The shrine was peaceful compared to the city; the only sound that of the birds in the sky before the silence was interrupted by the heavy footfalls of an anxious young man. Kuwabara skidded up to the second door that Genkai had directed him towards. It was further down than he would have thought, but that held no meaning to him as he thought nervously of the man behind it. Genkai had said that Yuusuke was here; he only prayed that it was true.
Timidly, he opened the door, sliding it softly aside. The room was spacious, spanning a good thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. To the right side of the opening, there was a small fire burning on a traditional stone shrine. To the left… Kuwabara’s features softened as he saw the slumped form of Yuusuke kneeling opposite to the fire. His position suggested that he had been deep in thought for a while already. However, the look on his face was more… tranquil than the last time Kuwabara had seen him, and that suggested that he had faced whatever fears he may have had and accepted the outcome of the battle.
Kuwabara removed his shoes, setting them on the hardwood floor outside the room. Padding slowly into the center of the room, he stopped several feet from where Yuusuke sat, the previously mentioned person giving no sign as to whether he had heard Kuwabara’s approach or not. Kuwabara frowned slightly. Was he truly so upset over what had happened that morning?
Letting out a small sigh, Kuwabara sat down next to Yuusuke, folding his legs underneath him. He was prepared to wait if need be. Yuusuke was very predictable.
After more than an hour had passed, however, Kuwabara was prepared to take back those words and eat them if need be. The silence was becoming oppressing. Gently he reached over and nudged Yuusuke’s arm.
“Uurameshi. Uurameshi!” He poked him again for good measure.
“Hey! What the heck do you think you’re doing?” Yuusuke growled, grabbing the offending digit. “Keep your fingers to yourself!”
Kuwabara face-faulted, a difficult feat to accomplish when his finger was still trapped in Uurameshi’s hand, his feet twitching in the air behind him. After composing himself, Kuwabara was still at a loss on how to start a conversation with the silent warrior beside him. Oh well… he couldn’t screw things up any worse than they already were. Right?
“Uurameshi… why did you run?” He finally asked quietly the question that had been foremost on his mind for some time.
The chocolate colored eyes turned to stare mournfully at him. “You wouldn’t want to know.”
“Is it about… The... The kiss?” Kuwabara stuttered suddenly, his face flushing with his embarrassment. Yuusuke stared at him in shock, his own face flushing enough to be confused with a beet.
“How… why…” Yuusuke mumbled, self-conscious over his actions.
“Baka.”
“And you aren’t… angry?” Yuusuke looked over at him with trepidation.
“Why should I be?”
“I don’t know… I mean I know why, but…” Yuusuke’s voice trailed off as his eyes suddenly met Kuwabara’s as he glanced sideways at him again. “You should be disgusted. You should hate me.”
Kuwabara flinched at the emotionless tone of his best friend’s voice. This wasn’t right... Yuusuke shouldn’t have to be like this.
“I don’t hate you, Yuusuke. I never could.” His words were frank and honest. The carrot-topped man was seldom at a loss for words, but for some reason, just being in His presence right now was robbing him of all coherent thought.
A tear ran silently down Yuusuke’s cheek. Without a word, Kuwabara was there, holding him in his arms as he once again sobbed his heart out. This time, though, his tears weren’t filled with grief; they were a wordless outpouring of his new found feelings, while he was held safely in the arms of his beloved.
“Thank you… Kazuma.” Yuusuke sniffled.
“Baka. I’ll always be here for you.” Kuwabara sounded mildly reproachful. “And hopefully not just as the ‘rebound guy’.”
“I know. It’s just that my life is so complicated now… And I just… with Keiko… Keiko was…”
“Shh.” Kuwabara decided that some of his own fears needed to be put to rest; his lips moved closer to Yuusuke’s. Almost touching, his eyes fell shut as once again their lips meshed, the feelings of the pair pouring out to each other through the physical contact. Slowly, the kiss deepened, from comfort and reassurance that what they had was real, to desperate passion and instinctual reaction. Hands played across each other’s bodies, sliding against hard and toned muscle as their arousal started to get the better of them.
Parting for air was painful, as they only wanted to have more of each other, the security that they offered one another more meaningful than any would suspect. Eyes sparkling somewhat more than before, Yuusuke planted a playful kiss on Kazuma’s nose, laughing slightly as Kuwabara’s eyes crossed.
“Who ever imagined that we would end up like this?” Yuusuke sighed, burying his face in the cloth of Kazuma’s jacket.
