T-Kun's Gift/The Shaman's Way

Title: T-Kun’s Gift / The Shaman’s Way
Author: NGM
Series: Yu Yu Hakusho
Pairings: Kuwabara x Yuusuke
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.
Summary: Genkai is outside; having some “Me” time, which happens to get interrupted, however, “Me” time might actually have been set aside at that particular point for more of a reason than the interrupters think. Tiny bit of Narcotic usage. ^^;

Smirking, the old woman fondly referred to as ‘Obaachan’ shifted a bit in the sea of crisp grass she was perched in, sitting cross-legged, eyes lidding a bit as she exhaled smoothly, curls of viscous smoke leaving her lips, her smirk widened.

It was a full moon, the first full moon of the New Year, it was brisk outside, however, she continued to bathe beneath the pale blue light, an eyebrow arching as she heard one of her students shift on his feet behind her.

“Yes?”
“Do you know what time it is?”
“I am well aware, child. What’s it to you?” She inclined, her eyes narrowing as she cast a gaze over her shoulder.

Yuusuke shifted, hands jammed in his jean-jacket pockets, tracing circles in the grass with the tip of his converse.
“Naa, it’s cold.”
“I know that.”
“What are you doing?”
“None of your business...” The woman turned back to the ivory hand-carved pipe she held carefully in her delicate but battle-worn hands, fingertip glowing as she ignited the bowl of smoldering greenery, inhaling slowly.

Kazuma, who had been a few steps behind the dark haired teen gasped faintly as he watched a plume of smoke rise from the form of their master in the grass. She sat back, an arm braced behind her and blew the smoke back out towards the sky, letting a tiny smile, that hid beneath the guise of a smirk, slip. The redhead’s eyes widened, she was far too old to be smoking! It was bad enough that he had to deal with it when he was at home, and that Yuusuke smoked cigarettes whenever he got his hands on ‘em, but Genkai too? No! That would simply not do!

“Genkai-san! When did you start smoking!? It’s bad for your health!!! How could you—“

He was cut off by a sharp glare, the old woman stood, curling her fist around the pale colored sherlock, which was still warm in her palm.

“Quiet boy! You have no idea what you are talking about!”

Kuwabara huffed faintly, crossing his arms over his chest. He’d even smoked a cigarette or two before! He did too know what he was talking about! Yuusuke on the other hand smirked a bit, a dark eyebrow raising as he watched her approach.

“Ne, Kuwa, I don’t think she’s smoking cigarettes…” He said with a widening smirk.
“Very perceptive, Urameshi…”

Holding out her hand, their old master turned her palm skyward and presented an ornate ivory pipe, it was carved by hand apparently, though neither dared to touch it, truth be told, both boys had never dabbled in anything like that. Cigarettes were bad enough for teenagers, but if this was what the two boys thought it was, then Genkai was… following some sort of odd American trend of smoking marihuana, and that just didn’t seem right.

“It was a gift, from a very long time ago…” The woman trailed, her fingers curling around the piece before it disappeared into the vast folds of her clothing.
“Is that…”
“Long ago, before it was “an abused substance”…” Genkai began, Kuwabara and Yuusuke’s eyes rounding in disbelief. “Shamans and other spiritual and ritualistic masters would burn the leaves of that plant, it would strengthen their spiritual connections, make their abilities stronger by overcoming the side effects of the plant…”
“So it makes you stronger?”

The woman snorted, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t say that.”
“But it could, right?”

The two were greeted with silence, one smirking at the quiet, the other quirking an eyebrow.

“I’ll try it...”
“I don’t think it’s such a good idea Urameshi, I mean…”
“Aww, save it… If Genkai-sama does it…” The dark haired teen trailed, waving off Kuwabara’s unadventurous retort.
“But—“
“C’mon Kuwa, it can’t do any harm…”

“A-hem.”

Yuusuke glanced down at his much shorter master and grinned, rubbing the back of his head.
“Eh…?”
“Who said you could experiment with this anyway, I highly doubt you’re ready.”
“I have to be *ready* to smoke pot?!” He scoffed, hands on his hips.
“Yeah! Because you’re probably gonna do something foolish, like normal! And then there’d be no way to control you…” Kuwabara trailed, arms folded over his chest smugly.
“Quiet you two. I’m tired of this incessant babble!”

The old woman walked back to the spot she had been sitting in before, flopping down to the ground gracefully, legs tucked beneath her, cross-legged once again.

Kuwabara turned, glancing at her then at his friend, eyes narrowing. Yuusuke just smirked a bit, hands still on his hips.

“Well…?”

