Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ A Beautiful Thing ❯ Chapter 1

A/N: ^_^ hey I'm back for editing!

 

 

 

Chapter 1



I saw red. By pure reflex, I pulled back my fist and let Melissa have it. My instincts took over my mind, and all rational thoughts flew down the shitter. With an animal-like growl, I launched myself at the poor girl and tackled her to the ground. My mind was screaming at me to kick the crap out of her; so I happily obliged.

 

 

My fist came crashing down onto her face again.

 

But even as she laid there on the floor with a bloody nose and the beginnings of a black eye, the girl managed to retain the same smug look she had before we even started fighting. Confusion began to ebb away the red haze from my thoughts, and I started to think a little clearer - I slammed my foster sister into the concrete wall once I hauled her off her ass. She grinned lazily, and I made a small grimace when I saw the number I did to her face.

Her perfect baby blues met my brownish eyes. "You know, this is probably why you're all alone," she choked out in a hoarse voice, letting a sickly, strained giggle spill over her cracked lips. "No one can stand your temper-"

I grabbed her by the front of her pink t-shirt and leaned in close. In a hushed, lethal whisper I said, "Don't start on that today, princess." Quite abruptly, I dropped her to the floor - where she crumpled and didn't get back up. 'Unconscious.' Melissa's ebony tresses were fanned out around her pale face from her less than graceful fall to the ground. Taking one last glance back at her, I shoved my hands into my pockets and turned to leave.

~

 

Mr. Goodman, my guidance counselor, paced back and forth in the small conference room. He stopped pacing several times to glare at me and shake his head, but then he'd go back to doing the pacing thing.

 

After a long period of the room being completely silent, I started drumming my nails on the large oak desk sitting right in front of me. That's when Mr. Goodman finally flipped. "Damn it, Roxy! That's your eighty-second fist fight since school started." Gosh, he was angry.

I stopped drumming my fingernails and rolled my eyes. "Pssh, you've been counting?"

He stopped pacing, then dropped himself into his desk chair. Leaning forward and rubbing his temples, he spoke more to himself than he did to me, "What am I going to do with you?" He caught my eye and gave me a look. I know that look - that's the look I get when someone tells me that I'm about to get into a buttload of trouble. "I bet you broke her nose.”

I frowned. “She started it,” I muttered, avoiding eye contact. I reached up and twirled a piece of reddish hair between two fingers.

"You can't keep this up, Roxy," he said, slowly, like he was talking to a little kid. The room was quiet again for a while until the counselor stood up and broke the silence. "I'll send the principal in here to speak with you. Just sit tight until I come back, okay?" He gave a strained smile to make me feel better, and left the room. 'Oh my, am I going to be suspended?' I decided that it was best to not be around when they broke the news, so I quickly unlocked and climbed out of the only window in Mr. Goodman's office.

 

~

Minutes later, I was strolling down Main Street with my hands clasped behind my head, yawning widely. It was barely even eight thirty in the morning, but I was really hoping that the downtown arcade was open this early.

 

 

I ducked into a nearby phone booth about two blocks later and picked up the receiver. Leaning it on my shoulder with one hand, I made a face as I fished around in my jeans pocket for a quarter. When the dial tone sounded in my ear, I punched in my best friend's home phone number.

 

 

After it rang several times, I decided that she must still be asleep. I was about to hang up when I heard a muffled, “'Lo?”

 

 

“Maya? Hey, it's Roxy. Wanna hang out for a while?” I twirled the black phone cord around my fingers.

 

 

She sighed and mocked me in a sleepy tone. “Don't you mean, `Maya? Wanna come pick me up in your car and buy me stuff?'”

 

 

“That too.”

 

 

"Meet me in the arcade. Ten minutes." I hung up the black receiver before Maya could ask why I wasn't in school right now. She'd have a shit fit if she knew that I got into trouble again. Maya took it upon herself to look after me, since I don't have any parents or anything, and I know that it's been hell on her trying to keep me out of trouble. The trouble hasn't been intentional, mind you.

 

A car alarm went off somewhere in the distance, and it snapped me out of my thoughts. Shielding my eyes, I tilted my head back and stared up at the miserable-looking sky. A single ray of sunlight had yet to break through the dark clouds. Fog hung heavy in the air, and a slight morning drizzle was sprinkling on my face. The water droplets clung to my eyelashes, and I blinked rapidly, trying to get them off. Buildings and apartments loomed high over my head, forcing me to squint if I wanted to see the highest floors.

When I saw the large, public bus pull up to the bus stop at the end of the street, I jogged over to catch it before it left me behind. I pulled out my last few dollars from my back pocket, and stuffed it into the jar at the front of the bus.

