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“What’s kissing like?”
The question hit him like a thousand-ton semi-truck. He especially hadn’t expected to hear it from Botan of all people — Botan, the woman so wise and competent, the woman so gracious in the way she moved and spoke.
“Ngh— what?” How else was he to respond? The young man was caught completely off guard.
Botan leaned closer to him — he jolted back instinctively. She then jabbed a finger at him, her pink orbs brightening in curiosity. “You know! Kissing, necking, smooching. That activity you humans do. How is it?”
Yusuke felt as if a cotton ball were stuck in his throat. His larynx bobbed, brown eyes shot in disbelief.
Finally, just when he was sure that the girl was beginning to get creeped out by his never-ending stare, he huffed and tore his eyes from hers, twisting his body so his back was facing her. His legs were crossed in their usual position, arms folded stiffly across his chest.
His eyebrows furrowed. “Why would you want to know about somethin’ like that?”
“Because…” Botan paused, unsure. She broke her gaze from his back—his warm, broad back—to look up at the sky. The palms of her hands pressed flat against the concrete ground, shifting her weight onto them.
“…B-Because… I don’t know…” Her teeth dug into her lip as she thought for a second. “I suppose… I want to feel what you feel, Yusuke. You human beings, you… you’re capable of these emotions. Of feeling good and bad. But the good… yes, the good is certainly worth it. To be able to share that emotion with another person… I guess I shouldn’t be, but I’m envious of it.”
Not even the wind could fill the pause between them. Yusuke’s eyes stubbornly bored into the chain-link in front of him, listening to the metal rustle with the breeze.
At last, he unfolded his arms and leaned back on his hands, barely turning his head to look back at her.
“Well that’s stupid,” he said, blunt as ever.
Botan shot him a glare, not amused in the least. Just as she opened her mouth to retort, his callous voice interrupted her.
“I mean, why would you be envious of all that mushy stuff? If anything, that’s more of a weakness in people. They get all emotional and don’t even realize that it’s a bunch of scripted bullshit. Hell, I could probably kiss any girl I wanted to, but that don’t mean it means anything. It’s just pressing your mouth to something, y’know?” His index finger rubbed the bottom of his nose, shoulders lifting in a lazy shrug.
The girl stared, taking in his words. Slowly, her stare drifted down to the concrete.
“I suppose so…” she said in just above a whisper, pulling her knees to her chest. She inwardly wondered if that was genuinely how he felt about it, or if that was just his male ego speaking for him.
“…Yusuke?”
“Hm.”
“…Have you ever kissed before?”
Damn, those semi-trucks really had it out for him today. If Botan kept asking questions like that, he would surely get killed… again.
He looked back at her, all the way this time, eyes wide, blood rising to his cheeks. He knew how and what to answer, but it was the principle of her asking the question that made him so flustered. She seemed to do that to him a lot, lately. How was it that no other girl could have such an effect on him?
His mouth wound nervously, but no words. Botan’s own eyes began to widen as well, but only because she took it the wrong way. She perked upright, the corners of her lips curling cleverly upward.
“You’ve never been kissed!” she yelped, pointing at him. Her grin was making her cheek muscles sore, repeating, “You’ve never been kissed!”
He snorted in shock. How dare she jump to conclusions!
“What?! Yeah I have! I’ve kissed lots of times!” And he did. Although, most of the girls were foggy in his memory, with him having been intoxicated more times than one. In fact, he’s gotten much further than first base, not that she needed to know.
She set her hands on her hips, challenging him. “Oh you have, have you?”
He snarled, leaning forward, “Yeah! And for your information, I’ve done a hell of a lot more than—“
The boy stopped right there. His head turned, biting his cheek to keep from saying more. Great, now he was pissed. Botan did that to him a lot, too.
She was a clever girl. She knew just what he meant to reveal about his personal past. Even though she wouldn’t doubt if he did, she still made a “humph” and stuck her nose into the hair, crossing one leg over the other.
His jaw clenched, not very pleased by her reaction. “I’m more of a stud than you think, Botan.”
Mentally, she rolled her eyes. Her nose still pointed to the sky, refusing to make eye contact with such a cocky boy. Then, an idea came to her mind. She resisted the urge to grin again, sneakily glancing at him through the corner of her eye.
The blue-haired girl closed her eyes, knuckles digging into her hips. She was rather good at masking her true emotion. “If you were such a stud, you would have showed me instead of boasting about it.”
Yusuke blinked. It took a moment for him to absorb what she meant.
