Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Season of the Crystal Feather ❯ Hop Goes the Rabbit! ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, its characters, or the park with the lake in the middle. I do own Autumn, Nuala, Freckles, and...Um...I think that's it. Sad, ne?

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Hop Goes the Rabbit:

Later that morning, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara got together and took a plane to New York. They would have had other means of transportation, but Koenma had spent the funding for that on a life sized Teenage Koenma inflatable toy. After the long plane ride Yusuke fell asleep in their hotel and wouldn't wake up, so the gang didn't start looking for the three people until the next morning at 9 Am. Kurama was wearing his white Chinese outfit (the one from the beginning of the dark tournament). Yusuke was wearing his green uniform. Kuwabara was wearing his blue uniform. Hiei, like usual, was wearing all black with his katana carefully concealed under his black cloak.

They were on their way to a state park with a big lake in the middle. People were out on the lake in bright colored paddle boats when they got there. Other people were running around playing Frisbee. As they watched one Frisbee game, a random old woman got hit with the Frisbee and started chasing the kids around with her cane held over her head and screaming curses at them.

It seemed to be a very pleasant park. The four boys found a nice spot overlooking the lake that was free of goose droppings and sat down. They started thinking up ideas on how to find these people. Or rather, Kurama and Hiei came up with ideas while Yusuke and Kuwabara pointed out hot girls in the park. As they talked some random guy in a cheap duck costume ran and jumped into the lake while screaming 'Quack'. He sank to the bottom of the water and everyone went about their business as if it had never happened.

In a house located in a nearby town, a girl was sleeping soundly. She was having the strangest dream about washing dishes in a restaurant that, as far as she knew, didn't exist. Her room was very messy, with games and things clustered in one corner of the room near the TV. Actually it wasn't as messy as usual since she had made room for her rabbit to run around under her bed.

Rabbit's point of view:

Two cages were located along one side of the room. One cage had two small finches in it. The birds were pressed together sleeping soundly on one perch of the cage. The other cage was larger and contained me, a very cute white rabbit with black speckles and black floppy ears. I was wide awake and, after having turned over my food dish, very hungry. It was breakfast time, but my extremely lazy human was still asleep. That didn't surprise me though since she has a tendency to sleep until well into the afternoon when able.

I looked around the room hoping for something that would keep me entertained. The magical box that was in my human's room was off. I guessed that the odd people living inside it needed their sleep too. I had no choice but to sit glaring at my sleeping human. After a while I got very agitated. I was hungry and all she was doing was mumbling something about dishes! She should've been awake and fulfilling her duties as my servant!

I was struck with a wonderful idea. I picked up my food dish awkwardly with my teeth and threw it across the cage. It made a loud crash as it fell. Almost immediately my human sat up in bed. She might be able to sleep soundly through storms, but the second she hears a noise from one of the cages she wakes up. She ran a hand through her shoulder length messy dark brown hair and blinked her blue grey eyes a few times to adjust to the lack of light. She looked over at me and saw me glaring at her.

She looked over at the clock and then returned my glare with one of her own, "Fur ball, what have I said about waking me up before noon?"

The human, Autumn, got up and greeted the birds while ignoring me. She turned on the lights and made sure the birds had food and water. She then looked around.

"Hmm...It feels like I'm forgetting something...What on Earth could it be?" Autumn looked around the room.

I looked down at my empty food dish and thumped my feet in annoyance. Autumn scanned over the room again. "Now, what have I forgotten to do...? Oh well! It must not be important!"

She left the room. I stared down at my food dish again. Then up at the door. She had never forgotten to feed me before. I mean, I always knew she was stupid, but I didn't think she was THAT stupid. The birds looked over at me from their food dish and one started making a sound that was quite like laughing. I glared at them.

A moment later Autumn came back into the room dressed in a black Tee-shirt that said 'I have gone to find myself, If I get back before I return, Keep me here.' on it. She was also wearing a pair of black Capri's and blue sandals. I started chewing on the bars of my cage. Autumn grinned at me.

"Don't worry! I haven't forgotten you! I was just getting my revenge!" She said happily as she opened my cage and put food in my dish.

While I greedily ate my food, Autumn started packing a bag with a water bottle and other things, including food for me. She then took out my harness and leash. After a bit of struggling she had finally gotten the harness and the leash onto me. Then we were off to the park!

