A/N: I own neither Inuyasha or Fushigi Yuugi. ~Belle
Number One Priority: 2
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The next morning Miroku was beside himself with glee. His precious Kagome would be coming to live with him! He decided to travel towards the temple on his way to work that morning. He needed some time to meditate or else he would not be able to focus on anything that day. It was of utmost importance to be focused when dealing with the volatile chemicals in the lab he worked at.
The massive dark mahogany doors opened slowly into the nearly empty temple. Only one other occupant could be seen from Miroku's vantage point and it made him smile. His dear friend whom he liked to confide in was present. If there was one person you could divulge your secrets to and gain helpful advice from it would be Chichiri, the blue haired, light hearted, peaceful young man.
On a great level of awareness, Chichiri turned to regard Miroku as he entered the temple's main room. He offered a welcoming smile and gestured to the area beside himself on the floor for the new entrant to sit.
"Good morning Miroku, what brings you to meditate this early in the morning? Usually you wait until the early evening so that you can be more focused with the ladies, no da." Chichiri teased with amusement evident in his wise eyes.
Miroku merely smiled in reply before sitting in the indicated vicinity. "Confidentially speaking, Kagome will be arriving here shortly. She will be attending the university this term."
With bowed head Chichiri chuckled softly. "I understand now. You find it hard to focus with such fantastic news." He raised his head to look directly into Miroku's violent eyes. "I am sure that Tasuki will appreciate you not causing an explosion in the chemistry lab today."
The thought of the wild Tasuki dealing with a distracted Miroku and the mixing of dangerous chemicals was quite humorous. The picture of Tasuki running around frantically trying to put out various toxic blazes struck a comical chord in the young man's heart.
"Yes, I don't think he would be too happy about that," Miroku agreed before closing his eyes and relaxing his body as he entered a calming, meditative state.
After a quarter of an hour had passed Miroku felt more centered and rose to his feet. The dark green eyes of Chichiri snapped open to follow his actions. "Leaving?"
"Hai, I'm leaving now. I'm sure I'll see you later at the frat house." Miroku replied as he stretched once more before preparing to go to work.
Chichiri nodded his head. "I'll be there. It is a meeting of all the brothers remaining in the city during the holiday break, correct?"
"That's right. It will only be a small portion of us and the pledges of course. Both the West brothers should be out of town as well as Nuriko, Naraku, Tamahome, Bankotsu, and Kouga." Miroku answered ticking off each name with his fingers, trying to think of any of the other brothers that were out of town.
The other man returned to his meditate stance before answering. "That sounds correct. Don't be too late, you know how angry Tasuki gets when he feels like he's doing all the work."
"No need to worry, I am more than used to dealing with such tempers by now," Miroku rejoined on his way out of the temple.
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The tears wouldn't stop. Her friend was growing uneasy because her usual answer for such unhappiness was food. At least to her, food was the answer to everything. But it wasn't working this time. So instead she just gently rubbed her hand across her friend's back in what she hoped was a soothing manner.
"Don't cry Sango, it is not like you at all. So what if Miroku has that girl coming to live with him. You have to respect his wishes to see her again. He obviously loves her. Besides, maybe you don't know the whole story." Miaka tried to coax the other girl out of her unsettling state.
Sango turned up her face to look into the emerald eyes of her caring friend. She saw a young woman who couldn't possibly understand the angst she was feeling. "You couldn't possibly understand, Miaka. You have Tamahome; all I have is the hopeless dream of being with Miroku. But he'll never see me as anything but a friend. Besides, he has too much fun being a lady's man."
A small smile crossed Miaka's face as another tactic came to mind. "Well maybe this is better then. Let this Kagome deal with his lecherous habits. Maybe she'll be able to break him of them. Afterwards, maybe he'll be able to see you are so much more important to him than a friend."
A sad smile tugged at Sango's lips as she shook her head. "No, I think it would hurt more to see that she was able to make him forget about all those women, where I could not. I think I've been in love with him for as long as I can remember, Miaka. I don't know what to do."
"I'm sorry Sango-chan, but this is out of both of our hands. We must simply try to not let it drag us down into depression, okay? Just try to give her a chance. Remember that she hasn't done anything to wrong you. The fault all lies within Miroku. Remember not to blame her." Miaka gently tried to reinforce. She could remember all too vividly how she and her childhood best friend had come to a terrible fight.
