Worth Fighting For |A Yu Yu Hakusho Kurama Love Story| UNDER EDITING

Chapter. 9 Photographs

It's Saturday morning and I'm preparing to go over Shiori's house. She invited My parents and I to come over to her house earlier this week but Dad can't make it because he has things to do involving his business so it's just Mom and I who are able to make it.

"Are you ready Winter?" Mom asks as I walk down the stairs. I nod with a smile as I made it by her side.

"As ready as I'll ever be" I answer.

We walk out the front door and walk over to Shiori house. Mom rings the doorbell and Shiori opens it just a few moments later with a gentle smile on her face

"Welcome you two, please come in and make yourselves comfortable" Shiori say after opening the door.

"Hello Shiori, we're so happy that you invited us into your home" Mom smiles as we take our shoes off and leave them by the door and slip into the slippers thay are by the door. She leads us to her living room area. We sat on the couch and I look around. It's nice and cozy in here, it also smells really good, like someone's baking something.

"Shiori, your house is lovely" Mom compliments as she also looks around. Shiori thanks her.

"I'll be right back, let me just go and get the refreshments" She says and walks out of the living room. I see that Shuichi hasn't made an appearance yet. Shiori walks back in with a tray full of drinks and cookies just a few minutes later. She notice me looking at the stairs with a confuse expression and a smile makes way onto her pink tinted lips.

"Dear, if you're looking for Shuichi he's out back tending to the garden" She exclaims. I look at her and nervously scratch the back of my head.

"Oh I don't want to disturb him" I sheepishly reply.

"I'm sure he won't mind at all" She gesture me toward her kitchen. I get up, grab two warm cookies from the plate and walk into the kitchen. I look out the glass door and see him in the garden, tending to the roses. He's wearing a plain white button down sleeveless shirt and blue jeans. I slid the door open, gaining his attention.

"Hello" He greets me with a smile. I wave at him and jog toward him, looking around in amazement at the garden.

"Hey, these look amazing" I compliment once I stand beside him.

"Thank you, If I knew you were already here I would've greeted you and your mother at the door"

"Yeah we came kind of early hehe" I reply then look at the two cookies I have in my hand.

"Oh I grabbed a cookie for you" I exclaim and hand him one, which he takes. He thanks me with a smile and begin to eat. I took a bite out of my own, humming in approval at the delicious taste. His Mom is so good at baking sweets, I'll need to ask her for some recipes.

"Would you like me to show you around the garden?" He inquires and I immediately nod my head in excitement.

"Did you even have to ask Minamino-san" I exclaim in childlike joy, earning a chuckle from him in return. He looks at me for a moment, stuck in a daze as I raise my eyebrow in question.

"Got something on your mind?" I question.

"Shuichi" He suddenly says. I look up at him in surprise. I don't know what to say. This is pretty sudden. We've only know eachother for about a month so far and if I'm not mistaken in Japanese culture calling someone by their first name is a pretty intimate thing to do and is only reserve for those who are very familiar with eachother, which we clearly aren't.

What is going on through thay head of his?

"Just call me Shuichi, I don't mind"

"Oh okay as long as you call me Winter" I reply once I get over my shocked state. I wonder if this means that we're friends?. We continue to have a conversation about other things as he shows me his magnificent garden, inuding the huge Sakura tree which I love, gaining a few chuckles and laugh from one another as well as helpful information and tips about gardening.
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Unbeknownst to us our mothers are peeking at us from the sliding door. Both of them have smiles on their faces from seeing the two teens fully interact with one another for the first time.

"They seem comfortable with one another" Shiori notes with a smile, seeing the two teens laugh about a joke the purple haired girl just made. The mother beside her agrees, a smile grace her own face as well.

"And its only been a month!, I've never seen my daughter interact like this before, or become friends with someone this quickly. She was always so closed off and reserved from others" Janet tells her.

"Shuichi was the exact same way. I've never seen him like this, he doesn't bring home friends and I worry about it but now I see I don't have to worry any longer, I'm glad" Shiori says in relief that her son finally have someone he can call a friend.

"They are slowly changing eachother for the better and they don't even notice it" Janet points out. Both of the women silently went back into the living room area to give the teen's some space.
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After Shuichi shows me around his mystical like garden we head back inside. I sit on the couch between the two ladies and Shuichi sits in the lone recliner chair. Shiori looks at me with a gentle smile, there's a certain gleam in her eyes that reminds me of Shuichi when he is up to something.

"Winter, would you like to see some of Shuichi baby pictures?" She suddenly asks. I nod my head, internally smirking from the feeling of embarressment in Shuichi's aura. Payback for listening to Mom in the car when she told him embarressing childhood stories about me.

"Yes, I would like to see them" I innocently smile. She gets up and walks over to a lone tall book shelf that held many books. She picks out one that looks to be a picture book and sit back down beside me.

"Mother, is that really necessary?" He questions. I can hear the embarressment in his voice.

"Of course it is Shuichi" She replies, innocently. She opens up the family photo album and all three of us begin to look at the pictures.

"Here are some of Shuichi's baby pictures" Shiori proclaims as she points to the pictures. I aww at the pictures of Shuichi as a baby. His red hair was also a lot shorter back then.

"Aww you're were so adorable" I say while looking up at him and smirk. She kept on flipping through the book and I can't help but aww at a lot of the pictures.

"Here's another one from last year when he was just in middle school."

It's a picture of Shuichi in a dark blue school uniform. His red hair is also short, just ending barely below his ears. So his long hair is actually something he recently grown out.

'His hair sure does grow fast, I wonder what hair products he's using to have grown his hair that fast.' I think to myself.

After showing us a couple of more photos, including a picture of Shuichi's father, who Shiori mentioned that died around the time Shuichi was born. He had short brown hair and a kind smile with glasses on his face. Now I know that Kurama Dad genes hit him because they both share the same face.

She closes the book and I look at Shuichi and give him a smug victorious look. He knows this is payback. He glances away from me with his arms cross, eyes close and brows furrow in embarrassment. What a day to be alive to witness this rare moment of Shuichi pouting in defeat. He offers to show me his room once he finish pouting, which I took. We walk up the stairs and I begin to tease him about the photos and his reaction. He playfully glares at me.

"Come on, you were so adorable, especially the picture of you as a child where you looked like you didn't want to be at your own birthday party" I snicker, remembering the picture. His red brows were furrowed in a look of aggitation as he glares at the camera. Kids can be seen in the background raising havoc. He looked like a grown man that was fed up with the whole thing.

"Need I remind you about the incident your mother told me about you getting your hair stuck in a rose bush because you leaned in a little too close trying to carelessly grab a rose with your bare hand?"

I shut my mouth after that and pout, receiving a smirk from the teen beside me in return. That's unfair and he know it. While he has stories about my childhood the only thing I have to use against him are pictures.

"That's not fair Shuichi and you know it" I grumble, saying his first name for the first time as I cross my arms. He chuckles into his hand.

"All is fair in war Winter"