This chapter may seem like a filler, but it had a purpose. Lots of little scenes in this one.
Edited: 7/14/2011
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
Dashed Hopes
Chapter Fifteen: Girls' Night Out
"Morning, Kagome!"
"Good morning, Ayame," Kagome responded cheerfully as she slowed down to wait for her redheaded friend.
The two walked side by side into the building. "You're here later than usual," Ayame pointed out thoughtfully as they approached the elevator bank.
"Yeah, I walked today," the other woman explained distractedly, pushing the button to call the elevator to the lobby.
"You live near here? Where?"
Kagome flushed pink, instantly realizing that she'd almost told her (admittedly gossipy) coworker that she lived with their bosses—two young, very attractive men. "Oh, not that close," she answered vaguely, avoiding Ayame's inquisitive green eyes. "It's kind of far away actually, but I like to take long walks to clear my head. Anyway, what's new with you?" she asked, dancing around the subject. Ayame didn't disappoint.
"I was thinking about having a girls' night out," the redhead announced excitedly, boarding the elevator with Kagome right behind her.
"Oh, that sounds like fun!"
"I know, right?" Ayame gushed. "It's decided; girls' night is tonight. You're coming!" she commanded, right as they reached her floor. The redhead rushed out, not giving Kagome a chance to argue, and power-walked away after she tossed a wave over her shoulder at her friend.
"Hey, wait a min—!" Kagome began, but was cut off when the doors slid shut in her face. She grumbled as the one other passenger looked on in amusement.
"Poor Kagome," Nobunaga teased. "Being forced to party with your friends—that sounds just awful!"
To his even greater amusement, Kagome just rolled her eyes at her coworker and refused to talk to him until he got off at his own stop, where she finally gave him a goodbye, the doors started to shut, but Kagome was startled when she heard someone shouting.
"Wait!" Inuyasha called, racing towards the closing doors with an arm full of files. "Hold the elevator!" At the last second, Kagome reached out and hit the button to reopen the doors. Inuyasha slid inside, panting; she only grunted at him in recognition.
"Wow," Inuyasha said mockingly, examining her expression. "You're in a bad mood; what's up?"
"Nothing," she grumbled with a sigh, feeling silly and fighting off the urge to argue with him for the fun of it. It would only spike her attitude even more. As they approached the top floor, their stop, Kagome lost the battle with herself. "Hey, boss, you should really get that cranial rectal problem checked out."
The elevator doors slid open with a joyful ding as Inuyasha stared at his secretary. Within seconds, understanding flooded his eyes. "Hey, what did you just—?"
"Sorry, boss," Kagome cut him off, shoving him out of the elevator and jabbing the button to close the doors faster. "Just remembered that I got to, uhm, go to the fifth floor for… something. Bye!"
Inuyasha stormed into his office and picked up his phone, dialing Sesshoumaru's extension. As soon as his brother answered the phone, Inuyasha shouted incredulously, "Kagome just insulted me! She asked about my cranial rectal problem—that means I have my head stuck up my ass, doesn't it?"
"What a surprise," Sesshoumaru commented dryly. "You do have a brain." With that, he hung up, infuriating the younger Youkai brother even more.
Having successfully insulted Inuyasha even before her first cup of coffee, Kagome was cheerful again by noon. She skipped off the elevator at Inuyasha's floor. Minutes earlier, she had gotten off the phone with Sango after convincing the brunette to join her on Ayame's girls' night out.
Slowing to a walk, Kagome considered Inuyasha's closed office door, wondering if she should apologize to him. He hadn't really deserved it, after all.
Her musing were interrupted when she realized that she could hear two voices on the other side, one female and one Inuyasha's. Curious, Kagome pressed her ear to the door and eavesdropped, feeling only a little guilty. She and Inuyasha were on good terms, and she didn't really want to risk that, but at the same time… Well, Kagome was an inquisitive (read: nosy) person. In the back of her mind, she remembered the last time she'd listened in on a private conversation from outside a closed office door—that time had ended with two murders and her running for her life. What were the chances of it happening again?