Yui had fallen in love with Miaka's boyfriend. But, Tamahome only had eyes for Miaka. This caused the other girl to be bitter and jealous and destroy their friendship as she sought ways to pull them apart.
"I'm sorry, Miaka, I wasn't even thinking about it that way. You're right, I will not be selfish. This other girl deserves happiness too, who am I to deny that?" Sango agreed with a shrug of acceptance. She was a strong girl, no need to get so emotional about something she had no control over.
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Kagome was so very excited about Japan. She knew she would need new clothes for the different weather on the island that was so much different from where she lived on the American mainland. She didn't want any of her friends to go with her though.
She needed to learn to be independent. Besides all the people she called her friends were also friends with Hojo. Three guesses whose side they took over the breakup. They were all against her leaving for the semester to study in Japan and none would have volunteered to aid her in shopping for the trip even if she asked.
Currently, she held three shopping bags and her fingers were hurting under the strain of their weight. She was standing in line for some fast food in the mall's food court. A small sadness gripped her heart when she realized she would be eating alone.
After retrieving her Chinese food, complete with chopsticks, she walked to an unoccupied table far away from the center of the crowd. If she was going to eat alone, then she'd eat alone. The chopsticks felt funny. She read the instructions several times on the red wrapper that the sticks came in. A puzzled look marred her pretty face.
Entertained laughter interrupted her concentration. She turned in her seat to see a young man smiling at her and gesturing to her chopsticks. "Would you like to see how a pro eats with those things?" He asked in a slight Japanese accent while holding his own tray of Chinese food in his hands.
An embarrassed blush graced Kagome's cheeks as she nodded. The young man joined her at the table. "I'm trying to learn how to eat with chopsticks. I'm moving to Japan for a few months."
An understanding smile was his response. "I'm actually from Japan, visiting the states on holiday. When are you leaving?" He asked as he showed her how to hold her chopsticks by mimicking him.
"My flight is at 7:30 Saturday morning." Kagome answered with her eyebrows knitted in concentration. A joyful laugh bubbled in her chest as she successfully picked up a large clump of rice using her chopsticks.
The man smiled encouragingly at her. "Good job! I knew you could master the art of chopsticks." He chewed thoughtfully on his own food for a few moments before looking back up at her. His apologetic smile reached the corners of his lavender eyes. "Forgive my rudeness, my name is Nuriko," he extended his hand towards her.
Kagome shook it without hesitation. "Kagome," she answered.
"Where is your destination in Japan?" Nuriko continued to inquire.
"Tokyo."
"Really? That's where my flight is to. If you'd like I could get on the same plane as you. I traveled alone, so it would be nice not to go back that nearly day long flight all by myself." Nuriko suggested as he wiped his mouth elegantly with his napkin. His table manners were quite impressive.
"That would be great! I was worried about being completely bored on that long flight. To tell you the truth, I've never actually been on a plane trip before." Kagome revealed.
"Well then I think it would be a great idea then." Nurko replied as he adjusted his long braid of hair. It was very thick and a beautiful shade of lavender, that matched his eyes.
"Say, do you dye your hair?" Kagome couldn't help but ask, she loved his eyes, they reminded her of Miroku.
Amused laughter greeted her ears. "Nope, I'm a freak of nature who has purple hair."
Kagome gasped at his reply and waved her hands frantically in the air before his face. "No! No! You're not a freak! I didn't mean to make you feel that way."
More laughter was her answer. "I know you meant no insult. I see you've been shopping for clothes. I love clothes shopping, mind if I join you?" Nuriko inquired. He was a bit bored. Japan and the states weren't all that different now-a-days. The culture was different, but the ways to solve the problem of boredom were unbelievably similar.
"That would be great! I hate shopping by myself. I just had a major breakup and all my friends sided with him." Kagome explained, somewhat quietly as she was embarrassed by the revelation.
Nuriko helped her from her seat and gave her hand a gentle squeeze and an understanding smile. "Men can be such pigs."
Already, Kagome was feeling better about her decision to move to Japan. Not only would she get to spend time with Miroku, but now she even had a friend to confide in.
