Kagome slammed her fist down her cheap alarm clock, effectively smashing the small electronic with the flashing 8:00 quiet. She groaned as she rolled over in her twin sized bed, falling off the edge and landing with a thump on the floor, tangled in her white down comforter.
She thrashed around until she had removed herself from her early morning captor, glaring at it unmercifully all the while. Kagome flopped back onto her bed, and stretched lazily like a cat in the chilly December morning air.
The ringing phone in the kitchen interrupted her thoughts of simply falling back asleep, and she rolled off the bed again, this time landing gracefully on her feet.
She dashed quickly to kitchen, hoping to god that she had shut the blinds on the windows last night. She normally left them open during the day, enjoying the way the sun always soaked into her bones and lifted her spirits, but right now she was running through the house clad in nothing more than an old, overly large tee-shirt and a pair of underwear, and she didn't want to give her peeping neighbor, Miroku, a show. He was already perverted enough as it was, she didn't want to encourage him. That man needed a hobby. Or a girlfriend. He said he was a monk, but he was just as likely to be a monk as Kagome was to be an ancient powerful miko. That is to say, virtually impossible.
Luck was partly on her side that day, as she had managed to remember to close most of the larger windows. She snaked her way through the house, artfully dodging any that were left open, and despite the fact that she had a small house, this was a time-consuming task.
She finally found her way to the tiny kitchen, it being the residence of the only phone in her humble abode. She crouched behind a counter, pulled the phone off the hook, pressed it to her ear, and grumbled a greeting, only to be met by an angry outcry assaulting her ears.
"What took you so long to answer the phone?! I'm paying for these minutes you know!" Souta's voice yelled out through the speaker.
Kagome sighed, and pulled a nearby floor mat underneath her, not liking the cold sensation of the tile on her bare feet. She sat down on it huffily, and yelled right back.
"Well, soooorry for running down here at the expense of possibly being peeped on to answer the phone!"
"Sheesh, Kags, you don't have to yell."
Kagome rolled her eyes and started to crawl over to the refrigerator, but sighed dramatically in defeat as the phone cord stopped her mere inches away from the handle.
"You're keeping me away from the fridge. Speak now or forever hold your peace."
On the other end of the line, Souta laughed robustly, while choking out something about watching too many weddings in Kagome's romance movies. Kagome groaned, and slumped back to lean on the cabinet near the phone.
"No, seriously, what do you want? I thought you were off in France, having a wonderful time in La-La Land while showing off your art to various dealers," Kagome said teasingly to her younger brother.
"Well, I was," Souta admitted sheepishly to his sister, "But I got knocked back into reality. I ran out of money, and I just barely convinced Mom to send me enough to get back to Japan." Then his toned cheered up and he happily chirped, "So guess what? I'm comin' back tomorrow!"
Kagome's eyes went wide with horror as she gathered in this information.
"Please don't tell me…" she began desperately, but was cut off by an enthusiastic Souta.
"Yup! I'm going to be staying with you again!"
Kagome let her head fall and hit the cabinet behind her. She looked up at the ceiling and let out a soft "ow" before returning her attention back to the person on the phone.
"Do you have to?" she asked desperately.
Souta let out a devious cackle and replied, "Not unless you want mom to find out about that time in high school where I caught you in the shrine well kissing Inu-"
"OK, OK!" Kagome cut in, her face beet red. "You can stay with me. But only until you get enough money to buy your own place, or at least rent one," she said, recovering from her flustered state. "Got it?"
Souta did a mock salute despite the fact Kagome couldn't see him, and barked out, "Yes, ma'am!"
There was an exchange of words in the background, and Souta said he needed to go.
"My cab's here to take me to the airport," he explained. "Bye, Kags! See you soon!"
Kagome grumbled a "yeah, can't wait," and reached up over the counter, hanging up the phone. She once again made her way on her hands and knees over to the refrigerator, now being free from the annoying restraints of the phone cord. She brought her hand up to the handle of the food vault, and pulled it open. Freezing air rushed over her and her stomach made its plea known by growling loudly.
