Little Sister
Chapter 21: Perfect, but Impossible
Kagome did not dare stay in school. She knew she had to find Jakotsu and get him back through that well ASAP. In all the confusion, she managed to slip out before they put the entire school under lockdown, which was very fortunate. No one would be chasing her around unless she was connected to Jakotsu by one of her friends, or poor Toshiro! And here she had been hoping she could keep Mukotsu away by hanging out with Toshiro. He certainly was more appealing that her late husband! But now, thanks to Jakotsu's warped libido, that was shot all to hell...
Well, at least she had one big advantage over the police; she could track Jakotsu by his jewel shard. She noticed he had backtacked. Great, maybe he went back home. Could he possibly be thinking of making her life just a tiny bit easier? Sure, there he was, looking to leave the well shrine again.
"I can't believe you did this! You are soooo in trouble now, Jakotsu!" Kagome hissed as she pushed him back into the shrine gates.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me that Hojo the Apothocary's son was so hot! And here you were letting me think he'd be a dreadful bore! Why didn't you mention that he was perfect? Gah! Why does everyone make my life so difficult? Oh, Kagome, this boy..." Jakotsu closed his eyes, as if remembering his very first taste of a favorite dish. "Well, like I said, it's just as well that you dumped him, little sister."
"What do you mean by that? You were molesting poor Hojo right in front of the entire sixth-period lunch!" Kagome fumed.
Jakotsu laughed. "Are you kidding? A few more minutes and I could have had him right on top of the table!"
Kagome's face was so red, she could barely move her mouth. But she managed to eke out, "You mean, Hojo was..."
"Kags, let's just say this; there's no mistaking it. And let me tell you something else, I was quite impressed! Pick your jaw up off the floor, little sister!" Jakotsu teased her. "You snooze, you lose. He's mine now. How am I supposed to let him go now that I've found him? Oh, I'll just take him back with me!"
"Jakotsu, you can't do that! First of all, he might not even be able to get through the well! I still don't know how you did it! And even if you could drag him back to the fuedal era, you'd be doing somethimg wrong! Because Hojo is too young for you!" Kagome stammered.
"What the hell are you talking about? I can take him whenever I wish!" Jakotsu sniffed.
"No, not here. In these times, there are laws... They keep people from having sex with people that are too young to handle it," Kagome warned him.
"What do I care about these laws? They don't affect me!" he shrugged. "And let me tell you, Hojo is more than ready for me!" he added with a wink.
Kagome fumed as she led Jakotsu to the well shrine. In the darkness, she left him by the staircase. "Why don't you tell me what was so important that you had to cause a terrorist attack in my school!"
"Please, don't be angry with me; I had to come and get you, because Bankotsu is very ill. He needs that medicine that you use for demon poisons; he'd had a run-in with Sesshomaru..." Jakotsu began.
"...And he'd used his poison claws! Say no more, I know what he needs! I hope there's some left in my medicine cabinet! Stay here, I'll go get it!" Kagome gasped, scurrying back out the doors.
Jakotsu was silent as Kagome left. His newly rediscovered heart was already on the verge of breaking. How would he ever get back here by himself? Oh, this was no good. He'd never see Hojo again!
"Hello? Kagome?" Jakotsu heard someone call suddenly. He held his breath. Could it possibly be? Jakotsu dashed up to the doorway, cracked it open. Yes! It was him!
"Psst! In here!" he whispered loudly. Hojo stopped in his tracks when he saw Jakotsu. His heart began to pound again. He didn't understand how this could have happened, but Toshiro couldn't seem to keep himself together when he looked at Jakotsu. At first, he didn't want to move. He was suddenly afraid of losing himself completely. His hands began to shake, so he clenched them. Rather than run away, Toshiro walked as steadily as he could toward Jakotsu, who held his hand up, bekoning.
Toshiro frowned deeply as he entered the dark well shrine. Jakotsu, at least, didn't look quite so cocky as he had before. Toshiro was nearly overwhelmed by the tide of things he wanted to say, things he wanted to shout, at Jakotsu. How could you do this to me? How could you kill me like this? I was one person this morning, and now I'm someone else, and it's all your doing? How could you be so calm about this? But these words never found their way out of Toshiro's throat. He seethed for a few seconds, staring at Jakotsu, this wondrous creature, so alien, yet so familiar. And then, after those few seconds, without any words at all, he lauched himself into Jakotsu's arms.
