See 1st chapter for disclaimer
Chapter 2: Don't I Wish
Kagome blinked at the demon standing in front of her, his question running through her mind. What was she doing here? What did he mean what was she doing here? This was her house damnit! The question was, what was Inuyasha doing here, and dressed like that of all things? Where in the world did he actually have time to go off to a department store and buy something that might actually be worn by someone who wasn't over 400 years gone?
Wait, just HOW did he actually get those clothes, never mind the time or anything else wrong with his looks. Ok well the ears were also a big question too.
Maybe his missing ears were just some weird trick of the light?
Wanting to make sure she wasn't just seeing things Kagome reached up and patted the hanyou's head, only to find that her eyes were indeed not deceiving her. She then moved her hands down quickly to the side of his head to find two very human ears sticking out the side, once again to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks she tugged on his ear a couple of times.
Which seemed to of finally shook Inuyasha out of his daze as his face changed from overblown shock to a growl in the back of his throat and a twitching eye. "Is ear pulling when you meet someone some weird human custom I've just never heard about or does it only pertain to your family?" he asked her with an annoyed expression and a very sarcastic voice.
Suddenly Kagome realized how foolish they must have looked like and became aware of her little brother standing there with his eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth hanging open while pointing at Inuyasha. Ok, so the new look of his was a little different, but he didn't have to act like that weird Noh mask was attacking again and just zone out completely.
"Oh, uh, right," the girl said before finally releasing his ears then stepping back a little ashamed of herself.
Wait a minute…what the heck was she doing?
"Hey hold on a second here," Kagome yelled before Inuyasha could get another word out while pointing at him. "Just what the heck do you think you're doing just sneaking in here, and what happened to your ears? And what the heck are you wearing?" She pointed at his jeans and shirt to emphasize her last question. That's when she finally noticed that the Shikon no Tama was absent from his neck.
It was her, he could barely believe his eyes but there she was standing right in front of him. The uniform was different than he remembered for some reason, it was high school instead of junior high, but apart from that there was not a hair out of place, not a blemish on her skin, and she had that cute little frowning expression with her lips pushed together in annoyance.
The demon stood there in a daze until the girl finally started tugging on his ears.
Yep, it was Kagome all right, and annoying as ever too.
Inuyasha said something to get the girl to get her to let go of his ears with a frown before she started demanding what the deal was about his change in wardrobe. Which probably meant that…oh shit, if she's still jumping around and asking about all this stuff then…does that mean the well still works at this point in time?
That thought scared the hell out of Inuyasha. He might have known much about quantum mechanics about five hundred years back, but as the whole point of his life after his ascension into a greater demon was in direct opposition to the goddesses that controlled time –and he it just figured that it would be a woman that screwed him over- Inuyasha became quite familiar with all that time crap.
Especially considering that two days after Inuyasha became a full demon Hild and Kami-sama implemented that wussy doublet system crap that wouldn't let him kill gods without getting in big trouble with his own side.
But, if he met himself before he became a greater demon, and even worse told Kagome and himself what was going to happen, it would cause a paradox of almost immeasurable proportions, and would reek havoc on the Norns, if not drive them completely insane due to the temporal ripples that would occur because of his canceled ascension.
Actually…I can't really see a downside to that, Inuyasha thought.
Unfortunately before Inuyasha could tell Kagome what was going on and pretty much deal reality a crippling blow on the side, Kagome had to bring his plans for universal chaos to a halt with one simple question. "Hey, what happened to the Jewel of Four Souls? You didn't lose it did you?"
Ok, two simple questions.
"Uh, jewel?" Inuyasha asked a little nervously while scanning through his memories to try and find when she had ever actually let him keep the jewel shards while going back to her own time, all he could really think of was when he took it from Kagome's neck after hugging her for the first time, and…
"You did lose it didn't you?" she said while shaking her finger at him. "I-I can't believe this! After everything that's happened, after I just gave your stupid jewel because that's all you care about, you show up after all this time and all you want to do is use me as your jewel detector again!" And the time when she threw the completed jewel at him before disappearing from his life with tears running down her cheeks, he hated that memory.
Before Kagome could continue with her verbal assault Inuyasha decided to interrupt in his less than subtle way. "Oh give me a break you stupid girl," he shouted to the person in front of him. One thing that Inuyasha had never liked in his life was being talked down to by anyone, and he would be damned if some little kid –well kid in Inuyasha's sense of age with him being pretty much ageless and Kagome being 15, 16 at most- would be talking down to him like that. "I show up after…wait, how long have I been gone exactly?" He looked her up and down for a second, "I mean I couldn't have been that long seein as how you ain't an old hag and nothing's sagging as far as I can see."
