Luxury Never was Cheap
Chapter nine
It had been a week since he'd run away. He hated himself for doing such a thing. How could he have abandoned her like that? It just made him look like he'd really done something.
But what had he done?
He didn't know.
"Hey, Inuyasha will you move from my couch?" Inuyasha snapped out of his thoughts and looked up. Hiten Ginga stared back at him stupidly. His cousin. Inuyasha had nowhere else to go, and had resorted to staying at his cousins' house. Hiten, Manten, and Souten had all become his roommates in less than two days. But then again, so had Kagome.
Kagome.
He cringed and stood up, almost knocking his cousin to the floor. Hiten stepped back, he reached behind his back and tugged on his braid nervously. It was a habit he had when he was nervous. "Hey, Inu, you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just peachy," Inuyasha growled. He glanced at his cousin. His pulling on his braid was getting annoying, reminded him of himself when he used to wear his hair in a braid. Right now it was in a ponytail because it had been in his way while sleeping on the couch that "belonged" to Hiten.
"You sure?" Hiten asked, concern overflowing his face, he'd been close to Inuyasha as a kid, the two looking alike with the matching braids and all, only Hiten had blood red eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Hiten nodded and preceded to flop down onto the couch Inuyasha had been seated in earlier.
"I can't thank you enough for letting me stay here," Inuyasha said softly, "I just can't go back."
Hiten waved it aside, "Don't mention it, it's nothing really, I mean, you're giving me your DDR and babysitting Souten for me, it's the least I can do!"
Inuyasha cringed at the thought of giving up his DDR. It had been the price for staying here. Hiten could be so evil.
Souten came pounding into the room, her hair in two little buns at the side of her head, looking like a female version of her older brother. She tackled Inuyasha. "Is Shippou coming over today?"
"No, not today," Inuyasha answered for the millionth time, it was a known fact that Souten had a huge crush on Shippou ever since she was old enough to understand the boyfriend/girlfriend concept.
Hiten stood and headed towards the door, "Alright, Inuyasha, you know where the food is, I have to go check on Manten, he should be done with his chemotherapy by now."
"Ok, bye!" Inuyasha waved and Souten giggled as she drew a picture of Shippou with the crayons he'd given her years ago.
Manten had cancer and was slowly recovering through the chemo, thus, making him bald. Inuyasha remembered when he'd first lost his hair, how he'd bawled about Inuyasha and Hiten being the only good looking guys in the family. And how he'd shame them without his hair. Inuyasha had then bought him a wig to shut the poor bastard up. The chemo had also made him pale and pudgy, which was too bad, he used to look a lot like Hiten before the cancer, but Manten was expected to live, so there was a plus side to the loss of a natural beauty.
Inuyasha placed a head on his cat. Yes, the nameless kitty had followed him like the stalker it was and Inuyasha had been forced to spend time with it. But, he wasn't too mad about it. Kagome had bought him this cat. She'd gotten it in hopes of easing his fear of cats. And she had, Kagome and the cat had melted the fear of cats and Inuyasha was grateful. Rubbing the cat's glossy blue tinted coat Inuyasha peered into the cat's eyes.
A deep blue.
Just like Kagome's.
Kagome.
"Kagome," Inuyasha murmured and the cat purred loudly. Inuyasha paused and stared at the cat, "Kagome." He said again, and the cat purred as if it understood him.
Inuyasha smirked and rubbed under the cat's chin, "Kagome."
If cats could smile, Inuyasha was sure the look the cat was giving him now was definitely a smile.
"Alright then, I guess that's what I'll name you," Inuyasha paused, "Kagome-neko."
The cat purred in contentment.
Inuyasha smiled. He held in his hands the one thing he had of Kagome, the small kitten that she'd given him and ironically looked like a cat version of her. Coincidence? Or had Kagome planned that from the start?
Souten looked up at Inuyasha, "why are you always sad?"
"What do you mean? I'm not sad," Inuyasha said, trying to sound arrogant. But that side of him had been slowly worn away by Kagome, and would never fully return.
"You're always looking at the wall with a faraway look on your face, you sigh constantly and you're not all rude like the last time I saw you," Souten blinked and stared up at her cousin. "Is it because you have to give Hiten your video game?"
