Title: Lost Enroute to Fate
Author: What the hell was our name again?
Disclaimer: I really don't remember our name! This TK is panicking! Starting to hyperventilate! Mobile hysteria! Arms waving everywhere! I should go look it up! But I am incredibly lazy! (Owning is the equivalent of having something… All we have is our friendship, which is free and really has no cash payout, although if our friendship could be measured in money, it is this TK's opinion that Feather and I would be rich!)
feathergriffin looks over at TK, an eyebrow raised slightly. "We spent what, twenty, thirty minutes brainstorming for that name, and you have already forgotten it? It was quite appropriate too. Feline Mischief ring any bells?"
Chapter four
Keiko nodded decisively. It was intervention time.
-
Mama saw her approach. The older woman was carrying two grocery bags, one on each hip. "Ah, Kagome-chan! You're just in time! Inuyasha-kun got back from the mall, and I believe he will need a thorough explanation of what women clothes and men clothes in our time are..." she looked like she was fighting back a giggle.
Kagome blinked. "What?" she asked, not quite understanding.
"And Inuyasha's hair! Just wait to you see what's happened to it! He's recovering in the kitchen. I'm making him Ramen now." Mama said.
"Oh dear... someone touched his hair?" Kagome paled. 'I hope they're still alive...' Kagome had the random thought of, 'Now if it were Sesshoumaru, I know they'd be dead... but dang if that man isn't gorgeous when he's wet...' The thought left her standing there awkwardly.
Kagome entered the kitchen, nervous about what awaited her. Inuyasha was sitting on a chair by the kitchen table, and seemed to be trying to melt into it. His hair, from what she could see, was cut extremely short, and his clothes...what had happened to his clothes?
Inuyasha's nose twitched and he lifted his head up slightly, giving Kagome the most pathetic look she had ever seen. "K, Kagome?" he asked.
"Inuyasha, what happened to you?!" she exclaimed, rushing over.
"All I wanted were some shoes. This weird guy said he'd give me some free ones, but before that they did so many things to me! You never told me this time was so dangerous!" he said, weariness laced into his voice.
She'd once gotten separated from Inuyasha and the others when she'd accidentally stumbled upon the edge of a small cliff. Nothing serious; she suffered only a six foot drop into a deep hot spring, but when she'd come up, she had help. A hand was around her neck, cutting off the circulation and air. She'd stumbled upon a bathing Sesshoumaru--at the time she'd thought she would die, but quite thankfully she lived to tell the tale.
"You didn't kill anyone, did you?" Kagome asked. Suddenly, Kagome looked closely at Inuyasha. Then more closely. "Inuyasha," she said slowly, "stand up."
He did as asked, but timidly.
Kagome's mouth fell open. Inuyasha hair was...gone. Lengths of it had been sheered off, and while the result was admittedly way hot, she felt a pang of sadness for the departed locks.
And his clothes. "Inuyasha, that's a dress..." Kagome started...
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She pointed at his outfit. "This is... what women wear in my time." She pointed to what her mother wore, and to her own skirt. "Women wear these."
Energy flooded back into Inuyasha's frame. "What?!" he yelled.
"Calm down! It's ok---Inuyasha, is that makeup?" She rubbed at his cheek. He was wearing blush. A second glance showed him to have lipstick on. Pink eye shadow adorned his eyes--she could see how he was traumatized.
"Make-up? No, I don't want to know! Just get this off me and into some decent clothes!" he asked.
She bit her lip until it bled so she wouldn't laugh. "Come on, I think papa has some old clothes that'll fit you." She drug him upstairs and made him sit on her mother's bed while she rummaged through the closet.
"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha hesitated. "I think I met Jankotsu's reincarnation." He waited for her to say something in disbelief, but nothing came forth except a moment of silence where the only sound heard was the rustling of clothes.
"Remind me who that was again?" She asked suddenly.
"And you're supposed to be the guardian of the Shikon no Tama?" he asked skeptically.
"Hey, we fought a lot of crappy bad guys, okay?" she returned, "I can't be expected to remember them all!"
"That blond guy who wanted my ears," he said grumpily, "my day's been bad enough, don't make it worse."
"Ooooh... uh... yeah... I remember..." Clearly she did not care to remember what gay guys traumatized Inuyasha. "He was the big guy with the bazooka on his arm right?"
