Author's Note: Well, the Inuyasha manga has ended, and the world goes on. Crazy, isn't it? I actually bought my first ever copy of the Shounen Sunday this week, just so I could have an official first edition of the chapter. It's in Japanese of course, so I can't really read it (well, I can pronounce the characters and recognize a word or a name here and there, but that's about it)—but I figured if I was ever going to buy one, I wanted it to be that one (--grin--). Anyway, my brain (not to mention my email inbox) has been buzzing over the ending for the last couple of days, but I'm growing accustomed to the fact that it's over, and am getting back to work on my fanfiction (as evidenced by this chapter…).
Oh, quick note on the chapter title, it's a song by Paolo Conte that you may recognize from the soundtrack of French Kiss (love that movie. I watched it the day I read the last chapter of Inuyasha…hard to explain exactly why, but it seemed appropriate somehow…). Anyway, I chose it because I think of it as a "traveling song"—and I love it. My Italian is virtually non-existent, but I believe the title means roughly "Away With Me," or perhaps more like "Come Away With Me." Anyway, enjoy…
Playing With Fire
Chapter 4: Via Con Me
Kagome dropped another folded shirt into the open suitcase on her bed before scooting out across the living room and into the bathroom to dig through the cabinet for her razor. Stupid thing was never in the same place twice. Why couldn't she learn to keep everything in a specific spot like any normal—ah! There it was, stuck behind the makeup bag. She grabbed that too, figuring she'd probably need it at some point, and crossed back toward her bedroom, flashing Hojo a quick smile where he sat at the dining table with the paper and a piece of toast.
"How's the packing coming along?" he asked as she hurried by.
"Not bad," she called back. "I think I'm almost done."
"Uh-huh." He didn't sound convinced. "When did you say he was coming?"
"Ten. He'll probably be late though. It'd be just like him to leave me standing on the corner like an idiot for half an hour, just for the hell of it. Oh! Damn." She swung around the doorjamb and scurried to the kitchen this time, feeling Hojo's eyes follow her over the top of his newspaper. It took a couple minutes of digging thorough the piles of mail and old magazines on the counter, but she soon came up with her driver's license. "Wouldn't want to forget this," she joked sheepishly on her way back to the bedroom again.
"What was it doing in the kitchen?"
"Got carded at the liquor store the other night, and I kept forgetting to put it back in my wallet," she explained.
"Yeah, speaking of which, wasn't there a full bottle of pinot in the fridge just a couple of days ago? What happened to it?"
She paused in the midst of folding up an extra pair of jeans. "It's been a stressful week, okay?" she replied, only a little defensively.
She could practically hear his eyebrows raise from the other room. "You drank it all?"
"Not all—I put a little in the pasta."
"How much?"
She hesitated. "Quarter of a cup."
There was a brief silence. And then: "You know, Kagome, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. There's still time to get out of it. That other guy, Miroku—he's going isn't he? He could take your place."
"Don't be ridiculous," she called back, trying to sound casual. "I couldn't pull a switch like that on him this late in the game—it wouldn't be fair. Besides, stressful as it is, I really do want to go through with this. For myself." She rolled up a couple more pairs of socks and stuffed them in the nooks and crannies around her clothes.
"And Inuyasha?"
"He can go screw himself, for all I care. Ah! Hairdryer…" She scampered back out across the living room, sliding a bit on the wood floor in her stocking feet. Retrieving her travel hairdryer from under the sink—those built-in hotel ones never had enough wind force for her thick hair—she turned around and slipped back out, only to run right into Hojo, who had stepped into her path. "Oh! Sorry…"
"Kagome," he said seriously, grasping her shoulders and fixing her with his gaze, "are you sure you're okay with this?"
She looked into his eyes and found herself smiling at the genuine concern she saw there—he really was a sweet guy. "Yes," she replied sincerely. "Really."
"Okay," he agreed. "But call me if you need anything, okay? Even if it's just to rant about what a jerk-off this Inuyasha guy is."
She grinned and gave him a nod, skirting around him and slipping back into her bedroom to shove her hairdryer into her bag and zip it up the rest of the way. Heaving her purse and carry on onto her shoulder and slipping on her shoes, she lugged the slightly overstuffed suitcase to the floor and extended the handle, dragging it along with her as she headed for the door. "Bye Hojo! Have a great week, okay? I'll call you."
"You'd better," he replied with a smile, settling back at the table to finish his toast. "Good luck!"
