But then again, after weeks of without any communication with one another, why would he? She had actually hoped, that he would say something, but that was just her stupid self.

She didn't even know why she was so surprised.

But she was slightly glad. The boys had decided to sit at the left side of the train, while the girls were on the right. Even though they were still facing each other, Botan was glad she didn't have to sit too close to the redhead.

"You didn't get enough sleep yesterday, did you?" Keiko suddenly spoke, bringing her out of her reverie.

Botan turned to look to the right beside her at the brunette, and for a moment, made a blank face. She was deep in thought and not to mention, her mind wasn't in its best condition, it took her some time to realize Keiko's question.

"Oh… um, yeah…" she answered tiredly, leaning back in her seat. "I think I slept at 4 am last night."

"4 am? What?!" Keiko nearly screamed. "What were you doing, staying up so late?"

"Were you studying?" Yukina who had been staring at the window, suddenly chimed in. She was sitting at Botan's left.

"Yukina dear," Keiko started, scratching her cheek with her forefinger with an awkward smile on her face, "Exams are over – for now and it's summer break! Why would anyone be studying? We should all be unwinding."

"It was nothing. I wasn't able to sleep, that's all," Botan told her.

"Why not?" Keiko continued to ask another question, but Botan decided not to answer. She didn't really want to tell them her lack of sleep was caused by Kurama.

Instead, she closed her eyes, and made it look like she was about to fall asleep. She didn't want her friend to prod even further into the matter. Keiko poked her in the arm as if wondering if she was listening. It worked; as Botan heard Keiko say, "Guess she needed some rest."

"Seems so," Yukina added.

Botan felt a wave of relief; it was a good thing that Keiko bought her trick. But as she sat there, for a few more moments, she couldn't help but getting drowsier. Especially when she was closing her eyes, it was only a matter of time before she actually fell asleep.

"Hey, Kurama," Keiko called all of a sudden. An hour passed, but they were still on the train.

Kurama looked up from the book he had been reading, and hummed in response. He didn't take his earphones off though as he made sure the sounds were in low volume so that he could still hear his friends.

"Uh… this might be sudden, but can you switch places with me?" she suddenly said, a toothy grin appearing on her face. It was a mixture of anxiety and embarrassment.

"Why?" Kurama asked, wanting a reason. He tried to keep his voice from sounding awkward, and attempted to talk as normally as possible. It wasn't as if he didn't know who was sitting beside the brunette. If they switched places, that would mean… He decided not to think further.

"I just… really, really need to talk to Yusuke," Keiko sounded desperate.

Kurama, not knowing what to do, inwardly sighed in defeat. It wasn't much of a good reason; he knew she just wanted to be next to her boyfriend, but he didn't think he could refuse – both because Keiko was Yusuke's girlfriend, and the brunette would surely not let him say no.

Standing up from his seat, Kurama caught Yusuke saying, "Thanks, man," and slightly wondered if the two had planned to sit together in the first place. He smiled back as Keiko walked past him, giving him a smile and a thumbs up.

"Hey," Keiko instantly wrapped herself around Yusuke's arm as soon as she was on Kurama's seat.

"Hey," Yusuke said back, scooting a little closer to his girlfriend. "For a moment there, I thought Kurama wouldn't agree," he added in surprise, leaning back in his seat, eyes staring at the figure of his redheaded friend who was sporting a normal face and now sitting at Keiko's. Somewhere in him though, Yusuke knew that Kurama wasn't that comfortable with the switch. Then, he watched as Kurama spared a glance at Botan, a sigh of relief escaping him before he looked away, as if he was glad that she was asleep.

"Yeah," Keiko agreed, before laying her head on Yusuke's shoulder, "Those two have been acting weird lately. It's been four weeks and they still haven't spoken a word to each other."

"Uh-huh… it's so… strange. They were inseparable, and suddenly, bam!" Yusuke's thumb and middle finger touched, making a sound, "in a split second, they're like strangers."

"I wonder what's up with them, man," Kuwabara suddenly interrupted, putting his arms on his elbows. "Everytime we ask anything, neither answers."

"Ya think it's serious?" Yusuke pondered, more to himself than Kuwabara actually.

The carrot top shrugged his shoulders. "How should I know? But, one thing's for sure, I'm so tired of seeing them like this, avoiding each other and avoiding our questions."

"Don't worry, Kuwabara," Keiko tried to reassure him after seeing his exasperated face, "I'm sure they'll make up sooner… serious or not, they can't avoid each other forever."

