Love thy Neighbor
All these sexual innuendos
888
"… And they lived happily ever after. The end." His monotonous story-telling voice at long last came to its end.
"But papa," her round eyes blinked curiously, "what happened to the old man?" Rin thoughtfully pulled her king sized blanket around her as she made sure Mr. fluffy slept securely next to her and the other dozen dog toys surrounding her small frame on her bed.
"He eventually died from loneliness." Sesshomaru looked at the tiny girl with a bored expression as he lazily picked at the fluff balls on her bed. So he may be her legal guardian, but no one ever said he had to enjoy story time.
A small gasp escaped her, "Why was he lonely?"
"Because his wife died."
"She died?" So maybe he left out a few vital aspects to the story, no point crying over spilt milk right?
"Yes."
"How?"
"She was eaten." He sighed. Why wasn't she falling asleep? Maybe tomorrow he would try drugging her. Of course in small doses, he was after all a responsible man.
Rin's eyes glistened with curiosity as she tugged at her blanket again, "By who?"
"A cannibal." Sesshomaru answered flatly.
"What's that?"
"A person who eats people."
"Why did he eat the old man's wife?"
"Because he's a cannibal."
"Ohhh." And as if the reply had actually explained anything, realization dawned on her face as she gradually nodded in understanding. "Well that's not very nice." The comment was probably more to herself, but Sesshomaru 'mm'ed nonetheless.
"So papa?" He stared back but remained motionless, knowing that she would ask her question regardless, "Who lived happily ever after then?"
He paused for a bit. Good question, who lived happily ever after? In fact, were there even any survivors by the end of the story. Hell, it was the generic ending to all fairytales, not that this was much of one, so Sesshomaru had said it anyway, just to be on the safe side.
".. The little boy who always ate carrots."
"What little boy who always ate carrots? You didn't tell me about him." She protested with a little punch on her bed.
"Well, he's the little boy who ate carrots all the time." He could only pray that the response would suffice once he realized he in fact was starting to get sleepy.
He quickly made a mental note to check out what kind of food the cook was preparing for Rin. There was no way anyone her age could be so freakishly energetic at this hour.
She contemplated his answer for a while before smiling in satisfaction at the response. "That's good then!" Sesshomaru only 'mm'ed again.
"Papa?"
"Yes Rin?" He stood up, hoping that it would make time in Rin's room seem shorter. It was all psychological mumbo jumbo.
"Is Unkie Inu in trouble?" Sesshomaru couldn't help but falter a bit at the quiver in her voice. Dammit, when had he become such a softie for the girl?! He needed to get laid.. pronto!
"Why do you ask?" His face displayed no emotions, although inside, he felt some sort of admiration towards the kindness of his adopted daughter.
"No reason." The answer was innocent, but not entirely true, and with the lack of response from her papa, she guiltily confessed. "Rin just knows that, that Naraku man has been calling papa a lot, and every time he calls it's about Unkie Inu, and Unkie Inu is such a naughty boy, Rin just thought that maybe, he's in trouble."
A naughty boy? That was an understatement. He placed a hand gently on her forehead as he shook his head. "No, Inuyasha is not in trouble.. for now."
With that, Sesshomaru began making his way out of her basketball court sized bedroom before he was stopped by her gentle voice just at the door. So close!
"Papa.. you can stop telling me bedtime stories…"
Uncharacteristically, he released a sigh of relief. Maybe after all the shit he cleaned up for Inuyasha, the Gods had decided to bless him with good karma….
".. you can sing me to sleep instead tomorrow night. Goodnight papa!"
… or not.
888
It had been four days since the disturbing encounter with Inuyasha, and things were oddly back to square one. Within those four days, Kagome had made sure to steer clear of the hanyou – mentally agreeing that her life was much better off without the temperamental neighbor. She even avoided leaving the apartment in fear that she would accidentally bump into him, and even when she did step foot outside her pint sized home, she had made sure Sango would keep her company.
But luck didn't seem to be on her side. It made her wonder that maybe she had committed an awful crime in her previous life, and now, karma was finally catching up. Either way, nothing prepared her for the little run in, literally, with Inuyasha just yesterday. For goodness sake, it was six in the morning! What on earth was 'he' doing six in the freaking morning?! She wanted to scream in agitation. She had busted her ass just to avoid him, which a lot of the times meant waking up this damn early to go grocery shopping. But no, even with all her efforts, he managed to haunt her everyday living.