Came the grumbled response as Genkai refilled the ivory piece she had hidden. She smirked as she heard her two charges muttering, Yuusuke shuffling over, sitting on her left, Kazuma following moments after, sitting on her right. He sat back on his arms; casting a sideways glance to Genkai, then Urameshi, he still wasn’t too sure he wanted to try this stuff. He’d heard Shizuru talking about it, she’d done it a few times, it was a popular American recreational drug, even though it really was only a plant, not a drug-drug…

‘I wonder why Yuusuke seems so eager… And why Genkai is even thinking of letting us try this, she must be out of her mind right now…’
“Na, Kuwa, stop being such a puss. I hear it’s like being drunk, except not vomit inducing…! Genkai does it…“ Yuusuke replied, looking smug still, as if he could read the redhead’s mind.
“Yuusuke!”
“Whaaaat?”
“Shut up, or leave.”

Kuwabara scoffed, smirking at the other, then sat up, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, watching Genkai meddle with the bowl.

“Where did you get that?”
“I already said it was a gift, didn’t I?”

It was Yuusuke’s turn to smirk, and he did, leaning forward as well.

“From?”
“…”
“Eh…?”
“It’s none of your business.”

Both boys let out defeated sighs, and shrugged.

“It’s really nice though.”
“I know.”

And that was all she said before shifting back, rolling her head and holding up her pointer finger.

“Concentrate your reiki into your fingertip, both of you, not too much, you don’t want to form anything, just keep enough concentrated energy there to smolder the plant, understand?”

Both nodded and Genkai demonstrated, her eyes closing as she pulled the ivory away and passed it to Yuusuke.

“Either one of you drop it, and you die, understood?”
“Yes.” Came the identical response, the two looking at each other before Yuusuke looked down and focused his energy.

It was like inhaling a cigarette, except, he didn’t exhale afterwards. It tasted musky, almost sweet, and he felt like he should cough, but sniggering, he kept his breath held, thrusting the piece to Kuwabara, who looked at it for a long moment before taking it from his hand. Yuusuke let out a shuddery breath, coughing as he blew the last of the smoke towards the sky. He grinned as he watched Kuwa light the piece with his fingertip, his energy glowing yellow like his sword. It was pretty neat to see everyone else’s other colors. Hiei’s blackish-purplish energy was pretty cool, he hated to admit it, but it was true.

Genkai glanced over at her lazy-eyed student and smirked, arms folded across her chest. Kazuma was still hesitating to actually *light* it and she lifted her hand to nudge him in the shoulder.

“Go on, it won’t hurt you.” Her smirk waned, and her eyes closed, arms returning to the folded position.

Eyes narrowing, Kuwabara inhaled sharply, almost immediately coughing, he shakily held out the ivory piece and leant over, leaning close to the grass as he was wracked with lung-crumpling coughs. It took a moment for him to get his shit back together, but he managed to sit up, coughing faintly again as he watched Yuusuke smirking widely, lips pursed as he held the piece up for him, again.

Yuusuke exhaled out of his nose then reclined back on his arms, it wasn’t chilly enough to see his own breath, but it was crisp, actually very beautiful. He could definitely see why Genkai was out here in the first place. Maybe they could come back out here sometime… What’s taking Kuwabara so long…? Tilting his head, he watched the redhead tip his head back and light the rest of the bowl, inhaling, but holding it all in, his eyes squeezed shut as he presented the bowl back to Genkai. He exhaled a shuddered breath after a long moment and Yuusuke found himself clapping faintly.

“Shut up…” Came the hoarse response, Kuwabara wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Everything felt very… comfortable. He wanted to lean back, and he did so, emulating Yuusuke’s position, except he extended his legs, crossing one jean-clad leg over the other. Genkai held out the ivory piece and stood, handing it back to the redhead, filled to the brim.

“I’m going to bed; make sure you return this to me in the morning. In fact, leave it right in front of my room, understood?”

Kuwabara nodded, blinking twice as she nodded sharply and departed, arms still folded across her chest.

“Remember,” The woman murmured as she paused before the rice paper doors, tilting her head back. “Through the plumes of smoke, may you find crystal clarity.” She smirked widely as she stepped off the grass onto the smooth rocks that lead back to her temple. This ought to make things interesting. Maybe both of them would unwind a bit, mellow out. It seemed to have worked for her, and others, however they were both difficult teenagers. She had decided to host the both of them after Yuusuke had returned from the Makai. It was difficult at first; she needed to continue to hone Kuwabara’s skills, since he truly was a full-human that had these extraordinary powers, and strength to boot. He was gifted in that, even if he lacked general tact and so on. Yuusuke was still way too much trouble; he needed to still learn a bit more about respect and how to keep his temper in check if he was going to function properly in the human-world society.

Maybe this would be for the better.

