Chapter 12
Hungover
The birds were chirping gently, a faint breeze trickling in from the open window, teasing at the pinkish curtains. All seemed so calm, refreshed and clean, another normal day. The air drifting through the room was fresh, cool against her moist skin. The miko's hazelnut eyes flickered beneath their lids, dark lashes eventually parting but her vision still so blurred. In fact, she had to close her eyes again almost immediately. Why did it seem so bright? There was a pounding in her brain, knocking against her skull painfully, painfully, as if it were trying to remind her of something. But the monotony of waking up, the normalcy of it just being another day didn't make her suspicious, didn't knock any memory into her brain of what had happened just hours before.
A thin layer of cold sweat was caked on her thin figure, and she attempted to move her hand down her stomach to wipe away the unwanted perspiration. It was when her fingers tangled within a mat of some stringy, coarse substance that her neat brows curled inward. There was a weight on her, pushing down on her chest and the entire rest of her body, confusing Kagome before she had the chance to look down at the object pinning her to the mattress beneath her. It was when she moved her fingers upward to feel two inactive canine ears that her chest swelled and her eyes forced open despite the blinding brightness of morning.
"I-Inuyasha?" She stammered so weakly, as if she were afraid the lump of mass overtop her would actually speak back, verify that it was a human being lying with her in this comprosing position.
Kagome blinked rapidly, groaned against the pain of her headache, of her hangover. Yes, her memories of the night before were just starting to filter back to her in agonizingly slow and small pieces. A party, truth or dare, drinks, kissing, and then? Oh no. Vaguely, she could recall the feel of Inuyasha's fingers sliding greedily over the crotch of her panties, remember the brush of open air against her exposed skin as he removed her shirt. But had they…?
With a shaky breath and frightened, knitted brows, she looked downward at the hanyou that slept soundly with his flushed cheek against her breasts. Her entire body and face paled in one split second as she fought to retrieve any remembrance of committing a dirty act. What was going on? Why had she lost her mind like that? Had she gotten drunk? But how? She made sure not to drink!
As the miko's hand sank down to rip the sheets from their touching bodies, Inuyasha stirred a bit, shifting his weight a little and causing Kagome to groan from the heaviness of him. He was twice the size of her with his entire girth sprawled over her like a baby. Somehow, Kagome managed to glance down sheepishly, her cheeks a very bright pink. There was no way to describe the relief that spread through her and the sigh that burst forth when she found that her skirt and underwear were still intact, as well at Inuyasha's hakamas.
But really, Kagome must've been completely out of it to not notice the shadow of her mother that had been cast over the two of them for the past minute or so.
The kind woman's features were contorted with shock and dismay at the sight of her daughter and her half dog friend. Her knuckles were white from clutching the silver tray of rice and other breakfast foods, the glasses of orange juice shaking a bit from the mother's trembling hands. Maybe it was the scent of the morning delicacy that caused the hanyou's nostrils to flare and his ears to twitch as he awoke. But, unfortunately for him, Kagome has noticed her mother's horrified expression, and pushed Inuyasha straight off of and onto the floor below.
"Mama! I can explain, it's not what it looked like!" She tried to shout out, pulling the sheets to cover her chest, bare save for her lace bra.
"Wha?" Inuyasha snapped as he was startled awake. "What the hell happened last night?" Inuyasha mumbled from the floor, growling softly like the dog he was as he struggled to sit up. The hanyou blinked, holding a palm to his forehead in a subconscious attempt to push back the aching in his head. When he saw Kagome's mom's eyes flitting almost frightened-like between the two of them, he instantly sat up straight and wiped the beads of sweat off his exposed torso, memories flooding back to him.
The concerned mother didn't speak, hardly breathed. Wasn't it every mother's nightmare to walk in on their precious, perfect, innocent daughter spoiling herself? But that wasn't the case from the couple's eyes. Certainly if they did something too naughty… they would remember it?
"Mama…" Kagome cooed, watching the pretty adult woman shakily set the tray of delicious food down on the end of her daughter's bed. With that, she began to wring her hand uncertainly, gave a sheepish glance towards the two again and mutter "Sorry for intruding," before hurrying out the door.
"Sit." The miko spoke firmly, not watching, but at least listening to Inuyasha tip forward forcefully and his face plow into the carpet. She was mortified, and confused. She could remember deranged and blurred bits and pieces of the night before, how it felt to have Inuyasha kissing her again, but not how it felt to have him inside her. Alright, that was it. They had fallen asleep before they had gotten to that level. At least there was some good that came out of this. Kagome somehow came out still an angelic virgin.
"How'd I even deserve that one?!" Inuyasha shouted as he stood up completely, baring his half naked body to Kagome again. She looked away, her cheeks turning pink. Why was he not flustered as well by what they had almost done just a few hours before, while it was still dark outside? The miko gave a sigh, pressing her face into her open hands and curling her knees upward, all the while, mumbling "No, no, no, no, no."
Here would have been a good time for the hanyou to snort something classical for himself, something arrogant to brush off the awkwardness. But, by now, his cheeks had grown just as pink as Kagome's, and it wasn't from carpet burn. A hand reached around to scratch the back of his head, feel the dampness of his mane of silver hair. Damn it. What had they done? Inuyasha was slowly regaining his memory, and he didn't like the things he was recalling.
"Yikes." He muttered faintly, glancing around the room and then back to Kagome. He couldn't think of much to say, or anything really to comfort the teenage girl sitting with her face in her hands, mortified. "Look, I don't see the big deal. We didn't do it." He hissed, using immature terms. Kagome wasn't having it, and she shook her head against her knees.
