Glass: Part 11

InuYasha can't believe Kagome did this! After everything she said, making him believe that she missed him and that she wanted to be by his side, she goes and pull this bullshit. Was she lying earlier? He doesn't even know what the hell he did to make her mad. Maybe she could sense whatever was inside the pouch and she didn't like it. But Kikyo want's to help Kagome, not piss her off further.

Oh. That might be it, he sighs mentally.

Anything related to Kikyo usual results in a hissing Kagome. She hasn't gotten like this over Kikyo though in a long while. After helping rid Kikyo of Naraku's miasma, saving her from a second death, Kagome would turn a cold shoulder on him but not order him out of her life like he means nothing. It's just stupid that she would get mad at him over something like this anyhow. It's not like he's cheating on her or anything. Especially not when all he was doing was giving her the pouch Kikyo wanted him to give to her in the first place. Dammit, why is it so hard to figure Kagome out at times?

Even if she did kick him out, he's not going to put his tail between his legs and run back to the Feudal Era. It's been too long since he's taken in her scent, seen her face and heard her voice. The instant he tries to get more then smelling-rang away from her, the amount of stress put on him makes his body shake as if he's cold. He'll silently watch her from afar, no harm done.

For now, he watches her hidden behind the bushes that surround the base of her home, peering in through the open kitchen window. Kagome looks down at something, going off somewhere in her mind judging by the way she doesn't blink.

Crap, she's still doing that? He remembers her being like that before he left, staring off into space and not paying attention to what he would be saying. What could she possibly still be thinking about? Maybe she's wondering how to say sorry to him. She better be. It's not like he's going to apologize first.

Kagome fills a small pot with water and puts it over something that begins to burn red. He squints his eyes, seeing that she's making . . .ramen! Ramen, ramen, ramen! Oh, come on! The one time he's fighting with her she's making the ramen that he should be having!

Kagome's mother comes into the kitchen and says her name.

When Kagome turns her back on him in order to face her mother, he can sense and smell a creepy tension she beings to give off. What's wrong? He doesn't sense a demon nearby or any other sign of evil. It's only Kagome and her mother.

"What, Mama?" Kagome asks quiet.

"What are you doing?" she asks with an edge, eyeing the ramen.

Kagome pauses. "Just making some . . . food."

Her mother goes off. "I thought I told you that you can only eat when I say so! It's not good for you to keep eating like this. Time and again you disobey me about this subject! Why? You should be able to see how your body's getting, so I don't understand! I also hope that you've kept in mind about your punishment from last night, about not being able to leave this house? I might eased up on you so you could walk around the house but don't make me take it back," she reminds.

InuYasha's ears perk. Punishment, what punishment? What did Kagome do wrong? What's gotten into her mother?

"I know, Mama, I know," Kagome mutters forlorn. She turns the burning coil off, leaving the pot of water to cool and the packaged ramen left on the counter.

Mama huffs, letting her heated breath go. Looking behind herself and back to Kagome, she asks calm. "By the way, where has InuYasha gone to? I was wondering if he was going to stay for breakfast with us."

Yeah, he would have, but then her daughter would have been giving him a death glare the whole time.

Kagome stiffens at his name, saying quickly. "He ran off last night. Probably already gone back to his world."

"That's strange. I would have thought that with being gone for so long that he would have wanted to stay and see you."

"I'm going up stairs," she says distressed.

Kagome walks past her mother who looks to her like she did something weird.

Sniffing the air through the open window, InuYasha can tell that there's a stale scent to it. Something about Kagome and her mother's attachment to one another has strained. Is it because her mother is acting weird, like that time he asked about her other family members only to have her dismiss him. She's not on her bleeding time either, so she can't be cranky from that.

He stays and watches Kagome for a few more hours, seeing her move around the house, mostly staying in her bedroom. She sighed a lot throughout the day. She doesn't seem mad but more sad over something. He's only thankful it's not the type of sorrow she had when they reunited.

With no apology in sight anytime soon and with her not being able to leave her home for whatever reason, ordered by her mother, she should be all right. He wants to stay around and continue to watch out for her, but in order to do that he needs to be at full strength. He needs to go back to his world and eat a shit-tone of food. He'll only be gone a few hours then come back, that's all that's needed. Plus, he owes his friends a greeting.

