Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction / Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Uprising ❯ Nighttime with Grapes ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

(Disclaimer:  I don’t own... *sighs* Do I have to?  *gets a mean stare and gulps* Okay, um... I do NOT own Yami no Matsuei or Yu Yu Hakusho.)

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Tsuzuki had a choice, either to simply shake Andrea awake or to simply pull her out of bed before the window broke.  The mere thought of a ball of ice hitting her head while she slept was enough for him.  He took a deep breath and grabbed the sleeping girl into his arms, along with the blanket over her.

That turned out to be the worst decision of the two.  Andrea’s eyes snapped open as she felt herself being pulled out of bed.  “W-What the hell?!” she nearly screamed, starting to hit him with closed fists and tried to kick out at him before she looked at the window, which broke in two corners before the bottom pane broke completely from a hailstone.

Before there was an argument, he had carried her into the living room.  Thankfully, the window there wasn’t damaged.  It looked to be the safest room in the apartment, while he didn’t look safe himself.  The girl in his arms was still slapping and kicking at him as if she was fighting from being kidnapped, but at least she was safe.

“Put me down!” Andrea hissed at him before she felt herself being lowered onto the loveseat.  She pursed her lips together and crossed her arms.

“You were lucky that hailstone didn’t hit your head,” he told her.

“What hailstone?”  Andrea’s eyes looked over to the television, where the weather report was continuing.

“Once again, we urge people to stay away from windows and move to the center of the room,” the reporter said.  “This looks like a bad hailstorm, everyone.  Please be safe.”

Andrea blinked at the screen, realization setting into her still-tired face.  “Oh, my God... I-I don’t know w-what to say...”

Tsuzuki sat down on the loveseat next to her.  “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said after he had taken a deep breath.  “When I saw your window, it looked like it would break anytime.”  He blinked down at her.  “Do you have anything that could cover a window?”

Andrea blinked, rubbing her eyes.  “I-I think so,” she answered.  “There’s a roll of garbage bags in a drawer and some duct tape somewhere...”  She stood up, holding onto the counter as she walked into the kitchen.  She felt something move past her and blinked.  

Tsuzuki had moved past her and found the items before he met Andrea’s tired gaze.  “I’ll take care of the window,” he told her.  “You just lay down on the loveseat.”  At that, he walked past her.

Andrea shook her head before she followed him.  “No, I’m going with you,” she answered.  Not that she didn’t trust him, but that she had to watch him.  Just for sanity’s sake.

“All right,” Tsuzuki conceded.  “But you’re staying at the door.”  He watched her nod while he turned on the light to the room and started to use the garbage bags and the tape to tape up the window.  He blinked just as a shard of the glass cut into his hand but finished the window. “All right, it’s done...” This time, when he turned back, he saw her eyes wide open.

Andrea saw the cut and blood on his hand and held a hand to her mouth that had dropped open in shock.  Oh, great, the first night someone stayed with her and he got hurt...

“Andrea, it’s all right, really,” he consoled her as he got closer.  He showed her his hand, which had started to heal itself.

Andrea’s hand fell from her still wide-open mouth and her eyes widened before she sank to her knees.  “W-What... w-what the hell?”

The cut on Tsuzuki’s hand had healed itself in a matter of half a minute.  He knelt down in front of her and tried to meet her eyes, but they were looking at the floor.

“N-Not even Kurama can heal t-that fast...”

He heard the stunned tone in her voice before he gently pulled her to her feet, his face softening but still worried about her.  “Come on,” he said, turning off the light and leading her back into the living room.

Andrea plopped down on the loveseat while Tsuzuki sat down on the couch.  “H-How did you...” Andrea asked, blinking up at him.

“I’m able to heal from things like that quickly as a Guardian of Death,” Tsuzuki explained.  “You mentioned earlier tonight about me being nine years older than you.”  He watched her nod.  “The truth is... I’m 112.  26 living years.”

“S-So you’ve been a Guardian of Death for...”

“Eighty-six years,” he finished.  “I’ve been at this job longer than your parents had been alive.”

Andrea blinked, that word cutting into her like a knife.  “C-Can we not talk about my parents?” she asked as she got up and went into the kitchen.  She opened the refrigerator and blinked at some of her long auburn hair cascading over her shoulder.  “I-It’s not up...”  Shaking her head, she grabbed a bag of grapes.  She had read somewhere that grapes would cool someone down enough to lull them back to sleep.  She set the grapes on the counter before she closed the door and went to her bedroom.

