Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. And I do not intent to gain any kind retribution of for this work of fanfiction.
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ROOMMATES
2. With the Right Foot.
"OK Kagome, today is going to be about showing your new roommate you are a well-adjusted grown adult… And make sure he is too!" Kagome whispered to herself before going out of the bed.
She started her morning routine, the first thing was a shower. She took her phone and checked her e-mails and messages as she walked to the bathroom. She was so engrossed reading Yuka's message about the change of plans for their group project that she paid no attention to the subtle temperature change as she walked closer. She hated changes with short notice.
Kagome pushed the door open at the same time her eyes looked away from her phone, her breathe halted at the sight of her very naked hanyou roommate. He had a towel hanging low on his hips and was drying his hair, with another towel at the top of his head. She could only see his profile, but from what she could see he had an expression full of bliss, with his eyes closed and a soft smile on his lips. Later she would wonder if the sound coming out of him as he softly scratched his ears could be called a purr.
The young woman didn't know how long she stood there as he played with his ears but she must have made some kind of noise because suddenly his eyes opened and focused on her with a half surprised-half angry kind of expression.
After a few moments of just staring at each other he was the first to talk "You need something or you just gonna stare?" he said with a flat voice, his tough act betrayed by the growing blush in his cheeks.
Kagome blinked a couple of times before being able to say something. "Um, I forgot, you were here." Was her explanation. As soon as the words left her lips she knew how stupid it sounded and mentally slapped herself.
She cleared her throat and avoided her roommate's body as she tried to explain herself better. "I'm not used to having somebody else awake at this hour."
Inuyasha could see how uncomfortable she was, and he knew there were two options, making it easy for her or fun for himself.
As much as he loved watching Kagome fret and blush, the most decent thing he could do was help her right now.
"Yeah, me neither". He let out in the most relaxed voice he was capable of making. His golden eyes focused on her blues and waited for her to finally look at him. Kagome looked at the wall, then at the mirror, then just beside his head - but not at him- and finally she mastered the strength to look at his face.
"I already finished, you can use it."
She nodded as he walked passed her without looking at her. Before exiting the bathroom he made a point of turning the lock on the door and closing it.
As Inuyasha walked to his room he could hear the muffled mortified screams of his roommate. He smiled, at least he wasn't the only one that, according to Kagome's words, wanted to "disappear into thin air from embarrassment".
The rest of the morning passed without incident, besides Kagome apologising once and again. During breakfast they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to talk about the ground rules that afternoon after school and work.
They walked in an amicable silence to school, noticing their buildings were fairly close, but neither of them commented on it.
"See ya, Kagome" He said with a somewhat awkward smile as he sprinted to class.
Kagome turned to say good bye, but he was already gone.
Kagome's day was longer than expected. She had classes until midday, and then her shift in the afternoon, but after the bathroom incident -just thinking about it made her blush again- she had failed to tell Yuka that she would be busy and she had to run to her team meeting.
As she rushed there Kagome thought about texting Inuyasha to tell him she would be late. She took her phone out and tried to text.
"I will be late. Forgot I had a group assignment" She read it and made a face, thinking about how it would make her look even more incompetent than he must already think she is. She shook her head and typed again. "I have a team meeting, will take longer than expected. Sorry..." Kagome stared at the screen for a long moment, almost chickening out. "Why are you so nervous? Ugh!" She pushed send and let out a sigh.
The reply came almost immediately. It read 'K. See ya home. GLuck". Kagome found herself smiling at her phone. She hadn't expected a reply, much less one beyond a 'K'. Now she was fairly sure Inuyasha was a decent chicken, she laughed at her her own joke 'chickens are decent people' she giggled softly again.
Almost an hour later, when her teammates were finally deciding on the concept of their project, she received another message.
It said 'I'm hungry... r u coming home soon?"
Kagome chuckled. She had told him she was going to make dinner, considering he didn't know where things were and all the food in the fridge had been bought with a purpose in mind, a purpose she had yet to tell him.
'No, still busy. maybe 2+ hours?'
She hadn't yet returned the phone to her pocket when it rang again.
'Ok... I'll be starving..I trusted you, u kno?... and now I'm starving"'
Kagome snorted a laugh, making her classmates look at her. "sorry" she said with a hand up as she stood up and walked away a little.
'If you need help, call 119. they r faster"
Inuyasha read the message and chuckled. After sending the last message he was nervous, maybe Kagome didn't like to text this way. Maybe she was really busy and didn't like to text back. Maybe it was too soon to do the 'funny things'.
He had braced himself for something along the lines of a: 'see you at home', 'ttyl', or a dry 'k'. But this was good, his new roommate had a sense of humor.
He typed his next message carefully, his tongue playing with one of his fangs.
'If you don't hurry home you'll find a famished man unconscious on the couch.'
