Aw, I'm so sorry for the tremendously late update! First of all, school started and unfortunately, I already have projects lined up in front of me, meaning I barely had time to sit on my fluffed cushion seat and type on my keyboard.
Ah, to Drake220, my apologies, I never saw your review in that way. Ack, that was a little reckless of me, I hope you can forgive me, I'll try to be a little more considerate from now on but thanks for pointing out my foolishness.
..................
Chapter Ten
Persistence of the Press
..................Kagome yawned as she walked down the pavement of the airport to the private jet waiting patiently a few dozen feet in front of her. Karira had sneaked her out of the hospital, with the doctor's confirmation of course and now they had ridden a limo to the airport where their flight would be waiting.
Reaching the private jet, Kagome walked up the three step stairs at into the jet altogether. Stifling a yawn and ignoring the half dog demon idiot sitting casually in the first seat with his legs propped up on the table in front of him, she made her way past the idiot who she despised and sat in the only vacant seat in the jet, behind Inu-Yasha.
"Kagome, turn on your TV and tune into channel 147, they're showing your favorite movie of all time!" Karira said from the seat across from her where she was sitting, watching a movie from the small twenty inch TV screen which was placed behind the chair in front of her.
Kagome jerked up in her chair and flipped on the TV. "They're showing Titanic?"
"...Moulin Rouge." Karira said weakly, giving a small smile as Kagome flopped back down in her chair.
Shrugging, she flipped to the channel suggested and put on the headphones to listen to the dialogue of the movie. "Titanic is still better though." She murmured, and watched as the actors played their lines.
"What's with girls and love stories?!" Inu-Yasha's gruff voice snapped out from in front of Kagome.
Feeling her eye twitch, Kagome grumbled and took off her headphones. "Why? Do you have a problem with that?" she snapped back, and kicked his seat from behind, feeling anger boil up in her for no apparent reason.
"I wasn't talking to you!" He barked back, bluffing up his previous question in a fury.
"Oh for god's sake, some of us are trying to fall back to sleep, spare us, please!" Rin shouted out and three heads swiveled to the back, just noticing that there was a bunk bed seated on the far back of the plane, where Sesshomaru had already fallen asleep beside Rin on the bottom bed who was still obviously awake, and Souta's head could be seen bobbing out of the blankets he was wrapped in, sleeping in the bunk above.
Lowering their voices at once, Kagome grumbled incoherent words as she went back to her normal seating position, sighing with relief as she saw Mr. Taisho appear from the curtains in front with Mrs. Taisho following behind. Both of them, going towards the small sofa setting in front of the bunk bed to sit, Mr. Taisho coughed, gaining everyone's attention... well, most of whoever was still awake. "We'll be taking flight right about now, have a good nap everyone, it's a good five hour trip!"
As from that moment, everyone fell into an elapsed silence as the plane silently took off into the sky, Rin falling asleep beside Sesshomaru who had drifted to sleep as soon as he had hit the pillow, Mr. and Mrs. Taisho sleeping silently against each other on the sofa and Karira being the one scrunched up in a ball on her chair, falling asleep midway throughout the movie.
Kagome yawned as she stretched in her chair, pushing the button which made it tilt backwards for a better sleeping position. Closing her eyes, she muttered out a goodnight to everyone, despite the fact almost everyone was already asleep, and then wandered into the world of dreams.
x.x
Kagome shot up awake as the sound of something crashing into something filled the jet at once. Looking around, still half asleep, Kagome groaned as she noticed Souta somehow had fallen out of his bunk bed and had fallen on the floor with a loud thump, immediately awakening Sesshomaru who had banged his head on the ceiling of the bottom bunk.
"Oh my dear lord, are you two okay?" Mrs. Taisho's worried voice came from behind the curtains which led to the cockpit of the plane. Pushing aside the curtains, an awake and fresh Mrs. Taisho walked in the space with a cup of noodles in her hand.
"Ow, Rin... my head..." Sesshomaru grumbled childishly, and rubbed his head, allowing Rin to pull his head into her lap as she just woke up and took notice of the occurrences sleepily.
