Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha

Alright, lucky for all of you (I didn't use y'all!) I was struck with inspiration late one night and got to work on this chapter. Sent it to my editor (the WONDERFUL hanmajoerin) and you are all now able to enjoy chapter 10. Finally.

NoRMaL

Chapter 10: Safe Zone

Tip #9: Always think before you speak because life doesn't come with a rewind button.

"So, you know we should probably get together to work on our Frankenstein project soon." Inuyasha spoke up as we walked along the sidewalk to my house. "That is, if you're not going to run out on me again."

I winced at the mention of my horrible behavior yesterday. "I'll try not to."

"Fair enough," Inuyasha agreed as we turned onto my street. "So, do you want to work at my place again?"

"Actually, I think we should work somewhere else." That whole Sesshoumaru episode wasn't really working in Inuyasha's favor. And if we were in a public place, the chance us experiencing another deep moment is lessened. I won't run out and make a fool of myself if we aren't getting deep and personal. "You like the library?"

"No."

"Well, we can either work at the library or the restaurant I work at." Inuyasha seemed to be thinking it over. "I'd prefer the library because it's quiet and Miroku won't be there breathing down our necks."

"I guess we could work at the library," Inuyasha finally agreed as we approached my house. "But you're not allowed to eat in the library, right?"

"Right, but you can always—"

"We'll just go out to eat before studying," Inuyasha concluded, nodding his head, liking the idea. "Or after; you can decide. I promise to have enough money for both of us though, so don't worry about the price or anything."

"I don't think—"

"Well, we're here," Inuyasha cut me off again as he stopped in front of my house before the walk up to the front porch. "I would assume you wouldn't want me to come in."

"Not really," I mumbled, feeling awkward. You always invite people in because it's polite and shows manners, but I really don't care at the moment. What if Mom was home and not sober like she was yesterday? The garage is closed so I can't tell if her car is there or not. "It's pretty dirty in there," I told Inuyasha, still wanting to give him a valid excuse. And the house was a wreck, considering no one really got around to cleaning up lately.

"Maybe next time."

I stayed quiet, refusing to lie.

"Well, I'll see you on Monday," Inuyasha said, smiling a bit as he started backing away. "Take care."

"Yeah, you too," I called after him as he turned his back to me. He offered a hand over his shoulder and continued down the street. I waited until he turned the corner before I actually started to walk into my house.

Did Inuyasha just ask me out on a…date? I looked back to the spot where Inuyasha had disappeared around the corner and shook my head. That's stupid. And even if Inuyasha did ask me out with every intention of it being a date I would never look at it that way because dating just isn't happening here. I don't care how normal dating is in high school, I'm not participating.

I should still call Rin for her advice, just to check.

I fished my keys out of my pocket and inserted the correct key into the lock, turning the knob and stepping inside the house. I was half expecting to see Mom passed out on the couch, an empty bottle of vodka in front of her, the results of another bad day, or to hear pants from upstairs—if that were the case I would step back outside and try to get lost for the rest of the night. I was not at all expecting to hear the clattering of dishes coming from the kitchen. And it wasn't the angry kind of noise that meant my mom was searching the cabinets for a glass for her wine.

"Hello?" I took a cautious step forward, shutting the door behind me. It was so stupid that I was afraid to move around in my own house, but mood swings were too easy to come by in this house and too hard to escape unscathed. I inched closer to the kitchen at the end of the narrow hall, hanging my jacket up on the banister as I passed the stairs. I was about a foot away from where the wood floor turned to tile, the threshold of the kitchen just within my reach, when I called out again. "Mom? Are you in there?"

"Kagome!" A cheery voice called out from the kitchen and I froze for a second. Mom's voice is never cheery, no matter how good of a mood she may be in. I took one more step, one foot resting on cool tile, the other still lagging behind on dark wood, and I looked to the sink, almost thrown into cardiac arrest from the shock of seeing Kazuo standing there, washing dishes.

"K-Kazuo…"

"Hey," he greeted, smiling over his shoulder at me and I just stared back at him dumbly. "I was wondering where everyone was. It's nice not to be alone in this house." He placed a glass on the drying rack. "Did you know that the floorboards creak and echo when it's quiet enough in here?" I did, all too well.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" I asked still dumbstruck as I moved to sit on one of the kitchen chairs; slowly letting this all sink in.