"Yeah… maybe. They're good friends, after all," Kuwabara said, despite knowing the term 'good friends' weren't suitable in the kind of situation where they weren't as close as they used to be. But he'd rather like to think positively.

"I'm sure they'll start talking to each other," Yusuke said with a laugh, "The whole purpose for this trip is to make them spend more time together and talk things through."

Kuwabara raised an eyebrow at him. "And what about unwinding after exams?"

Yusuke gave him a grin. "Yeah, well, that too for sure!" he said, before peeking a glance at his short friend sitting beside Kuwabara. "I wonder when Hiei's gonna wake up?"

Botan was slowly starting to wake from her sleep. She heard voices, one she recognized as Yukina and the other one as Kurama, causing her to be confused. It was so weird, Kurama sounded so close… as if he was sitting right beside her…

As if wanting to confirm her suspicions, Botan slowly opened her eyes, waiting her vision to clear. It was blurry at first, but after blinking a few times, she could finally see clearly. She turned to look at the seat beside her, and instead of Keiko who was supposed to be there, she saw Kurama and she froze in her spot. What more was that Kurama was staring right back at her.

The redhead seemed to freeze as well, as if he didn't expect her to be awake. Then, his shock died down soon after and he looked away in a haste, avoiding her gaze. She saw his mouth open and close, as if he was about to say something, but couldn't get the words out of him.

"Oh my!" Yukina's voice reached her ears, causing her to look away from Kurama and to the sea green haired girl sitting beside her. "You're awake."

"Ah, mm-hmm." Botan nodded her head, and smiled at the short girl, despite her confusion and shock as to why Kurama was there and not Keiko. "I feel refreshed!" she added, before giggling, a hand at her mouth.

"That's great to hear, I was worried we were talking too loud that we woke you up. I thought you didn't get enough sleep," Yukina told her, her voice relieved and her expression the same.

"Nah!" Botan dismissed her with a wave of her hand, "You know how I am, Yukina. I won't wake up even if there was a bomb exploding next to me," she reassured the girl, laughing and Yukina joined her.

"Yes, I know," Yukina replied knowingly, before turning her head, her gaze focused on her twin brother. "Hiei's been sleeping for quite a while too."

"Oh." Botan followed her gaze, seeing the spiky haired boy who was sleeping with his arms and legs crossed. "Why, did he not get enough sleep like I did? I didn't notice. I mean, he didn't look that tired…" she mumbled.

She heard a giggle escape Yukina, and returned her gaze to her, tilting her head in curiosity.

Yukina stopped giggling after a while, and then gave her a wide smile. Her teeth were showing and the corners of her mouth stretched. "It's not because of lack of sleep, Botan. A while ago, when you were sleeping, he said he was bored of waiting so he wanted to sleep. He told us to wake him up when the train stops."

Botan gave a wholehearted laugh. "Yeah, that sounds like Hiei."

"Yep," Yukina agreed, nodding her head. Then, all of a sudden, her smile felled, and as if she just realized something, she gasped, with a hand on her mouth. Botan wondered what was wrong and realized that she was looking at Kurama. On impulse, she followed Yukina's gaze.

"I'm so sorry, Kurama!" Yukina apologized, "We've been talking on and on and had totally neglected you!"

Kurama waved a hand at her, the corners of his mouth stretching up and forming a smile, "I don't mind it at all, Yukina," he told her, before adding in his thoughts, 'It's not like I was able to say anything at all anyway'. He knew for certain if the three of them conversed together, it would be awkward as Botan would ignore him either way.

"Oh, if you say so," Yukina was reassured, a smile finding its way to her face. From the corners of her eyes, she saw Kuwabara waving a hand at her, beckoning her to him. She turned, giving him a questioning look but decided to comply anyway. Turning to look at Botan and Kurama, she said, "Excuse me, but Kazuma wants me there with him."

"Huh? Why?" Botan asked, although she knew Kuwabara merely wanted to flirt with his girlfriend. She was asking, because she didn't want to be alone with Kurama.

"I'm not sure, but I have to go for a moment," Yukina said, before standing up. "You two play nice now," and with that, she walked over to where Kuwabara was.

Botan was frantic. She saw Kuwabara pushed Hiei away, not hard enough to wake him up though, and made a place for Yukina to sit while Hiei was forced to sleep at a different and empty seat, right beside Yukina as she sat between him and Kuwabara. If this was a normal situation, Botan would've laughed, thinking that Kuwabara should've been glad that Hiei hadn't woken up, but instead, she was starting to panic. She was all alone now, with Kurama. Silently, she wondered why this was happening and pondered on what to do… She was used to ignoring him, but they had never been alone like this before and not to mention, they were sitting right next to each other!

