Be sure to check out the art that goes along with this; the fic cover image is a cropped version of the piece! It's located on Dokuga, titled the same as the fic for easy finding. If you view this fic on Dokuga or ao3, there are links to everything for this piece – the fic on archiveofourown or Dokuga, depending where you first look; the art in all three places it's posted; and the little moodboard in the two places it's posted.
Enjoy! ^-^
[~] kaoruhana's New Year's 2015-2016 Challenge
Prompts: Day 14 - Chapstick
[~] kaoruhana's New Year's 2018-2019 Challenge
Prompts: Day 3 - Confetti
[~] December Holiday Challenge 2018
Prompts: Day 5 – Green ;Day 17 – Milk ; Day 21 – Fried Chicken
-/o&o/-
Kagome had spent a good, long while going over everything that had happened in her time since she'd last seen him. Her mood had settled back to a more natural level for her, and in it she came to the conclusion that if she apologized again – especially for how she'd confronted him –, then perhaps he'd react better. He might tell her why he'd been annoyed, or, if anything, just ease the tension she'd brought on.
Almost immediately Kagome noticed when he saw her coming over to greet him and she could swear he rolled his eyes just a little in response to her intent. While that didn't exactly help her maintain her calm, she still bit her tongue and kept a small, cordial grin on her lips as she walked over to him. Thankfully, this time he didn't try to escape.
"Hey," Kagome greeted him softly, anxious fingers tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Listen," she exhaled, "I'm sorry about last time. You know, grabbing your arm and stuff."
She cast him a cursory glance, noting how he was still regarding something in his hand, but his attention looked unfocused, so at least he didn't seem to be ignoring her this time. She might as well continue then.
"I had been annoyed at you and wanted an explanation, but I think I let my frustration with all that mix with my sour mood due to my less than stellar day get the better of me." Flushing a little, Kagome shifted her eyes away, "I uh, I hadn't meant to be quite so..forceful with my question."
After waiting apprehensively in a moment of silence that he didn't fill, she ventured a peek at him again and found that he was rather intently eyeing her, his face somewhat blank though his gaze looked thoughtful. Then he lightly shrugged, followed by a faint hum of acceptance.
All worry swiftly forgotten, Kagome felt her lips twist a little at how blandly he'd accepted her apology, one that was hard to muster the courage to deliver. And actually, at how blandly he seemed to be taking the entire situation when she honestly felt he was the one responsible for starting the whole mini debacle.
But, releasing a quiet breath of relief, Kagome tried to remind herself she was going to let it go.
However, as they both remained standing there, less than a foot between them, she noticed how the tension she'd hoped would now disappear didn't seem to lessen at all. Instead, the air became a bit more of that 'no one's saying anything, what should we do' sort.
Running her fingers through her hair again as her nerves teased her gut, Kagome chuckled awkwardly, "well, I guess I'll let you get back to what you were doing then."
Another second slipped by before she turned and quickly began walking away, her eyes firmly glued to the ground as she took a deep breath.
Unfortunately, Kagome didn't notice the person in front of her until two brown loafers came into view and her head smacked into a wide, boxy chest. Now feeling more embarrassed than physically possible, Kagome didn't even bother to look at the poor man she'd just practically head-butted.
"Sorry – I'm sorry – sorry," she mumbled in quick succession as she twisted around the man.
In the process of her avoidance and trying to make a hasty escape to the next aisle, Kagome caught those golden eyes still lingering on her, and she was positive he had one of his annoyingly perfect snowy brows raised. He had surely watched her entire moment of mortification and was likely pondering on her proclivity to run into strangers.
Now free of both him and the stranger she'd accidentally accosted, Kagome was all but running through the store to get out as fast as possible. She wasn't sure she was even going to bother getting the few things she'd come for either. Leaving was all Kagome could think about.
Also, on how he must believe her to be the silliest, most clumsy girl he'd ever had the misfortune of being accidentally and then forcefully introduced to.
-/o&o/-
"Since Kouga's coming," she mumbled to herself, "and he's bringing Ginta and Hokaku…"
Kagome was busy staring at the ceiling as she walked and babbled quietly outloud, calculating how many pizzas and liters of soda she'd need to grab in order to accommodate the little get-together party thing she and her friends were having. Not to mention the virtually heart attack inducing litany of miscellaneous snacks that had been shoved into her hands earlier while the boys in question were messily scarfing down four buckets of fried chicken and playing intense rounds of Mario Kart. Unfortunately, it seemed whenever the 'wolf pack' joined, as they all 'affectionately' termed the small group, the amount of food needed was all but impossible to determine.
Rounding the corner and entering the aisle containing the first items on her list, Kagome returned her attention to her surroundings and found her gaze settling on a tall figure with silky white hair falling down his back.
