Drunken Demon


Kagome sank into her seat with a sigh. She had managed to avoid Inuyasha for now, but how long could she go on without telling him the truth? At the same time, she couldn't possibly tell him what had really happened! A blush settled over her cheeks even as she thought about it. Kagome couldn't believe that she had fallen asleep at three o'clock in the afternoon! She had been out cold. Surprisingly, her mother didn't come upstairs to check up on her. Or had she? Kagome gasped suddenly.

"I am in so much trouble," Kagome muttered to herself.

"Something the matter, Kagome?" Hojo's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing," she replied hastily. Hojo was a nice young man, but it was odd how he was always in the same area she was standing around in. More like freaky, she thought. Her friends had teased her about him- they all, for some reason, believed that Hojo actually liked her! She had laughed at the comments then, but still. What if her friends were right? Nah, she thought. As if to confirm her suspicions, Hojo cleared his throat.

"Kagome, I was wondering. Would you like to see a movie with me this weekend?" he suddenly asked. "On a date, I mean?"

Kagome suddenly straightened in her seat. What? Was he seriously asking her out? As flattered as she was, she knew how deep her feelings were for Inuyasha. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm kind of with someone already," she replied. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. Actually, she thought it over. Okay, so maybe it was a lie. But she had very strong feelings for Inuyasha, even if he didn't feel anything for her. So the technicalities weren't important, right?

Hojo looked crestfallen, but then his expression changed.

"You have a boyfriend? I'm the one who should be sorry! I should've checked to see if you already had a boyfriend before I asked you out. You must think I'm so rude! How about I buy you dinner, to make up for this stupid mistake? I won't take no for an answer!" And with that, he whisked away, all set on planning the dinner arrangements. Kagome groaned. How had she been forced into a date when she had been lying to avoid one? She shook her head. Boys.

And speaking of boys. She let her thoughts wander back to Inuyasha. "I can't bear to face him. Not after that..." she whispered to herself. Great. What now? After all, she was the shard detector. She couldn't neglect her duties. She placed her head in her hands, covering her face as she tried to think of an answer. Maybe she could avoid Inuyasha completely while she was there. Yeah, that was it! She'd just- hide behind Sango and Miroku- when they weren't busy snuggling- and get the shards with their help! Oh, wait. Knowing him, he'd insist on coming along, arguing that she wouldn't be safe without him. What was it with him, anyhow? Always insisting on being there to protect her. As if she couldn't handle things herself. Honestly, he could be so arrogant sometimes! But was it arrogance? Or maybe...Kagome found herself thinking….concern?

"No way!" she suddenly exclaimed. The classroom suddenly became eerily quiet as her classmates ceased their conversations and turned to stare at her.

"What?" she snapped. They immediately looked away and started talking again.

She was not acting like herself. It was definitely the stress of hiding a secret from Inuyasha. She had never been able to keep a secret from him. Kagome tapped her pencil lightly against the surface of her desk, thinking quietly to herself. 

What should she do? Bits of the morning conversation floated into her head.

"What's wrong? You know that you can tell me what's bothering you."

"You don't have to be afraid of me teasing you or something, if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not afraid of you teasing me..." she whispered quietly to herself. "I'm afraid you might not feel the same."

She stole a quick peek at the clock hanging over the teacher's desk. Only five more minutes until class began. Kagome groaned, She definitely didn't feel like being here. Maybe she should skip school today. And go back to the feudal era.

But then, that would only take her...

Back to Inuyasha.

Kagome bit her lip and stood up. The teacher had just entered the classroom, and was staring at her.

"Are you feeling all right, Kagome?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Actually, I'm feeling kind of sick. Would it be okay if I just went home?"

He appeared concerned, and he wrinkled his brow in a moment of thoughtfulness. "Well, I'd normally send you to the nurse's room first, but you look very unwell. So I might as well send you straight home anyway. Feel better, Higurashi."

Kagome nodded and bowed politely. Did she really look that sick? She shrugged, gathering her things before she departed from the classroom.

"Kagome! Where are you going?" a familiar voice called out from behind her.

