Temporary Home
Summary: Kagome would be the first to tell you that life wasn't easy. She would also tell you that she didn't want it to be. If not for the hard life she had, she wouldn't have the life she did...all thanks to them...
Anime/Manga: InuYasha/Prince of Tennis
Genre: Romance/Drama
Pairing: Kagome (None)
Rated: T
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'Welcome home...' Kagome let Eiji guide her inside where she was immediately confronted with a blur of gold fur knocking her back off of her feet.
"Taiki!" A male voice called out suddenly.
Kagome looked away quickly to avoid being licked to death. Her eyes lit up and she laughed as the large Golden Retriever nudged her with his head. Her hands came up and she ran her fingers through the soft fur as Eiji pulled the dog off of her and sat down beside her as she got to know the most excited member of the family.
"Kagome-Chan, this is Taiki."
"Ohayo, Taiki-Kun," she looked the dog in the eyes, those warm umber eyes that stared back lovingly. She was already completely taken with the dog. She saw a hand reach out from next to her and glanced to her left where another person now stood. He had a slightly dully shade of red hair, something like a mix between chestnut brown and a dusty rose color. His eyes a similar shade of playful sky blue like Eiji's. He was much taller, wearing an apron with an oven mitten held in one hand while he crouched down to her level.
"Daichi, twenty-one years old!"
She sweat dropped as he introduced himself with his age. She took his hand and was hauled up onto her feet, "Kagome, ten."
"Wah!? So young..." He smiled, "I'm your oldest brother, it's nice to meet you, Kagome-Chan."
"Is she here!?"
"Eiji? Eiji, are you guys back!?"
Two voices yelled down the stairs, both female.
"Hai! We'll come up!" Eiji yelled up the staircase.
Kagome stepped back a bit and her hand fell away from Daichi's. "Who?"
"Your older sisters," Sachiko smiled as she placed a hand on Kagome's shoulder, "let's go meet them."
'Sisters? There's Eiji and Daichi...and two sisters?' Kagome let Sachiko take her hand in hers, guiding her up the steps as she did. Behind her, Daichi and Eiji peered from around the staircase railing. Neither following after her. "Aren't they coming with us?"
"Hm?" Sachiko glanced back and frowned at the way her boys were acting. "Actually, Daichi was cooking before we got home, and Eiji is going to go help him."
"Hai!"
She watched the two take off back to where she assumed the Kitchen was. Walking with Sachiko, she turned down the hall but stopped as one of the doors opened.
"..."
Kagome looked curiously at another boy, taller than Eiji, shorter than Daichi. He had a deep chestnut brown hair color with round circular glasses and slightly darker blue eyes than the other two. He looked just as curious about her as she felt about him. Moving closer to Sachiko who was watching the exchange, she watched him kneel down beside her and smile as he lifted his hand out to her.
"You must be Kagome-Chan, my name is Kouta, I'm nineteen."
She blinked, "...y-you're also..."
"I'm your second oldest brother, third oldest sibling in the house." He sighed, "you must be heading to meet them. I wish you luck."
"..."
"Kouta," Sachiko scolded with a smile, "don't make them seem bad. They're just excited."
Kouta shrugged before standing and watching his mother pull Kagome along. When they came to the last room on the left, he watched her eyes take in the sight before her. He could help but smile at the innocence of the girl. Returning back into his room and shutting the door behind him as he did.
Kagome was floored, the door was open and there was the smell of wet paint inside. "...blue..." she looked at the soft Alice blue paint that covered the walls, a boarder around the room in a darker midnight blue was at the base of the walls and the top. On the ceiling, star clusters in different sizes were painted over a dark navy ceiling with flushes of violet and soft shades of pink contrasting with vibrant shades of magenta making up a nebula. Specs of white and silver scattered the ceiling and clusters of specks made up universes that were in reaching distance. "Whoa..."