The hanyou smirked at his phone. He was totally nailing this. After a few minutes his phone rang and he downright laughed at it.
'If you are going to pass out DO IT IN YOUR ROOM! Have some dignity! btw there is bread in the fridge."
He was already typing something back when a new message arrived. "gotta do my part of the project. I'll be home soon, try not to die until I get there'
'I will try... can't promise anything tho. Gluck. Bring me food"
A few moments and her last message of the night was received "I won't. Bye"
Inuyasha threw the phone on the coffee table and walked to the fridge. If the wench was not going to bring him food. He would eat that bread!
Kagome walked home slowly, she felt drained. It had taken them three hours to decide what they will be doing, and how they will be doing it. Her precious free afternoon time was lost in a meeting deciding something that could have easily been arranged by text.
The girl groaned as she climbed the stairs, she was almost home when she remembered the text conversation she had with her roommate. Inuyasha being playful was not something she expected. It was a nice surprise, a really nice surprise indeed.
She smiled to herself thinking about what he could be doing. Sleeping on the couch or in his room was most likely how she would find him.
Kagome entered her apartment and found a scene she wasn't prepared to face. Her roommate cooking something on the stove, cursing at what he was cooking, wearing nothing but low riding basketball shorts and with his silver hair up in a high ponytail.
Maybe for other people it wasn't something something out of the ordinary to find their roommates cooking, but for Kagome it was something that had happened five times tops in the two years she had been living away from home. And being completely honest with herself, the most surprising thing was having a half naked man cooking on her kitchen. A gorgeous half naked man cooking in her kitchen. It was something a girl could get used to. No doubt.
Kagome slapped herself mentally. It was not cool to be thinking about that. Inuyasha was her roommate and she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable in his own home. So that meant she had to shush those lusty thoughts out of her head.
One of his white ears turned to the door before his smirking face greeted her with a "Yo! Dinner's almost ready" he pointed with a wooden spoon to her room and shook it a couple of times. "Go and do whatever you women do after getting home"
Kagome nodded still absorbing that image. She would never admit it out loud, but if his back side was gorgeous, his front with those piercing amber eyes and his fanged smile was... SHE WAS NOT GOING THERE! NOPE! IT WAS A FORBIDDEN TERRITORY!
She rushed to her room and closed the door without giving him another look. She changed into something comfortable, but not as comfortable as her favorite worn out shirt.
From the kitchen his voice kept coming "Shit! Stop! Fucking shit! stop! agh! " Kagome giggled as Inuyasha kept yelling at whatever he was cooking.
She crossed her fingers. "Please let him be a better cook than Sango" she whispered to herself at the same time her legs slipped into comfortable shorts.
"Hey! have some faith! At least I'm not as bad as the pervert!" came the reply she was not expecting. 'He heard that?' she thought before remembering 'he's a hanyou, duh'
Kagome opened the door with bored face "that doesn't make a compelling argument"
Inuyasha ignored her and placed the food on the kitchen counter. Kagome walked closer and studied his cooking, it looked like plain, fried steak strips, they looked tender and cooked just right. She smiled to his back, at least it looked better than Sango's cooking.
"Sit down and eat" He said without stopping moving.
"Bossy, huh?" Kagome muttered as she obeyed.
This time he did stop to give her a toothy grin "Always"
Kagome clicked her tongue and shook her head as he placed the teapot, and four cup ramen in front of her.
"Dinner is ready" the hanyou declared as he took a seat in front of her. "Enjoy it because it isn't something the world usually sees" Before Kagome could make a caustic observation he narrowed his golden eyes and continued "A dinner made by me for someone else, THAT is what I meant."
Kagome opened her eyes in pretence innocence "Oh! Not even for Miroku you made a banquet like this?"
Inuyasha snorted as he put the chopsticks on the table. "Especially not for the pervert!" He poured water in two ramen cups.
The black haired woman in front of him had her face propped on her hand as she watched his movements. It was funny what her eyes were doing to him. Inuyasha felt both proud and nervous of what he was doing.
He cleared his throat, "Yeah I had to keep my ramen from him because the fucker just ate it without letting me know and suddenly my stash would be shrinking." The hanyou slowly shook his head. "Some people don't deserve ramen"
Kagome reached for one cup of instant noodles. "You know we can't have ramen for dinner everyday, right?"
Inuyasha didn't answer but one of his clawed hands darted to stop the cup she was pulling. Kagome's blue eyes made contact with his golden -and completely serious- stare. "Don't you dare come between ramen and me, wench."
Kagome let out an uncomfortable laugh as he removed his hand from the cup. She wasn't sure if he was serious, she hoped not, but... she really hoped not.
They remained silent for a few moments, as soon as Inuyasha finished with his first cup and three quarters of the meat he cooked his voice reached her.
"So, whadda ya want to talk about?"