Inuyasha smiled sadly at the child's cuteness, it reminded him so much of Shippou. "Yeah, I'll miss my video game."
"Maybe you should buy the new one," Souten said, "I saw it, it has at least fifty billion new songs!"
"I'll keep that in mind, squirt," Inuyasha said as he flopped down onto Hiten's couch.
Souten smiled and continued drawing a picture of her and Shippou on their wedding day that she was sure would take place in two days.
Inuyasha sighed and wished that he could be near Kagome. The whole time he'd been gone, his thoughts were only of her, and her smile. He pushed their last fight out of his head and only focused on the good things. She'd always been near him it seemed. He wiggled his toes; she'd been around when he broke his foot.
He smiled, the cast had come off last week, but now his foot felt bare and lonely. Kagome had signed the cast when he was sleeping, and whenever he was lonely he'd glance at her message and feel better.
The message was nothing special, just telling him to get well soon and fix the roof but the fact that Kagome had written it had calmed his heart. The fact that Kagome cared was enough to make him want to break his foot. Or his leg.
Or his heart.
He grimaced as Kagome's crying raged filled face clouded his thoughts, their argument running through her head as she ran away from him, screaming about how much of a liar he was.
But he'd been telling the truth, why couldn't Kagome see that?
He sat up and grabbed Souten's hands and looking her deep in her blood red eyes, "Souten-Chan? I need to leave for a while; will you be alright by yourself?"
Souten puffed up with her child like superiority, "Oh course, I'm ten and three quarters, I can take care of myself, don't you worry."
"Thanks, Souten, that means a lot," Inuyasha patted the girl's head and ran out the door, making sure to lock it and threw an apple at Souten before running towards his apartment. He had to get Shippou.
And he needed an excuse to see Kagome.
Sango and Miroku sat in a comfortable silence. They'd just exchanged the daily grope and Miroku was feeling rather proud of himself.
He turned to Sango, "Sango I need to tell you something very important."
"What is it Miroku?" Sango asked, her eyelids heavy with sleep. She sat on the couch with a sleeping Shippou in her lap, it was only about noon, but she was still tired from boycotting sleeping last night. Yeah, that was not a smooth move on her part.
Shippou was taking a nap.
He was so cute.
After Inuyasha had left, Shippou had come up with a plan, it was a simple plan. Nail down the windows in Sango and Kagome's room and then get the conflicting couple, also known as Kagome and Inuyasha in there alone, lock the door, and let them make up. Or kill each other. Or maybe both.
It was worth a shot.
But right now, Miroku couldn't care less; he was staring into Sango's maroon eyes, his own burning with an unknown passion to Sango. What was he doing?
"Sango? We've been together for a long time," Miroku thought, "and I have something important to tell you." Sango leaned in closer and stared at Miroku, her eyes now wide with curiosity. "Sango-"
"Yes?"
"Will you bare my child?"
Sango stared in shock as an uncomfortable silence passed through them until she placed Shippou softly under a pillow and stared to bang Miroku's head in.
"I see you two haven't changed," the two jumped and turned to see Inuyasha standing there. But it didn't look like Inuyasha, it looked like a dead form of his former self, a mere shadow of the once lively and energetically arrogant boy. Now he was just a shell.
"Inuyasha?" Miroku jumped up, suddenly excited, time to carry out the plan.
"In the flesh," Sango and Miroku noted his attempt to be sarcastic, but only succeeded in sounded dead to the world.
"Inuyasha…"
"I'm only here for Shippou, and to get my god damned DDR game, damn Hiten," Inuyasha muttered the last part of DDR to himself and looked around, "so where is the runt?"
"My room," Sango said, quickly realizing this was their chance, Kagome would be home any minute from the grocery store, and so this was the perfect time to get them alone.
Inuyasha nodded and went towards Sango's room pausing briefly to glance at Sango to make sure he was going into the right room. As he did so, Miroku pushed Inuyasha into the room and locked it by putting a chair underneath the handle and a chain that they'd recently added for this occasion.
"Hey! What the hell, Miroku?" Inuyasha pounded on the door, "Shippou isn't in here. And why the hell is the door locked?"
"Just hang tight, Inuyasha," Miroku said as he walked away, waiting for Kagome to come home.