"Kouta, Daichi and Eiji were working really hard on the ceiling, you like it?"
Kagome turned to a female with a paint brush in her hand, she had what looked to be long crimson maroon red hair twisted up in a bun, her eyes were grey with a blue undertone. Height wise, she was a little shorter than Daichi, but not by much. "I-it's beautiful..."
"Wah! Kawaii!" Another girl squealed in excitement as she stuck her head out of the room and yelled down the hall and downstairs. "OUR BABY SISTER LOVES HER BIG BROTHERS MURAL! YOU BOY'S DID GREAT!"
Kagome blushed brightly and bowed her head, her bangs falling over her eyes. In the Kikumaru house, there were three others who were feeling just as flustered. Kouta sat at his desk with his head buried in his hands, barely visible was the flush of pink along his cheeks.
Daichi and Eiji were working with their backs to one another in the kitchen, careful not to turn around and expose their embarrassment.
"Nai, nai! Kagome-Chan, I'm Etsuko and I'm seventeen years old. I'm older than Eiji but younger than everyone else." Etsuko had wild short red hair, looking the closest to a female version of Eiji. She had wide blue eyes and an expressive smile, her quirky personality and wild motions led Kagome to believe she was where a good majority of Eiji's personality came from.
"My name is Ayano, I'm your oldest sibling at twenty-three years old." She crouched down and cooed, "you are so adorable looking. I see why Eiji wouldn't stop gushing about you these last two weeks."
"We wanted to go meet you sooner, but Eiji told us to stay away." Etsuko scoffed, "said that we'd scare you off."
"Dinner is ready, nyan!"
Ayano grinned, "Eiji can be a bit of a bully, Kagome-Chan, so if he gives you a hard time, you let us know."
"I-Iie! You two are lying about me! Okaa-san!"
Sachiko laughed, "I didn't hear anything wrong with what they were saying. Kagome-Chan can form her own opinions, I think. So, you don't need to worry. Right, Kagome-Chan?"
Kagome looked between the three women and Eiji who'd come upstairs a moment ago. "I am good at forming my own opinions, yes. I like Eiji-San...and I like Daichi-San and Kouta-San...I like Ayano-San and Etsuko-San...and Sachiko-San...I like Taiki too..."
"..."
Arms wrapped around her from behind, she fell back into someone's lap, something wet fell onto her arm and a hand touched along her cheek. Pulling away, she saw Eiji's fingers were wet with her tears. 'I'm crying? Why?' Eiji held her in his arms tightly, coddling her as he let her cry into his chest.
"Kagome-Chan must have been really lonely at the orphanage. Don't think about it anymore. Say nii-san and nee-chan confidently. Say Okaa-San and Otou-San, you can call us like that, Kagome-Chan."
More tears fell.
In the families before, weeks had passed, months even...and never had they asked her to call them such. Never did they hold her in their arms or laugh with her. They didn't paint a mural above her room for sure. They had always brought her home and continued their lives as if nothing had changed...trying to fit her in but not able to. This family was wild, untamable, and unmanageable. Still, it was filled with so much love. Love in their eyes, and love in how they spoke to one another. She knew that he said it was okay to call them nii-san and nee-chan, but would there really be a day where she could feel like she was part of this family? 'Oh, I get it. That's why I'm crying, isn't it? I know that this won't last long. That's why I'm hurting. It's so beautiful, this family...I want to be a part of it...but for how long will it last?'
"Wah, Kagome-Chan was right, this lacy stuff at the bottom of her dress really is itchy!"
She laughed; she couldn't help it. It bubbled out of her and flooded her senses. This guy was something on a whole different level than herself. Wrapping her arms around him tightly, she cried, laughed, and cried some more.
It didn't matter.
However temporary her time at this home might be. She was there right now, and she would make every moment count!
This Temporary Home...was hers...for now.
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Me: Here is chapter four! I'm actually on quite the roll~ so proud of myself.