With Or Without You
Chapter 2: "The Curse of Fate"
So all six of them really did it; they all moved into one house together. The house that was already bought was much, much bigger than the one Kagome previously lived at.
When the moving trucks pulled up to the house, Kagome thought it was one huge condominium building on a plot of several acres The house was four stories, including a basement and an attic, which left two floors for living quarters.
The outside was painted traditional white, and the roof was painted tan-brown. Aside from the main house, there were several other one story houses next to it, all painted the same colors. As Shisumu explained, all the other houses were more like giant sheds, rather than houses, and could all be used for a different purpose.
For the first time, Inuyasha and Kagome agreed on a gym for one, because Inuyasha lifted weights, and Kagome could practice her gymnastics. Of course, she did not yet have the equipment, but she planned on saving her money to buy a set.
The other house was argued over whether to make it a game room, or a karaoke room, both for parties. Yumi decided on making it both, since karaoke was also considered a game, although many people took it too seriously.
Since workers were not trustworthy to handle fragile items, no matter how well you paid them, the five members decided to move their things into the house themselves, with the help of a few friends.
Kagome brought Sango, Miroku, and Kouga to help them with their moving. Inuyasha did not bring anyone, and Kagome asked him, half seriously, "What? You don't have any friends?"
"It's not that," Inuyasha declared with a wave of arrogance. "I just have stalkers who'll bribe me to get help from them, in order that they get dates."
"Yea, sure; I believe that." Kagome giggled, and handed a rather heavy box to Kouga.
"Sesshoumaru!" a female voice called out, causing Kagome and her friends to turn to the source.
She was a fourth year high school girl, with beautiful, long, thick black hair that was to her waist. She sported a ponytail to the side of her head, and she wore pink overalls with a red heart on the front chest area, and a white shirt.
"Rin." Sesshoumaru simply greeted as the girl, or rather, young woman, grabbed him up in a tight hug.
"Damn," Miroku whispered to Kouga as they stared at Rin. "Check out the breasts on her!"
"And her ass is so tight and perfectly rounded!" Kouga agreed in the same whispering fashion.
"Careful," Taishou warned the two guys as he grabbed a box out of the moving truck. "Rin belongs only to Sesshoumaru, and he's very possessive about what belongs to him."
"O-Okay." both Miroku and Kouga agreed in unison, and when the man left, Miroku whispered to Kouga, "How'd he hear us?"
Kouga shrugged, and grabbed a box as he headed to the house, being especially careful not to look at Rin.
Miroku was not so lucky; as he was carrying a really heavy box, he looked Rin up and down, which caused Sesshoumaru to glare death at Miroku, which caused him to drop the heavy box right on his foot.
A resounding crash was heard, which caused everyone to run to the scene of the crime. Miroku was jumping up and down on one foot, crying out in pain.
"What happened?" Yumi asked and she opening the box to see what was broken. "My good China set!"
"He scared me!" Miroku accused, taking out his prayer beads, pointed them at Sesshoumaru and shouted, "Back, you evil demon, back!"
Kagome did not know whether Miroku was joking or not, but if he was, her mother and her boyfriend's family was not amused.
"What about my China set?" Yumi cried, looking at the helpless, broken dishes and cups.
"I'll save up my allowance," Kagome suggested. "And get you a new set."
"Save up your allowance?" Inuyasha almost laughed. "And get a new China set like that? Dad, this girl has air in her head!"
"Inuyasha, don't start." Taishou warned, half dragging a tearful Yumi away from the dreadful scene. "Friends of Kagome, carry only Kagome's things, we'll get the rest."
Everyone walked off to the house, carrying boxes as they threw accusing looks at Kagome and her friends.
"What a way to earn brownie points with my mother's new family." Kagome muttered, and then turned to Miroku. "What happened, anyway?"
"I looked at Rin, and then Sesshoumaru glared at me." Miroku explained.
"You looked at Rin?" Sango wanted to confirm, half yelling.
"Well, I wasn't looking at her in any specific way-"
"STUPID PERVERT!" Sango yelled, grabbing a box that had "Kagome" printed on it, and carried it to the house, as she yelled to herself about stupid men.
"What's her problem?" Miroku asked, seemingly innocently, and Kagome slapped the back of his head.
