THE NEIGHBOR:

There he is again. Same time. Same position. Every fucking day. He just stands there. Staring at nothing. Hands in pockets. I see it’s the dark blue jeans today, by the way. Not that I care about what he wears and all, but…

Why does he do that?

He is a mystery. This new neighbor of ours. They must have moved in about…hmmm…I would say, three months come tomorrow. Yeah, that’s right. I’m just your regular old day keeper. Jobless you might think, nah…just bored out of my skull. I mean, it’s summer but yet there is nothing to do in this lousy neighborhood except to listen to teenage girls yapping about their recent trips to the mall or having to duke it out with an overzealous friend, by the name of Kuwabara, who thinks he can whoop my ass, but is yet to even give me a scratch.

But then again, I digress.

Back to the guy I was telling you about. He has flaming red hair. Now, I don’t mean those kinds of fake dye jobs girls tend to get these days…but to be honest, the first time I did see him…I did think he was a girl. Anyhoo, this guy…has long, flaming red hair. Why do I repeat, you ask? Because you would have to see it for yourself to believe it. I mean, the damn thing is fucking unbelievable! It’s like…gah…it’s times like these I wish I were more fluent in English Grammar. I think I got an ‘F’ last semester. Okay, back to red-hair. It’s as red as…as….

Blood.

Yeah, that’s it! As red as blood and I would bet you that it must be as silky and as soft as…whoa! Hey, don’t get the wrong idea people. There is no way in hell that I would want to touch his hair. I mean…shoot! Why would I, Yuusuke Urameshi, certified thug and all around bad guy, want to touch some guy’s hair, just to see how soft and silky it is and to bury my face in it and inhale his scent and to…

Damn pants are getting tight again. Oh, geez…sorry about that. I tend to ramble sometimes when I get nervous. Oh and you didn’t hear that last part either…or the part before that. I am NOT into guys! Okay?! Let’s just get that out of the way.

So, he has red hair you say, what’s the big deal? I mean lots of guys have red, flaming, and blood colored hair, right? Well, that is only the half of it. You know what really gets me? What really, really ticks me off…a bit? Noooo…it is not because it looks like he can kick my ass or the fact that he is a bit taller than me, or that he has this stupid mysterious smile on his face as he stands there looking at nothing. No, it’s his…

Eyes.

Oh, Kami. I wish you guys could be here to see them up close. They are the most…not to sound mushy or sentimental, but according to my girlfriend, her name’s Keiko by the way, those eyes are the most breathtaking things she has ever seen. I got a firsthand look at them, the day my mom decided that we ought to go introduce ourselves. You know…friendly neighbor, welcome to the neighborhood, shit like that. Anyways, I take one look into those startling…and I mean startling, because they practically jump out at you. Those eyes just scream ‘Look at me and drown in my amazing green depths.’ Man, I was hooked, drawn in and I guess I did drown in them. Sometimes, I wish he would look at me again with them. Just to stare at me and only me…

Whoa! Stray thought alert! Not happening again!

However, since I am the resident thug and my job is to look out for future opponents, I could not help but check out…I mean to…to…dammit! I could not help but inspect…yeah, to inspect the new kid on the block. And boy! Was I impressed with the total package. He might be slight in build, but he is solid. You know what I mean, don’t you? I mean, you could look at him and you could tell that he was not a guy to mess around with. I want to fight with him so bad, it is like an itch. A reeeeeeally bad itch.

He has the baddest abs I have ever seen. How do I know? Hell, he has walked out without a shirt on before. It was a rare moment. Actually, it happened last Saturday morning, about six, and my mom had made me get up to take out the trash, much to my displeasure and which, of course, didn’t help with my attitude.

In short, I was pissed.

So, there I was dragging the large, stinky bin to the front of the lawn, and who should walk out of the next house, dressed in only black, silk pj bottoms? None other than our resident mystery guy! The light wasn’t that good, or he would have seen my reddened face quite easily. I just stood there like a fucking zombie, watching him run out on bare feet to pick up the morning paper, the muscles on that rock-hard stomach glistening in the early morning light. I must have whimpered or something, ‘cause my damn boxers had gotten so tight I could barely stand on my own two feet. He had bent down, people. Bent down! And to my immense delight, his pants slid down a bit…just a wee bit, giving me a pretty good view of his butt…well at least a crack. It didn’t help matters as he straightened up and began to walk back in, the pants now riding low on his hips. I felt like running up to him and tugging the damn thing all the way down. I wondered if he was as well hung as I was beginning to imagine. I wondered if his skin felt as soft as it was hard. I wondered if those lips that were parting now to say ‘good morning’ to me, were as sweet as…

Did I forget to mention that I am not into guys?