Suddenly and surprisingly, Kurama spoke, though his voice sounded a bit awkward, "How… are you feeling?"

"Huh?" she stupidly replied. Shocked, she sat there staring at him for a few moments and he stared back. She felt her heart thumping loudly in her chest, and she finally stuttered out a reply, "U-uh… I-I feel better, thank you. After getting e-enough sleep..." She hadn't expected him to say anything at all, but he did. For some reason, that made her happy even though she shouldn't be. Those were the first few words he had said to her ever since four weeks ago, and she was glad it wasn't something bad.

"Um… no, that's not what I mean," Kurama started, scratching the back of his head, looking away for a moment, "I know how you feel after sleeping… I meant how you feel about the trip." He was trying to make conversation, he knew, and he also knew she knew that. He didn't know how, but he found the courage to talk to her. It was probably because he didn't want the situation to be awkward. If the others were here, he had no doubt in his mind this conversation he was having with her wouldn't take place.

"Huh? Uh, um…" She sounded nervous. He couldn't blame her, he was nervous too. Except he was better at hiding and controlling it. He heard her clear her throat, and turned to look at her.

"I-I'm kinda excited… this is the first trip I've had for such a long time. I mean, with everything at school, we're so busy we hardly have any time. I'm glad we could all spend summer break together. To be honest, at first I thought I wouldn't have anything to do. It's great that Keiko invited me… Plus, we haven't hung out for a long time – me, Keiko and Yukina – so I thought this was a great opportunity to do fun things together," She didn't know why she was talking so much. It wasn't as if she had gotten over her own anxiety, but she was just so nervous that she couldn't stop the minute she opened her mouth, and not to mention, she was talking fast too.

"Oh," a smile found its way to Kurama's lips. He watched as she fumbled with her skirt, fidgeting in her seat a little before looking at him.

"Um… what about you?" Botan found herself asking before she knew it.

"The same as you… except I don't feel the same way about Yusuke and the others like you do…" Kurama told her, leaning back in his seat.

She made an 'oh' sound, before turning to avert her gaze from him. But he kept his eyes on her, eyeing her movement as she fidgeted every now and then. Neither seemed to say anything after that, but he wanted to talk longer. And the longer he stared at her, the more he realized that he wanted to talk about what happened between them. Maybe… it was time to talk to things through… He had been avoiding her for weeks, mostly because he was hurt by how she treated him and how she ignored every attempt from him to speak to her. He had been clueless as to what to do; he thought he did everything could… He was afraid of her avoiding him, so he did the same thing… but he never had any attentions to stop talking to her permanently. If he talked to her, they could go back the way they were. He wanted them to go back to the way they used to be. He didn't want her to misunderstand any longer, he decided. He realized then he made a mistake of not speaking to her for so long.

Opening his mouth, he tried to slow down the fast pace of his beating heart, "Listen, Botan… about what happen that day—" but whatever he said was cut off, as the train came to a stop. Before he realized it, Botan stood up and walked over towards the others. He sat there for a few moments, until Yusuke started calling him, saying that they were opening the doors. His shock dying down, now replaced by disappointment and frustration that he had been interrupted at the wrong time.

Nonetheless, he stood up and followed behind a dazed looking Hiei who seemed like he was still half asleep, making a note to himself to find the right time to talk to her.

"Wow!" Yusuke said in amazement, looking around the place. Everything around them; from the many villagers scattered around, to the stalls. They had only walked a few minutes into the village, when Keiko suddenly proposed that they should go buy some things at the market before heading to where they would be staying. What attracted him the most above everything that seemed to be sold here was the kids running around with costumes and holding candy apples. Did they sell costumes here or something? "Your village is really awesome, Keiko."

"Well, that is why I wanted us to go on a trip here," Keiko started, "There's a lot of fun things for us to do here. This market basically has anything you need, even the ones you don't need… and there is a few hot spring here and there."

"Hot springs?" Botan brightened up at the words, her eyes glimmering in excitement. "Oh, I wanna go, I wanna go! It'll be fun to try all the hot springs."

"Yeah, it would," Keiko agreed with a laugh, "There's also a sauna nearby if you want to go sometime, B. It would be sooo relaxing!"

"Wow! A sauna!" Kuwabara was torn between laughing and being amazed. "Your village really does have everything, huh?"