I stared down at the fat bus driver from where I stood. “Downtown arcade,” I said. “Ten minutes.”

~

 

 

I got to the arcade about fifteen minutes later than I had wanted, but my best friend was still nowhere in sight. My eyes swept the room, finding only a group of boys about my age over in the far corner of the place. All of them had turned to look at me when I pushed open the door, but I didn't pay any attention and walked right over to a video game. After kicking the gumball machine next to the entrance to get a couple of quarters and sticking them into a machine, I was almost completely absorbed in the game. And I was too busy shooting at aliens to realize that I was still being watched from the other side of the room. I did, however, notice when somebody from over there got shoved in my direction, hissing, “But I don't wanna be the guinea pig!” I tensed.

A few seconds later a throat was cleared, and a nervous, gravelly voice mumbled, "You're doing it wrong.” I paused momentarily, not bothering to turn around and look.

"Excuse me?" I frowned, drawing my eyebrows close together.

"The game, duh. You're playing it the wrong way.” Before I could turn and explain that there was no possible way to play Area 51 wrong, the voice continued talking. “But hey, don't worry about it. Everybody knows that no girl could top MY high score.” Now see, if he wouldn't have started bragging, we could have handled this like civilized people.

 

"Pig," I declared rather loudly, punched him in the eye, and watched him tumble to the floor. His group of friends started to chuckle. Briefly, I fought back and forth in my mind about whether or not I should just leave my game sitting here while I walked all over him. As he slowly staggered back up to his feet, I muttered, "Hurry up and move already. My game is still on."

He just ignored what I said and grumbled, "I can't believe you just punched me! What the heck was that for?" he sounded shocked and kinda mad as he gently touched his injured eye.

Still holding the gun for my game, I impatiently glanced back at Area 51, only catching about half of what the kid just said. “Yeah, well life kinda sucks like that, I guess." About to shift my attention back to my “disagreement”, I panicked and my gaze snapped back to the game. “Ah! Shit!” While I had been talking, my game got unpaused and now my dude was down to like, zero health. “Now look at what you did, dumbass!” I glowered at him, silently willed him to leave, and desperately tried to shoot at all the aliens that had popped up on the screen.

"Life kinda stinks like that, I guess,” he said snidely, with his nose high in the air. When the screen of my video game went all black and “GAME OVER” popped up in real big letters, I slammed the plastic gun down onto the machine and whirled around. Vaguely, I heard the plastic hitting plastic, and what could only be described as the gun missing the holster and dropping to the arcade floor.

 

“That's it! I've had it!” The boy let out a shriek as I lunged at him, but I wasn't even halfway there when the door to the arcade was flung open and Maya exclaimed, “Oh, Roxy, knock it off!” She caught me around my waist in mid-jump and set me back down on my feet.

“Not my fault,” I stated, crossing my arms and leaning back against the glass arcade door. I shot a glare towards the jerk who had picked a fight with me, who was hiding behind two of his stupid little friends.

 

She rolled her pretty green eyes. “It's never your fault,” she mocked. Suddenly, she frowned at me. “Why aren't you in school? Your counselor called me and asked me to bring you back.”

 

 

“He did?” Shit.

She narrowed her pretty eyes, and I involuntarily took a step backwards. “Roxy,” she said slowly. “Don't even tell me that you got suspended again.”

 

 

I forgot all about the orange-haired jerk and his friends, opting to try and stay away from Maya. I shot her a big, cheesy smile and said, “You know you're my best friend, right?”

 

 

“Oh, don't even give me that,” she growled softly at me, the unnatural sound coming from the back of her throat.

 

 

I held up my hands in the “I'm completely innocent” gesture and sweatdropped. “Don't go all crazy psycho demon lady on me, okay?” Maya's expression lightened up a bit, but her hand darted out and grabbed my wrist. “Hey. Let go of me,” my voice was serious now. When she didn't relent, I twisted out of her grasp and shoved open the arcade door behind me. I found Maya's car was parked right outside, and I quickly darted to the opposite side.

 

 

"You can't just make this easy for me, can you?" She demanded, resting her palms on the hood of her convertible.

I shook my head.

"Well, why the heck not?” I could tell that Maya was starting to get a little aggravated.

”Okay! So I got in trouble again!” I raised my voice. “But I'm not going back, so you can shove that idea up your ass!” I felt bad for yelling at her as soon as the words came out of my mouth.

