Disclaimer: I, GodOfFlame101 under the alias of Damien, do not own any copyrights, Trademarks or affiliates of the Anime/Manga InuYasha. I receive no revenue from this story and this story may be distributed or revoked by the will of the producers of said Anime/Manga without myself seeing so much as a penny.
Esse Est Precipi
Mark and Execute
Soft Jazz – such a beautiful thing it was: the wailing moan of the tenor saxophone as it expelled its long string of notes, arching its melody to accommodate the shifting chords; the steady rhythm of the drum-set, the feathered sticks pounding the snare with unabashed passion; the angelic crescendo of the flute as the high-pitched siren song echoed off of the high-rise ceiling, vibrations settling into the chandelier above. The Inu-hanyou closed his honey-colored eyes, letting the atmosphere settle in around him; the clang of money as it was ejected from machines, the happy shouts of patrons and the dulcet tune of good times had by all mixed delicately with the music that was permeating his ears.
Inuyasha let out a single chuckle. "This place sure has style."
His ears flattened against his head as the flute player hit a sour note, disappearing into a sea of silky smooth silver hair. Most people he had run into during the course of his life had just tried to ignore his flowing hair; of course, there were some people who absolutely loved it and would constantly beg him to let them touch it – almost as if stroking someone's head was a fetish to them. Inuyasha would almost never let them on the basis that, to ask to touch a stranger's head, was just plain weird. Although, there were some people that he allowed to touch his glorious mane – a select couple of individuals, one of whom Inuyasha was simply itching to see…
Cracking an eye open, Inuyasha looked himself over once more for good measure. The suit – which he despised – was in perfect condition and his large tanned briefcase seemed to be holding up just fine. True, there was no reason for it not to hold together but one can never be too sure in this line of work.
Without glancing at the security checkpoint he had just passed, Inuyasha strolled into the main area of the casino. He took time to lazily gaze as people threw their hard earned money away into slot machines, repeatedly putting coin after coin into the brown contraption's hungry little mouth, only to be disappointed when no returns were made. Humans were so easy to fool; they were always ready to give up anything, everything, for a fleeting moment of happiness. None of them understood that, in order to find happiness, they would have to actually work towards it; humans would have to create opportunities in order to take them – kind of like what he was doing.
His amber eyes flicked toward the bar, ignoring the subtle glances he was being given from women dressed in provocative clothing as well as the cocktail waitress, settling on a particular human girl. In his eyes, she was nothing special; just a typical female form with typical charcoal hair and brown eyes that were settled on the sultry band. In his eyes, she was just another mark.
The Inu-hanyou made his way over to her, weaving delicately through the throng of idle patrons, silently beckoning for her eyes to catch his. His ears perked up while the human girl's face suddenly became alert as if someone had tapped her on the shoulder; she turned her head towards him, a look of curiosity on her countenance. Without thinking, Inuyasha smiled at her, prompting her to reciprocate with a shine in her chocolate eyes. Their gazes remained locked as he approached, obviously welcomed by her, taking great pains to avoid looking at the silver briefcase positioned next to her stool. He'd get to lay eyes on it soon enough.
"Hey there," he said, taking a seat in the stool next to her.
"Hello," she answered calmly, her gaze wavering as though a thought was bouncing around in her mind. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"
Inuyasha chuckled a bit at the question, amber irises retreating behind his eyelids as he readied himself to answer. He never did like lying, especially to women; if his current relationship had taught him anything, it was that fibbing or stretching the truth was never a good idea. Lying had a nasty habit of intruding into everyday life; once a person tells one lie, more will inevitably follow.
"I'm afraid I would have remembered meeting a girl as pretty as you," Inuyasha murmured just loud enough for her to hear. It was a blatant lie but it would be weird to say, "yeah, you saw me once when my friends and I were tailing you to your hotel room the other day".
The girl with chocolate eyes looked at him, her smile growing wider. "Well, then let's meet now. My name is Kagome," the girl announced, extending her hand for him to grab. "What's yours?"
Inuyasha gingerly took her hand, rubbing his thumb gently over her knuckles as he stared into her cocoa orbs; his countenance softened at her, masking just how much he did not care about the girl. She could drop-dead right now and Inuyasha knew he wouldn't do a damn thing about it. "Why don't I tell you over a drink?"