"I do live here," Kazuo joked, but it came out sounding a bit sarcastic. He lived here technically, yes, but he wasn't always here. "I came back hoping to surprise your mom, but she wasn't here so I decided to surprise her even more by cleaning up a bit." He looked over the kitchen that was now filled with the scent of Pine-Sol which he must have used to clean the floor. "I think I did a pretty good job, considering I'm not domesticated."

"You did great," I assured him, finally having a solid thought in my head instead of a billion questions bouncing around. "It looks much better than it did this morning."

"Eh…" Kazuo shrugged, draining the water from the sinks, unplugging the drains. "It looks better after you clean." He opened the fridge, grabbing a coke, and I could see it was actually full when he stepped back. After a fight, Kazuo always came back bearing the best gifts of an apology for this family: cleaning and a full fridge.

Kazuo moved to the table where I sat and fell into the chair across from me, kicking his feet up in an empty seat. I know Kazuo is really forty-something, but it's hard for me to imagine him being that old when he's still in a band, lounges around like a teenager, and still has a full head of completely black hair. "So, Kagome, where'd you go today? You're usually locked up in your room on the weekends; I was surprised when you weren't home."

"Oh, well… I went to Souta's game today," I told him, drumming my fingers against the table for lack of anything better to do.

"Really?" Kazuo asked, pausing his can's journey to his mouth no more than a centimeter away. "How did they do?"

"They ended up losing by one point, but Souta is just about as good as he brags he is." Kazuo laughed and I felt the tightening in my stomach loosen up a bit and I was able to relax. "Yeah, he did this really cool kick in the air and made a goal. Souta is spending the night at his friend, Kohaku's, house again."

"I see." Kazuo sipped his coke, nodding and looking off into the distance, his mind on a different topic, but he didn't stop our conversation. "I didn't think you were one to be interested in soccer, actually. I didn't even know you understood the rules."

"I don't," I admitted. "Inuyasha had to tell me which goal Souta's team was scoring in."

Kazuo raised his brows and I thought he was going to tell me how stupid I was for not knowing the difference too, but when he spoke, he didn't seem to care about soccer anymore. "Inuyasha?"

Sometimes, I wish I could press a rewind button and just start little parts of my day over again. If I could rewind the last ten seconds, I would completely omit Inuyasha's name from the conversation because no teenage girl wants her stepfather interrogating her about boys. Even if all you did was go to the store, watch a soccer game, and walk around the park for the day. Father figures always seem to assume the worst when it comes to guys.

"He's…"I was tempted to tell him he was just a guy I ended up sitting beside in the bleachers, but I had an annoying thought that Inuyasha had planted a camera in my house magically and was watching my every move. Or more specifically, listening and documenting every lie I told. "He's this new kid at school. He's my project partner for my Lit project on Frankenstein."

"I see…" Kazuo was wearing a knowing smile as he brought the soda can back up to his lips. "Seems you two got pretty acquainted in the few days I was gone."

I futilely tried to fight the blush creeping up my neck. "No, not really. But I ran out of his apartment the other day without much of a reason and he came by this morning, demanding an explanation. After that we just… ended up hanging out." I told him, leaving out a few bits of information here and there.

"So you were at his house?" Kazuo's eyebrows were disappearing into his hairline. Again, I wished that life had a rewind button. "Why'd you run out?" Kazuo's eyes darkened and he turned serious. "He wasn't trying anything, was he?"

"No!" Kazuo gave me a look that said he didn't believe me. "He's not like that," I mumbled, too embarrassed about the topic and the fact that I was defending Inuyasha as if I were trying to prove he was a good guy; good enough to date. "His brother came back and—"

"You were alone with him!" Kazuo seemed like he was about to lose it, and I regretted having even opened my mouth.

"Yeah, but Inuyasha's not the kind of guy to—"

"Kagome," Kazuo looked me seriously in the eyes, "never go into a guy's house alone. I know you say he's a good guy, but it's always better to be safe than sorry." I opened my mouth to protest again, but Kazuo cut me off. "What if a neighbor or someone corners you and he can't get them all off and you end up getting hurt?" It honestly seemed like an unlikely situation, but I kept my mouth shut. "Where does this kid live anyways?"

I was smart enough to pretend I missed that question. "We're working at the library from now on," I told him. "Or at the restaurant, where Miroku will always be there to keep an eye on me."

"Good," Kazuo nodded, liking the idea. "I like that Miroku."

