Hakusho: Parenthood

Chapter 2: A stands for Adulthood

July 20th, 2000

"You look like shit."

Yusuke gave Kuwabara a poisonous glare as he unceremoniously dropped a bowl of ramen in front of the taller man. Despite the glare promising death, Kuwabara continued to grin like a goof. You couldn't blame him. Messing with a sleep deprived Urameshi was a fun pastime in its own right...though only for people who could handle the guy's sluggings. Anyone else would be a deadman in under a second.

"Let me guess, the reason you have bags big enough to carry boulders is because of the lil' Urameshis, huh." Kuwabara said, pointing at the dark bags underneath Yusuke's eyes. He quickly pulled his finger back before Yusuke could consider chomping it off.

"Yeah...They were screaming the whole night. Kensuke was the main offender, as always." Yusuke grumbled. "Couldn't get a wink of sleep."

Kuwabara snorted. "You fought a bunch of demons, but what gets to you are two four week old babies. They're your twerps all right."

"Shut up you punk! You askin' for a bruisin'?" Yusuke raised a fist with a challenging smirk. A good ol' nostalgic slug-fest might brighten his day.

"Not until I'm done eating. Then we can reminisce on old times." Kuwabara said, breaking apart his chopsticks and taking his first few slurps of ramen noodles. "Sounds like being a parent is a chore."

"It is..." Yusuke trailed off for a moment before grinning. "But I can't say that I hate it. Those boys are damn trouble, but I love'em."

"Must be nice."

"Speaking of kids," Yusuke's grin turned mischievous. "You and Yukina ever thinking of having any?"

Kuwabara choked on his meal and coughed repeatedly, face turning a purplish red in the process. Or maybe that was just from embarrassment. He gave Yusuke an incredulous look after finally settling down. "N-No! It's too early for us to consider that!" He sputtered as he wildly waved his arms around like a uncoordinated bird.

"Come on! The two of you have been dating for over a year and you're planning on proposing, aren't you?" Yusuke leaned forward, chin on the back of his fist and elbow pressed against the counter of his cart. "You must've had at least one conversation about it. Give your great pal Yusuke all the interesting deets."

"Um...well...I guess we kinda had a short chat about it." Kuwabara awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "It just seems too early for us to have a kid, y'know. I'm focusing on my teaching career and Yukina's still adjusting to life in the Human World." And sometimes he gets headaches whenever he's on a date with his beautiful goddess, Yukina, which he just assumed to be his conscious telling him not to go beyond the walls of dating just yet. Though, unbeknownst to Kuwabara, those headaches were actually the cause of a certain overprotective brother.

Yusuke shrugged. "Kurama and Shizuru didn't seem to care about it being too early." He stroked chin as if he were deep in thought. His brows wiggled suggestively. "Heck. They weren't even married when it happened."

"Ah geez, Urameshi, can we not talk about that!" Kuwabara exclaimed, disturbed by Yusuke's suggestive tone.

"What? I thought you were over it."

"I'm not as upset, but it's just weird. Thinking about my friend with my sister—I just never thought they would—I never knew they were—it doesn't help that Kurama used to be or still is technically, mentally, maybe, a thousand year old or older demon—" Kuwabara tugged at his hair, bungling up his pompadour. "I just never expected it, okay!?"

Yusuke held his stomach as he obnoxiously laughed, catching the wary eye of a few passersby.

Kuwabara angrily hit the ramen stand's counter with clenched fists, causing it to shake and wobble. "Stop laughing you jerk! I'm having a crisis!"