1999 July 20th ( Marine Day, national holiday )

---

Like the last four years, Kuwabara finds himself spending Marine Day in his family home. In a few hours, his dad will make a big dinner since Shizuru will be visiting from her own apartment, having moved out on her own only a few years ago. It's not that far, honestly, and Shizuru already comes over for weekly dinners but he's missed how full the house used to feel.

First Yukina had moved out to the lands that used to be Genkai's, living with other youkai on her own ( I wish to be my own person. I must live on my own... Although, I will not be alone! ) helping out folks who need a place to crash. Then Shizuru-!

At least he's not all alone until his dad wakes up from a sumer-induced nap. Urameshi Yuusuke has made himself overly comfortable, laying with his back on the hardwood floor. A magazine held above his face as he reads, both legs crooked at the knee so his bare feet rest on a coffee table that's older than them both.

"How many times do I gotta tell you, feet down?" Kuwabara asks, from where he's sitting on the couch, lap full of Eikichi. "You don't even got socks on, man..."

"And how many times has your dad said 'Yuusuke-kun can make himself at home?" Yuusuke laughs from behind the magazine he's reading.

Kuwabara scoffs at Yuusuke, laying back so Eikichi is napping against his chest. There's a moment filled with only a jingle from a commercial on the T.V. "I gotta start online correspondence courses next month. Pops is gonna get internet for the house, and Kurama got me a computer from his step-dad's workplace to use."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I wanna try picking up some work this season, I need some cash saved back if I gotta go to Mushiyori for actual college, next year."

Yuusuke snickers and rests one heel against his other knee, sort of swinging his legs while still heel first on the coffee table. "Kuwabara doin' construction work this summer, huh?"

"I hope not, maybe Kurama can get me some kinda paperwork thing at his place."

"That's even better. You, in a suit and tie, hilarious!"

"Sh-shut up. The weather is on."

The air conditoner whirrs down, leaving only the dull humm of the weather report ( hot, rain ) and the feeling like...

One time, when he was little, Kuwabara acidentally pulled open one of the iron-and-salt packets his dad kept in his coat. It had been like summer-day-warm-sidewalk on his palm, chased by his dad brushing it off his little hand, holding Kuwabara's fingers apart to make sure it was all gone.

Almost hot but not hot. Prickles. The way one can imagine a hot beach, when the temps outside are in the negatives.

Yuusuke's youki feels like that, these days. Warm with the promise of being dangerous. Kind of like the cat sleeping on his belly. Right now, Kuwabara's entire left side feels like that, such a contrast with the artifically cooled air of the living room.

Comfortable.

"Hey. Do you know what it's called, when you forget a drink in the freezer and at first, it doesn't look frozen. Then you move it, and it suddenly turns into slush?"

"I... Huh??" Kuwabara snaps his head up, snorting, he'd almost nodded off with his precious cat as a blanket. "What??"

"You know! If you put an open Calpis in the freezer and then try to drink the liquid, it's frozen when it comes out." Yuusuke explains, peeking from behind his magazine.

"Oh! That's supercooling. It's somethin' to do with the molecules of water reachin' a state of rest that doesn't form ice crystals?" Kuwabara purses his lips, thinking. "I sorta paid attention to a chemistry lesson."

"You sorta paid attention? That word sounds like you just made it up." Yuusuke's brows pinch, and he scoffs, returning to his reading.

"Every word is made up, Urameshi! That's how words work." Eikichi wakes up fully at this, leaping off of Kuwabara with a small, disgruntled hiss. "No! Baby, don't leave..."

The seven year old cat disappears out of the living room, as Kuwabara sits up to try and grab the magazine out of Yuusuke's hands. "Why're-you-asking?" He gives the cheap thing a tug with every word, but, it doesn't budge. Even though Yuusuke is only holding it between his thumb and forefinger.

"I wanna know, is why." Yuusuke releases his hold, so Kuwabara ends up rocking back on the couch due to his own force and sits up beside the coffee table, snatching his magazine from Kuwabara's hand, smoothes the edges of the pages. "Don't manhandle my shit. I should hunt down Kurama, and ask him."

