Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Orenji no Taiyou ❯ Tainted Blood ( Chapter 8 )

The smell of plum filled the air as the door slammed, and a redheaded teenager was thrown from the third house on the left of the tiny suburban neighborhood. He landed in the snow with a plop, a threat about police being yelled after him. No one took much notice.

A few hours prior to the slam, Minamino Shiori descended the stairs in her tiny house in time to see her son and his dark-haired friend leave. She smiled gently and looked to her husband. “What happened?”"I’m not sure. Shuuichi was doing his laundry and that Yuusuke boy barged in, angry.” Shiori nodded, showing that she had heard her husband, before going to the counter. Shuuichi had been working hard in school lately and she had heard about Dai dumping him. Staring at the off-white countertop, Shiori decided that her son deserved something better than getting dumped. Thinking hard, she remembered him saying that plum was his favorite; so, she set off, working to make plum rice balls.

Looking up from his work, the husband asked, “What are you doing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat plum.”Shiori smiled softly. Her navy blue hair ran down her shoulders and into a very loose ponytail. She kept it back with a white strand of ribbon. Her brown eyes seemed to mimic her mouth’s smile. Her flat face's perfect white skin gleamed in the light. She said with all the motherly love her face conveyed, “I haven’t made plums for a very long time, but its Shuuichi’s favorite.””Why’d you stop?” His dark brown hair waved a little as he looked up from the table at his bride. He took off his reading glasses to get a better look at Shiori. Behind his glasses sat a pair of deep brown eyes, matching his hair. His pale-yellow skin showed the signs of age brought on by his strenuous job at the hospital. His face looked older then he really was.”…I honestly don’t remember.” Shiori opened the rice cooker and poured in the rice before going to the ugly brown refrigerator and pulling out some plums.

The rice cooked, and Shiori added the plums. The sweet plum juice ran together with the rice, causing the rice to take on a plum-ish aroma. The steam raced through the house and drifted outside through an open window, cooling the hot kitchen.

“You said he was doing his laundry?””Yes.” He replaced his glasses and went back to work. He spotted a flaw in his flannel shirt. He picked at the thread, pulling the yellow-white piece of string out further, making the cuff around his wrist tighten. Frowning, his delicate surgeon's hands unbuttoned and rolled the cuffs on both arms up to his elbows. It was hot in the kitchen anyway.

“Maybe I’ll finish…” Shiori walked into the laundry room, the rice cooker spewing plum-rice steam into the air. She opened the drier and began folding. First it was shirts. She ironed his school uniforms. Shiori loved the pink with yellow trim. She noticed a button had fallen off, so she sat with her husband, to sew it back on.Once Shuuichi’s uniforms were clean, fixed up, and neatly folded in the powder blue laundry basket, she folded his dress shirts and trousers. She loved that her son loved to dress up. He always looked his best, rarely wearing jeans or sweats. The navy-haired woman wished her stepson was the same way, but he always insisted on jeans and plain t-shirts. He was always very sloppy.

Shiori had two neat stacks of clothes in the basket before reaching in for the last of Shuuichi’s things, only to come out with some lacy panties. “Uhh…” She looked at them, at a complete loss for several minutes, before calling in her husband.

He came in and smiled at the panties. “When did you buy those?””I didn’t.” Shiori didn’t even notice his suggestive tone.”Oh…” He took the panties from her and pulled at them, much like a school boy would. “You don’t think Shuuichi took these from Dai, do you?”Shiori reached into the drier and emerged with a padded bra and a white blouse. “I don’t think he could have gotten these from her…” She was at a loss. Her son was a pervert? Or worse? She prayed silently that he was just a pervert. Shiori couldn’t imagine how devastated she would be if her son were…

“Do you suppose there’s more in his room?”

Shiori was pulled from her thoughts by her husband’s proposal. “No…but maybe…””We should make sure,” he finished her sentence. He put the clothes in the laundry basket and picked it up to take it to his stepson’s room.

The pair walked up the cream-colored carpet to the floor above. They went to Shuuichi’s room and went inside without hassle. In the past, Shuuichi had kept his door locked; but running out with Yuusuke like that had lead to a hastily-left room.

Once inside, Shiori began to pick through his dresser, feeling a little guilty about going through her son’s things. However, she needed proof that her son was a pervert and not something else. Some porn, maybe.

Her husband had the same thought and looked under Shuuichi’s mattress for some proof that the other wasn’t gay. His mattress had been where he had kept his porn, after all. And boy did he find porn.

“Shiori,” his voice held anger and confusion. Deep down he felt he had known this about his stepson for years, but had denied it. How could he not know? The evidence was everywhere: the hair, the voice, the walk, and the mysterious disappearances.

Shiori turned to look at him. He threw the man-porn on the floor in anger and she felt her eyes tear up. Her son was gay! Shiori shook her head, “It’s a mistake…””He’s a fag.””It’s a mistake!” She felt her heart break. Her son was gay. The only blood relative of the man she had loved and devoted her life to was gay. He was tainted blood. She shook her head some more, covering her eyes as tears started to flow.Her husband stalked to the dresser and began ripping out the contents until he found the hidden drawer. He took out and threw Shuuichi’s skirts, blouses, high-heels, and hair trinkets on top of the magazine. “Your son is gay. Your son is gay!”Shiori slumped against a wall in tears. Her son was gay! No…he wasn’t her son. “My son isn’t gay.” Her voice was shaky, like she was fending off an attack of some sort. “I have no son, other then the one you brought into this marriage.”

Her husband looked at her before pulling her to her feet and into a hug. “I’ll take care of this,” he promised, “You’ll never see him again.”

A few hours later he tossed Minamino Shuuichi out of the house and onto the freshly laden, out-of-season snow with the threat that if he came back for his things before they were ready, he would be arrested for trespassing.