Nonetheless, the meaning wasn’t completely clear. To be sure, he hesitantly asked, a light blush warming his face, “Show you what?”
The mask was getting harder and harder for Botan to wear. She mirrored his light blush, looking away bashfully. “W-Well, you know…”
The street punk gulped. It was getting somewhat uncomfortable, to the point of him sweating profusely. What was it, five-hundred degrees in there?! …Wait, they were outside.
His eyes hardened. “No I don’t, Botan.”
Now her head was spinning, pupils landing in every direction but his. Blushing madly, she replied, “U-Um… well, you’d… show me.” Hesitantly, Botan’s finger pointed to that soft maw of hers. “Through the lips.”
His jaw dropped — his entire body nearly went along with it. He could not believe that she was actually asking him to…
“You want me to teach you?” he shrieked, wanting to pinch himself away from this far-too-surreal fantasy. With his hands set on his knees, he crouched slightly forward, concentrating on what she was going to say next.
“In a sense…” she began, “…y-yes.”
His lack of response left her feeling more and more nervous; an unbearable anxiety. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Doing anything? His facial expression hadn’t even changed.
She was tomato-faced, waving her hands into the air. “I-I just… It’s not like I want to kiss you, per say, I-I just want to know what it feels like and, um…”
He gave her a slow blink, but the stagnation in his actions were still there.
By now, the tips of her index fingers were tapping together nervously. She looked up at him after a while, pouting with the most perfectly attractive pout he has ever seen, and uttering, “…Pretty please?”
That made Yusuke shiver. Five seconds later, he was looking down to the ground. He scratched the back of his gelled head. “I warn you, I hate teachers, so I doubt I’d make a very good one.”
A drop of sweat trickled down his eyebrow. His fingers stayed glued to the back of his head as he shifted closer to her. “But, um… if you really have your heart set on that… I guess I can… show you some things.”
She refrained from nodding, shutting her eyelids instead. Even though her voice was weak, she used every ounce of strength she had to spit out, “Talk is cheap, Yusuke.”
He grunted, dismayed, although her statement did amp him up and give him a bit of incentive to rise to her challenge. He balled his fist, thinking to himself, I’ll show her!
“You just wait, Botan. You won’t be talkin’ after I’m done, you just wait,” he sneered, grinning cockily.
She was sincerely curious as to what he could do — if he was all bite after all. However, she remained aloof, yawning.
“I’m wai—ting—“ she chimed, swaying softly back and forth.
Yusuke snarled, fists clenching tighter. “Fine,” he spat. “Since you’re so goddamn eager…”
Her eyes shut permanently this time, or so it seemed, her mouth lightly puckering in wait. Her hands rested in her lap, body lax.
She was ready for him. Completely, physically, emotionally ready for him. But suddenly, he couldn’t move. He felt his body submerge into invisible quicksand, becoming a useless pile of limbs. Damn it, Yusuke, focus! It’s not that hard—just kiss her!
Oh, but the distractions. He found himself hypnotized in her plush pink lips, her long, silky eyelashes, her doll-like complexion, her little ringlets in the two strands of hair that cascaded down her temples.
Not… helping!
Clenched his fists any harder, and he would have lost blood circulation in both hands. The boy didn’t dare to look south, for, if he were to admire the schoolgirl uniform she had recently been outfitted with…
Yusuke sucked in a sharp breath. This was his assistant. His best friend, even. And he was about to lock lips with her.
Holding in that breath, he leaned in a little. He stopped, flinched, and inched forward again. This pattern continued until they were so close that they were sharing breaths.
At last, the moment arrived. His dark brows knitted, eyes scrunched shut, while his mouth pressed against hers, softly.
Even that lightest touch had Botan’s lower region tingling. Butterflies were unleashed in the pit of her stomach. She could do nothing but sit there and accept his kiss, but she yearned to do more. Gradually, he pulled away, their eyelids sliding open in sync.
They stared at each other for some time, orbs round and wide, mouths forming an ‘o’, cheeks warm.
After a while, Botan’s face changed, turning sour. The delinquent was confused by this; didn’t she enjoy it?
“While that was enjoyable,” she started, as if she could read his thoughts. His shoulders eased in relief. They tensed back up, however, at what she said next: “That wasn’t a kiss!”
His mouth gaped open. “What?”
“Boys, always so one-dimensional,” she muttered, crossing her arms and turning away. Before he could return the hostility, she snapped her head to him, hair swinging in the process. “I thought you were an expert — that is obviously not so, because that was not a real kiss!”
