Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Me and Shuichi ❯ One-Shot

Me and Shuichi

By Koritsune Dragonrider

Summery: You know how far a son would go to save the life of his mother, but how far would a mother go to protect her son. This is to all the mothers that had to leave their husbands in protection for their children, because parent love doesn't get any farther then that.

Disclaimers: Me and Emily belongs to Rachel Proctor. Yu Yu Hakusho belongs to Shonen Jump, FUNdamation, and Yoshiro Tagoshi

Warning: Slight AU, Angst

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"You don't understand," I yelled. "He's special!"

"He's not special, he's a freak!" yelled my husband, Koichi. "No child leans that fast!"

He's smarter! Any parent would be proud of it!"

"I don't want a brainiac for a son! Get dinner ready."

I would have made dinner but a wailing upstairs caught my attention. Our son heard us yelling and wanted it to stop. Somehow he didn't like it when we yelled at each other, what child wouldn't, and did the only thing to keep us from it, cry. I started to walk up the stairs when a blow to my head stopped me and I sprawled against the table trying to keep conscious as the room spun around me. Why was he like this? We were so happy before . . . before our son was born.

That's when it all started. When out baby boy came into the world. Everything was fine the first year, but our son never laughed, he never played with us, or cried. He just looked at us in a strange manner, like he thought of us as underlings or caretakers. No w he was three and was walking and talking unlike normal toddlers, and we caught him more then once talking to himself, or an imaginary being. He called it "Kurama." Finally it sent Koichi over the edge. Saying that our son was abnormal and needed medical care, of course I disagreed. There was nothing wrong with him, he was just different.

"Dinner!" yelled Koichi sending me back to reality and I went to cook the food. Life would have been normal if our son was but it wasn't. I learned two years ago that Shuichi was something that would one day be special and I wasn't going to stop it. I learned that Fate takes you where it wants you, you can never stop it.

That night I didn't go to sleep. Instead, as soon as I heard Koichi's snoring, I started packing. Clothes, books, pictures, money, anything that belonged to just me and I walked to Shuichi's room.

As son as I opened the door I was surprised to see him still awake. We had put him to bed hours ago but here he was, sitting on the floor with small bag filled with his clothes and his favorite fox doll in his hands.

"We're leaving father now, mother," he asks and I nodded. It always struck me as odd that he knew what I was thinking most. He knew what I would do before I did it. That's another thing special about my boy.

He pick up his bag with astonishing strength, a child couldn't lift that bag, and walked out the room toward the car. I followed with my own bag and buckled him in his car set, securing it before getting in myself.i started the car and drove out of the drive way.

~Floorboard's filled with baby toys, an' empty coke bottles an' coffee cups. Drivin' through the rain with no radio, tryin' not to wake him up. ~

It was hours later and we were still going. I stopped at a gas station once and picked up some traveling supplies and fueled up on gas. Shuichi didn't want anything, as usual, he never did. He just stood therewith me as I fueled up, bought the food, and walked out with Kitsune, his doll, at his side the whole time. I always wondered why he didn't call the doll "Kurama" instead of "Kitsune," but Shuichi said it wasn't the doll's name, it was Kurama's.

I looked back through the rearview mirror and saw him asleep. That was good. I over heard him for the last hour explaining to "Kurama" why we were leaving Koichi. The child's imaginary friend didn't seem to understand so Shuichi stopped trying and after a while fell silent and looked in the seat next to him, like listening to someone hum a tune or tell him something. I thought I did hear someone hum a tune. A soft baritone voice that almost made me go to sleep. I shook the voice from my head and drove on as it started to rain.

~Cell phone says "low battery", God, what if I break down? I'm just lookin' for an exit with a lotta lights, a safe little interstate town. ~

The weather was looking worse and worse by the hour. I didn't think I would survive the night. What would happen if I flattened a tire? Or the battery went dead. Speaking of batteries, I looked at the battery in my cell phone and it said that it was low. I needed to charge it and I didn't have one for the car. I needed to get to a hotel room. It was two in the morning and I needed to sleep or I'll knock out behind the wheel.

I turned into the next exit and started looking for a hotel.

~Just a cheap hotel, with a single bed, and cable TV: is good enough for me an' Shuichi. ~

I pull into a road side hotel half an hour later, cheap and nice. Paying for the night I brought out me and Shuichi's luggage and walked in the room, and set Shuichi on the bed without waking him up. The room was small with a single bed in the middle of the room and a bath room adjacent to it. A T.V. was on a stand with the old fashion switch dials but it did have cable. Right now I didn't care about the pleasantries, I just wanted to sleep. I climbed in the bed and prayed I didn't squash Shuichi throughout the night. I was asleep before I hit the pillow.

~Some day, when he's old enough, he's gonna start askin' questions about him. Some kid at school brings his Dad for show an' tell, an' it gets his little mind a-wonderin':~

How will you act when you find out I had to leave your father, Shuichi. Will you be sad? Would you be mad at me for taking away from him? If you are I hope you will forgive me someday. I did not want to take you away from Koichi but it was the best thing to do for the both of us. I couldn't let Koichi hurt us any more, I couldn't let him hurt you anymore. I hope I have the strength to raise you the way you're meant to.