Kagome sighed and shook her head with a small smile.
Typical.
Yawning, Kagome stood up from her chair and murmured a 'Good Morning' to everyone as normal morning havoc erupted, Souta being the one who started crying as he noticed just what had happened to him, Karira being the one who started yelling out in frustration at the morning awaking and Inu-Yasha being the one who was still snoring blissfully.
Walking towards the back bathroom, she squinted as Mr. Taisho was pulling up the small windows of the plane to let in some sunlight. Reaching the bathroom, Kagome fiddled with the doorknob and swung it open, walking inside groggily.
Locking the door behind her, Kagome yawned and turned on the taps, gathering water in her hands and splashing it on her face. After doing all her bathroom necessities, she was about to leave when she heard a small murmur of words behind her.
Turning around, she scrunched her eyes as she noticed that no one was there. Taking a step forward, she raised an eyebrow as she noticed the murmuring was coming from the floor. Crouching down to the ground, she pressed her ear to the floor as the murmuring continued.
"I want more than a million dollars for this you know," The voice murmured, "If anyone finds out about this, it was you who brought me into this."
Kagome froze as she heard the man murmur from wherever he was saying it from and leaned her ear closer to the bathroom floor in hope to hear more.
"So you're sure there's a girl with him?" A gruff voice murmured out, the voice tone so low, Kagome could barely pick it up.
"I saw with my own eyes."
Kagome's breath hitched in her throat. Why the heck could she hear voices from the bathroom floor and what the hell were they talking about?
"You think I can get some juicy pictures?"
"Anything's possible..."
Everything went into elapsed silence, and all Kagome could hear then was the annoying sound the plane made while moving through the air. Breathing silently, Kagome furrowed her eyebrows as she readjusted herself and sat down on the floor.
That was awkward.
One thing that was pulling the cords in her brain was...
Voices... from the floor?
Moving her hand across the tiled floor, she crawled over to the walls and tried to look for cracks or some secret passageways. This was impossible. She must have been hallucinating or something because...
Voices coming from the floor?
Letting out a deep breath, she crawled towards the toilet and looked around for some cracks, a small tinge of fear stinging her body. Two sentences from the conversation which were bringing out the worst from within her.
-
"So you're sure there's a girl with him?"
"I saw with my own eyes."
-
She squinted around the bathroom and got up, not sure what the hell to do. They could've been talking about her for all she knew... whoever they were anyway! It was just too much of a coincidence. They could've been talking about Inu-Yasha... and her being with him, and if that got out on the news, it would be hell for her and her family.
Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. This was stupid. Not only could they have been talking about her and Inu-Yasha, they could've been talking about Bugs Bunny and Tweety.
Taking in another deep breath, telling herself numerously to try to act normal, as if she hadn't heard the conversation at all, she opened the lock of the door and walked out, putting on a fake smile.
"Took you long enough!" Inu-Yasha barked at her as he ran by her in a huff to go to the bathroom. As soon as he reached the bathroom, he banged the door shut and locked it instantly.
"He had to pee..." Sesshomaru pointed out as he saw Kagome's confused expression.
"I didn't need to know that." She said with a smirk. Walking past Sesshomaru, she sat in her chair and waited as the stewardess came to announce they'll be landing soon.
x.x
It was around 5.30 a.m. when they reached the mansion they would be staying in and delightfully, the sun was already up in the sky, or halfway through, but nevertheless, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.
The mansion itself was a structure of its own. It was built right in the middle of overlapping trees, the breeze gently blowing the petals of the flowers surrounding the gates of the mansion. However, what astounded Kagome the most was the breathtaking sunrise taking place on the beach beside the mansion. The sand stretched out for miles, vanishing beyond a point where Kagome couldn't see, and the sea waves were silently washing up on the sand, watering the rim of the beach ever so often.
And now, Kagome was in the room that was provided for her. It was absolutely luxurious, not as good as her room in the villa, but just as close. The mansion wasn't very big, only three stories high but truth be told, no one really cared. The scenery, weather and atmosphere brought a smile to everyone's faces, even Inu-Yasha's!
