Chapter 2: A Trip Down Memory Lane
I hope you all enjoy this; it's just a bit of background on InuYasha's life, and I think the next chapter will be a bit of this as well, but not quite as much. Don't get too bored with it! Hey, I just realized that this is my longest chapter I've ever written! Hooray!!! Okay, I'm done.
Kagome stepped out of the blazing red Toyota Tundra that InuYasha had driven into her driveway. She waved cheerily at his sour face that was filled with his denial of defeat. She had jumped into his truck after practice and locked the doors, leaving him nearly helpless against her power to press the lock buttons quicker than he could unlock the driver door. Finally, after yelling incoherently at her, calling her nearly every name under the sun, and kicking the side of the truck (which did him absolutely no good since now his toe throbbed painfully), he slid down the side of the truck and officially gave up. Just then, he heard a click emerge from the door and he grabbed the handle to enter the cab, only to find Kagome smiling innocently at him. She batted her eyelashes and said with sweetness dripping from every word, "Can you puh-leaze give me a ride home, sweetie?"
He gave her a sarcastic look, yet ten minutes later Kagome entered her house. InuYasha let a sigh of exhaustion let slip from his lips as she disappeared behind the door. He was tired; maybe he'd go home and take a nap. If his brother Sesshomaru was home, he probably would either not acknowledge him or shoot snide remarks across the dinner table. InuYasha really hoped the former outcome would happen, because when Sesshomaru was in a horrible mood it usually put himself in a worse one. This led to yelling, that led to fighting, and then, once their energy was spent, they retired to their own rooms, refusing to speak again until the next night.
The silence in the cab of the truck was deafening, so InuYasha twiddled with the radio knob, finding his favorite rock station. As Breaking Benjamin's lyrics began to emerge from the tricked-out speakers he had installed earlier that year, he turned the volume up to blasting loud. He head-banged along with his favorite song by the group, "Breakdown" as the trees alongside the highway became a blur. The wind began to whistle through the cracked window and it played lightly with InuYasha's curiously long silver hair. He didn't know why he had it , or how he of all people came to have such weird hair, but it had helped his "popularity" drastically. InuYasha scoffed at the thought of popularity, knowing his life had always been the opposite. At first, in his youthful nature, he was ridiculed for it, but he had his mother to love his fear and sorrow away. His childhood until she left was wonderful bliss, filled with laughter. When she passed away, he was completely alone on the playground. That was a horrible year, as he recalled with disgust. "No one person should have to endure such physical pain," his mother used to always say to him after he would come home crying to her. Then she would melt his tears away with her radiant smile. "That's why I'm here for you, to help you through it!"
One of his teachers shared the same views, but in a different way of releasing the anger and fear. InuYasha was introduced to the martial arts the next year, where he learned to calm himself and defend his honor. This soon became his haven, his complete bliss, to come from a world of ridiculing to one of accepting. He learned quickly and began to build a shield to block out everyone else. He constructed walls around his heart to keep the bullying out, and for once in his life he was completely and utterly happy.
No one dared to give him trouble now, so he led a solitary life throughout the rest of elementary and part of middle school. It wasn't until eighth grade that he found his first true friend. Of course he had a group of friends that followed him around, but they more feared him than loved him. He had his share of pointless "loves" and gave out more heartbreaks than any other middle school child because he never let any girl into his rigid heart. One usual school day came when InuYasha and his "gang" sauntered down the hall, clearing a wide path amongst the other crowds, as usual. He caught something out of the corner of his eye and left to investigate, assuring his "friends" he was just going to the restroom. When he reached the adjacent hallway, now cleared of smaller seventh graders in their classes, he saw something that made his blood boil. There were two eighth grade thugs throwing a seventh's books and bag into the bathroom garbage. They also had her coat and one of them was digging through it, pulling out spare change and passes while the other was holding her back as she tried letting herself loose. He kept hitting her and calling her names and her tears fell heavily to the tile floor.
"Please leave my stuff alo-"
The eighth holding her hit her face, causing a bruise to bloom instantly.
"Shut up, wench! We'll give it back when we're done!"
InuYasha wasn't sure what happened next because his conscious mind blanked while his subconscious took over. He didn't remember stepping out from behind the wall, punching both eighth thugs in the face or pummeling them into the ground, or even when they ran away whimpering. He did, however, regain his conscious self when he heard the soft sobs escaping from the girl's lips as she laid on the cold tile floor. He came up to her frail body and crouched down to her level. As she drew her gaze up to him, he could see her bruise blooming spectacularly beneath one of her deep brown eyes and a thin line of blood trickling down her chin from her lower lip. Her eyes were wide with fear and horror, as if she thought he was one of the others. InuYasha reached his rough, calloused hand out to her and she flinched, but he grabbed her hand gently so as to help her up. She gasped and more tears leaked out as she cautiously eased up. When they were both standing up, she looked into his gorgeous golden eyes and gave him an enormous braces-filled grin. He smirked back at her, instantly melting under her warming smile.
"My name's Kagome. What's yours?" she asked softly.
"It's InuYasha. Y'know you should-"
Before he could finish his sentence, she had wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, like her life depended on it. He blushed lightly, but contained his embarrassment immediately as she whispered through shaky voice, "Thank you so much, InuYasha."
"You shouldn't let those thugs give you such trouble! Just kick 'em in the nuts or something!" InuYasha said as he and Kagome began walking down the hallway to her locker.
"What, and miss a chance for you to show off your kara-tay skills? No way! That was really cool! Where did you learn it? Can I watch your practices? Could you kill someone? What-"
"Whoa, I've never met someone with so many questions," InuYasha interjected, leaving Kagome speechless. "Do you ever NOT talk?"
"Oh, yeah, but I'm just so excited to have met someone new today! I love meeting a new face and getting to know them, it's like a holiday or something! Except it's not like Hannukah or Columbus Day, but bigger than that, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. I mean, I really don't have any friends right now, since I just moved here and no one knows me very well, but I never thought that people would be that mean…"
She never stopped talking, even though she reached her locker and started to pull books out of it. InuYasha just smiled as she kept going on and on about her old school, her classes, some of her old friends that she left behind that she misses, her favorite foods; pretty much anything she could come up with. He didn't mind; it was relaxing to listen to her.
As she closed her locker, she stopped her talking spree and looked at InuYasha quizzically. "Hey, where's your head?"
He looked at her and smiled, not his trademark devilish grin but a true, genuine smile, teeth and all. "You're welcome, Kagome."
She smiled widely and pulled him into another hug, saying to him, "Let's be friends, kay?"
He nodded into her shoulder and they walked away, finding a new relationship between themselves. After that day, many students could recall that they were inseparable, yet never considered dating. Whenever someone suggested it, they would either get a scoff from InuYasha or a huge denial from Kagome. They were just really great friends, that was all. Even straight through high school and all of their screaming matches that made them sound like husband and wife, they still forgave and forgot and resumed their unbreakable relationship. It was the perfect friendship.
Please review; it keeps me wanting to write the story if I know that people want to read it! Thanks to all those who have decided to keep with the story until the end; I promise that we'll start with the play practices soon! Toodles!
Kim
