Happy birthday, Ava! Your birthday fic has mutated into a multi-parter... I'll try to get you the next piece by Christmas, okay? D

The Right Triangle, part one

"Urameshi!" Kuwabara called, spotting his partner a few yards ahead. "Hold up!"

Yusuke paused, and turned around, fingers beating a random rhythm on his school bag. He could see Kuwabara jogging up to him; dodging a few first year girls and their boyfriends, weaving his way around the school's token drug dealers to catch up. The school's top delinquent had, for some odd reason, decided to grace the school with his forceful presence that day, and was annoyed that his escape was being deterred.

"Hey," Yusuke said dully, as he started up again. Kuwabara easily fell into step with them. More and more often, Yusuke noticed they were beginning to harmonize with each other. When Yusuke was off his game, Kuwabara was automatically sharper, simply by instinct. When Kuwabara was running late for some reason, a subtle urging caused Yusuke to be on time. They were learning, instinctively, to compensate for each other. It was almost unsettling, to a loner like Yusuke.

"Hey," Kuwabara returned. He'd been noticing those little things as well. When Yusuke was slacking in class, he suddenly worked harder, kept his notes neater. It was almost unsettling. "What's up?"

Yusuke shrugged. "Nothing. Everything."

Kuwabara rolled his eyes. "Real descriptive, man."

"Leave me alone, Kuwabara," Yusuke snapped back. "I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Geez," the redhead muttered. "Sorry I wanna know what goes on in your life."

The shorter of the two sighed. "Sorry. I'm in a bad mood."

"No, really?"

"Shut up."

A smirk tugged at Kuwabara's face. Typical Yusuke. "So why are you in a bad mood?" he asked.

Yusuke groaned softly. "Just about everyone wants to screw me over today. Especially Iwamoto."

"Ah. I get it." Well, sort of. The bigger picture was still beyond his line of vision, but that was to be expected. It would only broaden if Yusuke decided it was necessary.

Yusuke snuck a glance towards Kuwabara. He was looking straight ahead, bag slung over his broad shoulder. He was just short of beginning to whistle, which he only did when he was genuinely pleased or wanted something.

"You idiot," Yusuke grumbled. "You want the whole story, don'cha?"

"Well..."

"Why d'you want to know, anyway?" Yusuke asked. "I mean, it really doesn't affect you, right?"

Kuwabara blinked, frowning thoughtfully. "Well, I guess it kinda depends on your definition of 'affect,' y'know? I mean, sure, it doesn't really affect me personally, except if something happened, I guess I'd be righteously indignant on your behalf, right?" He rolled his shoulder to loosen it. "Or I could sympathize. You're not the only one who has a teacher devotin' his life to getting you expelled from school."

"Crap, is Akashi getting on you, again?" Yusuke asked carefully. "Man, we should go beat him up. Maybe Hiei would help, that guy needs one of those squishy stress balls, you know?"

Kuwabara raised an eyebrow. "You've been hanging out with Kurama lately, haven't you?" he accused.

Yusuke sighed. "How'd ya guess?"

Kuwabara grinned. "The whole attempt at subject-changing. I spent a month in the great outdoors with that guy; I know how he operates."

"Then you deserve a medal," Yusuke chuckled. "Even Keiko says he's a puzzle just waiting to be put together, and she knows how to read people real good."

"Was she tryin' to read you again?" Kuwabara questioned. "That why you're out of it?"

"Why d'you think I'm out of it?"

"Stop playing games," Kuwabara scolded. "If I don't know when you're hiding the fact that you're out of it by now, I would be as stupid as everyone thinks I am."

"If you say so, man."

"I do say so. So can we quit the runaround? Soon, preferably. There is a Geometry test I need to study for."

There were these weird moments where Kuwabara just shot blindly in the dark and landed a bull's-eye. Extra-sensory perception. More commonly known as ESP; it meant that somehow, he perceived things (feelings, memories, opinions) that should be beyond the normal human grasp.

Judging by the suddenly darker look on Urameshi's face... now was one of those times.

These perceptions usually came to him in the form of dreams. He could no longer count how many times he had dreamt of his precious Yukina's long search for her missing brother. Nor could he remember how many times he had witnessed the death of Youko Kurama; felt the screams of fear bubbling in the fox's throat as he had been pierced by arrows and bullets. Just as frequently he had watched Botan's first days as ferrygirl, when her soul was recycled from a living form...

But there were other... they weren't premonitions, because they were not in the future... vibes, or feelings, or concepts that just jumped into his brain and out of his mouth. Like right now. The Geometry test; he hadn't thought about it all day, and now here it was, tossed out from the mix of feelings he had gleaned from Yusuke, put together by his subconscious.

