"I can't believe you forgot to bring a water bottle. That's like the golden rule of flying. It's super important to stay hydrated, because flying can leave you dehydrated," Kagome informed Inuyasha. She had pulled out the oversized bottle from her backpack, and was holding it up as if she was presenting something fabulous. It was fabulous, actually, because it was going to be well-needed for the super long flight.
Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her. "I know that, wench. It has to do with the change in temperature and pressure. Plus they do circulate the air from outside into here, and there's no moisture out there."
"You're smart," Kagome grinned at him, a little impressed.
"Does that surprise you?" Inuyasha narrowed his eyes and gave her a look. "Most people wrongfully and automatically assume I'm an idiot just because I'm a…never mind."
"A what?" Kagome asked curiously.
"I said never mind," Inuyasha groaned, shaking his head. He almost slipped and said the H word in front of her, and that was not something he wanted to reveal about himself. At least not right now. "It just doesn't matter, ok? People look at me and make an awful lot of assumptions, and they're almost never true."
Kagome propped her chin on her hand as she leaned over to size him up. His green brown eyes followed her as she gazed back at him. "What are you staring at me like that for?" he asked her gruffly.
She just shrugged. "Just trying to wonder what kind of assumptions people might make. I suppose my first assumption, from when we first met like an hour or so ago, was that you're kind of rough, grouchy, and pretty standoffish."
Inuyasha smirked at her. "Well, shit. You're actually not wrong at all with your assumptions."
Kagome laughed at him. "Well, perhaps not, but I now think you just like to put on an antisocial front, and while those may be true traits, there's a lot more to you than you show."
"I'm complicated," Inuyasha grinned at her.
"To say the least," Kagome rolled her eyes. "What assumptions did you have about me?"
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed as he stared at her. "That you're little Miss Popular, a bit of a party girl, who thrives on gossip and worships whoever the latest trash celebrity is."
"Oh, hell no!" Kagome exclaimed, clapping a hand to her mouth. "Your assumptions were so far from the truth it's not funny. Wow. I'm almost insulted that you ever thought I was shallow like that, even if we don't know each other!" She couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it was.
"Clearly I'm not very skilled at assumption making like you," Inuyasha snorted. "Did I at least get any of them right?"
"No!" Kagome exclaimed. They quieted down, and after a moment her eyes glinted again. "So people assume you're an idiot because you're a what?" She dared to push his buttons a bit, just to see how he would react. She was getting the impression that he liked their playful banter deep down, despite the constant huffiness.
Inuyasha groaned internally when she brought up that near slip-up once again. "Because I'm a metalhead," he told her simply. "Clearly because I have long hair and wear metal band shirts half the time, I'm a slacker, an idiot, that I do nothing with my life but sit around smoking pot all day."
Kagome smirked a bit at that and glanced around to make sure that nobody was actually listening to their conversation. The person in front of them definitely had a headset on and was watching something on their airplane screen. The people across the aisle were asleep, and the other she could see also had headphones on and were bobbing their heads to music.
"Well, you do look like a stereotypical metalhead right now, and sadly that's a pretty common misconception. I suppose we've determined you're not an idiot. Do you smoke?"
"Nope, can't tolerate the smell," Inuyasha snickered for a second and pointed at his nose. "My senses are dulled thanks to being human form at the moment, but when I'm youkai like normal, I can smell things far beyond your abilities. It can be a blessing and a curse."
"What other abilities do you have?" Kagome asked him curiously.
"I'm super strong, and extremely fast. I can jump pretty far as well. I have a super fast metabolism as well, which is awesome because I have this amazing ability to be able to eat large amounts of ramen in one sitting. I get to eat a lot and still keep my abs."
"Can I see them?" Kagome found herself blurting out before realizing just what she asked, and instantly turned red.
Inuyasha looked confused for a second. "See what? My abs?" He found himself flushing a bit at the idea. At least he wasn't the only one embarrassed right now, judging by his tomato hued neighbor. "Hm, no. I'm not lifting my shirt up on an airplane."
"Sorry, I totally didn't mean to just ask that out of nowhere. Mouth was moving faster than my brain," Kagome muttered sheepishly. She had made such a total fool of herself right now, she wished she could just disappear. However there was nowhere to run off to, so she was forced to sit next to the hot young guy that apparently had abs, and pretend like nothing had happened.