"You know very well what Sango-chan's problem is," Kagome said. "YOU!"
And with that said, she grabbed a box and carried it to the house.
"Gods, are all these women on PMS?" Miroku asked.
"No," Kouga replied, grabbing an extra heavy box. "They're just angry at you. Yumi's boyfriend warned us about looking at Rin, and you didn't listen. I'd try to make up with Sango if I were you."
When Kagome entered the house (not forgetting to take off her shoes), a huge living room greeted her, and straight ahead was an enormous kitchen. From the kitchen, if she turned left, there would be the huge family room, which looked more like a public theater, with the exception of stadium seating. When Kagome turned right, on the first floor, there was a hallway, and at the end of that hallway was her mother and... Kagome flinched... Taishou's room.
At the other end of the same hallway was Souta's room, which he already placed his sign, "Souta's Room: NO GIRLS ALLOWED" on the front door. Between the two bedrooms was a bathroom, which Kagome jealously realized was all for her little brother, considering the master bedroom almost always has a personal bathroom in the bedroom.
There was a staircase next to the hallway, leading up to the second story of the house. The first room was closest to the staircase, and one had to make a "U-turn" to get to the hallway, which was only a railed balcony overlooking the dining room. On this balcony, there was another bedroom, and further down was a bathroom. Finally, at the very end of the hallway was another bedroom, which was right across from the bathroom.
In the kitchen, Taishou opened up boxes, labeled "kitchen" and took the contents out. Practically standing on the seat of a chair was Souta, playing with a toy airplane, and talking excitedly to Taishou.
"Did you know that some jets can go as fast as the speed of sound?" Souta asked Taishou, and he threw his toy airplane in the air, which flew for a few seconds before crashing into the wall.
"Really?" Taishou said, pretending he did not know that. "What else can they do?"
This caused Souta to talk more excitedly about airplanes and jets, until finally, he noticed his sister standing in the kitchen, still holding a box.
"Hey, sis, isn't this place COOL?!"
"Yea, it is." She replied with much enthusiasm.
"Oh, Kagome," Taishou said, still taking items out of their boxes. "Your room is upstairs, at the very end of the hallway. Your mother and I thought you should be closest to the bathroom, since you're competing against two other boys for it. And your friend... Sango..." he said the name slowly, as if he was wondering if he was saying the right name. "Is already up there."
Kagome smiled her thanks and took herself and her box up the stairs, made a "U-turn" and walked to the end of the hallway. When she entered, she saw an enormous room, twice as large as her other room back at the shrine. Her furniture was already up there; her bed, bookshelf, nightstand, desk, and other personal furniture, all placed in various places.
Sango was looking out the window, which was the only one, and at the far end of the room. The sunlight was shining through, which could easily have been resolved by the cream curtains that hung over the window.
Sango looked at the doorway, which Kagome was standing at, and said, "Did you know you have a pool?"
"Seriously?" Kagome asked, set the box down, and walked to the window.
Outside her window, Kagome could see the pool, which looked like an Olympic-sized pool's son, practically as deep, with a waterslide and a hot tub next to it.
"Can I spend summers here with you?" Sango laughed, right when the other two guys came in, both carrying boxes.
"That's all your stuff, Kagome." Miroku announced, putting a box down. "Can I go now, please, just in case Sesshoumaru is planning to rip my head off?"
"Oh, Miroku, you're such a baby!" Sango scolded. "And if you would just keep your eyes off other women, then you won't piss off their boyfriends!"
"I can't help it if I try to enjoy the feminine beauty that the gods had so gratefully bestowed on mankind."
"You know, in Greek mythology, to punish man, Zeus gave men the woman." Sango charged back.
"Actually, that makes perfect sense." Miroku fired back, although not in a rude tone.
"Wow, this room is so much bigger than your other one." Kouga noted, setting down the box he carried as Sango and Miroku argued.
"Thank you for your help, Kouga-kun." Kagome thanked.
"Hey, anything to help a... a friend." Kouga answered, coughed, and looked away. "So... are you going to be alright with everything?"
"Actually, can I ask for your help one more time?"
"Sure, anything."
"Can you help me move my furniture?" Kagome requested, and Kouga did not deny her.