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He was angry. He was annoyed. Where was that useless co-worker of his anyway? Flustered fingers ran through his unruly red hair. He shook his head from side to side as he stared at the door expectantly, his earrings hitting the side of his cheeks with the movements.
He absolutely refused to do any more of the experiment by himself. His boss could just shove it if he had a problem. Sure he wanted to go to graduate school and study to work for the government studying biological warfare. But he would be damned if he didn't let Miroku do his half of the work.
The door to the lab room opened just then to reveal calm and collected Miroku strutting confidently into the room. He must have forgotten that he was late and obviously forgot who he was dealing with.
"Took you fucking long enough," Tasuki remarked arms crossed aggressively across his chest. Amber eyes narrowed in annoyance.
Miroku tried one of his disarming smiles, but found it had no effect upon his co-worker whatsoever. "I had to meditate this morning. I thought you would appreciate it if I was focused."
Those amber eyes rolled up towards the ceiling. "Whatever, just do your damn work. I'm not fucking doing it by myself."
"Tasuki, you must really learn to control your temper. That language will get you no where in society." Miroku berated.
"I'd say it's worked for the most part." Tasuki answered going back to the station he was working on earlier.
"And that's why you never date any women." Miroku told him casually, but soon was regretting the remark when Tasuki's back stiffened. "I didn't mean anything by it."
Tasuki turned around to glare at him. "Women are just too much trouble."
"So it's men you dally with?" Miroku couldn't help but tease. He almost laughed when those amber eyes widened at that last comment.
"Hell no! You know I like women, they are just so fucking annoying. I want one that won't back down when I show a little passion. I want one that is beautiful and intelligent and witty. Oh, and she needs to be able to swim, since I can't. She can save me in case I drown of something."
Tasuki became distracted as he began to list the qualities his woman should have. He completely ignored the chemical he was heating, at least until it started to bubble over the sides of the glass beaker.
"Shit!" he cried as he noticed the chemical solution spill over and hurried to fix the mess.
Miroku sighed as he retrieved his equipment to begin his research. "You really must learn to watch your language. No one in their right mind would even introduce you to someone like that with your dirty mouth."
After cleaning up the mess, Tasuki turned to him, a serious expression upon his face. "Are you serious? If you knew a girl that matched my dream girl description you wouldn't introduce us?"
Miroku shook his head. "You may be my friend, but I wouldn't introduce you to a girl like that. You'd scare her away with that filth. What would she think of me for having such an ill mannered friend? Sometimes I think you're worst than Inuyasha."
The replacement glass beaker Tasuki held within his grasp soon shattered after that last statement. "Do not compare me to that sissy boy."
"Inuyasha isn't a sissy boy." Miroku replied confused by that declaration.
"Yeah, right. You show him a pretty girl that he likes and he sputters all over himself like an idiot." Tasuki answered, cursing under his breath, taking some of Miroku's advice to heart, as he went to clean up his new mess.
"Maybe you just haven't met a girl pretty enough to cause you to act foolish yet." Miroku suggested as he watched in amusement as Tasuki cleaned up the latest mess caused from his fiery temper.
He was feeling confident that he didn't want Kagome to meet any of his male friends now, except maybe for Chichiri and possibly Hotohori. No, better not introduce her to Hotohori, because if he is interested in a girl he will stop at nothing to win her. Knowing Miroku's luck he would be interested.
Tasuki and Inuyasha had such terrible tempers. Naraku and Nagako were always plotting something. Sesshoumaru had no heart. Kouga and Bankotsu never really seemed too interested in anything other than proving their masculinity. But both were pretty obsessive.
Nuriko, he wasn't sure if he could introduce her to him either. The purple haired Nuriko tended to be a hard character to figure out. Miroku wasn't sure if he was gay or if it was an act to get closer to women. Better not let her meet him either.
"Maybe you're right. That will be my new year resolution. I will control my temper. That way if I do meet that girl this year I won't scare her off." Tasuki replied, interrupting Miroku's internal thoughts.
Miroku offered a weak smile at his friend's decision. He would definitely have to hide Kagome from all these men. He wasn't entirely sure what she looked like now, but he knew she would have beauty outside to match that of her heart inside. He definitely didn't want to share that.
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TBC