She nodded at him, her Cheshire smile now in bloom, and Inuyasha could feel a pointed fang slip out from his lips as he attempted to hold back a sneer. 'Women are clueless.' It was always surprising just how easy a girl could be won over; a few simple eye motions and a gentle grasp of the hand and they instantly fell head over heels. How many times now had he done and said the exact same thing now? Forty-seven, or was it forty-eight? Every single time, Inuyasha would flash a toothy smile, signaling to the others that it was time to start, and the mark would instantly trust him.
It astounded him that all women always enjoyed the fake him and hated the real him. Well, all women except for one…
Inuyasha led the girl – Kagome – toward a set of tables parallel to the bar, sneaking a glance at the case she carried with her, and casually pulled out a seat for her before sitting down across from her, his ears flicking themselves every so often. After he sat down, he caught the girl staring at him – specifically at the top of his head, her smile replaced by innocent curiosity.
"What's your problem?"
"Your ears," Kagome said pointedly, still staring at the top of his head. "They look like dog ears."
Inuyasha cringed at the comment, fluffy triangles sagging slightly, as every fiber of his being tensed up in an attempt to control him from flipping out. It wasn't that he was offended; it was just second nature at this point. Growing up with weird appendages commonly elicits two results from a passerby: either the person tries desperately to ignore it, or the person points it out to make fun of it. When he was younger, Inuyasha would tolerate the racist jokes about his ears and simply act like he never heard them. However, now that he was older, he didn't take too kindly to strangers focusing on his ears.
"So what if they are?" Inuyasha spat out, rather harshly, immediately regretting his tone of voice.
For a moment, the real him emerged – indifferent, quick tempered – and he enjoyed it. Problem: the real him wasn't going to keep her in place long enough to make the switch. The real him would pick a fight with a five year-old for a bowl of ramen. His normal attitude was assuredly not the type to keep a girl entranced in the set-up…and the others would probably purify him if he caused this job to fail.
Kagome didn't even react to his outburst as she blinked at the furry ears on top of his head. Instead, she reached her arms out and rubbed his ears before she quickly pulled back and wiped her hands on her dress. "Okay, now that I've got that out of my system…"
Inuyasha sat in his chair, baffled by the strange girl in front of him, ears cocked at different angles from the spontaneous touching. She…she had just touched his ears. Despite what some people may believe, it's not all that common for humans to caress his ears – the stigma associated with demons applying to him as well. Sure, some people liked to touch his hair but that's a little different than wanting to touch his…abnormality. Most people just assumed that, since Inuyasha was a demon, he'd gnaw their hand off or worse; he might instantly go into "heat" and begin dry-humping their leg.
"Are you going to tell me your name or am I just going to have to call you 'mystery man'?" Kagome teased with seductive eyes, inching forward slightly.
Straightening his face and adjusting his false smile, Inuyasha answered the girl. "My name is…"
The next couple hours went by painfully slow as Inuyasha proceeded to chat-up his target with petty and meaningless conversations. As much as he enjoyed the pay-offs with his job, he immensely hated having to listen as women (and occasionally men) prattled on and on about their miserable lives; they always had a way of explaining how their aristocratic upbringing and bourgeois lifestyle was full of hardships. It was a tad sickening to listen to, offset only by the fact that, after a couple hours, those same men and women would truly understand what financial hardship was.
That thought always made him smile.
Still, it would be unfair of him to simply plaster the "pampered princess" label on the girl; she was nice, albeit a bit strange. At the very least, she kept the conversation away from money and her upbringing. Although Inuyasha could tell she came from wealth, what with her exotically exquisite ensemble. Her green, strapless dress, clung tightly to her form as though it were afraid to remove itself from her person; the soft fabric rustled against her sides whenever she moved, delicately caressing her trimmed core; the cloth's embrace parted slightly at her chest, giving an open view of her round and supple…
Inuyasha turned his eyes away as Kagome dug into her purse, presumably for some sort of make-up kit or phone. His eyes trailed around the main floor of the casino, flicking his ears toward a man and woman at the craps table who nodded in return. His arms shot up, right hand grabbing his left elbow, and he stretched his muscles out a bit, sneaking a quick peek at the silver case next to Kagome. It was sitting on the ground in plain sight.