She entered the temple and slid the rice paper door shut behind her, arms folded behind her head as she walked to the kitchen, prepared some tea, and retreated to her room for the remainder of the evening…

“Naa, start it.”
“I will!”
“Stop takin’ so long!”

Yuusuke lunged at his friend, reaching for the pipe, but Kuwa slapped his hand away glowering at him.

“Patience is a virtue!”
“Chh…”

Sated, Kazuma held the piece to his mouth, and lit the bowl, inhaling slowly, his eyes locked on Urameshi in his best intimidating look as he reached over and passed it to him.

Yuusuke just smirked.

They passed the piece between one another until it smoldered out completely, one or both of them letting out sporadic coughs as they caught on to exactly how to inhale the smoke without burning the shit out of their lungs. And so forth.

As the two sat back on the grass, Yuusuke reached for the ivory pipe, holding it close to his face.

“It really is nice, I wonder who it’s from…”
“C’mon Yuusuke, who do you think it’s from?”

Cringing, the dark haired teen glanced up at the taller redhead before glancing quickly back down, frowning a little.

“It’s really weird, when you think about how life could be different just based on the decisions you make..”

Kazuma only nodded as he shifted back on his arms, looking up at the moon. This was pretty nice, everything actually felt rather nice. He felt sorta like, how he felt when he took too much nighttime cough medicine, everything had a sorta soft… vibe from it. Glancing back to Yuusuke, who looked far too engrossed in his mental battle than he should have been, the redhead shook his head faintly, watching the curls before his eyes bounce. Maybe he’d do something about that, his hair was getting to be too much maintenance, he didn’t have anyone to impress with it anymore either. School was far and gone, there were way more important things than school… and hair.

“Ne, Urameshi…” Kuwabara drawled as he sat up a bit straighter, rolling his neck.
“Eh?”
“You ever wonder what it would be like if you never died?”

The other paused, taken quite off guard by the random question. He’d never quite taken the time to really think about all of his experiences, and suddenly they flooded back to him in a sharp wave, his eyebrows rising as he stared blankly off past the redhead’s shoulder.

“…”

Shit, he’d never even taken the time to digest it all! This in retrospect was the best thing to do, because it would have been far too distracting to really analyize all that had happened. Dying, not dying, fighting all those weird beasts and monsters. And just the day before he’d been smoking cigarettes and getting into fist fights with Kuwabara and other assholes. He’d even gone as far as to find out who his father really was (to an extend), and come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t quite human. And only now were things falling into place, what. Five years later? Chh… He smirked a bit, and his gaze dropped back to his friend, blinking out of his reverie.

“Nah, what’s the point? Can’t change the past…”
“True…”
“What’s your favorite battle?”
“Huh?”

Yuusuke fished inside of his jacket, fumbling with the hidden pocket where he stashed his dwindling pack of cigarettes, then grinned up at his friend as he held open the pack of tattered Marlboros.

Kazuma didn’t hesitate to take one, lighting it with his fingertip. That was a pretty cool skill…

“Your favorite fight.”
“The first one I had with you.”
“Eh?”
“Yep.”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Jeez! Am I speakin’ English or somethin’?”

Yuusuke snorted, lighting his cigarette after a moment.

“You’re weird.”
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black, now isn’t it?”
“True…”

The two smoked in silence, occasionally casting unseen glances at one another.

“You still like Yukina?”

That was something the redhead hadn’t really thought about much… After Yuusuke left for the Makai, he managed to well the nerve to make a move, but it was sorta… Ill returned, he’d gotten the sinking feeling that the beautiful little ice maiden had no idea what he meant when he asked if she would ‘date with him’. That got a bit confusing until he all together stopped attempting to act like there was a relationship… She was great, but consistently oblivious, plus, he couldn’t imagine having to be around Hiei all that time too…

“As a friend, maybe…” He drawled, eyes narrowing. “Why?”
“Curious, I missed a lot when I was away; I haven’t gotten to catch up too much…”
“Chh..”
“You still like Keiko?”
“No fuckin’ way man--"

Yuusuke grinned, sitting up, and then flicked his cigarette across the grass to the little pebbles that lead back to the temple. Kazuma did the same after taking one last drag, and then shifted forward onto his hands and knees, reaching for the bowl, subsequently startling Urameshi, whose eyes widened as the redhead appeared to be descending upon him.

“WHA--?!”

Pausing, Kuwabara blinked once, then twice, and glanced down at his arch-enemy turned best-friend, grinning broadly.

And *then* he started to laugh.

“What the HELL was that look for!?” Came the guffawed response as Kuwabara sat back on his haunches in front of the other, holding the sherlock in his hand.
“What look?!”
“That look like I was gonna flop on ya.”
“Ch… give me a friggin’ break!”
“You *really* looked like you were gettin’ ready to be kissed.”
“You fucking wish buddy. You WISH!”
“Hey, if I recall, I didn’t ask to be sent that dream of our passionate embrace.”
“…Pas--- What in HELL is wrong with you, jeez!”