XxXxXxX

"Ah, InuYasha, I see that ye have come back once again. But where is Kagome?" Kaede asks, standing by the bamboo shingles of her home.

InuYasha sighs. "She's alright, for the most part. I'm just giving her some space." Like there is any way in hell that he's going to say that she yelled at him like some dog that needed to be taught its place.

"That's good. I was worried when the child did not come to see me," she said.

"Or any of us, for that matter," Shippo's voice rants out by Kaede's feet.

Sango and Miroku come out of the house after hearing InuYasha's voice, Kilala the last to appear as she walks by everyone's feet in her small cat-form.

InuYasha tries to get it through his head that they're all here. Being together like this again gives him a strange feeling, finding that the empties that had formed inside of him is now leaving thanks to being surrounded with such familiar friends. He's happy to see everyone again, though it's something he'll never admit out loud.

"Looks like you made it back in one piece," Miroku comments.

He snorts. "Like any wimpy demon is going to defeat me. So, has Naraku been up to anything while I was gone?"

Sango sighs vexed. "There's been much going on. Why don't we go inside and discuss it."

"First, InuYasha, you have the Jewel shard?" Miroku questions.

He raises an eyebrow. "Who do you think I am? Don't be thinking, though, that I'll be giving it to you."

"Of course, just making sure," he grins.

Once everyone is inside, sitting around the smoldering fire pit, the air around them take on a stifling affect, like always when Naraku is the center of a subject.

Sango and Miroku explain to InuYasha how they had gotten many new leads on Naraku, but they all seemed to have been silly rumors. The local villagers would talk about dark clouds and the demons acting strange, simple exorcisms and demon slaying that needed to be done to ease their minds. They managed to collect one Jewel shard, but without Kagome's sight, the task of finding the shards was much harder than anticipated.

The most recent event is that they met up with Kohaku, being controlled like always by Naraku with that strange blankness to his eyes. It seemed that Naraku was using Kohaku to lure InuYasha and Kagome out by sluing a small village. Without the two around though, Naraku must have seen no point in having Kohaku on the battle field and took him back. Since then, Naraku hasn't made an appearance. Neither Sango nor Miroku know the reason why, but they think that he' s gone into hiding to gather his strength, maybe transforming again.

Sango goes quiet with the topic of Kohaku, her younger brother, and discussing more of his sins. She keeps her gray-brown eyes down to the floor.

"Dammit," InuYasha hisses. "I really shouldn't have left."

"No, InuYasha," Kaede says. "It was right of ye to go after that Jewel shard. Ye are one step closer to defeating Naraku. Now that ye have another Jewel shard, Naraku will come after ye four, along with his other minions."

"Four! What about me!? I'm part of this group, too!" Shippo whines.

InuYasha snorts. "You're afraid of the simplest thing that moves. Besides, you're a demon and yet you act like you're some pathetic human."

Shippo leaps onto InuYasha's knee, trying to get up in his face. "I do not! I'm brave and more responsible then you are. I'm even smarter then you!"

InuYasha punches the fox demon across the forehead without a thought. Shippo pipes down, seeming stunned from going a full thirty days without getting hit in the head to suddenly getting a good whack. InuYasha controls himself from grinning, knowing that somehow he's come to miss these little fights of theirs, although he doesn't appreciate being called an idiot.

Shippo curses as he bounds away to go and hide behind Miroku while he holds his aching head.

"Where do we go from here?" InuYasha asks.

"We should leave as soon as Kagome comes back," Miroku says.

"Kagome will be coming back?" Shippo says happily, continuing to hold his head.

Sango says hesitant. "Speaking of Kagome, why did she never come to see us? We were back a few times, but we never saw her. Neither did Kaede see her."

InuYasha sighs heavy, pausing. " . . . I don't think that Kagome will be coming back just yet."

"Why not!?" Shippo complains.

He says impatient to the runt. "Because she's in trouble with her mother and can't leave her house."

"Oh, what did she do to deserve that?" Miroku asks.

"Like I'm going to tell you."

Shippo says dull. "You're not going to tell because you don't know."

He grinds his teeth together and takes a deep breath to stop himself from hitting Shippo again.

