Chapter Four
Inuyasha knew something was wrong the moment he drifted to conscious; his first hint being that he was curled into a ball in front of his door with his whole right arm numb from its place under his head.
The second clue came from the salty crustiness of his cheeks and eyes followed by the sensation of an incredible weight on his torso with the focus centered on his chest. It confused him since for as long as he could remember he'd never experienced anything quite like what he was experiencing right then.
Shaking his head to clear the drowsiness that still shadowed his thought processes--no matter how dim they might appear--and pushed himself upright into a sitting position, his arm curled close to his side as it began to tingle and feel very cold while the blood rushed to restore proper circulation. It hurt and as he drew his legs up, putting himself in the same position he'd been when he was last awake, he let it fall limply. Then, once as he'd positioned himself, he glanced at his watch and discovered the day to be Thursday, 23 August, 7:09 am. Judging by the time his watch told, he'd been asleep the entire rest of yesterday as well as the whole night and most of the morning. The grogginess of sleeping too much was already starting to get to him.
Sucking in a deep breath Inuyasha prepared to rise and cook himself something to eat when reality slogged back into his mind and he finally remembered why he had woken so strangely. He wished he could have just left remembrance where it had come.
His head made a hollow bonk as it fell back against the wood behind him, and he distracted himself from the dull pain it caused by staring at the ceiling. He saw nothing as he looked, and mere staring couldn't possibly distract him from the reason why his eyes felt so crusty and why his chest hurt so much. It made him feel pathetic, especially when he started to feel the urge to cry again.
However, utter determination and time soon dried up the need; he would not cry again. Never again would he put himself through the humiliation. Even if it killed him.
But even as he fended off the need to cry, depression threatened to overtake him in its place and he immediately started on keeping himself from reaching such a miserable point. A demon, even a half-demon like himself, never cried let alone let themselves fall into a depression and Inuyasha utterly refused to let himself break that record. Besides, why should he even care that, even though he had already accepted the youkai hated and spurned him, the humans did too? It was only natural. After all, instinct always won over the decisions made by every species, and instinct ultimately dictated that the demons would get rid of the weak and the humans would avoid the extreme powerful, the predators. It was Darwinism all over again; God had nothing to do with it.
After a moment of desperate debate to keep away the tears and ward of the depression, Inuyasha finally moved in his unappreciated victory to his feet. It was a weak resolution, but he would not let Kikyo get to him; or anyone else, for that matter. He'd had too much bad luck with women, whether they were human or youkai, and now that Kikyo--the girl he had been sure was "the one"--had dumped him he was positive he would find no one. He'd had it. He wasn't going to put up with being left in the dust again if he had anything to say about it.
And he certainly wasn't going to cry ever again, either.
He'd had enough.
No more.
The hot water did well in clearing Inuyasha's head, and it also got rid of any evidence that he'd been crying by not only erasing the trails, but the scent along with it. It was like "killing two birds with one stone" to say the least, and after his shower he dressed into a plain, dark blue T-shirt; faded black jeans with tears in the knees; and clean socks. It was a kind of relief to get out of the stiff black leather he had woke wearing; movement was much easier without it. Not to mention it helped relieve the pressure on his chest.
Exiting the bathroom, carrying his knit cap in one hand, he strode into his pitiable excuse for a kitchen and searched the fridge and every cupboard until he found something appealing to eat. That "something" happening to be a banana and spoon full of peanut butter which quickly reminded him that he needed to do some shopping if he were to survive the next year of college.
As he slipped the cap over his head the adult strode lazily to his gray loveseat and sat with a heavy thump after which he snagged the remote from the coffee table in front of him and flipped on the television. He planned on doing nothing today, and he enforced his resolution by settling on an old western movie then slumping against his seat. The program was in English, like every other channel except for the few in Spanish and one in French, but this didn't bother Inuyasha like most Michinori College students for two reasons.
The first being that the only reason he was even watching the Americans shoot each other while riding horseback was he just needed something to distract himself from the roiling in his stomach. Not to mention it was somewhat entertaining.
The second was that he understood English; after living in an American society for fifteen years, anybody would. The language kind of catches on.
Drumming his fingers on the armrest as he watched the Sheriff die and Paden walk off Scot-free; Inuyasha's evening was suddenly interrupted by the banging and clanging of one thing or another outside his dorm room. At first, he just ignored it, preferring to watch the commercial that followed Emmett and Jake as they rode off into the distance. But as the commercial switched back to the movie and the credits as they advertised the next program, the sounds of shuffling and running feet increased and he began to feel curious despite himself. However when he got up he didn't go to the door, but to the fridge where he pulled out a lite beer before heading back to the couch.