"So what were you doing in South Africa? Just vacation? Work? School? How long?" Kagome blurted out next, desperate to change the subject. They were going to have a nice, normal conversation now, right? No more discussing abs, even if she really did want to see them.
Inuyasha blinked and tried to catch all of that. "Uh, two years, actually. Both work and school, I guess. I just got my masters here and was working out in the field. I'm a biologist."
"Masters, damn!" Kagome grinned, sitting up straighter to eyeball him with appreciation. "You are smart!"
"Yeah, I know," was Inuyasha's retort. "What about you? What brought you to South Africa? It's not the best place for a young, weak human girl to travel alone."
Kagome just glared at him, only pretending to be mad, as his tone was light and teasing. "I may be just a weak little human girl to you, but I survived without harm, as you can see. I'm twenty years old now, so I'm not exactly a child, you know. I wanted to do something for my twenty first birthday, which is actually in a month from now, so I decided to go on a vacation. Somewhere that I could take a lot of pictures."
"Oh, so you came down here just to do it for the 'gram?" Inuyasha smirked. "You travel around to get pictures that will get you lots of likes and followers? Try to make a living off of that like half the girls your age, instead of going to college?"
"No," Kagome huffed and pointed a finger at him. "You're making more assumptions about me, and you're still completely wrong. I do have a Bachelor's degree, thank you very much. I graduated college almost a year ago. Photography is one of my main passions and I definitely don't do it for the gram. I love animals and South Africa has always been a dream of mine, so I came here, explored a bit, went to Kruger. My main interest in photography is wildlife and scenery."
Inuyasha perked up at that. "Oh, really? I was working at Kruger. It's an amazing place, and definitely one of the best experiences of my entire life. I'm not much of a photographer, but I've got a damn good memory, and the things I've seen…"
Kagome couldn't help but smile at him, at the way his face lit up with genuine happiness. "I'm sure you have a million stories to tell, and I'm kind of jealous, since I've only been here for two weeks, not two years."
"Oh, you have no idea," Inuyasha chuckled. "So how did you graduate college at twenty anyway?"
"I graduated high school at seventeen and was already taking college courses by then. I skipped a grade in middle school since I was so advanced. Took a lot of advanced placement classes and graduated at the top of my class. Pretty much all I did during my teen and early adult years was study, and that didn't leave much time for anything else," Kagome informed him.
Inuyasha gazed at her with more newfound appreciation. She wasn't just a pretty face, she was also intelligent, and that was something that made him all the more interested in her. "So, you do have some brains up in there after all."
"Yes, I have a brain, and I know how to use it quite well," Kagome smiled sweetly at him. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Twenty five," Inuyasha replied. "My birthday was at the beginning of the year."
"Aww, you're only twenty five? In youkai terms, you're still a baby," Kagome giggled.
Inuyasha glared at her and huffed. "I'm a fully grown man. I'm not a fucking baby."
Kagome laughed. "I know, I'm just teasing you." She grabbed her bottle and took a long sip, giving Inuyasha's tray table a sidelong glance. He had long finished his Coke, and was currently toying with the can. It wasn't even a full size can, just one of the mini ones. "Do you want a drink? I have more than enough water to get me through this flight. You'll have to share the bottle with me if you want some, since my cup is kind of full of garbage right now."
"Uh, sure, thanks. As long as you don't mind drinking after me," Inuyasha replied. He had been feeling thirsty after the soda and pizza, and had been debating about asking for an extra water cup the next time a flight attendant passed by.
"It's fine. You seem rather healthy," Kagome replied. Her knee had been fidgeting a bit, and she found it hard to keep still. "Hey, Inuyasha, hate to bother you, but do you mind getting up so I can run to the bathroom?"
"Didn't you go before the plane took off?" he raised a brow at her. They had barely been airborne for two hours at this point.
"Yes, of course. I always do. But I always feel like I have to pee whenever I fly. Too much information, sorry," Kagome gave him a rueful grin. She was a bit embarrassed, but it was normal body functions. Nothing she could help.
Inuyasha sighed and got to his feet. In all honestly he wasn't too bothered about getting up, since it gave him the opportunity to stretch his legs for a moment. Economy sucked when you were tall. She was only in the bathroom for what seemed like a split second before coming back out to take her seat back. "What the hell, can you pee any faster?" he exclaimed as he gave her an odd look.
