Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, own Inuyasha. The characters are only pawns in my mindless chess game of life.
A Fighter's Story
Chapter 2
Kagome woke up the next morning with a hangover and a 'VERY' angry best friend pounding on her door. Most of the night before had been a blur. She remembered the council and the verdict and the bar. Hell, she even remembered her old hero Inuyasha Dai, driving her drunk-ass home. A disgusted smile played on her face as she got out of bed and realized she was still fully dressed.
"Kagome, I know you're home," the voice from the door called at her again. "You're car is outside." There was a pause as Kagome lurched herself from the bedroom and toward the doorway. Then a bang sounded again as an open-handed fist collided with her door. "Will you stop moping and open the fucking door?!"
"Christ Sango," Kagome whined, finally pulling the door open. A very unhappy woman filled her doorway, then pushed inside. Mrs. Sango Houshi was not a woman to be trifled with, but especially when she was pissed off. Her long brown hair was braided and pinned back, every strand in a perfect, business-like place. Her dark eyes narrowed as she took in Kagome's haggard appearance with a critical eye. Sango was the same height as Kagome, with a similar build, only Kagome was more toned due to her line of work. Sango was not a fighter. Her martial arts skills extended to tai-boe. She was Kagome's agent, the one who handled the paperwork, the press, and the sponsors. All the business that came along with being a professional fighter in the line of organized sporting events. Kagome did the easy part.
Sango did a second sweep of her friend, then put her hands on her hips in a motherly gesture. "Me? Look at yourself! You're wearing the same clothes you were yesterday!"
"I know."
"And you've got a hangover!"
"I know."
"Kagome Sonya Higurashi, what the hell happened last night?!?" Kagome winced. She hated when Sango pulled 'Sonya' on her. That had been her mother's name, Kagome's middle name. Only Sango and her father knew that, and for some reason, both of them seemed to use it every time she screwed up.
"Sango, you are not my mother," Kagome cautioned, closing the still-open apartment door, then heading for the kitchen to make some coffee. "I am an adult you know."
"Then maybe you should act like one," Sango retorted, following Kagome. She tossed her sporting coat on to the old pleather couch and sighed, rubbing her eyelids.
"Come on Sango, even you have to admit that I deserved one night to get smashed. You were there, you saw what those fuckers did!" Kagome filled her coffee pot with a shaking hand, pausing to pour some of the water into the two potted house plants on her windowsill before making the coffee. "Six years. 'Six years' of my life I spent trying to get past their rules, their traditions. I did everything right, and still they shut me out. Because I was born a woman! And then they took everything away."
"Kagome--"
"They took 'everything' from me. What am I supposed to do now?" Kagome turned on her friend, grabbing her shoulders. "Tell me Sango, what am I supposed to do now?"
Sango pushed off the clutched hands, but embraced Kagome tightly. "It'll be alright, I promise you."
"How can it be alright?" Kagome whispered, voice choked with tears. "How am I supposed to tell Dad?"
"He'll understand," Sango reassured her, rubbing a hand up and down her back as if soothing a child. "Toutousai never wanted you to get into the industry in the first place, but you were stubborn and you won out. But you were smart Kag, you went to college. You have skills to fall back on. You'll be alright."
"But fighting is my life." Kagome sighed, pulling away and wiping the tears from her blue eyes.
"I know it is." Sango's voice held all the compassion that was in her eyes. She ran a hand over Kagome's hair and smiled a sad smile. "Why don't you go get cleaned up? I can take off work. You and me, we'll do something."
Kagome shook her head and smiled. "Thanks for the offer San, but that's okay. I just...I need some time to just adjust to the idea. And you need to work."
Sango sighed dramatically. "But Mommy, I don't want to go to school today. Can't I stay home and bake cookies with you?" Kagome had to laugh and Sango smiled. "Okay, you forced me. Tomorrow's Saturday, come over to the house. Miroku's not working, we'll go out with the kids."
"It's a date," Kagome agreed. "I'll be there around noon?"
"Okay, I'll tell the kids to prepare." Kagome smiled excitedly.
"Can I play with them, can I, huh?" Sango laughed.