"Do you have a weapons fetish or something?" he snapped, "The guy with the weird snaky sword thing."
"Oh, right! Him... Yeah, I remember him now. Ah hah!" She pulled out an old, dusty box and held it like precious cargo. "The label says these were his." she walked over and set the box on the bed. Pulling the tape off, she opened it; inside were kimonos like Sesshoumaru wore, and with the exact same patterns on it, red sakura blossoms. "Uh... not exactly what I was expecting, but better than a dress, right? I wonder why papa had clothes with this particular pattern."
"You do have a weapons fetish," Inuyasha muttered, "and I ain't wearing anything with my half brother's signature!"
"What do you mean, signature? And I don't have a weapons fetish! Fine," she shoved the box into his arms. There were three kimonos in it, each with an inner yukata, outer haori, and the hakama. "You can wear these, or the dress. Your choice." She was tired of being nice and her birthday had so far been really crappy. She was going to take a shower. She stormed from the room.
"What's her problem?" Inuyasha muttered, "Her day couldn't have been as bad as mine. And all I wanted was to be able to do something with her without her getting angry. All I wanted was some shoes." He selected a set in various greens and started to put it on.
Kagome, who'd leaned on the door for a moment before she went off to take a shower, felt a small bit of guilt overcome her. He wanted to do something with her, and she had abandoned him to Jankotsu's reincarnation, or soul mate.
And if she had stayed, maybe she would have been able to have had a nice day with Inuyasha, or at least relatively, and would not have run into Hojou and her friends at the park, or revealed more than she should have to Keiko. "Great," she muttered as she walked to the shower, "Now I'm guilty too. Happy Birthday," she said bitterly.
The shower didn't make her feel better like it was supposed to, but she stayed in until the water turned cold and then after wrapping a towel around her wet body she sat down on the closed toilet seat to let herself air-dry, not wanting to face Inuyasha.
Only when she'd managed to come up with a solution to apologize for his lost hair did she get dressed in a dark blue dress with wide straps and one end of the hem dipping only to her knees while the other end went to just above her ankles.
She found Inuyasha brooding in the well house, likely contemplating going back without her. "Inuyasha..." she said.
"What?" he grumbled.
"Do you want to go shopping? This time, I promise I won't ditch you. I won't even say 'sit'. Oops..." she mumbled as he crashed to the ground.
"Go to that insane place again?" he demanded, fighting the spell. "I don't think you should even consider going there, not if it's filled with perverts and psychos!"
"Not there. I was thinking about going to a weapons store, and then maybe we could go to a Ramen restaurant then ice cream," Kagome offered.
His ears perked at the word, 'Ramen'. "Ramen? Where?"
Kagome couldn't help herself. She giggled. "We could go to the Ramen restaurant first," she said, smiling. His ears perked up a bit, and a small smile came over his face.
"Let's go," he said, and offered her his hand.
Kagome smiled and took the proffered hand. Then she remembered something. "Oh," she gasped, then let go of his hand and raced into the house.
"What?" Inuyasha asked himself. A minute later, Kagome came back waving her purse. "I almost forgot this!"
"Kagome, honey!" her mother called out the door. "Please don't forget you need to be home by five thirty. You wouldn't want to miss your own birthday party. We have a great surprise for you."
"Okay mama!" Kagome told her. Then, when she and Inuyasha were out of sight, she asked Inuyasha, "Will you help me remember?" He knew she was terrible at keeping time.
"Sure. But what is a Birthday party? What is a birthday, and why do you celebrate it?" Inuyasha asked.
"A birthday is the day you were born, like how you were born on the new moon, so you transform once a month into a human, on the new moon. Except we celebrate only once a year on the day of our birth, to commemorate our growing ages."
"Why didn't you tell us about it?" Inuyasha asked, "And it's been over a year since I met you. You must have had more than this one."
"Well, I've always been here, so I guess I didn't think about it, though I guess four years is a long time to not know someone's birthday. Well, anyway now you know."
Inuyasha grumbled a bit, but then he said, "I smell ramen..." his pace picked up unconsciously.
Kagome smiled a bit, and matched his pace. Suddenly she remembered something. 'All my friends will be at my birthday party. Oh no!'
"What's your problem? Why're you all closed faced now?" she always seemed to close her face from her emotions these past few weeks when she was thinking. He wondered where she picked up the emotionless mask trait, but hadn't asked, figuring it to just be a passing stage.