Yusuke trembled with rising anger, snapping back at her, “Well what the hell is a kiss, then, Botan?!”
“You should know, you’ve kissed before!”
“I do know, and last I checked, I was pretty spot on!”
“Barely!”
“Entirely!”
“Unsightly!”
“Shut the hell up! I’ll do it again if I have to prove to you what I got.”
The Grim Reaper’s face was burning at this point. Not from anger, though. No, the emotion was far from anger.
“Th-then…” She slid a little closer, bumping her hip against his. He twitched, the rage in his countenance melting away. “…Go ahead,” said she. “Just… move your lips more this time.”
He was completely still, watching her in awe. Finally, he nodded. Once again, they found themselves in the same roles that they took on earlier. Botan ready, her lips puckered and eyes shut, Yusuke preparing, summoning whatever courage he had. Except, this time, as he begun to lean in, he held her chin attentively while their mouths connected.
It started out just as the first. A feather-like kiss. However, as he pulled away, he went directly back in, giving her a firmer kiss. He pulled away for a second time, and dove back in for a second time. Each kiss was firmer, louder, quicker. His thumb brushed against her chin, the other hand lying flat next to her hip.
Pretty soon, they were stuck in a soft chain of kisses, slow and sweet.
As they progressed, his hand dropped from her chin, landing at her side. Her own hands drifted up to his collar.
Their heads moved like rolling waves, mouths molding together. Yusuke definitely wasn’t joking when he said he had kissed before. She could tell in the way he handled her, how confident he was in his movements, as if he knew what to do and how to do it. It was like a fluid dance.
Her mind drifted elsewhere for some time, but when she drifted back in, she found herself on Yusuke’s lap. His masculine hands held her hips patiently. Her slender fingers lingered from his collar to the heated flesh of his neck. Even though she was on top, he seemed to be the one in charge — the dominant one.
His tongue swiped past the envelope of her lips and against her teeth. She immediately accepted his request, inviting him in. It didn’t take long for the sweet and lingering pecks to turn into the long, drawn-out sucking of each other’s faces.
Yusuke’s heartbeat was erratic. Who knew that “pressing your mouth to something” could be more than just that! Something about the Grim Reaper made his heart leap, and not just in a horny teenager sense. No, this was nothing like the recent years of watching naughty videos on his VCR. There was no (immediate) twist of his groin. He subconsciously wanted to scold himself for giving into the “scripted bullshit” that most called romance.
And for Botan, the feeling excelled. Imagining this was nothing compared to actually doing it. How lucky humans were! Right here, in this moment, being held by her new boss, Mr. Spirit Detective, Yusuke Urameshi, filled her insides with a bittersweet emotion. Bitter, because she realized that this would not last. After this spirit detective business, he would move on with his normal life on Earth, and the next time she would see him is when he’s old, gray, and ready to flee to the Spirit World permanently.
But she didn’t want to part with this extraordinary human boy. A part of her wished to be human, too.
Her digits began to fiddle with the hair on the back of his neck. He was usually so stringent with anybody who touched his hair, but for her, he seemed to suck it up. He may have even enjoyed it.
Their tongues were warm, squirming and dancing. Yusuke withdrew his tongue, only to sink his teeth into her bottom lip, briefly nibble, and—
“UR-A-MESHI.”
A low voice caught their ears and their focus, making them jump apart. Slowly, Yusuke face changed from confusion to panic as he stared past Botan’s shoulder. Botan turned around, her own face turning blue at the husky figure that stood before them.
Mr. Takanaka had disapproval written all over his middle-aged face. His bushy eyebrows knitted together, and as his mouth opened, Botan could have sworn he was about to “tsk” at them.
“I should have known you’d skip class to take advantage of this poor girl,” he began to harangue the young man, “You know better than to share inappropriate public displays of affection on school campus!”
“Aw, but old man—“
Mr. Takanaka didn’t give him time for an argument, nor an explanation. His chubby finger pointed to the exit of the school roof and demanded, “Office. Now.”
Botan exchanged glances with Yusuke, as if to ask him what he planned to do, but he gave her a nod and a grin, as if to say “it’s all right, I’ll deal with this”.
He stood, grin twisting into a disgruntled look. As he began to reluctantly follow the older man, he glanced back at Botan and gave her a wink, swiping a finger across his nose.
She traced her fingertips over the spot where Yusuke’s lips had once been. Her mouth felt pleasurably numb.
Judging from that wink of his, he would have another lesson in store for her that evening.
Fin