For some reason she had found her shoes oddly interesting that morning, so without looking up when the elevator sounded, her head came in contact with a firm chest. As she stumbled back a few steps, two hands held her firmly by the shoulders, halting her unsteadiness. She was mid way through an apology and a quick 'thank you' before she abruptly stopped once her eyes had found its way to his golden orbs. She mentally froze in shock and fear before hastily stepping aside and walking jerkily into the elevator, in which he had just stepped out of – her head dipped low and her cheeks flushed red. What he did next puzzled her. It was odd really, it felt like a small eternity, but was perhaps only a few seconds long at the most.
He simply turned around and stood there staring at her. No smug smile, no angry frown, just an emotionless face. For a brief second, Kagome could've sworn she saw him falter a bit.. something akin to.. regret.. crossed his face. But it was only for a second because before Kagome could see anymore, the elevator doors closed on them. And that, was the end of their awkward and unwanted encounter. By noon that day, Kagome was able to successfully convince herself that she was just seeing things, that the look of regret that momentarily overtook his facial expression was just a lapse of her mentality.
However, as much as she avoided the hanyou, he never really left her conscious awareness. Ever since their argument, he had not left her mind once, and it confused and annoyed her to great lengths. The countless emotions that she felt left her mystified, but she couldn't exactly say that the emotions were all bad. Some were new to her, some were hauntingly familiar, but ultimately, the important thing was that no one had ever made her feel so confused all at once… up until now. The morning of the confrontation left her in tears as she had sobbed to her cousin.. and she couldn't understand why. Why had she cried? Why had it hurt so much? For some reason, it truly felt like a suffocating squeeze of her heart that left her fighting for air.
So now, here she was, sitting in front of her TV, blindly watching another soap opera whilst he was probably entertaining his 'guests'. Yes, they were back to square one. The two nights prior to the elevator meeting, Kagome was once again hearing those gag-worthy artificial giggling outside her apartment. For some reason, this did not sit well with her. She couldn't quite explain it, but for the rest of the night, she couldn't get that horrid girlish giggle out of her system. She let out a long sigh. This whole event was playing on her mind a lot more than she had expected.
"I'm so lonely.." she breathed out.
"..I think I need a hug." Her eyes shifted to the right, but still no reaction.
"Chocolates would be good too."
".. But that's okay.. I'll survive… I suppose." Still it was silent.
"Kouga are you listening to me?!" She asked hotly, throwing a cushion at him.
Swiftly dodging the cushion, he replied hastily, "Yes yes sweetheart, you're lonely, I get it. I'll buy you a cat next time." His eyes failed to leave the laptop screen as he continued to madly punch on the keys.
She was starting to regret her decision of asking Kouga to come over. Of all people she just had to choose the workaholic. It was no surprise to her the moment he had showed up at her door with a laptop in one hand and a vague greeting of a quick kiss on the cheek as he was too busy speaking to a client on his cell phone. Way to make a girl feel special.
For the past hour or so, it seemed as though Kouga had completely failed to acknowledge the presence of Kagome as he remained silently typing away on his laptop. Kagome on the other hand, had not stopped whining. Either he had figured out a way to block out her voice or he was just very good at pretending to ignore her existence, either way, it still left Kagome pondering whether to kick him in the face or not – that ought to get his undivided attention. He was lucky he had such a good-looking face, otherwise Kagome would have deformed it in a second!
"You know, you're not doing a very good job keeping me company." She sulked a bit, pulling another cushion towards her chest.
This caught his attention a bit as he stopped typing for a brief moment and looked at her, somewhat guiltily, "You know your mom is going to kill me for this right?" he asked as he hesitantly closed his laptop shut, "She expects these files on her desk by nine tomorrow morning."
Kagome merely shook her head and shrugged.
"No? The sympathy card not working?"
"Afraid not."
"Dammit." He clicked his fingers dramatically.
"It's not like mom would ever fire you anyways." She tied her hair back in a high ponytail as Kouga made himself more comfortable on the couch.
She had known Kouga long enough to forget the precise date they had met but short enough to not be sick of his sporadic weirdness. He was a childhood friend of some sort, close enough to tell her secrets to, but friendly enough to avoid the sibling relationship. As an ambitious 24-year-old man, Kouga worked alongside Souta Higurashi, under Mrs. Higurashi's wing.