"Yup!" Keiko nodded her head, founding herself getting prideful from all the compliments Yusuke and Kuwabara threw at her. "And the people here are really friendly too. Oh, hello, Himeno-obaasan," she greeted an old woman who smiled at her and walked past them before continuing, "Anyway, they're also very welcoming."

She turned to look at Yukina and Botan, her mouth stretching into a wide ear-to-ear grin, "Hey, Botan, Yukina. You guys want to go take a swim in the lake later on?"

"Oohh!" Botan jumped up and down. "Hot springs and the lake... I'd love that a lot! I've never swam in a lake before. I can't wait!"

"Have ya swam in the pool?" Yusuke suddenly butted in.

Botan was confused. "Yeah, so?"

"Then you'll notice it's not that different," he replied, before rolling his eyes.

He was soon 'rewarded' with a smack on the head from his own girlfriend. "It is, you idiot! It's nature!"

Yusuke rubbed the spot where Keiko hit him, glaring daggers at her direction. "Yeah, yeah, whatever…"

They stopped at one stall when Yukina suddenly gushed at something she saw. "Oh my god! That's so cute!" she girlishly said, pointing a finger at a dog mask hanging on the wall in the midst of other masks.

"You want it, sweetie?" Kuwabara asked, after averting his gaze to where she pointed.

"Yes!" Yukina exclaimed in excitement. She had always liked cute things, she wanted the dog mask so bad. "You guys wait here, I'll be back in a moment," she told them, before taking paces forward towards the stall.

"Wow. Yukina really like things like that, huh…" Kurama suddenly spoke up after being quite for a while. He had just finished reading his book – albeit it was quite dangerous to read while walking in a crowd, but he was aware enough of his surroundings, he didn't mind. And the minute he had closed the book, those were the first words he said after getting off the train.

"Oh hey, Kurama spoke!" Yusuke said, his voice sounding taunting and surprised at the same time. He blurted out laughing as he went on, "I thought ya were gonna be mute for the rest of the trip, man."

Kurama gave him an exasperated look, not really appreciating his friend sense of humors. He was quite used to it though by now. "I was reading my book, Yusuke. Some people still read these days, mind you," he countered and emphasized, rolling his emerald eyes.

He ignored the heated stare Yusuke sent his way, and turned to look at Hiei who spoke, "Hmph. You read while you walk? You really are stupid."

"Yeah! You could've bumped into someone," Kuwabara chimed in.

Kurama sweatdropped, not sure how the conversation was suddenly revolved around him. "But I didn't, so it's fine, Kuwabara," he told, his voice reassuring but everyone caught the underlying irritation in the tone he used. He emphasized, silently telling them to drop the subject.

"Well, that's to be expected," Botan's voice reached their ears, gaining everyone's attentions, "You were always in your own world when it comes with books," she said without even realizing it. After a few moments, as if she just snapped out a trance, Botan's eyes widened like saucers and her hand immediately flew to her mouth as realization came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks: Did. She. Really. Just. Say. That.

Botan couldn't believe herself. What was wrong with her today? She blurted that out on accident! And not to mention, the way she said it made her sound like she thought she knew him. Well, she did know him but with how things were between them now… She was so embarrassed with herself!

Wanting to ease the awkward moment, Botan quickly blurted out, "Oh hey, Yukina's here! So come on, let's go on ahead!" as soon as Yukina walked over towards them with the mask in her hand. The smaller girl in question tilted her head to the side in curiosity, wondering why Botan sounded nervous and awkward.

"Yeah, sure. Let's," Yusuke agreed, albeit he was snickering along with Kuwabara and Keiko.

As the others walked, Kurama stood there for awhile. He was shocked beyond definitions, not expecting to hear her talk about him like that. It was sudden, brief, and she immediately tried to cover it up, but it was enough to show him how much she was still in love with him.

Feeling his heart thump loudly in his chest, he started to walk, reminding himself not to get left behind. His eyes stared at Botan's petite back, a smile reaching its way to his face. It was wide, exposing pearl white teeth, filled with overwhelming joy. A grin – a toothy grin – unlike the usual smiles he made at all.

… He was happy.

"What's with that dumb look on your face?" Hiei remarked, after noticing the weird expression his redheaded friend was wearing.

"Oh? Nothing, Hiei," Kurama replied happily, all too happily for his usual self. Hiei's insult was paid no mind, and the shorter male raised an eyebrow at him.

He hasn't felt this happy for a long time.

He had initially thought the trip wouldn't be as fun as it should be.

Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.