"No there's the Kagome I know and love!"
"Yeah, I'm here, just hung over and disgruntled. I'll talk to you tomorrow Sango. Tell Miroku and the kids I say hi."
"You got it babe," Sango said as she left. "Order a pizza or something, but don't get drunk again, ok?"
"Alright Mom, I promise." She heard Sango grumble a few comments and laughed. It always did her heart good when Sango yelled at her. They had been friends since they were ten. That was when Sango and her family had moved in down the street from Kagome and her father. Sango's parents still lived in the same house in Grand Lake, still down the street from Toutousai Higurashi. Sango's younger brother Kohaku was in college now, trying for his MBA so he could move to New York City and make a good living.
She and Sango had been best friends through middle school and high school. There were years when Sango had been her only friend. People in a small town didn't look kindly on a tomboy. Kagome's mother had died when she was barely two years old, and her father raised her in the only way he knew--like a boy. And since her father owned a karate school in Grand Lake, Kagome had grown up around fighting. But just because you know how to fight doesn't mean you won't get picked on because of it. Especially when you're a girl. Kagome never let it get her down. She did what she loved because she loved it, simple as that. And Sango had always been behind her.
Hell, when she and Sango started college, she went after a business degree only so she could become a manager to the stars. She often said that if it wasn't for Kagome, she never would have known what she wanted to do with her life. And Kagome was more then happy to help. She had gone to college and gotten a degree in Art History herself.
When Kagome had gotten married after high school, Sango was her maid-of-honor, and when Sango married Miroku three years earlier, Kagome had been standing right there to catch the bouquet and take charge of the wedding preparations when Sango had flipped out from the stress.
Miroku. Thinking of him made Kagome snort into her coffee cup. She had to admit that her first impressions of the lecherous would-be-doctor were not the shinning examples that Sango recalled, but then again, Kagome was not in love with the man. Miroku was a six foot tall man with a kind face and gentle hands. His hair was think and black, growing a little too long now-a-days but he didn't have time for a haircut, and wide violet eyes. He had a wicked smile that could charm any woman--or at least he used to charm women--and could calm any child. That's why he was training to be a pediatrician. In fact, it was because of his profession that Sango and Miroku met their children, Rin and Shippou.
Both were orphans for different reasons. Shippou's parents had been murdered by two drug addicts and robbed for quick-fix money when he was barely four. He had been in foster care for about a year when he came down with a strange fever and was sent to hospital quarantine. Miroku had taken a liking to the small boy and so had Sango. They adopted him six months later, almost three years ago. Rin was a mute child who had seen her parents and siblings killed in a car accident from which she was the only survivor. Once she was released from the hospital, Miroku and Sango took her in as foster parents and legally adopted her a year later.
Both children were Kagome's godchildren, to be left in her care if anything were to happen to their parents. She loved both Rin and Shippou as all aunts should, spoiling them rotten and being their favorite grown up ever. She was actually looking forward to tomorrow, just so she'd have the excuse of seeing them. No one could think of drinking when there were loveable children to play with.
Kagome laid around most of the morning, falling in and out of sleep. By noon, she got up for the day and finally showered and changed her clothes. After that, she took Sango's advice and decided to order herself a pizza and lay around some more. She quickly grabbed up the phone book and flipped through to the add she was looking for. 'Myouga's House of Pizza.' She dialed the number and ordered a large meat pizza and half a dozen of the little garlic knots she loved so much.
"Thanks for the order ma'am," the chirper voice at the pizza place said. "We'll send over our delivery boy with your order within thirty minutes of it's half-price."
"Thanks a bunch," Kagome said and hung up. She took a few breaths. Now was the moment of truth, she'd have to call her father. Taking up the cordless phone, Kagome punched in the number known by heart and collapsed on to the couch.
After three rings, someone picked up. "Hello?" the familiar aged voice asked.
"Hi Daddy," Kagome said, smiling in spite of herself. Even over the phone, just the sound of her father's voice made everything better.
"Kagome!" the voice exclaimed, changing from decrepit old man to loving father in the blink of an eye. "How are you my darling daughter? I haven't heard from you in a few days."
