Another chapter, another dose of madness, and I don't mean the band either.
Two notes before we commence, 1) I'm back at uni again on my degree proper which means lots of work; and 2), for some strange reason I have taken it upon myself to start another Inuyasha/Kagome fic (why, I ask myself? Why?) which I may or I may not be posting here (if it's not here it'll be on my website, address is on my bio page.) So if you ever wonder why updates are slow, those are the reasons I'm promoting.
Many thanks to those who reviewed the interlude; I have a feeling there will be more of them. Interludes, I mean. Not that I wouldn't say no to more reviews... and I'm gonna shut up now.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except The Dance of the Asatsuki and Hashi. There were no gummy bears, chopsticks or spring onions (or scallions or whatever you call 'em) harmed in the making of this chapter.
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Scroll Six – Multi-Vitamin Gummy Bears
There was a muffled snort of mirth from Inuyasha's side of the breakfast bar.
"Shut up."
The snort developed into a soft snigger.
"Inuyasha…" A warning tone.
To his merit the hanyou did try to stifle his merriment, though he failed dismally.
"That's it."
A gummy bear hit him square on the nose but did nothing to can his laughter. If anything it made him laugh harder.
"Look, it was an easy mistake to make."
Another snort, this time slightly disbelieving.
"Well it's not like you told me much about him. I refuse to believe a job description is enough for me to go on. And now look, you've made me go wrong and I don't know where. I make x to be 6 and y to be 7. The answers say x is 4 and y is 9."
"Let me see." Inuyasha held out his hand while carefully inspecting the gummy bear before popping it in his mouth. There was a moment of silence as he went through the calculation and then checked the answers in the back of the textbook.
"Uh, Kagome?"
"Hmm?"
"You are doing question six, aren't you?"
"Uh-huh."
"You were reading the answers for question seven."
"…"
Inuyasha gave a quiet snicker.
"Shut up."
Sesshoumaru leant against the wall outside the kitchen and smiled. He really must remember to thank this Kagome girl at some point; Inuyasha had been down right moody since his last girlfriend had walked off without some much as a goodbye. This was the most animated he'd been for a long time. Less than a week in Kagome's company and he was getting back to his old self. At least, he thought so; it was kind of hard to tell with Inuyasha. But thanking Kagome would have to wait; he had a business appointment to take care of first.
"Hey." said Kagome so suddenly that Inuyasha was startled from his algebra induced stupor and dropped his pen on the floor. He bent down to pick it up. "Hey."
Inuyasha gave her a rather irritated glare as he reappeared over the worktop. "Hey what?"
"I don't actually have to go to that dance Kouga was on about do I?" she asked, looking slightly alarmed at the prospect. "I mean show up with you and everything."
Crap, he'd forgotten about that amid his earlier hilarity. And it was one organised by Sesshoumaru's business associates, so he would have to go anyway. "There's no need to make it sound that bad."
"But I haven't got anything to wear!"
Inuyasha sighed; typical girl, always worrying about what to wear. He didn't know why she bothered; Kagome could go wearing an old sack and none of the men would mind. She was one of those women who managed to look good in anything. Not that he was ever going to admit that to her face. He had his pride.
"Go pester Sango about it. I'm sure she or one of her sisters has something you could wear.
"Sango has sisters?" Kagome put her pen down and leaned forward eagerly. Kaede had been unable to look up Inuyasha's friends for her on the Heaven database. She hadn't exactly been allowed to look up Inuyasha either, seeing as Kagome had to fulfil the task by herself, but Kaede had been known to break the rules now and again.
"Three of them and a younger brother." Inuyasha didn't bother to look up from his work. "But that's not getting those questions done is it?"
Kagome huffed slightly and bent over her calculator again, muttering "Spoil-sport" under her breath once she was sure he wasn't listening.
"I heard that." Inuyasha prodded her head with his pen when she feigned innocence and remained peering over her calculator. "And typing 'hello' upside down on your calculator doesn't count as work."
Kagome rolled her eyes. Who would have thought that Inuyasha had this kind of side to him? Maybe their maths Sensei had died in the last few hours and Inuyasha was channelling his spirit or something similar. Or maybe he just liked to see her slave away over her book while he ate multi-vitamin gummy bears and doodled in his textbook (Sensei would have him in detention as soon as he saw that. Teachers are somewhat protective of their textbooks and woe betide the student who rips a page or writes little notes, no matter if it was an accident or someone else's fault.)
Kagome liberated a bear for herself, hoping the sugar high would put some life back into her brain cells so she could finish the last few questions and have a hard earned break. One of these days she was going to find the smart-arse who'd given the world the terror of algebra and bash him over the head with her text book. Pay back for all those mind numbing equations. And whose idea was it to have letters in maths? Maths was numbers; letters were reserved for writing and things like that. And she failed to see the point in using obscure characters from the Greek alphabet when you could just as easily write 'the sum of'. To cut a long rant short, Kagome was not enjoying maths. Something about all those numbers and squiggly lines just didn't click with her.
Still, at least we all know that Kagome won't grow up to be one of those people who start spouting poetry about maths, which is a relief because people like that can turn out quite scary. Especially on a dark night down a dark alley. Never mind the murderers and the robbers; beware the mathematician.