I remember standing out there for a good ten minutes more, like a fucking idiot, sporting a mega-sized hard-on in my shorts, my breaths becoming quite difficult as he smiled and walked back into his house. His voice…his voice was like…

Rain.

Uuumm…do not ask me where that came from. It just sounds like that, okay? Walking back into the house was quite painful I tell you. I had to mumble some excuse to my mom, who had been looking at me…funny and flew up to my room to work out the frustrations. Damn, I was good at jerking myself off to pictures of naked models or some lame porno flick Kuwabara would bring over, but I swear, I had never come as hard as I did on that day. I had to fucking change my sheets…twice. Needless to say, seeing him from that day onwards became my new fix for the day. Who had time for naked, big-boobed women in magazines, when the real thing that turned me on was standing a few feet away from me. Speaking of which…it’s about that time, people, so please indulge me, hmm?

Do you know how hard it is to record your life history and sport a hard-on at the same time? I will be back in about…twenty minutes. See ya!

~*~*~*~*~

Man…that was a good one. Don’t mind the stupid grin on my face. I almost passed out this time around. The first day I jerked off to his image…I did pass out. Funny, huh? Anyways, my mission, as I have chosen to make it my mission, is to find out why he stands out there every evening from five o’clock to seven. Just staring at nothing. People have strange rituals that I know. Take my mom, she always, always has to put in a slice of lime into her sake. Weird I know, but if she doesn’t do that, she goes ballistic. Keiko likes to do this funny thing with her hand whenever we are about to make out. It’s like she twirls it and then she has to brush her hair. Dammit, woman! I am about to give you a hickey and you are worried about your damn hair?! Kuwabara…let’s not even go there. The guy is just plain weird. End of story.

My mission is quite simple. Walk up to him and ask, that’s all. Nothing too difficult, right? Wrong! I’m still trying to work up the nerve, believe it or not. I mean, I jerk off to him…at least his image in my mind, all the time and you expect me to go up there and say ‘Oh, hi. I didn’t want to interrupt your busy schedule, but would you mind telling me why you keep standing here like a fucking god?’ and then I would probably get killed by a lightning bolt or something.

I sighed again and leaned out of my window, watching his back. It’s ten minutes to quitting time. He would stretch and then walk back into the house he shared with his mother, who by the way, is very nice. She baked the most awesome cookies I had ever tasted…brought them over to our house too. He had followed her and like the stupid baka that I was I had sat there like…well…a baka, hardly saying anything, wishing that he would leave and yet stay, chewing the cookies like a maniac and hiding my erection with the small pillow. He doesn’t talk much either, so that helped. Funny…now that I remember it…he had a pillow over his lap as well. Could it be that he??

Fat-fucking chance. Oh, shit…does this mean… I am into guys after all??

“Yuusuke!!! Get your lousy ass downstairs and water the goddamn lawn!! Now, mister!!”

Damn onna!!

“Coming, mom!!”

Why, of all days do I have to water the lawn today? I thought there was a water restriction going on. But to be honest, our lawn looks pathetic. My mom is no gardener…hell, she couldn’t even tell you what the difference was between a real or a fake flower. But our neighbor…wow! That is all I can say. They have this really amazing rose garden theme going. Seems appropriate somehow, when you think about it. Red roses, red beauty. Yeah, he was beautiful.

Kurama Youko was a fucking beauty.

And I, Yuusuke Urameshi, certified…eh, you get the idea, was totally smitten by him, and I could do squat about it. At this point, I am now trying to figure out a way to get the damn hose to move. We haven’t used it in…centuries and it’s now stuck to the metal holder, refusing to budge. And just as I am about to rip the damn thing off…

“Yuusuke!! Don’t forget to mow it, too!!”

“FUCK!! MOM!! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT FIRST?! ARE YOU DRUNK AGAIN?!”

“DON’T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD! AFTER ALL I HAVE DONE FOR YOU…”

I tune her out and stomp to the shed. My face is already burning with not just anger, but humiliation and embarrassment. I knew that Kurama…as well as the entire street, had just heard our latest shouting match. My mom was a drunk. Plain and simple. She could act quite normal at times, but other days…

God, I hated it!