"I know, I had a few meetings this week," Kagome explained, and let out a quick breath. "I met with the Kiyomatsu tournament council yesterday."
"Again?" Toutousai asked. She could feel him raise an eyebrow. Kagome could picture him, sitting out on the porch swing, an iced tea in hand. Their old dog 'Cow' would be laying at his feet, looking like he was dead but was really only sleeping. The lilac bushes that grew all around the house would just be coming into bud now that it was early spring. Oh how she missed home. Especially her father, the only family she had in the world. His thinning white hair would be held back, making him look older and more comical, his large eyes looking at everything at once.
"Yes, again," Kagome conceded. "And they turned me down."
"Because of the rule?"
"Because of the rule. 'No woman can enter the contest on their own.' It's so unfair Daddy. There has been a Higurashi in the Tournament every year since it was first established! Every twenty years the tournament takes place, and every twenty years we go to Japan to compete. Except this time, because of me."
"Kagome," he father said sadly. "I would not have you angry at being born a girl. I am certainly not unhappy with it. You are a fine fighter, and it is unfair not to let you fight on your own, but perhaps it is better this way." There was unspoken words between them. Unspoken memories about the tournament they had both attended twenty years ago when Toutousai himself had competed and lost. His lasting injury followed him to this day, responsible for the back pain that would haunt him for the rest of his life. But he had come out alive. And Kagome wanted her turn to prove her worth.
"It's not just that," Kagome said, feeling the tears pool in her eyes. She wouldn't cry, however. Tears would help no one, and she had allowed herself to cry too much already.
"What's wrong?" her father asked, hearing the catch in her voice.
"Oh Daddy, they banned me from fighting again. They took away my title. I can't compete in any organized matches again. I can't even fight in the regionals anymore, let alone the nationals. My career is over...and I'm still in my prime." The weight of such a judgment over any athlete is a fate worse then death.
"Oh Kagome, I'm so sorry," Toutousai comforted, sounding old in his voice. He felt defeated by her unhappiness. Kagome wanted to be home. She wanted to curl up on the porch swing. She wanted to hug Cow the bloodhound and she wanted to hide in her lilacs. She felt like she was drowning, and nothing could save her from falling.
But it seemed that fate didn't want her to die just yet. Her doorbell rang. "Hold on Dad, my pizza's here." Then Kagome got off the couch and walked to the door, grabbing her wallet from the stand beside the door.
"Pizza," came a voice from behind the door.
"Just a second," Kagome called, unlocking the door and opening it up. She looked up at a familiar face, holding out a pizza box and doing everything but looking her in the face. Kagome's face fell. It was Inuyasha Dai. The silver hair that was nearly hidden beneath the hat on his head gave him away since sunglasses blocked his eyes. A faint blush stained his cheeks. Obviously he didn't want to be there.
"Kagome?" her father's voice said over the line.
"I'll call you back," Kagome said to her father in a monotone voice before clicking the 'end' button and dropping the phone on to the table. "Inuyasha?" she asked, looking at him in horror.
"That'll be $19.99, plus tip," he said in a strained voice. Kagome couldn't stop the laugh that came unbidden to her lips. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand. "Go ahead and laugh," he said without heat. "I have."
"You're a pizza boy? I thought you were a bar tender!" Kagome said when she was sure she wouldn't laugh anymore.
"I am a bartender, at night. It covers rent. The delivery gives me money for other stuff." Kagome shook her head slowly, unbelieving. "Yeah, I'm a twenty-eight year old pizza boy. Oh how the proud hath fallen. I get that a lot. Now can I get paid?"
"Y-yeah," Kagome stuttered, pulling him and the pizza inside and shutting the door. "Hold on a second." She took the pizza into the kitchen and put it on the counter before coming back out and digging the money out of her wallet. She looked up at him every few seconds, still not quite believing this. He had once been the nationals martial arts champion, one who was a professional in three country circuits. Inuyasha Dai had retired from professional fighting three years ago, just when Kagome had begun her rise in the sport. He seemed to disappear not long after that, and she had always wondered where he went. Now she knew.
