Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha..although you probably knew that to begin
with.
Poking her head out of the car window, Mrs. Lili Chan squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight. She peered intently over the seemingly endless line of cars before her, hoping to see what might be causing the traffic jam. Pulling her head back into the interior of the small Toyota, she shot a glare at the knobs that should have been controlling the emission of cold air into the vehicle.
'Of course the air conditioner has to be broken right in the middle of a heat wave,' she thought unhappily. She lifted her hand to her forehead, pushing back the offending strands of hair from her sweat drenched brow. Sighing, she wondered why she had ever decided to move from her native China to Japan.
'Everything is so different. The customs, the people, the food, the weather.the language.' She actually grimaced at this thought, remembering the hours that she had spent on learning how to speak the Japanese language properly. But all that time and hard work had paid off. Now, she was able to speak with only a slight Chinese accent. Indeed, she was quite proud of her accomplishment, but she sometimes wished she had remained in Beijing. Why had she ever thought it necessary to leave?
Hearing a muffled cough from the backseat, her eyes rose to the rear view mirror and settled on the reflection of a young girl staring idly out the open window. Her face softened at the sight of the teenager as her heart filled with compassion. She could see the fading marks of tears glistening in the sun on the girl's pale cheeks; the white of her eyes marred by red lines, a result of either excessive crying or lack of sleep. Mrs. Chan supposed it might have been caused by both. Lowering her gaze from the child behind her, she stared thoughtfully at the waves of heat rising from the highway.
'Why did I leave China? How can I forget when my reason is sitting behind me?' she gingerly pressed her foot onto the gas pedal, accelerating the car a few feet. Upon stopping, she glanced into the mirror once again. It seemed the girl had hardly moved, hardly even breathed since they'd begun their trek almost two hours ago. 'I came to help you.' she thought sadly. '.you and all the other children who've had more than their fair share of suffering.'
Said girl began to squirm somewhat uncomfortably in the leather seat which her legs were now apparently stuck to. Seeing this sign of life as an opportunity to draw the girl out of her silence, Mrs. Chan cleared her throat.
"We should reach Tanrei House within the hour," she called over her shoulder. "That is, if the traffic lightens up." She glanced back at the raven haired girl, hoping for a response. Nothing. She sighed slightly, feeling defeated. Suddenly sitting up straight, she set a determined look across her features.
'I will not give up that easily,' she decided. Turning her head towards the girl, she smiled brightly.
"Perhaps you'd like it if I turned on the radio for a while? Or maybe you'd like to listen to a c.d.?"
The girl in question slowly turned her head away from the window and stared straight at the woman before her. Mrs. Chan continued to smile even though the child's sad eyes were effectively breaking her heart.
'Maybe I shouldn't have disturbed her.she probably has a good deal to think about anyway,' she thought with a frown. She began to turn away from the girl, when a sound made her pause in her movements.
"The radio would be nice," a small voice said.
Mrs. Chan allowed a small smile to once again grace her face as she reached for the small knob marked 'Radio On'.
=*
Kagome watched the movements of the woman before her with a casual eye. She seemed nice enough, but, then again, most people would be nice to a person in her situation. Kagome blinked her dark eyes quickly, refusing to allow herself to cry. 'I will not be weak. I can handle this.,' she took in a deep breath of the humid air, giving herself a chance to regain control over her emotions. She looked back towards the woman.Mrs. Chan was who she had introduced herself as. The petite woman was currently bent over the built in radio attempting to find a worthy station to listen to.
Kagome suppressed a smile, not thinking it to be proper to show happiness when one was in mourning. The corners of her mouth tilted up anyway, as she looked on.
'Her face looks so funny like that,' she thought. 'It's all scrunched up and so determined looking.'
At that moment, Mrs. Chan let out a small yip of joy, apparently having found an adequate station. As the music began to fill the car, Kagome noticed that the lady was tapping her fingers against the steering wheel in time to the beat. She held back another grin at the sight. It reminded her of something her mother would do.
"How does this song go again, Kagome?" her mother asked for what must have been the seventh time. She turned up the volume and listened intently to the words, trying to get them right.
Kagome smiled at the look on her mother's face. Her features shone with determination as her mouth silently formed the words in broken English:
"As we crawl up the stairs, grabbing everything falling down."
The words coming from Ms. Higurashi sounded nothing at all like what was coming from the speakers in the car. It came out sounding more like:
"Aj wae clawr uhp ta shtale, glabbin eveliting fawringdowrn."
