It was a beautiful morning. The twins were at school. Which, meant that Ayame could breeze through her chores without worry of them jumping out and surprising her or making a mess of anything she'd just cleaned. She was humming to herself as she entered the boys' room. She carried a laundry basket filled with their clothes on her hip. She was both surprised and a bit annoyed to find Kaoru sitting up in bed. He was alone.
She was curious, so she asked, "shouldn't you be in school?" Kaoru took his attention off of the large screen television that hung on the wall on the other side of the room to turn to Ayame. "I'm sick, I have a cold. So, I stayed home for the day." Ayame could easily tell he was sick just from his voice. It sounded raspy and it was clear that he was congested. Ayame sighed, she was a bit annoyed that a perfect morning had been interrupted by having one of the twins at home. She hoped that since he was sick he wouldn't be able to tease her or mess with her in any way.
She went about what she needed to do in that room and acted as if Kaoru simply wasn't there. Kaoru watched her cross the room to their dresser. He was also curious about something. "Why aren't you in school? You're like, sixteen, aren't you?" Ayame didn't look up from what she was doing. Instead, she knelt down and opened the bottom dresser drawer as she answered him. "I am seventeen actually. I just turned seventeen before I started working here. I finished school when I was sixteen, in home studies."
Kaoru sniffed and realized just what she was putting away in the dresser. "Hey! That's my underwear!" He got up and grabbed the pair Ayame had been folding out of her hand. She didn't hesitate to grab them right back. "I'm not doing it to be perverted! It's part of my job. So, get back to bed." Kaoru was a little annoyed.
But, feeling sick, he wasn't about to argue with her, so he let it go and went back to the bed. After finishing putting away the clothes she started dusting the room. It wasn't long before she was dusting the large television. Without meaning to, she was blocking Kaoru's view. He tried to be polite and let her finish.
But, after she finished dusting it she started cleaning the screen with a glass cleaner. Kaoru already didn't feel well, but without being able to even watch television he was beginning to feel bored and restless. He didn't like staying home from school. Of course, he didn't mind not having to do school work, but he missed his brother and his friends. He sighed loudly. Ayame turned around, "is everything okay, Kaoru? Do you need something?" Kaoru hadn't meant to get her attention.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just bored." Ayame realized she'd been blocking Kaoru's view of the television. "Oh, I'm sorry, you were watching t.v. and I stepped in front of it." She moved on to clean the computer desk and out of Kaoru's way. That's when she heard it again. Kaoru had sighed.
"Are you sure there's nothing I can get for you Kaoru?" Kaoru turned to Ayame, "nope. I'm fine. I'm just bored." Ayame turned back to dusting the computer and noticed some papers. It appeared to be unfinished math homework, with Kaoru's name on it. Ayame picked them up, "hey, this is yours right? Why don't you work on it. You have nothing else to do, right?"
Kaoru smiled at her, "isn't part of staying home sick from school not having to do school work?" Ayame half laughed, "I guess you're right." Ayame thought for a moment. "Hold on, I'm going to go get something from my backpack downstairs." Kaoru said to himself, "what could she be up to?" Ayame came back into the room with what looked like a book in her hand. She showed it to Kaoru. "What is it?" Ayame smiled proudly, "it's the first volume of the Inuyasha manga. I thought you might like to read it, so you won't be so bored."
Kaoru laughed, "I didn't want to do my homework and yet you think I'd like to read?" Ayame couldn't argue with that logic. She looked a little defeated. That is, until she thought of something else. As she left the room she said, "wait here, I have something else you can entertain yourself with." "She's kind of weird," Kaoru thought to himself. Ayame came back into the room with a messenger bag with a picture of both Inuyasha and Sesshourmaru on it. They were back to back with the Tetsaiga in between them. Kaoru noticed it.
"You must really like that anime, huh?" Ayame gave him a wide smile, "yep, I love it. I have the episodes on DVD in my bag. Do you want to watch it?" Kaoru wasn't really interested in watching an anime, but, he figured it couldn't hurt. Afterall, he had nothing else to do. "Okay, sure." Ayame pulled out the DVD with the first episodes on it from her backpack. She popped it into the DVD player and started to walk out of the room. What Kaoru said next surprised her.
"Aren't you going to watch it with me?" She turned to look at him, a confused look on her face. "I have other chores to do. I don't want to slack off and get into trouble." Kaoru looked sure of himself as he answered. "You won't be slacking off. If you stay here you can get me whatever I need when I need it. So, if anyone asks you can say you spent the day looking after me. Plus, it's no fun watching a movie by myself."