They spent fifteen minutes or so moving furniture to where Kagome wanted them as Sango and Miroku helped, but still argued during the task. Finally, after everything was finished, Kagome thanked the couple, whom were not really listening, and then thanked Kouga.
"You need help unpacking?" Kouga asked, noting all the boxes.
"No, I can handle that; besides, it's getting dark." Kagome answered, pointing out the window towards where the sun was rapidly setting.
"Oh, right," Kouga said and got Sango and Miroku's attention. "Hey, you two should try out for the debate team at school! Anyways, Sango's mother will be here to pick us up soon."
As the trio left Kagome's room, Kouga smiled and nodded towards Kagome while walking backwards, which caused him to bump into the doorway.
"Heh, gotta go." he said, laughing embarrassingly.
After they left, Kagome saw Inuyasha leaning against the doorway of the bathroom while staring into her room.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome yelped, practically jumping out of her skin. "What're you doing there?!"
Inuyasha sneered and mocked, "Thank you for your help, Kouga-kun." in a pitiful attempt at a feminine voice. "You two are so pathetic." Inuyasha concluded in his regular voice.
"What's it to you, anyway?" Kagome charged back, not knowing why Inuyasha seemed to find every opportunity to poke fun at her.
"Nothing," Inuyasha answered with a wave of indifference. "It's just you two are so sweet together it makes my gums ache. If you like each other so much, then why don't you fuck him?"
Angered by her soon-to-be stepbrother's rude choice of words, and with his constant criticism, Kagome shouted, "FINE! THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY I GET I WILL FUCK HIM!" and slammed the door in the infuriating boy's face.
When Kagome finally came out of her room it was time for dinner, and she could tell by the look on her mother's face that her mother heard what she yelled. After they were done eating, Yumi turned to her daughter and said seriously, "Kagome, I heard what you yelled today."
"It wasn't my fault-"
"Kagome, you know better than to use language like that, no matter whose fault it is." Yumi continued as everyone else watched the scene unfold.
"I was angry!" Kagome protested, shooting a glare at Inuyasha.
"Even when you're angry, you should control what you say." Yumi answered back, calmly yet strictly. "So, I'm grounding you for two days; go to school and then come directly home."
"But, mom! Gym practice is Monday; tomorrow!" Kagome argued back.
"To school, and then directly home." Yumi repeated with calmness.
Kagome shot a glare over at Inuyasha, whom had an anger-encouraging smirk on his face. So, she jumped up, and shouted directly at him, "I HATE YOU!"
"Good, now I've accomplish what I wanted to do." Inuyasha replied, folding his arms, looking pleased with himself.
Kagome made a loud and long scream between her clinched teeth, and then stormed upstairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her. She stomped her feet on the floor several times before flopping on her bed, breathing hard to try to ease the anger out of her veins.
Kagome stayed in her room the rest of the night, which gave her time to unpack everything in her boxes. In the final box, she took out a bit of an old picture of her when she was a child, younger than Souta, and her biological father.
In the picture, Kagome was smiling happily, one hand up as if to wave, and she sat on her father's lap. Her father looked at his daughter in a delightful and loving way, happy and proud to be her father.
Kagome always thought she looked a lot like her mother, but some features of her father she could see on herself. It was incredible of how much she could miss one person who left her life too early.
Smiling sadly, Kagome placed the picture on her nightstand next to her bed. Looking at the clock on her wall, Kagome saw that it was getting late, and she wanted to go to bed before Taishou and her mother did. She shuttered, not wanting to know what they were planning on doing in their bedroom, although it was obvious when a couple first moved in together.
Getting on her pajamas, Kagome crawled into bed, trying to adjust to a foreign environment, but eventually she fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming good dreams of her throttling Inuyasha.
OOOOOO
The next morning, Kagome woke up somnolent, as was expected when one moves into a new home. Eventually, the person gets accustomed to the new environment, and they get more peaceful sleep.
Getting out of bed, Kagome headed to the bathroom, only to see the door closed; however, the door opened suddenly, revealing the young woman Kagome saw yesterday; Rin.
Rin was wrapped in a body towel, and another towel was wrapped around her head. "Oh." was all she could say as her cheeks rushed into a color of apple-red.
"Um, hi." Kagome greeted, and cleared her throat as Rin gave a wobbly smile and rushed into Sesshoumaru's room.