She halted mid-step, her eyes growing wider and wider the longer she stared at him, hoping desperately that he couldn't see her from the corner of his eye. Very, very slowly, Kagome moved her foot backward, then again, and again, and then began twisting around as unhurried as possible despite her powerful wish to bolt.
Alas, just as her foot hit the scuffed tile, Kagome heard his velvety baritone call out to her. Though the level was as subdued and calm as if she were next to him and he was merely giving a random, uninteresting fact.
"Avoiding me will not erase history."
In that instant, her entire body seemed to sag, the tension she'd been locked into sucked right out of her. There he went again, being unfair… Unfairly right.
Groaning, Kagome turned back around, then heaved out a defeated sigh. "Yeah, a part of me knew that." With no longer careful steps, she made her way to stand beside him, adding with a wistful sadness to her tone, "but the other, more foolish part hoped I'd get lucky for once. Sadly, that's not how the universe works."
Kagome looked up at him with large, resigned eyes and a quirk to her mouth, making a pitiful little grin while he gazed back down, eyeing her for a moment before glancing away. Quiet and practically unreadable, as always it seemed.
Tipping her head away with a faint roll of her eyes, she drawled inquiringly, "sooo, up to anything interesting?"
His attention returned to her, an eyebrow raised and a questioning look in his eyes. "Does going to the store normally classify as interesting for you?"
Kagome puffed out her lips a little, pouting at his subtle sarcasm. "I was just going for casual conversation."
"That does not require absurd questions."
"Well, it's only absurd," she mocked lightly, "because we're in a supermarket."
"Then why bother asking?"
Kagome shifted back to face him, her teasing grin still drawn on, and found he was staring down on her with that same curiosity in his always weirdly intense gaze.
Looking on one another, her smile fell and her focus increased. She felt like his face was so close despite him being several inches taller than her; his straight nose, his strong jawline… the pale glow of his skin looked so soft. Even under the harsh light of the fluorescents above them. In her overly attuned attention, Kagome couldn't help but notice as a piece of his white hair, the strands almost silvery, slipped and fell over his shoulder to drape along his chest.
Feeling her cheeks growing warm, Kagome turned away from the moment with a quick jerk of her head.
Ridiculous. She was being ridiculous.
-/o&o/-
No no no!
Kagome could feel the jug of milk shifting and slipping away from her as she tried to rearrange her basket in order to accommodate it. She hadn't expected to grab so much today; she hardly had room left and she hadn't even gotten what she came for yet!
"Crap," she mumbled somewhat unrecognizably, the corner of a little package of gummy bears in her mouth.
Just as she was sure the milk was beyond saving, Kagome felt it stop, the top of the jug still resting just barely in the crook of her arm. Then it was removed, clearly not falling to the floor seeing as no embarrassingly loud thud sounded.
She quickly looked up to see who had come to her rescue, and upon seeing his familiar face, piercing gold eyeing her, Kagome grinned wide.
"Hi there."
Of course right as she spoke the bag of candy fell from her mouth and managed to completely miss landing in her basket in favor of smacking right onto the floor. The moment Kagome had realized what had happened, she'd turned back to helplessly watch it fall. Lying on the floor now, she merely stared at the bag with a mild pout and small groan at herself and her own thoughtlessness. At least it wasn't a flimsy box or plastic container, otherwise it might have just exploded open like a colorful, albeit strange, confetti popper.
When she looked up finally, Kagome noticed he was giving her that raised brow expression. The one she remembered quite well from the day she'd apologized to him and then wished to forget ever happened for forever, but was regretfully indelibly burned into her memory.
Closing her eyes with a sigh, Kagome adjusted the basket of items on her hip and awkwardly knelt down to grab the offending gummy bears.
Standing back up just as inelegantly, she asked, "so, how have you been?"
For a moment he said nothing, but then remarked evenly, "I see you have upgraded from interesting then."
Her brow fell as she quirked her lips, "oh ha ha."
Kagome began walking alongside him, her saved milk still in his grasp. Tilting her head to look up at him better, the raven hair of her ponytail tumbling over her shoulder, she tried again.
"Sooo?"
He shifted his gaze to hers briefly, then away once more. "Fine."
"Pffbbt," she scoffed, "that's not fair."
"I responded, it is not my fault if you find it unsatisfactory."
"Nuh uh, I will not accept your passive answers this time." Kagome curtly nodded her head as she returned her attention forward, a determined expression set on her face.
"Then you will be disappointed."
"Ah, come on now. I've talked about me before, it's totally your turn."
"That was your choice."
"And reciprocating is common knowledge."
"That does not require one to acquiesce."
"Gah!" she exclaimed, coming to a stop, "you're like an endless cycle of noncommittal. Come on, commit already."