The door creaked open as soon as she put any weight on it; Kagome peered inside through the crack.
"Poor Inuyasha," a skimpily dressed woman cooed, perched on the corner of the office desk with her long, naked legs crossed at the ankle. "Everyone being so mean to him!" she sympathized, her red lips pouting. A moment later, the stranger hopped off the desk and came to stand behind Inuyasha, massaging his shoulders while she leaned in close to the man's ear to whisper something that Kagome missed.
Stunned, Kagome couldn't help thinking, That slut. Whether she meant Inuyasha or the woman, she wasn't sure. A second later, she reminded herself that as Inuyasha's friend, she should be happy if he'd met someone. Resolute in her decision to not care, Kagome straightened up to go finish her work. Her movement caught Inuyasha's eye.
"Hey, Kagome," he said, pulling out of the woman's hold and leaping from his chair. He skidded to the door and then through it, racing to catch up to her. "Wait up!"
Already distracted, her mind on the latest assignment Sesshoumaru had given her, Kagome turned around with a confused expression. "Huh?" she asked intelligently.
Egotistically, Inuyasha computed her distraction as jealousy. "Hey, don't worry about Yura. She's just an old girlfriend who stopped by to drop off some files. She works in our Okinawa branch; I met her at a company retreat," he explained in a rambling way, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Isn't it immoral for the boss to date one of his employees?" Kagome wondered aloud, trying to sound like she was teasing him.
"Oh," Inuyasha began, confused by her mostly nonchalant attitude. Hadn't' she been spying on him and stormed off when she saw Yura? "I never really thought about it before." After an awkward pause, he started to tell her more about the intimate details of his three month long fling with Yura Tohatsu, perhaps subconsciously trying to make her jealous. He was so busy listening to the sound of his own voice that he missed it when Kagome walked away to complete her work, noticing only belatedly that he was talking to himself.
Hours later, Kagome struggled from the elevator back to her desk outside Inuyasha's office. Her arms were piled high with paperwork and folders, and at the worst possible moment, she realized just how badly her nose tickled and needed to be scratched.
"Inu—Inuyasha," she called out hopefully, wishing with all her heart that her boss was in his office and could hear her. "Inuyasha, please!"
"Yeah, what is it?" he asked in a frustrated voice, sticking his head out the door.
"Help, please?" Kagome suggested, wrinkling her nose in an awful attempt to make the tickling sensation go away.
"With what?" Inuyasha teased, eyeing the stack of papers cradled in her arms. She was starting to teeter on her heels, her sense of equilibrium off balance.
"Either take the papers or scratch my nose," she demanded, struggling towards her desk.
"Fine," he caved, reaching out to take the stack from her.
She sighed in relief and scratched gratefully at the side of her nose. "Thanks," she told him sincerely, choosing to ignore how long it took him to help her.
Inuyasha dumped the stack on top of her desk. "What's all this?"
"Your homework."
"Excuse me?"
"Have fun staying at work the rest of the night," Kagome told him with a wink, grabbing her jacket and purse. She had just started to walk away when Inuyasha grabbed her elbow to stop her.
"No way!"
Kagome sighed and turned on her heel, expecting to find her boss angry about the paperwork. Instead, he was standing there looking pathetic and pleading. Inuyasha did not, in fact, enjoy working (like his brother did), and this amount of work terrified him. Thankfully, he only felt a little weird about Kagome seeing him so pitiable.
"Okay, fine," Kagome said with a dramatic sigh, actually thinking he looked cuter than he did when he was acting all arrogant. "Give me half."
"Thank you," he actually said, smacking a chaste kiss to her cheek, stunning her, and snatching a smile pile to bring back with him to his office. Kagome stared after him, slowly raising a hand to her cheek and letting the tips of her fingers linger there.
Kagome flashed her driver's license (the fake 'Kagome Shashu' one that Miroku had given her almost three weeks earlier) and was waved in by the bouncer. The overly-muscled man seemed much more interesting in her black mini-skirt and tight tank-top than her age, but she decided to take it as a compliment. Immediately, she ordered a strawberry daiquiri from the bar and then looked around for her friends.
