Author's Note: Yay! New chapter! I have nothing to say except… urrgghh… my stomach hurts… oh, and… this one was a lot faster than the last chapter, so… yay for me! Uhhmm… I don't know if this title will make sense to you guys, but…
Oh, and Happy 4th of July to all of you. I thought of posting it on the 4th, but I just couldn't get it out in time!
Chapter 10: He's Back
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"Did I just threaten her?" Sesshomaru asked himself as he leaned against the wall in the hallway. He ran a hand through his long hair and shook his head as he walked to his room and shut the door behind him. Never had a woman made him lose his cool that way.
Inuyasha came back down the hallway just in time to see Sesshomaru's door closed. Good riddance. He headed back toward the front room where he hoped Kagome still was sitting, and she was, only she had her head resting on her forearm, which was draped across the couch's armrest.
"Kagome?" he called carefully. "What's wrong? Did Sesshomaru do something to you?" he asked.
"What? No, I'm just not feeling well," she lied. "He has nothing to do with it."
"Alright then. When did you and Sango plan on going out?" Inuyasha asked, changing the subject.
"I don't know, she went outside with Miroku…" Kagome trailed off. Just then, Sango and Miroku reappeared in the doorway, carrying various bags and boxes.
"This way," Miroku instructed, leading Sango down one of the hallways.
"Hey, Miroku what are you doing?" Inuyasha called.
"What does it look like? Grab some boxes from my car. I'm moving in!"
"Moving… what?" he said, surprised. But Miroku was already inside one of the rooms, unloading his things. "You've got to be kidding me…" Inuyasha grumbled, and went outside to help. "Miroku, don't you know how to ask?" he practically shouted once he got to the room Miroku had chosen to occupy.
"Basically, I got thrown out, and need somewhere to stay for a while. I thought you wouldn't mind since I already practically live here, but if you do, then I guess I could find a nice park bench or something… I hear one of the bums just got a job and there's an opening next to the rat infested one…"
"By all means, I say you take it," Inuyasha said un-sympathetically.
"Inuyasha…" Miroku started.
"Oh whatever. Just keep it quiet, alright?"
"Aye, aye, Captain!" Miroku saluted.
"Oh shut up," he said. A few minutes later, all of Miroku's belongings were inside the room. Or at least, everything he brought with him.
"You guys ready to go?" Sango asked, and with that, they were off.
At the restaurant, things were just a bit forced between Inuyasha and Kagome. Inuyasha because of that kiss the night before, and Kagome because of… well… Kikyo. Other than that, it actually turned out to be a pretty pleasant outing. When Inuyasha returned, however, Kikyo was sitting in the front room, looking somewhat unhappy.
"Inuyasha," she practically whined. "Where did you go?"
"Oh, we all went out to eat, and…" he started. It was then that he realized his mistake. "Well I didn't ask you because it was sort of last minute and I thought you would be uncomfortable…"
"Well maybe if you had given me the chance before, we wouldn't have to worry about this…"
The other three walked in behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder. "Okay, next time," he said. Kikyo floated over to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and planted a firm kiss on his lips.
"Good," she said. Inuyasha blushed a little, and automatically glanced out of the corner of his eye to see if Kagome had seen. She had, of course.
"Eck. Get a room," Sango said, disgusted.
"We have one," Kikyo said jokingly. She looked at Inuyasha. "Maybe we should use it," she said suggestively, and giggled, kissing him again.
Sango gagged purposely. "Gross."
"You're so immature," Kikyo laughed.
"You're so disgusting," Sango countered. With that, Kagome simply left the room, tempting Inuyasha to follow after her.
"Kagome, it's not…" he started, and pried himself away from Kikyo. Before he could take two steps, however, Kikyo grabbed his arm.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I'll be right back. Why don't you get better acquainted with Miroku and Sango?" he suggested, and then followed after Kagome.
Kikyo huffed, and then looked at the two accusingly, and they just looked at each other and shrugged in response.
When Inuyasha caught up with Kagome in the hallway, he grabbed her arm and spun her around. "Kagome, it's not…" he started, then stopped himself.
"Not what? What were you going to tell me, Inuyasha?" she hissed.
"Never mind. Why did you run off like that?"
"Not that it's any of your business," Kagome started. "But I was going to the bathroom, so if you'll give me a little privacy and go back to Kikyo and the others, I'll be fine alone, thank you," Kagome said, with a slight stress on Kikyo's name.