'Sango and Miroku better have gotten the cue,' Inuyasha thought angrily as he reached down to grab his suitcase. His thumb rested steadily on a small release lever built into the locking mechanism. The Inu-hanyou didn't want to spend more time with the mark than necessary, even if she wasn't being a complete bitch.
"Can I get you two anything to drink?" a voice asked, yanking Inuyasha out of his stupor. A devilish smirk spread across Inuyasha's face as he looked at their "waitress". In return, she smiled back at him with a small wink.
"Nothing for me," Inuyasha stated blankly as his amber eyes gazed longingly at the waitress before flicking themselves back over to Kagome. "How about you?"
"I'd like a caipisake, please," Kagome said sweetly as she turned to their waitress. A questioning look appeared on Kagome's face the moment she saw the woman taking their orders; the woman looked oddly…similar to Kagome.
The woman nodded at Kagome, taking a quick glance at Inuyasha, and departed toward the bar to get the order; Kagome couldn't help but stare after the woman and she couldn't help but notice that her 'date' had given the stranger a remarkably friendly smile. Kagome wasn't jealous but she did find it a tad odd.
"So what do you do for a living, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked suddenly, his concentration falling back onto the job.
"Oh, you know, odd jobs here and there. I'm an artist, you know?" Kagome replied hurriedly. Inuyasha had to fight very hard to keep himself from walking away from the girl right then and there; every time a person claimed they were some sort of "artist", what they really meant was that they had no purpose in life whatsoever and deserved to be taken to a back-alley and shot for being such a waste of human life. "What do you do?"
Inuyasha let another fanged smile appear on his lips. "I'm an antique appraiser." It wasn't a complete lie. After all, he did frequently view valuable objects.
"Oh, that sounds pretty cool!" Kagome exclaimed with surprising enthusiasm. "It must be neat getting to see ancient and historical things every day. What era is your specialty?"
"Actually it's-"
Inuyasha was interrupted as a small clang was heard against the top of their table. There was a glass of caipisake in front of Kagome and a silky smooth hand attached to it. Trailing his eyes along the owner's arm, Inuyasha was soon looking at the "waitress" with her long ebony hair and soft brown eyes; those very same eyes were staring at him, a small sly smile forming on her lips as the Inu-hanyou nodded at her. Even he had to admit, she pulled off that look surprising well: the black slacks, the small white collared shirt, the red velvet dress. Hell, if he didn't know any better, even he would have bought it…
"Thank you," Kagome said as the waitress pulled her hand away.
The woman simply nodded at Kagome, unable to avert her eyes away from Inuyasha's burning amber gaze despite the fact that she was supposed to. In all actuality, she was supposed to have excused herself by now and gone off to do whatever it is waitresses do. However, sometimes things don't go according to plan and alternate measures need to be taken; it's a bit like amputation in a sense – never the best move but occasionally necessary.
Inuyasha laughed softly, still staring at their "waitress". He had an idea about how to get her back on track. He leaned back in his chair, turning his head between Kagome and the woman. "You know, I almost didn't notice but you two look oddly alike."
A smirk plastered itself on Inuyasha's face when he saw Kagome tilt her head at him, confused as to why he would say that; it grew even wider as he caught the small twitch of the waitress's right eye, her eyes hardening into a shallow glare – and, if had heard correctly, she was actually growling at him. Yeah, he had clearly pissed her off.
"If you two need anything else…"
As their waitress turned to leave, she was shoved out of the way by a man who had stumbled into the area. His eyes were dull, as if he were in a trance, and his movements were sloppy; it was obvious that he was quite intoxicated. Fists were banged against the table as the man leaned into it, a heated scowl emitting from his mouth as he looked at the Inu-hanyou with disgust; his gray eyes burned with displeasure at the sight before him, loathing the abomination sitting at the table.
Cocking an eyebrow at the man before him, Inuyasha felt his thumb slam against the release lever on his briefcase. "You got some sort of problem?"
