The Low Down: I think the plot's figured out pretty completely, but I haven't mapped out every chapter like I did with Love and Marriage. I thought I'd give this one a little more room to grow.
Cheyenne
Chapter 2
Home on the Range
***
Previously: Miroku returns to the bull riding circuit only to have victory stolen away by a silver-haired cowboy by the name of Inuyasha Taisho. Kagome also has a run in with the day's winner and they part on unfriendly terms...
Kagome turned sharply to swing her trailer around behind and pulled up the bumpy drive. She bounced in the cab as they pulled to the main barn and Miroku wobbled like a dashboard dog figurine. She pulled to a stop, jerked up the parking break, and slid out the door. She glanced at her still comatose brother and gave a little smirk. What would these men ever do without her? So it hadn't been her life long dream to be a cowboy babysitter, but at least she was good at it. All in all, she could be pretty proud of her accomplishments.
Every woman should be able to drive a stick, change a flat, get ready in five minutes, and put a man in his place. She was pretty much a master in every field.
"Hey Kagome!" A familiar friendly voice called from overhead. Hojo's sandy head poked from the second story window where they stored supplies and grinned down at her.
"Hi Hojo." She said with a smile and looked back in the cab when she heard her brother's garbled murmurs. Miroku grinned in almost childish glee and a little bead of drool rolled from his lips. Kagome wasn't certain… but the muttering's sounded suspiciously like women's names… she didn't want to guess what delusional fantasies were passing through his libido driven mind. She looked back up at Hojo with the pleading eyes. "You think you could help me out?"
***
"You could say 'Thank you' you know…" an irritated voice called from the driver's side. Sango matched his expression almost perfectly. She was none the happier with her passenger than he was with his ride, but for his ingratitude, she was about two seconds away from side kicking him straight out of the cab. At this speed, he'd roll at least thirty feet… no. She had to keep the homicidal thoughts out of her head.
"After all, I could have left you to find your way up ten miles of highway." Sango continued speaking to her unresponsive passenger, with a grin that stayed secret behind her hair. She wasn't planning the kindest ideas for the resentful cowboy who had been left in the dust. Maybe she should really give him a break…but then… that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. "As it is, you'll only have about a mile of woods."
"If you really want me to be thankful, why not take me all the way." Inuyasha growled without turning from the window.
"You took what you could get." Sango snapped. "I'm in a slight hurry, and you're definitely not a relief in my day." This guy was getting no mercy, what-so-ever.
He gave yet another one of those irritating, unthankful, you're-so-damn-annoying-but-I-have-to-put-up-with-you-for-now, kind of grunts that had Sango wanting to kick him through the passenger door once again. Just another mile and he was Kagome's problem again.
"Ouch!" He yelled as the truck cab suddenly dipped and jumped violently, effectively throwing him against the door frame and bashing his temple against the glass.
"Sorry…" Sango smiled from the driver's seat, "Country roads… they're full of pot holes."
***
"Oomph!" Hojo huffed and dumped Miroku on his bed.
Kagome walked up behind him and helped situate the sleeping cowboy more comfortably, tugging his boots off and pulling the pillow under his head. She stroked his forehead once affectionately, and a gentle smile spread across her lips when Miroku got that happy boyish grin and slowly blinked open his eyes.
"Hey…" he muttered sleepily.
"Hi." She smiled and pushed his messy bangs out of his eyes.
"I guess I didn't win, did I, Kags?" He said quietly and with a guilty note.
"No," she murmured. "Not this time, Miroku. But next time you will." He grabbed her hand beside his head quickly and nodded to her.
"I will, Kagome." He said with a familiar determination. "I promise I will. You won't be stuck here much longer. When I win big, I promise I'll repay you for everything."
She smiled gently again and pulled her hand from under his, stroking his face once more as he blinked his eyes back to sleep. Big brother's adrenaline rush was wearing off, and that left a man's body in need of sleep. He'd be out until much later that evening when only the call for dinner would call him from his vegetable state.
"I know you will, Miroku." She said softly. "I know you will."
She had heard that promise many times already.
"Bad day, huh?" A quiet voice startled her from the door. She turned quickly to find Hojo still watching over them with that caring and worried expression he so often put on around her. It was just slight of pitying, but Hojo was just to kind about his concern for her that she couldn't be resentful for it. Even when he called her from a semi-private family moment and left her slightly embarrassed from the feeling of being emotionally exposed.
"You could say that." She mumbled. "We all thought he had it."
Hojo nodded sympathetically as she stood to leave the room with him. "He must have hit ground pretty bad, to knock him out like that." He said.