Kagome blinked and turned around. It was Hojo. "Oh. I'm going home. I'm not feeling well." She knew that he would buy that excuse, being that she had often been permitted to leave school early on account of being "sick". Well, that was the excuse, anyway. What else was she supposed to tell them? The truth? Yeah, right. She was going to tell them to please excuse her so she could run off to another time period so that she could travel with a demon- a half-demon, that is, a demon exterminator, a monk, and a shape shifter to find sacred jewel shards before an evil demon found it and took over the world. Right.

Kagome finally seemed to realize that Hojo had gone back inside the classroom.

"...and I'd like to walk her home," she heard Hojo saying. Kagome suddenly blinked. He was talking to the teacher. Who was he talking about, though? Wait. Her? Eep.

The teacher waved his hand in casual dismissal. Hojo nodded, and quickly rejoined her. "I'm going to walk you home, Kagome!"

What could she say to that? Um.

"Okay?" Kagome replied, still confused. What just happened?

Hojo began talking to her enthusiastically as they left school and began approaching her house. It was hard for her to pay attention, being that her mind was on something else. And there was the fact that he was talking faster than she could comprehend. She'd always known that he was an outgoing person, and felt guilty about not being open-minded and paying attention to what he was saying. He was a rather popular person, and a bright boy too. When it came to studying, that is. Kagome had kind of noticed that he was a bit slow on other things. Things like common sense. Struggling to recompose herself, she tuned in to what Hojo was saying.

"How's that, Kagome?" he suddenly asked, unaware that she had practically not been paying attention the entire time.

"Huh?" she replied unintelligently.

"For dinner. How would you like to go to my place? I can cook a great gourmet meal!" Hojo smiled.

Kagome laughed nervously. Good thing Hojo was so modest. She felt guilty about lying, but she felt that it would come easier than the truth- which was that she would really rather not lead him on into thinking she liked him. Hojo was, after all, the first boy who had ever liked her. She paused thoughtfully. Well, Kouga had been unusually friendly towards her, but she was sure it wasn't anything that trod further than friendship. At least, she thought so.

"Well..." she began reluctantly.

"Great!" Hojo replied. "I'll see you tonight, then! Pick you up around seven? Bye!"

Kagome, who had been too dumbfounded to speak, watched as he dashed off home. Rubbing her temples in exasperation, she crossed the few remaining steps towards her front door. Unprepared to face him after he had questioned her like that in the morning, she decided that she would actually rather not spend her afternoon avoiding Inuyasha's questions, she seated herself on the top step. She didn't know what to do. What she also didn't know was that Inuyasha was not in her room, where she had told him to stay. Sighing, she rested her chin on her hands, watching the clouds drift lazily over the sky. Little did she know, that the object of her daydreams was in the feudal era, pestering an old woman to help him understand what was wrong with her.

A hollow emptiness seemed to fill her body as she thought about his words over and over again. And then she knew exactly what to do.

Tell him everything!

She would tell him the truth. If he didn't believe her- or looked like he was about to tease her, she would just say that she was kidding! Convinced that she was a genius, a smile found its way to her lips. She was relieved now that she had planned everything out. But Inuyasha was still a big idiot for getting drunk in the first place. It was completely and absolutely his fault that this had happened. Kagome frowned for a moment.

And wondered.

When the time came, would it be so easy to tell him?

She crossed her arms thoughtfully.

Kagome would just have to find out. Taking a deep breath, she entered her house.

She was ready to admit it all.


(A.N. Wow. It's been a really long time since I updated this story. I know that this chapter wasn't exactly the most exciting chapter, but I think most stories sort of encounter a bit of a snag somewhere in the middle. But the good thing is, that once you get past the little bumps, it means that there's a more exciting part that will come along. To be honest about why it took so long for me to update, I'll tell you. It wasn't school, or because I was writing my other fan fictions. It was because I had major writer's block for this story. I had absolutely no idea where I was going to go from the last chapter. After a long debate, I went along with this situation with Kagome, but I wasn't sure how it would play into all of this. But, finally, I know where I'm going with the story, and I plan to finish up the chapter- which is halfway finished- and update it either before or after spring break. I really want to thank the reviewers, and I'm really sorry about the slow updates. Thanks for bearing with me. Please review if you liked this chapter, or if you have any comments. Expect an update soon!)