Apparently that test (in Iwamoto's subject, no less) was the thorn in his friend's side, the itching powder in his pajamas, the fly in his soup—if Urameshi spent too much time with Kurama, he himself was definitely hanging around too much with Botan. She had a thing for thinking up crazy metaphors. Kuwabara found it endearing, but they had a bad habit of sticking with you. Some of them were fairly amusing.

He shook off memories of Botan's cheerfulness, to get a good study of the dark, shorter profile of Yusuke Urameshi. His smooth jaw was set a little tighter than usual, face sculpted into a perfect scowl. Scratch too much time with Kurama, maybe Yusuke was getting 'How to Be a Jerk' lessons from Hiei? If Keiko's recent complaints (though his sources were second-hand, confided by Keiko to Botan to himself. Though by that time it was really more gossip than anything else, wasn't it?) were anything to go by, he certainly was.

Score. That's Double-Bingo, Kuwabara realized. Iwamoto and Keiko. The Geometry test. Of course. Iwamoto was inflicting the math test, Keiko was nagging him to study and do well.

Man, I'm good, the teen thought briefly, before turning his mind back to helping Urameshi.

Well. The obvious course of action was to eliminate the problem. Specifically, Keiko and Iwamoto. That... was not going to work. There were days when Kuwabara would kill for a shot at the grumpy math teacher, almost as frequently as he wished for their science teacher, Akashi, to take a long walk off a short cliff.

As for Keiko, even if she was bogging Urameshi down, Kuwabara was too fond of her to really want to do anything to her. She was a good girl, if a bit temperamental once in a while. Overall, though, she was pretty sweet, unless you threatened someone she liked.

So Plan A was a no-go.

The next option was to, instead of eliminating the problem, mitigate it. Lessen the threat, lessen the pressure, lessen that cloud of darkness hanging stubbornly over Yusuke's head.

That could be done one of two ways. Either Kuwabara could talk to Keiko and Iwamoto about shutting up and calming down, or he could get Yusuke to pass the test.

As soon as that thought hit him, Kuwabara felt like finding Hiei and begging the small demon to smack him with the flat side of his sword. Getting Yusuke to pass a test... Yeah, right. Maybe Genkai would open a charm school for young ladies and Shizuru would attend. Maybe Yukina would pierce her tongue and Atsuko would be seen with a bottle of cream soda. Maybe Koenma would shave his head and run off to join the circus, dragging Hiei along as the token midget.

It was absurd. And asking Iwamoto to chill out... That was like asking Kurama to trip over his shoelaces. It was a physical impossibility. Iwamoto rarely showed any slack, just as Kurama was rarely anything but perfectly balanced and composed.

So that left asking Keiko not to nag. Kuwabara fought the sigh building in his chest.

Kuwabara knew that the only reason Keiko nagged Yusuke was because she cared about him so deeply. She could not just run up and say "I love you so I want you to do well!" She was... she was not shy, but that was just too bold for her to be. Not to mention there was a pride issue in there somewhere. Not that Kuwabara could decipher Keiko and Yusuke's relationship without Kurama at his side anyway.

Kuwabara was about to go back to passing the test when he was slapped by an idea harder than Keiko's dainty palm.

If two ideas don't work... force them together!

Perhaps it was not the most brilliant of strategies, but it worked often enough. If his spirit sword didn't work, and he needed a pole vault like nothing else... He would just smash the two ideas together. Ta-da: he formed one of his trademark moves. It worked against Byakko almost perfectly.

If Keiko would not stop nagging, and Yusuke could not pass the test...

Why not get Keiko to get Yusuke to pass the test?

It was so easy, it was stupid.

Easy on me, at any rate, the delinquent amended. Kuwabara would not be the one cooped up in a library with Yusuke, trying to get him to work Pythagorean Theorem backwards.

Then there was the matter of getting Miss Keiko to agree. If Yusuke had angered her past the breaking point... All of his evil scheming, learned from two months in the wilderness with Hiei and Kurama, was for naught.

Here's hoping her desire for Yusuke's well being wins out over her desire to see him poked with a sharp stick, Kuwabara thought dryly.

"Yo, Kuwabara, anybody home? I can practically see the 'Out To Lunch' sign hanging up in your eyes," Yusuke said, annoyance ringing like a bell.

"Very funny," Kuwabara responded distractedly. "Look, man, I'll see you later. Got something I need to take care of, okay?"

Yusuke snorted. What a wonderfully cynical way to end the day. Kuwabara cares for awhile and then he doesn't. Probably forgot to buy Yukina a 'middle of the week' gift, he thought glumly.

"Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Probably," Kuwabara said, glancing at his watch. "We're supposed to meet Kurama at the arcade." He turned around and jogged off in the general direction of the Yukimura diner and residence.

Yusuke reworked his best impression of Hiei and continued towards the home he shared with his mother.

I wonder how drunk she is tonight... and better yet, if she has anything I can throw together for dinner...