ANACHRONIST

Chapter 2: A Way with Words

Inuyasha sat scowling at the lip of the well. Where the hell is that girl? She said she'd be here by noon!

Then he smelled her familiar smell, and peered down. There she was, backpack and all, climbing the well's sides.

He stepped back to give her room, and glared at her as she stepped out into the sunlight.

"Well?" Inuyasha demanded. He automatically reached out to take the backpack from her, but she shrank away from him.

He searched her face. "Why do you look so tired?"

She looked away, a blush rising in her face. "I, um, I stayed up really late at a friend's house the other night…"

She had already promised herself she wouldn't tell him. I'll stick to my promise, she told herself. I will.

I'll never tell him that I stayed up half the night reading fanfiction– about US!

• • •

The whole rest of the day Inuyasha puzzled over Kagome. She seemed to be half focused somewhere else. Finally he confronted her.

"Okay, Kagome. What's going on? HEY! What's that?"

She was holding paper in her hands, the kind of paper with the strange inked letters on it. This time, though, it wasn't in one of those "textbooks".

"Give me that!" He snatched the papers. Inuyasha was desperate to find out why Kagome had been so distant all day, really warm to him the next; shy one moment and…flirting?…sometimes.

He started to read the kanji as Kagome shouted, "Sit!"

He smashed into the ground. Kagome started to shake with uncontrollable laughter.

"It's not funny, wench!" Inuyasha grumbled.

Kagome laughed harder.

Miroku put his hand on the growling Inuyasha's shoulder. "Something is clearly wrong here," he said quietly. "Kagome, perhaps it is– er, that time of month?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Monk, I'm the only one with a time of month."

The monk shook his head and sighed. "There is much for you to know, Inuyasha. And I'm not the man to teach it to you all, although believe me, I know a lot. GACK!" Sango had just whacked him on the head.

"How do you know about things like a time of month? Miroku, take Inuyasha. I need to talk to Kagome alone." As the monk and the irritated hanyou moved off, Sango crouched on the ground by Kagome.

"Kagome, what's going on? Are you feeling well? You haven't been acting like yourself. Do you want to tell me about it?"

Kagome trusted Sango, and would have loved to spill exactly the issue with her. It was worrying, funny, embarrassing, and shocking all at once.

But how could she tell Sango that she had read a story by someone from her world who had turned Sango in a California beach bum who surfs with Miroku? Or how, apparently, she and Sango had gone shopping at Norstroms'? And, worse yet, there were some things that made her blush just to think about.

She shook her head, feeling suddenly so tired that she just dropped her head onto Sango's shoulder and snoozed.

Kagome had lied to Inuyasha. She had been up more than half the night. She had, in fact, stayed awake for fifteen hours to both read and to get over the shock of some of the things that she'd done with Inuyasha, according to some writers…

• • •

Kagome couldn't keep it to herself anymore. It wasn't even funny to her. The shock was receding, and she knew she had to do something about this. It was affecting the whole group, to have her acting so weirdly. She couldn't take the strain of this burden of knowledge.

"Sango. I have to tell you something." Sango looked down at Kagome, whose eyes were still shut.

"I went back to my world, and I was…using a kind of box that has tons of knowledge stored in it. I was searching through it, and I found…um…stuff about us."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…I found some websites– I mean, pages of information, about me. And you. And Miroku and Inuyasha and the Shikon no Tama and almost anything you can imagine."

Her emotions twanged the other direction. To finally say it out loud was the trigger for a flood of shock that coursed through her, and Kagome started to sob hysterically. Sango couldn't even understand her anymore, even though Kagome kept trying to say words and failing.

"Inuyasha!" she cried, alarmed. "Something's wrong with Kagome! Come here!"

Inuyasha and Miroku crashed through the bushes over to Kagome, who lay in a ball, crying.

"Stop! Stop that!" said Inuyasha frantically. Was it something I did?

"I– can't!" sobbed Kagome, barely able to breathe.

"Sango, she's hyperventilating!" Miroku exclaimed, worried. "She might need some kind of mouth-to-mouth breathing– OW!" he said, rubbing his head. "Perhaps you should do it!"

Kagome held up her hands in front of her face, still crying uncontrollably. "Look– yellow bag– read papers," she gasped out, and stumbled over to a tree, trying to stop the rush of tears.

Miroku went over to the backpack and pulled out the sheaf of printed paper. "It's those ones she was reading!" cried Inuyasha angrily. "I knew it!" He turned imploringly to Kagome, who had quieted down to low sobbing. "Please Kagome, don't cry. We'll read and you'll feel better. Watch, I'll read it." He snatched the papers from Miroku and held them far from his face.

"The– the…Damn! The light's fading!" Inuyasha swore, looking at the setting sun and the darkening sky with a glare.

"Inuyasha, you're holding it upside-down," commented Miroku quietly. "If you want to read it, hold it like this and read the kanji downward."

Inuyasha flipped the page right-side-up and started to try and read. "The day when–"

Miroku sighed. "Inuyasha, you don't have to pretend you can read. Here. I'll read it aloud for all of us."

He took the papers from a furiously embarrassed Inuyasha and began to read. "It began one day in September. Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Inuyasha were walking to school together as usual…"

• • •

He read until his voice died away. The group stared at Miroku for a minute, then at the paper, then at Kagome.

Sango asked the girl gently, "Kagome, who wrote this?"

Kagome looked up. "I don't know. I found it in the…the box, and many many people write things that end up there. It could be one of millions of people."

Inuyasha knelt down to put a comforting hand on her head. Kagome grabbed his hand and took it off her hair, sitting up to look him straight in the eye.

"You heard what was in that story," she said, her voice so low only his dog ears could detect it.

Inuyasha blushed so red he matched his haori. He was very glad it was dark. "I– I…I thought it was…"

Miroku was flipping the pages. "Which page was it on where you kissed her again, Inuyasha?"

The half-demon pushed Miroku so hard he stumbled backwards, laughing. "Shuttup," growled Inuyasha. He backed away from Kagome.

"I- um," Sango said nervously. "Kagome, I…I think I understand why you've been behaving so strangely…"

Kagome started to hiccup. "I'm so sorry…It's just, I thought you all should know, because– because it's true that I'm acting so weird…I'm so sorry," she repeated. "It all started because I thought– I thought Inuyasha would be happy if I searched for some information on the Shikon no Tama, to help us understand it. But all this weird stuff turned up…like that story. It was at a place called which is where people publish their stories. Completely fiction, though. I mean that's all made up…"

Sango was petting Kagome's head soothingly. "Hush, don't worry about it."

Miroku was straightening his robes now. "Well, like Sango says, Kagome, you shouldn't worry about it. The only issue is that many people somehow know about us…and write stories about us…"

Sango looked at the ground. "But it's true– reading that really does change things."

Miroku shifted uneasily for a moment. Then he said, "Is it really true you secretly like it when I– er, fondle your behind?"

Slap.

Sango was on her feet, shouting and turning bright red, even visible in the dark. "No, no, I do not, houshi-sama, and if you don't mind–" She stomped away and leaned against a tree in an embarrassed huff.

Inuyasha was hiding in the shadows at this point, embarrassed and confused. In that strange story, he and Kagome…If these stories were somehow partially true, did that mean…?

Kagome stood up suddenly. "I'm sorry I showed it to you all. Here. Give me that." Kagome took the papers, and stuffed them into the campfire. They crackled and spat. "There," she said firmly. "They're gone."

But they weren't. Not really…

•••

:-D