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1.
Yusuke knew as soon as he did it that he was being weird, but he was curious and Kurama could handle weird, so he bent down and pressed his nose right up against Kurama's neck to figure out what the new scent coming off of him was. When he straightened, everyone was looking at him.
"Keiko is right there, Yusuke," Kurama said before the silence could grow oppressive. Yusuke's mouth was open to protest before he even had time to think.
"That's not--" No, there was no reason to get defensive. Even if he was being weird, it was clear from the tone of Kurama's voice that he was just messing with him. Yusuke folded into a sitting position on the floor and crossed his arms like he wasn't even bothered. "You just smell weird today and I was trying to place it."
"That doesn't make it sound any less gay, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, already back to sprawling on his bed and scratching Eikichi's belly.
"Actually, it's a more demonic behavior." This was Kurama again, apparently running damage control just as calmly as if he hadn't been responsible for the conversation's current direction. "Mazoku are hardly the scent-tracking stars of Demon World, but they do have stronger noses than the average human."
"I already know all of that," Yusuke interrupted.
"You didn't tell anyone else about it, though, did you? Anyway, I smell different because Mother's had us gorging ourselves on peaches and strawberries the past week. It's a biochemistry thing."
Yusuke moved his hands to his ankles, too interested in the new information to remain defensive. "She took the whole demon thing that well?"
"I'm giving her time to get used to my having powers before I get into the nature of them."
"I guess that makes sense."
Kurama made a small noise of agreement and dug back into a bowl of chips Shizuru must've brought up earlier. "And for future reference, most demons outside the canid groups consider sniffing one another to be quite forward, so you might want to watch where you go sticking your nose in public."
"Sniffing is demon PDA, got it."
2.
"I think Kuwabara suspects, and Shizuru definitely knows." It was just Yusuke and Keiko this time, sitting at the counter of the Yukimuras' ramen shop with a list of their mutual friends between them.
"I thought Kurama would've figured it out, the way I practically face-planted in his neck, but I guess that stuff with his mom's got him distracted."
"You did have a good excuse, though," Keiko pointed out. "Even I almost bought it, and I knew you were going to try something today."
"Uh, yeah, well..." Yusuke looked away, twirling a set of chopsticks to try and look like he wasn't embarrassed and also a moron. Unfortunately, he was talking to Keiko, who knew this and every other move in his book.
"You mean to tell me I spent eleven days of post break-up recovery helping you figure out you wanna swap spit with the guy and you couldn't even have the nerve to flirt with him deliberately?" Shit, she looked pissed, but Yusuke just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Well it's not like he's got a skirt I can flip!" There's the wind-up, aaand--Yusuke watched in surprise as Keiko actually stopped herself from slapping him over being gross and instead stood up, grabbing the list that was meant to keep track of when and how their friends figured out they'd broken up.
"I have a paper to work on. Call me when you actually get somewhere."
3.
The problem was that he honestly couldn't think of a way to let Kurama know. Yusuke kind of sucked at talking about feelings, comparatively speaking, and he didn't think he'd survive Kurama's version of slapping the shit out of him over unwanted ass-grabbing. That left... what, pining in his general direction? It was probably only fair after asking Keiko to wait as long as he had, but Yusuke just wasn't that patient. So he decided to just watch for awhile, see what came to him.
4.
"Don't move a muscle! Kurama's coming to get you." Kuwabara's little telepathy trick still freaked Yusuke out, but times like this--tied up in a room full of exact duplicates who didn't even have the decency to wait a moment before copying whatever he said--he could admit its usefulness.
Genkai was going to give him so much shit.
A couple minutes and several flairs of power later Kurama finally showed up as promised, looking so artfully mussed that Yusuke was torn between hating him and wanting to lick his face. He settled for glaring.
"You know we're just gonna have to save his ass next, right?" Okay, ignore what he said about Kuwabara's telepathy trick, hearing his own voice multiplied dozens of times was what really freaked Yusuke out. Kurama seemed unbothered, though, both by what Yusuke had said and how many extra versions of him had said it; in fact, he was already wading through the crowd, and as he drew closer Yusuke could see his nostrils flaring. "Dude, I thought you said sniffing was embarrassing or some shit."
"For other demons, Yusuke. Foxes have no such concern." Kurama went off to the side a little as he talked, paused to scent the air again, and then corrected course. It might have been adorable if Yusuke wasn't so eager to be untied. (That was a lie. It was so adorable.) "Kuwabara is engaged in an Oingo Boingo karaoke duel with our culprit, so he'll be fine."
Then he was right there, bent forward to stick his nose in Yusuke's hair. Was this what it had felt like for Kurama before? It was weird, tickle-y and intimate, but Yusuke liked it, and it was over almost before Yusuke had even had time to realize it was happening.
"I'd know that disgusting hair gel anywhere," Kurama said, and the rope began to loosen around Yusuke's arms, freeing his body and power both.