Tsuzuki took a deep breath.  What was it about mentioning her parents that shut her off like that?  Did they hurt her?  Abuse her?  Or was it their deaths alone that made Andrea like that?  She won’t tell me, he thought to himself.  He blinked, seeing Andrea come back to the living room with a bowl in her hand and her hair up in a ponytail.  “I could have gotten that,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Andrea answered, sitting down on the loveseat and setting the bowl down on the coffee table.  She pulled a small bunch of grapes off the larger bunch and leaned back on the loveseat.  “Do you like scaring teenage girls like that?”

“I’d hardly call that scaring you,” Tsuzuki answered, taking a few himself.

“True,” Andrea answered, popping a grape into her mouth.  The juice was cooling her insides already.  “Being a Spirit Detective, you see some really messed up stuff.”

“How long have you been that?”

“Since I was fourteen,” Andrea answered, plucking off another grape.

“That’s still quite young for that kind of work,” Tsuzuki said gently before eating a grape. Now he felt better; the grape was easing a lot of worry he had for that girl in the loveseat.  At least she wasn’t injured; that was one thing that put his mind at ease faster than any grape could have.

Andrea gave him a look.  “I’m seventeen, Tsuzuki, not ten,” she said before she ate another grape.

“I know,” he answered, eating another grape.  Tsuzuki looked at the auburn haired girl on the loveseat, a slight pout on his face.  She didn’t have to be so defensive all of a sudden, he thought to himself before starting an apology.  “I didn’t mean to upset you...”

“About what?”

“When I mentioned your parents, you looked upset.  I didn’t mean to...”

“Look, it’s done and over with,” Andrea answered.  “I simply don’t want to talk about it, all right?”

“Fair enough,” he replied, making a mental note to find out why later.  “But if you want to, you can tell me, all right?”

“Sure,” she answered, eating another grape.  After chewing it, her mind wandered.  Why did he want to know?  Was Tsuzuki that curious or just plain annoying?

Tsuzuki wondered what it was that she didn’t want to talk about.  Maybe she simply wasn’t ready to talk about it.  Now he just had to change the subject.  “Y-You know...”

Andrea blinked up at him.

“That little guy was your boss?”

“Which little guy?  There’s Hiei and there’s Koenma.”

“Koenma... that’s your boss?”

Andrea snickered into her hand, the first time that night.  “Yeah, that little pipsqueak is my boss,” she answered.  “He sucks a pacifier, wears a diaper and looks like a baby.”

Finally, he broke the ice.  “Really?  That little baby is your boss?”

“Yeah,” Andrea answered.

“How did you take it?”

“Me?”  Andrea watched Tsuzuki nod his head.  “I took it well in front of everyone.  Then I laughed my ass off at home.  What’s yours like?”

“Oh, he’s kind of old and grumpy...”

Andrea shook her head.  Oh, boy...

“Well, one of them is,” Tsuzuki continued.  “Another’s not really happy cause of something I did...”

“What?  Did you blow up the White House or something?”

“No, it’s uh...”  He rubbed his head sheepishly and laughed nervously.

How bad could it possibly be?

“It was a library,” he finally answered.

Andrea raised an eyebrow.  He couldn’t be serious, right?  “What?”

“I kind of blew up the library at the Judgment Bureau... I-I’m still having to pay for that... and the first time, too...”

“I’m not sure if I want to know how that’s possible...”  Andrea blinked at the man on the couch, her vision now blurred like crazy.  He acted like a moron but blew up a library, not once but TWICE?  Was there more to him than just Tsuzuki being a doofus?  Maybe it was the grapes and how it made her appear more tired than she originally thought...

“Maybe you should get some...” Tsuzuki blinked over to the loveseat, which now had Andrea laying on it with her eyes closed, her ponytail over her shoulder with her arm hanging over the side.

“Andrea?” Tsuzuki asked her, and when he didn’t get an answer, he knew that she had fallen asleep.  She must have been exhausted, he thought as he stood up and pulled the blanket back over her shoulders.  It’s just crazy how a teenage girl has to work so hard like this instead of simply taking it easy.

Andrea simply didn’t hear a word or even feel the blanket on her shoulders, blissfully unaware to what was going on.

He didn’t know why he kept watching her for an extra five minutes while finishing off the grapes.  Maybe while she slept, she looked different than when she was awake, without a care or thought in her mind.  Maybe it was because of her work.  Maybe it was both.  “Good night, Andrea,” he said before he walked to the couch and lay down at an angle so he could watch her.  Purely just in case the hail was to break that window as well.  Just in case.  Taking a deep breath, Tsuzuki fell asleep as well; unconsciously moving his head to face Andrea’s sleeping form.

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(Sorry if this chapter’s a little short.  My homework in college is piling up and I have to buckle down and get it done.  If you’re wondering why Andrea’s got an attitude, it’ll be explained in later chapters.  After this chapter, things should go a little bit faster.  See you later!)