Kagome blinked as what he just said ran through her mind, thus causing her eye to twitch. If Inuyasha could see that nothing was 'sagging' as he put it then he must have been leering at her…that…that…she didn't even want to complete that thought. So, she moved on to the part where she would just punish him and then kick the stupid hanyou back down the well. "Sit boy!" Inuyasha could find his own jewel shards as far as she was concerned.
There was only one little hole in that plan…Inuyasha was still standing, even after using the 'S' word.
Kagome blinked then pointed up him with a little bit of worry. She could see the rosary around his neck, so how come he was still standing in front of her with his eyebrow twitching like that? "Oh man I can't believe this, the first time I see you in years and the first thing you can think to do is yell at me then try and yell 'sit boy'" of course the sit boy was said with an ultra cute mockery imitation of Kagome's own voice.
"Years?" Kagome asked in a squeak as the confusion in her mind finally overpowered fort sensible and her mind was sent adrift with all that was going on. Why didn't Inuyasha fall to the ground when she sitted him? What was wrong with his ears? Where did his modern clothes come from? Nothing made any sense.
"Come on," the demon barked before grabbing her hand and hauling the confused girl over to the stairs. "Let's just hurry up and get this over with."
Back near the phone Sota finally broke out of his daze and looked around. "Kagome, Inuyasha just…and he didn't when you did…and, uh, do want me to order the pizza?" he finally shouted when she finally got to the stairs.
Five minutes later Kagome found herself sitting in her room and on her bed while Inuyasha paced back and forth while mumbling under his breath. "I am going to get her for this, I am soooooo going to get her for this," he said to himself as if in a trance.
"Hey hold on a second," Kagome said finally finding her voice. "What the heck are you talking about? And how come you didn't fall when I told you to sit?" Once again nothing happened when she said the word.
Her words taking him out of his trance Inuyasha looked back up at Kagome before rubbing his hand up his face as if he was tired or something, as he did Kagome noticed two strange diagonal red slashes on his forehead before they were once again covered up by his snow white hair. (AN: Yes I know I said she noticed them in the last chapter but after looking at Inuyasha and thinking about it since his forehead is covered up by his hair that would have been impossible)
In front of her the hanyou let out a tired sigh before sitting in the chair near Kagome's desk. "Kagome, before I start the…transaction," he said with a little reluctance. "There's something I need to know. When was the last time you saw me?"
"Huh?" the girl replied with the ever so used ultimate question of confusion. Might as well humor him, Kagome thought while looking at the seriousness in the demon's face. "Two weeks. It'll be two weeks on the dot tomorrow. Now what the heck do you mean by transaction?"
She received no answer except for Inuyasha just looking at her with a confusion expression. Until his lips cracked into a smirk, and then she heard a small chuckle come out. "Two weeks," he said before the chuckle became laughter, not the kind of laughter that you had when something was funny, but the kind those evil weirdoes on Anime had right before they went insane. "Two…just two fucking weeks."
The laughter cut off as he looked up into the sky. "You really do have a sick sense of humor you know that you old bastard?" he asked the ceiling.
"In-Inuyasha?" Kagome said with a good about of fear in her voice that made the demon look down towards the girl. "Inuyasha are you ok? What's going on? You're…starting to scare me a little." It showed all over her body language to, a slight tremble here, a small shaking of the knees there. It looked as if Kagome were trying to fight the urge to scoot to the back of her bed and against the wall, or come and help him.
Damn, five minutes with that girl and five hundred years of training in manipulation and holding his temper go out the window. It was kind of weird to know that Kagome could still do that to him, but on the other hand it felt strangely…reassuring.
"Sorry," he mumbled while dry washing his hands embarrassingly. He took a moment to wipe some of the dirt off his claws that had gotten there before letting a rare smile cross his lips. He might have had to alter his appearance when it came to his ears thanks to the uneasiness they caused in humans, but at least his claws were still there.
"Ok," he said while trying to figure out just how to break this to her before looking up at her face. Her face, she had such a beautiful face, especially now that it wasn't marred with worry about him or fear that he might turn on her. "Kagome, I'm going to try and explain this the best I can, as short as I can. But, let me start off by saying…I didn't get here by going through the well."
