A/N: (yawn) What on earth am I writing here? I really have absolutely no clue at all…. So….sleepy…. Writing a long chapter tires me out (yeah, like you call this long, only about 2400 words), but I'm used to writing something short, like 1000 words at a time, not 2000. U__U
Anyways, a big thank you to those of you who reviewed ( Myst Lady, moonfan101, & me). Yes, I love reading the reviews, although there aren't that many of them. ^__^|| They cheer me up and inspire me at the end of a long day, but I won't force you guys to review just because I like them (if there are actually anyone reading this fic…).
Disclaimer: (Pulling off flower petals) Mine, not mine, mine, not mine, mine, not mine….oh crap.
Chapter 2
Inuyasha sighed as he shut his shoe locker firmly. It was the beginning of yet another boring school year. Second year into high school (grade 11) and he was already screaming inside his mind to be let out. Whoever invented school anyways? Who made it mandatory to go to school? He swore he would become the prime minister someday just to make the law of going to school illegal. He'd be able to save thousands upon thousands of poor souls like himself who were forced to receive "proper education" and be bored to death in reality. No wonder the student suicidal rate had gone up.
Having changed back into his normal running shoes, he carelessly shoved his bag onto one shoulder and started finding his way out through the crowd of chattering students.
He wasn't particularly eager to get home, but since he didn't have anything to do after school today, he might as well leave since there was no point hanging around.
Well, technically, he was a member of the school Kendou team, but it wasn't as if he was someone who'd show up for regular practices.
A middle-sized girl with long auburn hair intercepted him on his way out. She was fidgety and dared not look at him in the eye. A hand had unconsciously travelled to a strand of her hair and started playing around with it. She began twirling it between her fingers.
"Um…Inuyasha, did…did you…did you get my letter?" She stuttered in a squeaky voice like that of a mouse. An interesting shade of pink was climbing up her cheeks.
Inuyasha cocked up an eyebrow. "You mean the one in a purple envelope sprayed with perfume and sealed with a red heart that was placed in my shoe locker this morning?"
The girl nodded and looked up with hopeful eyes.
"Oh, I read it." Inuyasha shrugged.
"And?" The light of hope was shining brighter in that pair of green eyes.
"And I threw it away," the silver-haired young man replied nonchalantly.
"Wha- What!?" The girl's eyes widened with shock, then the light in them dimmed as she lowered her eyelids and bit her lips, trying hard not to cry. She was heartbroken. "Why?"
Inuyasha gave her a weird look. "You know, I suggest you go to cram school and touch up a bit on your language skills. Have you any idea how mind-boggling it is to read a letter full of grammar and spelling mistakes? Writing 'You gave me hoe' (A/N: hope. `__`||), 'you're my SONSHINE,' 'I draem about you' with the E and the A reversed around isn't something that'd impress me very much. I couldn't help but tear it up after the first couple of sentences. Oh, and I'm allergic to perfume, so next time if you wanna write me a letter again, try not to scent it and remember to proofread your work."
The girl glared at him for a moment before slapping him across the face and bursting out crying. "I HATE YOU! You're such a jerk!!!" She pushed him aside and ran away, covering her face.
The locker room was in a complete silence with everybody staring at Inuyasha.
He touched the red handprint on his face and scowled. Man, who'd have thought that such a tiny girl possessed such strength? The slap stung like hell.
He looked up and found everyone staring at him. He shot back the accusing looks with his own glare. "What? What did I do?"
x x x
"Kagome, Kagome, Kagome, where is Kagome?" Shippo muttered to himself as he searched for the familiar face from the photo in the crowd below. He did not need to worry about anyone seeing him hovering in the air since cupids were supposed to be invisible and intangible to human beings.
His eyes suddenly brightened up as his gaze fixed on a young girl around the age of 16 walking towards a building, all the while humming a little song to herself. She seemed to be in a good mood. "Aha!" Shippo clapped his hands and followed her inside.
x x x
"A cup of black coffee and an oatcake?" Kagome scribbled down the order before approaching the next customer. "What would you like to order Madame?" She repeated the order while writing it down. Then she turned back to the counter to prepare the ordered items.
Having finally entered high school, Kagome decided that she was old enough and ready to get herself a part-time job. Therefore, after much looking around and searching, she decided on working at a small café close to the subway station.
Her shift was from 4-7 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays and 1-5 p.m. on weekends. Although she was only paid 400 yen an hour, she was content with her job, considering that she was still a student and her job wasn't very demanding. All she had to do was take orders, serve the food, and get the bills. Plus, the café didn't get busy very often even though it was located close to the subway station. Overall, it was an easy job with easy money.
CLING! The clear tinkle of bells sounded as another customer pushed open the glass door and entered the small café.
He looked around and decided on an empty seat by the windows at the back corner of the room.
Kagome grabbed the menu and followed him, setting it down lightly on the table before turning away to resume her original task – brewing a new pot of coffee.
Inuyasha flipped through the menu and briefly skimmed the names of all the different types of drinks and desserts. Having made up his mind, he closed the menu and gave a slight gesture at the waitress behind the counter.
Kagome came forth, taking out her clipboard and a pen. "May I take your order?"
"Yes, I'd like a cup of Blue Mountain." Inuyasha handed the menu back to her.
Kagome tried to hide her surprise as she scribbled down the order. The teenaged boy sitting in front of her seemed to be about her age, no, a year older judging from the two lines sewn on his Hazelnut High School uniform, which indicated the year that the student was in.
It wasn't everyday when someone her age would order coffee over soft drinks, milkshakes, or any other flavoured drinks. She gave him another look before taking the menu away and going back to the counter to get the Blue Mountain.
Inuyasha placed his chin on his palm and gazed out absentmindedly, off to his little own world.
While Kagome was preparing the coffee, Shippo could hardly contain his excitement.
Just when he was worrying about how to get Kagome to meet Inuyasha, the guy came into the café as if by fate!
He rubbed his hands as he looked eagerly down at the two, one behind the counter while the other in a chair. Now all he had to do was creating a chance where they could have an intersection in their path and giving them a chance to leave an impression for the other.
This is where my secret weapon comes in, he thought proudly to himself as he pulled out a pocket version of "The Idiot's Complete Guide to Becoming a Good Cupid," which was the book he bought the other day when he was given the assignment.
"Let's see…" He carefully opened the book and flipped to the table of contents. Locating the page number of chapter one, he quickly jumped to it and started reading.
"Chapter 1: Boy Meets Girl," he read out. "The first step in matching up two people who don't know each other is to create a situation where they will have a chance to know or ask each other's name. For example, in a café situation where either the male or the female is the customer and the other is the waitress or waiter, drinks can be 'accidentally' spilt while being served. Under such circumstance, one may take out one's handkerchief to wipe off the liquid on the other person and let the person keep it. The other person will surely ask for the other's name as he or she promises to wash the handkerchief and give it back."
"Wow! This is perfect!" Shippo shut the book and exclaimed happily. "This is the exact situation as the one here, all right!"
Seeing that Kagome was taking the coffee towards Inuyasha, he decided that there was no better time to act than now.
"Chippi Chippi Padda Padda Cupid Magic!" He bellowed out the incantation that would release his magic.
A banana peel appeared out of nowhere on the floor, which happened to be in Kagome's path.
Kagome felt that she stepped on something squishy before she slipped, falling backward. All one could see was the coffee cup flying upwards, its content spilt across the air in the shape of a rainbow arc.
"Huh?" Inuyasha turned his head just in time to see brown liquid flying in his direction. In an instant, he was wet and covered in brown.
Kagome's piercing scream followed by the shattering of the porcelain cup and the loud cursing of Inuyasha soon filled the tiny café.
Everyone, including the customers and other waitresses, looked up to find a girl struggling to get up, the ground littered with broken pieces of a coffee cup, a banana peel, and some brown liquid, and a young man with an originally gorgeous silver hair stained brown jumping up and down waving his arms because the coffee was superbly hot.
Shippo sweat-dropped. "Um……Ooooooops?"
Had he overdone it a little bit?
He quickly took out his book again and reread the chapter. On the very last page of the chapter, near the bottom, was a footnote in tiny prints:
Warning: Do not try the café scenario if the drink is hot. The human may be burned.
"#X%$@^$&^+#&%^#X%$!!!!!!!!!!!!" Despite his age, Shippo knew a lot of profane terms.
x x x
The first thing that popped into Kagome's mind while falling was that she would fall on her head, crack it, and die. No! I'm too young to end my life pathetically like this! She panicked and did the only thing she could think of – scream.
However, when it was clear that she did not fall on her head and that she did not die, her second thought was that her bum hurt like hell. She had landed on it and she knew it'd probably be bruised by tomorrow.
Loud cursing drew her attention away from the "well-being" of her backside and onto a certain young man who was jumping like a mad monkey right in front of her.
Clearly, the unfortunate teen boy had the coffee spilt all over him and it burned him.
At least he'll smell like coffee now, she vaguely thought to herself. And the brown hair looks kinda cool, but black would probably suit him better.
Oh~~that uniform is ruined! It'll cost some money to have it dry-cleaned and the stains removed… She thought as her gaze fell on the used-to-be-white shirt of the school uniform.
Then, with a start, she realized that this wasn't the time to sit on the floor and scrutinize the appearance of the cussing young man. He was the customer and she was supposed to help him!
Kagome struggled to get up and wobbled towards Inuyasha. "Sir, are you all right? I'm sooooooo sorry."
"Hot hot hot hot hot! It's so freaking HOT!" Inuyasha continued jumping around, completely oblivious to Kagome's concerned inquiry and apology.
"Uh oh, the coffee must be burning your skin." Kagome twisted her hands together. What was she supposed to do?
She tried hard to recall any first aid treatment that she had heard or learned about at school. Then she remembered her mother telling her that when someone got burned, you should run cold water on the burn. Okay, water, water, she would need cold water. Kagome frantically looked around. She spotted the bucket left on the side from mopping the floor earlier on.
SPLASH!!! Without second thought, she grabbed the bucket and dumped it on Inuyasha's head.
He stopped his wild parade of hopping around.
He stared at her.
All was silent within the tiny café save the light noise made by water dripping down a very very wet Inuyasha. The water dripped from his hair, down his face, onto his clothes, and finally landed on the small puddle that formed around him. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Kagome looked back and found everyone frozen dead on the spot, gaping at her with his or her mouth hanging open in shock. She turned back to Inuyasha and discovered him to be in a similar state.
"Um….at least you're not burned anymore?" She offered lamely.
Loud, non-stop cursing fired at Kagome resonated across the room. She grimaced and took out her handkerchief to wipe off the water on Inuyasha, all the while apologizing repeatedly, but it looked as if Inuyasha was too caught up in his yelling to hear a word of it.
Soon, the manager came out and apologized to Inuyasha too.
In the end, Inuyasha was given a t-shirt and a pair of track pants to change into, along with money for dry-cleaning his uniform, and special cakes from the café to take home as sincere apologies from the manager.
Without a doubt, Kagome was immediately fired on the third day of her work without given a chance to explain. It really was a bad day for her, which happened to be Friday –– not the 13th. Darn, that was too bad, or else she could've blamed her tough luck on superstition.
With her shoulders sagged like a defeated puppy and each step as heavy as lead, she headed towards the subway station trying very hard not to cry.
Shippo, who was watching her, had a heavy heart too. After all, it was sort of his fault that things turned out this way. AND Inuyasha and Kagome still did not get each other's name.
He sighed heavily. Whoever said that a cupid's job was easy?
However, his cheerful nature would not allow him to fall into depression that easily from one single little fluke. He puffed out his chest. There was always a next time…?