A/N: Hello again, everyone! Ready for another chappie? The idea for this one came from The Turmoil Twins, I just added on to it. I think this chapter will be another longer one, too.
Disclaimer: What do ya know? They aren't mine.
The 12 Pains of Christmas: chapter 5
"Come on, Inuyasha! You were just there yesterday! You're not afraid, are you?" Kagome taunted, trying to get the hanyou out the door and into the car. She wanted to hurry up and get her last minute shopping done, but he wouldn't budge. Mrs. Higurashi had accidentally mentioned something about huge crowds of angry consumers, and he'd been a rock ever since.
He just shook his head. He wasn't going to listen to her, and he most certainly wasn't going anywhere a place with hundreds of pushy, yelling people. Something told him his ears wouldn't survive long if he went. Inuyasha sent up a silent thank-you to Mrs. Higurashi before plopping himself even more firmly in his seat.
"Nope. No way," he said with a resolute shake of his head.
"Fine then. I'll just go all alone, with no one to protect me from all the big, bad people lurking in the mall…" she let the sentence hang. It didn't take long for her words to register, and when they did, Inuyasha was on his feet in front of her, already glancing around as if searching for said people.
"Relax, Inuyasha. So you're coming, then?" she asked, unable to keep the grin off her face for long. He had fallen for it, exactly as she thought he would. Just then Souta popped out of nowhere, big eyes asking if he could come, too.
"Alright, Souta. You can come. Go turn on the heat in the car, would you?" she asked, handing him the keys. He scampered out the door and past the living room window on his way to the car.
Kagome was shrugging on her coat when her mother walked over. In her hand was her credit card.
"Here, use this. You can pay me back later. I just don't want you carrying around a bunch of cash in a crowded mall," she said, placing the card in Kagome's hand and closing her fingers around it.
"Thanks a lot, Mom! We'll be home as soon as possible, okay? Bye!" the girl shouted happily as she dashed out the door, shadowed by the anxious hanyou.
~*~
"Alright! We're here!" Souta yelled, launching himself out of the car as fast as possible. A finger snagging in his jacket hood put a stop to that plan. He turned around, rolling his eyes. He was supposed to meet his friend from school in the electronics store in a few minutes, but he'd never get there at this rate.
"One minute, Souta. I promise. Then you can go wherever you need to. I just want to figure out a meeting place for later. Inuyasha and I will go looking around, and get whatever we need. At about seven o'clock, we'll come find you and take you to pay for your stuff, okay?" she said, sounding very adult and responsible. Souta snorted and agreed quickly.
"You'll find me at the electronics store at seven. Good?" When his sister nodded, he rushed into the mall, quickly disappearing into the crowds milling about. 'That boy's up to something,' Kagome thought before turning to find Inuyasha glancing around, looking for a threat anywhere.
"Inuyasha? Hey, Inuyasha! Dog boy!" she shouted, trying to gain his attention.
"What do ya want now, woman?" he snapped. He was aggravated, finally realizing he'd been fooled. There wasn't any sign of danger anywhere around.
"You're lucky I won't S-I-T you here," she said, waving her finger reprovingly. "I was just going to ask where you wanted to go first."
"How am I s'posed to know?" he said, digging his hands further into his jeans pockets. They weren't so bad. He was actually beginning to get used to them, like Kagome had said he would.
"Well, are you planning on buying presents for anyone?" she wheedled. He didn't necessarily have to, but it would be nice of him.
"Feh. I guess." Inuyasha said, not looking at her.
"Alright. I think we'll go look for something for Mom first, then," she said, already walking towards a shop with bright letters over the doorway and a picture of a jewel in the front window.
"Lead the way,"
he replied quietly, falling in step behind her.
"What do you want to get? Jewelry,
maybe?" she looked over her shoulder at his sullen face. She suddenly felt bad
about tricking him into coming. Even she could see his ears jerking around all
over the place, though the hat did a pretty good job of hiding them. They
entered the fancy jeweler's shop, earning a dirty look or two because of how
they were dressed. Kagome was in jeans and a comfy, worn flannel shirt.
Inuyasha wore a striped black t-shirt with a pair of blue jeans. Apparently,
that wasn't good enough for these classy business people. But, money was money,
right? And she bet they wouldn't turn down any customer will to pay the
outrageous prices she saw on some of these rocks.
"Something she'll really like. Your mom's always nice to me," Kagome tuned back in just in time to catch the end of what Inuyasha was saying. She couldn't help the smile, he was actually trying to be thoughtful and nice tonight.
