“Kuwabara?”
”Hm?”
”Are you happy?”
Kuwabara, with Keiko on his lap, her skin warm under his hands and the feel of her lips still lingering on his own, thought that might be the stupidest question anyone had ever asked. But he didn’t say that out loud, because he had at some point developed a filter between his brain and his mouth. Instead he simply asked: “What d’you mean?”
”This. Us.” She gestured around them before resting her hands back on his shoulders. “We hide all the time, and Yusuke…” Her throat worked as she swallowed around the name. “Yusuke will be back someday. Probably. And this…” She rested her forehead against his. “I just don’t want you to feel like some kind of…placeholder, while Yusuke’s gone. Because I don’t…I don’t know what will happen, when he comes back. I’m still pissed at him, but I’ve always…” Keiko’s head fell back with a harsh sort of a laugh, devoid of mirth. “I’m always pissed at him. I always have been. But he does this…thing, I don’t know what it is, where he’s suddenly so charming and it’s like…what was I so mad about?” Her hands slid down, fiddling with the buttons on Kuwabara’s shirt. “And I don’t think I want that to happen this time.”
She looked up then, meeting Kuwabara’s eyes, and the fierceness there shocked him. “Because I’m happy. You make me happy, Kuwabara. But if anything about this doesn’t…if you feel like…”
Kuwabara cut off her uncertainty with a kiss, running his hands up her legs under her skirt, over the tops of her tights and gripping her tightly to pull her closer against him. She gasped against his mouth and he turned his head to deepen the kiss, feeling a thrill run through him as she met him at every movement. This was more of his want than he’d ever dared to express, and the fact that she seemed to be on his same page felt…dangerous.
Because on some level, Keiko was right. This whole thing, whatever it was, was predicated on the idea that someday Yusuke would come back and the status quo would reset. And the thought of crossing that line, having that joy only for it to be taken from him again…it hurt. Too much to risk.
But Keiko was happy. He made Keiko happy. Happy enough to at least consider that maybe Yusuke didn’t. That maybe this didn’t need to be temporary. And that was better and more terrifying than anything else. He broke the kiss, resting his forehead against Keiko’s, both their breaths heavy in the air between them.
“I am happy,” he said quietly. “Right where I am. I am happy wherever you want me to be. Wherever you want to be.” He tilted his face up to press his lips against her forehead. “We’ll deal with Urameshi when we gotta. He doesn’t have to be a problem right now.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Kuwabara panicked that he’d said something wrong, done something to upset her.
But then she grinned at him, bright and brilliant. “That makes me happy,” she whispered, and leaned in to kiss him again.