Kagome looked up with a sudden grin and a giggle. "Oh a bull didn't do that." She smiled a little bigger at his confusion. "The bull just winded him. The cowgirls did the real damage."
Hojo laughed and watched her walk off down the hall with a smile. Such a sweet girl he thought, so kind to everyone on the ranch and so caring for her brother. Every day, he admired her just a little bit more. He glanced in to Miroku one more time, casually wondering why Miroku tended to frown so much more whenever he would see himself and Kagome around. Must just be the stress of trying to take care of her. Hojo had mentioned once that he'd be willing to help.
Miroku hadn't seemed to like that idea.
What Hojo didn't see was the dark iris peeking out from under Miroku's lashes and calculating just what he would have to do to keep the young ranch hand away from his sister, as Hojo closed the door and his shape disappeared around the corner. Something about the whole nice guy routine, he just didn't trust. After all, he'd used it too many times himself to keep faith in appearances.
***
"How far?!" Inuyasha hollered.
Sango was un-phased as she leaned against her open door. "The path is just a half mile up the highway. You'll see a dirt road going off to the right and just follow that through some woods. It'll take you to the ranch house."
"And how long does that go on?" He fumed.
"Actually… I don't know if anyone's ever measured it." She cocked an eyebrow at him in response to a particular unattractive face she was receiving. "Would you rather I had left you at the arena? I told you I could only take you as far as my place."
He grumbled loudly as he flung a duffle over his shoulder and started walking off to the highway shoulder. It was early yet, no later than 2:30. If he didn't get turned around in the woods, he could probably make it to the house in time for dinner. Granted, it was about the hottest part of the day and that would linger almost until sunset itself. Also, that path just happened to be as twisting and unmanageable as a dirt road could be. Myoga hadn't even used it in years. And in all likeliness, it was littered with fallen trees and bushes. Oh well, he'd figure that out soon enough.
She smiled to herself as she jumped back in the cab and drove down the remainder of her drive. Her smile grew a couple sizes as she looked to her front steps to see who was waiting for her. Kagome was going to love this story.
"Hey!" she called as she hopped from the cab and walked around to the trailer. "When's the last time you looked at the back road?"
"Not for a few months… it was a mess from the winter storms." Kagome said and went to help. "Why?"
"Well, your new boy needed a lift since it seemed that his ride was a no show, completely unintentional, I'm sure." She said with a wink. "So I gave him a lift up as far as the drive. He had instructions for the rest of the way."
A huge grin broke over Kagome's face as Sango led Kirara away.
"I'll tell you, if I don't go to heaven just for my good deed of putting up with that man this far, there's no justice in the universe." Sango laughed and let Kirara out into a pasture to run and graze.
Kagome followed the dun horse across the field, her eyes resting on the house in the distance, just across the way of a two acre lot. Home on the range…
"So he might get home before dark then…" she said with a smile, "If he's lucky."
***
The red beams of a dying sun streaked in through window panes across an elaborately decorated table. Kagome watched the clouds drift across the glass in streaks of pinks and violets as the whole world bathed in an almost holy golden light. She turned when she heard the gentle tinking of crystal water glasses to the elderly care taker and smiled. Miss Kaede was a sweet natured widowed woman, always with a wise thought to help Kagome along, and the only other female on this ranch. She was grateful for another person with two X chromosomes to help maintain her sanity. She really doubted it could ever exist otherwise.
She gave a sigh when the table had been set and Kaede's dinner placed out, and left the dining room to give the call to alarm up a stair well. "Dinner!"
So much for tranquility.
A rush of testosterone and animalistic fury rushed down the stairs and past Kagome to the dining room, claiming dominance and pecking order over the meal victoriously… cooked and served my Kaede in the largest stocked kitchen in a thirty mile radius.
'Men…' Kagome thought with a shake of her head.
Miroku, Hojo, and Myoga stammered around the table, loading up their plates with meat, potatoes, dinner rolls, and many other items that would have had Adkins enthusiasts recoiling in fear. Kagome just smiled knowingly and politely took her place, taking her share much more quietly and making simple conversation with Kaede or the boys whenever they found time to swallow and allow some breathing time.
"Oh Kagome!" Myoga drawled out when pausing momentarily to load butter onto his roll. "Why hasn't Inuyasha come down to dinner?"
Kagome laughed into her water glass quietly and smothered it with the questioning glance the boys shot her. "He… wanted to go and explore the land." She smiled.
Myoga nodded happily and went back to his food muttering something she thought sounded like "Now that's a cowboy for you…"
She smothered another laugh into her water glass.