He didn't usually drink; after all, the only reason he even had alcohol was because of Miroku and Sango and the fact they had left it in his fridge. But today and now was a special situation. Of course he wouldn't drink much, even his brother could hardly handle a whole bottle of alcohol, and he would just get enough in his system to distract him from the noise outside. He didn't want to look out and be seen; especially now in the state he was in.
Flicking the lid off the beer with a quick swipe of his thumbnail, Inuyasha took only a small sip as he settled back to watch Mr. McLintock ride horseback into the train station.
Yet even as the movie continued, and even as his senses became more and more dulled by the power of lite beer, the sound outside his room persisted and grew increasingly annoying and intriguing. It was to be expected that he would eventually rise to investigate, and rise he did exactly half an hour after the beginning of the new movie. He staggered slightly as he did so, but that didn't change the fact he had to find out what was going on.
As he opened the door to the loud shouts of a boy Inuyasha was sure wouldn't be going to college for the next few years, he adjusted his cap only briefly before jerking the door towards him then back shut again. He only caught a glimpse of what was occurring outside his small, pathetic haven; but a glimpse was plenty. He'd seen the crowds, seen the teeming amounts of people pouring onto the premises, and he'd seen the stuffed trunks and suitcases. Those three things were enough to tell him something he should have already assumed: that, the day before classes began at Michinori College, students were finally starting to pile in and settle for their first years. Lite beer and roiling emotion had distracted Inuyasha from that fact, and now he chastised himself for it. Had he remembered, and had Kikyo not dumped him, he would have been hanging out with Miroku and Sango while the newest residents found where their homes would be for the next nine months. That way, he wouldn't have to deal with the noise that would no doubt cause him a headache and give him a bad temper. If he had any temper left in him, that is.
Cutting off an angry growl as he backed away from the closed door the adult turned and strode back to his place on the couch where he slumped and watched the television with a dark scowl on his face. With each passing moment he was becoming more and more annoyed with the unceasing noise and shouts of the new residents as they found their rooms. It was like an itch that wouldn't go away; a hum that penetrated every drum in his ears; a throb that threatened to turn his fast-approaching headache into a full-blown migraine at any second.
He had to get out of the dorm building.
Dumping the remains of the alcohol down his throat in a moment of absentmindedness, he stood and as he walked to the kitchen, stubbed his toe on the coffee table.
In that moment of infuriating, simple pain Inuyasha finally broke as the alcohol took its effect and every problem he'd ever had piled onto his imminent rage; especially the most recent stupidity of which he'd experienced. Hefting the bottle in his right hand, with one powerful swing he turned it to a pile of glass by chucking it at the door. It made a clatter of broken glass as it collided with the already dented wood, and the noise pierced his ears in the most uncomfortable way, angering him even more.
Growling dangerously, he whipped around in a vain attempt to search for something else to throw, something else to destroy, and knocked his shin against the couch. The hit caught him in a moment of unbalance, and he quite quickly found himself falling backward. As he went, his head clipped the coffee table, stunning him with the unexpected contact.
Falling heavily onto his back he found himself rendered motionless and breathing heavily. The position he was in was quite awkward and uncomfortable, wedged between the coffee table and the loveseat, but he really didn't mind. Apparently, the knock atop his head had done more than stun him; it had cleared his senses; although he now had a complete headache from the beer.
He felt incredibly stupid for letting himself come to such a state; if anyone saw him, he would never live it down. The name Inuyasha didn't entail weakness to anyone who heard it, however no one would be able to say less if they caught him lying drunk on the floor like he was. Nevertheless he couldn't bring himself to get up. Instead, he just lay there like the drunken idiot he was with his eyes closed against the bright light that issued from the fluorescent light in the center of his ceiling.
As he lay on the ground thinking of nothing, his breathing gradually slowed and he was soon able to reign in his scrambled thoughts. He felt very tired lying uncomfortably on the floor listening to the next movie playing on the television. His thoughts drifted and blurred, then became nonexistent as he fell asleep to the sound of horses whinnying and guns firing.
"Inuyasha, Inuyasha!" a voice shouted, waking the hanyou from his first dreamless sleep in weeks.
"God, he smells like beer," a second voice commented.
"Shut up and help me get him on the couch," the first ordered stiffly, and Inuyasha felt himself being lifted from the hard floor to the too-small couch on his left.
His head throbbed and every sound ricocheted off his ears then back again.
Coughing once to clear his throat he asked his question as he opened his eyes irritably to stare at the faces of the intruders.
"What the hell are you two doing here?"
Tipping her chin up at him and crossing her arms defiantly, Sango jerked her head to the side in a hopeless attempt to clear her light brown eyes from her dark brown bangs but instead only managed to pull a lock of long straight hair over her shoulder. At any other time it would be quite funny to see her feminine awkwardness, but the look she gave him didn't allow laughter; not to mention he wasn't in the mood.
"You've been drinking," she said sternly.
"We're here because Kaede told us it was a good idea to come over," her companion interjected afterward, trying to keep Sango from going further with her argument.