Kuwabara watches Yuusuke stand up, heading towards the entrance-way of the Kuwabara family home, to shuffle his feet into his worn out sneakers. "What? I told you what it is. You're supposed to have dinner with my pops!"

Yuusuke rolls his eyes, head lolling alongside the expression. "You're coming with me. Hurry it up."

---

The overcast sky begins opening up, misting the city in a fog of heat. Sticking hair to faces, clothing to skin, salt on upper lips.

Although not as many people out on the streets due to the weather, Sarayashiki is still busy. There are small groups of kids here and there, off from school for the holiday. Wrapped in raincoats or thin, disposable ponchos, while others duck into combi shops and the various entertaiments that downtown area has.

"We could have just called Kurama! Pops keeps the air con so low, and we'd be dry." Kuwabara grumbles, sneakers squishing uncomfortably around his toes. He had taken an umbrella with them but, the rain is too fine and too wind blown, accumulating on the underside of the umbrella like a sauna.

"You know Kurama might not pick up. It's a Holiday? Time for mommy," Yuusuke isn't even trying to mitigate the rain, his hair starting to come free of his usual shellac of gel. "He can't say 'no' if we're right there, after all!" The grin he wears crinkles his eyes about shut. The tooth baring, genuine type Yuusuke's got. The kind that shows off his fangs, these days.

The type that makes his dimples pop out and hit somebody like a bullet.

"That's the dumbest thing you've said in a while." Then again, he's the one who followed after Yuusuke in this weather, for no reason. "Come on, Urameshi. We could call Yukimura! She's smart as hell! And she always picks up for you."

"I ain't botherin' Keiko on her day off."

"So not Keiko, but Kurama? Sure!" Kuwabara barks a laugh that draws a few glances, and makes Yuusuke wince. He squares his shoulders, giving Yuusuke a sidelong glance over his upturned nose. "Why are you so keyed up about this?"

"Maybe I'm bored!" Yuusuke chuckles, using the hem of his tee to wipe his face. Seeing as it's already soaked, a fruitless endevor. His undershirt, too, and Kuwabara knows Yuusuke's sneakers feel like a swamp. No socks.

"We could have played a video game, if you're bored...I just got a Neo Geo Pocket Color!"

"All you have to play on that is a stupid baseball thing!"

"It's not stupid, it's fun." His own shirt feels two sizes too small, stuck up his armpits and Kuwabara is thinking about the tea in his dad's fridge… Ice in the freezer...That expensive tiny ice creams Shizuru keeps at home that he totally hasn't been stealing...

The crosswalk chimes in that 'it's time to move' way, while the mist is turning into a proper rain. Yuusuke does a quick step behind him and Kuwabara feels two overly warm palms pressed perpendicular against his back; one against his shoulder, one against the side of his waist.

"Maybe this is like a game, fer me!" Then, Kuwabara feels like a rag-doll for a moment, his toes almost leaving the asphalt as Yuusuke ‘helps' him cross the road by half lifting, half pushing Kuwabara.

"H-hey! Urameshi! Lemme go!"

"Come on, you're gonna wilt like a six-foot tall flower if we keep chattin' in this heat. Hurry those feet up, man! Lift those knees! We're gonna miss the train!"

---

The ride feels longer than it is, fifteen minutes into eternity when his socks are starting to stick up between his toes. Yuusuke spends the ride trying and failing to get his hair to stay out of his eyes. "You better try and stay under the umbrella, this time."

"It's only five minutes from the station, you absolutely gigantic baby."

Another eternity later, and Kuwabara's stomach is growling as Yuusuke raises one hand to give the knocker a clack, but, it opens before he can even touch the door.

"Kuwabara-kun, what a surprise!"

When Kurama opens his mother's front door, the air comes out in a cold wave that makes Kuwabara sigh heavily. Unlike the two of them, Kurama is pristine as usual; linen short sleeve that looks like it's been ironed and a pair of slacks so crisp they look like they could cut you.

"Hey, Shuuichi!"

"Yuusuke... You are both drenched, please, come inside but stay on the tile. I'll grab a towel." Kurama points at their feet with both hands as he steps away, as if a warning.