Yusuke probably should've said something about his feelings then, watching all the duplicates vanish in puffs of smoke, but he figured he'd done enough looking like an idiot that day.
5. & 6. & 7. & 8.
He started dragging Kurama to lunch once a week, each time telling himself this would be the time he'd finally tell Kurama he had the hots for him. Then they'd start talking about Kurama's family or whatever he was working on at the moment or Yusuke's job at the Yukimuras' or something on TV recently and suddenly it was already time for Kurama to get back and Yusuke still hadn't said anything.
Again.
Dammit.
9.
And then there was another case, tracking down a magic paperweight ("It's a bit more--never mind.") that had zero value in Living World but plenty in Demon World, which was why the client hadn't gone to the actual police when it was stolen. Yusuke was getting better at tracking things down himself, but he was so used to having backup that he convinced Kurama to tag along anyway.
They apprehended the thief near the edge of a cliff. Yusuke kept his spirit gun aimed at her, ready to shoot her if she stepped too far out of line, and Kurama edged closer to try and take the paperweight back. But then the ground began to rumble, and wings unfurled from the thief's back as she leapt into the air with a grin. Kurama jumped after her before Yusuke could fire, latching onto the bag she was carrying the paperweight in as the ground fell away in chunks. Somehow she managed to pry Kurama's grip loose, and then he was falling too, and Yusuke jumped without thinking. He had a hard head, he could survive a fall from this--
He barely had his hand on Kurama's arm before they were both yanked to a halt twenty feet down. If his heart still worked it would have been hammering in his throat right then, but there was no time to freak out just yet. Yusuke grabbed the nearest handhold he could find and pulled himself up a little, taking his weight off Kurama's arm.
"You do realize you could have stayed at the top of the cliff?"
Yusuke looked up, and... yeah, there was Kurama's rose whip, free of thorns for once with the far end looped around a chunk of rock jutting out from the side of the cliff. It didn't look like the best grip, though; he pulled himself up a little farther so they were even with each other. "Whatever, man, just get on my back so I can haul your suicidal ass back up."
Kurama heaved that put-upon sigh of his but cooperated, that stupid goddamn paperweight in his other hand, and Yusuke started climbing. Three quarters of the way up, he felt Kurama's nose nudge up briefly behind his ear. "Thank you for coming after me anyway."
Maybe it was the adrenaline of thinking, even for a moment, that one of his best friends was going to die, or maybe it was just being stuck on a cliff face, but Yusuke started talking and found he couldn't shut himself up again.
"Yeah, well, maybe I wasn't expecting you to pull an Indiana Jones back there and thought you might actually die. We don't all have fucking 'get out of death free' cards saved up for a rainy day. How am I supposed to do my big stupid love confession if you're getting carted off by one of Botan's coworkers? Hell, what am I supposed to tell your mom? 'I'm sorry, Mrs. Hatanaka, but you have to go back to getting your fruit at the grocery store like everyone else because I let your son get killed.' I refuse to have death number three be drowning in your mom's tears, Kurama, I don't care how much I like you."
Somehow, in the midst of this rant, they had come back to the top of the cliff. The thief was long gone, but Kurama was just standing there with the paperweight still in his hand, staring at Yusuke like... like... he didn't know what, but it was freaking him out. "What?"
"'Big stupid love confession'?"
Of course he caught that part. Kurama caught everything. Yusuke shrugged, unexpectedly calm after all the time he'd spent psyching himself up for this moment. "There were probably going to be flowers or some shit, I was still working on it."
"I see." Kurama looked at the paperweight, tossing it lightly into the air and catching it as he turned to start walking back down the way they'd come while chasing the thief just a little earlier. Yusuke thought he seemed pleased, but considering his astoundingly limited romantic experience and the more recent "jumping off a cliff" thing, he didn't feel like he could trust his own judgment at the moment.
"I'm gonna need a little more to go on, here." He caught up to Kurama, who continued to toy with the paperweight. "'That's great'? 'That's terrible'? 'Go jump off the cliff again'? What are we thinking?"
Yeah, okay, Kurama was definitely smiling now. "Truth be told, I was beginning to feel like a dirty old man, wondering what would happen when you noticed you'd been flirting with me. But you've known for a while now, haven't you?"
Yusuke snatched the paperweight out of midair when Kurama tossed it again--not that he didn't trust him to keep it intact for the client, but he was making him nervous--and found himself smiling, too. "Since peaches and strawberries day," he answered. "You're still a dirty old man, though. I'm practically a fetus compared to you."
"Everyone is practically a fetus compared to me. Do you know how rare it is for demons to even make it through their first millennium? If I limited myself to people more than half my actual age I might as well take a vow of celibacy." The paperweight was back in Kurama's hand before Yusuke even realized he was going for it.
"Lucky me you don't."
"Your luck is rather extraordinary."
10.
If Yusuke was in charge of things, it might have taken even longer than that to make it to their first kiss. Fortunately for both parties, this was one of those areas where Kurama was happy to take the lead.
11.
Koenma was the last to find out.