***
It was looking to be a beautiful evening: A vast clear sky with a few stars already beginning to emerge and twinkle in the infinite space above, the air clean and fresh and full of the nightly song of crickets and an occasional flash of a firefly, the wooded path basking in a smoky light with the fading rays of sunset.
The mud caking to the edges of jeans and a muttered cursing sweeping along through brambles and bushes…
Inuyasha hated it.
Four and a half hours…
That god-damned path stopped on itself after fifteen minutes, covered in undergrowth and fallen trees, and disappeared into the trees. But of course, as with most wooded paths, a person doesn't give up hope at first. Oh no…
He just goes on ahead trying to keep as straight a path as possible and hoping the real track will show up again after a few paces.
Then of course, he finds what looks like the path restarting again a little to one side, and excitedly goes off towards that, only to have that one end as well after a few minutes and he's right back where he started in terms of being lost, and far from where he started in terms of position.
He hated trees.
He hated dirt.
He god-damned hated bugs.
He was about a hair's width away from exploding and taking down the entire forest in a fiery ball of his rage! He threw his bag down to the ground and kicked a tree. One stupid woman leaves him sprawled in the dirt at an arena. Another vile female abandons him on the side of the road and sends him on a vain attempt to navigate through the forests of hell! There was no way this could possibly get any worse!
A soft rustling stirred the bushes to his side, shifting him out of his rage. From that rustling, he heard a soft growling, steadily getting louder and more viscous. Inuyasha looked around cautiously for the source of the sound, slowly picking his pack from the ground, to have something to swing in case he needed to defend himself. It was coming closer.
In the shadows of the woods, an icy pair of blue eyes peered out at him, and then a snarling set of fangs. He took a step back as the creature approached him threateningly.
He was standing alone, in the middle of the woods, face to face, with a snarling wolf.
"Shit."
***
"What could be keeping that boy?" Myoga mumbled from a window. Kagome glanced up at him from her place on a large, overstuffed, sofa and hid a grin behind a text book. Periodically, she had felt little twinges of guilt. And now, looking at the chubby, grandfatherly looking man watching out the window like a little boy waiting for his favorite dog to come home, she was almost tempted to give into her conscience.
But then again maybe not…
Besides, she had a correspondence exam the next morning for a course in which she was rapidly losing confidence. She put the lost Inuyasha out of her mind to make room for biochemical pathways.
Pathways…
That path really was a winding, twisting mess. And that was just the last time she had happened across it. No telling what might happen to a poor guy having never seen it befo… NO!
Ethanol and Electrons! Not Inuyasha and guilt. Besides, after all the trouble he was already causing and the jerk he had been, she couldn't care less if he happened to be eaten by a bear.
Kagome's head snapped up, as well as every one else lounging around, with a crashing, cursing, screaming calamity coming from across a field.
Eaten by a bear… or perhaps not a bear. Maybe eaten by a…
"Oh no…" Kagome whispered and dropped her book. She jumped to the door and looked over Miroku's shoulder, who gazed dumbfounded out across the field with Myoga, Hojo, and Kaede.
"Who is that?" He asked amazed.
"Inuyasha!" Myoga yelled when he saw the silver haired cowboy break from the trees and begin the dash to the ranch house at a furious pace. He then gasped as the dark-furred, snarling beast tore out just behind him, nipping at his heals and dodging the swings of the massive duffle bag.
"He's being attacked by a blood thirsty wolf!" Myoga blanched. "Someone do something to stop that terrible monster!"
"It's not a monster!" Kagome cried out fearfully, as she saw Myoga's eyes looking for a shotgun, and she looked to Miroku to help. He looked at her in a stupor. She wanted help to save this beast? The snarling, growling, drooling beast the running cowboy was fighting off? The man would run a few paces, after having knocked the wolf away with the duffle before it would jump at him again. He'd then kick at it or grab it at the neck to fling it away and continue trying to get away. He glanced up to Myoga, now looking at him for an explanation, and to Hojo, who didn't seem to have any better idea than he as to what was going on.
When in doubt, however, trust Kagome's judgment.
"Yeah…" he muttered, glaring down at her, simultaneously asking what in the world was going on and demanding she stop all this immediately if she in anyway held that power. "It's just…"
"KOUGA!" Kagome pushed out through the people standing in the door and interrupted the weak explanation.
A few things happened almost all at once:
1) Kouga finally got a good jump at Inuyasha and sent him toppling down, face first, in the grass at full momentum, and sliding a fair distance. Inuyasha turned quickly to grab the wolf at the scruff in his neck to keep him from biting, and keeping the sharp clawed paws from doing too much damage with the other arm.