We always fought and argued over money and everything else that concerned my life. It was like a goddamn circus in my house. With an angry snarl, I pull the cord and crank the engine to life. I almost choke on the fumes as they fill my lungs with their foul smell. With a grumble, I manage to push it out to the waiting mass of green, just begging to be cut. Funny how the yard that I had always thought pretty small, had now grown to twice its size. I was dreading this chore with a passion.

I grit my teeth and begin to push. Back and forth. Up and down. Like a fucking robot. In seconds, I am drenched in sweat and I have no other option but to take off my t-shirt. I attack the grounds again with a vengeance, determined to show my sometimes stupid mother that I could be useful once in a while. In my quest for perfection, I had almost, almost forgotten about my next-door neighbor that was until I heard the voice.

“Would you like some help, Yuusuke?”

I snap my head up quickly and stare in frank bewilderment at the smiling face before me. Well, he wasn’t actually that close to me. He was still in his own yard, but he was now leaning against the low brick wall that separated us. He had his head cocked to the side, the dying sunset surrounding his features making his hair look like it was on fire. His eyes flashed and twinkled with some private joke that I will never be able to understand and his lips had quirked upwards in a cute little…

“I said would you like some help?”

I am such an idiot.

“Uuum…I…I…”

“Fine. Let me come over then. It looks like you might need it. I couldn’t help noticing that you were struggling a bit…”

People, I am blinking and standing like a statue. I can’t even…breathe. He was still talking (by the way, this was probably the longest I have ever heard him…in fact, it is the longest speech he has ever given) and was now entering my garden, with that damn smile on his face. He stops in front of me and raises an eyebrow…a well-shaped eyebrow. I don’t think I remember my name at this point. I am not sure I can even think. We have never been this close before. He will suspect. He will. He will. He will!

“So are you just going to stand there or will you give me the lawnmower?”

He is laughing at me. I know he is. He probably thinks I am a desperate, hormone-raged teenage boy who needs to get laid and pretty fast…and he would be right. But the annoying thing was that I was thinking of getting screwed by a…a…guy! And just not any guy…but by this red-haired beauty that was inches away from me, with lips that just begged to be kissed. How the hell did guys screw each other by the way? An image came to my mind and I found myself blushing like hell and wishing I hadn’t worn these worn-out jeans that now seemed a tad bit too small for me. It was then that I noticed two things.

One…he was checking me out. That much was obvious, from the way his eyes lowered to stare down at my sweaty chest and oh, Kami….he is going to notice.

Two…was it just my imagination or was he coming a bit closer? Because I swear, breathing is becoming quite a difficult task to accomplish.

Three…he is taking his shirt off.

Okay, so that was actually three things, but hey…at this moment, I couldn’t give a damn. He was topless. His nipples were so red and hard and…what the hell am I thinking?!

My hands are, literally, shaking over the machine and I turn my face away to fiddle with something, anything. And being the smart baka that I am, I decide that the best course of action is to stoop to the ground in the pretense of searching for… a bug maybe? Stupid plans always yield very unexpected results and one of them is having to come face-to-face with one of the many questions that had boggled my mind for the past three months.

He is a bull.

“Like what you see?”

“What?!”

“I said, would you like me to start? Mowing?”

I shake my head. I could have sworn he had said…

“Fine. You can start from the other side.”

He nods and smiles again before I find myself ogling after the rippling muscles and the tight clench of his butt as he maneuvers the machine around the lawn. I just sit there and mope, drinking in every single inch of his sweaty, delicious…

“MOM?!”

“Yes, dear. Who says we older women don’t appreciate the younger things in life, hmm?”

I growl, as I watch him blush at the compliment, before he greets her and continues. Kami, my mother was a fucking pervert!

“Mom.” I say as calmly as I can. “Do you mind?!”

“Mind what, dear?”

What is with this ‘dear’ crap? “Do you mind going away?! We are trying to get some work done!”

Did I also mention that my mother could be quite stubborn? “No, dear. I think I will just stay out here and enjoy the evening breeze. Don’t you think it’s a wonderful day, Kurama, honey?”

Honey?! Honey?! Where the hell did she get this stuff?!

He is replying to her and I can feel myself getting so furious, I don’t even understand it. It wasn’t as if he was my boyfriend or anything. We haven’t even officially hung out yet.

“Oh, look, dear! It’s Keiko and Kuwabara. They have come to visit.”

