Extended Summary: She loved her job—it allowed her to focus on school during the week and take a simple one day off to clean after slobby businessmen who are in their room as much as they are at home, never. Until one day, when one of the guests returns with a strange request…to pretend to be his spy partner when his disappears, entangling them both in a web of hidden truths and heartbreaking adventures.
Disclaimer- Inuyasha and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi
To Catch A Snipe- In A Heartbeat
Thump, thump, thump
Inuyasha cringed his amber eyes as he heard the person in the other room pound on the paper thin walls that separated him and his partner from the couple next door. And while it was a normal routine for him and Kikyo to mask their intel swap with sounds of having sex with the cover of being a couple, she was going a little overboard this particular night.
"Mm, baby, that feels so…good," she moaned as she licked her lips.
It wasn't that Inuyasha was against this type of behavior. In fact, he would urge it on in a normal circumstance, particularly since she strictly forbade any recreational activity between them. But this night was different. They had just gotten a huge lead in their current case, and he wanted information. Now.
And here she was playing games. Damn women.
He set down his suitcase with all of his utensils on top of the bed in between the two of them, but Kikyo would have none of that. Her hand pushed it off the bed and it landed with a clutter under the armoire.
"Kikyo, would you get to the point?" He whispered, his patience wearing as thin as the wall.
"I know you want this to be real," she muttered, a glint in her eye as she firmly gripped her left breast. "Don't pretend as if you aren't interested."
Inuyasha was stunned silent. He had been working with his partner for five years now on countless missions. Both of them were the best in their division, and they were expected to have the best results. This being so, Kikyo never messed around, professionally or privately. He'd been known to have a few flings here and there, all the while pining for his lady companion to confide in him.
But she never did. Nor did she with any other person, that he had known of anyway. Though he could never have her physically, they had shared intimate details about their lives with each other. Neither had much family and they had even fewer friends. They were all each other had. Now here she is, basically begging him to finally act on his inhibitions. His timing could not be the worst.
"That's not the issue right now; we need to make a move on Naraku as soon as possible."
Her face finally turned stoic and she dropped her hands as she stopped trying to move the mattress around in the gyrating fashion she had accustomed to for the sake of pulling off their cover, forcing Inuyasha to take up her slack. Nothing like having fake sex. Same amount of effort, yet none of the satisfaction.
"He's meeting with Hakudoshi in the morning where we scouted today. Be there at 9 am." She stood up, signaling the end of their session. "Thanks baby, for such a great time," she said as she stalked off towards the couch. She obviously lost the coin toss for the bed.
Inuyasha clambered inside the sheets and closed his eyes with an optimistic view on the following day. It was about time he took down Naraku, the bastard that sold military guns to thugs on the street. The same guns that almost killed his baby niece, Rin.
He always woke up feeling edgy, that was the majority factor to why he woke up before sunrise every morning. This morning though he knew something was off, even more than usual. He noted the time was around four thirty, only a few hours since he fell asleep.
Inuyasha threw his legs over the side of the bed, thankful that he never wore regular civilian sleep clothes so he didn't have to waste time changing, and tried to call out an almost silent whisper towards his partner.
When he didn't get an answer, his senses went on even higher alert. He pulled his gun out of cartridge, keeping it close against his thigh and stuck towards the shadows until the spot where she had been residing was in his view.
Inuyasha shut his eyes in agitation as he noticed she wasn't there. There was definitely something out of place now.
His gun now pointed in front of him, he turned the corner and was graced with the site of an empty room. If someone took her, they were no longer there. He checked the rest of the hotel room to find absolutely nothing. He raked his hands through his silver mane before finally sitting on the very couch Kikyo had rested on not long ago.
Fan-fucking-tastic. He now had to bust Naraku by himself 'cause he sure as shit didn't trust anyone else to do it, call up HQ and tell him his partner was missing, and then find said missing partner.
His mood was officially shot to hell.
Inuyasha shifted his weight to one side so that he could pull his cell phone from his back pocket when he heard crinkling, the same that came from paper.