He watched her count the change and smiled grimly to herself. Now she knew where the future took her if she wasn't smart. If only he hadn't left the ring, then he could've dealt with the other things, he could've dealt with Kikyou. But no, he had left the world of fighting to settle down, and then she had left him. Now he was a pizza boy, living in a bar, and had nothing to show for a life of bad choices.
Kagome finally had the right amount and handed it over to him slowly, as if afraid it was all surreal. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to offend you. I was only surprised."
"Yeah, I was too when you sauntered into my bar last night," he retorted. Kagome shrugged.
"Everyone has a bad night."
"And what the fuck do you have to complain about?" he shot at her, daring an excuse better then his. Wanting to know she was suffering as he had suffered, and yet hoping she wasn't.
"I can't fight anymore," she said with a shrug. "Alcohol dulls the pain of shattered dreams, if I can be so poetic." He blinked at her for a long minute.
"What do you mean?"
"It's a long story," Kagome said in a small voice, looking away from him. "But you aren't the only one with problems."
"I've got time," he said, surprising himself as much as her.
"Don't you have to work?"
"My shift just ended." Kagome smiled slightly.
"I've got some pizza and garlic knots, if you take off the hat and glasses, come stay awhile."
"Sure, what have I got to lose?"
A/N: Okay, here's chapter 2. I probably won't get three until the weekend, but chapter 2 of Curse of the Gypsy should be up tomorrow or Wednesday. Thanks a lot and please remember to review! A few thanks are in order:
Leomae: Thank you. Don't worry, he does eventually, but it'll take him a while. You'll see why as the story goes on.
LilNezumi LilInu: Thanks for the Review! Yeah, I really think woman are as good as fighters as men, sometimes better. But this is no ordinary tournament--I'll get more into that later. Plus, stuff and stuff happens, so you gotta keep reading!
Deadly Tears: Thanks so much for the review! I'm gonna stick with it, keep on reading. I love this idea, it's my baby!
Josie: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you like the story so far! Yes, it's an Inu/Kag story, as if I'd write about anyone else! Thanks a bunch!
A Fighter's Story
Chapter 2
Kagome woke up the next morning with a hangover and a 'VERY' angry best friend pounding on her door. Most of the night before had been a blur. She remembered the council and the verdict and the bar. Hell, she even remembered her old hero Inuyasha Dai, driving her drunk-ass home. A disgusted smile played on her face as she got out of bed and realized she was still fully dressed.
"Kagome, I know you're home," the voice from the door called at her again. "You're car is outside." There was a pause as Kagome lurched herself from the bedroom and toward the doorway. Then a bang sounded again as an open-handed fist collided with her door. "Will you stop moping and open the fucking door?!"
"Christ Sango," Kagome whined, finally pulling the door open. A very unhappy woman filled her doorway, then pushed inside. Mrs. Sango Houshi was not a woman to be trifled with, but especially when she was pissed off. Her long brown hair was braided and pinned back, every strand in a perfect, business-like place. Her dark eyes narrowed as she took in Kagome's haggard appearance with a critical eye. Sango was the same height as Kagome, with a similar build, only Kagome was more toned due to her line of work. Sango was not a fighter. Her martial arts skills extended to tai-boe. She was Kagome's agent, the one who handled the paperwork, the press, and the sponsors. All the business that came along with being a professional fighter in the line of organized sporting events. Kagome did the easy part.
Sango did a second sweep of her friend, then put her hands on her hips in a motherly gesture. "Me? Look at yourself! You're wearing the same clothes you were yesterday!"
"I know."
"And you've got a hangover!"
"I know."
"Kagome Sonya Higurashi, what the hell happened last night?!?" Kagome winced. She hated when Sango pulled 'Sonya' on her. That had been her mother's name, Kagome's middle name. Only Sango and her father knew that, and for some reason, both of them seemed to use it every time she screwed up.
"Sango, you are not my mother," Kagome cautioned, closing the still-open apartment door, then heading for the kitchen to make some coffee. "I am an adult you know."