It was already eight-o-clock as Kagome finally unpacked everything that had been stuffed into the small bag pack that she had carried along with her: A few health care products... a toothbrush and her bathing suit. Nothing else really was needed as the mansion provided everything else, including all her clothes.
Slipping on her two piece swimming suit, she flew into a pair of blue sandals and quickly forced on a light blue mini skirt and the same colored tank top over her swimming suit. "Karira, you ready to go to the beach?!" she called out as she stepped out of her room and into the equally delightful corridor.
"Coming right behind you!" she yelled out, emerging from her room which was in the same corridor as Kagome's. "Let's go down, but we'll have to wait for my brothers, they're coming along too."
Kagome laughed. "I think they're old enough to walk to the beach alone, don't you think?"
"They are... but I'm not, even though I'm eighteen, Sesshomaru won't let me walk alone anywhere if I don't have some sort of security around me, talk about protective brothers." Karira murmured, tying her silky white hair into a high pony tail, her black highlights showing distinctively as she grumbled incoherent words under her breath. "Anyway, here they come..."
"Let's go," Sesshomaru yelled, running past the two girls in a whiz, jolting to a stop at the staircase. "I'll run ahead..." he said before sliding down the staircase railings.
"COME BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!" Inu-Yasha's voice came rambling from the room, and soon enough, he kicked open the door and ran after Sesshomaru in nothing but a pair of khaki beach shorts. "I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THAT!" He yelled out, startling Kagome as he crashed into her mindlessly midway through his run. "Ack! Watch out!" He murmured in a snap as he quickly got up from the ground, running down the staircase in the same direction Sesshomaru had run off to.
"Ow..." Kagome murmured, rubbing her bum as she got up from the floor. "What was all that about?"
"Who cares... they get into fights almost every day... Sesshomaru probably did something to embarrass Inu-Yasha... and now Inu-Yasha wants to murder Sesshomaru... but now Sesshomaru ran away... and now Inu-Yasha's off to get revenge." Karira said broadly and then walked down the staircase casually with Kagome skipping down behind her.
It didn't take them long to reach the beach and as they did, Kagome widened her eyes as she saw not only Sesshomaru trying to breath underwater as Inu-Yasha held him down in the sea but many... many other celebrities as well.
"Whoa... if so many celebrities come here, how come the news press doesn't come here?" Kagome asked as they slowly walked on the sand, throwing off their slippers, skirt and tank top at the entrance.
"Strictly off limits I guess, either that, or they don't know about it." Karira said and then giggled as she ran towards the waves in her pink bikini, the seagulls giving their usual call right above. "Come on, who cares about the press, let's go have some fun!"
Kagome smiled, feeling more alive than she did in the past few weeks. Running towards the sea underneath the hot sun in her two piece swim suit, she laughed as she reached the sea, making footprints in the muddy section before the water. "Inu-Yasha, if you don't let go of Sesshomaru, you'll drown him!" She yelled out mindlessly, forgetting for a mere second that she wasn't supposed to be so formal towards him.
"He deserves it for making fun of my boys!" He said with a smirk, laughing as Kagome's face washed with confusion.
"Of your boys?" She asked she waded deeper into the water, squealing as a wave came, soaking her to bone.
Sesshomaru gasped for air as he finally broke the surface, punching away Inu-Yasha's hand in his surprise. "His boys... down there." He said, pointing to Inu-Yasha below the waist.
Kagome blushed bright pink before bursting into laughter. "Oh, I see..." she said between giggles.
"You both are so immature." Karira murmured before grabbing Kagome's hand and pulling her deeper into the water. "Let's go play tag against the waves!" she said with a huge grin on her face.
"Sure, you're it!" Kagome said, tagging Karira before she got a chance to react. Laughing as Karira yelled out a 'hey!' Kagome swam further away from Karira as she came furiously after her.