Their lips found eachother at once. No more thoughts came forth, about what he was doing, or why he was doing it. Just Jakotsu, whoever this person was. Just what he felt when their lips and tongues collided.
Jakotsu could taste salty tears on Hojo's cheeks. "I know, I know, I was fearful that I'd never see you again, too," Jakotsu assured Hojo when he pulled back a bit.
"Please help me understand this. I never knew this was what I'd want, but now I'm desperate to see you," Hojo wept.
Jakotsu had a rare moment, he felt like being tender. Well, he might as well show the love of his life a bit of tenderness, he figured. "I know, lovely Hojo. That's sometimes how it is. You go through your life thinking you are who you are, and then you find out there was another version of yourself being hidden, waiting to blossom, like a flower who has finally found the sunlight after withering in the shade for so long."
"And you are the one who brought the sunlight to me. But what am I going to do now?" Hojo gasped as Jakotsu wiped tears from his cheeks.
With a serene, firm voice, Jakotsu answered, "You need to just say it."
"Say what?"
"You need to say what you are. Even if you only say it to me, at least you'll be saying it," Jakotsu told him.
"I...Oh, you don't understand! Just two hours ago, my friends were making jokes about..." Hojo whispered brokenly, casting his eyes down.
"That was two hours ago. This is now. You can do it, Hojo. Just say it."
"I..." Hojo faltered yet again. Then he glanced into Jakotsu's eyes again. Suddenly, he remembered that feeling he'd had in the cafeteria. That liberation! And then, he found his voice. "I'm gay."
Jakotsu grinned. "Well, I am too, but you do not look overjoyed to me!"
Hojo sunk to his knees onto the dirt floor of the well shrine. "Please, I can't do the word jokes right about now."
"Oh! Do you mean they call people like us 'gay?' How odd!" Jakotsu commented.
"How...could you not know that? Please, if there's something strange about you... Okay, let's rephrase that. Anything that's not immediately apparent, please tell me." Hojo asked fearfully. "I'm so confused!"
"I tend to make light little jokes here and there, just to make things a little less serious, my beautiful Hojo," Jakotsu informed him, joining Hojo on the floor and cupping the young man's face in his palms. "Serious means bad to me. And you and me...this is not bad."
Hojo eagerly met Jakotsu's kiss, felt a thrill jolt through him as he realized he was about to become this enigmatic man's lover. What would he need to do? How do you make love with a man?
Drawn into Jakotsu's arms, he grew more and more aroused. Until he opened his eyes, and saw, of all things, Kagome with a bow and arrow nocked and aimed straight at Jakotsu! He gasped, which instantly brought Jakotsu back to earth. He whirled around and watched Kagome's sacred arrow point at his neck.
"What did I tell you, Jakotsu? Get into the well, now!" Kagome ordered.
"I couldn't help it, Little Sister! He came here of his own free will," Jakotsu told her.
Kagome eyed Hojo. He thought that maybe he should apologize to her. But then again, if she was threatening his liberator in such a manner, he felt he should defend him. So Hojo moved so that his throat, not Jakotsu's, would be in Kagome's line of fire. "He's right, Kagome. I came here with the intention of asking you how to find him. I found him first."
"Hojo, you must move. I do not hide behind you," Jakotsu said quietly. His voice was indeed very serious, and Hojo found it left no questions about who was in charge. He hated to do it, but Hojo inched down and out of the way.
"Kagome, please, don't do this! I needed to come back and see him again. I'm sorry," Hojo stammered.
"No you don't need to be sorry, Toshiro. I'm sorry, because I obviously thought I could trust that none of them would come through the well, and yet, Jakotsu did..." Kagome broke off. How could she trust Hojo with the truth of what she did instead of going to school like any good high-schooler did?
At the same time, Toshiro's cell phone rang. Jakotsu tightened his dark eyes when he heard the sound of the ringtone. Even Toshiro found it jarring just then, and here he had loved this cool new ringtone last week! He silenced it, not caring who might be frantically trying to reach him. And, a roar sounded over the dark shrine. While Kagome and Hojo made no response to it, Jakotsu went to look outside the shrine door. He gasped "Kagome, bring your sacred arrows quickly! A demon flies above us. It's huge!"