"Mom doesn't know that! And for all we know, maybe we did!" She shouted back, and her face coloring in two shades deeper at the thought. They both sat there a moment longer, thinking back, digging through drunken thoughts and memories of the night before. After a long pause, they both shook their heads, muttering "Nah."
They would remember it, certainly they would. And besides, the two of them? Brave enough to do it? No, just... no.
"You should go. I'll try to talk to mama." Kagome murmured with a faint sigh as she turned so her feet slipped down onto the carpet. She shook shakily, her head pounding even more. Of course, by the time she realized that she was standing up in front of Inuyasha without a shirt, the hanyou's wide amber eyes had already stuck to her chest, his face beet-red. With a loud squeal, the schoolgirl toppled back onto her bed and fought to cover her half-naked self.
"JUST GO, INUYASHA!" She commanded, poking her head out from under the covers to point to her bedroom window. And so, on that note, the hanyou was gone in a flash, mostly from the fear that he'd get 'sat' again. He managed to snag his yukata and haori on the way out, slipping it loosely over his shoulders as Kagome watched cautiously from the window while he disappeared beyond the doors of the family shrine.
It took so long for her to drag herself away from the window, to unclutter her mind from the confusion that the last few minutes, or hours, really, had caused her. She knew if she didn't march herself down the stairs and try to explain some of this… well, things might not be too bright for the future. But what was she to say? How was she supposed to explain to her mother when she hardly understood it herself? How exactly had she gotten in the state of… complete intoxication? All she remembered was drinking punch that Yuri, Eri, and Ayumi…
In the middle of the staircase, Kagome stopped, red in the face. She blew a large breath out from between her lips, snarling a bit as she tried to button up her shirt. She'd have to have a long talk with them if they ever met up again between random and outrageous sicknesses her grandfather made up. For obvious reasons, right now, she felt like disappearing through the well to the Feudal era and not returning for awhile. Not after the fool she'd made of herself at that party… at least from what she could remember.
"Mama?" She cooed gently from the base of the stairs, craning her neck to see into the kitchen through the living room where her mother would most likely be. And sure enough, there she was, kneeling at the dining table with her hands neatly folded in front of her. Her eyes seemed so blank, worried, almost like she had been sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, thinking over all the horrors that had overcome her daughter in that land where Inuyasha came from.
"Kagome." The mother replied softly, but said nothing more.
"Mama, I can explain. It's not what it looked like!" She started out, nearly frantic with her words to change all dirty thoughts from her mother's mind.
"I-It's alright, Kagome. I understand." She replied simply, her eyes gluing to her fingers.
"You understand?" Kagome questioned, blinking faintly with long, dark lashes. Her mother didn't reply, and for awhile the miko stood there in a hot silence that made her face burn even more.
"I worry for you, you know." Mama said gently, a small smile lifting to her face, though her words and tone were anything but happy.
"I know that." Kagome murmured back, glancing down to the ground with complete guilt.
"I wish you wouldn't go back there… at least not for awhile." She finally admitted, watering eyes lifting finally to meet her daughter's. It was such a concerned and broken look on her face, Kagome didn't have time to speak before her mom disturbed the silence again. "You're my only daughter, and… and.." The woman's shoulder shivered a bit and a tear dripped down from underneath her eye.
Kagome fell to her knees beside her only parent, wrapping her arms tight over her mom's trembling shoulders. "Mama." She said softly, holding her close. "I can't do that!"
"I just can't stand to see you in these situations, Kagome. It makes me feel so…"
The sentence was never finished, and for awhile the mother and daughter simply kneeled there and embraced with affection they had deprived each other of until now. There were soft 'I'm sorry' whimpers, but never once did Kagome agree to stay here where she probably belonged. She couldn't do that, and her mama knew that.
"I'll be safe, I promise." Was her only bit of reassurance that she could manage, muffled into the fabric of her mom's shirt as she buried her face there.
"Please don't worry. Please? Could I go back for a few days if I promise to be back in a lil while?" Kagome pleaded, and pulled back from the clingy hug to watch her mother give a slow and obligated nod. The schoolgirl felt so guilty, like a weight was hanging over her shoulders, trying to crush her into the linoleum floor beneath her. But she had to go back to Inuyasha, had to finish the quest she had started, had even caused.She'd promised to herself that she would, and even her mother knew that.
Besides, how could she ever leave behind the friends she'd made? Understanding and kind Sango, perverted yet hilarious Miroku, affectionate and loyal Kirara, adorable little Shippo, and, of course, the asshole Inuyasha who she loved most of all.
She had to go back to them now.
Rising from the floor, Kagome cradled her mother's head against her hip as if the roles had switched, and the middle aged woman still kneeling on the floor was the child instead of her. Goodbyes were whispered, and the miko managed to slip in something humorous to tell her little brother when he woke up, an inside joke of some sort, just to lighten the mood. It wasn't long after that that she slipped out the sliding back door and was treading across the green grass of her yard.
She couldn't get it out of her mind, how she had awoken this morning. It clung to her brain light a disease. She wanted to forget it, pretend it had never happened as stupid and foolishly as it had. Then again, she wished she could remember exactly how it felt to have the hanyou's hands all over her again, how his lips felt, how close they had gotten to… Oh yeah, and she couldn't wait for the awkward talk about it with Inuyasha, seeing what he remembered of the party. Goodness, could they ever get a break?
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You guys are going to have to forgive me for the terrible, terrible wait between this chapter and the last one. I've been so busy it's RIDICULOUS. Plus I lost my muse. It's back though! And, also, you must forgive me for how rusty I've become with portraying Kagome and Inu's personalities. Ugh. I'll try to get better. I hope you aren't too frustrated now by the lack of lemon in this chapter, but you'll thank me later when this story somehow turns out to be great. Somehow. XD
I love you all! Review!