"Thanks!" she managed, just before she finished closing the door. Then it was down the stairs and out the door to the street to wait for Inuyasha.
She wasn't sure whether to be happy or not when she exited the apartment building to find him already there waiting for her, leaning back against his scarlet sedan with his arms crossed over his chest. She hesitated only slightly in the doorway, and then resumed her stride with greater purpose, heading for the trunk. He rolled to his feet and walked around to open the back, taking the suitcase from her without a word and lifting it inside himself, and she turned away to climb into the passenger's seat and wait.
They hadn't actually seen each other since the incident a couple of days previous. Neither of them had been working full schedules the last few days, since Kikyo had given them a bit of extra time to prepare for the trip, and their hours had not overlapped. Kagome suspected this was not a coincidence. Not that Kikyo was aware of what had happened—she supposed she'd just figured it was safer to keep the matches and the gunpowder in separate drawers when it was possible to do so.
The car rocked slightly as the trunk thumped shut, and again when Inuyasha pulled open the door and slid into the driver's seat, starting the engine and pulling back out into traffic. Kagome crossed her legs at the ankles and shifted in her seat, trying to make herself more comfortable. The light ahead of them turned green, and Kagome glanced out the window, her eyes sliding distantly over familiar storefronts as they swept past.
"Listen," he said after a little while, his voice gruff, but also vaguely uncomfortable, "about the other night…"
She heaved a sigh, smiling wryly as she interrupted, "Hey, you know what—it was late, we were both tired and stressed out; let's just…forget about it, okay?"
He released a breath, and there was a distinct note of relief in the way his shoulders seemed to relax as she said this. "Yeah. Okay," he said, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel and taking a left onto a narrower street that would lead them out toward I-94.
Kagome rested her elbow on the windowsill, fist against her chin as she watched the uniform trees of this more residential street flick by. It was a moment or two before she realized she was nibbling anxiously at her thumbnail and made herself stop, folding her hands firmly in her lap. Finally, she took a deep breath and let it out resolutely.
"Listen," she began, turning to him. His eyes flicked over to her with something like fear, but quickly returned to the road. "We're going to be seeing a lot of each other this week whether we like it or not, and the fact is that this will be easier and more pleasant for both of us if we can at least try to get along. I'm not saying we have to like each other—I think we can both agree that's not likely to happen anytime soon—but if we could at least do our best to just not get on each other's nerves, maybe things will actually go relatively smoothly. Okay?"
He glanced at her again, frowning a little, looking skeptical. "Okay…" he muttered, though his tone was dubious.
"Good. So we've got a deal then, right? Truce?"
"Yeah, sure. Whatever."
Well. That had gone well. Kagome shrugged mentally, shifting back to lean against the windowsill again—maybe it would do a little good, at least.
They rode the rest of the way in silence.
They met up with Miroku and Sango in the ticketing hall at O'Hare—the other two had already checked their luggage since they were on a different reservation from the Kagome and Inuyasha. Kagome pulled out her itinerary and headed over to one of the e-ticket alcoves to check-in herself and Inuyasha, since the reservation had been made in her name. Oddly enough, Inuyasha didn't seem perturbed by this, and Kagome suspected that Miroku had always been "the keeper of the itinerary" on their previous trips. He was just used to being taken care of when it came to the pesky little details. Typical.
She scanned her credit card, but nothing came up; so she tried typing in the confirmation number—still nothing. Brow furrowing, she tried a WorldPerks number, then a retyping of the confirmation number, just in case she'd gotten it wrong—but no luck.
"What's taking so long?" Inuyasha grumbled.
"I'm not sure," she murmured distractedly, typing in the WorldPerks number again. "It's not giving me the reservation."
"What do you mean it's not giving you the reservation?"
"Just what I said."
"Well you confirmed it, didn't you?" he snapped.
She took a calming breath, but couldn't keep the edge out of her voice. "Yes, of course I did—but for some reason it's not here."
"That's impossible. Move over," he ordered, snatching the itinerary from her hand and shoving in front of the screen himself to start punching in the same numbers Kagome had been trying.
"Something wrong, Kagome?" Sango asked as she and Miroku wandered over from where they had been standing a few feet away.
"Looks like they've lost our reservation," she sighed.
"Dammit," Inuyasha hissed, grabbing his duffel bag up off the floor and marching over to one of the staffed counters. "Come on."