As we walked to the park, Autumn looked down at me cradled in her arms. The harness and leash was just a precaution in case I decided to escape from her arms. She had learned from experience that running away and causing trouble was one of my favorite things to do.

"Freckles, don't try to run around the whole park today ok? I'm too tired to run around today." Autumn said as she smiled at me. I nibbled at her sleeve hoping she would understand that as a promise. "I'll take that as a promise."

Once we got to the park we had to avoid some crazy old lady chasing children and some police officers dragging a guy in a duck costume out of the park. Autumn had been heading towards the lake when she got distracted by a squirrel. She stood watching the squirrel that was sniffing around on the ground. Bored, I started looking around the park at all the people in it.

There were groups of humans that seemed about the same age as Autumn. In one part of the park there were benches with elderly humans that were feeding pigeons. Little humans were climbing and running around in large play areas designed for them. I turned my attention towards the lake and saw four people there.

One of them had a strange black helmet on his head and was dressed all in green. He was sitting on a tree stump looking at the other three. Sitting next to his stump was a boy with an ugly orange dead animal on his head. He was wearing all blue and had a clueless expression on his face as he listened to the conversation of his companions. Opposite from the helmeted boy was a person with long red hair and bright green eyes. I couldn't tell if it was a male or female from the distance I was at. It was leaning against a tree with its arms crossed and appeared to be speaking to the other three. Sitting on a branch of the tree the third one was leaning against was a black haired boy with black spiky hair that had a white starburst in it. He was glaring down at the others with his inhuman red eyes.

Curious about these strangers and eager to get my owner away from the squirrel, I decided to break my promise. "Oh well, Autumn needs a life, anyways. She'll eventually thank me for this."

I hopped out of Autumn's arms and, since I had caught her by surprise, the leash was easily yanked from her grasp. As I hopped speedily toward the strangers I heard her Autumn call to me. It suddenly struck me that I was free. Freedom is very important to me since I hate being caged. I forgot about the strangers and started to fully enjoy the run over the soft grass. I was enjoying the run so much that I didn't even notice how close I was to the lake.

Third person POV:

"Hey...isn't that a rabbit?" Yusuke asked as he pointed at the white rabbit running happily towards the lake.

The others turned to look. The first thing they noticed was the rabbit hopping off the ground and staying in the air every few seconds. Next they noticed the dragging leash. Finally, they noticed the girl running after the rabbit screaming death threats and stuff about 'Rabbit Stew' at the fugitive bunny of doom.

"It's heading straight for the lake." Kuwabara pointed out as he, Yusuke, and Hiei watched the rabbit to see if it would fall in the lake.

"Can rabbits swim?" Yusuke asked.

"I think rabbits are afraid of water..." Kurama blinked.

"Nice." Yusuke grinned as he watched the rabbit.

Kurama frowned at his companions and muttered, "Some heroes you three are..."

"Quiet Kurama, you'll ruin the fun." Yusuke shushed the redhead.

Kurama sighed and started running to catch the rabbit.

Rabbit's POV again:

I had my eyes closed when I suddenly felt myself run out of ground to run on. I opened my eyes and looked down to see that I was falling through the air towards the murky water of the lake. I suddenly became aware that I was terrified of water and that once in the water I wouldn't be able to swim or save myself. With this in mind I started struggling. I heard Autumn scream my name in distress.

Before I could hit the water I felt two human hands grab me just under my front legs. My rescuer then lifted me up and held me against their chest so that my head was resting on their shoulder. I looked up to see that my rescuer was the red haired stranger from before. Now that I was close I could tell that it was a boy. He smiled down at me as I nibbled gratefully at his hair.

"Freckles!" Autumn yelled as she ran up to us. The redhead handed me over to her and she hugged me tightly. "You stupid, stupid, stupid rabbit! I told you not to run away! That's it! No bananas for a week!"

"Um...I thought rabbits ate carrots, not bananas." The one in blue said as he and the other two walked over to us.

"Not my little idiot here! He's crazy for bananas." Autumn smiled proudly.

"If you don't like that rabbit, why do you keep it?" The one in green asked.

Autumn shot the boy a death glare and said menacingly, "He does not appreciate being called an 'it'."

"Whatever you say, Count D.[1]" The one in green rolled his eyes.