He gave her a smile she couldn't resist. "Okay, I'll stay," she said, but she thought, "geez, when he smiles like that I feel like a fly being attracted to a bright light!" Ayame sat on the bed next to Kaoru and dumped out her bag. Out fell a notebook, pens, deoderant, several Inuyasha manga and DVDs, an mp3 player, a wallet, a bottle of water, a cell phone, an asthma inhaler and a deck of playing cards. "Do you want to play cards?" Kaoru wondered why she had so much stuff in her bag before replying, "sure." Ayame picked up the deck of playing cards, they had Inuyasha characters on them. Kaoru had to laugh, "oh wow, you must really love this show. Do you have everything with those characters on them?" Ayame took his question seriously.
"No, I wish I did. But some stuff is just too expensive." Kaoru laughed again and thought, "she's weird." They started playing cards and watching the anime. It wasn't long, however, before Ayame seemed more interested in the anime than their card game. Kaoru took it upon himself to refocus her attention. On screen Kagome had been pulled into the well and mistress centipede licked her face. Kaoru looked a little surprised to see that, "this isn't going to turn into hentai, is it?" Ayame laughed, "no!" Not much more was said for a while.
They quietly played their card games. That is, until Ayame saw someone on screen who excited her. "Oh! Kaoru look! It's Sesshoumaru! He is the coolest!" She smiled wide. Kaoru smiled back, "isn't he supposed to be evil? You actually like the evil character of the show?" Ayame kept on smiling, "well he may be evil, but you find out later on he has a nice side to him. That's what makes him so cool. He's an evil nice guy."
They both laughed at that. Their day together continued on like that. They played cards and every now and then Kaoru would comment on the show. They lost track of time that way. That is, until Hikaru walked into the room. He was home from school and he looked tired and somewhat annoyed. He immediately noticed Ayame sitting on what was normally his side of the bed. "Ugh, Ayame, I'd like to change clothes, do you think you could leave?" Ayame jumped up, "oh, sorry, Hikaru, I was just looking after Kaoru."
But Hikaru didn't care why she was in there. Ayame turned to Kaoru, "I guess I'll be going. But, go ahead and borrow the DVDs. Just make sure you give them back when you're done watching them." Kaoru agreed. Once Ayame was out of the room Hikaru threw off his uniform jacket, tie, and shoes, and plopped face down onto the bed. A thought came to Kaoru, "aren't you supposed to be in the club right now?" Hikaru lifted his head, "I didn't want to go without you. So, I came home. The boss will be mad, but, whatever. You must have been bored without me. I was bored without you."
Kaoru had the slightest smile on his face. "I managed to keep myself entertained today." Hikaru noticed what was playing on the t.v. "What the heck are you watching?" Kaoru smiled wider, "it's an anime called Inuyasha. You have to watch it. It's cool." Hikaru gave his brother a confused look.
But, Kaoru wasn't paying attention to him, he was focusing his attention on the anime. The following day Kaoru was feeling much better. He dressed to go to school and went downstairs to grab something to eat on the way to school. That's where he found her. Ayame was at the sink washing dishes. She was swaying her hips and humming like the morning before.
Kaoru started to laugh. The sound of his laughter made Ayame turn around. She pulled an ear plug that connected to her mp3 player out of her ear. She smiled at the site of Kaoru looking well again. "Good morning, Kaoru, I'm pleased to see you're feeling well enough to go to school this morning. But, what, were you laughing at?"
Kaoru smiled, "your dancing and humming. Do you always come to work this cheerful?" Ayame looked at him seriously, "well I wasn't being cheerful because I'm here at work. It was the song." Ayame walked up to Kaoru, "here, put this in your ear and I'll play it again." Kaoru did as she asked. "Isn't this one of the theme songs to Inuyasha?" Ayame was pleased he'd recognized it. "Yes! It's fun to dance to! Want to dance with me to it?" Kaoru laughed, "are you serious? That's a little weird, isn't it?" Ayame looked at him with a bored expression.
"No, it's not weird. But, I get why you don't want to. You're afraid you'll embarass yourself because you can't dance." Kaoru looked serious. "I can so dance!" To prove it he took hold of her hand and put a hand on her waist. They moved to the music, smiling the entire time. "I have to admit, she's a little weird, but she's also kind of fun." Kaoru spun her around and pulled her back to him. Ayame smiled up at him. The song ended and Kaoru handed Ayame back her ear plug.
"Thank you for the dance Kaoru. It was fun. But, I think you'd better head out to the car or you guys will be late to school." Kaoru grabbed a muffin off the counter. "If we're late it's because you seduced me into dancing with you." She had to laugh, "be quiet! I did no such thing! Now, shoo, get out of here!" Ayame waved her hands at Kaoru and he headed out the door. In the car Hikaru asked him, "what took you so long in the kitchen?" Kaoru took a bite of his muffin. He talked as he chewed, "I just couldn't decide what I wanted." Kaoru started to hum the same song he and Ayame had danced to. Hikaru noticed but said nothing.