"Seriously?" the schoolgirl asked with wide and confused eyes. "You mean there's another time traveling thing around here somewhere?"
To which Inuyasha replied by falling off the side of the chair and to the ground.
"What the hell gave you that stupid idea?" the demon shouted after jumping back up onto his feet.
"You did," she yelled back before jumping up into his face. All signs of her previous anger were now forgotten as they settled into the oh so old sport of seeing who had the loudest voice while shouting out the first reason that came into their heads of why the other person was wrong. "You just said you didn't come from the Feudal Era through the well then you must have come some other way!"
"I did, I used the old fashioned way," Inuyasha replied even louder than Kagome's previous voice.
"And just what the heck is the old fashioned way?" Kagome demanded.
"IT'S CALLED WAITING STUPID!" Inuyasha shouted over her loud enough to drive the girl back a bit. Suddenly seeing Kagome's wide eyes as understanding was hammered in, Inuyasha sat back down on the desk chair and sighed. "Kagome, after you went home…the well stopped working for me. I was so mad when I found out just why it stopped working, according to that, well I guess I can't call her old anymore, but thanks to that stupid priestess at the village I found out just why it stopped working. It was because some stupid ass goddess demon half-breed with the most annoying laugh ever, no modesty, and skin that looked like it had been out in the sun too long along with hair that had been bathed in bleach for three weeks strait decided to shut off the damn well!"
As he finally stopped his rant and took a breath Kagome decided to try and reaffirm her suspicions. It sounded crazy, but Inuyasha had just said he had to wait so… "But, Inuyasha…if you didn't get sealed to another tree or something then, then that you'd mean you're-"
"Five hundred, eighteen years old," he clarified for her. "Or Five hundred and sixty eight if you wanted to count the time I spent comatose after Kikyo shot me."
"But your face," Kagome said while pointing at aforementioned feature with a bewildered expression. "You don't even look a bit different. Well ok your ears are gone and, hey what are those weird tattoos I saw on your head anyway?"
"I'm getting to that," the hanyou assured her while rubbing his eyes. "Anyway, what happened afterward is why I'm here. You see, I used the Shikon no Tama to become a full demon, just not exactly the way I planed to originally. I was so mad after Kaiyade told me that she sensed that a goddess sealed up the well that I went off into the forest and probably threw what would described as one of the biggest temper tantrums ever."
Kagome snickered a little beneath her hand at Inuyasha's choice of words, and surprisingly, so did he. "I was so mad then. Mad at you for leaving, mad at myself for not stopping you, mad at them for stopping me. So, I used the Shikon no Tama to become a demon, but instead of using it to become a full dog demon like my father, I wished for something else. I wished for more, more power than my father, or any other demon, I wanted to become so powerful that I could just force the gods to undo what they did, and so I could go back for you."
"So, you mean that's what you're doing here now?" Kagome asked a little fearfully. This was something she had definitely not been expecting. The person in front of her, was he even still the Inuyasha that she knew? In a way it was kind of sweet that he had waited so long for her, like something out of a fairytale. But on the other hand, doing something like that wasn't exactly a stable person would do in her opinion.
"Geeze, you must be thinking pretty damn highly of yourself if you actually believe that crap," the demon told her.
"What?" Kagome asked.
"No offense Kagome," Inuyasha told her flatly. "I mean, I guess we had something a long time ago, well for me anyway, but that was five hundred years ago. Love isn't exactly as eternal as all that crap on television makes it seem. It's out of sight, out of mind."
So then, he wasn't here for her, Kagome realized. Just that thought, it made her want to just lay down and die. Even after waiting for Inuyasha during the past two weeks, the girl had always held onto that smallest of hopes that he would come through the well one day, with his fire rat clothes and the Tetsusaiga at his side, ready to take her back to that magical medieval time and settle down.
But that's not going to happen is it? Kagome asked herself. Back when she had first met Inuyasha, and fallen in love with him, it all seemed like some wonderful fairytale that she wished would never end. But it did end, for her it ended two weeks ago, and for Inuyasha it ended the day she left 500 years ago.
Upon feeling drops of water on her hands Kagome suddenly realized she was crying. But this time Inuyasha didn't just jump up and start apologizing or demand she stop being sad; he just sat there with an apologetic look on his face. "So, if you're not here for me," Kagome said. "Then just what did you come here for?"