"Uhh…" Inuyasha said not so intelligently as he watched Kagome go around the corner and heard the bathroom door slam behind her. "Sure…" he said to no one in particular. "What else could I have thought?"
In the bathroom, if anyone was standing by the door, then Kagome could be heard whispering to herself. "Snap out of it Kagome, what's wrong with you? Just forget about all this and move on!" she told herself. A few minutes later, she exited the bathroom and ran into (who else) Sesshomaru. "Oh, excuse me," she said nervously, and tried to step around him, but he took a step in front of her. "Uh… Sesshomaru…?"
He cleared his throat. "If earlier, I came off to be rude, or offensive, I believe an apology is in order," he started. Of course, Inuyasha just had to come back to check on Kagome, and Kagome saw him approaching them behind Sesshomaru.
"Of course!" she blurted out, and grabbed his hand. "I'll meet you for coffee at nine tomorrow morning! Sounds wonderful. It's a date then," she said, and with an abrupt kiss on the lips, walked past him before he got the chance to respond. What did I just do?
Inuyasha, of course, could only glare at Sesshomaru as he stormed down the hallway after Kagome. "What was that?" he asked her.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she responded coldly as they approached the front room again.
"Kagome…" he started.
"Well, I think I'd better be on my way," Kagome announced, heading toward the door. "Inuyasha, thanks for having us over, Miroku, I'll see you soon, and Kikyo… nice to see you again," she said, and turned toward the door.
"Wait," Sango called after her. "I was just about to leave too. We'll go together," she suggested. Kagome nodded in agreement, and they left Inuyasha's house, as Inuyasha just stared at the door in bewilderment.
Inuyasha didn't realize how much time had passed before Kikyo wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his back. "What's the matter, Inuyasha?" she asked.
He shook his head and turned to face her, wrapping one arm around her and running his free hand through her hair. "Nothing, Kikyo," he said, and softly kissed her forehead.
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Kagome flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, reflecting on the last few encounters she'd had with Sesshomaru in the last twenty-four hours. I must be crazy. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and dozed off until her mother called her downstairs for dinner. After that, she'd simply fallen asleep again until the next morning.
She looked at her clock and nearly screamed. "I'm gonna be late…. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be late…" she said to herself at least twenty times. She was still in yesterday's clothes, and she was sure she looked absolutely disgusting, although she wasn't quite sure when she'd actually started caring. She jumped out of the shower, dried her hair and quickly dressed herself. "Bye mom! I'm off to school!" she called, just as she was reaching the door.
"Kagome, wait," her mother said, then appeared with a lunch to give to Kagome. "Have a good day at school dear," she said.
"I will, thanks. See ya mom," she said, and ran out the door. Kagome's mother smiled as she walked back inside.
Kagome arrived at school just barely on time. She pulled her necessary books from her locker and spun around, only to run straight into a wall. Only, this wall had arms, and kept her from falling over. This wall also had a name. This wall's name was Koga. The bell rang, and the hallways started to empty.
He smirked. "I see you've cleaned yourself up a bit," he said. "What, you got a new boyfriend to impress?" he laughed.
"Leave me alone, Koga," Kagome warned.
"That was a dumb question. Who would hang with used trash like you?" he laughed again at his own 'joke'.
She shot a hateful look at him. "Oohhh… did I hit a nerve?" He pushed her into a wall and hovered over her, with his arms on either side of her. "I think I'd like to hit something else… that is, if you're not already diseased," he laughed. It was then that Kagome smelled the alcohol on his breath. By this time, the hallways were almost completely empty, save for the few stragglers who pretended not to see what was going on.
"What are you doing drinking at school?" she asked.
"Mind your own business. You bother me," he said.
"You're the one harassing me," she countered.
"Do you have a problem with me?"
"Don't get me started. Listen. I'm late for class. Can we do this another time?" she said, trying to get around him.
"Can we do this another time?" he repeated in a mocking tone. "That's all it ever was with you!" he cried, and then struck her in the ribs again.
Tears welled up in Kagome's eyes. "Leave me alone!" she said again, this time with less force. "Please…"
"What are you going to do? Sick your new boyfriend Inuyasha on me?" he asked.
Kagome looked up with fire in her eyes, and then did something she never knew she could. She punched Koga right in the nose, and as he crumpled weakly to the floor, she fled to her first period class. The teacher just looked at her, and she apologized as she quickly made her way to her seat, and placed her things on the desk anxiously.