"Kagome, you're here!" Sango greeted, grabbing the girl's arm tightly. "Let's dance!"
Kagome barely had time to set down her drink before being dragged into the mass of writhing, sweating bodies. Dimmed lights and pounding music—not to mention alcohol— loosened her up a little bit, and she called over the loud beat to the brunette, "After all that work, this is my reward!" Kagome threw out her arms and twirled around in emphasis.
"Exactly," Sango agreed with a whoop of excitement, despite having not heard a single word.
After a few more songs, the two pushed and shoved their way back to the table. Panting in their seats, they chatted with the other five women: Ayame, Nazuna, Mayu Ikeda (Ayame's neighbor), and Momiji and Botan (two other women who worked at Inutaisho Company).
"Hey, Kagome!" someone greeted her in a low, growly kind of voice; Kagome felt a strong arm wrap around her waist, and when she twisted around in the grasp, she found piercing ice-blue eyes.
"Kouga!" she screamed excitedly, throwing her arms around his neck.
Kouga chuckled. "I wouldn't mind being greeted like this every time I ran into you."
"Shouldn't you still be in the hospital and not at a night club?" Kagome pulled back, afraid to hurt the man. His bruises were faded and yellow and barely noticeable. His cast, stark white, glowed purple in the black light.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," contributed an overly-cocky voice. Low and behold, Inuyasha materialized out of the crowd at Kouga's elbow with a grinning Miroku at his heels.
Dismissively, Kouga shrugged. "Nothing can keep me down for long."
Officially in a great mood, Kagome greeted the two new arrivals with a nod before turning back to her old high school friend. "You have no idea how good it is to see you feeling better!" she told him sincerely.
Kouga offered her his elbow, and the two bounded off for the dance floor. Watching them go, Inuyasha scowled.
"Sango?" Miroku asked with a charming smile. Without waiting for her answer, he grabbed the brunette's hand and pulled her to her feet, twirling her around as he did so. "Let's dance."
Before Inuyasha had a chance to feel left out, a husky, female voice greeted from behind him, "Hey, babe."
"Yura," Inuyasha acknowledged, raising his eyebrows at her chosen outfit of a red tube top and micro shorts that could probably pass for underwear. She looked great, don't get him wrong, but wasn't she chilly in that getup?
As Yura opened her mouth to say something, they were interrupted when Kagome ran over with a wide smile. "Don't mind me, I'm just borrowing your date," she said with a laugh, nodding at Inuyasha.
Her boss, thinking she meant to dance with him, smirked and stepped forward.
"Thanks." Kagome surprised him with a wink as she grabbed Yura's hand. "This is a wild song, and Yura looks like a great dancer!"
His confident smirk slipped right off his face. "Sure," Inuyasha mumbled, stunned.
Kagome flashed him another grin and dragged a laughing Yura behind her back onto the dance floor.
"That was great! Did you see the look on his face? Egotistical jerk," Yura purred as she swayed to the music.
Kagome giggled. "He deserved it! He's always rude to me." Kagome hesitated before adding quickly, "At work."
Yura nodded, twirling her hair with one hand as she shimmied.
Inuyasha scowled as he watched the two women dance, deciding that it looked like Kagome had yet another new ally— his ex-girlfriend. Could be worse, he thought reasonably. Yura was one of his favorite exes; at least they were still friends even after their messy breakup a year earlier. Granted, Yura was also a very friendly ex.
He just hoped the women didn't do that thing where they gossiped, damaging his ego.
Three hours later, he regretted his decision to not interfere in their new friendship.
"And then, Inuyasha droppedhis towel," Yura was saying, licking ice cream from her lips. They had retired to the ice cream parlor after the night club to cool off and wind down.
"In front of all those cameras?" Kagome started to giggle uncontrollably, and Sango and Miroku soon joined her. Having had a few too many drinks, Kagome started to slide off her barstool during her laughing fit.