"Yeah, with half-breeds like you!" the man shouted, grabbing a hold of Inuyasha's collar.
Inuyasha could feel his eyebrow twitch at the comment. For once, that insult had been completely unexpected…The half-demon stood up, face to face with his assailant, and grabbed the moron by the folds of his tuxedo, growling menacingly at the bigot. The two of them exchanged some very color remarks back and forth, much to the amazement of Kagome and the waitress.
"Whash are youse doin' to m'hushband!" a woman shrieked as she stumbled over to the two fighting men. She nearly tripped over her feet as she advanced toward the scene, grabbing onto Kagome's chair for support.
Wonderful. Now there were two drunkards ruining the evening.
"Um, excuse me…" Kagome near whimpered, surprised by the situation.
The drunk woman sent her an angry glare, lips twitching with unabashed fury. "Oh, ansh jush who might youse be? You'res that mutt'sh mate aren't youse? I'll kill ya'!" The woman lunged on top of Kagome, desperately trying to strangle her.
Inuyasha tossed a quick wink to the man before flipping him over onto the table so that his upper-back was slammed against the edge of the tabletop, sending a jagged crack coursing through the gilded oak. Inuyasha could hear the soft clicking of metal on metal as his briefcase was moved about in a delicate and purposeful manner. Inuyasha could see a small twinkle of silver from the bottom of the briefcase as the man lifted the tanned object up and over Kagome's silver case, trapping it inside Inuyasha's. Effectively, it looked as though both cases had simply been thrown around in the scuffle; the two containers appeared as though they had just switched places in a sense.
There was still a tan briefcase and a silver case; no one would assume that the current silver casing was actually a decoy that had been fitted to look exactly like Kagome's case.
After a few moments of semi-realistic struggling, casino security came over and pulled the two drunkards away, escorting them out of the casino.
Relieved, Inuyasha turned toward Kagome. "Well, now that's settled, where were-"
"Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave," their waitress announced, tenderly grabbing hold of Inuyasha's arm. "You've broken private property and engaged in harming another patron. Please come with me."
"Bullshit!" Inuyasha seethed, glaring at the "waitress". After he saw that there was no changing her mind, Inuyasha let out a loud "feh", picked up his briefcase and turned to Kagome as he was dragged away. "I'll see you around?"
Kagome simply shrugged at the half-demon with a humored smile as he was led off to the elevator. Noticing that her case was moved, Kagome reached over and grabbed it; she gave the Inu-hanyou a small wave as the doors of the elevator closed on him.
For the first time in seven hours, Inuyasha sighed in content. It was reflexive, a response to adrenaline-high euphoria he was currently feeling; his back muscles arched toward the back of the cubed enclosure, forcing him to lean against the metal wall. Blood was pumping quickly throughout his body, steadily slowing as his breathing became deeper and more relaxed. The moment before a job was officially complete always gave him a rush; that moment where any spontaneous thing could happen was so exciting.
Inuyasha cocked his head at the "waitress" in front of him as she stood there oh-so-innocently. Her long black hair was tied into a neat ponytail and she remained so statuesque as the elevator descended quite slowly to the main floor.
'Exciting…' Inuyasha thought, a dastardly gleam in his eye.
He snaked an arm around the woman, a strong tug bringing her up against him; she fidgeted a little bit, almost daring to pull away from him, before quickly succumbing to the feel of Inuyasha and melting into him. He brought his lips to her neck, gently trailing them up and to her ears to nibble on them; in return, she stepped down on his foot with in a very clear, "No."
"Ow!" Inuyasha yelped, bringing his chin to rest on the nape of the woman's neck. "Come on. You're not still mad at me, are you?"
The woman scoffed at him as her hand found its way to the top of the hanyou's head and began scratching it. "I specifically asked you to stop comparing the two of us. Why would you deliberately say something that would upset me?"
He growled slowly into her ear and she let out a small laugh. She could tell it was an affectionate growl.
"You know, you're pretty cute when you're angry…" Inuyasha mumbled.
"Am I now?" the woman asked, retracting her hand from the hanyou's head.
"Yeah, you are."
