Hakusho: Parenthood

Chapter 5: S stands for Safehouse

January 5th, 2002

Yusuke trudged up the stone steps that led to Genkai's estate turned Halfway House. What was left of last night's snowstorm crunched beneath his boots. In his arms were his one year old sons dressed head to toe in heavy snow gear to keep them warm. Kensuke quietly glanced around the area from under his wool hat while Yosuke whined through his scarf and struggled. He obviously wanted to run around and play in the snow.

Yusuke grinned. "Okay! Okay! Calm down you impatient punk. We're almost there!"

Yosuke wrinkled his nose and puffed his cheeks in response to his father's teasing. His struggling did slow down, so that was a start. The silent twin spoke up with a faint "Hewe n'w" as they finally reached the top of the staircase. Yosuke wildly struggled until Yusuke loosened his grip on him.

The hyperactive boy landed on his feet and waddled away with a cheerful shout. He scooped up some snow and randomly threw it around. A stray snowball landed smack dab onto Kensuke's face. The toddler angrily spouted out gibberish and glared at his brother.

These kids. Yusuke cackled as he jogged after the hyperactive child and wiped the remains of the snowball off of Kensuke's face. It was then that Yusuke's spirit beast, Puu, peeked his head out from within the woods. The giant blue bird took notice of the three Urameshis and crowed with glee before running up to them. He picked Yosuke up by the scruff of his coat and tossed him up in the air. Mid-air, Yosuke squealed then squealed louder when he bounced a bit after landing front first on Puu's pillowy back spread eagle style. The toddler giggled as he buried his plump face into the spirit beast's bundle of blue feathers.

Puu tried to do the same with Kensuke.

Kensuke let out an ear-piercing scream before that could happen.

"FUCK! Kensuke!"

Here lies Yusuke's left eardrum: Murdered by a screeching child.

Puu jerked his head back with a thundering scream of his own.

Demons who were staying in the temple and campsites in the woods, stepped out in the open in order to check out the sources of said ear-piercing screaming. It all became clear when they saw the panicking infant in Yusuke's arms. Kensuke gained himself a reputation as an excessively skittish infant around here. Not exactly the type of reputation he hoped for one of his kids, but what can you do? Many gave the Mazoku and his sons pleasant greetings. One of these demons strolled right up to him with a toothy grin and a guitar case strapped to her back.

"Yo! Mr. Urameshi, I haven't seen you in awhile." She said. If it weren't for those sharp canines and pointed ears similar to Jin's, she could've easily passed as a normal teenage Japanese girl who had an obsession for Visual Kei type clothing. Her indigo eyes sparkled as she pinched Kensuke's cheek. "Omg, Kenboy! I knew those wicked vocals came from you! Now, where's my Yoboy?" She looked up at the shell shocked spirit beast when she heard giggling. "There you are!"

Yusuke managed to smile at the young demon even with the throbbing pain in his ear. He met this girl every time he visited Genkai's Temple in order to introduce himself to the demons that were allowed in Human World and help them find homes whenever Kurama, Kuwabara and Yukina were too busy. He believed that her name was Kumiko Saito, Saito being a last name picked out by her mother. Yusuke laughed when he remembered what Hiei had to say about the newly named Saito family a few years back, "A trio of overly positive fools inside and out. Disgusting.", Yusuke had never seen Hiei so disturbed in his life.

Maybe I should channel my inner Botan every time I see him just to get him riled up, Yusuke snickered at the mental image. He might even get a good fight out of it as a bonus.

His face twitched when Yosuke jumped off of Puu and into Kumiko's awaiting arms (Definitely not telling Keiko about this). She yelped and pretended to stumble after catching him. Her species (elven, maybe) grew a year older every seven years, so she was technically older than she looked based on human years, but she was still a kid, a good one too. Her family already found themselves a home, but Kumiko kept on coming back here just so she could sing to the residents here. She was incredibly popular here. Especially with fellow teenage demons. Amusingly, either Yusuke or his friends would sometimes catch her serenading demons that caught her fancy whether they were male, female, both, neither, etc. She was living one hell of a bachelorette life.

"You nearly made me fall on my bum. You're getting stronger each year! Yes you are! Yes you are!" Kumiko said as she tossed Yosuke up in the air and caught him each time. She sat the toddler on her shoulder and grinned at the older Urameshi. "So how's life going for ya', Mr. Urameshi? Hope it has been well."

"Great! Got even better when my in-laws handed the family business over to me. Still in the process of moving actually." Yusuke said. "I was planning on giving my old one away to one of the demon families here."

"The Akiyama family, right? That's cool."

"You should come over to our new place some time. Keiko wants to see you again. She couldn't come over today because of medical school." Yusuke gagged when he spoke the forbidden "s" word.

"Pwease! Pwease!" Yosuke excitedly chanted.

"Well...I do like your wife. And I do like your cooking...Hmm...Sure!" Kumiko gave Yusuke a double thumbs up.

"And maybe you can bring your family over. We never met your mother and brother before. I want to see if they're as overly positive as Hiei said they were." Yusuke insisted. He mischievously smirked. "Oh! Is it true that your mother has a thing for Hiei? Kurama mentioned it when Hiei was in one of his moods. It must be a pretty big one if it freaked the guy out that much."

Kumiko went silent. Her eyes became clouded over before clearing seconds later. She tightly smiled, unconsciously rubbing her arm. "Yep, she has a huge crush on the guy...kinda embarrassing, really...uh...I don't know if they would be interested in visiting. They don't visit other people much and they don't get much visitors either—But! But, I'll ask them anyway, just in case."

"That so?" Yusuke frowned, finding the way Kumiko was acting to be strange. She seemed nervous. Was there something going on in her family? Hiei would've noticed if there was abuse...Did she have a fight with her mom or brother? His musings stopped when Kensuke yanked on his coat's collar.

"Hungwy. I hungwy." Fussed Kensuke, rubbing his stomach.

"Yo'ke hungwy!" Yosuke yelled as he raised his fists. "Nom nom's! Pwease!"

Kumiko passed Yosuke back to his father with a good-natured chuckle. "You should feed those little tykes of yours before they decide to bite off some poor sap's finger."

"Like they would actually do that." Yusuke scoffed. Pause. He peered at Yosuke. The toddler "innocently" smiled at him. "...Kensuke wouldn't do it. On the other hand, Yosuke's a punk."

"Ha! Yeah, he sure is." Kumiko ruffled the twins' hair and then strolled away with her hands stuffed into her pants' pockets. "Bye-bi! Speak to you three later! Hopefully you'll stay long enough to hear me rock it out!"

"Us too!" Yusuke replied. After making sure that the courtyard was completely devoid of people, Yusuke cooed at his sons as he headed towards the temple. Yosuke smooshed his hands against his father's cheeks while Kensuke pulled his hat over his eyes with an embarrassed whine. Times like this made him wish that Genkai was still alive to see his boys. Knowing her, she probably would've made some snarky comment about hoping that his idiocy hadn't been passed down to them, "The last thing this world needs are two more dimwits", that sounds like something she would say. Yusuke's expression softened.

Heh...she would've loved them and they would've loved her too, even if she was a grumpy old hag.

"Hey, how about after lunch we visit great grandma's grave? I bet she'll like that a lot."

Kensuke pushed his hat back up and a single sparkling eye poked out.

"Kay, kay!" Yosuke chirped while clapping.

Yusuke squished them against his chest in a loving gesture. Puu lagged behind them, his head hung low with shame. His neck straightened up and he quickened his pace when he saw that Kensuke was beckoning him over. When he got close enough, he lowered his head and happily cooed when the child petted his beak out of forgiveness.