Inuyasha, frowning at the story, snaked an arm around her waist to help support the slightly drunk female. Somehow he'd managed to be the only one who hadn't had too much to drink.
Yura smirked and winked. "Front page news for a week. Great pictures, though. Very flattering onesof him, if you know what I mean."
"Where was I? I don't remember hearing about this," Kagome asked, amazed that she hadn't seen the pictures or tabloid stories. Her alcohol-sluggish brain kicked into high gear, trying to figure out where she was when this had all gone down three years earlier. After some strenuous thinking, she realized out loud, "Oh, yeah, I was with Naraku. He probably got rid of those."
"Got rid of what?" Yura asked, ignoring the uneasy looks of the other three.
"Any magazines or newspapers that might have had the story or pictures. He didn't like me reading them; said they showed me too much of the world or something."
"Naraku?" Yura echoed, her eyebrows arching high in confusion.
"The love of my life," Kagome muttered, and her eyes clouded over. Whether from sadness, anger, confusion, or love, the others couldn't tell.
"Oh! Do tell," Yura squealed, leaning forward excitedly. She loved a good story. Really, she was a romantic at heart. Inuyasha's quickly darkening scowl and tense shoulders didn't seem to register to Yura.
Kagome gave the woman a weak smile. "Long, silky hair—inky black. Soft waves, too. A great toned muscular body. Classic features. But his eyes…" Kagome trailed off, her eyes on the table, downcast.
"What about them?" Yura prodded, loving the description. She had a thing for guys with long hair.
Kagome tilted her head in thought, remembering. "Dark, almost red."
Yura licked her lips seductively. "Not bad, Kagome. Not bad at all."
Kagome managed a quivering smile before promptly passing out in Inuyasha's arms.
The next morning, Kagome woke up with a pounding headache, a dry, scratching throat, and the worst taste in her mouth that she had ever had. After several confused seconds, she frowned when she realized that she was tucked into bed and wearing her nightgown; she didn't remember changing out of her party clothes.
When she finally managed to drag herself into the kitchen, having hastily tied a robe around her body, she glared at the man she found sitting at the counter. Inuyasha was innocently stirring a cup of extra-strong coffee. He nudged it in her direction when she collapsed in a chair next to him, and she noticed that his usual smirk was replaced by his just-as-usual scowl. "Sesshoumaru took the kids to the zoo; he said something about protecting them from your wrath."
Kagome wrapped her fingers around the burning coffee cup and winced. "I remember the last time the boys were promised a trip to the zoo."
Inuyasha's scowl depended. "Kagome," he began in a dead-serious, very worried tone of voice.
Kagome's eyes flickered to the window and then finally back to the man sitting next to her, realizing by his angry expression that she must have said something disturbing while under the effects of the alcohol.
"How did I end up in my nightgown?" she asked, switching the subject to something she could handle, something that didn't have to do with whatever had made him look at her in that way.
Inuyasha was unfazed and answered, "I put you in it." He paused, but then tried again in that same concerned voice, "Kagome…"
Closing her eyes to brace herself, she responded, "Yes, Inuyasha?"
"The way you talked last night," Inuyasha's serious voice cracked just slightly, "It sounds like you are still completely, hopelessly in love with Naraku."
Kagome frowned and brought her eyebrows together, thinking hard about the night before. From what she remembered from the conversation in the ice cream parlor, she hadn't said anything that would give Inuyasha that impression. For several seconds, Kagome toyed with the idea of defending her so-called 'love of her life,' but decided against it.
Finally, she settled for the ever articulate, "Hn," as her response.
Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her as she looked down at her folded hands set delicately in her lap. He knew the girl had some emotional issues, but to be screwed up so badly to still love that asshole was going too far.
A very large part of him ached to hear Kagome say that she didn't love Naraku.
Startled, he tried to examine that feeling. In the end, he concluded that if Kagome admitted to not loving Naraku, it would be easier to protect her from him. It seemed like the reasonable answer, but not completely true.