Their little moment was interrupted by the sound of the elevator arriving at their floor. With gusto, the woman planted a quick kiss on Inuyasha's cheek before pulling away from him and adjusting her outfit. "I'll see you back at the house."
Inuyasha chuckled as he exited the steel contraption, moving toward the ground floor's security checkpoint. He took a quick glance behind him and at the smiling woman in the elevator.
"See you soon, Kikyo."
The early morning darkness receded from the skies, dragging out the colored curling clouds of the new day; tanned skies painted themselves over the morning blue, while the great puffs of air gently caressed the silky smooth sky. The past events of an eventful morning, their con at the casino, were pulled away with the retreating night taking all possibility of suspicion with it. While things may not have gone completely according to plan, the quartet had managed to pull everything off: The Hook, The Distraction, The Switch and The Getaway.
Inuyasha's hand twitched from its spot behind his head, causing him to scratch lightly. True, those terms weren't necessarily standard but he had always liked how the phases sounded; it made every moment just that much more enjoyable. After being in the business for so many years, he needed to squeeze out every last bit of excitement he could lest the monotony set in. Hell, everything in life needed sprucing up.
Fluffy white ears twitched on his head as a content moan was pressed against his chest. He could feel his cocky smirk returning as the woman with soft brown eyes turned to look up at him. 'Well, maybe not everything needs sprucing.'
"Good morning, Inuyasha," Kikyo greeted, nestling her chin against Inuyasha's chest. Her ebony air was sprawled across the mattress, intertwining with his ivory locks.
"Feh," was all Inuyasha could bring himself to say. Being sweet and caring in the morning was never something he had been good at. His body fidgeted at their exchange, unfortunately forcing Kikyo to sit up; she smiled tenderly at him, despite his nervous mannerisms. Cracking an eye open, Inuyasha observed the woman's soft expression. He knew he should apologize for causing her to move, but… "I think we did pretty good last night, Kikyo."
Kikyo's smile faded a tad as she exhaled a bit of breath, untangling their hair. "It's odd that the execution went so smoothly."
"Yeah, it was easy," Inuyasha said, his eyes now completely open and shining brightly. He was pretty psyched that everything had gone well; the gem inside that case was worth more than enough to keep their little gang from worrying about money for quite a while.
Kikyo looked back at him, a sly smile streaking across her lips. "Maybe just a bit too easy?" she asked him with a bit of…was that hope to her voice? Seeing the confused expression on Inuyasha's face, Kikyo waved off her question before crawling over him and off the bed. "Oh, and thank you for letting me borrow your shirt, Inuyasha. You know how I despise sleeping in…"
"Feh, I know," Inuyasha stated, looking off into empty space. Suddenly, he was blinded by some sort of cloth. Tearing it off of his face, Inuyasha noticed that the cloth was actually his shirt. Naturally, he turned to Kikyo and, naturally, his jaw fell as he saw the half-naked woman reach for a towel that was hanging on the doorknob. "W-what are you doing?"
"Going to take a shower," Kikyo responded casually as she walked past him and toward the room-adjacent bathroom, not even bothering to wrap the towel around her exposed body. As she stood in the doorframe, Kikyo cocked an eyebrow at the hanyou, complete with one of her rare grins. "Someone got chocolate syrup in my hair."
Inuyasha quickly turned his body over, putting his back to the woman who was so evilly giggling at his embarrassment, in an attempt to hide the blush that had appeared on his face. He barely moved or breathed until the sound of running water could be heard, for fear that his lover might still be there to see his moment of weakness. It was kind of funny in a way; for all his cockiness and attitude, Inuyasha would still become embarrassed by even the most routine moments with Kikyo.
Though, in his defense: last night's chocolate syrup adventure was something new to both of them.
Finally twisting his body back around, Inuyasha's eyes landed squarely on the precious stone that was so perfectly placed inside the open case. It sat there, its vibrant plum color mingling with the cacophony of tainted sky that managed to pass through the window. Inuyasha could see the landscape changing in the jewel as he moved his head from side to side; the cloud puffs and tanned air became distorted with each movement, perverted by his desire to seek out different angles.