The girl cleared her throat. "We need to talk about rules and organize the house work"
"What kind of rules ya're talking about?"
The question sounded threatening in her ears but looking at his face she noticed his sincere interest, with his head tilted to the side and his ears perked and pointing at her.
"Um... rules. Rules like who uses the bathroom first, like what are our pet peeves" she motioned the space between them with her hand "so we can avoid bothering one another. Dress code. Things like that"
"Dress code?" Inuyasha placed an elbow on the counter and rested his cheek on his hand "Are you gonna tell me that I should always wear shirt and cannot be in boxers in tha house?"
Kagome could feel a growing heat in her cheeks as he spoke.
"Well..." she croaked as she tried to focus her eyes in a point just beside Inuyasha's head. "Maybe... I dunno, depends of what you think or what you dislike"
Inuyasha was having fun teasing her. Honestly he did like to wear only boxers at home, but it was too soon to be doing that. But as his roommate started to blush as she mentioned 'dress code' he couldn't resist to mess with her.
"Wench, I like to be comfortable at home." At that she nodded. "It's the place I want to be able to wear the shit I want. And honestly I don't give a fuck about what you wear. That's your problem. But I won't be wearing clothes I don't wanna." He raise a clawed hand in a conciliatory gesture before speaking "I won't be naked outside of my room but I can't promise anything else."
Kagome's blush had invaded from the neck up. "Well... I think you're right"
She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again and looked directly into his eyes all signs of her embarrassment were gone "You have the right to wear what you feel comfortable in, true. But if what you wear makes me uncomfortable I will tell you, and I expect you to take that into consideration, just like I will if you say something."
Inuyasha nodded. "Cool!, what's next in line?"
"Cleaning"
Inuyasha smiled "That is easy, we find a person to come and clean once a month! Next!"
The young woman made a face that Inuyasha understood as a 'What the fuck?' and before she said anything, he barked a "What?"
"Once a month? A person?" She asked with a velvety voice. A voice that he would soon recognize as a huge glowing red flag. A voice that announced the arrival of something he would not like. The velvety calm before the proverbial storm. But as an ignorant of Kagome's ways he smiled and nodded, proud of his idea.
"Wait, wait." That voice didn't sound good on his ears anymore, it sounded strangely like Sango's just before throwing things at the pervert. "You think the house is cleaned only once a month?" He nodded again as he tried to keep his ears from drooping. "So you like to live in filth for half a month?" Kagome continued.
Inuyasha blinked, he knew it was a trick question. And this time his ears did drop on his scalp.
Kagome opened her arms signaling the house around them "THIS house is cleaned once a week, at least." One of her hands moved really close to his face pointing between his eyes "I will not pay someone to do something we can do on our own."
She looked down to her empty bowl and shuddered "Just thinking about some stranger touching all my stuff gives me the creeps"
Inuyasha remained silent as she finished venting. He may not understand her problem with having someone doing something she didn't want to do, but he did understand one thing, the option was off the table.
Suddenly her blue eyes were focusing on him with an intensity that made him nervous. "Inuyasha..." His ears perked at the tone, it lacked the bite of moments before. "Does that mean you don't know how to clean and keep your home tidy?"
The hanyou crossed his arms and gave her the best deadpan expression he could "Just because I don't like to do something doesn't mean I don't know how to do it!"
Kagome nodded as Inuyasha bit back a triumphant smile. He had convinced her without telling her a lie! Living with Miroku for almost three years had thought him one or two things.
He was still congratulating himself when she declared "We need a list" Before running to her room and returning with a notepad and a pen. She listed everything she considered needed to be done around the house as he finished his other two cups of ramen.
"Ok... what do you think about choosing one thing each and taking turns?"
Inuyasha nodded with his mouth still full of meat.
After Kagome finished her list, and Inuyasha finished insisting she was making up things to do and how she exaggerated on how often thing must to be done, they finally agreed on the chore assignment and put the list on the fridge.
According to the list, Kagome was in charge of cooking and Inuyasha of washing the dishes; but since this time he had made the food, she did the dishes and he stayed seated and ate the last piece of melon bread from the fridge as he watched her work. She used the opportunity to tell him where other things were. Bowls, pans, pots and everything else in the kitchen.
Inuyasha had chosen to clean the floors and the bathroom along with other small chores like taking out the trash. It became obvious to Kagome that Inuyasha had never taken care of a house before, and she suspected that the person he and Miroku payed for cleaning did much more than that. For the first time she found herself wondering what kind of childhood he had lived through.
The young woman showed him where she kept the cleaning products, and as she expected, the first thing he said as she opened the door of the laundry room was: "Since when is all this shit needed to clean?"
Kagome gave her a side looped smile. "Since people like to live without infections and pests"
Inuyasha shook his head in disbelief. "Nah, You are one of those people that can't touch dirty stuff and freak out everytime there's a spider!"