Oh, joy. More clowns to join the fucking circus. “What do you two want?!” I snap angrily as I carefully place myself in front of their faces, effectively hiding Kurama from them. Not that it helped, Keiko was like a zit. The really pesky ones that refused to go away.

“What’s Kurama honey, doing in your yard?”

There was that ‘honey’ word again. What had happened to the female population?

A bit nastily, I retort back in a girlish voice. “Kurama, honey, is busy at the moment. So beat it!”

“Yuusuke!”

“Mom!”

“Be nice to your friends now, will you?”

“Yeah, Urameshi, see you just made poor Keiko cry.”

Oh, great. Now I’m the bad guy. I suddenly felt sick and tired of everyone. I was just having a nice daydream of screwing Kurama’s brains out…even though I had no clue on how that went. And now, I was surrounded by a horny older woman, a giggly but currently crying teenage girl and some freak show called Kuwabara, who was now threatening me with his fists. I could feel the anger grow and fill my throat and before I can stop myself, I scream out in frustration.

“EVERYONE, STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!”

And not even bothering to pick up my shirt, I run away from them, from him, without a backward glance. I need to punch something. To hit. To just…just feel pain. That makes it all go away for me. The pleasure of hitting flesh, my obsession as I stop to catch my breath. I don’t really know how long I have been running nor do I really care at this point. I am beginning to get strange glances. I am still topless, after all. I round a corner and finally realize that I had run all the way into the main city. Wow, that was a good seven miles. Not bad.

“Hey, handsome…wanna get a load of my cum down your pretty little throat?”

I cringe and stiffen at the lewd comment. Bakas. Just what I needed. A smirk of satisfaction comes unto my lips and I turn around to face them. “Hai, why don’t you come down here and get a load of this!” I cup my balls and flip a finger, grinning as I notice their (two burly, pretty ugly-looking dick-heads) faces curl up in hate. Stupid moves deserve good thrashings. The two men rush head-on for me and already anticipating the move, I leap high into the air and give them both good roundhouse kicks to the back of their thick skulls. They fall to the floor in a heap, but I am angry now. I had thought I would have gotten much more of a fight. Growling in fury, I begin to pound into a fleshy face. The need to let out my frustrations becoming quite evident as the face begins to bleed. I knew I ought to leave soon. Someone was sure to call the cops and I didn’t want to spend the night in jail….again.

“I think you have done enough, Yuusuke.”

That voice again. It couldn’t be. I snap my head up and stare into understanding green eyes. Wait a minute….understanding?! Or was that simply pity? I get to my feet and glare at him. He is the cause of all of this. In some weird way or another, it was all his fault.

“Stay the fuck away from me.” I snarl and begin to walk away. But Kurama sure is a persistent fella. He keeps on following me. I decide to walk around in circles, hoping to throw him off. But like a leech, he just keeps on coming. After making the turn around the block for the fifth time, I come to a halt and shout angrily.

“Why won’t you leave?! And how the hell did you know where to find me?!”

“That was easy. I just followed your scent.”

Say what? I must have been staring like a moron, for he chuckled and walked ahead of me to sit upon one of the park benches. He had put his shirt back on, but looking at him, you wouldn’t believe he had just come from mowing a lawn or that he had been running or walking around the block for the past hour. He looked so damn…

Cool.

He raised those amazing eyes and smiled at me. “Are you a dog or something?” I ask rather foolishly.

“No, Yuusuke.” Ah, the rain voice. “I am a fox. Rather, I was born originally as a fox, but now trapped in a human form.”

Damn! He was one fine wolf, if you ask me. “Oh.” Nice going, Yuusuke. But, hell, what could I say? It’s not everyday that you hear the guy you are apparently lusting after is some kind of an…animal.

“Are you repulsed?”

I am already shaking my head. “Nah…how can I? You haven’t exactly eaten anyone yet…wait a sec? Do you eat humans? No, don’t answer that. Dammit! Why am I acting like a jerk?!”

His light tinkling laughter was all I got in response to my tangled emotions. How could he laugh, when I was an emotional wreck? He confused and yet amazed me.

Finally, I ask the question that had plagued my mind for days. “Is that why you do that?”

He knows what I am talking about. I can see it in his eyes. He lowers his lashes and hides them from me, and before I can control this stupid loud mouth of mine, I blurt out a bit shakily. “Don’t…”

He looks back at me with surprise written all over his face. “Nani?”