~"Where's my Daddy? Do I have one? Does he not love me like you do?" Oh, maybe I'll find someone to love the both of us, now an' I'll tell him when he's old enough to know the truth. ~

Maybe I can find someone to love us both, in the way a father should love his son, but can I? Can I find someone who can love you, Shuichi, despite how different how you are? Yes I have noticed your differences from other children. You learn too fast, you do things ahead of time. Will my new husband love you as much as I do despite how you are? I hope I do. But I know one day I will have to tell you about Koichi. I dread the day I will have to.

~Will it break his heart? Will he understand? That I had to leave? That's what was best for me an' Shuichi.~

Will you ask about him, Shuichi? If I do tell you about him, would you hate me? I hope not, I don't wish to harm you; I only wished to protect you from Koichi. He would have surely hurt you if you stayed there any longer. I had to leave. Shuichi, I'm sorry.

But somehow, I see us in the future. We're living a peaceful life, and you never asked me once about your father. Instead, you took care of me, and I took care of you. I wish that would be our future.

~ That house was never clean enough; his dinner never warm enough. Nothing I did was ever good enough to make him happy. So I guess he gave me what he thought I deserved, but it would kill me if he ever raised his hand to him. ~

As I slept I dreamed about the times he hit me. It was always me, never Shuichi. The first time he tried I shielded the boy, so he would hit me instead. The second time was outside and I wasn't close enough to get there in time. Koichi walked toward him with a raised fist, but before he could hit Shuichi he fell and the boy ran to me and I took him back home.

Since that day I never found out what Koichi tripped over and Koichi was never aggressive toward our son, just never touched him. Instead he took it out on me. If he wasn't my son I would send him for adoption, I could have too. But I won't. This is what's best for both of us.

~Big rigs are throwin' rain on my windshield now an' I feel like they're laughin' at me. Fin'lly the storm is lettin' up an' the mornin' is breakin' free. ~

The five o'clock hour rang and we were back on the road. With only three hours sleep I was still tired but I was determined to put as much distance as I could from me and Koichi. The truckers in front of me sprayed mud and water on the windshield. The soft sounds sounded like laughter against the glass. Let them laugh. I would stand up to a million humiliations and more for my son.

~It's a brand new day, it's a second chance. Yesterday is just a memory, for me an' Shuichi. ~

The clouds started to break and the sun shone. Some how the new day filled my heart and made it lighter then it had been in three years. This was a new day for us, a second chance. We could look back over the years and not remember anything from this point. It is erased for us. There is nothing there.

~Floorboard is filled with baby toys, an' empty coke bottles an' coffee cups. Least there's one good thing that he gave me, an' he's startin' to wake up. ~

I looked in my rear view mirror and about gasped. There wasn't a car behind me but what had captured my attention was the seat next to my son. In it was a man with long silver hair and he wore a white tunic and pants. His eyes were gold, like a cat or a fox but what got me most was the ears, they were cat ears. Silver like his hair and all downy and soft. His handsome muscular face looked gently at me and he placed a finger to his lips. He was telling me to be quiet for Shuichi was still asleep. Was the man real? Did he really exist? Or, was this Shuichi's imaginary friend?

I looked back over the seat and saw no one but Shuichi starting to wake up in the morning light. Did I imagine the man? I couldn't have. I saw him in the mirror plain as day but yet there was no one but Shuichi in the back seat.

Shuichi groaned once and looked in the seat next to him. He was talking to "Kurama" again. He does that when me and Koichi fought or when he plays. After a few minutes he nodded and looked at me.

"Mother, Kurama wants to know why you're taking me with you when you could have left me behind," said Shuichi and I just looked ahead. I could have left Shuichi behind, I would have left him behind, but . . .

"I couldn't," I said. Shuichi paused for a moment then spoke again.

"Kurama asks why?"

"Because, Shuichi, you're my son and I love you too much to let you be hurt by your father. I would go to the ends of the earth to protect you."

Shuichi again was silent as he listened to "Kurama" talk to him. Could he really hear someone talk to him through his min? It seemed strange to me. But if Shuichi did have telepathy, he'll put it to good use.

"Kurama says he is grateful to you for taking care of me, and that he would take care of you as well."

I was silent as I drove down the road. He spoke as if this being was a real person. Could that be true? Could he really have a friend only he could see and hear?

"Tell him, thanks you, Shuichi.," I said. "We'll protect each other."

"I'll protect you too, Mother," he said then paused. "He says, you're welcome."

I smiled. Even if little Shuichi did have a friend who could protect me I pray he'll never leave. Shuichi seemed happiest when talking and playing with his friend and I hoped the never part.

I passed a sign that said "Tokyo 5 ml" and saw the huge city in the distance. It was there that we would start our new life. It was there that we would rid our memories of the past and make new ones for the future. Right here, right now, there was no one else on the road toward what would be what we can finally call home.

Just me and Shuichi.

End

This story inspired me when I heard a story from my mom when she told me how she had to leave her husband, my dad, for a while because he was being too violent. But unlike in the story my mother returned to my father and now lives happily together. I hope that the same happens with you and your parents.