Rude Awakenings 3/?

[onemuseleft]

Title: Rude Awakenings 3/?
Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho
Warning: Minor spoilers for the end of the series.
Previous Parts: Prologue, Part One, Part Two




Rude Awakenings, Part 3/?


They weren't the first ones there.

Kuwabara was sitting cross-legged on the porch, looking wide-awake and grim, despite the fact that Yukina was sitting at his side, less than an arm's length away. Genkai stood at the top of the temple steps, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. She saw Yuusuke and Kurama coming, but didn't bother to greet them. That wasn't terribly out of character; Genkai often wasn't happy to see them. If she really didn't want them there she'd start throwing things.

Kuwabara watched them approach. "You too?"

Yuusuke nodded. "Sucked dry."

His friend quirked an eyebrow at him. "Literally?"

"God, I hope not," Yuusuke said fervently as he dropped to sit on Yukina's other side. She offered him tea in a delicate china cup. "That would be creepy."

"Waking up without any reiki and no memory of how it was taken isn't already creepy?"

"It would be creepy and gross, then," Yuusuke countered. "Any chance of getting breakfast around here?"

Yukina started to move, but Kuwabara and Genkai both said "Get it yourself" before she could offer, so Yuusuke scowled and decided to make do with the tea. It was lukewarm and bland, but he gulped it anyway to keep his stomach from complaining.

Kurama had paused at the top of the steps and stood beside Genkai, his back to the yard so he could face all four of them at once. "Do we know anything about what might have caused this?"

"Shizuru says something was out last night," Kuwabara offered. "Something dangerous. It actually freaked her out."

The idea of something actually intimidating Kuwabara's older sister was impressive enough by itself. Yuusuke'd once seen her bitch-slap a succubus and he'd heard all about the time she'd put her cigarette out on a demon trying to make her into dinner. Or a sex slave. Botan's and Atsuko's accounting of events differed slightly on that one point. "Like a demon?"

"I don't think a demon would have bothered her so much," Kuwabara said. "Not the normal variety of demon anyway."

Yukina touched his arm with one hand, delicate little fingers touching his sleeve hesitantly. She stared up at him with an earnest expression. "Tell them."

Yuusuke glanced at Kuwabara, who had looked down at Yukina and blushed pink when she spoke. "Tell us what?"

Glancing away from Yukina, Kuwabara grimaced slightly. "I might have had a weird dream."

Suspicion crawled up the back of Yuusuke's throat and he narrowed his eyes. "Like a premonition dream?"

"Maybe."

"Well can't you tell the difference?" Yuusuke demanded.

"I know the difference between a dream and a premonition," Kuwabara said, irritation coloring his voice. "For starters, in my premonitions, I'm never killing you with my bare hands."

"You're never making out with Yukina, either," Yuusuke said. "So what was it?"

Kuwabara scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'm pretty sure it was a premonition."

"Great," Yuusuke spat. "That's just great. Out of curiosity, did you happen to foresee your own death this time around?"

"Yuusuke," Kurama said.

"No," Kuwabara snarled. "And you really need to get the hell over it, you know that?"

Kurama stepped in before they could take off on round thirty-seven of Insensitive Jerks Who Suffer From Martyr Complexes And Have No Sense of Self Preservation. It was just as well. Yuusuke always lost that fight. "Kuwabara-kun?"

Sparing Yuusuke one last dirty glare, Kuwabara recounted the vision as best he could. "It's not going to do us much good," he said with a shrug and a scowl. "There's no way to put it into context."

Yuusuke frowned. "The part that worries me is that I'm gonna end up trapped with a naked Kuwabara. I mean, I know I'm not exactly a poster boy for eternal rewards or anything, but I don't think I deserve that kind of torture."

Even Genkai took a moment away from her staring at the sky to glare at him.

"I'm holding onto something," Kuwabara said. "In the dream. Something small. I've got it in my hand." He clenches one fist and holds it against his chest. "Whatever it is, I'm not supposed to have it." He hesitates. "There's one other thing."

"Spit it out," Yuusuke said. "It really can't get any worse."

Kuwabara gave him the same kind of exasperated glance that Keiko did when he was being rude to her friends. "When you spoke, in the dream, I wasn't expecting it." He shrugged. "It was right before I woke up, but hearing your voice freaked me out in the dream. I was… not happy to hear it."

Yuusuke frowned. "What do you mean?"

"If you had been captured," Kurama said, "and Yuusuke was with you, then he must also have been captured."

"So your future self was bummed out to realize we'd both been taken down," Yuusuke said. "Makes sense. Anything tough enough to take me down would probably eat you for breakfast."

Kuwabara regarded him from beneath lowered eyelids. "Anything ever manages to knock you on your ass, Urameshi, you can bet I'm sending it flowers and a thank-you card."

"Be nice," Yukina scolded him, and he subsided instantly.

Genkai spoke, surprising them all. "The barriers between the worlds are restored."

Yuusuke glanced at the others, seeing confusion on Yukina and Kuwabara's faces, and a tight-lipped expression on Kurama's that he couldn't really interpret. "You mean the barrier that Sensui broke through?"

"Sensui?" Genkai challenged and Kuwabara blushed bright red.

"Whatever." Yuusuke waved a hand. "How does that explain us losing our youki?"

"It doesn't," Genkai said, her tone scathing. "But the two are undoubtedly connected."

"What can be broken can be fixed," Kurama murmured. "And it will take much more than a sword to get through again." He met each other their gazes in turn. "I had some weird dreams of my own last night."

"Speaking of weird," Kuwabara said, "has anyone heard from Hiei?"

***

tbc