"My friends are going to be there," she said.
"Your pervert friends?" he asked, "I don't want to meet no more perverts today."
"Eh..." 'I'd rather you didn't meet them either,' she thought. She didn't say it though, knowing it would hurt his feelings that she didn't want him to meet her friends. "Well, you could avoid talking to them by sticking with Souta. He usually invites a friend or two and the girls won't go by him." 'I wonder if Keiko will be there too,' Kagome thought. 'Is Keiko the big surprise? Because if so, then that's blown...'
"Maybe I should just go back afterwards," he muttered, "after we eat, can we go hunt down that guy who destroyed my hair? I want my fire rats' robes back. They're they only thing I have that my parents left me."
Kagome said, "Only if you promise not to kill him."
"I don't want to kill him," Inuyasha said, grinning, and cracking his knuckles.
'Oh boy...' "How about not beating him up either... is that an option?" she pleaded.
Inuyasha pouted, though he would deny it fiercely if anyone suggested the possibility. "Can I at least scare him?"
"Uh, no. How about you let me get them for you? You can show me where the shop is, and I'll retrieve them."
"Kagome, he stole my clothes, and took advantage of me! Have you not seen my hair?" he yelled.
"Why did you let it get that far, anyways? Why didn't you leave?" Kagome asked.
"I wanted the shoes," he mumbled.
Kagome had to stifle the giggle. "You could've beaten him up and just taken the shoes. Granted, that generally gets you in trouble, but... With you able to whisk away to another time period, it's not like anyone would ever find you."
Inuyasha blinked. Then his face darkened. "I ain't a thief. I had to do it enough when I was younger, and I told myself I wouldn't do it again."
"What about the jewel?" Kagome said.
"Kikyou shot at me! I was angry, and she had promised it to me!" he said defensively.
She clutched the invisible jewel around her neck worriedly. The burden of it hadn't quite been felt yet, since as of yet—in the last three days since she'd had it whole—no one had come for it. But the burden would come sooner or later and everyone would know she had it. Then she would truly be Kikyou's reincarnation.
That was why Inuyasha and the others, even Kaede, pushed her to be strong—to be stronger than Kikyou had been.
Inuyasha noticed her motion, and his eyes softened, "It's not going to be like that for you." he said.
"We don't know that yet... I mean, there has to be demons in my time... think about it; the Noh Mask was one... wasn't it? So there's bound to be more. And even if there aren't; humans still are attracted to the jewel, and sometimes they're worse than demons..."
She shuddered at the thought. When she'd stumbled upon Sesshoumaru bathing, humans had attacked for the pieces of the jewel that she'd had. He'd killed them with a single flick of the wrist, which meant dropping her, but after that he hadn't killed her. "I won't lower myself to killing you, though I could easily dispense of you." he had said. "It's easy to see that you won't last long."
The most frightening thing was that this had only happened a few weeks ago; humans had given their lives, risking a demon's anger, just for the jewel. She hadn't told Inuyasha or the others about that yet.
"Kagome," Inuyasha said, "You promised you would stay by my side, right?"
Kagome looked at him sadly. "For tonight..." she said. 'It hurts, but we can't stay together. We're too different, from two different eras...' She thought. She hoped he knew that too so she wouldn't have to explain it. She'd rather have their parting be mutual understanding, and they could remain friends forever, able to see each other once in a while, but not too often.
Inuyasha's eyes darkened, "I know that time separates us, Kagome! But now I'm telling you that I'm going to keep my promise, and protect you!"
Kagome stopped walking, her head down, her eyes shadowed by her still-wet bangs. "We both know there's going to come a day when you can't keep that promise. I am simply telling you now that I won't think you betrayed me when that day comes..."
Inuyasha ran his hand through his hair, though the effect wasn't the same now that it was short. "Damn it, Kagome, I'm not an idiot! Why do you think Miroku, Sango, Kaede, and I are so worried about training you?! I might not be able to be with you all the time, but if my, and everyone else's, training is with you, it can't leave you! I'm doing the best I can!"
A tear was suddenly visible on her cheek.
Inuyasha suddenly felt bad about raising his voice. "I'm sorry Kagome," he said.
"No, it's okay..."