"Then maybe you should act like one," Sango retorted, following Kagome. She tossed her sporting coat on to the old pleather couch and sighed, rubbing her eyelids.
"Come on Sango, even you have to admit that I deserved one night to get smashed. You were there, you saw what those fuckers did!" Kagome filled her coffee pot with a shaking hand, pausing to pour some of the water into the two potted house plants on her windowsill before making the coffee. "Six years. 'Six years' of my life I spent trying to get past their rules, their traditions. I did everything right, and still they shut me out. Because I was born a woman! And then they took everything away."
"Kagome--"
"They took 'everything' from me. What am I supposed to do now?" Kagome turned on her friend, grabbing her shoulders. "Tell me Sango, what am I supposed to do now?"
Sango pushed off the clutched hands, but embraced Kagome tightly. "It'll be alright, I promise you."
"How can it be alright?" Kagome whispered, voice choked with tears. "How am I supposed to tell Dad?"
"He'll understand," Sango reassured her, rubbing a hand up and down her back as if soothing a child. "Toutousai never wanted you to get into the industry in the first place, but you were stubborn and you won out. But you were smart Kag, you went to college. You have skills to fall back on. You'll be alright."
"But fighting is my life." Kagome sighed, pulling away and wiping the tears from her blue eyes.
"I know it is." Sango's voice held all the compassion that was in her eyes. She ran a hand over Kagome's hair and smiled a sad smile. "Why don't you go get cleaned up? I can take off work. You and me, we'll do something."
Kagome shook her head and smiled. "Thanks for the offer San, but that's okay. I just...I need some time to just adjust to the idea. And you need to work."
Sango sighed dramatically. "But Mommy, I don't want to go to school today. Can't I stay home and bake cookies with you?" Kagome had to laugh and Sango smiled. "Okay, you forced me. Tomorrow's Saturday, come over to the house. Miroku's not working, we'll go out with the kids."
"It's a date," Kagome agreed. "I'll be there around noon?"
"Okay, I'll tell the kids to prepare." Kagome smiled excitedly.
"Can I play with them, can I, huh?" Sango laughed.
"No there's the Kagome I know and love!"
"Yeah, I'm here, just hung over and disgruntled. I'll talk to you tomorrow Sango. Tell Miroku and the kids I say hi."
"You got it babe," Sango said as she left. "Order a pizza or something, but don't get drunk again, ok?"
"Alright Mom, I promise." She heard Sango grumble a few comments and laughed. It always did her heart good when Sango yelled at her. They had been friends since they were ten. That was when Sango and her family had moved in down the street from Kagome and her father. Sango's parents still lived in the same house in Grand Lake, still down the street from Toutousai Higurashi. Sango's younger brother Kohaku was in college now, trying for his MBA so he could move to New York City and make a good living.
She and Sango had been best friends through middle school and high school. There were years when Sango had been her only friend. People in a small town didn't look kindly on a tomboy. Kagome's mother had died when she was barely two years old, and her father raised her in the only way he knew--like a boy. And since her father owned a karate school in Grand Lake, Kagome had grown up around fighting. But just because you know how to fight doesn't mean you won't get picked on because of it. Especially when you're a girl. Kagome never let it get her down. She did what she loved because she loved it, simple as that. And Sango had always been behind her.
Hell, when she and Sango started college, she went after a business degree only so she could become a manager to the stars. She often said that if it wasn't for Kagome, she never would have known what she wanted to do with her life. And Kagome was more then happy to help. She had gone to college and gotten a degree in Art History herself.
When Kagome had gotten married after high school, Sango was her maid-of-honor, and when Sango married Miroku three years earlier, Kagome had been standing right there to catch the bouquet and take charge of the wedding preparations when Sango had flipped out from the stress.
Miroku. Thinking of him made Kagome snort into her coffee cup. She had to admit that her first impressions of the lecherous would-be-doctor were not the shinning examples that Sango recalled, but then again, Kagome was not in love with the man. Miroku was a six foot tall man with a kind face and gentle hands. His hair was think and black, growing a little too long now-a-days but he didn't have time for a haircut, and wide violet eyes. He had a wicked smile that could charm any woman--or at least he used to charm women--and could calm any child. That's why he was training to be a pediatrician. In fact, it was because of his profession that Sango and Miroku met their children, Rin and Shippou.