"Kagome, you don't know that. Life isn't as easy as what you make it out to be." He replied nonchalantly as he uncaringly flicked through the channels.
Her shoulders sagged a bit. Was she really that oblivious to the reality of life as Inuyasha had put it? More disturbingly, was Inuyasha right about her?
Turning her body to face Kouga, who now had his legs lazily propped onto the coffee table with a look that told her he was much more entertained by his work, she asked, "Kouga?"
He made a sound of acknowledgement but continued flicking through the channels without so much as a glance.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Must you?" The reply was instant, almost as though he had anticipated the oncoming interrogation.
"Ummm, yes?"
He jerked suddenly as realization dawned on him, "Does this have anything to do with that Christmas party? Coz I swear I had no idea he was gay! It was a free drink dammit! Anyone would've taken it, anyone!" He pointed at her defensively.
"No Kouga, it's not that." She replied flatly. Sometimes this man was all just looks. Shame really, he really did have quite a cute butt.
"It's not the New year's eve party is it?" He asked suspiciously, "Look, that she-man was coming onto ME, not the other way around! If anyone tells you otherwise, there lies.. all lies!"
"No Ko-"
"And just for your information, my pants happened to be in the same color as that skirt, I was simply confused when I was putting them on at Benno's barbeque."
"Kouga!" She chucked the last cushion at him which hit him square in the face, "Just listen to my question!"
He looked confused, "What question?"
With an animal-like growl, she gritted her teeth and replied, "The one I've yet to ask." If looks could kill, Kouga would've died ten times over before hitting the ground.
"Ohhh, gotcha!" He gave her a little wink that she could only respond to by rolling her eyes as he leaned back into the couch, relaxed again.
"Kouga… do you think… I'm spoilt?"
He went quiet for a while, his face displaying little emotions. Either he was really taking this question seriously, or he just didn't hear her, but Kagome decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and tried to remain patient as she waited for a reply. He scratched his chin a bit, but that was about the only movement he made for a good five minutes. She tried to not look like she was anticipating his answer, but the constant glances at him probably gave her away.
He looked at her and smiled, "I suppose you are.." Her heart fell upon hearing his answer, "and I suppose you aren't." he finished with a blasé shrug.
She went silent for a bit before giving Kouga an incredulous look, "You had all that time to think and you give me that!?"
"Hey!" he protested indignantly, "I put a lot of thought into that!" Funny, was it just Kagome or was this grown man pouting?
She blinked hard at him, wishing she hadn't chucked both cushions at him already, "That's not even an answer! That's a cop out!"
She inhaled and exhaled calmly, praying to the Gods above for some kind of patience… patience she knew was fast running down the drain.
"Hey! You asked me a question and I answered it!" He was starting to really regret coming by to keep her company whilst knowing he was on such a tight deadline. He should've known women spelt trouble.. especially the Higurashi women.
"You answered nothing!"
"For your information, I was going to elaborate!" he retaliated.
Kagome crossed her arms and looked away, "Pssh, liar." She mumbled under her breath.
He simply mirrored her actions "Spoilt."
Instantly pointing an accusing finger to his nose and jumping onto the couch, she cried, "Hah! So you DO think I'm spoilt!"
"I said sometimes!" He protested. For some reason, he rose his arms up into the air as if he was being held at gunpoint and leaned back as she was getting dangerously close.
"Sometimes isn't good enough!"
Just as he was preparing his retaliation, three hard knocks sounded through her door, instantly diverting their attention, "I'll get it!" Seeing his opportunity to escape, Kouga leaped off the couch and jogged to the door. With an easy turn on the knob, the door was opened.
If the Gods were watching, they would've said something along the lines of, 'Kouga, say hello to Inuyasha.' And then laughed.
888
Damn his conscience! Damn everything to hell! In fact, when the fuck had he grown a conscience anyways?! Last time he checked, he was still that cold, heartless bastard who failed to shed a single tear in 'The notebook.' So what was happening to him? He was totally losing it, most probably due to the many blows to his head. Yeah, that explains everything. It's not uncommon really, many fighters who have suffered severe brain damage have experienced drastic personality change because of impairment to the frontal lobe – according to Miroku.
Inuyasha released a sigh of relief. Yes, he was just going through a personality change, or to a less drastic extent, experiencing mid-life crisis.. at 25 years of age.. the world is full of surprises.. it could still be possible!!
