Kagome POV:
As soon as she stepped out of the car, she looked up into three ridiculously perfect faces. Their silver hair, golden eyes, and perfectly tanned skin almost made her drool. Almost.
She mentally slapped herself out of it, and put on her business front. She told herself her usual calm down word routine; calm, cool, friendly, and smart.
She shook their father's hand, and the younger of the brothers (hyper kid named Inuyasha, six months younger than her) practically dragged her into the house and straight into a tour.
…
Their estate was beautiful; it was a pity that there were so few people to enjoy it. Kagome doubted that these head mafia men really enjoyed the landscape scenery- it was always for status.
The Takahashi's had many old scrolls, tapestries, kimono, and even a few swords in a back warehouse where they kept all of their business stuff.
While they were in the warehouse, Kagome couldn't help but notice that Inuyasha got a little close to her (after flexing his obvious arm muscles) when he was pulling out the kimono boxes.
"What are you into? Like music and shit."
Kagome giggled at his words, and said, "I like a lot of American bands, do you speak fluent English?"
"I speak it well enough to negotiate deals and not sound like a total foreigner, but I don't understand it well enough to listen to the music."
"That is like my Dad. He learned formal English about... oh… ten thousand years ago, and hasn't taken the initiative to learn some new, updated words. He is terrible in negotiating deals with the Americans."
"That's a laugh, sounds like my old man."
"He seemed quite a bit cooler than my dad. How old is he?"
She caught Inuyasha make a funny smirk face, and he said, "About seven thousand years by the original Japanese calendar, give or take a few," She laughed at his joke and he corrected himself, "Almost fourty, he had Sesshomaru when he and his first wife were really young."
"As do most in our industry."
"You know about Kikyo, right?" Kagome's mind flashed back to pictures of her magnificently gorgeous teenage sister. Kikyo died very quickly from brain cancer while Kagome's mother was pregnant with Kagome.
It was a good thing they were sitting on the floor with their backs against the storage boxes, or else she might have fallen over.
"Yeah, duh, why?"
"She was engaged to my dad before she died."
Kagome didn't budge an inch. He had to be lying.
"Dad fell head over heals for her, just after Sesshomaru's mom ran off. Took her all over the world trying to find a doctor to fix her."
She didn't remember Kikyo, only a few videos, holiday kimono, and pictures remained of her. All that she knew was that Kikyo was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen faded Polaroids of.
"Yeah… sorry to bring that up. That wasn't very appropriate," Kagome could see a bit of regret and fear in his face.
"Don't worry, its okay. I wont tattle on you to Sesshomaru or Mr. Takahashi," he gave out a huge sigh of relief. "So… what is the deal with your brother? I don't think he said a word or moved more than three feet when I arrived," she watched his expression carefully.
"Mister Perfect rarely talks, he is all work and no play," Inuyasha huffed. "The guy is great to have for the numbers part of our jobs, though. He never mistakes calculations."
"Hmm… all work and no play? Sounds like me," Inuyasha's face displayed immediate disappointment when this registered. She knew it would.
"Well… that's all of the cool stuff, why don't we head on back? Dinner will probably be served shortly."
……
When she got back to her room to change for dinner, she found Sango sitting on her bed.
"Did they search our things?" She gestured to the camera set up in the bag of pads in the dresser drawer.
"Of course, you should see the video," Sango pulled out the camera and played the video.
Kagome watched and giggled with her best friend as they watched Sesshomaru sniff through her things.
"One thing for certain; that one is an oddball."
"True. Let's not be late."
……
Over dinner, there was an odd mix of chatter going on in the table. Miroku, one of the Takahashi's highest cooks, was sitting at the table with the family. He and Sango were bickering back and forth on music preference, and Mr. Takahashi and Mr. Higurashi were arguing about finances in the business. It left Sesshomaru, Kagome, and Inuyasha with a few awkward compliments to the cooks and idle chat in the between time.
One thing that Kagome noticed was Sesshomaru, Touga, and Inuyasha all ate their meat as rare as she had ever seen it eaten. Disgusting.
After dinner, Touga and Sesshomaru stepped out into the kitchen for a brief moment, and returned after a few short seconds. What kind of important issue could be fixed within about three seconds? Not many that she knew of.
She and Sango went to bed after some conversation over dessert with everyone.
.
As soon as they got back into their room, they both stripped out of their nice evening clothes and into their pajamas.
"Did you see their steaks?!" Sango exclaimed in a hushed whisper, hoping that no one would hear.
"Yes! There was blood all over their plates. I worry about them getting some mad cow disease or something from that! It can't be healthy."
"I agree. It was disgusting, whatever the side effects are."
"True. You wanna watch a movie? We have Spiderman I, Spiderman II, Twilight, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Your pick," Sango picked up the Harry Potter case, and put it in.
"What is up with your obsession with foreign movies?"
"You know me. I can't resist myself from the American actors."
"I forgot to tell you, the Takahashi's know about Keiko."
Sango turned around from the DVD player, and looked up at her. "Well… their dad has been friends with your dad for a long time, I am not surprised."
"Their dad was engaged to Kikyo."
Sango's jaw dropped when she heard this, and she said, "Wow…," She processed the information for a moment, "I suppose its not that surprising, I mean, they would have been pretty close in age."
"Yeah, and he was the fiancé who took her all over and back trying to find a doctor who could help fix her."
"I'm not surprised by that. Mr. Takahashi seems like a good guy."
"Dad must really like these guys a lot, or I don't know why he would want me in the family after everything with Kikyo."
"They seem like really good guys and all, for being in this business of course, but I just get the feeling that they are hiding something," Sango scrunched up her nose as she tried to figure out the DVD remote.
"Give me that," Kagome took the remote, "and I got the same funny feeling too when I was with Inuyasha. Did you go on a tour of the house?"
"Briefly, with Miroku. I came back her shortly so I could watch the video of them snooping through our stuff."
The two girls giggled at that, and Kagome said, "Did you see the enormous boxes of kimono and antiques that were in the storage house out back?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Inuyasha picked up each one of them with like not physical straint. They had to be at least two hundred pounds."
"The guy is well built, I am not surprised. His brother is hotter though."
"I don't think that I have heard him say a word the entire time," Sango nodded, and put a finger over her lips to silence Kagome. The movie was starting.
They watched the movie in silence until a rapping came at their balcony door.
Kagome panicked momentarily; she and Sango were wearing old tank tops and short shorts.
"Answer it!"
Kagome answered the door anyways, hoping it would be a maid service or something. It was not. "Yes?"
Sesshomaru looked down at her curiously, and eyed her choice of pajamas.