"Please forgive my friend; he can be quite rude at times." The redhead apologized to Autumn.

Autumn nodded in understanding. "Oh! By the way, thank you so much for saving my rabbit, Kurama!"

"You...know my name?" The redhead, Kurama, arched an eyebrow at Autumn.

Autumn, with me being held to her with one arm, rubbed the back of her head with her free hand and laughed nervously, "Well, yeah...you see, you guys are on a TV show called Yu Yu Hakusho that I watch all the time..."

"TV show?! You mean we're famous?!" The one in green asked in astonishment.

Autumn nodded, "Yes, Yusuke, but everyone thinks it's just a fictional story and nothing more. In fact, if they saw you they'd probably think you were crazy people dressing up like the characters because you have nothing better to do with your lives."

"Why don't you think that?" The spiky haired boy asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Autumn.

"That's a good question, Hiei! A very good question...Eh...I'm lacking in sanity?" Autumn laughed nervously again.

Yusuke nodded, "Good enough for me! So, you know who we are but we don't know who you are. That hardly seems fair..."

"My name's Autumn! And this stupid ball of fluff is Freckles!" Autumn smiled.

Kurama took Autumn's free hand and kissed the back of it as Autumn's face turned bright red. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Autumn." He smiled down at her after straightening himself. He wasn't taller than her by much but it was still enough to make him have to look down at her.

"Please, just call me Autumn..." Autumn smiled sheepishly.

Yusuke and the other boy, whose name hadn't been mentioned yet, snickered. Hiei rolled his eyes and shifted his weight in a bored manner. I started watching the clouds in the sky. Autumn absently started petting my head. Kurama seemed to get lost in his thoughts for a moment.

"Hmm...According to Nuala, the three we're looking for have their guardians as pets and there was a rabbit's image among those she showed us...Perhaps this girl and her pet are among those we have to find?" Kurama thought out loud.

Autumn's eyes flashed darker for a moment but I appeared to be the only one that noticed. "Nuala? Guardians? What are you talking about?"

I turned my attention to glaring at the redhead. He was going to respond to Autumn when he noticed my glare. "Umm...Is it my imagination or is your rabbit glaring at me?"

"Yup, he's glaring at you alright! He hates being called a pet." Autumn chuckled, "You had better apologize before he develops a permanent grudge against you."

Yusuke rolled his eyes, "It's just a stupid rabbit! It's not like it actually understands what we're saying!"

"Here, hold Freckles." Autumn said, giving me to Kurama.

"Um...ok..." Kurama blinked, wondering what Autumn was about to do.

Autumn stormed over to Yusuke and glared up at him. "What did you say?" She asked between clenched teeth.

Yusuke backed away nervously. Autumn followed with fire in her eyes. I shifted in Kurama's arms so I could get a better view of Yusuke's impending doom. If there's one thing that you never do around her, it's insult an animal. Kurama chuckled a little, seeing me so intent on watching. In all the excitement I had completely forgotten that I was angry at him.

Autumn smirked as Yusuke realized that he could no longer back up unless he wanted to take a swim in the lake. Yusuke looked fearfully at Autumn then back at the lake. He continued looking back and forth between Autumn and the lake. He was stuck between the wrath of a teenage girl that's not all there in the head and a watery place.

Autumn made a fist with her right hand. "Never call Freckles stupid again!"

Yusuke proved that for every action there is indeed an equal but opposite reaction. When Autumn stepped towards him, he turned and jumped away into the lake.

Autumn shrugged and walked back over to Kurama whistling happily. "I knew he was going to do that! Thank you for holding Freckles."

"Was that really necessary?" Kurama asked as he gave me back to her.

"Hey cool! The Yu Yu Hakusho guys!" A voice said from behind us.

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Dream: Who does this mysterious voice belong to? Will Freckles ever find out the name of that ugly orange haired stranger? What the heck happened to that strange man in the duck suit?! Find out the answers to these questions and more in chapter 3 of The Season of the Crystal Feather!

Freckles: ::rolls eyes:: Aren't you being just a bit too dramatic?

Dream: Stop trying to ruin my fun!

Freckles: Oh well...Review please people!

[1] Count D is one of the main characters of the Petshop of Horrors (do not own) series. He can speak to animals and doesn't like when people don't show proper respect to an animal. I had Yusuke call Autumn that since it just seemed to fit.