2) Kagome's cry out to the wolf was heard, and his attention immediately shifted from his object of prey, snorting once to the man below his paws, and jumping off to head to the woman running down off the porch.
3) A round of jaws collectively dropped from the observers still waiting in the door frame, watching as the once blood thirsty killer of an animal bounded off the fallen man and rushed to Kagome like a trained pup. She fell down to her knees as the beast skidded to her and buried its head into her arms. Inuyasha even turned over in the dirt to watch in unparalleled confusion. That little woman was coddling the creature that only seconds ago wanted to kill him?!
Miroku shook his head and stammered. "It's… it's… It's just her pet! Kouga… Yeah."
Hojo nodded dumbly. "Some pet!" he said under his breath. "She tamed that thing?!"
"Looks like…" Miroku said.
Ok… so his sweet baby sister tamed a viscous, blood-thirsty, man eating, wolf. Typical.
Inuyasha was not as accepting of the situation as was Miroku, however. He watched in a daze on the ground as the wolf that had chased him through the woods for longer than he knew fawned at the woman who had abandoned him earlier. Weren't kanines supposed to be a good judge of character? Why would it choose so evil a girl to cuddle up to? Unless, evil things just naturally associate towards evil things. That had to be the case. Damn woman and her damn murderous wolf!
"What the hell is wrong with you, girl?!" he screamed, pulling himself back up to his feet and stomping over to Kagome. "It's not enough you drop my ass and leave me in the dirt, but you try to kill me too?!"
A very threatening growl and a very cold stare was his response. Kagome took in a deep breath, and closed her eyes, mentally preparing every insult and derogatory name in her vocabulary to use all at once in a verbal explosion at him, but her diatribe was put on hold as Myoga tottered up as fast as hit fat little body could carry him, past her and clapped Inuyasha on the shoulder.
"Well! That was a bit of an adventure." He said with a smile. "I guess you got as good a lay of the land as anyone would ever get. Now that's a cowboy for you! And no harm done with Kagome's little pet. First I found out about it, but come to think, I can't think of any better protection our little home could hope for. And if Kagome's it's girl, that old wolf no doubt will be about as tame as a kitten." He turned to her, losing a little of that happy smile.
"How did you find that animal anyway?" His voice was cheerful, yet his eyes held just a little fear. The last thing Myoga wanted was his new star getting too upset and leaving because of a pretty nasty run down of an animal. His little mind was scurrying for the best possible way out of this and almost begging Kagome to have the way to do it.
"I found him in the forest a while ago." She said gently, petting his head. "His pack had all been killed and he was injured. I didn't want to just let him die, so I took care of him. He's just been hanging around since then. He's not exactly tame, but I think he sees this as his territory."
"See now!" Myoga turned back to Inuyasha, dusting himself off, with a happy smile. "All settled and taken care of. Now boy, you must be starved. Come inside, we'll get you set up."
He looked like he wanted to say more, yell more, tell Kagome she was the single most vile creature he had yet had the misfortune to come across, but as Myoga insistently pulled him along towards the house, Inuyasha felt the energy drain from his body from the sheer lunacy of the day and he couldn't get up the strength. He walked into the warmth of the house and could have fallen to the floor and slept for fifty years if he had the chance.
"I want to sleep." He informed Myoga demandingly, who seemed not to notice the rudeness of the tone, but merely nodded sympathetically.
"Of course, you're tired, my boy." He said. "I'll show you to your room and have Kaede send you up a bite to eat."
Inuyasha grunted affirmatively and let Myoga lead him up the stairs, to an opened hallway over looking the living and dining rooms. Bedrooms were situated on one side of the hall, and a second set of rooms ran parallel on the other side of the house. Myoga, Miroku, and Hojo each had separate quarters on one side of the house. Kagome and Kaede had lived peacefully in feminine splendor along the other hall, and the two joined together in an upstairs lounge over the kitchen. There had always been one room open for guests or possible new recruits on the women's hall.
Kagome walked up the stairs with her text book in hand, very sleepy and stressed, and noticed Myoga showing Inuyasha into the open room. She blanched.
'Oh no… please tell me...' she thought desperately as Inuyasha flung his duffle back into the room and stepped out in the hall, noticing her and frowning violently.
"Just remember, if you need anything, you'll have Kagome right through the wall." Myoga was still talking as he came into the hall and regarded her affectionately. "Ever since she came down here, things have been running smoother than they've ever been. She's the best person you'd want to have as your neighbor."