Hearing her question Inuyasha looked down on the ground as if to study the carpet, and sighed. Just seeing her like this, it brought back all the things that he had tried to keep buried over the years. That was the problem with being immortal, no matter how old you got since you never really aged, you could never put anything behind you; and having a near perfect memory meant all the important stuff was always fresh in your mind. That was probably why demons and gods could hold grudges for so long, he theorized.
"Well, I am here for you," he told her. "Just not in the way you want me to be." The demon waited for the young girl to look up at him, and felt as if someone plunged a knife into his heart when he saw the tears running down her cheeks. His entire body practically screamed at him to run over to the girl and hold her close, to dry her tears and sooth her worries with reassurances of his return.
But he couldn't. A relationship between a higher demon and a human would be risky at best for Inuyasha, and downright catastrophic for Kagome.
"Kagome," Inuyasha continued. "I've been sent here by my superiors to grant you a wish."
"Oh," the girl replied while still in her dreary mood. Just then she suddenly looked up at Inuyasha and frowned. "Wait a second, if you're a demon, and your demon boss sent you…you mean that I'm getting a wish, from HELL?" Suddenly the girl jumped onto her feet and glared down at the ex-hanyou with her fists clenched at her sides. What, do you want me to sign over my soul or something? Or so you want me to just do a human sacrifice?"
The 1st class just frowned in response. Did she always have to be this difficult? Or just jump to conclusions all the time? A wish from hell, yeah right. Hell was just the system meant for keeping mortal souls in torment, not some realm for demonic habitation. "No stupid I said we're giving it to you. You've already caused a big enough mess to earn it!"
"What the heck do you mean by that?" Kagome yelled back, now fully into 'anti-Inuyasha' mode. "I didn't do anything!"
"What the heck do you think all that time travel was about huh?" Inuyasha demanded, now on his feet and looking down at the shorter girl. "Do you have any idea of just how much damage you caused every time you went down that well?"
"Well it's not like I wanted to the first time," Kagome shouted. "And all those other times you were always running back to get me! Besides, don't blame me, you're the one who was always wanting me to come back and hunt those stupid jewel shards!"
"I didn't want you to come back," Inuyasha told her. "I wanted you to-" suddenly realizing how just where this was going Inuyasha clamed his mouth shut and turned walked away to get a few steps between them before looking back. "I wanted you to say, I wanted it more than anything. Kagome, you were the first person in my life apart from my mother who didn't care about what I was, and just looked at the who.
"You have no idea how many hours a night I sat next to the well, worrying about you. You always talked about how neat your time was, but I was hardly stupid when it came to realizing the dangers. All it would take was some guy with a knife, or an out of control car, or a hundred other things that could have gotten you killed or hurt and I wouldn't have been there to protect you."
"Inuyasha," Kagome whispered.
"Don't," he told her. "Don't start." He walked over to the door and turned around fully. When Inuyasha looked at the girl he mentally sighed, it looked as if she was going to start crying again. I always seem to make her cry don't I? Even if she were to get whatever she wanted, after I leave those feelings will only return. "Look, the reason you're getting this wish really doesn't matter since it's already been fulfilled; there are no hidden catches, and no fine print. Just take your time, and think about what you really want. I'll be downstairs when you're ready."
"What I want?" Kagome shouted. Her voice was half full of anger and half full of despair. "For someone whose supposed to be older than dirt you're pretty stupid! What I want is I, no I wish is y-hmphh." Whatever she was going to say was cut off when Inuyasha practically teleported over to her and clamed his hand over Kagome's mouth.
"No," he told her in a low and sad voice. "Kagome, don't just blurt out whatever first comes to mind. I'm sorry to say but this may be your one last chance for happiness. Don't ruin it by letting your emotions run your mouth. Think about this, think hard, and then come and see me."
Feeling that she wasn't trying to move her lips under his hand anymore, Inuyasha removed his hand and started walking back to the door. After opening it the demon turned back to look at the girl, it looked as if she had taken the floor right out from beneath her. "Listen Kagome, when all this is said and done, I will be gone. But that doesn't mean that you'll still have to feel the way you are now. If you want, I can make you simply forget, all the pain, all the memories, all gone. You can have a normal life again. It's up to you." And on that note Inuyasha closed the door to her room and headed towards the stairs.
AN: Well that chapter took a but longer than expected. Yeah I know I said Kagome would make her wish in this chanters, but after a bit of thinking, and seeing as how we all just KNOW how it's going to turn out I decided to postpone it for a little while. Till next time!