"Maybe," Kagome grinned, glancing up at her new friend. He was tall, she realized, a full head taller than she was. Tall and lean, she noted, as she watched him stretch and arch his back for a second longer, before stooping to get back into his seat. 'Wipe your mouth,' she told herself, as she eyed his flexing biceps. Not wanting to get caught ogling him, she quickly turned and glanced down at her hands.
They sat quietly for a few, before Inuyasha dared to initiate conversation. "So, um, did you get some good wildlife shots when you went to Kruger?"
Kagome glanced back his way, flashing him a happy grin. "Yeah! I got a ton of good ones. Do you want to see some of them? I mean, I'm sure all my pictures are of what you saw there every day probably, but if you were bored and interested…"
"Bored to tears, yes. Interested, hmmmm," Inuyasha found it amusing, the way she pouted at that. "Of course I'm interested, silly. I'm a wildlife biologist after all. Do you even have to ask?"
"Ok, well, just didn't want to assume that you found me and my hobbies all that interesting," Kagome lamented. Her laptop was in her backpack, so she dug it out set it up. "I haven't gone through and organized my files yet, so they may be a bit of a mess, but here is everything from my trip," she told him. She dragged the folder around to bring up her files and pushed the computer towards Inuyasha so he could see. "Here, you can just take my computer if it's easier that way," she told him.
Inuyasha put his tray table back down and set the laptop in front of him, angling it towards Kagome so she could see the screen as well, since she was leaning over his way to watch. "All these?" he raised a brow at her, upon noticing the file count. She just grinned sheepishly and nodded. "Damn, girl. This might take up the rest of our time on this flight."
"Nah, there's not that many. I had gone through before and deleted my blurry pictures," Kagome informed him.
"At least you have a Mac, so that's a plus in my book," Inuyasha declared. He started going through the images, feeling a bit impressed by the quality of the pictures she had taken. A close up shot of a lioness's face made him pause. It was taken after a kill, for she was licking her lip and had blood smeared all over her face. "Holy shit, that's a good shot. What kind of camera were you using?"
"Canon with a 150-600 millimeter lens," Kagome declared proudly. "I love that shot so much."
"Yeah. You're actually halfway decent at this," he teased her, as he continued going through her pictures, stopping at one of a leopard lounging in a tree, all four legs dangling down on either side of the branch. "Leopards are one of my favorites. They're actually the strongest big cat here, pound for pound, even though they're the smallest. Similar weight to cheetahs, but cheetahs are taller, since they're built like greyhounds, basically."
"I love cheetahs. They're always been one of my favorite big cats. I even got a shot of a couple in there somewhere," Kagome replied happily. She had so many amazing memories, and was so glad she had managed to get a ton of good shots to document her adventures.
"Nice. You don't often see cheetahs down here," Inuyasha told her. "Usually they're more north of South Africa, but they can be spotted in some areas. They're my other favorite, because of their amazing speed. I actually have some pictures myself with cheetahs."
"Show me later?" Kagome asked eagerly. She shifted her weight a bit, as she leaned her elbow on the armrest, which was getting a little uncomfortable. "So what animals were you mainly working with?"
"Big cats. They were my main focus of my studies," Inuyasha admitted.
Kagome let out a short laugh. "So, the dog demon has a thing for the kitties? Aww, how cute is that!?"
"Hah. Yeah, they're amazing predators," Inuyasha flashed a grin at her.
"I want to go to Asia sometime and see snow leopards one day," Kagome commented, as he slowly went through her leopard pictures.
"Yeah, good luck with that. They're very difficult to find since they are so elusive and live at high altitude. I would love to go study them myself, so maybe one day. Unlike you, I would have a much easier time tracking them, given my senses," he told her.
"Snow leopards are one of my other favorites. I kind of like them more than the regular leopard," Kagome said.
"You know that they're actually more closely related to tigers than leopards, right? The common ancestor of the big cats split off millions of years ago, leading to tigers and snow leopards being closely related, and the other branch split into jaguars, lions, and leopards. They're the only species in the genus Panthera. Cheetahs and cougars each have their own. Don't mind me, I'm not trying to bore you with this scientific talk," Inuyasha muttered sheepishly.
Kagome grinned at him, for she liked hearing him talk. He probably had no idea how cute he looked when he was talking about something he really liked. Plus, a smart guy was a sexy guy. "No, you're not boring me at all. I really like listening to you talk about the big kitties. Share as much knowledge as you can while we're looking."