Both were orphans for different reasons. Shippou's parents had been murdered by two drug addicts and robbed for quick-fix money when he was barely four. He had been in foster care for about a year when he came down with a strange fever and was sent to hospital quarantine. Miroku had taken a liking to the small boy and so had Sango. They adopted him six months later, almost three years ago. Rin was a mute child who had seen her parents and siblings killed in a car accident from which she was the only survivor. Once she was released from the hospital, Miroku and Sango took her in as foster parents and legally adopted her a year later.
Both children were Kagome's godchildren, to be left in her care if anything were to happen to their parents. She loved both Rin and Shippou as all aunts should, spoiling them rotten and being their favorite grown up ever. She was actually looking forward to tomorrow, just so she'd have the excuse of seeing them. No one could think of drinking when there were loveable children to play with.
Kagome laid around most of the morning, falling in and out of sleep. By noon, she got up for the day and finally showered and changed her clothes. After that, she took Sango's advice and decided to order herself a pizza and lay around some more. She quickly grabbed up the phone book and flipped through to the add she was looking for. 'Myouga's House of Pizza.' She dialed the number and ordered a large meat pizza and half a dozen of the little garlic knots she loved so much.
"Thanks for the order ma'am," the chirper voice at the pizza place said. "We'll send over our delivery boy with your order within thirty minutes of it's half-price."
"Thanks a bunch," Kagome said and hung up. She took a few breaths. Now was the moment of truth, she'd have to call her father. Taking up the cordless phone, Kagome punched in the number known by heart and collapsed on to the couch.
After three rings, someone picked up. "Hello?" the familiar aged voice asked.
"Hi Daddy," Kagome said, smiling in spite of herself. Even over the phone, just the sound of her father's voice made everything better.
"Kagome!" the voice exclaimed, changing from decrepit old man to loving father in the blink of an eye. "How are you my darling daughter? I haven't heard from you in a few days."
"I know, I had a few meetings this week," Kagome explained, and let out a quick breath. "I met with the Kiyomatsu tournament council yesterday."
"Again?" Toutousai asked. She could feel him raise an eyebrow. Kagome could picture him, sitting out on the porch swing, an iced tea in hand. Their old dog 'Cow' would be laying at his feet, looking like he was dead but was really only sleeping. The lilac bushes that grew all around the house would just be coming into bud now that it was early spring. Oh how she missed home. Especially her father, the only family she had in the world. His thinning white hair would be held back, making him look older and more comical, his large eyes looking at everything at once.
"Yes, again," Kagome conceded. "And they turned me down."
"Because of the rule?"
"Because of the rule. 'No woman can enter the contest on their own.' It's so unfair Daddy. There has been a Higurashi in the Tournament every year since it was first established! Every twenty years the tournament takes place, and every twenty years we go to Japan to compete. Except this time, because of me."
"Kagome," he father said sadly. "I would not have you angry at being born a girl. I am certainly not unhappy with it. You are a fine fighter, and it is unfair not to let you fight on your own, but perhaps it is better this way." There was unspoken words between them. Unspoken memories about the tournament they had both attended twenty years ago when Toutousai himself had competed and lost. His lasting injury followed him to this day, responsible for the back pain that would haunt him for the rest of his life. But he had come out alive. And Kagome wanted her turn to prove her worth.
"It's not just that," Kagome said, feeling the tears pool in her eyes. She wouldn't cry, however. Tears would help no one, and she had allowed herself to cry too much already.
"What's wrong?" her father asked, hearing the catch in her voice.
"Oh Daddy, they banned me from fighting again. They took away my title. I can't compete in any organized matches again. I can't even fight in the regionals anymore, let alone the nationals. My career is over...and I'm still in my prime." The weight of such a judgment over any athlete is a fate worse then death.
"Oh Kagome, I'm so sorry," Toutousai comforted, sounding old in his voice. He felt defeated by her unhappiness. Kagome wanted to be home. She wanted to curl up on the porch swing. She wanted to hug Cow the bloodhound and she wanted to hide in her lilacs. She felt like she was drowning, and nothing could save her from falling.