Kagome held back a giggle, knowing that she would probably hurt her mother's feelings. After all, she was just beginning to get a good grasp on the strange language, while Kagome had been taking it for almost two years at school. In fact, her mother was doing relatively well for someone who had just started. The sound of her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Why does your teacher want you to listen to this music, again?"
"Well, Mr. Lee said that it would help us to process the English words faster," she replied, turning the volume down as she did so.
"They do say the words to the song terribly fast," her mother agreed. "Far too fast for me."
Ms. Higurashi shot a playful glance at her daughter as she once again turned up the volume. Kagome crossed her arms against her chest and stuck out her tongue much like a small child would have done. Her mother laughed at this reaction but made no move to adjust the volume. Rather, she turned it up a little more, but faded the sound of the voices out to a minimum. The sounds of the different instruments filled the car as Ms. Higurashi tapped her hands against the steering wheel in time to the music.
She smiled at her daughter sitting beside her as she spoke, "I may not understand English very well, Kagome, but music is a universal language."
Kagome grinned at her mum. "Eh? And just what is the music telling you?" Her mother pondered the question for a moment, ear leaning towards one of the speakers while one of her fingers continued to tap out a beat. She suddenly snapped her fingers, a look of complete confidence covering her face.
"It tells me to have hope. That everything will be alright as long as we have someone to love."
Kagome merely gave a slight nod in acknowledgment to her mother's answer. Reaching for a knob on the machine, the voices began to grow louder.
".we're finding hope in light, you're my dreams tonight. With you I'm falling in love for the very first time."
Kagome's mind quickly registered the foreign words, their meaning dawning on her. She turned to her mother with her mouth opened slightly in surprise.
"How did you know that that was what the song was talking about?" she questioned earnestly.
Her mother tweaked her nose and smiled, as she said, "Music is a language. You just need to take the time to understand what it is saying."
Now sitting in the hot car, her legs practically glued to the seat, she wondered if Mrs. Chan could understand what the music was saying. In fact, she wondered if she, herself, even knew what it was that the guitars and drums were saying at the moment. Turning back to the open window, she let out a heavy sigh. A slight breeze blew a few pieces of hair off of her face as she sadly realized that her mother was probably the only one who spoke in the language of music. She absently noted that the white lines on the pavement were beginning to go by at an increasing rate. They were on their way again, she supposed. Maybe they would reach Tanrei House within the hour just as Mrs. Chan had said.
=*
Inuyasha lay idly on his friend's bed, every now and then throwing a gummy bear in his mouth.
"You always manage to have something small and sweet in your room, Miroku," he said, while biting the head off of a red bear.
Miroku smiled over his shoulder, part of his face blocked by the violin held beneath his chin. "That's how I like them.small and sweet."
The now empty container that the gummy bears had been in flew towards his head, effectively hitting him square in the nose.
"You pervert! You know damn well that's not what I was talking about!" yelled a seemingly annoyed, though truly amused, Inuyasha. As much as he hated to admit it, he enjoyed his friend's warped sense of humor.
Miroku merely laughed at Inuyasha's feigned outrage, rubbing his nose slightly. 'Ouch.that actually hurt.'
Turning away from the golden eyed boy, he tried to focus on the music before him. Brushing a stray lock of black hair out of his face, he positioned the violin back under his chin and raised the bow.
As the music began to emit from the small instrument, Inuyasha made a valiant attempt to not cringe. Miroku might have improved since he first began playing the violin, but in all actuality that wasn't saying much.
'I think I feel a headache coming on,' Inuyasha thought, as he clamped his hands over his ears. 'I have got to make him stop.'
Miroku, who apparently did not notice the effect his playing had on his friend, just continued plucking away at the strings. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was now scrunched up in what resembled a fetal position. His mind was working furiously as he tried to come up with some way to make the noise cease. He could almost feel his ear drums exploding.
He quickly sputtered the first thing that came to mind. "Miroku," he called over the din, "How was yesterday?"
Miroku's movements stopped suddenly, a little surprised at the question. He regained his composure and plastered on another smile before turning back to his friend.
"It went well. Doctor Kanwa said that I was fit as a fiddle," he laughed at his own joke.
Inuyasha shot him a deadpan look, amazed at how utterly lame the boy before him could be. "That was completely idiotic."
"Oh, come on. I know you thought it was funny. You're just jealous 'cause you're not as witty as me."
"Don't be a retard," Inuyasha huffed.
Miroku grinned, absolutely loving the fact that he could irk Inuyasha so much. He was about to resume playing when Inuyasha moved from his position on the bed, and walked over to him.