Elsewhere Kouga was slaving away over a hot chip fryer hoping to earn another gold star. Maybe if Kagome saw how hard he worked, she would go out with him. Poor guy, he really has no clue. One doesn't mess with Fate.
"Okay, we have tofu, various fruit and veg, and ooh- some bean burgers." Inuyasha smirked round the fridge door at Kagome. "Take-away?"
"Whoa, whoa, don't diss the bean burgers." Kagome peered into the fridge herself and then began nosing in the cupboards, taking down packets of food, some of which Inuyasha swore he'd never even heard of. Looking at the small pile that she had amounted, she gave a rueful smile. "Okay, so the bean burgers can be dissed all you want but the rest of this is perfectly edible."
Inuyasha raised his eyebrows in a manner that suggested he'd believe that when he saw it, or rather ate it.
"Here." Kagome deposited a pile of vegetables into his arms. "Make yourself useful and wash and cut those for me."
"Slave driver." Inuyasha muttered waving a reproving spring onion at her.
"Cheap manual labour." Kagome grinned as she put some ramen on. She didn't miss Inuyasha's appreciative look. "What?"
"I take it back, you're an angel. A wonderful, wonderful angel." He swatted her hand away when she felt his forehead. "Knock it off, I'm not sick."
"You sure? I could have sworn that was a compliment coming out of your mouth."
"I can make it an insult if you want." The spring onion was back in her face.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?" Sesshoumaru asked from the doorway, arms folded as he regarded to pair; Inuyasha with his spring onion and Kagome with a chopstick, both poised in mid strike and parry.
He sighed and eyed the pair currently re-enacting one of the lesser known epic sword battles of Japanese yore: The Dance of the Asatsuki and Hashi, currently being adapted into a four-part film trilogy to be filmed in New Zealand (purely because it's one of the few places left in the world where you can be relatively sure there isn't going to be a huge business complex or apartment block bang slap in the centre of your nice bit of the middle of nowhere. And The Dance of the Asatsuki and Hashi requires lots of atmospheric shots way out in the back of beyond, amid all that nature. Check out the website at this rather unimaginative address of )
But, anyway, forget all about any up and coming film releases (one part to be released each year, that way the film company can enjoy the steady income of all your hard earned cash for four years instead of four months), Sesshoumaru has just caught sight of a colourful box on the counter.
"…Inuyasha? Are those my multi-vitamin gummy bears?"
"Mmm." Inuyasha put his chopsticks down and leant back, patting his stomach appreciably. "That was good. Where'd you learn to cook like that?"
"I just muddled through on my own. Although a friend of mine did give me this great recipe for a vegetable balti with spinach and chickpeas." Kagome shrugged and fished the last cashew out of her bowl. She had to admit the ginger and vegetable stir fry with cashews had turned out better than she had expected. She'd just been bunging everything in together and gambling on the outcome, not that she was going to inform Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru the fact they'd just been guinea pigs in another one of her cooking experiments.
Sesshoumaru looked interested and leaned forward "What other things does this balti have in it? Do you think you could give me a copy of the recipe?"
"Sure! See, it's got sweet potatoes, red onion…"
Inuyasha rolled his eyes as Kagome began to talk his half-brother through the recipe. Trust Kagome to be mine of veggie friendly meals. Still if Sesshoumaru started cooking some of the things Kagome suggested he might just stay in for meals and ditch the take-aways. He idly wondered if Kagome would consider cooking for them more often, maybe if he cajoled Sesshoumaru into paying her. Might as well make it worth her while. Plus the house didn't seem quite so quiet and oppressive when she was around. Mind made up, Inuyasha settled down to the nitty-gritty planning of getting both Kagome and Sesshoumaru to agree to his plan.
By the time Saturday morning arrived Kagome had worked herself into a state of frantic anxiety, that wasn't helped by the fact that Buyo had thrown up grass all over the kitchen floor. Where he'd found the grass to eat in the first place she no idea. Unless he'd walked the mile to the nearest park with its modest patch of grass, which she highly doubted.
"There, that's what you eat." She said, pointing to his bowl in the kitchen. "Not grass out of somebody's window box or something. Okay?"
Buyo blinked and promptly began washing his rear end. Kagome put her hands on her hips and scowled down at him. "Do you mind? I thought cats are supposed to have some measure of modesty."
Buyo ignored her and slobbered slightly as he worked on a particularly stubborn tangle near his tail. Kagome sighed and set about clearing up his mess from the floor, nose scrunched up in distaste. That's the thing about cats; they make great pets apart from the occasional presents they have a tendency to leave lying around. Kagome should count herself lucky Buyo is housetrained and uses a litter tray. Not to mention the fact the only way he's ever going to catch a bird or mouse is if it's dead already.
When that was done she sank down onto the sofa with a sigh and sipped the tea she'd made in the hopes it would help calm her skittish nerves. Sango would be round in just over forty minutes and then they'd get ready for the dance together. Between Sango and her three sisters, they were sure to find something she could borrow for the night. And if they didn't, panic stations everyone!
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Yes, there are such things as multi-vitamin gummy bears. Though admitedly the ones that inspired this are for children under five...
And anybody who has ever sat through double maths will know that in the calculator font 01134 spells 'hello' upside down.
Hope you enjoyed, hope you review.