"When do ye think she will be back?" Kaede asks.

InuYasha shrugs. "Don't know, might be awhile."

With whatever's been going on in her world and with Kikyo also being worried about it, there has to be something really wrong, more then what he's seeing. Until it's fixed, he can't let her come back and search for the Jewel shards. It's for her own safety. She's too emotionally scattered right now for the trouble that he knows his world can bring about. She won't survive here for a second with the state she's in. InuYasha has kept Kagome in her own world before for her own safely and he'll do it again if he has to.

Then again, with her mother's unknown behavior, and Kagome's kid brother and grandpa missing, is it safe there at all?

XxXxXxX

Does InuYasha hate her? Every time Kagome thinks of him, all she sees is that hurt, puppy-dog look. She can't believe that she reacted so stupid over a little pouch. It's not as if InuYasha hasn't gone off in secret to see Kikyo before, but usually he will admit to what the two talked about whenever he would get back from their escapades. He admitted to seeing Kikyo when he gave her that pouch, too. He was trying to be honest. Although Kagome, sadly, sometimes doesn't believe all of his words. It's what lead her to be in this situation.

Kagome looks to the blue and silver swirled pouch that rests on her work desk that she sits at, trying to do her homework. The pouch has been there since yesterday when she kicked him out. She's been hoping for hours that he would come and get her to no avail. Most likely she will be the one that will have to go and get him, but how can she expect him to take her back when she was so pathetic? It stings to think that maybe he thinks of her like that.

InuYasha's the only opportunity in her life for some happiness to come back. She needs to have him back in her life. And for that, she's will do anything.

"I'm such an idiot," she mutters dry.

Maybe making Mama ground her from going outside of the house—at least she's not trapped in her room—besides for school, wasn't such a good idea. It would have been nice to go out for a walk, even get near the well house to see InuYasha, but every time she tries to step out of the house after school hours it only locks Mama down, determining her to not let Kagome leave the house more than before.

Kagome's eyes turn up to the pouch once again, laying innocently on it's side. Knowing its something from Kikyo sets her spine tight.

She frowns. "I'm not that much of a coward."

Reaching for the pouch, she hesitates for a fraction of a second with her fingers hovering over its draw-string. Okay, maybe she shouldn't do this. No, if Kikyo gave her this it has to be something important. She snaps forward and grabs the pouch, pulling on the string.

An electric jolts runs through the tips of her fingers and straight to her nerves. It creates enough pain that Kagome cries out and drops the pouch back onto the desk.

She massages her zapped fingers with her unharmed hand. "What . . . what was that?" she whispers.

It doesn't want to be opened.

"Kagome, what happened? I heard you yell," Mama calls.

"I'm fine! I just-just fell out of my chair!" she lies, hoping Mama won't notice.

Kikyo gave Kagome this pouch for a reason, but she can't open it—not yet.

XxXxXxX

Kagome sighs, leaning against a hallway window on the second story of her school. Only half-way through the school day and Tamashi has tortured her enough to where she willingly wants to go home already.

"What are you doing out here, Higurashi?" Hojo's voices asks.

She's surprised to see him standing beside her with a worried look to his expression. Some students eye them, giving contempt looks as the whore and the honor student talk, but they move on.

"Hi, Hojo. What are you doing here? I thought that you weren't talking to me," Kagome questions suspicious.

His eyebrows scrunch together. "Kagome, I'm sorry about that. I over reacted before. I shouldn't be listening to these rumors. I now that they can't be true . . . ." It sounds like he's asking a silent question with the way that sentence drifts off.

Kagome sighs and looks out the window. "I'm not a prostitute."

He sighs in relief. "That's good to know. I knew those rumors couldn't be true. Your always so sick and such a nice girl." A slight red creeps onto his rounds cheeks. "By the way, you've been coming to school a lot. I take it that must mean all you're illnesses are going away."

She chuckles without humor. "Well, they're getting better.

"I was wondering, Kagome,"—he reaches into his back pocket, pulling out some tickets—"if you would come with me to the movies. I'll buy the snacks."

Another one of his useless dates—at least this time she can back out of it easily seeing that her "friends" aren't here to make the decision for her.

She opens her mouth to politely say no but—

"She would love to go with you, Hojo!" Eri's voice says enthusiastically.