I am quick to explain…although I know I sound sort of foolish. But maybe it was because of the night sky or the way the slight breeze blew his flaming red hair, whipping the long tresses around his beautiful face. Or the way his eyes, oh, those eyes…

“Don’t hide them.” I croak out. “They are…I mean you are…they are…damnit! They are beautiful, okay? There! I have said it!”

Lightning bolt, where art thou?

I expected him to laugh at me again. To maybe call me a foolish boy and pat me on the back and say ‘Nice try, kid, but I don’t swing that way and neither should you. You have a rep to protect.’ Instead….

“Thank you…Yuusuke. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

I automatically blurt out a rather harsh ‘Liar’ as I realize that he was now standing behind me. I blush and step away quickly, noticing a flash of something akin to hurt fill his eyes before he smiled softly.

“I do mean that, Yuusuke. People say so many things and they never mean them. But I know that you do mean it, don’t you? Please…tell me you do?”

I blink as I look at the desperate look that is now upon his face. He really needs for me to tell him the God-honest truth. “Why do you stand there, everyday?” I ask again, stepping up to him carefully.

His eyes burn through my soul and I am left standing naked for him to see. “I wait for the one who completes me, Yuusuke.”

For a moment, I feel a pang of jealously flare through me. I knew he had to have the hots for some girl back in…wherever the hell he had come from. “Oh…” God, I sound so pathetic. I step away again and I hear him wince. He steps closer to me. Wow….what a game we are playing. Who can get too close without getting burned?

“Yuusuke…”

“Hey! It’s okay…”I interrupt quickly. “So, is she pretty?”

He looks perplexed. “Is who pretty?”

“The girl that completes you, duh.” I snap out a bit coldly. “What does she look like, or aren’t you sharing?”

He steps closer to me and I step back…only to bump into a tree. Great. Kurama…one thousand points. Yusuke…zero.

“There is no she.”

There is a God, after all!

“Oh?”

“Oh.” He steps closer again. I wrap my arms around my waist and can only stare helplessly into those green eyes. I could easily fall for him. I could just pretend he is some really tall girl and…and…

“Aah.” I gasp in slight shock as his fingers brush against my cheek. I tremble and close my eyes, unable to look into the darkened look in his. His hands are like trails of fire down my skin and I find myself moaning from just those feather-like touches. Those fingers reach my lips and I find myself opening up to accept them hungrily. I suck and I bite and I nip and I listen to his soft whimpers, my body simply crying out for more than just this. But I am afraid, people. This is all new to me. I have never done this before and I don’t know what to do.

He steps back and looks at me a bit sadly. “May I kiss you, Yuusuke?” He asks softly, almost as if he were bracing himself for a rejection. I can only nod in anticipation. To feel those lips that I had fantasized hovering over my trembling body, I can only close my eyes and wait. Oh, Kami, he tastes like…

Honey.

And he is a damn fine kisser, too. I never knew that just the simple act could cause me to see stars and flashes of color. Never knew that kisses could make my knees feel weak. Never knew that kisses could cause my heart to beat ten times faster than normal. Never knew that I could be left a whimpering and quivering mass of need. Never knew that I could be falling for a man who was really a wolf, who had moved into our neighborhood…waiting for someone….

We pull apart rather reluctantly; our eyes glazed with lust and need. I am left speechless by the ruthless expertise in which he had taken me or at least my mouth. I need this boy. I finally realized that. After days of denial and self-loathing, I need Kurama like I need air. He has done something to me. I can’t figure it out yet, but it seems like I can see things clearer…you know? It’s kind of weird. I couldn’t even explain it to you if I tried. I notice a strange glint in his eye and I am a bit afraid. But it’s gone in a flash and I am left with the heartwarming gaze as he cradles me to his chest.

“In a few days, the moon will come out.”

I don’t understand. “Yeah…so?”

He chuckles and continues to rub my back slowly. Man…he could be an awesome masseuse.

“Then we can be complete, Yuusuke.”

I let that sink in for several minutes. I knew I ought to have jumped up and screamed or something. You know, asking him what the hell he meant and all of that, but I couldn’t. Somehow, I knew exactly what he meant.

In a few days, the moon would rise and I, Urameshi Yuusuke will become one with Kurama Youko. For, we had both been searching for that special someone to complete our imperfect souls. To fill the ache that had filled our hearts and minds for such a long time. Finally, we had found what we were looking for.

The search is over. A new life is now beginning.