"The fuck is this?" he muttered, exasperatedly.
Inuyasha, you almost look so peaceful when you sleep. Turn in your partner or next time when I come visit, you'll get a bullet in your lovely head rather than this note. Consider yourself lucky and warned.
Warmest regards,
Naraku
Inuyasha was surely baffled. He had been convinced just one minute ago that Kikyo had been kidnapped, but the note in his hand relayed a completely different message.
His partner was one popular girl.
A plan formulating in his plan, Inuyasha grabbed what little he had and headed for base. Kikyo's intel on the bust was obviously corrupt, so he had no choice but to focus on finding what happened to cold woman that knew so much about him yet made his life so miserable.
Kagome hummed as she took out the vacuum, blue eyes shining. While most of her friends were full time students at the nearby university, they also had excruciating hours that paid horribly. Her luck had been entirely different thanks to Hojo, the boy that had been crazy for her since high school. He landed her with a job that took out a few hours from her one day (rarely two) a week and paid remarkably well.
Basically, she was a cleaning lady at a hotel where prominent businessmen came to visit. They were the best in almost every aspect, with a few deviators here and there of course. Most of them came in late at night and woke up early in the morning, meaning she had little to do when she came in. Not only that, but they would tip well, especially the reoccurring visitors.
The few vacationers that stayed over summers spent most of their time sight-seeing yet always left a mess. Partiers were sometimes a problem, but no job was always simple.
This Monday was nothing abnormal for Kagome though, as she turned the 'on' switch and the roar of the vacuum drowned out her melodious voice while it suctioned the dirt from the ugly brown floor. She really wished they would redecorate.
After vacuuming, she would dust, replace whatever items were missing, clean all the surfaces including sheets (sometimes wash those twice, ew), and if needed she would vacuum again. She was a very meticulous cleaner.
However, on this Monday, while routine, she had finished all her other rooms a bit sooner and wanted to just relax on this last one. She twirled as she allowed the vacuum to glide over the room, simply enjoying the time she would have to study after this.
Until the sucker collided with something below the armoire.
"Well that's curious."
She turned off the vacuum and crouched next to the furniture, allowing her hands to grapple until the met with the foreign object. She tugged and discovered a discarded suitcase had been left by the previous guest. She dumped it on the bed and continued to clean, relying on sending the baggage to the front desk after her shift. No point in wasting her precious time.
Just as her hand was about to press the power button again, she heard a masculine throat clear, signaling her of another presence and causing her to squeal.
"Hey, Higurashi! Chill out, it's just me. Was wondering if you wanted some lemonade for all your hard work? Or I could make you some tea with these new herbs I got, they're supposed to slow down your blood pressure. Very healthy with all the stress you put into this job," the sandy-haired visitor said, holding out two glasses for her to choose. Kagome scolded herself for being so paranoid. It was just Hojo. He couldn't hurt a fly.
"Oh, thank you so much. I was beginning to work up a bit of a sweat," she said as she took hold of the lemonade. She raised it to her mouth, the perfect remedy to quell her scratchy throat.
"You still look immaculate, Higurashi." Kagome noted the blush that rose to his cheeks as he shared his compliment. She supposed she should feel flattered, and she almost did, but she had told him time and time again that she just wasn't interested in that way. His head never seemed to wrap around that concept though. Instead, he showered her with gifts and compliments whenever he could.
"I appreciate that, Hojo. I really should get back to work though. I'll see you when I clock-out, okay?"
The dejected boy waited until she handed back the empty glass and sulked out of the room.
"Oh, wai-!" Kagome glanced at the suitcase still on the bed, completely forgotten about. But Hojo was already out of sight, and she wasn't willing to go chase him down. Who knows what crazy ideas he would formulate. It could wait until she got off, just as it was going to before he visited.
