Chapter 3: Is it Like Security?
Next chapter up, finally! Enjoy!
"Inuyasha."
He stirred, but made no sound. Pulling the blanket over his head, he snuggled down into the warmth his own body heat had created and prayed for the disruption to his sleep to go away, let him grab a few more minutes…
"Inuyasha?" The voice was louder. Unfamiliar… No, wait. "Inuyasha, it's time to get up."
He pushed the blanket away from his face and sat up, taking in his surroundings. Sitting in a sleeping bag, in a small apartment, an older girl peering down at him… It all came rushing back.
"Finally, you're awake." Kagome smiled down at him, half-fondly and half-scolding. "It's almost noon, for your information. Where do you get off sleeping so late?"
The boy scowled, rubbing a hand over one eye and glaring up at her with the other. "Nowhere! I was just tired from beating up those thugs."
"…Yeah, I guess you would be." She held up a shopping bag and swung it slightly from side to side by the plastic handles. "Well? Don't you want to know what's inside?" She asked when he did nothing but stare at it rather dishearteningly.
"Why would I?"
"Because it's for you, silly! I got up this morning and headed straight for the mall so I could get these for you, so get out of there and look at them properly!"
She dropped the bag down onto the coffee table. As he pushed the top of the sleeping bag down and pulled his legs out to hang over the side of the sofa, she pulled out a boy's shirt, blue with a broad black stripe across the chest, khaki cargo pants with lots of useless, yet cool-looking pockets, several pairs of socks, and finally a shoe-box containing a pair of sneakers with the action hero of the day, Pythagorean Man, emblazoned impressively on the sides. These she lay out decorously on the table before turning to him with a benevolent smile.
"What do you think? I think they'll look really good on you," Kagome said satisfactorily. "Go in the bathroom down the hall and try them on! I want to know how they look."
Inuyasha didn't move. "What for?"
"What for?" She stared at him as if he were institutional. "Look at those things you're wearing! They're old, and dirty, and all ripped up, and they smell, too! The stuff I got is to replace them. Why you're not racing to change right now is beyond me."
He frowned at the clothes on the table as if they were the repulsive-looking duds. "I don't want them," he announced stubbornly.
"What do you mean, you don't want them?"
"I said I don't want them!"
"But I spent all morning looking for you! I had to measure your feet and everything without waking you up! Do you know how hard that is?! Why don't you want them?"
"I-I like the stuff I have now." He sat back on the sofa.
Kagome glared at him, unable to grasp his ungraspable logic. "But why? Can't you at least try them on?"
His expression was final. Zipped lips, sister.
Okay, so she was starting to cave a little. If he really didn't want them… But she wasn't about to give up completely. "At least the shoes? You can't run around barefoot like that all the time." Or maybe he could, his soles are tough as cement- dirty as it, too.
"No. I've… just been like this awhile. I don't think I'd feel comfortable in them, that's all."
Shot down. But she still had one last bird up in the air. "Fine. Have it your way if you want." Kagome shook her head in defeat. "I'll just… take these back… No wait, I'll keep them just in case. But you still have to take a bath. And I should wash and mend your clothes, so you'll have to change out of them anyway until I'm finished."
"I don't need a bath! I look fine!" He shouted, his dirt-smudged face standing out in the light and his long hair snarling rather horrifically all around it.
She folded her arms firmly. "Yeah, right. And I'm my own grandmother. You're taking a bath, and I'm fixing your clothes. And that's final!"
"NO!" He hollered back.
"Look, do you really want me to strip you by force, haul you into that bathroom over my shoulder, and soap and scrub you while holding you down? Because I swear, I will do it!!"
The expression on the teenage girl's face in addition to her threat was enough to cow even the most hard-core soul. Before he knew it, Inuyasha was in the tub grudgingly working shampoo into his hair while Kagome took a pair of kitchen tongs and carried his clothes to the washer.
At the sound of the door opening, Kagome turned around and grinned. "Aww, now don't you look sweet."
Inuyasha was standing there, bright and scrubby clean and clad in the outfit she'd bought for him. However, he'd flatly refused the shoes.
She walked closer and knelt, tugging at stray creases here and there. "Look at that! Perfect fit, too." She tugged on a dog ear playfully. "And these adorable things are the finishing touch. You could be some character out of a fantasy manga!"
But he yanked away, shouting, "Stop it! Don't touch them!"