That was because he only saw the way Miroku acted around me: protective and concerned like an older brother. Kazuo missed the episodes where Miroku constantly burns his food because he is too busy staring at a woman through the window, or the number of times he's had a red mark on the side of his face for touching women in the wrong places and asking them to bear his child. I wasn't going to break Kazuo's heart with those realizations however.

"It's nothing to worry about," I assured Kazuo, offering a small smile. "Inuyasha is not a threat to me at all." At least, not the way Kazuo was thinking. The fact that Inuyasha could tell when I was lying was faltering the state of the art security I had on keeping everyone out of my personal life.

"If you say so…" Kazuo mumbled, tipping his head back, guzzling down the last of the dark liquid. We sat in an awkward silence for a while, the ticking of the clock echoing throughout the kitchen. Kazuo tapped his fingers against the table in a beat that I recognized, but couldn't identify, and he was looking off again, in another world.

"So… did you get any gigs?" I asked, trying to bring conversation back into the stale air.

"Nah." I don't think Kazuo was really listening to me and he kept looking at the entrance to the kitchen, probably wishing Mom would walk through soon. Good luck with that. "You know where your mom is?"

"No," I said shaking my head. "She was gone when I left this morning."

"Hm."

Hm. That was it. No more interrogating, worried glances, suspicions, just hm. I think Kazuo's biggest flaw is that he trusts my mother way too much. He just assumes that she'll come home every night and that she'll climb in the bed with him and when he's not here, sleep alone, missing him, like he does. Well I know how wrong both those assumptions are and what assuming does. It makes an ass out of you and me. I felt sorry for Kazuo's blind faith in my mom.

But, because God loved to constantly prove me wrong, there was a rattling at the front door and then the undeniable creaking of the hinges as the door flew open. The soft thuds signified that Mom was kicking off her shoes, letting them hit the wall. And as if I didn't need any more proof that Mom had entered the building, a stream of mumbled curses were heard as Mom began moving around.

"That bitch had me get up early to go meet the band and then cancels that only to send me across town to—Kagome!" Mom shouted from the living room and I was glad to hear her clear, un-slurred speech. And that she was apparently out for work all day, not pleasure. "Where are you?"

"Kitchen!" I shouted back, looking at Kazuo the entire time. He was frozen, eyes locked on the entrance to the kitchen, and I wasn't sure if it was because he was bracing himself for whatever Mom might do or trying to remain silent for the full surprise effect.

"Did you clean today?" Mom's voice was getting louder as she walked down the hall, closing in on the two of us in the kitchen. "Why does it smell like—"

She stopped talking, meaning she was in the kitchen, having seen Kazuo who was staring over my head. I turned around to look over my shoulder and Mom was just staring at Kazuo, wide eyed and speechless, but I could see the glassiness of her eyes as tears began to build up.

"Mira…" Kazuo said barely above a whisper, slowly standing from his seat and I just sat there, watching.

Mom's bag fell to the ground and her shoulders sagged as if the life was just knocked out of her and she watched Kazuo come closer in disbelief. I watched as she slowly dragged her feet towards him until there was only five feet left between him and she took three brisk steps and buried her face in his chest, Kazuo's arms coming down to wrap around my mom.

"I'm sorry," I could hear her mumble into his chest, sniffling. "I shouldn't have said all that… I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Kazuo whispered into Mom's hair. "I missed you."

And I just sat at the table dumbly, watching this lovers' embrace as my mother's shoulders began to shake and she clung to his shirt. I watched for a minute or so before I realized that this was probably a private matter and I slipped out of the kitchen, walking back down the hallway to the stairs. I could still hear Mom's sniffles by the time I got to the bottom steps, but it was okay that she was crying this time because they were the good kind of tears. These were the tears that symbolized at least of month of peace before bills popped up in the mail again and Mom and Kazuo were screaming at each other again. Still, even though short, there was a brief safe period. No yelling, no drinking, no hitting. Safe.

-x-

"Oh, he was definitely asking you out," Rin declared as she shut her locker that Monday. "If he wasn't he would have suggested sneaking in food—because everyone sneaks food into the library— or taken you to a fast food restaurant."

The question had been bugging me all weekend, but every time I called Rin she wouldn't pick up—her phone was taken away after she went over on minutes again. Inuyasha claims he hates to beat around the bush about everything, but he leaves the other day without plainly saying whether or not it was a date. Or maybe he assumed I knew it wasn't because he didn't say anything… I'd feel stupid if I was doing all this overreacting for nothing.