"But, really.I want to know. How did yesterday go?"
Miroku averted his eyes from his friend's face, and began to strum the chords on the instrument. "It went.okay," he conceded. "Not so good, not so bad."
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked, trying to keep any trace of concern from his voice.
"Well, I haven't caught any of the colds going around," Miroku shrugged. "So they think my immune system might be getting a little stronger."
"But." Inuyasha prompted.
"But." Miroku scratched his head with his free hand, not wanting to show how worried what he was about to say made him. "Doctor Kanwa said that my body hasn't been responding to the medication properly. He's not sure whether to take me off of it or not; he says that the other treatments available aren't certified yet, so he's not sure how they would affect me."
"Damn," was all Inuyasha could say. He didn't know what else to say. Looking at the kid before him, he could only feel pity. Pity because there appeared to be nothing that could be done to save Miroku. Inuyasha crossed his arms and lowered his chin to his chest. He'd never admit to it, but he pitied himself, too. Without Miroku, he'd be all alone. It might have been a selfish thought, but it was true. Everything was so unfair. He looked up when he heard Miroku laughing quietly.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" he asked in a peeved voice, raising one dark eyebrow as he did so.
"It's just kind of amusing," Miroku said with a slight chuckle. He looked at Inuyasha and grinned, "It's kind of fitting that I'd die because of having too much sex." Inuyasha joined in on his perverted friend's laughter, the events involving the violin completely forgotten.
To anyone passing by Miroku's room that morning, they would have heard nothing but jovial laughter. But to the two inside, the joyous sound rang out hollow, masking their true feelings.
=*
"Ashala Rock"
The Early November
As we crawl up the stairs
Grabbing everything falling down
We rip the shades to see the light
Finding hope in broken light
Just as we see some sky
I turn my head and then I close my eyes
I know that this won't end
It's just finding out the right way to begin
We're finding hope in light'
You're my dreams tonight
With you I'm falling in love
For the very first time
Crawling up these stairs
Grabbing everything that's falling down
We rip the shades down
To see the sky and all it's light
We're finding hope in light
You're my dreams tonight
With you I'm falling in love
For the very first time
Open up my arms
When you fall in
We're looking up at stars
We're singing along
We're talking and we're singing our way home
.
Poking her head out of the car window, Mrs. Lili Chan squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight. She peered intently over the seemingly endless line of cars before her, hoping to see what might be causing the traffic jam. Pulling her head back into the interior of the small Toyota, she shot a glare at the knobs that should have been controlling the emission of cold air into the vehicle.
'Of course the air conditioner has to be broken right in the middle of a heat wave,' she thought unhappily. She lifted her hand to her forehead, pushing back the offending strands of hair from her sweat drenched brow. Sighing, she wondered why she had ever decided to move from her native China to Japan.
'Everything is so different. The customs, the people, the food, the weather.the language.' She actually grimaced at this thought, remembering the hours that she had spent on learning how to speak the Japanese language properly. But all that time and hard work had paid off. Now, she was able to speak with only a slight Chinese accent. Indeed, she was quite proud of her accomplishment, but she sometimes wished she had remained in Beijing. Why had she ever thought it necessary to leave?
Hearing a muffled cough from the backseat, her eyes rose to the rear view mirror and settled on the reflection of a young girl staring idly out the open window. Her face softened at the sight of the teenager as her heart filled with compassion. She could see the fading marks of tears glistening in the sun on the girl's pale cheeks; the white of her eyes marred by red lines, a result of either excessive crying or lack of sleep. Mrs. Chan supposed it might have been caused by both. Lowering her gaze from the child behind her, she stared thoughtfully at the waves of heat rising from the highway.
'Why did I leave China? How can I forget when my reason is sitting behind me?' she gingerly pressed her foot onto the gas pedal, accelerating the car a few feet. Upon stopping, she glanced into the mirror once again. It seemed the girl had hardly moved, hardly even breathed since they'd begun their trek almost two hours ago. 'I came to help you.' she thought sadly. '.you and all the other children who've had more than their fair share of suffering.'
Said girl began to squirm somewhat uncomfortably in the leather seat which her legs were now apparently stuck to. Seeing this sign of life as an opportunity to draw the girl out of her silence, Mrs. Chan cleared her throat.
"We should reach Tanrei House within the hour," she called over her shoulder. "That is, if the traffic lightens up." She glanced back at the raven haired girl, hoping for a response. Nothing. She sighed slightly, feeling defeated. Suddenly sitting up straight, she set a determined look across her features.