A small breeze whispered by, and Maya's shiny blonde hair lifted up, then fell perfectly back into place. I felt a small twinge of jealousy. My was always perfect. Not a single hair out of place, no make up smudged, and certainly no grass stains on her clothes. Her vibrant emerald eyes always captured the attention of others, and her overall happy nature always made everyone else happy, too. She looked good in everything, and her outfit today was no exception. Today she wore what she normally wears - a white tank top, a jean skirt, and a simple pair of flip flops. Myself? While Maya stood at a model's height of 5'8, I stood at 5'4. Instead of the beautiful blonde hair that she had, I have this nice little mix of red, gold, and honey. I have long, dark eyelashes that frame my red-brown eyes. Unlike Maya's politeness and caring attitude, I seem to always be angry and rude. I get into fights. My outfit consists of a simple black t-shirt, my favorite pair of jeans, and sneakers. My jeans have grass and mud stains on them, from when I played tackle football with the football team once. I have to hike them up every so often, whenever I feel as if they'll fall completely off. My sneakers have grass stains on them, too, and there is a small hole at the big toe.

 

 

Maya and I didn't move for what seemed like ages. 'Maya can easily force me into her car and haul my ass back to school.' But knowing Maya, she won't do that.

Maya is a ... demon. She has better strength and speed compared to any human. I'm almost as fast as her, and that's strange. No human should ever be as fast as a demon, regardless of how powerful the demon is. We know I'm not a demon, though, because Maya would be able to tell. Maya has some awesome healing powers, by the way. She doesn't like to fight, but she will if it means defending herself and her friends.

 

Finally, Maya sighed. "What happened at school, Roxy?"

Suddenly ashamed, I stared down at my shoes. "I beat up Melissa," I murmured. A small giggle spilled out of Maya's mouth, and I couldn't help but smile a little. Somewhere nearby, a throat was cleared softly.

"Pardon the interruption," smiled a cute red head. He was tall, with expressive green eyes. "My name is Shuuichi."

 

Behind this new red head guy, there were three other boys. One was the orange-haired jerk, who was getting beaten up by a boy in a green school uniform. They were yelling insults at each other, along with something to do with “guinea pig”. My eyes lingered a little longer on the green guy, but I moved on to see a small demon with intense red eyes.

 

I scowled at Shuuichi. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Poor Shuuichi looked taken aback. "I -”

A new person spoke up from behind Shuuichi, and I heard the familiar gravelly voice from a couple minutes ago. "Kazuma Kuwabara, at your service.” He took a bow. “The midget over there is Hiei.” Kuwabara scowled at the last boy and grabbed him in a headlock. “And this punk here is Yusuke." Hunh. So Kuwabara was the idiot who picked a fight with me? And Yusuke - wait. Yusuke?

*Flashback*

"Mmngh," I muttered as I stumbled off of the couch. I felt like I had just been hit by a Mac truck. On my way to the bathroom, I passed a mirror. Oh god. Not a good idea. Something definitely needs to be done about my hair. The reddish heap on top of my head stood out in several different directions, my eyes were bloodshot, my skin was pale, and I still had my make up on from last night. …No more house parties.

 

The sound of running water pounded in my ears when I turned on the shower. After I undressed, I reached my arm in to test the water and paused. That's when I noticed the first gauze bandage attached to my body. I hesitantly peeled off the gauze from my upper arm and discovered the tattoo of a katana. Wasn't it like, illegal for minors to get tattooed? I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring all that much. I noticed the second tattoo when I bent down to grab a towel out of the cabinet. Underneath the gauze on my ankle I found a large red rose, with the design intricately made. The attention to detail was extraordinary. My eyes widened when I stood up and saw in the mirror that a piece of gauze covered my entire chest. Gently taking that away, I discovered a rather large black dragon. I was kind of worried, but I didn't even question how I got the stupid things. I stepped into the shower and tilted my head back, sighing and welcoming the warm spray of water. I felt a pressure at my hip and looked down. Rolling my eyes at finding another gauze strip, I reached down and tugged the waterlogged piece of material away. That's when I knew. I did not pick out these tattoos. Because no matter how hammered I would have been, there's not a chance that I would have a man's name tattooed to my hip. Especially since I've never even met a man named "Yusuke Urameshi".

 

*End Flashback*

Oh god. I was panicking. There's no way that the name on my hip was his, right? I gave Maya “the look” out of the corner of my eye. She nodded slightly, immediately throwing on a charming, fake smile.

 

 

"Yusuke, huh?" she looked him straight in the eye. "What's your last name?"

 

End Chapter

A/N: hey guys - don't get excited or anything. I'm just back to make everything not suck so bad. I didn't like the way the beginning chapters were written so I'm gonna re-write them! ^_^

 

-babi blu