His smile was slightly strained, but otherwise Miroku looked completely natural in his purple polo shirt and slacks. Albeit he looked slightly gay with his small ponytail and gold earring, anyone who knew anything knew he was not. Inuyasha wouldn't doubt that already the female veterans of Michinori College were warning the newbie's about Roaming Hands Miroku.
"Kaede? What did she tell you?" Inuyasha asked quickly, on high alert as he jerked himself into a sitting position on the couch.
"Nothing, really," Miroku unknowingly reassured the hanyou, "She just said it would be a 'good idea to come over'; just like I said ten seconds ago."
"That's beside the point, beside the point!" Sango shouted as she reached forward and snagged Inuyasha's shirt collar. Pulling him upwards until her face was even with his, as soon as it was so she continued her rant. "What the hell were you thinking? Drinking alcohol! You're a hanyou for God's sake! Get a brain will ya?"
Letting a small growl escape past his teeth, Inuyasha carefully pried Sango's fingers from his shirt as he stood, then immediately turned toward the kitchen. He said nothing in his defense as he reached into a cabinet and pulled out a glass that he filled with water from the tap.
Pulling in a sharp breath through her nose, Sango, once again, continued. Her anger at being ignored was practically substantial.
"Okay then, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine, but seriously, you can't drink! It's dangerous enough that most everyone at Michinori is human, but if you drink you put people's lives in danger! Don't make me recount last year's 'experience'." she snapped. "And, now that I've said that, let me get to my other point.
"You broke a bottle against the door, didn't you? I'll bet you threw it! It's broken into the smallest pieces I've ever seen and I'd hate to see the force it took to do that! Yet another reason why you shouldn't drink! You can't control your own strength. Who knows what you could have done. Miroku or I could have walked through that door the moment you threw it and I don't want to have to be the one to have a broken nose and who knows what else because a bottle hit me in the face."
As she paused to take a breath, Inuyasha gulped the water from the glass then set it next to the sink.
"Shut up, Sango," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb.
"Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that I almost stepped on the glass! If Miroku hadn't stopped me I wouldn't have a foot anymore, I'd have a lump of ground meat to walk on! Also, you could get in big trouble for doing stuff like that! It's not illegal to drink in the dorms, and the only way to keep things that way is to make sure the campus stays clean and breaking bottles against doors isn't keeping the campus cl--"
"Sango shut the fuck up!" Inuyasha shouted, swiping his hand across the counter and sending the glass he'd used onto the floor where it shattered much like the bottle at his door.
Sango's mouth shut with a click and her posture became rigid. Miroku stiffened as well, and wisely neither said a word.
Inuyasha breathed slowly through his teeth in an attempt to calm himself but it didn't appear to be working.
"You think I don't know these things? You think I'm just a stupid little puppy who needs scolding? You want I should let you spank me then put me outside until I can be a good little dog?" he yelled, slamming his fist on the counter in emphasis. "Well you're just going to have to do without because, surprisingly, I do know these things! So instead of getting in my face about it, why don't you instead consider why I did it? Did you even think for a second that maybe, I don't know, needed a distraction? That maybe I'm having my own little problems? Well, did you?"
Sango said nothing in the silence that followed, but her teeth gritted in a vain effort not to cry. Tomboy or not, no girl likes to get yelled at; especially by their friends. And whether someone is a boy or a girl, no one likes to be considered selfish or insensitive. Nobody really wants others to think of them like that, and from what he was saying that's what Inuyasha thought.
The silence was oppressive and lasted what seemed like hours but had to be nothing more than a few minutes. It was uncomfortable, and as Inuyasha realized what he'd said, it became even more so. Then he saw Sango's red cheeks and shining eyes, and everything turned from bad to worse.
Miroku stood by feeling ignored, but rather preferring it to what was unfolding in front of him. He didn't like the fact Inuyasha had yelled at Sango or that Sango was on the verge of losing control, but he just didn't know what to do. He was the middle man in the argument; the one who can only stand by and watch and wait for the inevitable.
Looking at the floor with his shoulders hunched in a shamed appearance, Inuyasha slipped his hands into his pockets and spoke. "I--I'm sorry, Sango; I didn't mean to yell...."
Hearing the hanyou apologize was a rare thing, but when he did it he meant it. It was the only way his personality would allow him to admit he'd made a mistake. But his look and the way he seemed truly sorry is what let Sango smile, even if her chin quivered slightly.
"It's okay, Inuyasha, you're right after all," she said; striding to the adult and patting him on the cheek.
"So...since you said it, what is wrong?" Miroku cut in before he had to watch more apologies.
Inuyasha smiled weakly but said nothing, choosing instead to turn off the television that still burned electricity. As he walked to the screen and pressed the "POWER" button, he stopped smiling. He had to say something sooner or later, and it there was a fine line between a believable white lie and the truth.
