Dream A Dream
Chapter 4: Tangled Up In You
Revised: 4/24/05 - No more fangirl Japanese, among other things...
An Inuyasha Fanfiction
By: Azurite - azurite AT fanfiction DOT net
Rated: PG-13
Okay, I'm trying to keep
this short and simple, so you can get right to the story.
(1) Doujinfic. Got Clara's
Permission. My Plot. No Stealing.
(2) I No Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Own Inuyasha. Takahashi Rules.
(3) POV Changes from 1st person to 3rd Person and back again. Marked with Easy
Lines.
(4) Notes/Thank-Yous At Bottom!
(5) Am Trying VERY HARD to have original chapter titles. Currently not succeeding
all that much...
(6) Sticking to Japanese school calendar, Japanese names, etc. Same goes for
Japanese sports season.
Oh, and of course,
go check out Clara's website hopefully she'll update SD there
first
http/
"like, this is speech"
and these are thoughts
and these words are EMPHASIZED!
SLIGHT RECAP: Okay, so pretty much SD and DD have been parallel to one another-- Kagome Higurashi is your ordinary school-girl until her hair brained grandfather determines that the best way to keep watch over Kagome's younger brother, Souta, is to send Kagome to HIS school-- which happens to be an all-boys' school across town! So Kagome gives up her feminity to protect her brother from whoever's bullying him-- but in the process, she ends up getting sucked into a rather "interesting" group of friends. She feels like she's met them all before, but doesn't know where from. When the bunch of them go to the Welcoming school festival, both Inuyasha and Kagome get "hypnotized" by a strange girl named Yura. Kagome feels uneasy around this "magician" who tells her strange things-- about her having been brought back to life, and of Inuyasha having a spell around him. When the two of them snap out of Yura's enchantment, Kagome's able to "subdue" Inuyasha by SITting him! Why is this so familiar...?
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!
"All that we see or seen
Is but a dream within a dream."
--Edgar Allan Poe
Inuyasha was pissed.
Well of course he was pissed, I mean, someone he had barely known for three days suddenly had the ability to flatten him to the ground with a single word. And it wasn't even some uncommon word from a foreign language it was-- si...
That was terrible. I mean, it wasn't just any spell on Inuyasha, it was a --what had Yura called it?-- a subduing spell. And he probably thought it was making fun of his name-- I mean, a command you'd normally give to a dog, and his name was Inuyasha.
I felt horrible, but there didn't seem to be much I could do to appease Inuyasha's anger. And besides that, my mind was still muddled from everything that had happened. I remembered seeing something... and then Yura spotted us, and we went down to the stage. And then... a blank. Words echoed faintly in the back of my mind, words that gave me a chill through my bones. But I couldn't think of them.
All I knew was that I was afraid-- terrified out my mind, even. I had seen --heard?-- something that I shouldn't have, something that scared me.
Yura had something to do with it, but I didn't know just what it was. This whole mess with Inuyasha being under some spell just made things worse. How in the world could I do anything about it? After the show, we'd tried to find Yura, but she'd been surrounded by guys-- but once they moved away, she vanished.
I settled for frowning and walking as far away from Inuyasha as possible. This 'thing' didn't give me any plus points with Inuyasha, that was for sure. Had I been in his position, I'm sure I would have been angry too. It wasn't as if it was even provoked, really. I guess I really HAD been under Yura's spell.
Inuyasha, for his part, had no problem staying as far away from me as he could. And since the other guys found it entirely too amusing that with a single word, Inuyasha would eat dirt, he strayed away from them too.
My mistake had been letting the guys provoke me into saying it, and when I had, Inuyasha was even MORE angry with me. This was horrible. Downright terrible. He'd gone and called me a "bitch" again, to which I grumbled back, "I'm not a FEMALE dog." I put careful emphasis on "female," though I doubted anyone present would have understood the reference anyway.
I crouched beside Inuyasha after he fell, while beside me, Kikyou stood, hovering over the both of us with an odd expression on her face. Dare I think that AMUSEMENT might be creeping at the corner of her --Miss Stone Statue-- face? No, Kikyou never smiled, not at anything, and certainly not at Inuyasha's misery.
"I'm not someone who likes to fall flat on his face," Inuyasha mumbled back, his mouth full of rocks.
"Owowowowow..."
I sighed, thinking there was nothing else I could say to rectify things. I hoisted Inuyasha up by pulling him under his arms. He winced, as if my slight tug on his arms hurt more than his sudden crashes into the ground. For a split second, he seemed to lean on me for support-- but then he sprang away faster than a jackrabbit, glaring at me intensely.
"Don't touch me."
I was briefly confused, not to mention hurt, as I set my hands to the side. Then I frowned.
"Look, Inuyasha, this isn't my fault, and I'm sorry. It's not like I want to sending you sprawling face first into the ground..."
Inuyasha didn't seem to care for my words much, as he continued to glare at me.
"That last time didn't seem very restrained to me!" He looked me dead on in the eye first, and then "harrumphed" away in another direction, rising to his feet completely.
"Hey! I said I was sorry..." I said as I rose as well, with my hands on my hips.
"'Sorry' doesn't cut it," he spat at me, eyes so narrow his glare could have easily been labeled 'hateful.' So, whether he knew it or not, that was a stab to the chest. I didn't know why I'd latched onto Inuyasha the way I had -maybe it was a crush, but... anyway, I didn't like the way he was acting toward me.
Every glare, every venom-laced word stung me like a stab to the gut, and I was starting to breathe quicker, finding myself on the verge of tears. And that was bad-- for if I started crying, then I would immediately be labeled as "girlish," and people would suspect the truth. So what other response was there for me to give? Inuyasha was being so damn childish, and I didn't feel like taking his bull anymore.
"Fine!" I bit out, crossing my arms over my chest, and leveling Inuyasha with a fierce glare of my own. Inuyasha turned around suddenly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. I guess he hadn't expected me to bite back at him-- hadn't expected me to be angry. What did he expect then? Me to grovel and apologize at his feet? He'd just said 'sorry' wouldn't cut it, so if that was what he was hoping for, he sure as heck wouldn't get it.
After all, I'm a Higurashi, and Higurashis DO NOT BEG.
"Be like a stupid junior high kid. Even my brother is more mature than you!" I was tempted to stick my tongue out at him, but that would make me a hypocrite-- about as mature as a junior high or elementary school kid, resorting to name-calling and making faces.
Inuyasha looked downright astounded -as did the rest of our present company. Did they ALL think I was going to lower myself to the level of an earthworm and actually beg for Inuyasha's forgiveness? Was that what everyone else did when they got on his bad side? How... sad.
I shot them all a disgusted look and continued marching off in the direction Inuyasha had just been stomping in-- only now, they were all frozen in place, in a broken circle. I could feel their eyes boring into my backside as I walked off, not looking back.
'Fine, be that way.'
Not long after, they started walking again, shrugging off what had just happened and continuing to explore the festival. Inuyasha, of course, kept his distance behind me, but walked no closer to anyone else. I was pretty sure that everyone was quite wary of my --no, OUR, since Inuyasha was likely still steamed himself-- tempers.
After a few minutes of stiff-legged, straight-faced "marching" --it couldn't be called walking, really-- I bothered to glance over my shoulder. Inuyasha was walking in a slouch, an angry pout plastered over his face-- and he was walking further behind than anyone else. He clearly didn't want sympathy --or teasing-- from anyone else, if his posture said anything about the matter. The others seemed to keep to themselves, Miroku and Sango quietly making conversation, Kouga remaining silent beside Eiji, while he and Kikyou stood silent on the outskirts of the group.
I turned back around, wondering if it would be plausible to just wander off on my own. This was not what I'd envisioned for a fun time at the Welcoming festival. I mean, here it was, beginning of spring, and things were already lousy.
I was busy grumbling to myself when I heard Sango's voice pipe up, with an unusually high tone to it. Still, when I turned to face her, her expression was almost determined.
Our mindless walking hadn't gotten anybody anywhere-- everyone was still following me, and Inuyasha was still sulking behind the middle group.
"Hey! Miroku! It's the Ferris Wheel Kagome got all excited about!" Sango yanked Miroku --hard, by the looks of it-- while she tugged him towards the ride-- and even I wasn't oblivious to the flush that suddenly crossed Sango's cheeks. Miroku, for his part, had a priceless expression on his face. You just knew that if his left arm hadn't been restrained by Sango, he would have chugged his arms up and down saying "YEAAAH!"
"That sounds like a great idea!" Eiji agreed, sounding almost... cheerful. Eiji hadn't struck me as the "devious" type-- but then this sly grin appeared on his face as he exchanged glances with the others, and then...
Eiji forcefully grabbed my right wrist, using his other arm to yank Inuyasha forward. For a fifteen-year-old boy who played catcher, he sure had a lot of arm strength to him.
"Hey. You two, grab a seat on the ride," Eiji's grin was purposefully fake, letting the two of us know that much demise awaited us if we so much as shook our heads 'no'.
I stared at Eiji, then sighed, shrugging.
'Well, at least it would be doing something,' I thought to myself.
Inuyasha only glared at me as if I was to blame for this new 'predicament,' and in unison, we both turned around and started walking towards the Ferris wheel.
"Man, they act like an old married couple..." Eiji muttered before I was completely out of earshot. I was sure Inuyasha heard it as well, though he didn't blush as I did. I turned around and shot Eiji a glare, but he simply smiled back at me.
"HEY!" I heard Kikyou protest. I turned around to see her tugging on Kouga's arm, as he was restraining her from leaping forward and going with Inuyasha on the ride. This only served to confuse me more, as it didn't seem as though everyone knew what gender I really was --so why were they setting us up like this? And why was Kikyou getting so jealous?
"I wanted to go with Inuyasha!" Kikyou said succinctly, fixing me with a 'look' that could only say she didn't trust me one stinking bit. And me? Well, I didn't care much. Why was she jealous of me anyway? I mean, the male me, not the female me, but it's not like Inuyasha would ever find that out...
"Hey, Kikyou," Kouga hissed. Kikyou flinched at how Kouga referred to her so flippantly, as did Inuyasha (we'd both stopped to listen), though we were only a few feet from the ride's entrance. Surprisingly, there were only a few people in line.
"We need Kagome on the team! If Inuyasha doesn't like him, then..." Obviously Miroku --or maybe Eiji, since he had been the one to set this all up-- had told them about my love of baseball. Either that or they simply needed the players regardless-- I wondered just what state the team was in. After all, we hadn't practiced a bit since school had started the other day, and while most other schools were excitedly discussing the National Championships, we... weren't.
Kikyou relaxed a little bit, but I remained tense. So that was it, then? The only reason they wanted me to get along with Inuyasha was so they could have a new player on their team? Yeah, that was what friends were for. Of course, I had a lot to learn back then, but I was being irrational, and jumping to conclusions.
"Well, if that's why..." Kikyou trailed off, then paused. "Get your arm off me!" She violently shook Kouga's arm from hers, shooting him a glare worthy of melting steel.
"Sorry, sorry! Anyway, that's not just why. Hey, Kagome seems like a nice guy, but if he and Inuyasha can't get along..." That made me feel a little bit better, but not much. After all, I still didn't have Inuyasha's take on the whole matter. He hadn't exactly been jumping at the chance to talk to me, let alone forgive me for something that wasn't even my fault!
Inuyasha and I both started walking again, the line quickly moving as the Ferris Wheel chugged out more passengers, and more started to get on, filling in the gap between Inuyasha and myself from the side.
The way Kouga had trailed off caused my breath to catch in my throat-- would Inuyasha really start to hate me because of this? If that was so, then why was he still walking with me towards the ride?
"Just so you know," Inuyasha growled out as we stopped near the operator, his voice still laced with obvious anger, "I'm not talking to you."
My left eye twitched as rage started to boil in the pits of my stomach once more.
'Ugh! Of all the immature, stupid, childish things to say! Why do the cute ones always have to be so damn brainless!' I was steaming in my thoughts by the time Inuyasha and I reached the front of the line, and we must have made quite the couple to the operator.
"Good, I didn't want to talk to you either," I retorted a few moments later. Okay, so I was being just as immature as he was, but you know what? Who cares? The dummy deserved it.
The two of us wore identical masks of disgust for one another as we approached the Ferris Wheel. He merely blinked as we handed him two rows of four tickets-- though we hadn't paid for them. The school was privately owned and run, and as such, could afford every possibly frivolity-- and that included Ferris Wheels at its festivals. I suppose it was a good thing, considering we didn't need to pay for anything. Or maybe it was all included in the tuition package? Boring details, anyhow.
Inuyasha and I continued to ignore each other as we waited for an empty carriage to stop on our level. Once it did, we both tried to shove in at once-- resulting in a painful squish and a sight which had to be amusing to --oh, EVERYONE! By the time the both of us got seated across from one another, a lower classman --she couldn't have been in the 11th grade-- popped her bubblegum, glancing up from her EGG magazine and slamming the metal door shut. The carriage shuddered as it moved up a level, letting the next couple board.
Needless to say, Inuyasha and I were sitting as far away from each other as we could. Opposite sides of the carriage, opposite sides of the seat. We both had our gazes locked in opposite directions; I fixated my gaze on a couple of children, leaning against the rail that bordered the line area and were watching the people on the ride, while Inuyasha -not that I'd been looking at him, I swear!- was staring at the sky with a sort of determined expression. As if he was determined to ignore me, even though every couple of seconds, he'd move slightly, maybe even open his mouth (like I said, I wasn't looking) as if he was going to ask me something. But he never did.
The ride slowly started to move at a faster pace, as all the passengers had since been boarded. The children I'd been keeping my eyes trained on got further and further away, until finally the metal bars of the ride -not to mention the grates on the windows and doors- kept me from looking at them. I gulped suddenly, swallowing a lump in my throat that I hadn't known was there.
A million thoughts started to race through my head, and one of them was the undeniable sensation of... flying.
Like I was watching something from up close, and everything was normal sized and as it should be, trees and people, and... just everything was normal, and it felt safe. But there was a sudden need to go up, to get away, to... get something? Save someone?
And then I was up in the air, flying on SOMETHING, but I couldn't bring myself to look down and check. I was getting higher and higher, suddenly springing towards the ground, only to bound back up again, this time higher than before. And there were birds in the sky, some almost close enough to touch-- but there was something else.
A sense of fear.
I was gripping onto whatever was holding me up in the air like this-- holding it like a lifeline. And then, as if someone other than myself controlled my body, I was letting go, leaping off, falling towards rocks and a raging river, all because there was something --I couldn't make out exactly what- that I had to go after, that I had to save... but from what? Or... from who?
I blinked, and then the daydream vanished into darkness. And I was back in the Ferris Wheel, and it was uncomfortably silent, save for the creaking of the carriage and the sounds of the festival below. But I was still filled with that same fear that I'd had just a moment before-- like the world was going to blank out underneath me, and I'd keep falling...
What did it mean? I was trying to come up with a plausible explanation for all the craziness I'd been seeing, hearing, and feeling today, but was forcefully jerked from my thoughts when our carriage jerked to a stop at the very top. I practically doubled forward, thankfully landing on the seat opposite Inuyasha, instead of in his arms.
I was terrified, and it probably showed on my face. Inuyasha tore his gaze away from the oh-so-fascinating sky for a moment to observe me-- and what I sight I must have made! I was starting to squeeze my eyes shut as I sat back down again, gripping onto the two handles beside the doors. My grip was so hard my knuckles whitened, and my breathing became short and raspy.
This was unlike anything else I'd ever experienced before. I was so scared, and I couldn't stop --couldn't stop hyperventilating, couldn't stop gripping the handles like lifelines, couldn't stop closing my eyes. Somehow, complete darkness was sweeter than a world where peripheral vision existed.
Despite my silent chants that I would be safe, I would be fine, I kept imagining the old, steel bolts that kept our seat attached to the bars squeaking their way out of their holes... and then releasing our carriage as we plummeted to the ground. Silly, I know, but when you're so terrified of something, you begin to imagine things that just wouldn't naturally happen.
It's like when you're on a ski lift, going to the top of a mountain. Let's say you're scared of heights, so you commence looking up, figuring that it's better than looking down. However, the moment you look up, the first thing you notice is that unreliable cable being the only thing separating you from a nasty fall into the snow, or a rocky mountain, or simply a fifty meter drop! Then you start analyzing how much the seat plus you and maybe one or two other people weigh. Then you start thinking about how there are so many other chairs are there, and how much they all weigh, added together. You start freaking yourself out even more, but before you can have a complete mental breakdown, the lift ends and you get off, snow boarding or skiing down the slope, only to repeat the ski lift process again.
Or maybe that's just me.
This whole imagination thing was getting out of hand, so maybe it was better to keep my eyes open. But when I finally did open them, Inuyasha had switched positions so he was now sitting right in front of me, leaning forward and smirking devilishly.
"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" The ever-psychic Inuyasha questioned, though his voice had closed the sentence more like a statement.
"No! Yes! I... Hell, I don't know. What's it to you, anyway?" I fumbled out. This was the first time that I'd ever gotten this sort of sensation before-- or at least, the first time that I could remember. And seeing things when I closed my eyes --whether it was diving after something I couldn't see, or bolts coming loose from their bearings-- wasn't helping me at all.
"Why are you afraid of heights?" Inuyasha asked, completely ignoring the fact that I'd just denied being afraid. And I wasn't afraid-- or at least, I never had been before. I always loved plane rides, always enjoyed rollercoasters and hiking on mountains...
Inuyasha, of course, completely ignored my question, so I shot him a bland look to remind him of his indiscretion. He didn't get the message.
"I have my reasons."
'Yes, and those reasons are... inexplicable. Something to do with a flying carpet and a falling Something-or-Other.'
Inuyasha snorted, then looked back towards the sky again.
"There's more accidents that happen on the ground than happen in the air, you know" I detected the faintest hint of a smile creeping up the corners of his mouth, though for whatever reason, I couldn't tell.
"Air accidents are more terrifying," I shot back, leaning forward, my grip on the handles loosening considerably. When I finally pulled my hands away, the palms were red and covered in sweat. It still baffled me that I could be so terrified of something that hadn't even irked me before.
"If you die, you die." Inuyasha said simply. I blinked, trying to comprehend that. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. But he'd sounded so callous, so insensitive, so cruel-- and that, in turn, led to me wondering what was going on with him. Why was Inuyasha... Inuyasha?
"Besides," Inuyasha continued, completely ruining any chance he had at calming me. "You die during the fall, most of the time. Your neck snaps due to the..." My eyes widened to the size of saucers, I could just feel it, and I snapped my other hand off the bar, fisting them at my sides.
"Oh, THANKS!" I interrupted him. My tension was increasing by tenfold now, and not knowing where this fear came from just made matters worse. Inuyasha being, well, Inuyasha, snickered. After a few minutes and a few slow revolutions of the Wheel, the tension and fear floated away.
Inuyasha was grinning smugly, and I relaxed slightly-- it didn't seem as though he was angry anymore, and that was a good thing. But that was most likely because he had something on me that he could abuse whenever he damn well felt like it-- he knew I was at least partially afraid of heights. Or something.
Inuyasha's gaze wasn't fixed on the sky anymore, but at me-- he kept grinning and smirking in his usual way, but this time, my heart pounded in my chest. What an unusual sensation that was, I remembered thinking... Like I was falling again, but this time... I wasn't so scared anymore.
Inuyasha, the dumb jerk, was worming his way into my affections already.
Kagome and Inuyasha exited the Ferris Wheel not long afterwards, about to search for their friends-- namely Eiji, so they could pummel him to the ground. Kagome, for her part, didn't seek to pummel Eiji so much as hug him for forcing her into the whole situation-- in a completely male-bonding, brotherly way, that is. But before she got the chance to find him, she was stopped in her tracks by something she saw only a short distance away.
That something was, more accurately speaking, a certain someone. And that certain someone was Souta, walking side by side with a young girl, maybe 11 or 12 years old. She was probably someone Souta knew back from the elementary school, still in grade 6, or maybe she was a classmate of his at the junior high. But whoever she was, the two of them were sneaking glances at each other, almost furtively, whenever they thought the other wasn't looking. Kagome thought it was downright adorable.
Inuyasha returned to Kagome's side, this time surrounded by the others, who had amused themselves while Inuyasha and Kagome were on the Wheel by playing games. Sango was now the reluctant new owner of a floppy, stuffed ostrich plush. Miroku, by the looks of his grin, was the one who'd won it for her, but Sango looked less than enthralled holding the feathery thing. It wasn't her type of thing, really...
Inuyasha was reaching out to get Kagome's attention, but she suddenly leaned forward and called out in a loud voice, "HEY, SOUUUTA!" startling Inuyasha and many of the other people in the surrounding area. Souta nearly jumped a meter high, stumbling so he dropped several kernels of popcorn to the ground. He apologized profusely to his companion as Kagome and her friends approached, Kagome grinning widely.
"Who's you're little girlfriend?" She smirked, winking at the young girl. The spritely girl had a shock of dark brown hair, the top layer pulled up into a small ponytail that seemed to explode on the top of her head. It was certainly an original style, but she looked cute wearing it.
Souta instantly blushed-- and, as Kagome noted, so did the girl by his side. Her grin grew wider as she winked at Souta, who blushed an even deeper crimson.
"Kagome!" Souta shouted, reaching up to rub one of his cheeks to try to banish the redness.
"Haven't you ever heard of discriction?" Kagome chuckled at this, correcting Souta's mistake.
"It's discretion, Souta-chan, but... I was right, wasn't I?"
Souta's face reddened further, and he fisted his hands at his sides, about ready to whack Kagome in the knees. And he probably would have-- had they not been in a public place, surrounded by lots of people, especially his upperclassmen. Souta had said that Inuyasha and his friends were some of the most popular students in the senior high school, and to Kagome, that had sounded like they were respected by the underclassmen as well. So the younger boy probably wouldn't do anything to damage his image in their eyes.
Souta motioned the girl at his side to come closer, as she'd taken a step backwards when I'd approached. She was flanked by two other people-- a short boy with reddish hair, and another girl with black hair, who was about as tall as a beanstalk, nearly towering over Souta and the girl with him.
"Well?" Kagome inquired, tapping her foot on the ground, "Aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Rin, this is my stupid older si—brother, Kagome." Thankfully, Souta caught his slip before his friends did, so there was no harm done. Kagome swallowed, peering behind her nervously to make sure Inuyasha and the others hadn't heard Souta's stumble.
"Kagome, this is Rin, my friend." His emphasis on 'friend' was heavy, intending to get a point across to Kagome, but she just continued to smirk.
"And these are Shippo and Satsuki, my other friends." He indicated the boy -Shippo- and the girl -Satsuki- with a gesture of his hands. Kagome seemed almost transfixed by Shippo for a moment, thinking him awfully familiar. But why shouldn't he be? She amended herself a moment later. Souta used to bring his friends home with him every now and then-- maybe he'd been one of the boys Souta had had over.
But if that was so, then...
Kagome swallowed, hoping Shippo didn't know her for who she really was. Or if he did-- he'd keep his mouth shut.
Kagome's smirk grew wider as a plan formed in her head-- matchmaking was something she enjoyed, and the affection between Souta and this 'Rin' girl was apparent. She was cute, with a seemingly effervescent smile permanently attached to her face. Apparently, Souta got wind of Kagome's sneaky thoughts and started to back away-- right into Miroku.
"Hey, Kagome, who's the kid?" Miroku grinned looking down at Souta. Souta stared back up at Miroku, his eyes widening for a moment before he stumbled off, facing Miroku and the others in a circle, his friends gathered to his side, with Kagome off to the right.
Miroku kept grinning broadly at Souta and his friends. Kagome found it amusing that Souta looked more and more uncomfortable by the minute, while his friends seemed to grow all the more interested.
"Is this your brother you were telling us about?" Miroku asked, kneeling down to be eye level with Souta. Kagome nodded an affirmative, to which Souta shot Kagome a terrified glance.
'What have you told them!' his eyes asked frantically. Kagome frowned slightly, and made a tsching sound with her tongue in cheek, trying to tell Souta that there was nothing to worry about.
Souta's friends for their part, looked confused now, and it was Shippo who stepped forward, looking hesitantly between Kagome and his friend.
"Hey," Shippo said with a slight frown,"you never told us you had a brother, just about your older sister"
Instant attention suddenly came from a certain boy whose name started with M and ended with I-R-O-K-U.
"Higurashi, you've been holding back on us!"
He was immediately at Kagome's side, having leapt up from his position on the ground in a split second. His expression revealed his high interest in the topic, continuing to pester Kagome with questions that she looked all too-uncomfortable to answer. Souta glanced up at his sister, who visibly gulped, now caught in a bind.
"You never told us you had a sister! Is she younger than you? Older? Is she cute? Available?"
"A little desperate, Miroku?" Kagome asked, grinning slightly while she attempted to maneuver away from him.
'Great. How did I get myself into these messes again? Oh yeah, I listen to my stupid grandpa. And I have a younger brother who puts his foot in his mouth deeper than I do.'
"Ah-- uhm yeah I have a much older sister who's already married with two children and lives in Texas!" Kagome shot out quickly, her eyes darting all over the place. If Miroku believed that load of horse manure, he would believe ANYTHING, Kagome thought. But she had to get off of this topic, and FAST.
Souta dropped his head in his hands, likely thinking about the same things as Kagome: what on Earth was his sister getting herself into?
"Really?" Rin asked, smiling more. "Souta never told us about her, just that he had a sister who was a first-year in high school"
Kagome gulped again, this time the feeling bringing an acidic feeling to her throat. It wasn't just Miroku listening in, she realized with a gulp --Inuyasha, Kouga, Kikyou, Sango, Eiji-- they'd all heard everything, and Souta had gotten technical with his friends and told them...!
Miroku's look once again became re interested, and the glances he was giving Kagome as he stalked back towards her made her all the more uneasy. For her part, she kept glancing at Sango, who frowned slightly and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Oh! You mean uh Kekki! She's m-my twin sister!" Beads of sweat began to appear on Kagome's brow as she prattled off, finally backing herself up against the side of the Fun-House they were near.
'There is no way anyone is going to believe that story. I'm getting worse than Grandpa'
However, Souta was doing a magnificent job at playing along. He nodded vigorously to everything Kagome said, despite the somewhat panicked expression on his face.
Kagome could almost hear what he would say to her later. 'Good job, Kagome! Digging yourself even deeper, and dragging me along with you!'
So the two put on their identical 'believe-me-I'm-innocent' looks on their faces, directing two, heart-melting smiles at their friends.
"Well!" Miroku said, completely buying every word. "When can I --I mean, we-- meet her?" He grinned, rubbing his hands together delightedly.
Kagome literally fell over.
Many hours later, when the festival had ended and the group of high school friends returned to their dorms, an interesting thing happened.
The day had pretty much worn out -if not stressed out- Kagome, so, upon returning to her dorm room and finding it suitably empty, she decided to take a shower. All that sweating hadn't done her any good anyway, and this was an opportune time as any to clean herself off-- after all, Hojo wasn't there to interrupt her.
Kagome heaved a sigh of relief, dropping off her small bag of goodies -which consisted of a stuffed white dog plushie, a plastic bow and arrow with a suction cup on the arrow head, and a small bag of candy- onto the floor. She didn't bother to lock the door, knowing Hojo would be coming back from the festival eventually-- but that would be the last time she forgot something so simple.
Kagome shucked off her baggy jeans and sweater, then the loose t-shirt below it. Finally, she spent a good five minutes unwinding the binding around her breasts that kept her "flat-chested" during her days at school. She removed it at night, as she hated the constricting feeling the strips gave her, but was always careful to cover herself up before Hojo saw in the evening, or the early morning hours.
However, with all that had happened that day, Kagome was more than distracted, and was completely unaware when, nearing the end of her shower, the door to her room opened, and someone stepped inside.
Kagome turned off the water in the shower and proceeded to dry her hair with the single towel she had to her name in the bathroom when the door burst open, and Miroku -of ALL people- barreled in, exclaiming, "Hey, Kagome, so when are you going to..." His eyes widened, taking in Kagome's decidedly FEMALE figure.
"To..." His eyes shifted upwards, at which point a growing-steadily-redder Kagome eeped, covering her body with the towel. It slipped somewhat, but still covered her torso, from her breasts down to her thighs.
Miroku made a slight noise --it almost sounded like a squeak, or maybe a yelp-- before Kagome shrieked, slamming the door shut forcefully. She leaned on it heavily for a few moments, almost thinking that Miroku would try to barge in, even though he'd been the one to zip out of the steaming room before Kagome slammed the door.
Her breathing slowed after a few moments, and silence reigned throughout the room. She turned slowly, one palm pressed flat on the door, the other hovering, trembling almost, near the doorknob.
"Miroku? Are you still there?" She swallowed hard. Miroku had been her best friend thus far, but she hadn't been able to truly trust him. She couldn't bring herself to trust any of them, not yet-- and now, who knew if their friendship would even last the day?
There was silence, and for a moment Kagome was afraid that Miroku had left to spread the news about this new discovery around the entire campus.
After a moment, though, Kagome heard someone shifting around.
"Yeah. Kagome." He sighed deeply, folding his hands, "You have a lot of explaining to do."
Kagome gulped. Explanations, obviously, weren't her strong point, and things were made worse by the fact that Miroku, usually sounding so light-hearted and funny, suddenly sounded dead serious.
"Y-yeah. Uh, lock the door, will you?" Kagome asked, her voice sounding almost wispy. She wondered if she was on the verge of tears, or if it was just residual steam and water stuck to her face. But this, like her experience on the Ferris Wheel, suddenly gave her a feeling of dread.
There was another moment of silence, then the slight sound of someone's steps against the hardwood floor. There was the telltale click of the bedroom door being locked, but Kagome didn't leave the bathroom until she was assured that the door was locked.
"Okay, Kagome." Miroku said, seating himself on the bed once more. He wasn't looking towards the bathroom door; rather, he trained his eyes on the door he'd just closed. This was too much to take, but he couldn't just walk out of the room without listening to what Kagome -if that was HER real name- had to say.
With a shaky hand, Kagome pushed the bathroom door open. Miroku suddenly turned to face herm his expression hard and unfeeling.
"Don't even think about telling me that you're 'Kekki,' coming to visit your damn brother or something, and that you just decided to take a shower because you were feeling dirty. I won't believe it."
Kagome felt like crying-- yes, the emotions were definitely there. Kagome had never heard Miroku so... angry with her. True, she hadn't known him all that long, but... She slowly moved towards the bed, her gaze straying from Miroku, as if that would help prevent tears from sliding down her face. How could she look Miroku in the eye, knowing that any trust she'd developed with him had probably been shattered in a matter of minutes, by a simple mistake?
Kagome sat down heavily on her bed, the springs squeaking underneath her as she flopped down. She was still pale and shaky, her lips trembling and still on the verge of crying. A small voice inside her screamed that she'd catch cold and get sick if she stayed like that, but she didn't care-- she'd been bottling in her 'secret' for long enough, and there was simply no way to get out of this one with deceit.
Kagome dared to glance at Miroku, and she found herself surprised that his expression had softened. He didn't seem as angry as he had been before, but he wasn't looking at her. Whether it was out of decency for her nearly-nude state, or something else, the girl couldn't tell.
"Well," Miroku started, moving slightly down Kagome's bed so he could turn and face her, "this just proves that you really are Kagome, and not Kekki. Or is it the other way around?" His gaze was analytical, but not lecherous in any way. He noted that Kagome was shivering, not to mention soaking the comforter underneath her. He sighed.
"Put something on that's more than a towel before you explain things. But hurry." He raked a hand through his uneven brown locks, his gaze averted from Kagome as she quickly stood up, still clutching her towel with one hand. She glanced back at him once more before she closed the bathroom door, this time for long enough to dry herself off completely.
Kagome lingered in the bathroom longer than necessary, even after she'd dried her hair --however short it was-- and put on some clothes. She was not in any huge rush to face Miroku and his cold, accusing glare. Worse, since she had no 'female' clothing at the school, she would have to go back out there looking like... like someone she wasn't. Like someone Miroku knew she wasn't...
After a few minutes of battling with her conscience, Kagome hesitantly opened the door and stepped outside.
Miroku glanced up from his place on the end of the bed, his expression expectant. His hands were on either side of his legs, trying to offer support. Kagome flinched at the sight of this, but sat down all the same, this time, further away from Miroku.
"I really am Kagome Higurashi," Kagome began, after a few moments of silence. Miroku's expression remained blank, but he leaned over a little further to hear the girl better, as she was being quite soft-spoken.
"I'm attending this school because my brother --my real brother, Souta-- was being beaten almost every day at his school. Grandpa decided that I would be his 'protector,' but I could only do that by attending the same school as him. That is, Yumegaru Shiritsu Gakkou."
Kagome stopped. There wasn't much more she could tell him, she thought, not anymore that she herself understood anyhow. She did feel that déjà vu around almost everybody, and there were those weird goings-on at the festival-- but other than that...
After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Miroku spoke again.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us, then? I mean, we would have obviously accepted you." His glance turned to the window, as did Kagome's. The shades were drawn.
'I closed the shades... but I forget to lock the door? How stupid am I?'
"And why didn't you just go to the girls' school?" Miroku asked, turning back to face Kagome. She wanted to bury her face in her hands now. His tone had taken an edge to it, and she felt horribly stupid for letting this happen. But part of her, deep inside, wanted it. At least it had been Miroku, she thought to herself, and not someone else--
'Someone like... Inuyasha?' The very idea scared her. It could have been Inuyasha-- or maybe Hojo. Or perhaps a complete stranger, like Eiji, who she barely knew at all...
"I didn't know the girls' school existed!" Kagome bit out, a little vehemently. Miroku's attention was automatically drawn back to Kagome's face, realizing with sudden dismay that his 'best guy friend' was actually a girl on the verge of angry tears.
"Look, there's just plenty of reasons why I didn't tell you guys. Oh, here, let me just give you one through a million." Kagome found herself unreasonably angry, chastising herself mentally for getting so worked up. While half of her argued that the situation could have been much worse, she was still humiliated, and strangely afraid.
'I don't want Miroku to hate me! I don't want him to tell the others, and I don't want to be going crazy because of everything I've been seeing! I want-- I want a friend!'
"One, you guys would have treated me like a girl if you knew." Kagome continued, forcing her thoughts down, "If we were playing sports, you'd treat me like glass, instead of tackling me, and letting me get into the game! You wouldn't treat me the same as any one of the other guys! That'd look good, wouldn't it? People would really think I was some macho boy or something."
Kagome abruptly stood up, beginning to pace about the room. She knew she was rambling at this point, but she didn't care, as she wanted to get all of this out NOW when she had the chance.
"Two, I didn't know if I could trust you guys. Sure, now you're all my best friends, but won't that be even worse? I suddenly flat out tell you guys that I'm a chick, and bam! You all feel betrayed and pissed, and hate me. Cause and effect."
"Kagome" Miroku started, shifting slightly, But Kagome didn't give him the chance to say anything.
"Three, I reallyreallyREALLY want to be on the baseball team. Not just some stupid softball team or something, and if Inuyasha or any of you guys knew, then my chance on being on the team would automatically ZERO. Like it or not, sexism is still a factor here."
Kagome stopped again, trying to think of more reasons. She shook violently, looking at everything in the room as if it were part of a distant dimension.
"Four four well, I was just scared, all right?" She finally met Miroku's gaze dead on, and he looked into the brown depths, seeing only darkness and the wavering of tears. She meant every word she said, and Miroku knew it-- knew it without questioning, knew it because Kagome really wasn't the type to lie if she didn't have to.
Uncomfortable silence filtered in-- the kind that made the two of them fidget in order to compensate for the awkward feeling surrounding them both.
Kagome moved back to the bed, sitting back down on it. Her speech had taken quite a lot of energy out of her, as her shower had ended on an abrupt note that hadn't completely relaxed her the way she'd hoped.
"I mean, what if one of you guys decided that this needed to be taken to the teachers? Where would I be then? And then what would happen to my brother? Oh yeah, that'd be great for his reputation. He needed his cross-dressing sister to protect him. I'd probably be permanently labeled as 'uber-dyke,' then kicked out of the school."
Kagome gave Miroku and his curious expression a half-hearted glare. He seemed to be on the verge of asking something, but Kagome knew what was on the tip of his tongue, and spoke first.
"And I am straight, thankyouverymuch."
Miroku was silent again, this time stroking his chin thoughtfully. Kagome dropped her gaze to the floor, awaiting judgment. Miroku was one person she didn't want to hate her. Miroku and... well, Inuyasha. She didn't know why she had such feelings towards them, such immediate trust and -worry?- but she wanted to be accepted by them, despite their extreme differences.
"Kagome" Miroku started again, then heaved a great sigh.
"Look, Kagome, I'm not mad, alright? I was just a bit surprised. Give me some credit, okay?" He ran his fingers through his hair, rising to his feet.
"I mean, it isn't every day you walk into one of your best friend's bathroom and find out that he is really a she."
I nodded slowly.
"Does anyone else know, or is it just me?"
"Just you," Kagome whispered. "You and my brother, of course." Miroku flopped back down on the bed. Of course he was the only one in the high school to know-- he'd found out so suddenly, and completely by accident. And after all she'd finally gotten off her chest -so to speak- it was highly unlikely that she would have been so stressed, had anyone else known.
Maybe it would have been easier, telling someone like Sango, another female, someone who might understand. But... she hadn't. She couldn't, still, for reasons still unfathomable to Kagome. And now, Miroku knew.
He scooted to Kagome's side of the bed, suddenly petting her on the head in an almost affectionate manner. Perhaps he realized, sitting that much closer to Kagome, just how much smaller and slimmer her frame was in contrast to his.
"Hey," Kagome asked, after a few moments. Her voice wavered ever-so-slightly, a tinge of fear coloring her voice. "You don't hate me, do you?" She swallowed hard again, her eyes shifting quickly from where Miroku's hand almost touched hers, back up to his face, to see what he would say.
"Nah. You have a good enough reason for me not to. Sorry for getting all offended, I was just surprised." He smiled down at her, suddenly squeezing her hand in his own. The slight gesture sent ripples running down both their spines and they dared to look at one another.
"Th--there's something else, isn't there?" Miroku whispered suddenly, his hand not letting go of Kagome's. She gulped, nodding slowly, her gaze not wandering from his face.
"You felt it too?" Kagome asked, slowly removing her hand from his grasp. Could it be the reason why she felt so familiar around Miroku-- did he know? He didn't act like he'd seen the hairs back at Yura's performance, but maybe...
"Somehow, I feel like I've known you... for a long time." Miroku said. He quickly glanced away, running his hands through his hair again. He let out a nervous chuckle as he muttered, "But that's crazy, I mean, we just met a couple of days ago."
"Me too," Kagome breathed. Miroku met her gaze again, and a sort of reverie fell between the two before Kagome abruptly snapped out of the moment, back to her current predicament.
"Sorry for not telling you, Miroku, but yeah." Kagome glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.
"You're not going to tell Inuyasha, are you?"
"Although I think I should, I'll leave that up to you. Why are you so against telling Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, curiosity plain in his voice.
Kagome looked away, down, anywhere but in Miroku's eyes. She held a respect for the guy, even if they'd "just met" and he'd just found her out. Whatever the case was, she couldn't bring herself to tell Miroku about the strange feelings she had around --for...?-- Inuyasha. That was, if he didn't already know.
'Because he'll hate me.'
"Because I want to be on the team." Kagome answered, pushing any thoughts of Inuyasha --and that damned irritating grin of his, however charming it may have been back at the festival-- down, back, and far away..
"All right. One more question." Miroku smirked.
Kagome turned to look at Miroku fully. "Yeah?"
"Can we go out?"
Kagome flopped onto the bed, throwing her pillow at Miroku.
Sigmund Freud, an amazingly brilliant man, studied the unconscious mind because he believed that dreams and thoughts hidden in the deep recesses of our brains affected our everyday life. He believed that if those dreams and those thoughts were brought to the surface of one's unconsciousness, one might be able to control the undesirable actions that are displayed as a result of those hidden thoughts. He examined, studied, tested, concluded, and was inevitably proven right.
Kagome was able to study his practices that night, right when she fell asleep.
As soon as she closed her eyes, she started to have one of the eeriest dreams of her life. Kagome didn't normally dream, or at least dream anything that she remembered,which is why she often awoke, feeling refreshed and ready to tackle a new day.
When someone dreams vividly during the night, they tend to wake up more often then someone who does not dream so vividly, thus remembering the dream they had the night before.
Kagome didn't know what was going on as she dreamt, but she did know that she remembered it vividly when she awoke.
Hairs, crisscrossing left and right, up and down, going in every possible direction.
Kagome felt oddly heavy. She looked around her, suddenly realizing she was in a dark place, with cold, wet soil for ground. She had a strange, heavy garment draped about her head and shoulders-- and something long and soft brushing against her shoulder blades.
'My hair! My long hair, it's-- it's back!'
But before Kagome could make any more observations, she was pitched downward, as the intricate web of hair -gleaming and dancing in a sourceless light- collapsed in on itself, sending the girl plunging towards darkness. Skulls smeared with blood began to fall with her, causing Kagome to scream-- but before she could fall any further, two 'ropes' of hair shot down from the upper level, snaking about the girl's cloth-covered wrists.
She didn't feel a thing.
"What are you? Why aren't you maimed!" Kagome looked up, recognizing the voice instantly.
'Yura!'
Indeed, Yura hovered only a few feet above Kagome, clad in the same black, skimpy outfit that she'd worn at the festival. Her eyes glowed an inhuman red, narrowing as the hairs tightened around Kagome's wrists. She drew a sword from her side, making to plunge it through Kagome's neck-- she was even bending down on the ground, dirt spilling into Kagome's shirt...
This will be my revenge! Yura's voice cackled in the recesses of Kagome's mind. But right before cold steel met warm flesh, Kagome bolted awake, cool sweat gleaming on her brow. Her heart was pounding, and something sharp was digging into her wrist, cutting off circulation to her hand, making it numb.
There was a single, strand of hair tied around Kagome's wrist, much like a bracelet.
Kagome stared at it in horror, as her heart thundered against her ribcage.
'This... this can't be!'
NOTES:
(1)As Clara stated in SD, Inuyasha called Kagome a "bitch" just because. And it's ironic when a guy calls a girl in disguise as a guy a bitch... ah, yeah, you get it, though, right?
(2) Heheheehehe... Clara and I have some great stuff cookin' up for you in future chapters. We're so evil! glance So anyway, keep reading both SD and DD, and be sure to review and let us know how we're doing!
(3) Okay, so here's what I came up with in terms of ages/grades (according to the Japanese system!):
GRADE / AGE
HIGH SCHOOL
12 ... 17-18 (Kikyou's age/grade)
11 ... 16-17 (Kagome and Co.'s grade)
10 ... 15-16
MIDDLE SCHOOL
9 ... 14-15 (Kagome's REAL age/grade)
8 ... 13-14 (Souta's grade; however, he's 12 in this fic because he
skipped a grade)
7 ,... 12-13
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
6 ,...
11-12
5 ... 10-11
4 ... 9-10
3 ...
8-9 (Souta's REAL age/grade)
... etc.
So, in case you haven't already noticed, Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku are all roughly 16 or 17 years of age. Kikyou is a year older than everyone else, and is 17 going on 18, and... well, everyone else you'll meet, you'll find out. Eiji is 15. Souta is SUPPOSED to be 8 years old, but in this, he's 12 and a half-- younger than all his classmates, and hence one of the reasons he gets beat up.
Hope that clears some of THAT up.
THANK YOUs:
(1) Thanks to all the following people kind enough to review Dream a Dream! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! Fallon (again!), PrincessRoze3, Aejavu, Sashlea, Subaruu0584, Queen Ali B, M-python-girl, inu-yasha-4ever89, Leina, and of course, Clara!
(2) To the following reviewers
who asked questions/had weird comments-- here are the answers/my questions:
JulianaBT18 - is "kinda weird" a good thing or a bad
thing?
jadedragon - SUGAR!
Queenofserinity - For the most part, this is an Inuyasha/Kagome
fic... but obviously since Inuyasha thinks "Kagome" is a
boy, well... you'll see. Just keep reading. And no, the dreams Kagome
has are NOT, unlike in SD, from a previous life. This is a non-AU fic.
Again, wait and see, you'll know what I mean.
Hanyou Queen - OMG! You rule! Thank you for reviewing so many
of my fics! I'm so happy and flattered, and... continues to babble
I hope you liked-- let me know what you think! I managed to finish this up in a few days! Yay me!
See you next chapter! Azurite
