Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha in any way, shape or form…
A/N: New fic! Yay Hopefully over the summer I'll actually be able to finish this one. ;;
Hotel Horror
Be Our Guest!
Kagome stared at her plate trying to look as entertained as possible as the drone of her school trip surrounded her.
"Higurashi, are you alright?" Her eyes slowly focused on Hojo's concerned face peering into hers. Quickly plastering on her best smile, Kagome nodded and gave a non-committal answer. Hojo gave her one of his vacant little smiles and returned to his conversation with her other classmates around her.
Slightly dejected, she turned back to her dinner and fiddled with her pasta with the French name that she couldn't pronounce. If she squinted hard enough, it started to resemble her cat, Buyo. Kagome glanced around the five-star restaurant and had to restrain herself from sighing in boredom. Although her peers were everywhere in the fancy restaurant dubbed Le Mer, she couldn't help but feel alone – her friends all had other plans for the summer, so Kagome was alone with only Hojo to keep her company.
This was going to be the longest summer yet.
By now this must have been the 30th time she feigned interest in some stupid conversation they were having about…Kagome listened and shuddered. Math?! Why would they talk about math of all things? They just got out of school for heaven's sake! Kagome certainly had enough of all subjects for one school year to last her three lifetimes. For the first time Kagome wished she had something to distract her.
To her surprise and delight, a light tune sounded from her bag.
I wish I had a million dollars! Kagome thought hopefully as she pressed her tiny mobile phone to her ear and murmured as quietly as possible, "Hello?"
"Kagome?!" she managed to hear three unmistakably shrilly voices over the static, and from the looks she was receiving from some of the other diners, they could too. "Kagome? Did you guys get to Hojo's Hotel yet? How are the rooms? Are we missing anything good? Did anything happen between you and Hojo yet?! Spill Kag, spill!"
Kagome flushed bright pink, already feeling the startled stares from Hojo and her classmates around her and she tried to cover as much of the earpiece as humanely possible, but it was futile and the damage was done. Turning to her classmates, she tried to keep the embarrassment out of her voice when she stammered loudly to cover her friends' voices, "I think I'll take this call outside, thanks," and then she all but ran from the restaurant.
"What are you guys doing," Kagome hissed venomously into her phone at her three friends, as she stormed out of the pair of oak doors leading to the restaurant, slipping into an empty elevator. "I can't believe you guys!" she grouched, and when she noticed the man in the funny uniform looking at her expectantly she snapped, "Penthouse! I mean he could hear you guys! They all could hear you guys!"
"Aww…come on Kag, we were just playing around!" she could hear Ayumi's pouting voice, and she vaguely registered that they were over a hundred miles away, probably having fun with Yuka and Eri at the mall or at a fast food place. It didn't help her mood that she was stuck in this stuffy elevator with a man who looked like he could have been a trained monkey. He was certainly eyeballing her like an animal… "So, really, how's everything? Are you alright?"
Her bad mood slowly evaporated as she described in gossip-worthy detail the extent of the luxuries she had in the hotel. "The dinner was awesome! I haven't seen my room yet, but by the looks of the rest of the place, even the smallest room here would be amazing! Hojo was telling us that there are entertainment systems in some of the rooms, and the bathrooms are built for celebrities!"
The elevator opened with a soft ping, and Kagome lightly stepped out of it, glad to get away from the creepy man, and chattering light-heartedly with her friends. "Well, Kagome looks like you're having fun! Mom's calling so we've gotta run! We'll check up on you and Hojo later on. Don't do anything we wouldn't do!" Yuka said wickedly and Kagome disconnected with a beep.
She glanced at her little card which they all were given at the beginning of their little trip. Hojo's parents owned a small, but fancy chain of hotels around Japan, and were kind enough to pay for their whole class to go on a summer-long trip. As she slid her key in the door and entered her room, Kagome couldn't help but feel a small twinge of guilt as she stared around her at her luxurious room. For all that she whined to her friends and in her brain, she sure got a wonderful room. It almost looked like…
"A suite!" she whispered breathily.
A big stab of guilt hit her as she wandered her expansive room. The floors were wood with beautiful rugs and coffee tables, the T.V. was huge, and there were two couches, a massive refrigerator and one king-sized canopy bed. The bathroom boasted a large sit-or-stand shower and huge Jacuzzi with jets. The floors and counters were marble and there was enough shampoo and conditioner to last her the whole summer. She had a hunch that the other student's rooms weren't as well-furbished as her – her friends figured Hojo had a crush on her – and this nearly confirmed it.
"It just screams, 'I like you!'" Kagome giggled.
And in the middle of her new palace, there sat a jar of bath salt, a bouquet of a dozen roses with a bottle of champagne, and a plate of chocolate-dipped strawberries. Both had cards. Curious, Kagome flopped down on the feathery couch, popped a strawberry in her mouth and read musingly, "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Jennifer Lopez on your wedding! Please accept these as gifts. With love, the staff?" Whatever… she thought, shrugged, and happily took another strawberry from the tray. Before she could stop herself, Kagome plucked one slender rose from its bouquet, sniffed the flower and sighed. In mid-reach for the bottle, Kagome decided against it. She was after all, underage. She'd call housekeeping later about the champagne, but she'd definitely keep the roses and chocolates.
Finally, she turned and read the third card it had a familiar student's scrawl on it, "Higurashi, these therapeutic bath salts are supposed to help you relax! Hope you like them! Hojo."
Not even bothering to unpack, Kagome tottered over to her bed and flopped onto it unceremoniously and nearly purred out of content. This summer didn't seem to look so bad…
I could get used to this.