Know that feeling, when everything is coming down on your head at once? And you're so frustrated because anything you try to do to make the problems seem not so bad, just somehow makes them seem that much worse? And finally you face the fact that there's nothing you can do to take the control back in your life and the realization is so depressing and all consuming that you actually feel the bile rushing up in your throat and threatening to make you vomit?
Kagome did.
'Sure... I'm the person to go to if he needs anything... like arsenic!' she thought.
Miroku and Hojo watched the exchange from the hall across the way. Kagome was ready to kill, an expression he only experienced every once and a while during his required amounts of brotherly torture. Inuyasha didn't seem any friendlier. As they looked upon each other, every muscle fiber in each body was taunt and ready to snap. He couldn't help admitting, he wasn't overly thrilled of the strange man sharing the room directly next to his sister. But with such maliciousness radiating towards each other, it had to be completely harmless.
The way she looked at him: eyebrows drawn down together, jaw snapped tight, shallow breathing and lips pressed thin in a frown. Everything screamed disgust!
Inuyasha glared down at her. "Whatever!" he snapped and walked into his room and let the door slam punctuate his departure.
"Oooooooo!" Kagome fumed, "I've had enough of this!" She absently rubbed at her aching temple and tried to calm herself by taking long, controlled breaths.
"Want me to beat him up?" a familiar call grabbed her from her mounting headache. She whipped her head around to find Miroku and Hojo leaning on the banister and smiling at her. She blushed at the discovery that she had been the night's entertainment.
"No, no… I'm good. I'll deal with it on my own, thanks." She grinned placatingly to big bro and sighed. "I'll just study up here until bed. Maybe I can actually get something done without distraction." She muttered out tiredly.
"Night!" Miroku called out with a wink, "Have fun with that."
"Sweet dreams, Kagome." Hojo wished her from across the open room, rewarded by a smile from Kagome and an unnoticed sideways glare from Miroku.
"Shut up, idiots!" Inuyasha called from inside his room.
Miroku came to his decision as both Kagome's door slammed shut
He may have decided Inuyasha was in no way anything to worry about, but he had to remain determined to keeping Hojo away.
***
"I think the jerk actually tried to bang his head against the wall!" Kagome grumbled while Sango saddled Kirara. "All night. Thump-thump-thump right behind my head!"
"You could always just move your furniture around." Sango offered and mounted.
"And give him the satisfaction of my moving my life all around some more just because of him?!" She cried.
"It was only a suggestion." Sango smiled and turned Kirara to begin her practice run.
Kagome sighed and rested her arms and head on the arena railings. She loved watching Sango practice. One reason, she could rant to an ever sympathetic ear to relieve her own frustrations with the world, and a second, nothing can make you forget the world better than watching the fluid motion of woman and horse in a fast and graceful, turf flying race. Everything just stops for a moment.
"What do you think I should do, Shippo." She looked down to the little boy playing with grasshoppers at her feet. The little boy was still dressed in his clown pants, but Kagome congratulated herself on getting him to take off the shirt and makeup.
"I don't know about at your home, but I'll protect you here!" Shippo piped up enthusiastically. He went into a very lively account on how they could catch him in a rope trick and leave him tied in a tack room just long enough for him to miss his ride. Then Miroku would definitely have the best shot of winning and Myoga could forget about his new golden-boy who failed to show up to events.
Kagome listened with as smile. "I don't think so Shippo." She said half-heartedly. "I don't think I could bring myself to sabotage, so let's just hope he blows it on his own."
Still, she couldn't deny that it was a tempting offer.
A startled scream jerked their attention back to the arena. Kagome looked out to see Sango in the dirt, next to the barrel, and cradling her wrist while Kirara thrashed on her side trying to pull herself back to her feet.
"Oh no!" Kagome breathed and jumped the railings in a flash, running through the slinking sand towards Sango as fast as she could. "What happened?! Are you alright?"
"No…" Sango grunted and gripped her wrist tightly. "I… I hit a loose spot in the sand. Hit the barrel on the way down. I think it's broken."
"Oh no… Sango…" Kagome looked around frantically. Kirara was back on her feet, saddle slightly askew from the impact with the ground, and nosing down at them, trying to urge her master back up. Shippo was scurrying towards them as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Shippo!" Kagome called out and stopped him in his tracks. "Call a medic, quickly!"
"Right." Shippo nodded and scurried off just the way he came. His little orange poof bobbed up and down as his little legs got caught in the sand piles.
"It'll be alright, Sango." Kagome whispered and helped her to stand. Sango nodded deftly, trying to believe what Kagome said, but able to grant herself that optimism. She'd lose her standing if she didn't ride, and she couldn't ride with a broken wrist.
Sango was out of competition.
Next Chapter: What the Cowgirls Do