"Oh, no! That's not a demon!" Kagome winced. Now there was no turning back...
"Jakotsu? That's an airplane... Oh, please tell me you're not crazy? Well, okay, maybe you can be just a little crazy," Toshiro stammered. Then, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. "Dammit! What do they want?" he growled. Jakotsu watched Toshiro closely as he pushed the little lit-up buttons. Kagome held her breath. Jakotsu kept eyeing the sky, even though the plane was gone, then turned his eyes back on Toshiro.
Finally, Jakotsu announced, "I must take my beloved Hojo Toshiro away from this evil place at once! There are eyes watching us, they are everywhere! I can feel them! They look at you through that nasty contraption!" He pointed at the cell phone.
Toshiro looked up from that nasty contraption and announced, "Kazu just texted me and said he Googled you."
"Huh?"
"You know, my friend. The one who you threatened with your dagger?"
Jakotsu gave Toshiro an even look. "Then you'd better tell your friend to Google me again, because I didn't feel it the first time!"
Toshiro couldn't help it. He dissolved into mad laughter. Even Kagome giggled, finally easing up on her sacred arrow. Once he recovered, Toshiro stammered, "No! My friend looked up information about you on the computer! But here's what I don't understand. He says you are an assassin!"
"I beg your pardon! Not only does he not Google me hard enough to feel it, but he doesn't even do it properly! I'm not an assassin!" Jakotsu told Toshiro vehemently.
"Of course you're not an assassin," Toshiro assured Jakotsu in a very soothing voice.
"I'm a mercenary," Jakotsu clarified. "Assassins kill men, mercenaries kill armies of men," Jakotsu sniffed. Toshiro glanced away. "Toshiro, it is true. I kill people. I can tell, just by looking at you, that you do not. But that's alright, since my brothers kill more than their share anyway and I don't feel like fighting over the leftovers with you."
"Well, wait a minute! If you're a mercenary, where are you and your brothers fighting? Iraq? No wait a minute...this well. What did you mean when you asked Jakotsu how he 'got through the well?' It's just a dried out old well, right?"
"Oh, I don't even know where to begin!" Kagome whined.
"Well, that's alright too. You can go and give this medicine to Big Brother. He'll be so happy to see you! That cam-era thing has provided him with hours of amusement, but he misses you. In the meantime, I shall explain everything to my beloved Toshiro," Jakotsu suggested.
"No! If you think for one second I'm leaving you alone with Toshiro, you'd better just think again!" Kagome growled.
Jakotsu, for his part, finally realized what was scaring Kagome so much about his new relationship with Hojo. "Little sister, I swear it to you, on my own grave that I crawled back out of, that I would never hurt my beloved Hojo!" His hands circled Toshiro's, and they both gazed into eachother's eyes. The only thing that could break the mood was the sirens.
"Oh no! How did they find me?" Toshiro gasped.
"They found you with their eyes!" Jakotsu gasped.
Toshiro felt a chill run down his spine. Jakotsu was right! "The GPS on my cell! Kagome, the police must have tracked me! You need to get Jakotsu away from here; they'll arrest him!"
"NO! How can I leave you now?" Jakotsu cried.
"Ja, you have to get in. Maybe later, we can come back. But we've got to hurry, or we won't be able to save Bankotsu!" Kagome insisted. Toshiro watched in disbelief as Kagome hauled Jakotsu out of his grasp, and made him climb into the dried out well. Suddenly, the air turned a glowing blue color, and Toshiro watched as Jakotsu was getting swallowed up by it. "I promise you, my beloved, I'll come back to you! Wait for me, please!"
"I will, I promise!" Toshiro said sadly as Jakotsu disappeared. Then, he sunk down onto the dirt floor once again, and waited miserably for the police to barge in.
I'm striving to keep up my schedule with this story, but I warn you, "Season" in Florida is just about to start, and things get crazy around here. Next chapter, it's back to Bankotsu again, and he's going to be finding out all about his fellow brothers' love lives...