He growled in agitation as he rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face into his pillow. If he really was going through a mid life crisis, or brain damage, why is it only her face that keeps popping up into his mind? Why couldn't he erase the look of shocked hurt on her face at his harsh words from his memory? And why, after four days, was it still eating him up from inside?
Nothing made sense to him anymore. Ever since the girl entered his life, everything he had grown to know and accept was fast flying out the window. This sense of unknowingness was gnawing at his nerves as he hated the feeling of not being in charge of the situation.. or his emotions. It seemed like these days, everything was out of his control, and as a fighter who plans his every move, he suddenly felt vulnerable and confused.
What bothered him the most was the fact that his near death experience was largely overridden by the mere possibility of hurting the girl. Sure enough the fear of dying and the guilt of so easily giving up played heavily on his mind.. but that did little to compare to the whirlwind of emotions in which he went through after his hurtful words. Yes, even he knew his words were harsh, and funnily enough, he had said them to the least deserving person he had ever known. He cringed into his pillow. Did he mean it? Surely it seemed his words were true about anyone in her situation, yet everything in him did not in the slightest convince him that his words applied to Kagome.
They were no more than words aimed to hurt her as a release of his anger – but they meant nothing. He didn't mean any of it, but what was he to do now? What was said has been said.. no point crying over spilt milk.
Ordinarily he would've brushed it off to the side without so much as a second thought, but clearly for the past four days, it had proven that this was anything but ordinary. He couldn't quite explain it, but the moment he walked out of the lift and saw her again, his throat tightened up yet simultaneously he felt an odd sense of relief. Perhaps it was the idea of seeing her okay, or maybe it was his opportunity to make things better again, but what caught him off guard was her demeanor. She was uncomfortable around him. And it was at that point he had wished he had not said any of those cruel words to her.
He looked on like a fool as the elevator doors were closing. He wanted to say something, anything that could've made things less awkward, but unfortunately his brain was at a stand still. And by then, it was too late.
Dammit, all this thinking was definitely unhealthy, so Inuyasha abruptly stood up and made his way to his en suite, hoping to clear his head a bit with a shower. Unfortunately for his over-worked mind, he was left more confused than he originally was when realization dawned on him that for the past few days, he had not slept with anyone even when the opportunity was right in front of his face. No doubt the women that kept him company at night kept him up for a very long time, but after all the fooling around and time came for the real deal, he had feigned fatigue and simply ushered them out of his apartment.
He absolutely refused to question the guilt and the idea of how a certain someone would perceive him. For pity's sake, when the hell did he start to care?!
That's it! Tonight, he was going to get laid. No if's, and's or but's. Things would return to normal by then. He was sure of it..
Not even the Gods could stop him!
888
So here he was, standing outside her door, like a loser no doubt, clutching onto the cash in his hands as tightly as possible as he chastised himself for being so weak.
There goes his resolution of getting laid.
He had no idea what he was doing, but whatever it was, the force around him brought him directly outside his neighbor's door. It was almost as though it was beyond his control as he hesitantly knocked on the door, not sure of what to prepare for. But then again, she was just a girl.. what was there to expect anyways..
How wrong.
As the door swung open, Inuyasha had to mentally remind himself to remain standing as his eyes made contact with… light blue eyes?.. a man's, no less..
For some unknown reason, Inuyasha's fists clenched as his defense mechanism came barging in.
Why the hell was there a man in Kagome's apartment?
"Cannn," Kouga dragged out, slightly weirded out by the deathly look he was getting, "I help you?" He finished off suspiciously. Seriously, he had only just met the guy and here he was getting stared down as if he had murdered his family.
"Who are you?" Inuyasha all but asked rudely and very bluntly.
Kouga raised an eyebrow, "Excuse m-"
"What are you doing in Kagome's apartment?" Inuyasha continued impatiently as he pronounced each word syllable by syllable.
"Hey dog boy," he spat back, instantly defensive as well, "what I do here is none of-"
"Where is Kagome?"
Said girl could only sit on the couch, numb by shock and dread.
"Who the hell do you th-"
Before Kouga could finish or get another word in, Kagome finally snapped out of her reverie as she uneasily made her presence in the room known….
"Uhh.." Only to be completely ignored.
"Save it! I asked you what you were doing here, now answer, or leave." How he held authority over Kagome's guests was completely beyond the raven head, nonetheless, she continued to look on anxiously.