“I couldn’t say.”
Soft footsteps padded up to the door and paused before knocking. “Yuusuke. Kuwabara. I think that it is time for you to go back to the city, dusk will be falling soon and I do not wish for you two to stay the night.”
The two wrapped up in their embrace broke out with laughter; Genkai obviously know what they had been doing and in her own way was telling them to ‘get a room’ that was definitely not hers.
“Hai, bassan.” Yuusuke called cheekily.
Yuusuke and Kuwabara were soon on their way back to Kuwabara’s apartment, Kuwabara’s arm slung protectively over Yuusuke’s shoulders. Yuusuke’s head tipped sideways as he moved closer to Kuwabara. His thoughts no longer dwelled on Keiko, but on Kazuma. His feelings towards Keiko must have not have been real, for him to get over what had happened so fast. Did this mean that he had been lying to himself all that time? He sighed. The past was the past. No need to fret about it now.
A smile played briefly across his lips as he recalled the kiss he and Kazuma had shared before they had left Genkai’s temple. It had been so perfect… Yuusuke flushed before clearing his throat, seeing a familiar street.
“Kazuma… If I’m going to stay the night again, I’ll need to pick up some things from my apartment. Would you come with me?” He glanced up hopefully at the taller man.
“Yuusuke, like I keep saying, I would do anything for you. Of course I’ll come.” Kuwabara smiled down at his boyfriend. Boyfriend… it was a weird term, but it had a nice ring to it. The turned down the street leading to Yuusuke’s apartment complex, the streetlights highlighting areas of sidewalk now that shadows were playing across the land and most of the light had left the sky. The large building loomed over the pair, but they entered anyway, climbing the numerous flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. It was Kuwabara’s way of letting Yuusuke get up the nerve to go back to where his heart had been broken. Yuusuke stared at the door in front of him. It was exactly as it always was; white and plain, but now… it represented his old life… A life with Keiko. Oh shit! She didn’t know that he had witnessed her deviant act and that he now considered their relationship to be over... Was she even in the apartment? With a sense of dread, Yuusuke inserted his key into the lock, turning the doorknob slowly to open the door.
It abruptly flew open as the girl on the other side rounded on Yuusuke, anger playing over much of her face.
“Where were you? Leaving me to worry like that, you didn’t even let me know where you were going!! I kept calling your work and they told me you didn’t go in today!! You could get fired!!”
Yuusuke blinked slightly at first when he was assaulted by her harping, although with every passing minute his expression was becoming more drawn and cold. A deadly gleam finally took over his eyes that frightened Keiko’s voice from her.
“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?” She finally finished, after gaping like a fish for several minutes.
“What do I have to say? I think you are a cheating, sluttish, two-timing bitch!” He growled. Kuwabara had been standing outside the apartment the entire time and now moved to stand behind Yuusuke, placing a hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him down.
“Nani?” Storm clouds had nothing on Keiko’s face, but if she was thunder, Yuusuke was death. He wouldn’t take this any more. His face somber, he told her what he had seen. He could barely control himself from hurting her; the only thing that stopped him was the presence of Kuwabara, reminding him that Keiko was still a human. A human he had sworn to protect, once upon a time. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to relax.
“It’s over. You’d rather be screwing some worthless punk than the man who was going to propose to you, fine. I never want to see you again,” Yuusuke growled in a manner that would have made Hiei proud. Keiko had paled, her skin deathly white as she realized what she had done to this man before her. She had had the love of an honest, decent, hardworking man… and she had thrown it away without a thought.
“Yuusuke… I didn’t mean…” Tears started to well up in her brown eyes. Yuusuke’s heart hardened. Shoving himself past her, he stalked into their bedroom. Grabbing a suitcase from the closet, he started going through the drawers of his dresser and depositing his clothing into the bag. There wasn’t much to pack and he soon was done, only grabbing his CDs and Walkman before he walked back into the main room. The rest of his stuff he could get later.
Keiko was sobbing into her hand from where she had collapsed on the floor, Kuwabara standing where he had left him gazing contemptuously down at the woman who had hurt his beloved so.
Yuusuke walked past them, glancing at Kuwabara. “Let’s go.”
The two turned, shutting the door of the apartment as they walked back the way they had came, Yuusuke’s suitcase casually slung over one of his shoulders much like the way he used to carry his book bag to school. The air was refreshing as they stepped into the street, leaving their old lives behind them as they took their first steps into the unknown. Well, they always were up for a challenge.