"I just don't like the idea of me not being there to protect you," he said, looking away. Luckily, not many people were around to see their scene.
"Well," Kagome wiped her cheeks and looked up at him, holding out her dry hand. "How about this? I invite you to be my brother-on-the-other-side-of-the-well."
"Bro, brother?" Inuyasha asked, disbelievingly.
She nodded. "You can come whenever you want, and I'm sure we can even get you a spare key."
"You want me to be your brother?" he asked, looking away as he felt liquid start to fill his eyes. 'I ain't gonna cry.' he thought. He would rather spend his life together with her, but he knew that wouldn't work. If his way to be close to her was through this plan, perhaps it was better. They could remain on good terms.
She replied simply, "I know you've always wanted a family... mama likes you enough, though gramps still plasters paper on your head. Souta adores you, and when papa comes back from his traveling I'm sure he too will love you!"
"That, that would be great! Wait a moment, your dad's alive?!" he said, distracted from the uncomfortably mushy, at least from him, scene.
"Yeah. He left to travel the world when I was about five. He sends us postcards and letters and souvenirs all the time. He sent a letter the other day, though I'm irritated at mama, 'cause she wouldn't let me read it. She said it was filled with 'mushy parent talk'. Sex talk, in other words. All the things he'll do to her when he returns." Kagome was blushing profusely now.
"Why'd any dad leave his family to see the world? His family should be the world!" Inuyasha said angrily.
Kagome shrugged. She'd felt that way too for a long time, mad that he wouldn't be around to teach her to use the bokken anymore. Then she hit her rebellious teen years and decided she didn't care, though she really did. "Ramen?" she asked, to turn the subject. "When we get home I can show you things papa sent home to us."
Inuyasha grunted, though his ears perked up. Of course, they were barely visible through Inuyasha's fluffy hair cut. "We better be visiting Mr. Pervert guy later." he insisted.
"Eager to see him again, are you?" she teased. She was glad that she could view him as family now, because if she were honest with herself, she loved him like family not like a lover. She was close to him, but Kikyou seemed to have his heart and she wasn't sure if she wanted to steal that.
Inuyasha "keh"ed and stalked toward the favored food.
Kagome giggled and ran after him. She purchased him a bowl of ramen and drug him away when he could've eaten the ramen shop out of business, and her out of money. They viewed the shops, and stopped at the pervert's claimed shop. It was PACKED.
"No need to rush, everyone, we have plenty!" the pervert guy was yelling.
While Kagome assured Inuyasha that she would retrieve his things, she stalked into the store, easily maneuvering herself through the busy crowd. When she made it to the pervert guy, she saw Inuyasha's clothes were on display, tacked to the wall.
"Those are my friend's clothes," she pointed at them and said to the pervert guy, "and I want them back." She would just be reasonable and logical and not get mad even though the guy's falsetto voice as he shouted out to people throughout the store was the most annoying sound she'd ever heard.
"Sorry, honey, they're for the auction. Besides, I replaced his clothes, and gave him his precious shoes. Were you the Kagome he kept mentioning?" Each word he said seemed to put her in even worse of a mood.
He added, "Shameful how you couldn't be bothered getting that poor guy some decent foot wear." he said, smirking at her. That smile grated on her nerves, and for some really odd reason she noticed his lashes were too long to possibly be real.
She scowled. "You put him in dress and make up, cut off his hair, and gave him HIGH HEELS! He's a guy, for cripes sake!" She was ready to smack something. It was such an odd feeling to be so brash. Wasn't this how Inuyasha was supposed to be? Wasn't she supposed to be the logical, level-headed one who tried to talk the brash one out of doing things?
"He wasn't complaining that much, honey. You should have bought him those shoes. Now be a nice little girl and go sulk by yourself." He said in that sickeningly sweet voice.
It was the last straw for Kagome. To be told what to do, especially by someone who she didn't even know, was infuriating. Didn't this man know who she was? She was the guardian of a powerful and mystical object, and not to mention the daughter of a powerful business man, Higurashi-sama.
The inappropriately timed thought of, 'I've forgotten Papa's first name…' came to mind suddenly and she had to thrust the thought aside. "You think I'll sulk, when my newly-turned-brother's family heirloom clothes are sitting up for grabs by any ridiculous madman?!"
"Well, yes," his smile grew.