XxXxXxX

InuYasha snarls the moment he sees that stupid shit of a guy walk up to Kagome. What the hell does he think he's doing? He claws at the tree branch above his head to keep from rushing out of the tree he's hiding in, watching the two inside that school place across the school yard. With his hearing and sharp eyes he can easily spy on their conversation.

"What are you doing out here, Higurashi?" the boy asks, his voice sounding as if his balls haven't even dropped yet.

Kagome looks surprised to see him and asks him why he's talking to her. At-a-girl, send him away. Like that stupid, chicken-shit knows her.

"Kagome, I'm sorry about that. I over reacted before—" Blah, blah, blah . . . .

Kagome sighs. "I'm not a prostitute."

"What?!" InuYasha bellows out, smacking a hand over his mouth. He quickly looking around to see if anyone heard him. Luckily there is no one outside to hear his outburst.

What the hell does Kagome mean that she's a prostitute?! Wait, she said that she isn't one. Then that piece of shit thinks she is? Is that why he's by Kagome, thinking he can get an easy fuck out of her?! He stands up on a large tree branch, getting jittery and unable to hold still. He wants to crash through the window he can see them through, but he knows better.

The idiot boy starts talking again, but he misses the first part of what he said due to imagining ripping that boy limb from limb. He leans forward to listen better, showing his fangs as they bit into his bottom lip.

"I was wondering Kagome . . ."—bastard, he swears if he's asks her what he thinks he's going to—"if you would come with me to the movies. I'll buy the snacks."

He blinks. What the hell is a movie? Well, it's better then what he was thinking.

Before Kagome can answer, another voice comes along, more girly and insistent sounding. "She would love to go with you, Hojo!"

Kagome turns wide eyed to the three girls that surround her.

"Really? That's great!" Hojo says enthused. He turns from them, not expecting a dismissal that Kagome obviously would have said. "I'll meet you at the theaters on Saturday at 3. Sounds good?" He walks away, disappearing into the crowded hallway.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" Kagome asks hard.

Oh, InuYasha knows that tone. He usually gets it when she's about to say 'sit'. He can feel his skin crawl, though he's not in danger of her saying it to him.

"We're just helping you," the one with curly hair says.

"With all that's been going on with these rumors, going out with Hojo is sure to bring back up your good status," the one with the shortest hair of all three says.

Now that InuYasha thinks about it, he recognizes those girls. He's seen them hang around Kagome before. He doesn't know why she would want to be around them. They seem annoying.

"I don't care about those stupid rumors. Besides, you guys haven't talked to me in weeks! Why should you have a say in whether or not I want to go out with Hojo?" Kagome growls.

"We want what's best for you. You're not still with that two-timing boyfriend of yours, are you?" the shoulder length haired one asks.

"What? This isn't about InuYasha, Eri," Kagome defends.

His ears twitch. Why is Kagome mentioning him? Dammit, he better not be that two-timing person that girl is talking about. He doesn't two-time. He just . . . likes both Kagome and Kikyo equally. Is that so wrong?

Eri sighs. "Of course it is, Kagome. You've been so sad lately. It's not just the rumors that are doing you in, is it? I can-we all can-tell that it has something to with that boyfriend of yours."

"No, it doesn't!" Kagome hisses. "Did it never occur to you that, yes, it's mainly because everyone thinks I'm a whore and Tamashi is constantly tormenting me each time I come here?!"

The short haired one holds up her hands as if to say she admits defeat. "We know about that, too, Kagome, and we're all really sorry about it. We weren't good friends for not being there for you during this time. Just, so much was happening . . . . We only want what's best for you."

Kagome shakes her head, exasperated. Taking a deep breath, she turns to walk away. "I don't have time for this. Goodbye."

They call out altogether. "Don't forget that date, Kagome!"

Kagome leaves without another word, out of InuYasha's sight around the corner of the hallway.

There's one part answered as to why she's so miserable. People think she's a harlot and someone is harming her in this place. He knew he had to the right to think that someone needed to be clawed down. How the hell did all of this manage to happen?

XxXxXxX

"InuYasha, why can't you go and get Kagome?" Shippo asks innocently.

