A Day in the Life

Yeah, I thought I was done with fanfiction, but I made the mistake of watching YYH the abridged series (Look it up on Youtube. Now.) and got sucked back in. I totally haven't been able to concentrate on my other projects since.

I don't have a plot except: 'what the Hell does Kurama (and the others) do after the show?' Damn, that makes it almost literary, jk.

Normal was a relative term, as all of them knew, and for Kurama it meant working most days, with the occasional side of peace-making trips to the Makai and a spot of pest control if something got a few too many ideas in the human world. Some half-breed had been idiotic enough to challenge Yusuke the month before. They had all shown up, not to help, but to stand around and chuckle until Yusuke had punched it through a couple buildings as a warning to mind it's place. That was usually enough to teach them.

Kurama didn't see Yusuke much, but he made a point of stopping by the ramen stand every couple of weeks for a bowl. Sometimes he'd pick the same day as Kuwabara and sometimes he'd have the former demon king to himself. He brought flowers this time, for Keiko, who wasn't there yet. Yusuke rolled his eyes but Kurama shrugged as he set the flowers down and took his seat at the counter.

"There's a sale every evening at the flower shop two blocks towards the metro," he said.

"Jeeze, you always gotta make me look bad," Yusuke groaned. "Once she sees those I'll never hear the end of it!"

"Maybe one day you'll learn your lesson and buy her a present without being told to."

While they were talking Kuwabara called. He had another math question and Kurama talked him through it while Yusuke shouted obscenities.

Days went by just as they had before he'd had to help save the world. Well, except for the fact that there were more demons on the street. But they were almost all on their best behavior, knowing that Urameshi was around and he didn't like anybody messing with his country.

"Shuichi, Hatanaka and I have been talking," Shiori says as they sit down for dinner.

He had moved into his own apartment once he'd started working, but she insists he come over at least twice a week to eat. She still doesn't trust him to feed himself. He tries to look politely curious but his stomach is already sinking. He knows what this will be about. Hatanaka had introduced him to every woman in the company who was under 25, and even a few who were over it. They were all pretty, pleasant, enamored with him and normal. Normal like he is supposed to be. He has never been very interested in normal.

"We think you should go back to school."

Kurama's eyes widen as he is actually caught off guard.

"What?"

"Don't take this the wrong way," Hatanaka says quickly. "You're doing a great job. In fact, too good. Shuichi, you're smart enough to do anything."

The problem is that he doesn't really care for anything in particular.

"I know you've been saving up money," Shiori says. "But we can help you. We want you to take the entrance exams. Maybe even go into Tokyo."

They are only a short way outside the capital, it isn't that far, but the idea of moving away from his mother panics him briefly.

"You'd friend Kuwabara is going to college there, isn't he?" his mother says. Possibly she has caught a hint of his apprehension. "You wouldn't be alone. And I know you'll make friends quickly."

She smiles at him then and that is that. He knows he'll do whatever she asks.

"If you think it's for the best," he says slowly, looking between them.

"We do," Hatanaka says. "I don't want you to think you're obligated to work at the company. And just think of it this way, Shuichi, you can go on to run any company and then take care of us when we're old!"

The adults burst into laughter at that and Kurama joins in with a polite chuckle. Already his mind is racing: entrance exams, college, moving. They're pushing him away like normal parents would. They want him to develop his own life. It's not something he looks forward to.

He gets into Keio University, because it will make them proud, and because it will annoy Kaito who's at Waseda University. His mother almost frames his acceptance letter, but he and Hatanaka manage to talk her out of it. Yusuke is less impressed.

"What the Hell are you going to do in college?" he demands as he hands another patron their bowl.

"Shut up," Kuwabara says from beside Kurama; it's his semester break and he's come home for a week. "He can do anything he wants."

"Yeah," Yusuke quips, "but he doesn't want to go to college. That's why he didn't go in the first place, dumbass. Jeeze, you think getting through high school would have meant you were actually getting smarter!"

"Urameshi, we can take this outside," Kuwabara growls, hands planted on the counter and half-way out of his seat.

Kurama still finds himself amused by their antics and tries to hold back a chuckle as the other two glare at each other. Yusuke's even brandishing a ladle. They all know that Yusuke could crush Kuwabara with his pinkie finger and that neither will ever acknowledge it.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Kurama sighs and stirs his noodles. "I don't even know what I'm going to major in."

"Biology."

"Botany."

"Hey," Yusuke says, "don't steal my answer!"

"They're different things, you idiot!" Kuwabara exclaims.

"You could become a doctor," Keiko says.

Yusuke and Kuwabara start as she slips into the seat beside Kurama, dropping her book bag at her feet.

"Gods, I'm tired. I had so many classes today!"

"Not everybody wants to take care of sick people," Yusuke says with a roll of his eyes as he goes to get her food. "I think one doctor in our group is enough."

"Ha," she snaps back. "Maybe if you all hadn't spent so much time getting yourselves beat silly I would have picked something you liked better, Yusuke."

"I like it fine," he says, holding up his hands, "I just don't want you all turning into doctors on me, like some freaky disease."

"Urameshi, what have you been drinking?" Kuwabara asks and Keiko rolls her eyes.

"He's just annoyed he's going to be your househusband," Kurama says in a low voice he knows they all can hear.

Keiko giggles but Kuwabara practically rolls off his seat as he laughs. The comment earns Kurama a glare from the former king.

"The deal works great for me," Yusuke says with a roll of his shoulders. "I help put her through college and med school and she's stuck buying me video games and food for the rest of our lives."

Her life, Kurama thinks. The others are still too young to see things that way and he knows it will be a dark day when Yusuke finally has to face the truth about being a demon. But for now things are smiles and jokes and he puts the thought aside as they come up with sillier and sillier career choices. Keiko suggests popstar and Kuwabara says actor. Yusuke says he should just become a gardener somewhere and spend all his time with his plants.