But it seemed that fate didn't want her to die just yet. Her doorbell rang. "Hold on Dad, my pizza's here." Then Kagome got off the couch and walked to the door, grabbing her wallet from the stand beside the door.
"Pizza," came a voice from behind the door.
"Just a second," Kagome called, unlocking the door and opening it up. She looked up at a familiar face, holding out a pizza box and doing everything but looking her in the face. Kagome's face fell. It was Inuyasha Dai. The silver hair that was nearly hidden beneath the hat on his head gave him away since sunglasses blocked his eyes. A faint blush stained his cheeks. Obviously he didn't want to be there.
"Kagome?" her father's voice said over the line.
"I'll call you back," Kagome said to her father in a monotone voice before clicking the 'end' button and dropping the phone on to the table. "Inuyasha?" she asked, looking at him in horror.
"That'll be $19.99, plus tip," he said in a strained voice. Kagome couldn't stop the laugh that came unbidden to her lips. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand. "Go ahead and laugh," he said without heat. "I have."
"You're a pizza boy? I thought you were a bar tender!" Kagome said when she was sure she wouldn't laugh anymore.
"I am a bartender, at night. It covers rent. The delivery gives me money for other stuff." Kagome shook her head slowly, unbelieving. "Yeah, I'm a twenty-eight year old pizza boy. Oh how the proud hath fallen. I get that a lot. Now can I get paid?"
"Y-yeah," Kagome stuttered, pulling him and the pizza inside and shutting the door. "Hold on a second." She took the pizza into the kitchen and put it on the counter before coming back out and digging the money out of her wallet. She looked up at him every few seconds, still not quite believing this. He had once been the nationals martial arts champion, one who was a professional in three country circuits. Inuyasha Dai had retired from professional fighting three years ago, just when Kagome had begun her rise in the sport. He seemed to disappear not long after that, and she had always wondered where he went. Now she knew.
He watched her count the change and smiled grimly to herself. Now she knew where the future took her if she wasn't smart. If only he hadn't left the ring, then he could've dealt with the other things, he could've dealt with Kikyou. But no, he had left the world of fighting to settle down, and then she had left him. Now he was a pizza boy, living in a bar, and had nothing to show for a life of bad choices.
Kagome finally had the right amount and handed it over to him slowly, as if afraid it was all surreal. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to offend you. I was only surprised."
"Yeah, I was too when you sauntered into my bar last night," he retorted. Kagome shrugged.
"Everyone has a bad night."
"And what the fuck do you have to complain about?" he shot at her, daring an excuse better then his. Wanting to know she was suffering as he had suffered, and yet hoping she wasn't.
"I can't fight anymore," she said with a shrug. "Alcohol dulls the pain of shattered dreams, if I can be so poetic." He blinked at her for a long minute.
"What do you mean?"
"It's a long story," Kagome said in a small voice, looking away from him. "But you aren't the only one with problems."
"I've got time," he said, surprising himself as much as her.
"Don't you have to work?"
"My shift just ended." Kagome smiled slightly.
"I've got some pizza and garlic knots, if you take off the hat and glasses, come stay awhile."
"Sure, what have I got to lose?"
A/N: Okay, here's chapter 2. I probably won't get three until the weekend, but chapter 2 of Curse of the Gypsy should be up tomorrow or Wednesday. Thanks a lot and please remember to review! A few thanks are in order:
Leomae: Thank you. Don't worry, he does eventually, but it'll take him a while. You'll see why as the story goes on.
LilNezumi LilInu: Thanks for the Review! Yeah, I really think woman are as good as fighters as men, sometimes better. But this is no ordinary tournament--I'll get more into that later. Plus, stuff and stuff happens, so you gotta keep reading!
Deadly Tears: Thanks so much for the review! I'm gonna stick with it, keep on reading. I love this idea, it's my baby!
Josie: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you like the story so far! Yes, it's an Inu/Kag story, as if I'd write about anyone else! Thanks a bunch!