About ten minutes later, Kagome walked through the door with two bags of groceries in her hands, "I'm back, guys!"
Sango and Miroku smiled knowingly and nodded their hello to Kagome who went trotting into the kitchen to put away the food.
Sango walked up and tapped Kagome's shoulder, "Hey Kagome, while you were gone, Miroku showed me this awesome American song, want to here it?"
"Sure!" Kagome cheered, being a lover of foreign music, especially American.
Sango grinned and started towards the door, which Miroku had unlocked but was prepared to jump and lock it at a moments notice if Inuyasha were to try and get out (though he stopped trying about five minutes ago).
Sango guided Kagome to the door, motioned for Miroku to open, flung Kagome inside and locked the door in the same manner as Inuyasha. Kagome making a sound of discomfort was heard, but she seemed unaware of Inuyasha's presence.
"Sango-Chan, why'd you do that?"
"Sorry, Kagome-Chan, but Miroku and I are going now, bye!" Sango called, "it's for your own good!" Sango grabbed Miroku and leaded him to the kitchen to give the two misunderstood lovers some privacy.
Kagome stood up and straightened the skirt she had been wearing, "Seriously, sometimes Sango-Chan is so weird."
She walked over to the door and tried the handle, but it had been locked, "Damn."
She turned around and tried the window, but found it wouldn't budge.
"Don't bother, I've already tried," Kagome froze and turned to see Inuyasha sitting on the chair at her desk. She gulped loudly when she saw him. So that was Sango's motives?
"I-Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered, her voice failed.
"I think this was Miroku and Sango's way of saying we need to make up," Inuyasha said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets and stood up.
"Yeah, well, good for them, I'll give them points on trying," Kagome said crossly, trying to keep her voice from quivering.
"Look Kagome I…"
"I don' want to hear excuses," Kagome cut him off before he could finish. The truth was, she'd take him back without a moment's hesitation if he could prove that he loved her and not Kikyo. She felt tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.
She looked Inuyasha up and down. He seemed almost as depressed as she was, with dark circles under his eyes, and his hair messy and sticking up in odd places. His eyes looked dead, but their still was a glint of hope deep within his lavender orbs.
"Why'd you do it, Inuyasha?" Kagome whispered, taking a step towards him.
"I didn't do it," Inuyasha said just as quietly so only she could hear him. He moved his hands out of his pockets and reached out to her, but had a second though and placed them limply at his sides.
Kagome desperately tried to stop the tears from flowing, "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Inuyasha took a step towards her. Buyo yawned from his spot on the table, and stared at his owner and the other guy.
"Tell me something, Inuyasha, do you love Kikyo?" Kagome held her breath waiting for the answer.
Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat as he stared at Kagome, his mouth opening and closing like a giant fish, his voice lost. He cleared his throat a couple of times and then looked Kagome in the eyes, "No."
"Then why did you leave?"
"I don't know."
"Was it to go to Kikyo?"
"Never," Inuyasha said, the seriousness in his voice making him sound cold. "I would never go back to her."
"Oh how convenient that you say that and of course you disappear! Go away! Leaving me all alone even though you claim that you missed me!"
"Am I just an inconvenience to you, Kagome?" whispered Inuyasha as he dangled a strand of hair over Buyo, who batted at it playfully. Kagome noted how he was freaking out.
"I never said that," Kagome whispered. She reached out to him, but withdrew her hand; he was an untouchable to her.
"You were thinking it."
"How do you know what I'm thinking!?"
"I can see it in your eyes!"
"That's not true!"
"I can see! You're disgusted by me!"
"Why would I be disgusted by you? Stop overreacting your selfish pig!"
"Oh am I selfish pig, well you're a god damned bitch," Inuyasha snarled, his anger beginning to boil over.
"How dare you!" Kagome said; rage overflowing from her, "You have no right!"
"And neither do you!" Inuyasha sneered. Then his face turned pained and he collapsed onto Kagome's bed, "oh god, Kagome, I'm doing it again."
"What?" Kagome asked, her fury turning to puzzlement.
Inuyasha's fists grabbed the blanket on Kagome's bed, causing it to bunch around his fists; he was shaking slightly with his head bowed. "It always comes out wrong."
"What do you mean?" Kagome blinked in confusion.
