My blue rose: I was rewatching the YYH anime, the Japanese one not the English dubbed one (I do like Kurama’s voice actor better in the dub, but I like everyone else’s voices better in the Japanese original) and heard Keiko’s dad refer to Yusuke as ‘Yu-chan’ and I cracked up. I think it’s hilarious for someone to ever refer to Yusuke as ‘Yu-chan’ so I decided to write a one-shot about it which turned into the full blown series fic you see here.

Chapter One: Getting Serious

Yusuke’s jaw dropped when he saw Keiko. If he had thought about it he might have realized that he had never actually seen Keiko dressed up before, but he hadn’t and she looked stunning. She had curled her normally straight hair so it now curtained her face, making her look older and more mature.

She wore a blue silk mandarin-collar blouse, the color of Botan’s hair and a matching blue short skirt. The outfit accentuated her curves, brightened her face, and, for the first time, Yusuke saw the junior high girl he had fallen in love with as the eighteen year old woman she now was.

“Ahh, you, er, look nice.” He complemented lamely.

She smiled and Yusuke suddenly felt nervous again. He had never really realized what a beautiful woman Keiko was. Even though he was all dressed up too, the eighteen-year-old Junior High dropout was wondering what people would think of a girl like her dating a guy like him. As if she had read his mind, Keiko eyed his profile and smirked uncharacteristically.

“You look nice too. Maybe you should wear that more often.”

She was gazing at his abdomen where the too small shirt clearly showed his washboard abs. Yusuke felt his face flush and he stared in shock at his grinning girlfriend. She had said something that was almost perverse!

“Who are you and what have you done with Keiko?” he muttered rhetorically, wishing he could stop his face from burning. To his further astonishment, she laughed and kissed him quickly on the cheek.

“If I had known you’d reacted this way I’d have done that along time ago. Apparently you’re not the pervert I thought you were.” She was teasing him and he knew it, but that didn’t make him fell any better.

“Let’s just get this over with! He snapped. Keiko’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Urameshi Yusuke! You asked me out on a date! You were the one who had a rare moment of maturity and wanted to take our relationship to the next level! But if you don’t want to go on this date then you can stay here and I will go without you!”

Yusuke was glad that some things didn’t change. She was still the little spit fire she always had been and he wouldn’t want her any other way. He just hoped Keiko didn’t find out that he was only doing this because he’d lost a stupid bet or she’d slap him in to next week!

She had gotten all philosophical on him and had said she was happy that he had finally gotten ‘serious about their relationship’. Yusuke was confused about this. When had he not been serious about their relationship? When he had thrown his spirit beast egg into the fire to save her knowing that he couldn’t come back to life without it? Or when he used his life enegy to defeat Suzaku to save her life and would have died if Kuwabara hadn’t risked his life to transfer his energy into him?

How about the time he fought Toguro and Sensui to keep the world safe for her? When he chose to come back after his first time in Makai? Or when he came back after three years as promised? Was he not serious about their relationship then?

Girls! He just didn’t understand them.

“S-sorry I-I just, well…uh…” he stammered, shifting uncomfortably. To his relief Keiko sighed and shook her head.

“I know, I know, but just think if tonight goes well we can do this all the time.” Yusuke fought to keep the rising horror that was filling him from showing on his face.

“Oh, that’s, er, good, uh, yeah.” He stopped himself from thinking about future nights of torture. He quickly made up some brilliant lies as they walked downstairs.

“Well, uh, I kinda told Kuwabara and Kurama about the date and, uh, well other people found out and they really wanted to see me on a date and uhh…” they could see the conspicuous group of people standing outside now. Botan and waved cheerily and Kuwabara gave him a thumbs up. Keiko turned to him and smiled.

“No wonder you’re nervous. Well, if they want to see us on a date then we’ll give them something to remember. The next date will be our private one, okay?”

“R-right” he said dejectedly.

Keiko grasped his hand, smiled pointedly at everyone outside, and strode out the door Yusuke in tow.