'I will not give up that easily,' she decided. Turning her head towards the girl, she smiled brightly.
"Perhaps you'd like it if I turned on the radio for a while? Or maybe you'd like to listen to a c.d.?"
The girl in question slowly turned her head away from the window and stared straight at the woman before her. Mrs. Chan continued to smile even though the child's sad eyes were effectively breaking her heart.
'Maybe I shouldn't have disturbed her.she probably has a good deal to think about anyway,' she thought with a frown. She began to turn away from the girl, when a sound made her pause in her movements.
"The radio would be nice," a small voice said.
Mrs. Chan allowed a small smile to once again grace her face as she reached for the small knob marked 'Radio On'.
=*
Kagome watched the movements of the woman before her with a casual eye. She seemed nice enough, but, then again, most people would be nice to a person in her situation. Kagome blinked her dark eyes quickly, refusing to allow herself to cry. 'I will not be weak. I can handle this.,' she took in a deep breath of the humid air, giving herself a chance to regain control over her emotions. She looked back towards the woman.Mrs. Chan was who she had introduced herself as. The petite woman was currently bent over the built in radio attempting to find a worthy station to listen to.
Kagome suppressed a smile, not thinking it to be proper to show happiness when one was in mourning. The corners of her mouth tilted up anyway, as she looked on.
'Her face looks so funny like that,' she thought. 'It's all scrunched up and so determined looking.'
At that moment, Mrs. Chan let out a small yip of joy, apparently having found an adequate station. As the music began to fill the car, Kagome noticed that the lady was tapping her fingers against the steering wheel in time to the beat. She held back another grin at the sight. It reminded her of something her mother would do.
"How does this song go again, Kagome?" her mother asked for what must have been the seventh time. She turned up the volume and listened intently to the words, trying to get them right.
Kagome smiled at the look on her mother's face. Her features shone with determination as her mouth silently formed the words in broken English:
"As we crawl up the stairs, grabbing everything falling down."
The words coming from Ms. Higurashi sounded nothing at all like what was coming from the speakers in the car. It came out sounding more like:
"Aj wae clawr uhp ta shtale, glabbin eveliting fawringdowrn."
Kagome held back a giggle, knowing that she would probably hurt her mother's feelings. After all, she was just beginning to get a good grasp on the strange language, while Kagome had been taking it for almost two years at school. In fact, her mother was doing relatively well for someone who had just started. The sound of her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Why does your teacher want you to listen to this music, again?"
"Well, Mr. Lee said that it would help us to process the English words faster," she replied, turning the volume down as she did so.
"They do say the words to the song terribly fast," her mother agreed. "Far too fast for me."
Ms. Higurashi shot a playful glance at her daughter as she once again turned up the volume. Kagome crossed her arms against her chest and stuck out her tongue much like a small child would have done. Her mother laughed at this reaction but made no move to adjust the volume. Rather, she turned it up a little more, but faded the sound of the voices out to a minimum. The sounds of the different instruments filled the car as Ms. Higurashi tapped her hands against the steering wheel in time to the music.
She smiled at her daughter sitting beside her as she spoke, "I may not understand English very well, Kagome, but music is a universal language."
Kagome grinned at her mum. "Eh? And just what is the music telling you?" Her mother pondered the question for a moment, ear leaning towards one of the speakers while one of her fingers continued to tap out a beat. She suddenly snapped her fingers, a look of complete confidence covering her face.
"It tells me to have hope. That everything will be alright as long as we have someone to love."
Kagome merely gave a slight nod in acknowledgment to her mother's answer. Reaching for a knob on the machine, the voices began to grow louder.
".we're finding hope in light, you're my dreams tonight. With you I'm falling in love for the very first time."
Kagome's mind quickly registered the foreign words, their meaning dawning on her. She turned to her mother with her mouth opened slightly in surprise.
"How did you know that that was what the song was talking about?" she questioned earnestly.
Her mother tweaked her nose and smiled, as she said, "Music is a language. You just need to take the time to understand what it is saying."
Now sitting in the hot car, her legs practically glued to the seat, she wondered if Mrs. Chan could understand what the music was saying. In fact, she wondered if she, herself, even knew what it was that the guitars and drums were saying at the moment. Turning back to the open window, she let out a heavy sigh. A slight breeze blew a few pieces of hair off of her face as she sadly realized that her mother was probably the only one who spoke in the language of music. She absently noted that the white lines on the pavement were beginning to go by at an increasing rate. They were on their way again, she supposed. Maybe they would reach Tanrei House within the hour just as Mrs. Chan had said.