"Inuyasha, there's a line," Kagome pointed out, but he shot her a glare and simply kept on walking, stepping up to the counter right in front of a middle aged couple, who looked at him in confusion. Kagome gave them an apologetic look as she caught up.
"Um, excuse me, sir," the young, red-headed woman behind the counter began, looking uncertainly between Inuyasha and the older couple behind him.
"What the hell happened to our reservation?" he demanded, slapping the itinerary down onto the counter.
"Inuyasha, chill out," Kagome implored. "Let's just wait our turn, okay? We've got plenty of time."
"No—this is bullshit." He rounded on the red-head again. "Come on, where is it?"
"Um…I…"
"Inuyasha," Kagome tugged at his arm, but the man of the older couple interrupted her.
"No, no—it's okay, you two go ahead," he said with a knowing smile that Kagome found rather confusing. "Honeymooners, right? We know what it's like."
"What?" Inuyasha whirled around, horrified, acknowledging the couple for the first time. "I am absolutely not—ow!"
"Yeah," Kagome interrupted with a smile, digging her heel into Inuyasha's foot, "it's a bit hectic, isn't it? Thanks very much for understanding."
"No problem," the older woman said with a wink, and the two of them headed off toward the other end of the counter where another ticket agent had just opened up.
"What in the fucking hell did you—" Inuyasha snarled at her, but she stopped him with a warning finger.
"Ah-ah—truce, remember?"
His jaw clenched, his eyes flashing. "I am not, nor will I ever be married to you."
"Thank god for that," she retorted in an undertone.
"Um, excuse me." They both looked up at the red-head, who was giving them a nervous smile. "I found your reservation, but it looks like it's been canceled."
"Canceled?" Kagome replied. "How can that be? I just checked it last night."
"It was canceled this morning," the young woman explained. "But if you want, I can rebook it for you—those seats are still available."
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. "That would be excellent, thank you."
"Sure," the ticket agent replied, looking rather relieved herself. "The last-minute price will be five-hundred dollars."
"Five-hundred dollars!" Inuyasha burst out. "You're telling us we have to pay five-hundred dollars extra for tickets we already bought?"
"Well, actually it's five-hundred per ticket."
"What?"
Kagome shushed him before turning back to the red-head. "You have got to be kidding me. We are not paying a thousand dollars for these tickets."
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do."
"The hell there isn't!" Inuyasha growled. "You can give us our goddamn tickets or—"
"Inuyasha, lower your voice!"
He rounded on Kagome. "Oh, you shut up—this is all your fault anyway!"
"My fault? How is this my fault?"
"You were the one who was supposed to confirm the damn tickets—you must've canceled them by mistake."
"I did not," she defended. "Besides, they were canceled this morning—I haven't been near them since last night."
"Well you must've done it somehow!"
"I'm telling you, I—"
"Excuse me," a new voice interrupted, and they both looked over to find an older, more sturdy-looking ticket agent joining the now visibly frightened red-head behind the desk. "Is there some sort of problem I can help you with?"
"You're damn right there is," Inuyasha grumbled, but Kagome silenced him with a look before turning to the new ticket agent. It took a bit of doing, but once Kagome had explained the situation to the older woman calmly, she took the place of the red-head at the desk (who looked quite relieved to be getting out of Inuyasha's line of fire) and clattered away at the keyboard for a few minutes. Finally she was able to rebook them into their original reservation with only a minimal fee. Inuyasha still grumbled at having to pay it, even though they both knew they could get Kikyo to reimburse them later, but he limited himself to a mild surliness, at least. By the time they rejoined Miroku and Sango, who had understandably chosen to keep their distance during this little episode, neither was in the best of moods.
Miroku and Sango tried to keep things light and upbeat to rectify this, and Kagome probably would have been able to shake off her annoyance with little difficulty if it hadn't been for Inuyasha. Inuyasha grumbled his way through security, he grumbled his way through the concourse, he grumbled his way through the jetway, and he grumbled his way all the way back to his seat. Of course he and Kagome were seated together, and of course he insisted on taking the window, leaving her with the aisle. Kagome had asked as they were walking through the airport if she could trade seats with Miroku or Sango, who were seated directly in front of them, but they had both refused. She couldn't blame them. They wanted to sit together, after all, and neither one wanted to have to sit next to Grumpy. That happy privilege was all hers.
