onemuseleft | Rude Awakenings 2/?

Title: Rude Awakenings 2/?
Fandom Yu Yu Hakusho
Warning: Minor spoilers for the end of the series.
Previous Parts: Prologue, Part One

Rude Awakenings Part Two

The doorbell rang while Yuusuke was in the shower and he stuck his head out long enough to hear his mother say "Minamino-san! Yuusuke's in the shower. You can go on back if you like."

That was his mom, for you. Oh, my son's naked. Would you like to join him? Yuusuke made a face and stuck his head under the spray to wash the soap off. "I'll be out in a minute," he hollered. "Kurama, don't you go anywhere!" If the youko had a response, Yuusuke missed it under the sound of the water.

He dried off quickly and twisted the towel around his waist. "Kurama," he said as he stepped through the doorway into his room. "Tell me you know what's going on."

"I know what's going on." Kurama stood with his back at the window, arms crossed over his chest. He was in full Shuichi-mode; crisp white shirt beneath a black suit and a deep blue tie, briefcase sitting on the floor by his feet, hair reasonably well-contained. He didn't quirk an eyebrow at the sight of Yuusuke in a towel.

"You-I- wait." Yuusuke pointed a finger at Kurama. "Seriously? You know what's going on?"

Kurama shrugged. "No. But you said-"

"Oh, shut up." Yuusuke shot him a sour look as he turned to rummage through his closet for something relatively clean to wear. "But you know something's up, right?"

"My youki has been drained overnight," Kurama said. The was a tight, hard note to his voice. "My body does not appear to be regenerating it, either."

"Good," Yuusuke said. "I'd hate to be panicking alone." He grabbed a hooded long-sleeved shirt off a hangar and tugged it on. His skin was still wet and it clung to him uncomfortably in places. "Have you seen the others?"

"It's seven in the morning, Yuusuke," Kurama said patiently as Yuusuke dug through his dresser for clean underwear. "The only reason I'm here is because I didn't think you'd have gone to bed yet."

Yuusuke rolled his eyes as he shimmied into a pair of briefs and dropped the towel. "Someone sucked all your youki out and you don't want to inconvenience anyone by waking them?" He grabbed the jeans he'd worn yesterday and tugged them on. "One day you're going to let yourself bleed to death because you don't want to interrupt someone and ask them to call an ambulance."

"Possibly," Kurama said in the dry voice he used whenever he was humoring Yuusuke. "Although, considering the nature of my constitution, the amount of trauma necessary to cause me to not only bleed to death but to be completely disabled for the duration of that time would be sufficient to alert anyone in the vicinity to the situation."

Yuusuke ran both hands, liberally coated with gel, through his hair and glared at Kurama from behind his bangs. "You know I hate it when you counter my sarcasm with logic."

"My apologies," Kurama said serenely. "I'll endeavor to be less logical when I'm talking to you."

Grabbing his jacket off the floor where he'd dropped it the night before, Yuusuke headed for the front door. "What are we doing now? You've gotta go to work, but-"

"I'm playing hooky today," Kurama said. "We both are."

Atsuko, sitting cross-legged on the coffee table with a pot of coffee searing a circle into the wood by her knee, snorted. "You're a terrible influence, Yuusuke."

Yuusuke paused, getting a good look at his mother for the first time that morning. She was wearing an evening gown, though it was slightly disheveled, and her hair, which had been done up elaborately at one point, was mostly falling down around her ears at the moment. She had on jewelry he was pretty sure she hadn't owned before. Expensive looking jewelry, too. "Busy night, Mom?"

"Very productive," she said. "Mommy had some business to conduct."

There was no way she could hide a gun in that dress, so Yuusuke figured she'd just been shaking some poor slob down for money, jewels and free drinks. Anyone who let themselves get snared by Atsuko probably deserved it. "Anything for my college fund?"

Atsuko laughed. "Boy, don't be ridiculous."

"Trust fund?" Yuusuke asked, tugging on his socks and hopping on one foot as he tried to lace his sneaker.

She waved a hand at him. "Marry rich, Yuusuke. Marry rich."

He rolled his eyes at her back. "I'm marrying Keiko, Mom."

She shrugged. "Marry someone rich first."

"I'm going now," Yuusuke announced. He herded Kurama outside. "Where are we going?"

Kurama tipped his head to the side, gesturing vaguely to the east. "We need information before we can decide what to do."

"So we're gonna go pump Genkai's brains?"

Kurama twisted his mouth into a moue of displeasure. "It sounds tacky and violent when you say it."