A few minutes later, there came a knock at the door, and Kagome tensed up for a moment upon seeing who it was. It was Koga, with a bloodstained rag held under his nose. Kagome's eyes wandered to her hand and saw lines of dried blood across her knuckles. She allowed herself to relax, and sent a smirk in Koga's direction.
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The rest of the day was basically uneventful until Kagome reached her history class. The class quieted down, and the teacher went to the front of the class to talk. The whole class basically consisted of taking notes and answering questions, until the end, when he brought up something important that Kagome had basically forgotten.
"I trust that you all have been working diligently on your group projects, and I hope to see good results from you all on Friday," he said, and with that, the bell rang.
She met Inuyasha and Miroku outside of the classroom, and they discussed their plans to meet at Inuyasha's house (again) after school. Kagome fidgeted in nervousness at this. Things weren't exactly going… smoothly over there as of late. Kagome shrugged it off and decided things would be okay, as long as they stayed on task.
Before going over to Inuyasha's house, Kagome decided to go home first to drop off some of her things and pick up some supplies for the project. Her brother happened to be home, so she got him a snack on her way out. "Bye Souta! I'm leaving," she called.
"Kagome, wait!" he said, and his footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway. "You got some mail," he said, handing her three sealed envelopes.
"Thanks Souta. I'll just open these later," she said, and turned to the door. "I'll see you later. Tell mom I'm over at Inuyasha's place, okay?"
"Will do," he said, and with that, Kagome finally was on her way to Inuyasha's.
She arrived at Inuyasha's a little while later and knocked on the front door. Sesshomaru opened the door, and Kagome blushed. Sesshomaru looked at her questioningly and moved aside to allow her inside. She removed her shoes, nodded, and practically ran to Inuyasha's room. Well that was awkward.
No sooner than she stepped through the open door, did she hear Inuyasha's complaining. "Well finally. You sure took your time, didn't you?"
"Well excuse me. I had something I had to do after school. It's not like it took me that long anyway…" she said snidely.
"Yeah whatever," Inuyasha grumbled.
"Give her a break Inuyasha. It's not like we have that much left to do, anyway," Miroku said, sending a comforting smile in Kagome's direction.
Inuyasha huffed. "Whatever."
With that little exchange completed, they got to work on their project.
After a few hours had passed, the doorbell rang. Miroku and Kagome looked at Inuyasha.
"What?" he said. They looked at him. "It's not like I'm expecting anyone."
"You sure about that?" Kagome asked.
"What's that supposed to mean? Kikyo's in her room packing, so it's not her," Inuyasha explained.
"It's not like I thought –or cared- that it was her," Kagome countered. The doorbell rang again. "Will you answer it already?"
"Sesshomaru can get it. I'm busy," Inuyasha said stubbornly.
"Inuyasha…" Kagome said, but Miroku had already stood.
"Don't strain yourselves. I'll get it," he said, and rolled his eyes.
"Whatever," Inuyasha spat out his seemingly new favorite word.
Miroku entered the room again followed by Sango. "What are you doing here?" Inuyasha asked.
"Gee, don't sound too excited to see me. I came to see Kagome. Her mom said she would be here," she said, and smiled in Kagome's direction. "Oh! And I brought ice cream too."
"We don't have time for ice cream. We're busy," he said.
"Come on Inuyasha. We have time for a break. We can finish up tomorrow. Relax," Miroku said.
"What are you guys so busy doing, anyway?" Sango asked.
"The project. You know, the one you're supposed to be doing with shit-head and what's his face?" Inuyasha said.
"You mean Koga and Arashi. They actually finished it over the weekend," Sango said. "All I have to do now is look over it and make sure it's okay. I can't believe you guys aren't done."
"Whatever," Inuyasha said…again.
"Well why don't we go eat this in the kitchen, before it melts?" Sango suggested, gesturing towards the ice cream.
"Sounds good to me," Kagome agreed, and they all went into the kitchen to eat. They chatted for a while as they ate their ice cream, until Kikyo started bringing her luggage out of her room and into the front room. It seemed as though she was making as much noise as possible coming down the hallway. Humming to herself, dragging her bags across the floor, bumping into walls, dropping her things by the front door.