The redhead snorted, sitting back, a smirk on his lips.

“Like I’d to kiss you anyway.”
“Like you wouldn’t!”
“Trust me, there are way better people to kiss than you, Urameshi…” Came the knowing response, as if Kuwabara had the experience behind his belt.
“Yeah right, I saw your reaction…”
“Reaction to what!?”

Again, that cocky look made it’s way onto Yuusuke’s face, as if it ever left,

“To the dream, you idiot!”
“You mean NIGHTMARE?” Kazuma balked, sitting back up on his knees, examining the bowl further before putting it down, away from both himself and Yuusuke, fearing that one of them might accidentally break it.
“Yeah right! I bet you even considered comin’ over and doin’ it too.”

Kuwabara shook his head as he snorted, but couldn’t help the tiny bit of color that touched his high cheekbones.

“I knew it.”
“SHUT UP!”

Yuusuke laughed a bit, and fiddled with the foil in his cigarette pack.

“I mean, shit, I can understand why you’re so cranky now…”

An eyebrow rose, and Kuwabara sat back again, eyes focusing on the brunette.

“Hey, what’s that supposed ta mean…?”
“Well shit, every time ya look at me, it must be hard not to wanna kiss me, right?”
“Chh!!” The redhead snorted, and again his gaze dropped, again unable to control the flush that rose to his cheeks.

It wasn’t like he consciously had the dream the first time, in fact, it was all Yuusuke and Koenma’s fault that he had the dream in the first place! As soon as he’d woken up, it had freaked him the hell out, and he bolted from his own *home*, however, the second, third, and the multiple times afterwards were purely his own fault. He had been nagged with that horrible gut clenching saying, something about dreams being the gateway to the subconscious. Meaning, somewhere, deep down inside, he really *did* wanna kiss Urameshi.

The thought had repulsed him.

Had.

“Got no comeback? Wow, I may have actually stumped ya…” Yuusuke mused with another smirk, his eyes glimmering with that pre-fight mischief.

But time after time, replaying that kiss he was just too cowardly to… actually… Shit, they had *actually* expected him to do it! To just forget everything, all the fights, all the… and just…

Faster than the human eye could register, the redhead was up, and had clambered over the brunette, shoving him to the ground, kneeling over his laughter-wracked form.

“Kuwabara!”

Dark eyes flaring, Kazuma had straddled the other’s hips, pinning him to the frost-crisped grass.

Yuusuke’s eyes widened, and he suddenly relaxed, another smirk finding it’s way to his lips as he smugly folded his arms behind his head, daring the other.

‘You don’t have the spine…’
‘I don’t?’

Eyes locking with Yuusuke’s, Kuwabara placed a hand down on the center of Urameshi’s chest, his hips shifting again as he leant down, bumping his nose against the brunette’s.

Said brunette’s eyes widened, his breath coming quickly, Kuwabara really wasn’t gonna… His hands came up to clutch at the redheads’ shoulders, each grabbing a handful of t-shirt… Was he…?

“It is really hard…” He growled, other hand coming to Yuusuke’s cheek, running along his jaw, his fingers threading through his chocolate locks to cup the back of his head, lips just barely grazing the mouth beneath his.

Gasping, Yuusuke’s hands clenched tighter, then unclenched, his eyes fluttering shut as he felt Kuwabara lean the rest of the way down, pressing their mouths together in a hungry, passionate kiss. It felt as if the redhead had been holding this back for ages, the emotion that flooded from that one physical gesture was almost overwhelming, and he found himself kissing him back just as hard.

When Kazuma finally broke away, the both of them were red faced and panting, almost not believing what they both had just done.

Neither of them was willing to break the silence, it just seemed far too difficult at the moment, almost taboo. However, locking eyes again, it was unspoken as the two met again for another kiss, hands grappling at fabric and flesh, a pack of cigarettes left discarded next to that ivory bowl that sat so carefully in the grass.

The brisk midnight air was filled with pants of need, moans of pleasure, purred demands and growled names, and on into the morning, they continued until the day broke…


And soon Genkai slid her door open, delicate hands on her hips as she saw her piece hadn’t been returned as instructed. However… as she headed outside, the first thing that caught her eye was the interwoven form perched in the middle of her yard, both boys twined in their ‘passionate embrace’… That had given her a clue or two as to why it hadn’t been returned…

A smile came to her lips and she turned, arms folded behind her head as she headed back inside to prepare some tea.

“Well, at least they didn’t break it.”

End