There was an odd darkness that seemed to envelope the gem; a sea of black cloth lined the inner walls of the case, suffocating the pretty stone with its embrace. The side Inuyasha could see distorted the world, however, he could not see the other; would it be possible that the other side did not distort the blackness? Is it possible to distort a single color? Does the distortion only occur because of his viewing, or is it because there is simply too much for the jewel to reflect? Ah, but such complex thoughts dared not trifle the Inu-hanyou; he had something much more important to think about.
'Sesshoumaru better be giving us top-dollar for this.'
With a hip and a skip, Inuyasha flipped off of his bed and slipped into his shirt. He considered the fact that a complete change of clothes may be in order, but why bother if his half-brother was coming? If Sesshoumaru saw his half-blood brother looking ratty, it would probably piss him off; Inuyasha was willing to do anything that pissed Sesshoumaru off.
Inuyasha walked out of the small bedroom, moving through the narrow hallway and into the small living room. Unsurprisingly, Inuyasha was starving; food was almost always his second though in the mornings. He tried to ignore the two shills as they sat on their ass, playing their games at an obnoxious volume. It was going pretty well, until some obnoxious jackass on the screen shouted, "enemy a' see one-thirty above!"
"Miroku, you cheater!" the woman shill shouted, inching closer to the television monitor.
"What? It's a legitimate strategy," the male shill responded firmly, maintaining a docile composure. "Perhaps, dear Sango, you should invest more time into learning the game."
Taking a frozen meal from the freezer, Inuyasha did his best to ignore the rants of his two friends as they squawked back and forth to each other. He placed his frozen meal into the microwave, grumbling as the male shill – Miroku – said something that bordered on sexist; the woman shill – Sango – replied by threatening to make him sex-less. Precisely thirty seconds elapsed from the time Inuyasha put in his food, to the time he lost his patience and took out the tray. He was hungry damn it; waiting for food was something that Inuyasha just didn't do.
"You just did it again!" Sango half-yelled, turning her attention toward the one called Miroku.
"I've told you before that I'm employing a fair strategy," Miroku calmly stated.
"Touching my butt is not a strategy!"
"It's an appropriate distraction."
"Appropriate? It's completely inappropriate!"
Inuyasha groaned lowly as he made his way over to a ragged brown recliner adjacent to his associates, toting the half-frozen breakfast in his hands. As he sat down and leaned back, the rather jagged cushions grinding against his uncovered ankles, his feet dug into the prickly tan carpet, attempting to smooth over the rather rough fabric in autonomous motion. His fingers immediately dug into the small, prepared meal – Inuyasha hadn't bothered to find silverware – only ceasing his consumption on occasion to glare at the shills who were very interested in taunting each other; normally their behavior wouldn't faze him, but one of last night's incidents had not put him in a very happy mood with the male shill.
The food was, to be blunt, incredibly bland even by the half-demon's standards. It was hardly appetizing; it was hard to even tell what "it" was. The food could have been a piece of bark with sugar on it for all Inuyasha knew. Sure, the inu-hanyou wasn't much for caviar or fancy foreign cuisine, but even that seemed more tolerable than the current crud he had to endure. And let it be incredibly clear: Inuyasha absolutely despised high-class dining, going so far as to sneakily break fine china during dinner parties when no one was looking. Even so, he much would have preferred it –or a shmorgishborg of ramen – over his current cardboard meal; they would have to survive on the stuff for a couple more days however, until their arrangements back to Kyoto were in order and they could actually spend money again.
"Will ya' both shut the hell up?" Inuyasha demanded as the rambunctious behavior of the two shills continued to escalate, a morsel of meat dangling from the corner of his mouth.
Miroku cocked his head at the half-demon, casually pausing the game in front of him. "Is something the matter, Inuyasha?"
'You're damn right something's the matter, Miroku,' Inuyasha thought to himself, right eye twitching in annoyance. Still, he would bring it up later; it was better to remind them of the more pressing matter. "Yeah, Sesshoumaru's going to be here soon and you know what'll happen if things are too loud. You guys will be useless without arms."
Sango scoffed playfully at the Inu-hanyou, making her way from the floor to the kitchenette. "Come on, Inuyasha. The only person Sesshoumaru would bother to kill is you."