"So only while we're looking? I can't share my knowledge when we aren't viewing pictures?" Inuyasha smirked at her. He was thrilled that she was actually interested in his ramblings, since most people didn't have the same appreciation that he did. It was nice to find somebody who had common interests for once.
"I might tolerate your chatter at other times too," she replied. As he continued flipping through her pictures, throwing random facts out here and there, she hung onto his every word. When they were looking at pictures of zebras, he told her the story about how he almost got run over by a bolting group of zebras, which was apparently called a zeal or a dazzle. Who know?!
"So, you're still going to be going out studying animals back in Montana, right?" Kagome asked, gazing at him.
"Yeah," he told her, turning his head to glance her way. "Planning on studying bears and mountain lions. Not as exotic as the African animals, but still super awesome."
Kagome fidgeted her hands for a moment. "That's cool," she said, kicking herself for sounding so lame right now. "Do you ever think…" she began, glancing his way when he looked over at her when she paused. Furrowing her brows, she continued nervously. "Uh, that maybe I could tag along with you sometime? Like out in the wild somewhere?"
Inuyasha raised a brow at her, taken by surprise at her question. "That would involve us meeting up outside of this plane, you know."
"Oh, gee, I thought we would just go out and stalk some mountain lions and grizzlies right here, Inuyasha," she retorted, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
"Well, you thought wrong," Inuyasha snickered at her, and the way she said his name, before turning his attention back to the laptop.
Kagome's heart dropped a bit and she looked away, feeling stupid for asking. "Ok, I guess I did."
Inuyasha snuck a glance her way again, holding back his laugh, as he let her sit and sulk for a moment. "Do you have good hiking boots and can you handle steep, rocky terrain and mountains?"
"Not right now, and I have hiked a bit in Arizona, so it depends how steep we're talking, I guess. So is that a no, then?" Kagome replied.
"Hm," Inuyasha put a finger to his chin, as he pretended to think. "I still am in the process of getting a job in Bozeman, so I obviously don't know the rules of my future employer, but generally while on the job I'm not going to be able to run around with somebody tagging along that doesn't work with me."
"Look, it's fine. I get it, ok?" Kagome sighed. "Didn't mean to bother you by asking."
Inuyasha snorted quietly. "Just so you know, there's an REI in Bozeman that will sell the hiking boots. Or you can always go to a locally owned shop instead. If you aren't familiar with the area or that type of environment, I would recommend hiking with somebody who does. I've explored quite a bit of Western Montana."
Catching his drift, Kagome grinned happily. "Great! So we'll be keeping in touch then?"
"If you would like me to be your guide, then keeping in touch will kind of be necessary. Unless you want to see if we magically cross paths again at random," Inuyasha replied.
"Can I have your phone, then? I'll put my number in it, while thinking about it. Just so I don't forget to ask later," Kagome asked, trying not to appear too eager, for fear of scaring him off. When he dug his phone from his pocket and handed it to her, she quickly input her number into his and then scrolled up through the contact list to the top to get his number to input into her phone. "You have so few contacts in here," she couldn't help but comment.
Inuyasha sighed and shrugged. "Yeah, well, I'm not in the habit of exchanging numbers with people. Pretty much everybody in my phone is family, or associated with family, although there's a couple of close friends in there as well."
"I don't have a ton of contacts either," Kagome admitted. "Never really had a lot of close friends and lost touch with people I knew in high school once I graduated. We just went our separate ways, once we weren't forced to be in the same rooms as each other all day. There. Now we each have a new friend." She paused and shot a look at him. "We can call each other friends, right? Even if we just met?"
"I don't think there's any laws saying we can't," Inuyasha told her wryly.
"Perfect. Now we are officially friends. Just don't block or ghost me, after we get to Montana, please. I'll be very disappointed," Kagome said, giving him a hard look.
"Damn. There goes my plan," Inuyasha teased her.
"Jerk," Kagome made a face at him. Turning their attention back to the laptop, she watched as he kept on going through the images once he stuffed his phone back in his pocket.
"Whoaaa!" Inuyasha exclaimed, his finger poised just over the next button, frozen in place. As soon as he saw the picture, his eyes widened as he stared for a moment.