Determined to finish, she went back to cleaning. She hummed and sang a few versus of a few songs she heard on the radio while she absentmindedly cleaned the tiny rooms until they were nearly perfect. She was winding down to the very end when an odd feeling overwhelmed her. It was as if she was being watched. She looked out the window and saw no one, same result as when she looked out the hallway.
Kagome shrugged it off and wrapped the cord to the vacuum, wheeling it towards the door to leave, suitcase in her other hand. She had her hand on the knob of the door when a hand wrapped its way around her mouth.
"Don't scream. If you do, I can easily break your pretty little neck. Give me back the suitcase, and while you're at it, do me a favor."
Kagome could swear her eyes were about to fall out of her skull she had them so wide. She immediately dropped the suitcase, not wanting to die. Her tiny body was trembling badly when her captor spun her around, amber meeting blue.
It took the man in front of her a few moments to continue. "I'm taking my hand off your mouth now, so don't be a stupid wench and scream. But I need you to pretend to be a spy."
Inuyasha was at base when he realized he'd left his suitcase. He cursed his careless luck. However, he had more pressing matters at hand. He had just spoken with his supervisor, aka his brother Sesshomaru, and obtained some rather disturbing information.
Kikyo had been keeping secrets from him. The woman that he told almost everything to, he found out he knew barely anything about her. It made him want to punch a wall, or better yet, find her and ask her what her fucking deal was.
All this time, she had been having relations with the man that they were now chasing. Inuyasha never questioned where she got her intel from, putting full trust in her. Sesshomaru however, had her trailed. There were years of mistrust dealing with her case, but he never followed through until recently when she briefed him on the whereabouts of Naraku. Sesshomaru's suspicions of the girl grew, and ensued the spy being spied.
Naraku had become obsessed with the woman though. And when she found out she was being followed, he didn't take kindly to it, killing one of the rookie agents and threatened her to leave the agency or she would be next.
That night, she left.
Now, Inuyasha had no partner and a gun dealer turned murderer threatening him until he had her back.
He needed to make a move, and fast. It was about time he went to get his suitcase.
Inuyasha put a cap on his head and shrugged a jacket that covered his frame, making him almost unrecognizable despite his waist-length silver hair. Most spies thought it wise to blend in, not wanting to be described to officials. Anyone that advised him ended up with a nice shiner and a warning to mind their own fucking business.
As he walked back towards the hotel, he thought back to his partner and how she held so much back from him. She knew the most about him, the fact that he was a half demon in a world where demons don't even exist, and all this time she was stabbing him in the back.
His heart pounded achingly in his chest, infuriating him even more.
Inuyasha stopped just outside the room when he saw a girl in the apartment. His breath hitched in his throat, thinking it was Kikyo. He was about to call to her when he realized, no, they weren't the same. Their face might be similar as with the hair, this girl was wearing a yellow cleaning dress. She was just a fucking maid.
His fist had never itched to punch a wall so badly in his life before and he was two seconds away from doing so when a thought struck him. Use her.
Placate Naraku long enough to get information about where Kikyo could be hiding, and then kill him.
All he needed was to change the hair a bit, maybe get this annoying wench to stop smiling. But they could be twins.
He entered the window feeling elated. Just as the girl was about to leave, he covered her mouth and grabbed his conveniently found suitcase. "Don't scream. If you do, I can easily break your pretty little neck. Give me back the suitcase, and while you're at it, do me a favor," he whispered into her ear, noting the way her hair smelled sweet like strawberries.
Inuyasha liked to have his fun with the ladies, but this girl… he wanted to let his tongue dart out and lick her ear. Silence her fears and trembles. Hm.
If his plan was going to work, this was going to be a lot of work. She was weak.
He turned her around and was astounded to find that her eyes were a startling shade of blue. He realized what an idiot he must have seemed like, "I'm taking my hand off your mouth now, so don't be a stupid wench and scream. But I need you to pretend to be a spy."
With that, he let his hand fall away from her mouth and took his suitcase firmly into his grasp.
He anticipated a scream, but it never came. What he surely didn't expect was the fist that flew straight to his jaw.