He says aggravated. "Don't even think about it, Shippo. I know what you're doing with that stupid innocent act of yours. You're just trying to make me apologize first. Keh! It might work on Kagome but not on me."

Shippo gives him a contempt look. "Gee, if you're acting this crabby then you and Kagome definitely had a fight."

"We did not have a fight! Kagome's just being an idiot, is all!" he bristles.

"Don't act so petty. Just go and apologize to her. Kagome won't be that mad."

InuYasha quickly walks down the dirt path adjacent to the farming crops, not wanting to listen to the runt. The baby fox not going to believe him when he says this was all Kaogme's fault, as everything Kagome does is so innocent to him. If only Shippo could see Kagome now. Since that boy, Hojo, talked to her, she randomly screamed to the open air of her home's courtyard and thrown a book across her room. Whatever Hojo asked of Kagome has really flustered her.

It's been two days already and Kagome still hasn't apologized to him, but by this point the argument has become a moot point. Knowing why Kagome has been so sad has become such a large weight on his mind that it leaves no room for resentment on how Kagome treated him before. How the hell can he protect her from stupid rumors? Maybe he could rip the mouths out of anyone who's ever said anything nasty about her.

"Why not get some advice from Kaede," Shippo suggests, catching up to him.

He snorts. "Like that old bat will know what to do."

"Then talk to Miroku about it. He's better at knowing women that we do."

He grimaces. "Yeah, he knows women's butts better than us, but that's about it. I'll see you later, Shippo." He jumps out and down the road.

Going on like this is going to kill him. He's had enough of just looking at Kagome from far away. He's not such a selfish-prick that he doesn't want to be by her side during her time of need. But, damn, seeing how her mode has been, go to her now and she'll probably 'sit' him until his back gives out.

InuYasha finds himself back at Kaede's house, the scent smoking fire tickling his nose. He stands before the stairway next to the house that lead to Kikyo's grave. Is she still looking for Naraku on her own? On the other side of the hillside stairs, Miroku grunts as he drops an ax down on a log, snapping it in half. Both he and Sango are helping out Kaede by bringing in firewood for her, seeing that she's getting too old to do things of that sort.

Ignoring them, InuYasha leans back on the hillside next to the stairs, crossing his legs and arms. He frowns, thinking things over.

Okay, this might not be such a bad idea. All he has to do is ask for a little help, is all—Kagome never said it's a bad thing to ask for help. I just need to learn how to smoothly approach a ragging Kagome into letting my punch whoever started those rumors.

Sango picks up a few chopped logs under her arms, having to walk past InuYasha to get inside Kaede's house. Along the way, she glowers at him.

His eyebrows rise to his hairline. What the hell is that for? He glares at the sky, hating at not understanding women better.

"You know you could help us," Miroku says, whipping his arm across his brow. The sleeves of his robes are tied back around his upper arms, allowing him to move more easily.

"Keh, it looks like you've guys got it handled. You don't need my help."

"Oh, will you stop sulking already. Go and get Kagome," Sango insists, coming around to stand in front of him.

He sits up "I can't. Her mother is holding her hostage."

"Don't act dumb. We all know that you've gotten into a fight with Kagome. When you do all you do is sigh and mope around. That's why you've been sitting around here."

He frowns. "I didn't do anything wrong, but she acted like I was a monster."

Miroku walks up the gently slop of the hill and gets in InuYasha's face, his expression agitated. "Look, you're the only one that can get down the well, and Kagome is the only one who can sense the Sacred Jewel shards. Unless you go and say you're sorry to her, we can't do anything. So just suck up your pride and say you're sorry."

InuYasha challenges Miroku by going nose to nose with him. "I could care less about that! Kagome has been so prickly lately that I can hardly talk to her."

"Maybe if you didn't yell, that would help," Sango sighs.

"I don't yell," he says, looking to her. "It's just . . . I don't know. This isn't like before. It's honestly a lot easier when she just 'sits' me and lets her anger out. This time around there's more going on than her just getting mad at me."

"Like what?"

"Like nothing. Look, I planned on getting her soon anyway. Isn't that good enough?"

"For what we're going to get out of you, for now it is," Miroku sighs.

Sango shakes her head. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"But that's why they get along so well."

Authors Notes:

InuYasha (C) Rumiko Takahashi