"Hey! We're playing too!" Sesshomaru yelled out, making a big splash as he dove into the water in a desperate attempt to run away from the ever so furious Inu-Yasha. Laughing devilishly as a big wave came, throwing everyone off track from where they were, he was about to dive underwater to hide when he felt a pat on his back.
"You're it." Karira's sweet and sugary voice said before vanishing underwater.
x.x
It took them quite a while, but after at least a whole hour of playing in the water, the whole bunch of four had finally called it quits and were now resting on the private shore of the beach. Inu-Yasha was laying down flat on his back on the rocks alongside the waves, though Kagome, Karira and Sesshomaru decided to rest on the sand instead.
"I miss Rin... I wonder where she is anyway." Sesshomaru murmured from his spot on the beach.
"Go find her dummy." Inu-Yasha yelled out, picking up a rock and throwing it at Sesshomaru's head.
"Screw you!" Sesshomaru barked back, taking the rock and throwing it back at Inu-Yasha, but due to the fact he was lying on a rock much higher than where Sesshomaru lay, it missed by an inch.
"I'm not gay." Inu-Yasha replied with a chuckle as the girls groaned.
"I have the most immature brothers in the world." Karira mourned, sitting up as Kagome yawned from her spot.
"It's okay, the feelings mutual." Kagome said with a chuckle and not soon after, both of them had burst up laughing.
"What's so funny?" Inu-Yasha asked, peering at them innocently in a peek.
Sesshomaru shrugged. "Women."
"That pretty much explains it all."
"Hey!" both of them yelling it out at once, Inu-Yasha had to flatten his ears as each one started to boast out negative things about men.
"I'm going to go to the hut to grab a shake." Inu-Yasha said, interrupting them both mindlessly as sat up, revealing a nicely tanned chest. "Anyone coming?"
"Kagome, I don't want to get up, could you go and get me a strawberry smoothie?" Karira asked, startling Kagome with her question, "Pretty please?" she asked again, making the cutest puppy dog eyes she could sustain, hoping to god Kagome would accept.
"If it's okay with Inu-Yasha," Kagome said, giving into Karira with a sigh. Looking up at Inu-Yasha, she saw him glance towards her for a second before shrugging.
"Doesn't matter." He said as he got up, looking away immediately as if to avoid her gaze.
Leaning in close to Kagome, Sesshomaru lowered his tone so what he said was only able to be heard by Kagome. "In his language, that means a yes." He said with a small smile, emitting a small chuckle as Kagome grumbled incoherent words as she blushed a slight shade of pink, which was almost impossible to see.
Getting up, she brushed off the sand from her legs and jumped on the rock which Inu-Yasha was standing on so they could make their way to the path which was right beside them. Both making their way to the trail silently, Kagome yawned as the sun pressed down on them.
"Sun makes me sleepy." She said in an attempt to start a conversation so she could let out the thought which had been bugging her for a quite a while now.
Inu-Yasha glanced towards her from the corner of his eyes in surprise to hear her talk to him. This was surprising... that was the first sentence she had said to him which didn't exactly relate to a diss someway or another since two years! Shrugging, he looked over to the sea as they walked down the trail. "Feh."
Kagome looked up to him for a second. That was a good sign; at least he hadn't said something like... 'Well, fall asleep then'. "Taking in a deep breath, Kagome looked towards the trees on the other side of her before talking. "Uhm, well, thanks."
"Huh?" Snapping his head towards her direction, he widened his eyes as he twitched his ears. "Thanks for what?"
"For saving me a week ago." She took in a deep breath and fiddled with her hands as they reached the docks, one of the pathways leading toward the huts. "I know it was practically your fault to begin with," She heard him growl at that, though continued anyway. "But even so and so, I wouldn't be alive if not for you either."
Inu-Yasha stuffed his hands in his pockets, glancing towards the direction they were heading at just for a second before returning his gaze back towards the sea. "Uh, well, I'm sorry for, uh... that."
She raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
He flinched. Shit... that came out wrong. For what happened two years ago. "For what happened a week ago." He snapped out, mentally slapping himself as he said the wrong dialect again.