Two fluffy-white triangles twitched on the top of Inuyasha's head at the statement. Sango was definitely right. The Inu-youkai always seemed incredibly ignorant if anyone other than his half-brother were to say something that could be considered offensive. In addition, Sesshoumaru was likely none too pleased with how Inuyasha had the entire group travelling so closely…
"Feh," was the indifferent reply.
A few moments later, Kikyo emerged from the shower room and strolled across the floor. Before nodding to Sango and heading toward the kitchenette, Kikyo dropped their bounty – the silver case – into Inuyasha's lap. Grabbing a kettle and filling it with water, setting the container on the stove to boil, she procured a packet of tea from a nearby cylinder and set it into a mug. Afterwards, Kikyo moved to sit down in another brown chair parallel to Inuyasha; the two of them exchanged a quick glance before the monotony of boredom and anticipation overtook the room.
On the floor, Sango was sprawled out with her plate resting on a box near the television; her fists punched the air in fluid movements as her elbows contorted at different angles, allowing her to defeat imaginary foes as she half-practiced her martial arts. Beside her sat Miroku, who had turned his attention to a laptop computer; his fingers glided across the keyboard in a cacophony of clicks and the screen flickered with images first of binary and then of several document files deemed classified.
Inuyasha spared glances at his friends while hi claws traced the protruding lines of the silver case. While it was something that he wouldn't say often, he was grateful for their companionship and happy with their friendship. Tracking them all down had taken more work than he had cared to remember; when he first got in on the "game," he thought it'd be simple to pull off grand exploits all on his lonesome. That notion quickly changed after spending a couple years in a Swiss penitentiary for bank-robbery (the charges were later expunged due to some prodding from foreign powers). Shortly thereafter, the Inu-hanyou saw it fit to hunt down a few extra members and, in doing so, he found the other three members of his quartet, each with their own set of skills that had proven absolutely vital in the past four years…
"So Inuyasha," Miroku called out, closing his laptop and looking to the half-demon. "How much did Sesshoumaru say this jewel is worth?"
Inuyasha took a bite of his horrible food and munched loudly, ignoring the question.
"…You did discuss the payment before we went out last night, correct?" Kikyo chimed in, leaning back in her chair.
"Y-yeah." The word stumbled out of Inuyasha's mouth as he turned his head away from the eyes that were beginning to stare at him in doubt.
"So, how much?" Miroku questioned again.
Inuyasha's ears twitched.
"…You two couldn't come to an agreement, could you?"
"It ain't my fault!" Inuyasha snarled, only to be greeted by groans from his teammates. "He's the one who had to be all difficult and stuff."
"Inuyasha," Kikyo said tenderly. "We've told you before. It's better that we take care of the monetary problems before we go and risk our lives."
"I know, okay?" Inuyasha shot back, trying desperately to relay some amount of affection to her with his eyes. He must have succeeded for Kikyo smiled at him and went back to staring at the ceiling. The other two shills mirrored her reaction, dropping the subject as quickly as it had been brought up and going back to their boredom-killing. The three were being especially kind considering his knuckle-headed stunt; he had expected them to walk out of their safe-house and head back to Kyoto without him. Their willingness to forgive and forget was a bit…odd, to say the least.
Still, Inuyasha had no reason to push the situation. They had their pay-day and everyone seemed content. There was no reason to make a mountain out of a mole-hill.
Golden eyes shifted to the door to the apartment and Inuyasha's nose quickly sniffed the air, wrinkling in distaste at the putrid smell. The sound of a car door opening from a story or two below filled his ears and Inuyasha became acutely aware that his half-brother had finally arrived; there was the pitter-patter of shoes climbing the staircase, something unusual for the Inu-youkai. Sesshoumaru had a nasty habit of being silent when walking. It was mildly irritating, especially when Inuyasha wanted to bad-mouth his half-brother.
Moments later, with nary a knock on the door, Sesshoumaru proceeded through the door frame earning a nod of acknowledgement from everyone but the half-demon, who only quipped, "you're late." In response, the older brother threatened to turn the half-demon inside out; not willing to take such threats sitting down, Inuyasha told him to fuck off which lead to more verbal violence. Eventually, the two were able to calm down enough to negotiate.
"How much?" Inuyasha asked blankly, tossing the silver case at Sesshoumaru's face.
With ease, Sesshoumaru caught the case and brought it down to his side, a stoic expression presided over his face; a small, barely noticeable and callous smirk contorted in the corner of his lips. "Nothing. It's a fake."
Inuyasha stared in shock at the Inu-youkai who acted blissfully unaware of the bomb he had just dropped. "What the fuck do you mean it's a fake?"
A couple of casual coughs could be heard from the room and Inuyasha watched as Sango and Miroku casually turned their heads away. His eyes narrowed into slits as he peered at the two of them; clearly they knew something and weren't sharing.
"Bite your tongue, little brother," Sesshoumaru stated, removing the fake – quartz – jewel from the case and showing it to the younger demon. "After five years, you still can not differentiate between diamond and quartz? Pathetic."
"Shut the hell up!" Inuyasha roared, standing up from the chair. "You're the one who gave us the intel in the first place!" He turned his attention to his friends, who looked not-at-all surprised by the turn of events. "And what the hell are you all doing? Aren't ya' upset by this at all?"
Miroku gave him an apologetic look and stated, "We would be if we weren't expecting it." At that, Inuyasha tilted his head, confused by the technological genius' remark.
"After your little show in Okinawa last month, I decided it best to assess the dynamics of your…" Sesshoumaru trailed off for a minute, looking at each person in the room. Even behind his boulder-like countenance, it was easy to see that he attempting to find a polite word. "…posse. This last assignment you undertook only affirmed my suspicions. There's a crucial lack believability in this outfit, Inuyasha."
"What're ya' tryin' to say, Sesshoumaru?" Inuyasha asked, fist raised.
"He's saying that we're not very good at this," Kikyo cut in, bringing her arms behind her head. "It's not surprising considering we barely have enough manpower to cover all of the important roles."
"Well, duh we're not going to do very well if Sesshoumaru's going to yank our chains!" Inuyasha countered. "Besides, you know as well as I do, Kikyo, that it's hard to find someone else to do this kinda stuff."
"This is why I took the liberty of finding someone for you." Sesshoumaru motioned outside of the door frame, guiding in a rather familiar figure, before excusing himself from the apartment. So familiar, in fact, that it took all of Inuyasha's resolve to keep from knocking that silly smile off of the girl's face.
Everything fell into place at that moment: the relative ease of the con, the mark's relative interest in him from the first moment, Kikyo's hopeful question and even his friends' uncaring attitudes. The whole fucking thing had been a set-up; everyone but him was in on this little stunt. Effectively, he had been auditioning another member. It was quite a sting to know that the people he had worked with for years could so easily keep him out of the loop. Much worse, it pissed him off to know that the others were all too willing to let some fucking no-name off the street come waltzing into their group. Especially without his knowledge.
"This is bullshit." Inuyasha's statement had so much venom dripping from it. "What kind of friends are you anyway? Going behind my back."
Kagome moved from her spot and towards the Inu-hanyou, rolling her eyes. "Sheesh, quit being such a baby. You obviously need the help. Did you really think you were that smooth last night?"
Inuyasha growled at the girl, unhappy with the fact that she was in the apartment, much less speaking at all. "What do you know about it?"
"I know that you shouldn't try to smooth talk a girl that you were stalking five days before!" Kagome shot back. Unable to come up with a retort, Inuyasha simply feh'd and walked away into the bedroom, slamming the door rather loudly. Right as the door shut, a loud whistle could be heard from the kitchenette. Kagome looked to Kikyo as she strode off to finish making tea.
End-Notes: I promised myself I wouldn't do another chapter story...but I can't help it! This one calls to me! It says, "Flame, you should write a story with multiple underlying themes with correct characterizations and no OC protagonist!" How could I ignore that challenge? In any case, I do hope some people enjoy (let alone understand) this first chapter. Hopefully this will all turn out okay...
Focus-Tested/Alpha/Beta Readers: DarkSacredJewelXoX & purduepup