The woman, who was still holding the door open, frowned at him in dulled indignation and he found it impossible to stop himself. "Does that mean we have to add to that freakishly long-ass list: killing spiders and buying buckets of purell?" A smile was tugging on the corner of his lips. "Or-or! Am I supposed to disinfect my hands before touching a doorknob?"
Kagome closed the door and pushed her roommate's huge body back to the living room. He was still talking, making jokes that were less and less funny. "or-or..."
"Shut up, Inuyasha..." She ordered with a bored face as she pushed him to sit on the couch.
Without losing his fang-showing grin he nodded, agreeing incredibly easily. He had secretly decided how to keep messing with her, it would be by text. Tomorrow. During class!
Hiding his smug grin he said one more thing. "You are one of those people that gets angry when a kid touches them with dirty hands, one of those bitches that yells at them and hits them for messing up your pretty clothes, right? One of those bitches ready to push a filthy brat to the side." Kagome's face went from bored to fuming in one second.
He knew for a fact that was a lie, as the smell of numerous children clung to her. He was really curious about what she did when she wasn't home, she had many smells on her, children, adults, and bread. He could not figure out what her job was, but asking her what she did when he wasn't around was too needy, too out of character for him.
Inuyasha had secretly hope for her to ask or mention something about what she did today, but no, she never mentioned a thing. Now he had to take the offensive and, by the looks of it. He had fucked up the nice moment -or whatever- they were having by asking it in the wrong way.
The remote was going up and down in front of his face in a menacing manner as she berated him. "You know nothing about me! Oh, and I get it! You've never cleaned a house so you most likely will hate doing it. But accusing me of doing THAT to a child? Who do you..."
Inuyasha grabbed the dancing remote and took it from her. The speed he used to do it made Kagome forget her train of thought. She hadn't seen him move. As she looked up to his face, she was reminded for the first time today about the real implications of having a hanyou for a roommate. His speed and strength were in no way measurable in the same standards as hers.
"Ok, ok... I get it, you don't hit children. Good for you" He told her as he focused his attention on the wall beside them.
'Was that some kind of apology?' Kagome wondered. 'Did he really think that would make it?' "Inuyasha..." The warning was delivered in that velvety tone that made him nervous.
"Ya, ya! I'll keep my mouth shut, alright?" the woman was still frowning without saying anything else nor taking her huge accusing eyes off of him. "Let's watch T.V, ok?" He pulled her to sit on the couch beside him and turned it on.
Inuyasha purposefully ignored the hole her eyes were drilling on the side of his head as he turned to the screen and surfed the channels to find something to watch. After a minute or so she finally payed attention to the device and he finally relaxed.
They wordlessly agreed to watch a comedy show and soon she was laughing along with the jokes. She was completely immerse in the ridiculous situations and lightly slapping his leg with each laugh when his phone went off.
Kagome turned to him as his phone was taken out of his shorts, his face lit up when he read the name on the screen.
"'zup!" was his greeting as he kept the phone close to his face, almost at his eye level. The person on the other side of the line must had said something funny because he let out a small chuckle. "Yes, yes.." His voice became surprisingly soft. "Nice to hear from you, how are ya?"
The conversation went on as he did more listening than talking. At one point one of his white ears stopped pointing at the phone and turned to her. She really liked those ears of his. Shortly after his eyes focused on her as if he had forgotten she was still there. She blushed and turned her head away, she had been eavesdropping on the conversation for quite a while.
"Kik-Kikyou wait a moment" he said to the phone before lowering to his lap and turning his head to Kagome.
"Goin' to bed. G'nite wench!" He announced as he walked to his room and gave her a military salute before opening the door.
"Good night Inuyasha" She whispered to his back, not sure he was listening.
"I'm back...I was saying goodnight to my roomie. Nah, it's ok, you were saying something about..." That was the last thing Kagome heard before he closed the door.
She frowned at his door before staring at the T.V. again. 'Who was this Kikyou? was she his girlfriend?' she thought as she turned the device off and walked to her room.
Just before falling asleep a curious thought came to her mind 'What would his girlfriend think about Inuyasha living with another woman? ... And why does he call me wench?"
A/N:
Here you go! The second chapter!
Thank you for reading this story, it means a lot to me. And thank you so much to the people who took the time to write a review. It is great to have some feedback on what is happening here.
I want to tell you that I KNOW Inuyasha is OOC here, but he is trying to make things work and showing the best part of him. Wait for him to feel comfortable around her to show himself as he truly is *evil laugh*
And a supper big thank you to stoatsandweasels for her precious time beta-ing this. It really needed some changes.
Before I go let me fangirl a little about the precious and adorable cover my incredible friend grapefruitwannabe made for this story. I love it so much! Thank you for it!
Now I will go and work on the rest of my stories. Thank you again.
Love,
Nanna