"Oh, for that." Kagome said, annoyance building up in her again. If they were exchanging 'sorries' and 'thankyous' right now, couldn't he have just apologized for what happened two years ago?
"There isn't anything else to apologize for anyway." Inu-Yasha blurted out in order regain his dignity.
"Oh really?" Kagome retorted, venom dripping from every word, anger distinctively evident from her voice.
Inu-Yasha hesitated, sensing the building annoyance and anger within her. "Yup..."
"I see." Kagome growled out, fisting her hands tightly. Not even bothering to glance at him due to the fact she felt like once again, chopping his head off, she quickened her pace and walked right past him.
Inu-Yasha sighed with frustration as she walked past him, obviously angry for the reason both of them knew. "Ah, but, wait!" he yelled out, reaching out to grab her wrist, not noticing the dent in the wooden dock bellow him.
Letting out a yelp as his foot got caught in the dent, he pushed all his weight in front of him, unfortunately pulling Kagome down as he stumbled in a fall. As they both crashed down, Inu-Yasha being the one falling down on top Kagome, they both let out a trail of curses as Kagome's back fell heavily onto the wood below and Inu-Yasha himself falling heavily on top of her.
Inu-Yasha grumbled as his hair fell casually over her shoulders and onto the ground below, his face coming dangerously close to hers as he tried to regain himself from the shock.
Kagome groaned as she tried to breathe underneath his weight, damn he was heavy! "You clumsy ass!" She snapped out as he brought up his hands to push himself up.
"Don't blame me! You were the one running off for no reason!" He snapped back and glared down at her, entrapping her brown orbs with his golden ones.
"I have every right to run away if you piss me off!" she yelled and brought her hands up to push against his bare chest, trying to ignore the beautifully tanned skin tone.
"How the fuck did I piss you off?!" He yelled back, refusing to get up until the matter was resolved.
"You bloody well know how you pissed me off so get off of me!" She yelled and made another desperate attempt to push him off but he refused. "Ugh, well, excuse me, if anyone passes by, waddaya think they're gonna imagine if they see you lying on top of me, refusing to get off with your long hair disallowing them to see what's actually going on!?"
He blinked innocently. "How would I know?"
"THEY'RE GONNA THINK WE'RE KISSING YOU DUMBASS!" She yelled and gave another furious push, and this time, Inu-Yasha was willing to jump right off of her.
"I already have a girlfriend." He stuttered out, brushing away imaginary dust off from his chest.
"No one asked you." Kagome pointed out dully, and continued walking down the path as if nothing had happened, though the bright blush on her cheeks told otherwise.
As both of them reached the hut, both of them ordered what they needed, and walked back to the beach without a single word to each other, neither of them aware of the photographer taking pictures of every single moment of them being together.
x.x
"Ah! Today was great!" Rin said as she stretched her arms at the table bench they were eating dinner at. "Though I barely saw you, Fluffy!"
Sesshomaru blushed a daze of red as Inu-Yasha snickered at his nickname. "I tried finding you, but the beach was so big, it was a little impossible."
Rin pouted as she poked the chicken sandwich with her fork. "Oh well."
Sesshomaru panicked as he sensed the disappointment in Rin's voice. "I don't know what was wrong with me, I mean, a beauty like you stands out anywhere." He stumbled out, ignoring the 'awww' coming from Kagome and Karira at his statement.
Smiling brightly at his declaration, Rin left her food and encircled Sesshomaru's arm, giving his arm a big hug. "You're so sweet..." she said and kissed him on the cheek lightly, making him blush even more as his mother laughed sweetly at the little act.
"Dinner first, then you both can go do your lovey dovey stuff somewhere else." Mr. Taisho pointed out, scorching down the sandwich without any complaints. "The moon looks quite nice today." He said out of no where, nudging towards the sky with his fork.
Kagome nodded in appreciation as she looked up at the dark night sky, spotting the moon in between the stars. "By the way, can someone tell Inu-Yasha to pass the jug of water?"
Inu-Yasha narrowed his eyebrows at her cold voice. "Can someone tell that wench that I can't be bothered to?"
