Disclaimer: I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this little chat… especially for the hesitant one. A nod of recognition is bent towards Rumiko Takahashi for her creative prowess.
A Debt of Gratitude: With thanks to Fenikkusuken, who might be right. Maybe.
Early December…
Talking Sense
"You can't keep running away from her," Shippo insisted. "How do you expect to get anywhere with Kagome if you keep avoiding her?"
"And what am I supposed to tell her?"
Shippo hesitated. "You don't have to tell her anything, but it's crazy not to talk to her at all. She's a friend—maybe more than a friend if I'm reading her signals right."
"There are rules about this kind of thing," Inuyasha gruffly pointed out.
Shippo snorted. "Oh, yeah. Very convincing, coming from a person whose very existence is proof that the rules can be bent and broken."
"My brother would kill me. Shit, he might even kill her!"
"You know that's not true," Shippo snapped.
"He'd be pissed, and he'd find a way to scare her off. You know how he is."
The redhead looked away. "I know, but I don't see what harm there is in letting you have a life."
"She's human," Inuyasha replied, as if that explained everything. "Youkai and human don't mix…"
"That's crap! I'm youkai, and some of my best friends are human—or half human," Shippo interrupted, showing a rare spark of anger. "Just because Sesshoumaru considers you the family scandal doesn't mean you don't deserve a little happiness."
Inuyasha growled in frustration. "Look, he lets me do what I want so long as I don't draw attention to myself… or him. No one can know who or what we really are… or we lose what little freedom we have."
"So, we keep your budding romance a secret," Shippo argued. "He doesn't have to know anything."
"He isn't the only problem. I think she's dating a guy; he's a fucking doctor of something or other down at the university."
"So?"
"I'm just a…"
"A janitor?" Shippo finished for him.
"Yeah, that too," Inuyasha muttered miserably. "She's out of my league."
"Don't you think Kagome would like to have some say in that decision?"
"Huh?"
"I think you're a fool to back off now," Shippo said seriously. "I've seen the way she looks at you… smelled the way her scent changes when she's around you… and I suspect her taste runs to janitors."
"Keh," he responded, looking uncomfortable.
"I don't know why she'd settle on someone as ornery as you, but for some reason, she likes what she sees," the redhead remarked frankly.
Inuyasha scrubbed his hand across his face. "Everything is so complicated. Maybe it would be better if she married that doctor guy."
"Marry? You want to marry her?" Shippo pounced.
"I didn't say that," he grumbled. The redhead snorted in lieu of verbal skepticism, and Inuyasha grimaced. "I just don't know if it's worth the risk."
"That all depends."
"On what?" Inuyasha asked wearily.
"How much does Kagome mean to you?"
Inuyasha's shoulders drooped slightly. "I can't."
"Can't what?" Shippo prompted.
"I can't risk everything… for both of us. If Sesshoumaru finds out, he'll haul our asses out of here, and we'd have to leave everything—Kagome, the kids, Gert, the Haunted House… all of it."
"We've had to start over before. That comes with the lifespan."
"If I get close and Kagome finds out about us, we're screwed… because no one can know. But if she doesn't find out…"
"You'd be lying to her, which is a lousy thing to do to the woman you love," Shippo finished for him, earning a glare but not a denial. "Damned if you do; damned if you don't."
"Damn. If I can't tell her the truth—which I can't—then I shouldn't even be thinking about…"
"Romantically pursuing our lovely principal?" his partner glibly supplied.
"Yeah."
"But she's all you can think about, right?" Shippo hazarded.
"Yeah."
"You might as well go for it, then; my advice is to take things slow. Stop avoiding her… while giving this doctor guy a run for his money."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Inuyasha asked sullenly.
Shippo plunked a sheet of green paper onto the table between them. "Let's start with this!"
Posted on December 11, 2008. 670 words.