=*
Inuyasha lay idly on his friend's bed, every now and then throwing a gummy bear in his mouth.
"You always manage to have something small and sweet in your room, Miroku," he said, while biting the head off of a red bear.
Miroku smiled over his shoulder, part of his face blocked by the violin held beneath his chin. "That's how I like them.small and sweet."
The now empty container that the gummy bears had been in flew towards his head, effectively hitting him square in the nose.
"You pervert! You know damn well that's not what I was talking about!" yelled a seemingly annoyed, though truly amused, Inuyasha. As much as he hated to admit it, he enjoyed his friend's warped sense of humor.
Miroku merely laughed at Inuyasha's feigned outrage, rubbing his nose slightly. 'Ouch.that actually hurt.'
Turning away from the golden eyed boy, he tried to focus on the music before him. Brushing a stray lock of black hair out of his face, he positioned the violin back under his chin and raised the bow.
As the music began to emit from the small instrument, Inuyasha made a valiant attempt to not cringe. Miroku might have improved since he first began playing the violin, but in all actuality that wasn't saying much.
'I think I feel a headache coming on,' Inuyasha thought, as he clamped his hands over his ears. 'I have got to make him stop.'
Miroku, who apparently did not notice the effect his playing had on his friend, just continued plucking away at the strings. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was now scrunched up in what resembled a fetal position. His mind was working furiously as he tried to come up with some way to make the noise cease. He could almost feel his ear drums exploding.
He quickly sputtered the first thing that came to mind. "Miroku," he called over the din, "How was yesterday?"
Miroku's movements stopped suddenly, a little surprised at the question. He regained his composure and plastered on another smile before turning back to his friend.
"It went well. Doctor Kanwa said that I was fit as a fiddle," he laughed at his own joke.
Inuyasha shot him a deadpan look, amazed at how utterly lame the boy before him could be. "That was completely idiotic."
"Oh, come on. I know you thought it was funny. You're just jealous 'cause you're not as witty as me."
"Don't be a retard," Inuyasha huffed.
Miroku grinned, absolutely loving the fact that he could irk Inuyasha so much. He was about to resume playing when Inuyasha moved from his position on the bed, and walked over to him.
"But, really.I want to know. How did yesterday go?"
Miroku averted his eyes from his friend's face, and began to strum the chords on the instrument. "It went.okay," he conceded. "Not so good, not so bad."
"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked, trying to keep any trace of concern from his voice.
"Well, I haven't caught any of the colds going around," Miroku shrugged. "So they think my immune system might be getting a little stronger."
"But." Inuyasha prompted.
"But." Miroku scratched his head with his free hand, not wanting to show how worried what he was about to say made him. "Doctor Kanwa said that my body hasn't been responding to the medication properly. He's not sure whether to take me off of it or not; he says that the other treatments available aren't certified yet, so he's not sure how they would affect me."
"Damn," was all Inuyasha could say. He didn't know what else to say. Looking at the kid before him, he could only feel pity. Pity because there appeared to be nothing that could be done to save Miroku. Inuyasha crossed his arms and lowered his chin to his chest. He'd never admit to it, but he pitied himself, too. Without Miroku, he'd be all alone. It might have been a selfish thought, but it was true. Everything was so unfair. He looked up when he heard Miroku laughing quietly.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" he asked in a peeved voice, raising one dark eyebrow as he did so.
"It's just kind of amusing," Miroku said with a slight chuckle. He looked at Inuyasha and grinned, "It's kind of fitting that I'd die because of having too much sex." Inuyasha joined in on his perverted friend's laughter, the events involving the violin completely forgotten.
To anyone passing by Miroku's room that morning, they would have heard nothing but jovial laughter. But to the two inside, the joyous sound rang out hollow, masking their true feelings.
=*
"Ashala Rock"
The Early November
As we crawl up the stairs
Grabbing everything falling down
We rip the shades to see the light
Finding hope in broken light
Just as we see some sky
I turn my head and then I close my eyes
I know that this won't end
It's just finding out the right way to begin
We're finding hope in light'
You're my dreams tonight
With you I'm falling in love
For the very first time
Crawling up these stairs
Grabbing everything that's falling down
We rip the shades down
To see the sky and all it's light
We're finding hope in light
You're my dreams tonight
With you I'm falling in love
For the very first time
Open up my arms
When you fall in
We're looking up at stars
We're singing along
We're talking and we're singing our way home
.