They were glaring intensely at each other before Kouga's facial expression slowly turned to that of a smug smirk.
"Well," he crossed his arms over his chest coolly as he leaned on the doorframe, "What do you think a man and a beautiful lady would be doing.. at this time of night.. all alone?"
Kagome nearly died on the spot at what he was implying. Her face turned two shades of red, but this was not acknowledged by either of the two visitors.
"But I guess someone like you wouldn't understand."
For a moment it looked like Inuyasha was ready to lunge at Kouga, but that was not detected by anyone as he too, smirked, "Yes, but like I said.. what are you doing here?"
Kouga's smug smile was immediately wiped off his face at the underlying implication that he was not a man and Kagome couldn't help the surprised look on her face.
Clearly neither of the two 'adults' were going to back down any time soon, so against her will, Kagome hesitantly walked to the door standing beside Kouga as she tried to subtly elbow him out of the way. Inuyasha's gaze flickered towards her for a brief moment before he returned to glaring distrustingly at the wolf.
"Um, hi?" She said stupidly, shooting both men a nervous look.
"Here." Inuyasha spoke gruffly, finally acknowledging her, although he failed to look her in the eyes… but at least he and Kouga weren't having a staring match anymore.
Kouga merely stood there, watching on like a predator stalking his prey. Inuyasha seemed harmless around Kagome, so that would at least save him the trouble of right hooking the hanyou.
Inuyasha shoved a fist towards Kagome's direction, but from her clueless look, he explained, "The money." Still she continued to look at him with a strange expression. Gods, must he really repeat that damned night?! "For the other night." He finished off curtly, refusing to elaborate even if she still didn't understand.
Luckily she did as she "oh"ed quietly and awkwardly grabbed the bunch of green notes from his fist.
There was a vague moment's of peace, where it seemed as though Kagome and Inuyasha had momentarily forgotten about the wolf – but that was short-lived.
"What," Kouga gritted out forcefully, "other night?"
The attention turned abruptly to Kouga as he was seemingly trying to suppress his.. rage?
'What the hell is his problem now?' Kagome mentally rolled her eyes.
Men are so dramatic! Really! All Inuyasha did was hand her a bunch of notes, said it was for the.. other.. night ..
………….
Oh… my … God
He wasn't thinking what she thought he was thinking right?!
She looked desperately at Inuyasha, and from the arrogant smirk on his face, her fears were only confirmed.
Kouga thought she had slept with Inuyasha and now he's paying her?! Yuck!!
"Wait! No! Kouga! You've got it all wr-"
Inuyasha suavely interrupted her as he playfully looked at her lovingly, "You did a great job that night sweetheart."
A low growl rumbled from Kouga, but he remained stationary, probably overtaken by anger.
"But-" Kagome cried desperately. What the hell was he saying? Why is Inuyasha doing this to her?
'Why me?!' Kagome screamed to herself.
"But nothing Kagome. You left me breathless that night," to a certain level, he wasn't lying, he really was impressed at how she had cleaned up his apartment, "I really appreciate how you don't mind getting into the.. dirty stuff." Maybe the tone in which he used when he said the last two words were unnecessary and TOTALLY perverted, but hey, she was cleaning his apartment, if Kouga wanted to misinterpret what he was saying then that's his problem.
Kagome couldn't only stand there, stunned out of her socks. 'oh.. my.. God..'
No words could express the accomplishment in Inuyasha, the injustice in Kagome and the rage in Kouga. All in all, Inuyasha had once again left her speechless as he trotted proudly back into his apartment.
Maybe things would never return to normal, because perhaps this was the new 'normal'. A new normal that consisted of a raven-haired girl.
"Goodnight sweetheart! Hope to have you over sometime soon again."
If she thought he would simply leave on that note, she had another thing coming..
"By the way, next time, maybe you should try a maid's outfit when we… 'do it'… again."
888
An: Wow, I didn't think this day would come, but chapter nine is actually up n' going… tear. Thank you for all the reviews, PM's and emails! I admit, I lost a bit of motivation along the way and with such a busy schedule, it was just one more reason to procrastinate.. but I re-read all reviews, pm's and emails and here I am!
Sorry for the delayed update guys! I've already started on chapter 10, so rest easy and know that chapter 10 won't take nearly as long…
…but then again.. I'm writing a new one-shot.. I know I know.. I just couldn't help myself.
Just one more time: Thank you for all the support everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha etc.
Doll Secret