"Oh… I'm… sorry." She'd understand perfectly if he was annoyed… but it was just some harmless teasing. Wasn't his reaction a little extreme? Unless… "Did it hurt? Is something the matter?" She asked in concern.
The boy stopped and looked at her in a defiantly mollified sort of way. "…It's fine. Sorry. I just don't like people touching my ears, is all."
"Yeah, I understand." Kagome rose and smoothed down her pant legs. "Well, time for lunch. You hungry?"
A sudden growling from his abdomen answered for him. She laughed. "Okay. What about oden?"
"Oden."
"…A hot dish? It's got eggs, tofu, octopus… beef, mushrooms, radishes… things like that. Cooked in broth?" She tilted her head to one side.
"It sounds… weird."
He looked rather curious nonetheless, and Kagome took heart from that. "No, it's really good. Trust me."
"UGH!! BLEEUURRGGHH… This is the WORST meal I've EVER had!" Inuyasha yelled, shoving away from the table as if it were on fire. "And that is saying something!"
"What?! But I worked really hard on this!" Kagome glared at him, then at his still-full bowl in dismay. "What was wrong with it? I'll fix it…"
"Don't try it! The way you made it the first time, you'll probably just make it worse. And what's wrong with you? Those sandwiches you made last night were edible, how could you mess this up?"
"I don't know! I honestly don't! I know I made it right!" She rushed over to the simmering pot, snatched off the lid and stared down into the gently bubbling contents, as if she'd be able to divinate an answer from the various ingredients floating around.
Inuyasha gazed in mingled nausea and horror at the concoction in front of him. "How many times have you tried this?"
Kagome turned back to glare at him. "I've made this plenty of times before, thank you very much… You know, with Dad away at work all the time, somebody has to be responsible for the meals." She retrieved a spoon from the drawer directly under the pot, dipped out some oden, blew on it gently, and put it in her mouth….
Only to spit it right back out again. "UGH!!" She sputtered, her face contorted with disgust. She almost dropped the spoon on the floor, but instead threw it in the sink as she dashed for a glass of water. "That IS horrible!" She exclaimed in dismay after she'd tossed back the water like it was the Elixir of Life.
"I told you," Inuyasha muttered, sitting back in his chair with his arms folded.
Kagome turned off the pot and decided to wait for it to cool before dumping out its contents in the sink disposal. "Okay, I really don't know what went wrong, but for now, let's stick with something safe." She went to grab some peanut butter from the pantry.
"Inuyasha, I'm sorry!"
"You've tried to poison me twice already! Don't think I don't- BWEUUUUUGGGHHH…"
"I've already apologized a gazillion times! How many more times do I have to say it? I honestly don't know what… It was peanut butter and jelly, for goodness' sake! How could that go wrong?" She asked the ceiling more than anyone else. "How?!"
Behind the bathroom door, Inuyasha did not reply, as he was busy emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet bowl. Kagome hovered around outside, anxiously wringing her hands, cursing both herself and the food in turns.
"I just don't know what went wrong!" She wailed yet again.
"Then go figure it out," came the weak, muffled reply.
She sighed. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do. And she didn't want herself and her father to end up the same way. "Fine. Don't go anywhere, all right?"
"HAAUUUGHH… Hack… Oh, not ME!"
Kagome made tracks back to the kitchen and began carefully going over everything she'd used. All the utensils had been clean, as well as the cutting board… The veggies had been fresh, and she'd just defrosted the meat by way of microwave, so that should've been fine too. There's no way the broth was the source of Inuyasha's misery… Which only left…
"The eggs…?" She got the egg carton out of the refrigerator and looked at the expiration date perplexedly. Then she blanched. If the date and Inuyasha were any indication, they should have totally started to smell by now…
"Stupid eggs!" Kagome yelled as she chucked them in the trash. That was the last time she let them go that long!
"Inuyasha!" She hollered happily as she skipped back to the bathroom door. "I found out what the matter was! It was the eggs, but it wasn't my fault, they didn't smell so I thought they were okay. But they weren't, so I threw them out and we don't have to worry about them anymore."
"Oh, that's just wonderful," came the reply, "Just like free candy and balloons in the streets! But that still doesn't help- Oh, n- HUUUUUUUURRRRRRLLLGGH."
"Inuyasha?!"
It was going to be a long day.
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