"Kikyo's gone; for good, this time," he said, choosing the truth because it was easier to deal with.
"She...she dumped you?" Sango asked incredulously, quickly rubbing her eyes as both boys had their backs to her.
Inuyasha choked out a "yeah, she did" before turning. His face was twisted in an expression of hurt, guilt, and shame; a face neither of his friends had ever seen in the years they'd known him.
Although both Miroku and Sango were glad about the news, they could tell that their saying as much wouldn't improve the situation. Just because they hadn't liked her didn't mean Inuyasha hadn't. Plus, they both knew just about how often Inuyasha dated; but when he did he didn't make things seem unimportant the way Kikyo and the few before her had.
He wasn't exactly the nicest guy to be around when you didn't know him, and it was a rarity that anybody would care to stick around and find out that was just how he was. Callousness suited Inuyasha; not the cuddly, touchy-feely kind of guy anybody could find anywhere if they just turned the next corner.
"So I guess that's why you were...drinking," Sango said, glancing at the obliterated bottle.
Inuyasha nodded and scratched his neck nervously.
He wasn't sure he liked the attention he was getting.
It wasn't normal.
Or pleasing in any way.
Just embarrassing.
The silence persisted and each of them looked anywhere but at each other. It was an uncomfortable moment when Inuyasha told them something about him seeing as it only happened when he was either:
A) Drunk as a skunk in a dump, which wasn't often.
Or
B) He'd been put in a situation where the telling would be unavoidable; like now, for instance.
Finally, Roaming Hands Miroku broke the silence.
"So...anyone up for sushi?"
Author's Note
First off, thanks everybody for reading thus far and thanks for those who have added this story to their favorites and a big hug to those who gave me reviews! Without these people I don't think this story would have gotten even this far; I probably would have stopped after the first or second chapter. But that's just me and I'm weird that way. So thanks.
Secondly, this will probably be a long author's note because I only just realized that to make an author's note you have to put it in with the chapter otherwise it won't work. I guess you could call this an FYI for those who are trying to figure out the same thing…ANYWAY.
Just a few things I want to say because I didn't say them in the beginning because I *read the above paragraph*.
1. I'm sure you all know it, but I suppose I'd better say it so I don't get in trouble. None of the Inuyasha characters are mine and none of the terms, looks, or Inuyasha objects are mine either. They're Rumiko Takahashi's, thank you very much, and I have to say that if they were mine, the storyline would have been completely messed up. And even though I hate emoticons I'll put one here just to complete the "joke"
2. I'm going to try and incorporate a lot of the Inuyasha typicality into this story so if you don't like reading about stuff you already know this is a heads up that I'm going to try and keep most everything the same as the anime/manga. But no guarantees, though.
3. Yes, I know Sango is actually quite feminine, but I'm going to quirk some personalities here a bit so if you hate that too, another heads up.
4. This is a very long author's note
5. Hmm…I wanted to say something but I can't remember…
6. Oh yes! I remember. When I mentioned Kaguya in chapter two, I did mean Kaguya from the movie, not Kagura; she comes in later. You all probably already knew that, you're not stupid, and I'm not saying those that didn't know this are stupid, I'm just saying…and I should probably stop saying before someone decides to kill me for my ignorance.
7. Even though Inuyasha, Shippo, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Kaguya, Sesshoumaru, and the rest aren't my characters, like I said, Chiaki and Masuyo are I'm sure you know. If there are characters called this and are Kagome's relatives, I haven't heard of it. So, Chiaki and Masuyo are MINE, MINE, MINE! Okydoky kiddies? That was insulting, yes I know, I apologize. But they are mine, so no stealing even though I know such a thing would never happen to me.
8. I can't think of anything else, but if I do I guarantee there will be another author's note at the end of chapter…five…? Great, I don't remember how many chapters I've put up. Wonderful. Yes, I'm a little absentminded; I am moving, after all…not that anybody cares.
Amway, even though I know nobody has bothered to read this because the author's opinion really doesn't matter to anybody, if you have please tell me because I think it would be funny to be proven wrong and told that someone has, in fact, bothered to read this entire chapter including the author's note.
Again, thank you for reading thus far and "favorite-ing"/"reviewing"
Chapter five will be up soon!
Ciao!
(PS, yes I know I am not funny which is why I have changed this story from humor/romance to general/romance and to be honest there may or may not be any actual romance…but please keep reading! I might just lie and say there will definitely be romance! Otherwise, don't mind me I'm just another stupid author and this is just another stupid author's note nobody is going to read! Kay bye)
(PPS--or is it PSS?--anyway i just thought it would be interesting to say that this author's note is just about as long as the chapter! sorry, i'm really going now.)
(PPPS/PSSS--JUST KIDDING! oh all right bye.)