"Okay then. Here we've got necklaces and rings. My mom's birthstone is amethyst, so look for something you like with a purple stone." She pointed to the group of stones in different styles of settings within a glass case.
"Like this?" she looked over to find him pointing to a beautiful silver necklace with a princess-cut amethyst in the middle and a series of smaller diamonds on each side. Next to it was a silver ring with a stone cut in a similar shape with a smaller diamond at each corner.
"That's really pretty, Inuyasha. Do you want to get that one?" He shrugged in answer. Knowing him as Kagome did, that meant 'yes.'
"Then I think I'll get her the matching ring." She said. It would be nice to give her mother the set.
"Wow!" she said with a gasp.
"What?" he asked, startled. He followed her finger to the little white paper tab attached. He couldn't read the small print, but knew it to be the price tag.
"They're so expensive…" she said, looking at the pair longingly. Inuyasha huffed. This girl could not make up her mind. Did she want them or not?
"So?"
"I don't know how much I can spend." Kagome whispered, mindful of the peering salespeople watching their every move. Inside her pocket, she fingered her mother's credit card nervously.
"But if your mom really likes them, will she care how much they cost?" To Inuyasha, it was simple. Either pay the price and see Mrs. Higurashi very happy, or don't get them and search for hours trying to find something else.
"Hmm, good point. Let me just pay for these, and then we can start walking around." With that, Kagome signaled to the man behind the counter, and told him what she wanted. He placed them together in a box and then wrapped that in some sparkly, crinkly paper and a ribbon. Kagome handed over the card with a slight grimace on her face. But she looked much happier as they left the store, clinging tightly to the bag.
An hour passed as they visited shop after shop. Kagome had already picked out her gift to Inuyasha, so she was just shopping for Souta and Jii-chan. Inuyasha didn't miss the wistful look on her face as they passed a dress boutique that was even fancier than the jewelers. There was a white gown in the window that she obviously wanted, and he filed that bit of information away for later. They found two games Kagome knew her brother didn't have, one of which had a very large man on the front with bulging muscles and a rather large metal contraption in his hands. He found out later it was called a 'machine gun.' For Jii-chan, Inuyasha bought a new broom with soft bristles, so that when the old man tried to clobber him with it, it wouldn't hurt too much. Kagome got him a small fountain for his meditation room. Grandparents are so hard to shop for.
All too soon, seven o'clock came, and with it a trip to the electronics store. Souta stood at the entrance with a bright smile on his face. He was rocking back and forth on his heels, hands clasped behind his back.
"Kagome? My oh-so-loving sister?"
"What is it, twerp?"
"Ouch. You wound me. I was just gonna say that I know how to use Mom's credit card, so I thought you'd like to go sit in the car while Inuyasha comes with me," he said innocently.
She looked at him suspiciously, but relented. "Alright, you remember where the car is?" He nodded and took off towards the far end of the mall. Inuyasha jogged after him and Kagome left to go find the car.
First she turned up the radio. Then she began to tap her fingers on the steering wheel. Soon she was rifling through the glove compartment for any manga she might have left there. Finally her brother appeared around the back of the car followed by a grinning hanyou. After putting their bags in the trunk, they got in the car with identical looks of innocence. Kagome didn't believe it for a moment, but let it slide. She was a little worried about the amount of money they had spent tonight, and what her mother would do.
'It is such a pain to be right sometimes,' Kagome thought a while later. Her mother had forgotten to buy a new gallon of milk after Inuyasha finished the first one, so she had gone out. But along the way to the gas station to buy said milk, her mother had been sidetracked by a sales sign somewhere. Imagine her reaction when the cashier told her that her credit card wasn't working and probably had been maxed out. Mrs. Higurashi wasn't happy in the least, and came home and had a long discussion with Kagome and Souta about how much money was too much to pay for something. Kagome would be working for quite awhile to pay off what she owed. That is, if she could even find a job that let her disappear for weeks on end.
Inuyasha was left out of it, seeing as how he hadn't been given the responsibility of the credit card. So he just sat there on the couch, smirking at Kagome behind her mother's back.
The corners of the girl's lips curled up at the thought of how she would be the one laughing tomorrow. She could just picture Inuyasha getting climbed on by all her little cousins when her father's parents brought them over in the morning.
**Phew. Another chappie, and it's not even six. You know what to do. Read and review.
Thankies lots to all who reviewed.
The fifth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Five months of bills
Sending Christmas cards
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree.