Disclaimer: The Inu-clone Skara Brae gave me is all mine, but not the genuine McCoy, he's Rumiko Takahashi's (did I spell that right?). But Christmas is coming soon. . . (hint, hint to all my friends reading this, as I know some you are) Any and all songs mentioned do not belong to me, the belong to. . .whoever they belong to (da!).

*~Life is short! Break some rules!~* (Why? You'll see. . .)

Family Secrets

By: Aelii-chan

Chapter 4: Death By Embarrassment

". . ." ~ talking '. . .' ~ thinking *. . .* ~ action while talking ^. . .^ ~ song lyrics



Kagome awoke to the faint sound of music drifting through the room directly into her ear. She cracked a blurry blue-gray eye and with some squinting managed to make out the numbers 9, :, 1, and 3 on her alarm clock. Poking her tousled head from under the covers, she spied Kiry sitting at her desk, still in her green pj's, head firmly clasped between earphones and nose shoved directly in an astonishingly thick book.

"Ohayo, itoko." she said without glancing up.

'How'd she know I was up? Musta heard me move. . .' She stretched and blinked in a kitten-ish manner.

"How long have you been up?" Kagome asked, still in that state of light stupor all people have when they wake up.

Kiry finally looked up as she closed her book and peeled off her headphones. "Oh, maybe an hour or so-ish."

"Ok, that's just wrong after how long we stayed up."

"Well, it wasn't exactly late. . .and we kinda didn't get to finish our game of dress up either, what with Aunt coming in and telling us to get-to-bed-as-in-now." This was said with a humorous smirk that Kagome had quickly become familiar with.

Kagome's mom had come into the room sometime around eleven o'clock, saying she didn't want to hear another giggle, pop song, or rustle of clothing in exactly 20 minutes. So, feeling rather chastised, the girls meekly complied by slipping into tank tops, flannel night pants, and covers. But only after Kiry had wound her cousin's hair into rag rollers to "give it some snazzy curls".

Now Kagome shook her head to feel the little balls of material and hair swing against her cheeks. She swung her legs over the side of the bed, stood up, and stretched again.

"No, we didn't. And there was one more outfit you wanted me to try?" she asked, now fully awake.

"Hai, but I'll let you take a shower first. Get ready for the day before you try on this one. It's one of my favorites and I rock in it, and since I know you look fantastic in my other clothes, I'm sure you'll look slammin' in it, too." This was said with the self-assurance of a fashion goddess making a proclamation that would be taken on her word immediately and forever be a fashion statement.

"M'kay." Said Kagome agreeably. Then she pulled on the curlers. "Is there anything I should do with these?"

"Just don't get 'em wet: it'll take all the curl out." She stood up, too, and walked to the door. Then she turned around. "I'm gonna snag something to eat while you're drowning yourself *wink*. When you're dry, bang on the wall and I'll bring you the clothes. See ya in a bit." She turned again and traipsed down the stairs, calling behind her, "And don't touch those curlers!"

Kagome shook her head again, this time at her silly cousin, and picked up her towel to go 'drown herself', as Kiry had oh-so-wonderfully put it.

@}~~~~~^~~~~~~~

Whap! Whap!

Kagome smacked the wall and than tied her towel more tightly around herself.

'Just what is this "slammin' " outfit?' she thought with a bit of trepidation. She yanked the shower cap off her head, which she had used to make sure her hair didn't get wet (A/N: That was 4 any guys reading this story that don't have a clue about girl hygiene. Not all of you but some of you might not know, so this is me helping.).

There was a thump on the door. "Yoha! It's me!" came Kiry's voice.

Kagome opened the door and allowed her cousin to step inside the doorjamb. Kiry had this look on her face. It was a cross between evil and oh-I-am-so-going-to-love-your-reaction-to-this. She held up the outfit. Kagome's eyes widened.

"You have got to be kidding me!! That should be made illegal! Do you actually wear that?! In public?!" Kagome whisper/shouted.

Kiry grinned. "Oh, yeah! Mostly when I go clubbing though." She said this like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"You go clubbing? How on earth do you get in; you're too young." Kagome looked from her, to the outfit, and back to her again. 'Then again, that thing might get her anywhere and anything. . .' (A/N: For those of you getting impatient, I'll describe it when I'm damn good and ready. Relax, I haven't forgotten.)

"Just try it on. Now, I'm tellin' you right now you are most defiantly not wearing it out of this house, but it'll be fun to see yourself in it, trust me." Kiry turned and walked off, leaving the show-stopper in Kagome's limp hands with a cocky look so like InuYasha's, she was speechless.

Kagome closed the door and examined the clothes with skeptical eyes. They really should be illegal. 'I can't wear something like this! It's. . .it's. . .' Suddenly her eyes got a reckless look. 'Why can't I? No one but Kiry will see me, and it'll be cool to try something this daring. Yes, I will.'

With that decision firmly tucked in her head, she promptly yanked on the clothes.

@}~~~~~~^~~~~~~~

Kagome walked into her room again, and stopped for Kiry to examine her. Kiry had apparently discovered Kagome's CD player and had put a mix of random songs on. Her face had lit up with a big grin the second Kagome had walked in, but now it threatened to burst the lines of her face.

"Oh yeah!" She exclaimed. "*whistle* You go girl! Now come here an let me fiddle with your hair."

She cleared a place on the bed in front of her for Kagome to perch and started untying the little hair balls, letting the curls fall out. Then she combed the tightly spiraling raven mass to perfection. As a last touch, she twisted the hair up and shoved two black hair chopsticks in the twist to hold it in place, letting the cascade of curls fall neatly between them.

"All done! Oh, wait. . .one sec. . ." Kiry jumped of the bed and kneeled by her suitcase, digging for something and not finding it. She looked around the room and growled "Can't see to find it. . ." She bounced up again and opened the blinds of the window, letting in sunlight. She looked out to see a clear, perfect day.

"That's better." She resumed her digging and came up with and tube of lipstick. "Here we go!" She scampered back to her bewildered cousin and lightly ran the dark crimson make-up over Kagome's lips. "All done now. I'm going to use the bathroom to get dressed: I already took a shower this morning, but felt lazy, so I just put my pj's back on. Go look at yourself in the mirror."

Snatching up a few objects out of the luggage, she skipped of to. . .do what girls do.

Kagome, left on her own now, stood up and crossed the room to her full length mirror. A woman stood in her place and regarded her with the same amount of awe on her face as Kagome must have had on hers. 'Hey, and a very sexy woman at that!' she thought to herself as "Turn Off The Light" by Nelly Furtato came on.

The black leather micro-mini-skirt hugged her hips into curves she never even thought she had. The top was also black leather, zip-up, V-necked, sleeveless. It clung in all the right places and gave a new definition to drop-dead-knock-out. With the lipstick and new hair-do, she looked good enough to kill a boy at one glance. (A/N: Now boys, stop drooling!)

'Ok, so it's a little short. . .ok, so it's really short. . .and I would ever wear this in public. . .but it's good to know I actually can look. . .um. . .'slammin'.'

The music picked up a little for the chorus and in the typical way of all girls, Kagome decided to see how the skirt moved. So, she started to sway her hips to the music. ^She ain't so rough, rough, rough, until you turn out the light, turn out the light. . .^

Feeling encouraged, she moved her hips a little more and raised her arms over her head.

^. . .until you see all my dreams, see all my dreams. Not everything in this magical world is wha-a-a-at it seems.^

"What the hell?!"

Kiry's voice interrupted Kagome's dance party with such abruptness Kagome was shocked. She, still in the arms-over-head position, turned around to explain her actions-very understandable actions-when she found her cousin wasn't looking at her.

She was staring at the middle of the room, at nothing, with a hand thrown out in a reflective manner, as if to say 'Stop!'. Then her eyes traced a path through the air, strait to the window. Kagome turned around an looked at the window also. And nearly fainted dead on the floor right then and there.

'Oh. . .my. . .god. . .' her sluggish brain put out.

'InuYasha. . .'



A/N: Hey, should I stop here? *Sees all readers armed with various items of torture* Oh well, deal with it. This is where I'm stopping for today. I'll write more craziness tomorrow. Or today, depending on how many reviews I get. So far it's 35!! SQQEEEEEEE! *does happy evil puppy dance* I love you guys!! *give hugs to each and everyone of her readers* At this rate I'm turning you all into cliff-dwellers. Get it? I thought about naming this chapie 'Death by Em-bare-ass-ment' but it didn't really fit. What do you think?

Notanigen, sageheart86, Kage Koneko, Kat/DJP ~~ *blush* arigato. . .

Suya ~~ I think with this chapie I shoved their heads more in the gutter, ne?

Jupiter's Light, Skara Brae, Gryphnwng, Solange the Sunchaser ~~ HAHAHA! Another one! Oh, I am soooo evil, aren't I?! Sorry, couldn't help it, really couldn't. Oh, and I got the name when I was bored in chem class; I had FFX on my mind and Rikku somehow got blenderized into Kiryki.

Black Wolf (brat child), Holly (imoto-chan) ~~ I just love you guys. You so wholeheartedly support my zanyness that I wonder if I should get your heads checked. . .And Holls, you can't use that treat, it's my threat. Well, one of my less severe ones. . .the boys on the roof, ne?

Ryu ~~ *BLUSH, BLUSH, BLUSH* Creative? Moi? Thank you times 10! So is this better than him just jumping through the window and chaos ensuing?

Becky ~~ I'm writing, I'm writing!! Just no mobs! LOL! ;)

'.' Aelii-chan of the evil cliffhangers! *runs from knives, maces, and African tribal staffs hurled at her*