"Every thing I say comes out wrong," Inuyasha whispered, "I don't want to fight with you."
"You don't have to fight with me, Inuyasha," Kagome whispered as she sat next to him, brushing the bangs away from Inuyasha's face, "Inuyasha..."
Inuyasha turned towards her and sighed, "You're out of my league."
Kagome narrowed her eyes to slits, "well I'm sorry that I'm not good enough for the great Inuyasha." She stood up and started to walk to the other side of the room when Inuyasha grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
He placed a chaste kiss onto her lips, barely pressing against hers, her eyes shot open as she stared at Inuyasha in confusion.
"I didn't mean it like that Kagome," Inuyasha whispered, "I meant that I'm not good enough for you. There's so many things I can't do for you, and what's worse, I always fight with you."
"Inuyasha..." Kagome said, breathless, the kiss had been soft and sweet but the reaction it gave her still took away her breath.
"Kagome...I'm sorry," Inuyasha leaned over and hugged her to him, "I love you so much."
Kagome's eyes widened in surprise at the hug and the confession from Inuyasha. He hugged her tighter to him, "Kagome."
"Inuyasha," Kagome pushed slightly away from him, "I don't understand."
"There's so much I can't give you, Kagome, so much I can't do to make your life perfect, and it hurts me, I want what's best for you, and if that means I have to give you up, so be it, as long as your happy," he released her and turned away, his hair swaying sadly.
"No!" Kagome cried and whirled Inuyasha around, slamming her lips to his in a desperate, passion filled kiss. She pressed her lips hard to him and almost side with relief when he started to kiss back. She traced his lips with her tongue and ran her hands up his forearms and around his neck, pulling him closer to her. Inuyasha's arms encircled her waist and pulled her closer to him, his mouth opening and slipping his tongue into her mouth.
Kagome's eyes widened before drifting shut again as she allowed his tongue to reside inside her mouth, it making swirling motions and tracing patterns in the inside of her tongue. Running his tongue over her own tongue, her teeth, and every part of her mouth he had access to.
Finally, the two had to pull apart to breath before she dove at Inuyasha again, knocking him onto the bed, lavishing his lips with her own. They lay on the bed for a long time, only kissing each other. And they would have continued until the cows come home but Kagome eventually broke away and stared deeply into Inuyasha's eyes.
Then of course the phone had to ring. Kagome jumped at least fifty feet into the air as she hesitantly grabbed the phone, pissed off that she was interrupted. "What?" she snapped.
"Eh? Higurashi-San, are you ok?" Kagome groaned loudly. Hojo.
"What do you want?" Kagome hissed, not caring about how rude she was being to Hojo.
"I wanted to know if you wanted to go on a-"
"I saw you walk out with Eri, Hojo, go away." Kagome said crossly as she fought the urge to scream.
"But…"
Hojo never finished because Inuyasha ripped the phone from Kagome, hung up and kissed her furiously.
This continued on for some time, until they both nearly passed out from lack of air. Kagome wheezed out for air as she straddled Inuyasha's hips.
"I want you near me," Kagome whispered, breathless, "I want to be near you for the rest of my life."
"Kagome...I don't know what to say," Inuyasha admitted, he stared up into her red face, his equally pink.
"Just tell me you'll stay with me," Kagome said softly as she rested her head on his chest, hugging him to her. "I don't ever want to be away from you."
"But Kagome-"
"I know there are some things you can't give me, but there's so much you can give me that I want, what I need." Kagome looked down at him smiling, "and I can't imagine my life without you in it."
Inuyasha returned the smile and placed a kiss on her nose and hugged her to him, "Alright, I promise."
Kagome sighed, contented and closed her eyes, "Inuyasha I'm sorry for all the things I said when we were fighting, you know I didn't mean it right?"
"Of course," Inuyasha laughed, his chest moving up and down with his laughter, causing Kagome to giggle, "and I'm sorry, too, for running away from you."
"I think you made the right decision, I needed some space to breath, though I felt so alone with you gone," Kagome sat up and jumped off Inuyasha and smiled a true smile, "And I'm so glad you're back!"
"Kagome..."
"I was so alone and scared that you wouldn't come back..."
"Kagome."
"And now you're here so it's ok-"
"Kagome!"