Kagome wondered if Taishou knew about his son having his girlfriend sleep over, and in his own room no less. She decided not to say anything because she did not want Sesshoumaru's wrath on her head. If it was Inuyasha, yes, she would say something, but she did not hold any grudge against the older brother.
Kagome yawned while adjusting the shower to the perfect warm temperature. She undressed and started to shower, starting with her hair, and then she washed her body.
While Kagome washed her face, the hot water suddenly bled away, leaving nothing but ice-cold water. Kagome screamed, turning the hot water knob as far as it could go, with no avail, as the cold water sprayed over her like icicles puncturing her body.
Suddenly, the hot water came back on, but it was too hot, and Kagome screamed again, turning the hot water knob the opposite way but it was not working.
Blinded by the soap still on her face, Kagome tried to run out of the shower stall, but she got tangled up in the curtain. Her weight, while not dramatically heavy, was enough to cause the curtain rod to give out, and Kagome fell to the floor with a thud, followed by the curtain rod smacking her on the head.
There was a panic knock on the door followed by her mother's voice, "Kagome?! Kagome, are you alright?! What happened?!"
"I'm fine, mama," Kagome replied, trying to get up with her body aching and the soap still in her eyes. "The hot water suddenly went off."
"...The water heater is on, Kagome."
"Well, when I was in the shower, it went off." Kagome retorted irritably.
She knew who the culprit was. Kagome went to the sink, turned on the water and splashed her face to get the soap off her face.
"Are you alright at least?"
"Yes, but the shower curtain is not." Kagome saw the torn curtain in dismay.
"Oh," Yumi said. "We'll have to get a new one then."
Kagome dried herself off and put on her pink bathrobe. She walked out of the bathroom just when Inuyasha walked out of his room. His hair was disarrayed, his eyelids drooped, and he released a big yawn. He looked at Kagome tiredly, said nothing, and went to the bathroom.
"Good gods!" he said as he turned around, looking at Kagome in disbelief. "What'd you do?"
"Nothing." Kagome simply replied, turned, and went into her room to change.
At breakfast, Kagome said nothing while Inuyasha pathetically tried to hide his laughter. She calmly excused herself, gathered her dishes and started washing them.
"Well," Taishou said, rubbing the back of his head after he heard the latest news. "I guess you three will have to use the bathroom downstairs to shower in until we get new shower curtains."
Inuyasha scoffed, "We wouldn't have this problem if some people weren't so careless."
Kagome was washing her juice glass when Inuyasha made his statement, and she tightened her grip on the glass, which caused it to break in pieces.
"Kagome, what's wrong today?" Yumi asked her daughter, not angry about the glass, but more concerned for her child.
"Nothing."
"Keh, maybe she thinks that she can break everything in the house since we're rich."
Kagome inhaled deeply, exhaled deeply, and repeated for several minutes while Taishou scolded his son for making such a statement.
"Oh, Rin, you're here rather early." Yumi said as she looked at the young woman, Rin, whom was eating breakfast with the family.
Rin smiled with a pretty blush on her cheeks as Taishou gave a light cough.
"She gets here rather early a lot." Taishou said to Yumi, whom just nodded without another word.
"So can I have my friends over just as early?" Kagome inquired supposedly with sarcasm, but was not accepted as such.
Everyone at the table looked at Kagome with wide eyes, save for Inuyasha, who scoffed.
"Keh, that's all we need; more people from the banana barrel and the head monkey leading a monkey orgy."
"That's it, Inuyasha!" Taishou yelled and everyone jumped, never seeing him that angry. "You're grounded for three days!"
"Fine," Inuyasha mumbled as he glared at an unsympathetic Kagome.
Kagome quickly got dressed in her school uniform, got her items together, and headed out the door early. As soon as she left the house, Kagome heaved a sigh of relief.
Now able to get away from her new family at school, Kagome skipped heartedly down the street and to the entrance of the school. Kagome was surprised that she lived closer to her school now than she did living at her other house.
"Kagome-chan!" Sango greeted as her other two friends also came up to greet her.
"Sango-chan!" Kagome greeted back as they embraced.
"You sure are in high spirits." Sango noted as they walked towards class.
"Yup!" Kagome said with a huge smile on her face. "Now I don't have to be with my mom's other family while at school!"
