Tomodachi
by
Nana
Chapter 5
The Great Revelation
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Author's Notes: I have decided to make this an I/K as well--just a short, uncomplicated snippet on Inu Yasha and Kagome.^^ Hehehe…just one week (and a few more chaps to go!) before the prom!
Disclaimer: Nope. Nah. Huh-uh. Not mine.
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His day was not turning out very well, and just once, he wished Kagome would leave him alone.
She had been outside their classroom waiting for him when he arrived, and the first thing she said was, "what happened?! What is this talk going around that Sango's going with Takeda to the prom?!"
Miroku winced upon hearing the sharp edge of despair in Kagome's voice. He closed his eyes briefly and counted until ten.
When he spoke, his voice sounded all right. "Kagome-chan, I'd rather not talk about it just now," he said.
Kagome stared at him, dazed. "So it is true," she said faintly.
Burying her face in her hands, she wailed, "I don't understand! How did this happen?! Two years of hard work, down the drain just like that! You must've done something to tick her off!"
Miroku fought the urge to grit his teeth. "I already asked her out and she refused. What more can you possibly ask for?" he said in a resigned voice.
"Well, how did you ask her?"
He fell silent at those words. Knowing Kagome, she probably meant if he had asked Sango the right way. Was there really such a thing? He wondered.
At any rate, he had asked, and she had refused. That was supposed to be the end, wasn't it?
But it was not. He knew without anyone telling him that it was not the end. Far from it.
Now he had another issue to address. Perhaps the real mystery behind everything was: why was he so angry now?
It was all so surprising because it was the truth, plain and simple.
He had never been so angry, so confused in his entire life. And did it only have to do with the fact that this was the first time he got turned down in his life, or was there something else behind it?
Back in the park, he had considered giving in and running after Sango when she had turned away from him, but reason and pride had kicked in just in time. What good would it do if he had managed to run her down?
"How did you ask her?" Kagome's voice brought him back to the present.
He turned away from her abruptly.
"Miroku! What did you tell her exactly?" Kagome caught up with him, effectively blocking his path.
He looked away. Finally he muttered, "I told her since she had never really been out on a date, she might want to go with me and see for herself what it's all like."
"Are you CRAZY?!" screamed Kagome. "You said that? You really said that? Have you lost your mind?"
"What was I supposed to say?" he snapped.
"You could have said something--anything! Tell her you've been meaning to ask her out for a long time because you like her! Anything would have been better than that--that thing you told her! At the rate you were going you might as well have told her that you felt sorry for her! What's wrong with you?!"
Miroku stared at Kagome, stunned.
Charity case…
Hadn't Sango said that? Hadn't she said she was tired of being treated like a charity case?
Miroku had not understood her at the time. Now, though, it was apparent from Kagome's instant grasp of the situation that once again, he had failed to comprehend the labyrinthine complexities of girls' minds.
Since when have girls started a language of their own? He thought, irritated. How could they possibly misunderstand guys to this extent? He had not meant it the way they thought he did!
He had meant…
Well…
"Why can't you just say it out loud?" Kagome continued.
"Say what?" he said.
"That you like her," she answered. "You do like her, don't you?"
He sighed wearily. "It doesn't matter, does it? I mean, she's already chosen somebody else. If that's going to make her happy, then…"
He trailed off.
Kagome stared at him sadly. "Go ahead and make all the excuses you can think of," she said. "You know it's not going to help any."
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Something happened that afternoon to indicate that Kagome was not in her right mind.
Sango could hardly believe it.
Inu Yasha--Miroku's teammate, the hot-headed deputy captain of the basketball club--had finally mustered enough bravado to saunter into their classroom during recess and pester Kagome about the prom.
Everybody knew it was going to take Inu Yasha some time to convince Kagome. Although everybody knew that the two really liked each other, they still felt the need to put up a show every time they met by putting up a spectacular fight. And from the look of things, people could tell he was as nervous as hell because he had charged right in and completely forgot he had an audience in his haste to get the matter over and done with.
Inu Yasha had been prepared for anything--fire, ice, a torrent of scalding laughter, the usual, blazing shouting match, anything--but Kagome had not felt like doing any of the usual things when he began his wooing with: "Feh. Before you get the wrong idea about this, let me just tell you I haven't forgotten about all those times we've been at each other's throats--"
He then launched into a long and quite incomprehensible monologue to justify the action he was about to undertake, and ended his proposal with a flourish by saying gruffly, "Well? How about it?"
And all the time, Kagome had merely stared at him dully.
"What are you trying to say?" she finally said.
"What am I--?! I'm asking you if you'd like to go to the prom with me, woman!" Inu Yasha finally yelled, embarrassed.
"Oh. Okay. You can pick me up at my place at seven," Kagome said and turned away.
The shocked silence of the class was broken only when somebody finally sniggered.
"And what're you laughing at?" Inu Yasha snapped as he desperately tried to save face.
"Are you alright?" Sango asked Kagome, suppressing a laugh when Inu Yasha finally stalked out of the classroom, still dazed. "I thought you said you've got a plan to roast him alive and make him beg till the last minute!"
"Sango-chan…is it true you're really going out to the prom with Takeda?" Kagome asked softly.
The unexpected question caught Sango off guard.
"Well…there's nothing wrong with that, is there?" she asked without heat.
Sango finally let out a sigh when Kagome did not say anything. "Look here, Kagome-chan," she said. "I know you've been campaigning since first year to get us together, but it's about time you realize that it's not going to happen."
"Sango-chan, do you like Miroku?"
Sango let out a laugh, half in exasperation, half in amusement. "Who cares?" she said.
Kagome looked up hopefully, but Sango was ahead of her. "I didn't mean anything by that, so don't go quoting me on the wrong things," she added quickly. "Come on. Let's just drop the whole thing, okay? Tomorrow's Saturday. I've got to go somewhere in the morning, but would you like to help me pick out a dress for the prom after lunch?"
"If in exchange you drop Takeda for Miroku," said Kagome recklessly as she made one last attempt. At least people wouldn't say she didn't try her best.
Sango's smile was wry. "Get real."
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On Saturday morning, Miroku walked up to the Hinomori residence with his excuse tucked under his arm and rang the doorbell.
It was still a bit early--ten past nine--so Sango would probably still be home.
Of course, Kagome had tipped him about catching her early. She was still hoping a long earnest talk would clear the air between the two. There was still a week for Sango to change her mind.
Miroku had earlier decided not drop by, thinking he was going to see Sango at the park anyway. They could have their talk there without his having to pay her a visit at home.
But 7:30 had come and gone, and Sango had not showed up at all. It was totally unlike her to miss a basketball session, no matter how pissed she was at him in the past. He had waited until 8:30, until he was hopelessly sure she wasn't coming around. It was only then that he felt a nameless panic seizing him, dragging him over to her house in record time.
The doorbell sounded. She was going to answer the door any minute now.
Right. Stick to your excuse. It's a good one. You've used it dozens of times before…afterwards, you can casually ask her why she didn't show up this morning. Or better yet, wait for her to spill the beans herself…no need for you to even show an iota of interest…
With this in mind, Miroku had every reason to believe that he had all the corners covered, but what happened next was totally beyond his control.
As he had expected, she was the one who answered the door, but what he was not prepared for was the vision that met him when the door opened.
Her hair was down, tied with a wisp of white ribbon to make a low ponytail. In all their six years of friendship, he had never seen her with her hair down on purpose.
It probably may have taken only a brief nanosecond, but to Miroku, it felt like a lifetime as he stood there, frozen. When he recovered sufficiently to cast his eyes elsewhere about her, he realized that the state of his best friend's hair was only the beginning of a set of shocking revelations.
She was also wearing a dress.
(Dress! Imagine that! Sango in a dress!!! His mind screamed at him incredulously.)
It was pale pink and short, falling just above her knees, leaving her long, coltish legs bare. He had seen her legs, of course he had! Hundreds of times! She was, after all a Track athlete. But never like this! His eyes fell down and refused to leave the dainty sandals on her feet.
He did not know what was more startling: the hair, the pink dress, the legs, sandals--all of the above? His mind reeled from such heavy visual assault.
Sango, for her part, had not been expecting him as well. She had opened the door with a smile playing on her lips, and the sight of him standing there with his jaw dropping open was enough to make her gasp and close the door on his face in pure reflex.
Miroku recovered quickly. His hand shot out just in time and he got hold of the edge of the door before the latch could click shut, and he edged himself inside as Sango continued to stand there as though she had been turned to stone.
"W-what are you doing here?" she finally managed.
He lifted a sardonic brow. "Weren't expecting me, were you?" He asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" she snapped.
He held up a computer diskette and a bunch of papers. "My printer ran out of ink in the middle of printing our English book report to be submitted Monday. Can I use yours? Of course I can!"
With that, and before she could recover from this second wave of attack, he launched himself past the Hinomori living room and up the stairs to her bedroom.
Please, please don't make me meet Mr. or Mrs. Hinomori…he thought as he bounded up the stairs, to the room where he had spent many idle afternoons hanging out with Sango.
"Hey!" She shrieked as she followed him. "You can't--HEY!"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She thundered as she charged into her bedroom. He was already seated at her table and nonchalantly turning on her computer. "You can't be serious! I'm going out in a couple of minutes so you can't sta--"
"Since when did you enjoy going out on weekends?" he said, running a casual, insolent eye once more on her attire.
With that one cursory flick of his attention, Sango suddenly felt very bare and had an overwhelming impulse to put up her hands to cover herself. She squelched the thought.
Since I met someone who's not a complete jerk…! She had wanted to say, but she stopped herself.
"What are you talking about?" she asked defensively. "I do enjoy going out every once in a while."
"Hot date?"
Sango could feel the color rushing to her face, but she refused to look away.
"What's so wrong with that?" she snapped.
He turned to face her, his brows raised. "There's nothing wrong with that, as you very well know," he said. "I'm just surprised. My life's an open book for my best buddy, and yet she never breathed a word to me about this whole date thing of hers."
"Why would you want to know about this?" she said. "You put up a great show of being totally unconcerned about the events surrounding my life yesterday."
"Do I dare hazard a guess who's coming by within a few minutes?" he asked next with a hint of a sneer, pretending not to hear her.
"Take a wild guess," she gritted through clenched teeth.
"So where are you guys going?"
"I don't believe this!" she said, turning away from him. "Why are you doing this? What is it to you anyway?"
But Miroku already had his back to her, his attention on the paper making its way out of her busy printer.
Jerk, she thought fuming as she shot him a look.
Before she could say anything though, the doorbell rang downstairs.
Great. Just great…Sango thought, feeling the blood chill inside her when she thought of what might happen if the two guys ever met.
"You know your way out when you're through," she said shortly and went for the stairs. "And don't you dare follow me down just now."
Miroku sat there, aware of a horrible, sinking feeling in his chest, as though his heart had suddenly plummeted to the floor. He stared at his hands as they gradually balled into fists on her study table.
Don't even think about it…
His mind whispered those words distinctly. He knew for a fact that an undignified scene was totally out of the question, but perhaps he had known all along he was going to be helpless against the urgent whims stirring deep inside him. All of a sudden he decided that his chore was done, and he got up and tore the paper from the printer before it even finished on the page.
He took the stairs two at a time, and turning the corner of the living room he could see them just outside the door, preparing to leave.
Sango froze as Miroku brushed past her on the way out, her eyes widening even as the color drained from her face.
"I'm finished," he said pleasantly, making sure he had full eye contact with a stunned Takeda for a second or so. He turned back to Sango and continued, "thanks for the printer. Enjoy yourself."
Without another glance back, he stalked past them and walked away.
He paused when he had rounded the corner of the street, and waited four, five minutes to make sure they were on their way before he made his next move.
What the hell is wrong with you? He groaned inwardly.
He knew what was wrong, and furthermore, he knew exactly when the great revelation dawned on him. From the moment he was face-to-face with that guy Takeda, he was suddenly certain of one thing.
He understood now that he was not going to give Sango up to anybody.
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