"What?" Kagome whirled around and nearly squeaked in surprise, Inuyasha had crossed the room and held her arms in his hands with a firm grasp.
"Kagome, marry me." Inuyasha looked her in the eyes, his expression dead serious.
Kagome's eyes popped out, "What?!"
"Not now, but...I want to marry you, spend the rest of my life with you," Inuyasha kissed her softly on her lips, "wait until I have enough money to support you, to support us. Maybe in a few years...will you?"
Kagome processed this information. It was amazing she went from screaming at Inuyasha to being proposed by him. He was staring at her intently, his eyes holding many different emotions; the two strongest was love and fear. Love for her, and fear of rejection. Kagome found herself becoming lost in his eyes.
Then it finally sunk in completely. Inuyasha had proposed to her! He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her! She blinked in amazement.
Inuyasha sighed next to her, taking her silence the wrong way, "I understand Kagome."
Kagome smiled and flicked his nose, "I will."
Inuyasha's eyes widened, "Really?"
Kagome nodded shyly, a blush staining her cheeks as her heart did a weird flip. Inuyasha crushed her to him and hugged the life out of her, "Oh Kagome!"
"Inuyasha," Kagome felt her life becoming as pure and happy as it once was before their huge fight, "let's go!"
"Huh?" Inuyasha asked as Kagome dug around underneath her bed searching for something, her feet kicking out as she attempted to get farther underneath the bed. "Kagome, what are you doing?"
Kagome appeared with a hammer in her hand and smiled triumphantly, Inuyasha stared at it. "I forgot that was under there!"
Inuyasha blinked as Kagome went towards her closet instead of the window and flung the door open; searching around the many articles of clothing she finally pulled out stepladder. She smirked happily at Inuyasha as she opened it and Kagome began to thump around the ceiling of the closet until a metallic thump was heard.
Inuyasha's eyes widened as Kagome shot her fist upward and punched the ceiling causing a little hatch to open, "Ta da!"
Inuyasha was silent.
Kagome hoisted herself up by her arms and kicked her legs out furiously, "Ahem, Inuyasha, do you think you could help me here?"
Inuyasha blinked and walked towards her, grabbing her feet and pushing her upwards, "Kagome what the hell are you doing? Why don't you just pull out the nails in the windowsill?"
"Because this is funner!"
"Funner isn't a word, Kagome," Inuyasha muttered and watched as Kagome left his view. "Hey god damn it listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
Inuyasha leaped up onto the stool and hoisted himself up with perfect ease and found himself in a little crawl space. "How did you know this was here?"
"Myouga."
Inuyasha sighed, "I hate him."
"Too bad because I love him and was planning on marrying him. You can be my maid of honor!" Kagome giggled at Inuyasha perplexed expression. Crawling towards him she kissed him playfully, "I'm kidding, Inuyasha, I want to marry you."
Kagome turned around and began crawling, motioning Inuyasha to follow her. Inuyasha hesitantly followed, not trusting the weird floorboards that could give way at any minute. Finally they came to a little ledge and Kagome searched around. She muttered some curses to herself and looked at Inuyasha, gulped and looked away.
"Kagome, you don't know where we are, do you?" Inuyasha asked icily.
Kagome laughed nervously and backed away, as she did so she felt the cool metallic feel of another hatch, "Oh course not, I know exactly where we are!"
She opened the hatch and jumped in. Inuyasha growled but jumped after her.
The two found themselves in a closet of another apartment. Inuyasha glanced at Kagome, "Smooth, genius, now we can be arrested for breaking and entering."
"Shush, not so loud, we'll get out of here," Kagome cracked the door open and peered out. Two figures were sleeping on a bed and Inuyasha and Kagome began to sneak out.
Inuyasha grumbled something as the two snuck past the sleeping figures. That is until one shot up and threw a pillow at Inuyasha, "Gravy!"
Inuyasha dodged the pillow easily and sweat dropped as Sango flopped back down, he glanced at Kagome, "gravy? And why the hell are they asleep at this hour?"
"Oh hush, Inu, let's get out of here," Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's hand and rushed out of the room, "see I told you I knew where we were, now lets go!"
"To where?"
"To kick some serious Kikyo ass," Kagome said crossly.