"I'm with ya, buddy," she said patting her stomach fondly, "We need to eat all the good stuff now, so Souta can't get it later."
A mischievous grin set onto her face as she pulled a square plastic container. She would have to eat the better food quickly, before her brother and his bottomless pit of a stomach got here and devoured all of her food. It was the same every time he came. She would start with a well-stocked fridge for the rest of the month, and then he would show up, inhaling all of it in less than a week.
But not this time.
She would make sure that when he got here, hers would be the most sparsely stocked refrigerator of all time, even though she had just gone to the store yesterday. She bounded up, intent on popping her newly acquired package in the microwave, when a thought stuck her and she hurriedly fell back down the floor.
She had yet to change into decent clothes, some of the blinds were still open, and she could practically smell her neighbor at his window with a pair of binoculars pressed to his face.
Kagome sneaked back across the house, rolling around James Bond style and letting out a giggle every here and there, feeling like a little girl again. When she arrived at her bedroom, she shut the door behind her and, putting her back to it, slid down to the floor letting out a sigh of relief.
She gazed at her inviting bed longingly, but shook her head, clearing it of dream-filled thoughts, and told herself no. She was up already; she might as well get something useful done.
She did have a job interview later in the day, but that wasn't until the afternoon. She currently had a part time job at a well-off restaurant downtown as a waitress, but she had recently been fired from her full time job as a secretary at the nearby law firm. Her job interview was supposedly a webcam one, and she was a little nervous about that. But she had waited a whole day in line just to get the interview, and she'd be damned if she didn't nail the thing and get the job at Tashio Inc.
She pulled her shirt over her head, determination set in her features, and rummaged through her closet for something to go out in the cold in. She donned a pair of dark jeans, a flowing tank top, and a cut off shoulder jacket. She picked up her night shirt to throw it in the dirty clothes, and noticed she had been wearing it inside out. It was a shirt Inuyasha had given her, back when they were dating, and it read,
"Life isn't like a box of chocolates… It's more like a jar of jalapeños. What you do today, might burn your butt tomorrow!"
This was his idea of a romantic gift.
Kagome shook her head as she tossed it in the laundry basket. It was no wonder why she dumped him. She just regretted it took her all the way from the beginning of high school to almost the end of the last year of high school to realize he was sneaking around with her cousin. She really hated Kikyou sometimes, but ultimately this time she was glad for her cousin's interfering.
She went to the bathroom to finish up getting ready, and as she put her hair into a sloppy bun (all other efforts to control the bed-head were in vain), she thought about her to-do list today. It was Saturday, which meant only the late shift at the French Dove, the restaurant she worked at, so she could spend the rest of the day off.
"Yeah, right," she snorted, in between applying eye shadow and mascara. She had things she needed to get done, the most important being Christmas shopping. The holiday was fast approaching, and she didn't even want to think about the mad rush toward the last few days. And plus, she had that important video interview in the afternoon, and she had heard once you had managed to land a job there, you were practically set for life.
Her stomach growled in protest as the put the finishing touches on her personage, and she remembered her earlier resolution. She made her way back to the kitchen, and this time as she passed them, she opened up the blinds on the windows, letting in the relaxing morning sun. She got out a plate and recovered her forgotten container on the counter, and promptly stuck it in the microwave while fishing some more food out of the refrigerator.
She gulped down a rather large bottle of sparkling fruit juice, and kept rummaging around to find something else. She jumped a little when the microwave beeped its finale, and hit her head on the shelf above her. A package of hotdogs shifted from their position and fell off the edge to the floor from the movement, but went unnoticed as Kagome shut the refrigerator door and turned her attention to the microwave. She opened the small door, pulled out a steaming plate, and headed over to the two-seater table to fully appreciate her meal.
But as she started over there, her foot knocked against something squishy and cold, and she looked down to discover the forgotten sausages. She picked them up happily and bounced over to the table with an extra spring in her step. She had completely forgotten she had them, and it would be an understatement to say she loved them. Actually, she practically adored anything that was guaranteed to give her a heart attack in her later years. She was a junk food addict.
She sat down, and ate her frozen meal first, not wanting it to get too cold. Then she dived into the hotdogs, still cold, devouring three in four seconds flat. After she was done, she sat back in the chair, and patted her slightly protruding stomach contentedly.
She got up and threw away the meal container and placed the hotdogs lovingly back into the refrigerator. She snatched a scrap of paper that had been pathetically holding onto the outside of the fridge labeled "x-mas", grabbed her car keys from the hook on the wall near the door, and slipped on a pair of closed toe black heels.
She locked her house, otherwise she'd come back to Miroku panty-diving in her room, and gathered her sweater closer to her as she power-walked to her car, the light sprinkling of snow crunching under her shoes as went.
She fumbled with frozen fingers trying to get the key to properly go in the lock, and yelled out in triumph when she was successful, pumping the air with her fists in victory. Kagome flopped down into her small car, fervently wishing she had a car with heated seats.
She managed to get the car started after several failed attempts, and backed it out of the driveway, facing her Saturday head on.
Only…not really.
Not even two feet out of her driveway, a car comes zipping along at some ungodly speed and slams into the back of her car, sending her skidding into her adjoining lawn.
Kagome's head went to the side, bashing into the window.
When her car came to a halt, she released her death grip on the wheel, and opened her door shakily. She got out and patted herself down, making sure she was still in one piece, then forcefully kicked her means of transport.
"You stupid car!" she yelled heatedly at it, "I get hit and the freaking AIRBAGS don't even go off!"
The man who hit her walked up to her then, and she gaped at him blatantly. Was he indestructible or something? The front end of his car was completely totaled, and here he was, striding toward her in a suit with not a single scratch, or even a wrinkle.
He looked at her with outright disgust, and told her staring was rude. Then he went on, all without asking if she was alright, about trading information. He handed her a packet that he produced out of his inside jacket pocket, and Kagome went around to the passenger side of her car to get the insurance information out of the glove box. She re-emerged a few seconds later with it, and handed it over to the impatiently waiting man. He handed her a card, and she looked down at it. It read: Onigumo Naraku, Criminal Justice Lawyer.
'Spider Monster,' Kagome thought, 'Well, that explains why he gives me the creeps.'
"Is there a problem," here he glanced down at her information, "Miss Higurashi?" he asked curtly. Kagome face grew flushed.
"Ah!" She waved one hand frantically in front of her face, embarrassed. "I-it's n-n-nothing!"
"I thought so," he said, flipping open his cell phone to begin dialing a number. Kagome shuffled her feet nervously, and he looked at her once again with revulsion. He told her she could leave, and he would get back to her later. She had one foot already in the car when he spoke up again.
"By the way, Miss Higurashi," he said coldly, his phone still ringing, "You're head is bleeding."
Kagome brought her hand quickly up to the side of her head that hit the car, and it came back down with blood. She let out an "eep!" and barreled back to the front door of her house.
The last thing she heard as she crossed into her dwelling was:
"Hello? Yes. I'm going to need a tow truck again."
---
You like? This originally started out as a random idea when I got sick, and was SUPPOSED to be a one-shot, but my crazed little brain would not allow for that, and it has turned into something slightly longer. I'm just not sure how much longer, though. It probably won't be over three or four chapters.
I'm sorry if I portrayed Inuyasha or Kikyou in an unpleasant manner. Inuyasha is not "bad" in this fic, but Kikyou may be(I haven't decided yet), simply because of the fact I need another antagonist. Sorry for you Kik fans out there. On another note, I'm not sure if I have the correct translation of Onigumo as "spider monster". Can someone who knows please tell me?
Please review! I need to know if I should continue this or not.