Feeling annoyance hitch up in her throat once again, she glared at Inu-Yasha roughly. "Can someone tell Inu-Yasha to pass the jug or else I'll kick him hardly in the knee?" She replied.
Inu-Yasha slit his eyes, since the morning incident, she hadn't said a word to him, and now, neither of them were talking to each other and if a word need to be said, it was said rather... formerly. "Can someone tell that pestering bitch that even if she tried to kick me, it wouldn't hurt – OW!" He winced and dropped his fork as Kagome's foot hit his knee sharply, pain scorching throughout his leg instantly.
"Hmph, tell Inu-Yasha to take back his words!" She said and glared at Inu-Yasha as he swore out loud.
"Well tell her that I'd take back my words if I died and got eaten by a fairy tale monster!"
"Oh god, please let that happen..."
"You two shut up!" Karira yelled out, hitting Inu-Yasha upside the head, making him spit out the water he just drank. "Here," She took the jug and passed it to Kagome, glaring at Inu-Yasha hardly. "God! See, it just took a second."
"Feh." Inu-Yasha remarked as he went back to eating his dinner, both of them giving each other one final glare before going back to eating.
They were midway through finishing their dinner when a waiter came up to their table underneath the tree with a silver bowl. "Excuse me presence," he said and lowered the bowl to Kagome. "The manager decided that this was something you'd rather see than pass."
Scrunching her face in confusion, Kagome took the newspaper which was inside of the bowl and opened it up quickly. "I don't really read... oh my gosh!" she yelled out and stared at the newspaper with horror.
Everyone sitting around the table diverted their attention to Kagome, even Inu-Yasha who had mentally decided never to look towards her again.
"What happened?" Rin asked worriedly as she noticed the loss of color in her cheeks.
"This can't be happening..." Kagome murmured as she stared at the newspaper, her insides churning with worry, nervousness and panic. "It just can't!"
Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow and snatched the newspaper away from her, scanning the front page quickly, his eyes widening at the contents he saw.
On the front page was a picture of him holding Kagome's wrist, and instead of it looking like Kagome running away from Inu-Yasha because he 'fucking pissed her off', it looked more like she was holding his hand and pulling him towards the hut by the angle the picture was taken by.
Not only that, but below that picture was another one of him and Kagome, but this time, it was when they had tripped, and by the way the picture was taken, it did look like they were making out and last but not least, the picture on the bottom was one where they both had smoothies in their hands, making the whole scenario seem like they had been on a date.
He gulped and read the content of the page.
'The weather may be starting to get hot, but something else seems like it's building up heat too. Surprisingly, what seemed to be a normal vacation to an Island became something else. The Limo which had been seen entering the famous Taisho's villa earlier seemed to hold someone none other than, Inu-Yasha Taisho's long term girlfriend! They both were spotted walking together on the Island, talking, drinking smoothies and of course, sharing kisses. Now who could this girl be? She's not an actor, singer, or a celebrity to be exact. Taking the pictures to a police department, she's been identified as "Kagome Higurashi", a normal teenage high school girl. Maybe it was love at first sight or maybe more but by the looks of it; these two are very close...'
Kagome banged her head silently against the table as Inu-Yasha threw down the newspaper, allowing others to read it. "This isn't fair..."
"Oh my god..." Mrs. Taisho's voice came as she read the headlines along with the content.
"I thought no one knew we were going to be here!" Karira yelled out after having a look at the page. "What the hell?"
It was out. Everyone knew, Sango must've read the newspaper and so must've Ayame. "This is a sickening turn of events." Kagome whimpered as she thought about the consequences. She could only just imagine the havoc erupting up at home.
It was no longer a secret.
"The whole world knows that I know the Taisho's..." She whimpered as chaos began right there and then.
x.x
There you go! Pretty long may I point out...
I'll try updating faster next time but I hope you enjoyed this chapter... hehehe, the plot's only just started, so sit back and relax, I've got more evilness to add.
So review and tell me what you thought about it!
For now... I have to run, so toodles!