Both computers beeped furiously, as the two typed frantically on their keyboards.
The tension in the room was mounting, and beads of sweat slowly inched along their faces. Thousands of monitors were in the room, flitting back and forth to show various places around the hotel, but everyone's attention was on the two blipping computer screens. The only sounds in the room besides dinky game music were groans of frustration, victorious yells and the munching of pizza.
"WHOO HOO!" Miroku screamed and leapt from his chair doing his ritual victory dance, "Double kill!"
"What are you talking about?!" Inuyasha yelled angrily banging a fist on the table, "One of them was a TK! That was me you bouzo!"
"On the contrary, Inuyasha, I do believe I won fair and square," Miroku said smugly as he leaned back into his chair with a smirk, "You're just a poor newbie compared to my superior skill and finesse."
Inuyasha took his frustrations out by drumming his claws onto the table while glaring angrily at the monitors, daring any fishy business to cross his view. They had to do security duty for over 7 hours now, as punishment for upsetting the guests. Only pushed the fucking brat into the pool! He thought sourly. Now he was stuck with the pervert, it was just like detention – in the summer. Scanning the monitors, he nudged Miroku. "Wanna play some CounterBound?"
Just as they were recommencing their internet-pizza-brawl, the door swung in to reveal a very annoyed lifeguard.
"What are you bozos doing in here?!" Sango said as she looked exasperatedly at the two who were guiltily peering at her over their computers which aptly chirped in a robotic voice, "XSageZeroX did a double kill in room 204." Rolling her eyes, she began her rant, "Gosh, I can't leave you two alone for a minute can I?" Their lady friend scanned both of their computers muttering, "I swear if I hear of you two downloading porn again on the company's computer, I'll tell the boss!"
"You two?!" Inuyasha protested, "There's only one pervert in this room!"
"Nice to see that you're owning up for your obscene behavior, Inuyasha," Miroku gravely said.
Ignoring them Sango rambled on, "What if someone were murdered? Or a thief got in? The cops still never caught that whats-his-name serial killer that goes after the celebs – what would people say if Jennifer Lopez was murdered in our hotel?!"
Miroku's eyes lit up, "J Lo is in our hotel?!"
Sango opened her mouth to respond, but decided on a flat look before continuing, "Anyway, we're short-handed since that Naraku guy sued our last two shifts of lifeguards for breaking a priceless heirloom or something…so you guys got duty with me and Kouga for this whole summer. So Boss says to get your asses on up before guests start drowning on us. Oh there's going to be a lot of highschoolers – Boss's boss brought his kid and all of his friends over for the summer. So be prepared."
Inuyasha and Miroku exchanged grim glances – they knew just what they needed.
"Coppertone?" Sango asked incredulously, "I tell you to mount up for poolside hell, and you only bring suntan lotion?!"
She watched in disbelief as the two took off their shirts to reveal tans and toned muscles to the crowd of highschool girls below them in the pool. Men, Sango thought as she snorted. The trio passed Kikyo's stand, grabbing towels as they headed towards their posts. The towel woman merely nodded to them from her shady position under the umbrella as greeting. They passed the Coppertone back and forth making a show of it, grinning when some of the girls began to stare.
"This isn't only suntan lotion!" Inuyasha said, mortally offended, clutching the bottle to his chest. "This little beauty is the reason for our success! SPF 15, UV Protection, yet gives a sexy tan. Women love this stuff!" He twitched his fuzzy ears and combed his hair with his fingers. Several girls sighed.
"Success?" Sango scoffed, "Maybe on Mars! But that doesn't work better than my Baby," she cooed as she fingered her shiny blue whistle hanging around her neck.
She did have a point, Sango was the only one of the three to carry a whistle. But theirs was taken away when they blasted their whistles in time to "Jingle Bells". It was the most important tool of a lifeguard, and it looked damn cool. As long as you had one, you could get anyone's attention in the pool. But you'd have to pull teeth to get them to admit it.
"Ah, Sango, you lack the vision to see the power of a suntan," Miroku said applying generously to his back and arms. "A good tan," he flexed, "can hold thousands of highschool girls at bay."
He nearly fell of his lifeguard stand when Sango pelted him with her own sunscreen bottle.
"You got off easy, I'm just too hot to go over there and hit you myself," Sango said angrily with a tinge of pink on her cheeks. Whether it was from the sun or from the exertion of throwing the sunscreen, the swimmers never knew, but Miroku seemed to guess the reason and grinned saucily at his co-worker, who blush increased and jammed a pair of sunglasses on her face and scanned the pool, looking everywhere other than him.
She spotted trouble instantly; a girl appeared to have drowned and was now in the arms of Inuyasha. His ears were twitching frantically now trying to pick up sounds of breathing and heartbeat, and his eyes were scanning her for injuries or breathing – if Sango didn't know any better she'd say he was checking her out.
"Girl," he said nervously - or was that impatience she heard - while shaking her lightly. No response. "Girl," he barked more firm this time, definitely impatient this time, and shaking her a bit harder. No response. "Oi! Stupid bint!" he yelled the girl jerked in his arms eyes startled, "I know you're not dead so stop asking for a mouth-ta-mouth! You want that next time drown by Miroku." The girl was blushing bright red by now as all eyes at the big pool were trained on her and the white haired hanyo. Shaking her head, Sango returned to what she was previously doing.
There was a splash and a scream of surprise as Inuyasha carelessly tossed the girl back into the water. Hopefully to drown for real.