"He could still take me for fast food," I insisted, still clinging to some way that this wasn't a date. I had come armed with a number of excuses to disprove all aspects that it was a date but Rin quickly dismissed all my attempts. "We haven't even talked about where to eat. He just said we'd go eat and he would pay, but—"

"He said he would pay?" Rin looked at me with wide eyes. "Then that's it. There is no questioning whether or not this is a date anymore. If a guy offers to pay, and before he sees a menu, he is definitely asking you out."

"I don't know…"

"Wait a second," Rin paused, holding up her hand as she processed something. "Do you not want to go out with Inuyasha?"

It's not that I absolutely didn't want to go out with Inuyasha, but I wasn't exactly sure. Dates are what boyfriends take their girlfriends on or what guys take girls on in hopes they would become their girlfriend. I'm not in a place where I want a relationship. I know that. But every time I think back to our afternoon in the park yesterday, I almost want to go on a date with Inuyasha just because it seems so natural. And home life was in the safe zone; it was easy not to lie now.

"It's complicated," I told Rin as we made our way to homeroom.

"What's complicated about it?" Rin asked. "Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, boy and girl go out. That's it. And the fact that the two of you spent the entire day together Saturday was like you already went out on a date so there's no reason for you to be nervous."

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "How do you know all this stuff about dating without ever going on a date."

"I've been asked out before, Kagome," Rin told me and I nodded my head, remembering the few dates Rin turned down. "I just don't believe in wasting my time with a guy who likes the character I am portraying that week and not really me." If that were the case, I don't see how Rin will ever start dating soon since she's still soul searching. "And besides, I've watched a number of movies and read plenty of books to know what the definition of a date is. Dinner is always at the top of the list."

"Yeah, but those are made up scenarios, not real life."

"But they imitate real life," Rin pointed out as we came up to our class. "And if you honestly can't take my word for it, just ask Inuyasha. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to clear things up for you."

"Clear what up?"

I nearly dropped all my books from the shock of Inuyasha's sudden presence behind us, but managed to hold on to them at the last second.

"That… coming out of the shadows thing you do is weird."

"Nothing needs to be cleared up," I quickly denied, trying to slow my heart beat.

"I don't know, something tells me otherwise," Inuyasha said, tilting his head to the side with a very subtle twitch of his nose.

That nose thing… It was really starting to get on my nerves. Especially considering the topic I was just discussing with Rin.

"Well, I guess I was caught." I forced a smile. "We—I was wondering exactly which restaurant we were going to."

"Oh, well… there's this good Ramen shop not too far from the library. I thought we'd just eat there."

"I see."

"Is that a fast food place?" Rin asked.

"You sit down and eat." Rin gave me a triumphant look and Inuyasha grew suspicious. "Why?"

"Fast food places usually don't have the best food quality." Rin replied with a shrug. "Just wanted to make sure you weren't going to try to get my best friend sick with some bad food." Rin then turned into her designated classroom, leaving just Inuyasha and I behind.

"She was just lying," Inuyasha bluntly stated as he turned to look at me. "What's really going on?"

"If I tell you," I said, quickly thinking of an excuse that could pass as the truth. "I would be violating the girl code and that's even worse than violating the guy code."

"What?"

"I can't tell you, because it's a girl thing." I clarified and even though Inuyasha didn't seem to be fully satisfied with my answer he dropped the subject.

"Did you have a good weekend?" he asked, picking up on a new subject.

"Yeah."

Inuyasha nodded. "And by that do you mean Saturday or Sunday?"

The way he rocked back on his heels, and looked everywhere but me convinced me that Rin might have been right about Inuyasha. And he had a faint line of pink painted over the bridge of his nose as he waited almost nervously for my answer.

I found myself smiling up at him and saying, "Both."

-0-0-0-0-0-

So that's chapter 10 for you. I hoped you liked the ending because I liked the way Kagome and Inuyasha's relationship is growing because I, personally, am a big fan of InuKag. Even if I do tend to think of BankKag sometimes, I am still big on the InuKag. So, I don't know when I'll be updating next because I'm kind of clueless as to what will happen next. Maybe I should write about the "date." Who knows. While you're waiting for an update though, I started a new story, Walking Tightropes, and I'd love your feedback on that. I'd also LOVE YOU FOREVER if you (please) REVIEW!

~Kimiko888~