He had stopped along with her, both now fully facing one another.
Kagome started to lightly tap her foot, feigning impatience but earnestly eager for him to get on with it as she waited in the silence that had settled in the small space between them.
Sighing heavily, she rolled her eyes, "seriously, it is not that hard."
While they continued to stare each other down, she eventually drew on a grin, "come on, you can do it." She fist pumped the air dramatically, hoping to get a rise out of him.
His brow rose at that, nothing out of the ordinary. However, Kagome thought she saw him smirk as he turned his face from her and began walking again.
"Things have been busy," he said.
Kagome practically jumped to follow after him, her grin now a wide smile as she fell in step with his pace.
-/o&o/-
Drat, Kagome hissed silently at herself, her hand rummaging around in her overstuffed bag after a sudden hit of 'what if' came over her while she'd been searching fruitlessly for her chapstick. Where the hell were her damn keys? She was certain she'd tossed them into the stupid old thing that morning as she'd scrambled to gather the items intended for a different one back into it when the new bag couldn't be found. All of which made her late, as usual. It was a miracle she'd not been fired yet, to be honest—her boss was a godsend; even if the woman still gave her lectures on punctuality regardless.
Unfortunately, while in her distracted search, she was paying very little attention to where she was going and happened to bump into someone. She mumbled an apology immediately, waving it off along with the other person – as such events should happen, her mind couldn't help but supply, thinking on its similarity to a certain past circumstance. However, she narrowly avoided that little catastrophe only to run right into the edge of a wall, knocking her bag from her awkward hold. And, of course, the thing went and scattered some of its contents when it landed with a loud thump, the items spilling haphazardly onto the floor.
"Perfect," she groused, "just perfect."
While she was grumblingly collecting them, cursing with a glare as she spotted her keys before chucking them into the bag, grabbing at the damn chapstick she'd also been searching for and a little too harshly jamming it into her pocket, she spotted a pair of nice shoes in her line of sight. Almost immediately she could sense exactly who it was that had stopped to observe the aftermath of her mishap despite never having noticed his footwear before.
It was him.
She bit her lip in frustration, again silently cursing at her terrible luck.
Why was it that whenever he appeared she was always in the process of doing something stupid and embarrassing? It was like he had some bizarre 'Kagome's going to be a clumsy idiot' radar. He would no doubt gladly receive the message and then promptly get into position, preparing for the perfect moment to strike.
Biting back a groan, Kagome hurriedly shoved the remaining items into her bag, the somewhat ugly, old yellow one that was most definitely cursed, but she'd been forced to use nonetheless. And just two days ago she had purchased a smaller and very nice deep green one with silver accents, but for the life of her she simply could not find it this morning. So she had been reduced to packing all the items she'd prepared for the new bag into the old one. And as would obviously happen, because her life is perpetually tormenting her lately, she simply had to run into him on the day she was using it. Cursed indeed.
For some surely foolish reason, Kagome was now feeling uncomfortably self-conscious with it slung over her shoulder, like it was screaming how unattractive it was and that she was thusly so simply by associating with it.
Good God, she was definitely going to burn this wretched thing the very second she found her new bag.
Despite knowing the wave of insecurity was absurd, Kagome still made sure to keep the bag on the shoulder opposite where he stood, as if it could somehow help hide the thing from the man's annoyingly perceptive gaze. Because it wasn't just that she was overcome with another irrational desire not to be found unappealing to this unfairly gorgeous man, but because he was always so impeccably dressed. Even though the attire tended to be simple and clearly toned down to a sort of casual elegance from the other pieces he undoubtedly owned.
Well, she could now tack poor taste and fashion sense onto the growing list of what he must see whenever he looked at her.
Unconsciously adjusting the thick, marginally worn strap, she inaudibly clearly her throat and attempted to prompt some level of conversation. Silence with him brought on so many emotions at times it was difficult to think clearly, and the embarrassment and subsequent shame only made it more so.
"Uh," she blurted oh so gracefully, "what's up?"
He simply eyed her for a moment, one of his perfect eyebrows arching as he gazed down on her. Just when she felt the moment of response coming, rather than let it happen, her nerves got the better of her and she jumped on his unspoken words.
"Please don't..."
"I said nothing."
"You were going to."
"You inquired on my day."
Kagome sighed, sagging like a deflated balloon. "I know I know," she weakly waved off his comment, her eyes fixed on the floor, "but I couldn't deal with whatever teasing you were about to unleash." In an effort to banish the moment, Kagome puffed out a relieving breath then turned her head up high, expression bright and resolved. "So let's just skip that train wreck and go right on to small talk!"
Even though she was purposely avoiding looking at his face, she could practically feel that raised brow and subtle smirk burning into her skin.
-/o&o/-
Don't forget!
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~itsu