Kagome felt her face flush a bit as soon as the picture popped up onto her screen, for she had totally forgotten those other pictures has been stuck in that folder. She quickly debated grabbing her computer from him, but part of her wanted to let him look so she could study his reaction.
Inuyasha bit his lip as he slowly clicked through the pictures,. They were of his brand new friend, wearing nothing but a little red bikini, as she posed on the beach. Right now it was taking all of his effort not to actually drool. She was kneeling on the sand, as a wave came crashing onto shore, the foam splashing around her legs and feet. Her hair was down in the picture, and all wavy and wild with the wind.
"You model?" Inuyasha managed to tear his gaze away from the computer, to turn and look at his now slightly bashful friend.
"No, I've never tried. I just ran across a photographer and was talking and these pictures are my failed attempt at trying to look sexy," Kagome blushed a little as she spoke. There was a fiery flicker in his eyes, and she had definitely noticed it when he gazed at her.
"Yeah, you failed alright," Inuyasha retorted, his voice a little thin. He turned back to her laptop and started to go through the rest. Failed? What the hell? Mission totally accomplished, and he was not about to tell her that. Swallowing hard, he made sure to memorize each and every bikini shot. That closeup of her upper body in profile, where she was pushing her hair back from her face? Yeah, completely drool worthy.
Kagome was busy keenly watching Inuyasha pore over her pictures, decidedly keeping quiet how he was definitely clicking through these a lot slower than the animal photos.
"Flowery tattoo, huh? Too bad there's not a better picture showing all of it," Inuyasha commented, as he came to the last of her bikini pictures, which was most unfortunate. He had noticed it in a few of the pictures, but the ones showing more of her body were taken from her non-inked side.
"Well, if you ever let me see those famous abs one day, I might let you look at my tattoo. Just not here, because I'm not about to lift my shirt up on an airplane," Kagome teased him, using his words from earlier.
"Noted," Inuyasha smirked. Now that the bikini pictures were sadly over, he found himself looking at a series of giraffe images. "That's a really good one of the baby. They're so cool. I got to help deal with an orphaned baby a year ago."
"You're making me so jealous. That kind of job just sounds so fun," Kagome sighed with envy.
Inuyasha nodded. "It is, and it's why I chose my field. I'd rather be around a lot of animals instead of people. It's definitely not easy though, and gets dangerous at times. Oh, hold up, now this picture is the real winner!"
"Oh my god! Shit, I forgot that was in there too!" Kagome exclaimed, when she noticed he was gawking at the picture she had taken herself the last day she spent on the beach. She was facing away from the camera, arms up in a big victorious v, wearing a bikini bottom that didn't cover her entire ass. Yeah, most likely her face was a tomato right now. Note to self, always put sexy or revealing images in their own folder from now on.
Unable to hide his grin, Inuyasha used his fingers to zoom in on the touchpad, honing in on a very particular area of the photo. "Well, Kagome, while I'm on a roll with dropping facts at random, I'd like to inform you that the gluteus maximus is the biggest, heaviest muscle in the body. However there's still debate if it's the strongest or if the masseter is actually the strongest. What do you think? Just look at that!"
"Inuyasha, stop!" Kagome exclaimed, trying to hold back her laughter, for he was suddenly zooming in and out on her half exposed ass. Honestly she didn't know if she was actually completely mortified or if she really found the entire thing to be absolutely hilarious. She reached over to try and press the button to go to the next image, but he quickly caught her wrist with his hand to keep hers away. His touch was light, as his fingers looped her small wrist, but quite strong all the same. They playfully fought over control of the laptop, both of them laughing at each other's antics.
"Nope, I wasn't done discussing anatomy," Inuyasha teased her a bit, mostly because she was laughing so much herself, and because she had obviously been willingly walking around in public like that. If she had really been bothered by him looking at a picture of her half bare ass, he would have just secretly ogled and moved on. She did have a very nice ass. "By the way, is this the same bikini you had on in those other pictures?"
"Yeah," Kagome admitted. Her eyes flicked down to her wrist, which was still in his warm grasp, as he held her hand still. Eventually he let go of her, and she found herself letting her fingers trail over the spot he had been holding, for it had tingled slightly. It was weird the effect that he had on her, for all of his little tiny looks and touches made her feel all fluttery inside. He could be a bit of a jerk at times, but she definitely had a crush on him.
A/N Just trying to have some fun banter here, since there is only so much you can actually do on an airplane.