Special Moments in Time
Belonging
"Where is that bitch!" A very pissed off hanyou screamed at the seemingly innocent looking well in frustration. Not that he was expecting it to answer, though if it did he would seriously have to question his sanity.
He stalked over to it, kicking one of its wooded walls as if commanding it to produce the miko from the future. After a few seconds of silence, Inuyasha huffed and jumped inside the bone eaters well that connected his world, that of Feudal Japan to her world that was five hundred years in the future, in one graceful fluid motion as the ethereal blue light engulfed him, coagulating time so that he could pass centuries into the future with ease.
"He's so obvious" A voice stated, it was coming from behind one of the blueberry bushes.
"I know, but we shouldn't be spying on him like this every time" Another voice, this time female, rang out through the empty clearing, now devoid of grumpy hanyous.
"But you have to admit, its fun to spy on him" the male voice replied chuckling at the mere thought.
"It wouldn't be so much fun if he caught us" the female voice stated dryly before a resounding slap echoed throughout the forest surrounding the celestial well, "Stupid hentai monk!" the demon slayer cried as she stepped out of the bushes and stalked towards the village.
"Sango, please don't get mad, there was some dirt on your Kimono, I was simply dusting it off" Miroku ran after the fuming woman trying to appease her anger.
Inuyasha landed with a soft thud at the bottom of the well inside the well house five hundred years in the future. He glanced up at the roof of the building before stealthily jumping up and out of the well. He creaked open the well house door and his keen eyes made out the shrine grounds bathed in semi darkness, the only light coming from the moon hanging above and the lights that illuminated the Higurashi residence.
He crossed the shrine grounds in fast, silent strides before reaching the tree growing near the two storey house. It's branches reached near one of the windows, the window belonging to Kagome's quaint room, a soft light was spewing out, surrounding the nearby branches with an earthy glow.
He jumped up and landed on the branch nearest to her window before pouncing into her room with a speed only a half dog demon could muster.
"What the hell?!" he cursed loudly to himself on finding that the room was empty. He looked around the room, inhaling the addicting scent of the miko. He noticed a pile of books on her table with weird designs on it; Kagome told him they were letters of the English alphabet, though he couldn't care less. They were all closed, indicating that the girl had finished her studies, 'Then where the hell is she?' he mused silently.
Suddenly he heard a noise from downstairs, which sounded vaguely like laughter. Being of a suspicious nature, he placed one hand on his faithful sword, Tetsusaiga, and made his way out of the room and peered down the stairs into the room that Kagome called the family room.
A light growl bubbled up his throat and escaped through his lips that were slightly drawn back to reveal his fangs.
"What the fuck does that girl think she's doing?" he muttered, for there was Kagome, with her mother, grandfather and little brother. They were all sitting around a small table, a board of some sort spread out in front of them. There were some colorful objects on the board, and having been blessed with amazing vision, Inuyasha could make out that the board itself had lines all over it except in the middle where something was written, again in English alphabets.
"It's my turn" he heard Kagome's grandfather say, in his raspy voice, as he grabbed something with his wrinkled old hand, shook it near his ear and threw it back on the board. Inuyasha could see two small white cubes with black dots all over it. Then her grandfather picked up one of the colorful objects and moved it to another square.
"Eh?" Inuyasha was now utterly confused, were they performing some sort of spell. Knowing her grandfather, that was probably it, but how did he get the rest of Kagome's family to help him with it.
"Me next" the youngest Higurashi piped up as he too repeated the same procedure that his grandfather had done except he moved an object with another color to a different square.
"What are you doing?" Inuyasha asked, not being able to take the curiosity anymore, he barged down the stairs and stood in front of them with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Aah Inuyasha, so nice to see you again" Kagome's mother greeted him warmly, just like she always does.
"What are you doing?" he asked again walking closer to the board and looking at it suspiciously.
"We're playing Monopoly Inuyasha" Kagome stated smiling at the hanyou.
"Mo-no-po-lee?" Inuyasha sounded out the words, "What's that?"
"It's a kind of game, that you play with your family or friends" She answered patting the place next to her, signaling that he should sit there.
Inuyasha's annoyance was mounting, he sat down next to her in a huff, "You mean you didn't come back because you were playing this stupid game?"
"It's not stupid Inuyasha, it's a lot of fun" Kagome said looking down at her hands, "And besides, I haven't done anything together with my family in a long time"
Inuyasha glanced at her, the scent of her sadness hit his nose and he cringed slightly, he hated it when she was sad, "Ok, fine, we'll leave after you finish this game"
Her head snapped up and she gave him a brilliant smile that made him blush bright pink, "Thank you Inuyasha, hey why don't you join us"
"What?" he asked looking at her eager face, "But I thought this was supposed be quality time with your family."
"Don't be silly" her mother cut in, "You're a part of our family too"
"That's right" Souta said, giving his hero a silly grin.
"See, Inuyasha, now come on, you can play on my side" Kagome said placing her hand on his, urging him to accept their invitation.
"But I don't know how to play" he said, though it didn't sound too much like a protest.
"It's easy" Kagome said taking her hand off of his, much to his chagrin, "All you have to do is role these dice" she explained pointing at the white cubes he saw earlier, "You have to add the dots on the sides that are facing up and then move your marker, ours is the ship" she showed him the purple ship, "to the correct square" she finished.
"It's my turn now" Mrs. Higurashi said taking the dice, "You can see how it's done". She shook the dice before throwing it on the board, everyone waited till they rolled to a complete stop. Inuyasha saw that the two sides pointing up had two and three black dots respectively. "That means I have to move five squares" Kagome's mother said as she took her yellow horse marker and counted five squares from the square that it was previously on and placed it on the fifth square.
It's 'North Carolina avenue' that's mine mom, you have to give me rent" Souta said excitedly as he held out his hand for his mother to give him the money.
"What's that for?" Inuyasha asked as Mrs. Higurashi handed Souta some colorful paper.
"That's play money Inuyasha" Kagome said pointing at their own stack of the colorful paper, "It's what we use to play the game, you have to pay other people with it, you'll understand as we go along"
"Now it's you turn Inuyasha" Kagome's mother said as she handed the hanyou the dice. He took it and stared at the small cubes, and then he looked up at the other people in the room who were looking at him expectantly. His hand closed around the cubes, as he too shook them.
For once, he let a feeling of contentment wash over him from his toes to the very tips of his fuzzy silver ears.
For once he let himself relax and feel warm in the company of people he knew would never judge him on the basis of his blood or birth.
He threw the dice, and waited for them to role to a stop.
For once, he let himself belong…
AN: - So what do you think, good, bad, stupid? This idea attacked me late last night and I just had to put it on paper, when I was finished, i got this. I think it turned out pretty good. Anyway, constructive critisism is always welcome. So please read and review.
Till next time...