She counted backwards from 500, though she couldn't wait that long and pretty much just thought, '500, 2, 1' before she slapped the man. The sound rang out and suddenly it felt like the temperature had dropped 50 degrees in the shop. All sounds died down except her voice, which was surprisingly calm. "I'll make your life a living hell if you don't give me my brother's clothes; and believe me, I can do far more than just slap, and neither am I afraid to do more..."
Whispers rang into the crowd, "That girl just hit him..."
"I wonder who she is..."
"What's going on..?"
"Girl, you don't know who you're messing with," the man said, glaring at her as he held his throbbing cheek.
"I don't need to know who I'm messing with to kick the living daylights out of you." She slipped her foot around his ankle and yanked, just like Sango had taught her, and aided his fall faster by shoving him.
"I'll have you thrown in jail!" the man yelled at her.
"You can throw me in jail, but my brother'll get his clothes back first." Kagome said. She promptly stepped over him, pulled a nearby ladder over, and stepped up it to begin pulling out the tacks.
A cry of protests came from the crowd.
Kagome folded the haori and yukata carefully, then began pulling the tacks out of the hakama. Once she had folded it, she jumped off the ladder and landed smoothly, even wearing her dress. The man was still on the ground; she was surprised that he was. She'd expected more from Renkotsu--or whoever he'd been--incarnation.
"As for who I'm dealing with," Kagome gave the man her best Sesshoumaru-imitation blank mask and watched him gulp. She figured it must have worked. "I think that's a moot point," she thought, 'Why not?' and leapt further into fire, "considering I could crush your whole family in my billfold."
She'd pretty much admitted her family was rich, but if it worked for other girls, to get respect simply because of her family's riches, then maybe she ought to try it out? "Bitch," the man muttered weakly.
"You know, that gets old." She mused, still wearing that Sesshoumaru-like mask. "No one is ever original anymore." 'I hope Shu-kun doesn't hear of me being so rude and acting like a rich kid... he'd chastise me for it...' She stepped toward the door and was surprised to see that people were actually moving away from her like she was a disease. She clutched the kimono to her chest. 'I feel really badass...' That thought brought a giggle to her lips and ruined the effect.
Around her she heard muttering people. "Crazy," from one direction, "has anyone called the cops?"
"What is she's telling the truth?"
"Are you crazy?" Kagome's smile only widened.
Inuyasha marched up to Kagome. "Nice." he said. "Watched it through the window there." Indeed a glance through the window gave a view of the interior of the store where the man was on the floor. And Inuyasha hadn't interfered? "But wasn't it YOU who said not to attack?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kagome said loftily.
"Right... sure. And my name is Sesshoumaru and I'm a ruthless killer." He drawled before pulling the wrist watch from the haori top and looking at it. "You're late."
"What?!" she screeched. Before Inuyasha could register what had happened, he had once again become Kagome's fast taxi express.
However, Inuyasha stopped abruptly at the foot of the shrine steps. He was sniffing, and very tense. 'It's faint but...' he thought. 'But definitely HIM...'
Kagome went ahead up the stairs without noticing the 'danger' that lurked. She burst into the shrine and bent double, breathing hard as if she'd personally been the one to run all the way from the mall.
"Kagome! Be careful! Sess," and Inuyasha stopped in his tracks, gaping at the sight in front of him, mouth falling open. The shrine looked ominously darkened with all the lights out. Even at night, there always was a light on, in the kitchen or the living room. Something was very wrong here… It had to be…
"I'm here!" Kagome called. Her human eyes could see nothing but shadow. "Hullo?" she inquired of the darkness. "Mama? Souta? O-jii-san?"
TK would like to say, "Thanks to all who have read this, and to those who reviewed it, you have made a crazy woman happy! I am noticing in future chapters that as me and Feather continue forward with this story, the flow gets better times a hundred! I won't demand it, but I will ask that you be gracious citizens of the fan fiction universe and review or may the fan fiction gods torment you with unhappy dreams… But of course, as was promised by me, I personally will no longer demand reviews."
Feathergriffin would like to add to TK's statement and point out that, "While we aren't demanding reviews, the chapter length, if you haven't noticed, has increased. There is a direct correlation between the chapter length and the increase in reviews. Isn't that a funny coincidence? We thought so too! And yes, the flow improved as we both got used to writing together instead of chatting all the time. I hope you enjoy that too! I'll shut up now!"