Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or the characters...just my OCs and the plot
"Um, Kara? Kuronue?" a voice called waking the two up. They looked up to see Kara's mother standing in front of the couch with a surprised look on her face.
"Oh, good morning, mom," Kara said. "What time is it?"
"It's nine in the morning," she answered. "What are you two doing out here?"
"Couldn't sleep," Kuronue lied.
"Same," Kara replied.
"Oh, well, are you both alright?" Kara's mother asked with her tone laced with worry.
"Yeah, mom," Kara told her, "we're fine. We're just going to go get ready to meet some friends who came up here. They texted us last night." That last part was a lie.
Kuronue and Kara left the living room to get dressed. Little did they know that Kara's mother heard every word that was spoken between the group of friends and she was now worried for the teenagers' lives. Yet, she didn't have enough information about Kuronue's father to call the police.
"Wow, this city is huge!" Yusuke exclaimed. "You grew up here?"
"No, I grew up in a small town until I moved here in middle school," Kara explained as she was showing everyone around. Kuronue frowned at her mention of the move since he knew the reason why she moved. "I love riding the subway all the way to the last stop and then going to the park and then walk back home. It was a lot of fun."
"Hey, Kara!" they all heard someone call.
"Hey, you two. I was going to introduce you guys when we got back the apartment."
"Well, we're here now," Stephanie said. "Who are all your friends?"
After Kara introduced everyone they decided to go to the ice cream parlor a few blocks down.
"So, all of you guys lived in Kuronue's hometown except for Jennifer who Kara met at college?" Keiko asked.
"Pretty much," Yusuke said.
"Wow, Kuronue must be popular," Stephanie teased.
Kuronue sighed but smiled. "Not exactly. These guys just felt sorry for me."
"Aw, don't sell yourself short," Keiko said. "You are a really nice guy and I'm sure these guys just wanted a friend."
"And as you can see, Keiko here is the most naïve out of the three of us," Stephanie teased.
Hiei snorted at her teasing insult. Keiko reminded him of Yukina. They were both very naïve and they were hitting it off really well. He was happy that his sister made a new friend.
After eating, Keiko and Stephanie said their goodbyes. The guys were kind of sad to see them go, Hiei and Yusuke in particular. The only ones that noticed their longing expressions were Jen, Kurama, and Kuronue. Both Kara and Yukina were naïve in that area and Kuwabara was just, as Hiei put it, a first-class moron.
"So will we be seeing them again?" Yusuke asked.
"Probably," Kara answered. "They live in my apartment building. I've been friends with them since I moved here. They were my first friends at school."
"Well, that's cool," Kuwabara said. "They seemed really nice."
"Yeah, I hope they don't get caught up in this too," Jen spoke up bringing everyone's attention to her. "What? You can't tell me those thugs didn't think about that."
"I guess we didn't," Kurama replied. "But we'll keep an eye on them, too."
"I had a great time," Kuronue said to Kara as they waited for the elevator to touch down.
She responded with a smile. "I'm glad. I wanted you to have a good time."
"You seriously amaze me," Kuronue whispered in her ear.
Blushing at his compliment, Kara asked, "How so?"
"You are taking a huge risk and all you're concerned with is whether or not I'm having a good time."
Kara stared at him thinking of how to respond while he was trying to gage her emotions. The elevator doors opened, yet they didn't even pay attention to them. Kara tilted her head and saw that the doors were opened,
"Oh, the elevator's here," she reported.
Kuronue looked and said, "I guess it is. Let's go."
Kara entered the number for her floor and the doors closed, but neither of them expected what happened next…the elevator stopped.
"Huh, well this hasn't happened before," Kara said. "That's not good."
For a moment, Kara forgot about Kuronue being claustrophobic. He was already a little stunned, but so far he was okay since they just got in the elevator. Kara used the call button to call for help and the person at the front desk said someone would be there "soon" and to just "stay calm." Like that was going to happen.
Kara sat down on the floor and said, "It looks like we're going to have to wait this out, Kuro." Then she remembered. "Oh my gosh." She looked over to him to see how he was doing. He had taken a seat next to her and closed his eyes. She could tell he was trying to stay calm. Taking his hand, she whispered, "It'll be okay. You are going to be fine."
"I know that," he whispered back, "although knowing doesn't always make you stop fearing."
"Don't I know it," Kara scoffed. She leaned him against her so she could reach his head and started rubbing his head. He seemed to visibly relax when she did so she felt a small victory.
"What are you doing?" he asked smiling, but still not opening his eyes.
"Petting your head," she answered as if it were obvious.
"Why?" he asked.
"Well, one, because it helps relax people; and two, I've wanted to for a while."