Kagome blinked rapidly to keep any tears at bay and glanced at everything in the room, everything but Inuyasha's very intense eyes. "Inuyasha," she began weakly. She was thinking about telling him she just didn't know what to tell him but ended up surprising herself with what she did eventually say. "I don't, okay? I don't love him, not anymore. I-I think I only just figured it out, alright?"
To her horror, she actually started to cry again. It was like reality had shifted yet again once she acknowledged the fact that she didn't love Naraku—and just maybe she never did.
"I don't love him," she repeated in an awed voice. "I don't love him, yet I put everyone through all of this when I could have just stopped it!"
Kagome leapt up, no longer sure of herself or anything else.
Inuyasha watched her run from the room with a mixture of worry and relief, but he didn't go after her.
I don't, okay?
I don't love him, not anymore.
I-I think I only just figured it out, alright?
I don't love him.
I don't love him, yet I put everyone through all of this when I could have just stopped it!
Her admissions just kept running through her troubled mind as she tried to sleep that.
"So why did I stay with him?" she asked herself, her heart aching.
Because he used to be sweet… but only for the first few months of dating. After they moved in together, he had become so controlling. She was forced to stop all communication with friends and family outside of his. Although he let her keep Souta and Shippou, they were hardly a threat to his superiority and authority over her. Naraku picked her clothes out to make sure she never wore anything too 'revealing.' Kagome had to call in every time she went to a new place, even if she was only going for groceries.
Then he had begun to beat her just a year earlier. The first beating had been quick and furious, and the hospital visit right afterward was the only one she had to endure because of their confrontations. Every beating after that first time, it was only bruises and cuts that could easily be covered by make-up or clothes. At work, no one knew, because Kagome always stayed so cheerful on the outside. Even if any of her coworkers had found out, Naraku was the one that got her that job in the first place—he could have just as easily gotten her fired.
Now, Kagome realized just how fake that cheerful façade had been, ever since she first moved in with Naraku and the relationship went south. One day, she swore, one day she'd be as happy as she used to be before Naraku.
Crawling out from under the blankets, she ran a hand through her hair, her fingers easily becoming entangled in the knots. She adjusted her flannel pajamas, killing time as she tried to work the nerve up required for what she was about to do.
Padding into the hallway, she shoved open Inuyasha's bedroom door.
As though sensing her there, he grunted in his sleep. Kagome stumbled to a stop, blushing at the sight of his bare chest, visible since his sheets were pushed down to his waist. Fending off her embarrassment, she came forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
He grunted again.
Kagome sat on the far edge of the bed.
"Inuyasha?"
"Yeah?" he grumbled groggily, struggling to crack open an eyelid.
"I was scared."
His eyes snapped open.
"I'm still scared," Kagome continued, her voice hushed.
"What?" he sat up and stretched, feeling his joints pop. "Did you have another nightmare? Hey, don't worry, you're not alone."
Kagome turned to face him straight on. "I'm sorry," she told him sincerely, reaching out to gently press her hand to his blanket-covered knee.
"What?"
"I'm sorry I'm scared. I should have fixed everything myself and never gotten anyone else involved in my mess. He was just so sweet at first, and I couldn't help feeling relieved that someone might love me. When he started acting weird, controlling, I ignored it, hoping it would go back to normal, and I could actually fall in love with him for real." Kagome choked on the words as she poured out all she had finally realized. "When it got worse, all I could do was hope it would get better, but then it got to the point where I was scared he'd hurt someone I loved if I left him." Her voice grew frantic, but she fought to keep her breathing steady. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha, that I was too scared to do what needed to be done. Forgive me? Please?"
"Of course, Kagome," he said, pulling her to him and holding on tight.
"I'm… I'm going to go back to bed now," she mumbled into his shoulder, giving him one last squeeze before pulling away and retreating from the room as quickly as she'd come in.
As Inuyasha tried to drift back to sleep, he could still hear her sweet voice echoing in his mind. Forgive me. Please. Forgive me.
Please.
Next Chapter: Kisses and Teasing