Blessedly, the grumbling eased somewhat as they settled into their seats and the plane taxied down the runway. Inuyasha seemed to be more or less content to stare out the window with his chin in his palm, watching the ground fall away as they took off and the clouds close in around them as they climbed higher and higher into the sky. Kagome pulled out a novel and tried to read, but she couldn't seem to get into it, always getting distracted and rereading the same paragraphs over and over. She shifted around in her seat a bit, trying to get comfortable—no easy task.
"Quit kicking me," Inuyasha snapped, shooting her a glare.
"I wasn't kicking you—I was just trying to get comfortable. These seats are so cramped."
"Oh come on, what are you complaining about—you're a shrimp. Get your knee back over on your side."
"It is on my side—you're the one taking up all the leg room."
"So? I have longer legs," he justified. "And get your bag out of the way down there," he nudged it roughly with his toe, "It's crushing my foot."
"That's because your foot is on my side too," she gritted, shoving at his ankle with her foot.
"Ow! Will you quit kicking me and stepping on me and shit?"
"Come off it—that wasn't a kick, you big baby," she said exasperatedly.
"It was too—and that thing at the ticket counter, that fucking hurt, wench."
"I was just trying to stop you from being a jackass."
"I was just trying to explain to those morons that we weren't married."
"So what if they thought we were married? It was a better excuse for your behavior than you just being a jerk."
"Are you kidding me? I don't want people going around thinking I'd marry you, bitch. I've got better taste than that."
"Yeah, well I'm not crazy about the idea either, but still, at least it was better than having to explain that you're a inveterate asshole."
"An inve-what?"
"Now, now, kids," Miroku interrupted, appearing over the seat in front of them as he turned around to face them, "there's still time to turn this plane around if you two can't quit bickering."
"Fuck off."
"Don't think I won't do it, because I will," he warned with a smarmy grin.
"Ha ha, very funny. Fuck off."
"Will you quit swearing?" Kagome hissed. "There could be kids on this plane."
"Who gives a crap? It's a free country—I can say whatever the fuck I want."
"Yeah, and when you become too much of a nuisance, the staff of this airplane is free to kick us off."
"Kick us off where? We're like 30,000 feet above sea level."
"Fine, then they won't let us back on for the return trip."
"Oh come on, how the hell are the people taking tickets for the second flight going to know that I was being a 'nuisance' on the first flight?"
"I don't know—they'll put us on a watch list in the computer or something."
"That's ridiculous—they wouldn't bother to put us on a watch list just for a dumbass thing like swearing in a plane where there might be children somewhere within earshot."
"Sure they would—it happens all the time."
"Oh really? Name me one time where you've ever—"
"Okay!" Miroku interrupted, turning around again. "We get it. You hate each other. End of story. Now how about we play the quiet game for awhile? Whoever stays quiet the longest wins. That's right, Inuyasha, if you stay quiet the longest, that means you beat Kagome at the quiet game—and Kagome, same goes for you. Starting…now."
Inuyasha shot Miroku a glare, but crossed his arms over his chest and turned to look out the window, not saying a word. Kagome exchanged a look with Miroku that was half-grateful, half-sheepish, and then heaved a sigh and closed her eyes.
"Ha!" Inuyasha exclaimed, making her jump. "That was a noise! That counted—I win."
"No, Inuyasha," Miroku said patiently, turning around in his seat once more, "that did not count."
"But you said whoever could be quiet the longest," he pointed out. "You didn't say the sound had to be words."
"Oh for god's sake," she groaned. "What are you, eight?"
"I know you are, but what am I?" he spat.
"Nice comeback."
"Alright," Miroku interrupted again before they could get going. "Let's just call that one a dry run. This time the rules are that in order to count, any sound uttered must be either words or other verbal sounds specifically intended to communicate or infuriate. This includes, but is not limited to, growls, scoffs, sarcastic laughs, and barks of any kind. It does not include ordinary respiratory functional noises such as breathing and yawning. Are we all clear on this now?"
Inuyasha and Kagome nodded sullenly.
"Good," Miroku finished, turning back around in his seat once more with a heavy sigh of his own.
Inuyasha and Kagome glanced at each other with dislike—and then he jerked his gaze back toward the window, and she rolled her eyes, shifting a bit in her seat so that she was facing slightly away from him, hoping to get a little sleep before they landed.
A/N: I had so much fun with this chapter—especially the plane scene, with the two of them bickering like children. One thing you've got to say for those two: They keep each other young (and immature) at heart… (grin)