"Shuuichi? Who is it?"

"It is--"

"Hey, Minamino-san! It's me!" Kuwabara cuts Kurama off, waves one arm past the entranceway, reach long enough that Shiori can see his hand as she approches from the kitchen. "Urameshi, too! Sorry to intrude."

"Oh! Goodness, did you two get surprised by the weather?" Shiori hardly looks a day older than when Kuwabara first met her. Wearing a pink and white striped apron that covers her sleeves and compliments the entire color-cordinated living room, she smells like bread and lillies.

Kuwabara is suddenly overly aware how much he must absolutely reek, right now.

"No." Another dimple popping smile out of Yuusuke, while his shirt drips on the tiled floor. "I didn't wanna go by the bath-house tonight. I promise we won't get your floors wet! We won't take long either, just got a question for Shuuichi."

"One that could not be communicated by phone call?" Kurama reappears with two towels, handing one to each Yuusuke and Kuwabara while Shiori steps away.

"I must leave you boys to it, I'm making dinner right now! Always a delight to see you, Kazuma."

"And you, ma'am!"

They all smile as Shiori leaves the living room, the sound of her slippers fading into the kitchen, then Kurama's smile fades. "Really, you two look awful. Kuwabara-kun, you are beet red! Is the heat that opressive?"

"Um, y-yeah. Anyways, this dipshit's been all geared up about supercooling. He said I made up the word!"

Kurama crosses his arms, while Yuusuke elbows Kuwabara in the side. "Yes, that is how words are created. Why would you doubt Kuwabara-kun knowing that-- How was this worth a walk, than a call?"

"Well..." Yuusuke fusses at his hair with the towel. "It happened to me a few weeks ago. When I went to visit Puu out at the Temple. My arm--"

"Puu froze your arm!?"

"No! Idiot! Yukina did! But it was an accident, for sure, and I didn't let her know." Yuusuke looks from Kurama to Kuwabara and back, rubbing his arms and stomach as dry as he can with wet clothes. "Listen, I know. That sounds impossible, but it happened! Hurt like a bastard...I thought I was having a stroke or something. I had to run the beach to warm back up."

"How did this occur?" Kurama asks, although he looks prepared to run down exactly how impossible that it is.

"I um...Okay, so, you know that one big south facing hill that's got some wood rot on?"

"Yes. I helped mark the ones that must be disposed of."

"All those trees got to get cut down soon anyways, right? So I was just having some fun. I was... "" Yuusuke, of all people, looks a bit bashful. His eyelashes are somehow five times as long when he looks this way, Kuwabara thinks.

"What was that, Yuusuke? You spoke too softly." Kurama quips.

"I was playing Kamen Rider, okay!? And I hit a tree with bad form, went right into the ground and dislocated my pinky."

"You were what?" Kuwabara snorts, laughing out his nose in a way that makes him clap a hand over his nose and mouth. "Keep goin'."

"Yukina saw me trying to set it back into place, and helped. She tried to do that thing with her youki and heal me, but after I left, it started hurting so bad. My fingers went purple and all that!"

"Urameshi, why the fuck didn't you lead with this??" Kuwabara is talking in a whisper that is basically indoor-voice levels, gesturing at Yuusuke with both hands, a feat in the cramped entranceway.

"Because you would have yelled about it, then your dad would have heard, and I know his nosey ass would have asked Yukina about it without any damn tact?"

"I...Guess you're right on that. What about Yukina-san, though, what if something's wrong with her?!" Not a whisper, now.

Kurama raises his own hands now, silencing both of them. "We will speak futher on this matter tomorrow, I will have the day off and I know you can find the time, Yuusuke. Frankly... That is very interesting, and concerning, if Yukina-san is not aware her youki effected you."

Yuusuke nods, while Kuwabara feels like his stomach's going to knot up and crawl out of his belly-button. "Okay, Kurama. I-- I wanna call her right now, though."

"Please, wait until tomorrow. It's already so late. I can hear Kuwabara-kun's stomach from here. And, Yuusuke? It is called supercooling."