"Oi!" An eerily familiar voice said.
Kagome slowly, slowly turned around only to see her nightmares had come true. Right behind her was Inuyasha, his older brother, Sesshoumaru, and his girlfriend, Rin.
"Inuyasha?!" Kagome yelled as she looked at the trio. "Sesshoumaru?! Rin?! What are you three doing here?!"
"Getting our hearing blown away by your shrill voice!" Inuyasha complained as he rubbed on ear on his head.
"You're all dress in this school's uniforms!" Kagome continued to yell.
"Yes," Sesshoumaru said matter-of-factly. "You left the house so early that we didn't get to tell you that we're going to your school now since we're closer to it."
Kagome hung her mouth open for a moment before she demanded, "You two I can accept coming here." She pointed to Sesshoumaru and Rin. "But why you?!" She then screamed at the infuriating young man with the weird ears.
Inuyasha snorted before he answered, "Why don't you ask your mother? She's the one that suggested us going to this school."
Kagome let out a small squeak. Fate had such a twisted sense of humor!
"Now you have to show us around the school, or preferably to our classes." Inuyasha told his soon-to-be-stepsister.
Kagome let out a soft cry of defeat, damning Fate the whole time while she escorted the trio to the admissions office and left her three friends standing, bewildered, outside the school.
Sesshoumaru and Rin were already seniors, so they would not be in class with Kagome.
"Where is room 36A?" Inuyasha asked as he held the admissions card up to his face.
"What?!" Kagome demanded and she snatched the card out of the young man's hand. She read it, and sure enough, it said 36A. "That's my class!"
"Oh, great." Inuyasha said without enthusiasm. "Now we have to see each other in school, too."
Unfortunately, Inuyasha ended up in the same class with Kagome, and once again, she cursed Fate for the events happening in her life.
In class, Inuyasha was an automatically popular among the girls, which Kagome did not blame them. The guy is rather handsome, even though she begrudgingly admitted it to herself.
As the girls cooed over Inuyasha and he just offered them cute smiles, Kagome watched the scene as she rested her head in her hand. She rolled her eyes and sighed as Sango and the other two made their way over to her.
"He's already so popular with the girls." Sango stated the obvious.
"Damn him," Miroku said with a glare towards Inuyasha. "He's taking our places, Kouga."
"I noticed," Kouga said as he also watched the girls fluster over the silver-hair young man. "What's with those ears, anyway?"
"You know," Kagome started when she turned to her three friends. "I asked him that when I first met him. He never answered."
"Weird if you ask me." Kouga said and then turned to Kagome. "Hey, you got a note. You can read it during class if you want."
Kouga handed Kagome a folded piece of paper that looked like it was torn out of notebook paper. She carefully put it away in her folder to read later.
"What concerns me most," Miroku started. "Is that his brother, Sesshoumaru, is also going to this school. I wonder if any other guys are going to get it like I did."
"Oh, Miroku!" Sango said and she slapped him on the back of the head. "Nothing happened to you but a glare! Now stop complaining about it!"
Sango then turned to Kagome.
"Ne, Kagome-chan, are you going to gym practice today?"
Kagome snorted and shook her head.
"I'm grounded all thanks to that guy over there."
"You know, if you don't get enough practice in the coach won't let you compete during the competition; and you're our best one on the team!"
"Thank you for the complement, Sango-chan, and I know I won't be able to compete, but I'm grounded for two days; today and tomorrow. Can you tell coach that I'll make it to gym practice on Wednesday?"
"Sure, Kagome-chan," Sango said as she leaned against her desk. "Coach isn't going to like it, but nothing can be done when it's the parents who said no."
"Okay, class!" the teacher said when he walked into the room. "Let's get started."
As the teacher talked, Kagome pulled out the note Kouga gave to her, opened it, and read it:
Do you want to go out sometime? Just you and me?
Kouga
Kagome looked over at Kouga, who glanced at her quickly as a tiny blush developed on his cheeks, and Kagome could do nothing but smile and nod to him.
Kouga was a good guy so Kagome was sure she could learn to like him more than just a friend.
To Be Continued...
OOOO
AN: Heheh, just a little bit of Kouga/Kagome coupling. Don't worry; the plot comes out in the next chapter. Hope everyone likes it so far!