Kagome glanced at Inuyasha, who just ignored it all, and only paid attention to Sango and Kagome's conversation. Kagome was getting somewhat uncomfortable as she noticed his unwavering stare. He seemed almost trance-like. So she did what she could to snap him out of it, without being obvious about it. She knocked her bag off of the table, and some of its contents went spilling out, along with the few letters that she had forgotten about earlier.
Kagome picked up her other things and put them back in the bag, while Sango picked up one of the letters Kagome had missed. Kagome glanced at the address from the others, and didn't recognize them. "Hmm… I wonder what these are for?" she said.
"They could be from colleges. I get those sometimes. Here. This one's from Rei Watase. Do you know him, Kagome?" Sango asked.
She dropped her bag again and went pale. "Kagome…?" Inuyasha started, concerned.
"Kagome, are you okay?" Miroku asked. The whole house seemed to go quiet. Even Kikyo had stopped making noise down the hall.
Kagome snatched the letter from Sango, giving her a paper cut. "Hey! Would you be a little more careful?" she shouted, nursing her severed palm. Kagome ignored it, and read the front of the letter almost feverishly. "Kagome? What's going on?"
"Rei Watase…" she muttered. The others looked at her, confused. "Rei Watase is my father. I haven't heard from him since he left my mother and I almost two years ago," she said, almost at a whisper.
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Author's Note: Dun, dun, dunnnn……
Reviewers: Once again, I thank those of you who didn't give up on me/ forget my story existed after my looonnnnggg break, and I love hearing from new people, as always. For those of you who forgot I existed… (grumbles)… -ahem-. Anyway, thanks a bunch, and I look forward to hearing from you next chapter!
Aww, thanks Anime-Lover09, but I'm not that great. I'm glad you liked the last 9 chapters, and I hope you like this one too!
Hah, look who updated within this week, lil mutt face grl! Oh, and hey, I don't mind if you think I did something wrong. The reviews are to let me know about that! I really considered doing that, actually, but I did something close to it in this chapter. You like?
Oh come on, Deathbymotorbike. She wasn't puking because he kissed her. She was puking because she was drunk, and well… that's what some drunk people do…lol. As for the rest of that, uhh… you sure you're not drunk? I like jellybeans, but I prefer the more fruity kind, you know? Or the sour ones. Those are good too.
It's okay, TokyoPrincess. I feel guilty whenever I put up a new chapter. And I worry that I didn't spend enough time editing, or I didn't think it through, or I didn't consider my plans for the future of the story, or… yeah, it basically goes on from there. Thanks, though!
I'm glad you're happy, Lady Desdemona. Actually someone suggested that they were wondering if they ought to bring out the mourning doves… I guess I just disappeared off the internet for a very long time.
Yes, but if there were no drama, would it be a story, Arcander?
I'm always glad to hear from you, caramelcutie567. I updated faster this time, see? And I didn't really even rush it at all. I just told myself that I needed to sit down and work, and once I got past the first paragraph, it started to come to me a little easier. And I would write until I got tired, or had to get off the computer for whatever other reason… Thanks!
Thank you, hermoine! I'm working on getting these up quicker.
Thank you for your compliments, Koga's #1 fan. I think it's just one of those things that after you've looked at your own work for so long, it just irritates you and you never want to see it again. It's like, the longer I take to update, the more I lose my nerve and I get afraid to write more because I think I'm getting worse, if that makes any sense. Oh, and I want to apologize to you right now, seeing as how you like Koga and all, for making him such a jerk in this story . I like him too, but he's just a convenient antagonist, that's all.
I don't mind at all, animeboytoykoi! It's the thought that counts, right? I love getting reviews no matter what.
Thank you, ladyofthewest15!
Thanks, VashLvR, and I couldn't agree with you more.
Thanks a bunch, toxiclollipop, although I think I owe you a bit more than that… . Glad you checked out my story though, and thanks for every chapter. I could just hug you! You know like in that non creepy friend sort of way… -ahem-… next!
Actually, Shayla sweats she falls in love with her long-lost cousin's step-sister's aunt's niece's husband's brother's mother's oldest daughter's friend's cousin's brother's wife's daughter's best friend (hope that's not too confusing).
Yes, well, at first, I didn't think of using her, yoyo person, but then it just became more convenient to do that, so I did! And thanks. I'm glad I didn't make anyone angry over it or anything.
Once again, I'm glad to hear from you, Phalon22. Glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay with me to the end of this story! It's gonna end with a bang, I've already got it planned out!
Happy Birthday to my mother, who is 46 on July 9th. Yay!