"And why didn't you?" he inquired.
"Because I didn't know how you'd react to your friend wanting to pet your head and there was never really anything that gave me the opportunity."
"Well, my friend let me stay with her during storms and stayed with me the night I was drugged or whatever," he joked. "I'd say we're not normal friends."
Kara smiled and kissed his lips softly. "No, we're really good friends," she teased.
Kuronue laughed and finally opened his eyes. He saw her looking down at him with a big smile on her face. He returned her smile.
Then he had to ask. "Since when?"
Kara's smile faltered a bit and in her nervous state, she tried to look away but Kuronue stopped her. With the way she was acting, he knew that she could have overheard his conversation with Kurama. But he needed to hear it from her.
"Well, you see Jen kept telling me that you liked me and I liked you and that the two of us were just too clueless to see that. I told her I thought she was crazy, not because I didn't think you were a great guy, but because I didn't think it was possible for someone to like me. Then she had us go to that party and she said that I should get a new outfit."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Kuronue asked when Kara paused.
"Well, she said I should get a new outfit to try and impress you…"
Kuronue pulled her in to kiss her again. "You have always impressed me," he said. "You didn't need some outfit to do that."
Kara smiled. "I know that," she replied. "But I didn't think it would hurt, so I went with her, but I still hadn't admitted that we were anything but friends. Then at the party, she tried setting me up with that guy."
Kuronue frowned. He hated the fact that Kara almost went out with Jesse. He was even angrier at the fact the Jesse tried to take advantage of her feelings, kindness, and intelligence to cheat on that test. But he smiled when she thought of how to get out of that. The look on Jesse's face was priceless when she explained that her mother wanted her home for the weekend and how she had to take a different exam earlier.
He was brought back to the conversation as Kara continued, "I didn't want to go out with him, but Jen said I should get some experience with dating. I was hoping you would try to stop me because I honestly didn't have a good feeling about the guy."
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I should have. I didn't want you going out with him either."
"It's okay," Kara told him. "I understand…now at least. When you locked yourself up in your room, I was worried that I made you angry for thinking about going on the date and I got really upset. I missed you," she said tightening her grip on him. "Then Kurama explained everything to me and I got it. I was hoping that we could use the whole chemistry tutor thing as a front so that you didn't have to be locked up in your room for another week alone. But obviously, that didn't work. When I left the room, I knew those guys were the people who were watching you, so I stayed hidden and listened. Kurama had the same idea, but he didn't see me. Then I overheard the conversation you two had. It broke my heart when you said all the things you did. When you said that you were just going to let me live my life, I realized that it wasn't worth it if it wasn't with you." Kuronue looked at her in surprise. "So I cancelled on Jesse. I thought it would be wrong to lead him on if I had feelings for someone else."
Kuronue sat up and turned to Kara. "I am so sorry," he said taking her hands. "I shouldn't have kept anything that I was feeling from you. At first, it was because we only knew each other from writing letters when we were younger. I didn't think that you had feelings for me at all, so I just acted as a friend. But the closer I got to you and the more time we spent together, I knew what I was feeling meant something…more, so much more. Then I thought about my father and what he'd do if he ever found out and I told myself that I couldn't put you in that danger. I couldn't lose another person I lov-"
Kuronue stopped himself. He got so caught up in his emotions and being trapped in this small space that he was about to say something he didn't know if Kara felt. Yes, she admitted she liked him, but he had been in love with her for much longer than she had "liked" him.
She took him by surprise when she kissed him again. What shocked him even more was when she whispered in his ear, "I love you, too, Kuro."
His heart fluttered as well as hers. He closed his eyes remembering when they first met and he told her to call him that. That was like five years ago and so much had happened in that time, too many bad times. But now the two of them were together and, for once, he didn't fear his father. She made him feel a lot stronger than he was. Maybe that's why he wasn't freaking out being trapped like this.
After pondering all of this, the elevator doors finally opened.
"Hey, you two, you might want to get out and take the stairs," the engineer said.
They both got up off the floor.
"You don't need to tell us twice, sir," Kara said. "Thanks for getting us out."
She took Kuronue's hand and led him out of the elevator with a smile on her face.
The engineer shook his head while chuckling. "Kids."
A/N: Yay, nice chapter moment. I thought it was cute and a nice change from the hell the characters have been going through before I put them through more. So if it seems to offset the story a little, oh well. It's been kind of depressing up to this point anyway. Also, I've been trapped in an elevator before and it was incredibly funny. Try being with a tour guide at an aquarium who is worried that you and you mom are going to freak out only to have you joking about the situation the entire time (took pictures and everything XD) Yeah, I don't take that elevator anymore...