Paaarty, party
Weeks went by, months went by. Inu-yasha came to accept Koga and to stand his company, but there would never be any great love between them. On the other hand, he grew more fond of Kagome by the day. They did everything together, and became very good friends. But Inu-yasha was not entirely happy. He still hadn't told Kagome about how they had once lived together, and the knowledge was a burden he longed to share with her.
"I think you're too tense, mate," said Miroku on one of the rare occasions when he and Inu-yasha ate dinner together. (By some freak chance they were actually following the same day pattern that evening.) "You need to relax and put this thing with reincarnation out of your head for a while. Get away from it all. I mean, when was the last time you actually did something fun?"
"Well, just last week we spent a day at the – "
"Let me rephrase the question," Miroku interrupted, shaking his head. "When was the last time you did anything fun without Kagome?" Inu-yasha didn't answer, and Miroku sighed. "I thought so. Well man, you're coming with me tonight, and I won't hear any excuses."
"Coming with you tonight where?" asked Inu-yasha, feeling a little alarmed.
"The Roxy, of course!" Miroku sparkled, then noticed that Inu-yasha didn't look quite as enthusiastic. "Aw, come on – let me treat you to this. It'll be fun. I promise."
......................................."So let me get this straight – this guy (Inu-yasha, was it? Cool name. Descriptive, too...) is your reincarnated friend, currently trying to win back his reincarnated girlfriend from his reincarnated enemy." The girl who had spoken put her head to one side, regarding Miroku with amused scepticism. Inu-yasha let his face assume the same expression, giving her the I-know-he's-completely-nuts-but-I-kind-of-like-him-anyway-shrug. He neglected to show what was really occupying his thoughts, which was which form of torture to subject Miroku to. Here is Miroku's idea of a fun evening for his friend: take him to a dance club, introduce him – very briefly – to some girls and then tell them the story of his, Inu-yasha's, life for a laugh.
That guy would never reach Nirvana.
He was lucky the two girls were treating it as a joke – otherwise they might have been tempted to book him a bed at the nearest mental hospital. Inu-yasha had at an early age learned that not everybody believed his story as readily as his parents. One of his aunts on the paternal side had, after he'd enthusiastically told her about his past life about 500 years previous, voiced the opinion (quite loudly) that he was clearly mentally unstable and needed professional help. Probably a sign of his human blood breaking through, she had sniffed. (She was a demon puritan and firmly convinced that humans were a weaker race, to be weeded out if possible.) And so Inu-yasha had been instructed to tell his aunt that it had all been made-up, a little story he liked to amuse himself with. The aunt had been satisfied, although still muttering things about too much imagination being common and human, above all dreadfully human.
So to stay on the safe side, he'd never told anyone about his previous incarnation again. Well, except Miroku. And that was something he was beginning to regret. Ooh, Miroku would suffer for this.
"A masterly summary, Fanny dear," said Miroku (happily ignorant of the pain he would, if Inu-yasha had his way, shortly be suffering), giving the girl one of his dazzling smiles. She raised an eyebrow. "However, you forgot one important fact: while Inu-yasha here is aware that he has lived an earlier life and can remember everything in it, the others can't! They have no idea that they're reincarnated from an earlier life, and think that Inu-yasha is just this cool guy they got to know by chance. So you perceive his dilemma."
There was a pause as the girl called Fanny seemed to consider this, before giving her conclusion:
"You're a dick, Miroku."
"Oh, why can't you ever believe me?" Miroku's expression was all hurt honesty. "I assure you, everything I've told you is God's honest truth."
"And here I thought you were a Buddhist."
"Buddha's honest truth then, smart-ass."
"What did you just call me?"
"Smart-ass, I believe it was. Do you want me to repeat it? A bit louder, so you don't miss it this time?"
"You're an idiot."
"You're a know-it-all."
"You're stupid."
"You're... actually, I find you rather charming at times." Miroku turned the dazzle up a notch or two. Fanny did not seem very impressed. (However, she was smiling.)
"Well, I find you boring."
"I find you enchanting."
"You're ugly."
"You're beautiful."
"You're a silly little man."
"I love you."
"I hate you."
"Do you want to dance?"
"Of course."
And with merely a short "Be back in a... lot of minutes", the two of them bounced off towards the dance floor, leaving Inu-yasha sitting with the other girl, whose name he had of course already managed to forget. He was just trying to come up with a suitable topic of conversation when she laughed and leaned forward in her chair.
"Whoa, those two can talk," she grinned. "Often I wait until they have gone until I try to start any conversation... do you want to go through the introduction again? I'm sure you missed it last time."
"Sure," laughed Inu-yasha, then held out his hand solemnly. "Inu-yasha. Enchanted."
"Pleasure's all mine," replied the girl, grinning. "I'm Fanny's younger sister, Yoko."
"That's a strange way of introducing yourself," said Inu-yasha, raising his eyebrows. Yoko shrugged.
"It's how most of Fanny's friends remember me. I got into the habit of introducing myself as her sister all the time, to save confusion, and now I can't seem to shrug it off! Irritating, but there it is."
"Are you and your sis good friends, then?" Inu-yasha grinned, thinking that more opposite sisters would be hard to find. Yoko was tall and slim and had straight blonde hair down to her waist, while Fanny was a messy brunette who reached only just above her shoulder. However, just because they didn't look exactly alike this didn't necessarily mean that they were different in character as well.
"Very." Yoko smiled. "She's a darling, and we do lots of crazy stuff together. But sometimes she's a bit too over-protective. Guess she still thinks I'm fifteen... She's like that, really a mother figure."
Inu-yasha hesitated, and looked over at the dance floor, where Miroku and Fanny were now dancing. "Mother figure" wasn't the phrase he would have chosen.
"Of course, she's still an absolutely wild girl who knows how to have a good time as well," said Yoko, and grinned broadly. She had not turned in her seat to see what had caught Inu-yasha's gaze. Quite possibly she didn't need to.
Inu-yasha assumed a thoughtful face. "I seemed to miss something in their conversation," he said, looking at Yoko with a puzzled frown. "How did Fanny get from "I hate you" to answering "Of course" when Miroku asked if she wanted to dance?"
"Oh," smiled Yoko, "that's just how they talk. They just love to test comebacks on each other, and they flirt relentlessly at intervals as well. They are incapable of holding a normal conversation, because they're always trying to find witty replies to what the other person has said. They've always been like that with each other. They're quite old friends."
Once again Inu-yasha glanced over at the other two, and this time he couldn't stop himself from raising his eyebrows questioningly at his companion. "Friends" didn't really seem to fit the bill either.
"Didn't she just kiss him?" he asked.
Neither this time did Yoko turn around, however, but merely rolled her eyes. "Alright," she said, "I admit that it sometimes seems more like a very open relationship. My sister is kind of weird. (Of course, so is Miroku.) Do you have any siblings?"
"No," said Inu-yasha, "I'm an only child." For some reason the question made him sad. He knew that he and Sesshoumaru hadn't been on the best of terms – if didn't count trying to kill each other being on the best of terms – but he wondered sometimes, where was his brother now? Was he living now or had he come back at some other time? What was he doing? Would he remember Inu-yasha if they met? They had had a couple of years together, before Sesshoumaru grew up, and those years had been the best part of a childhood that was later ruined. Like he'd once said to Kagome: "Neither one nor the other... Not demon, but not human either... no place to belong. So I thought the only way was to carve out your own place, by force. And by the time I knew what was happening... I was all alone." His parents were dead. Sesshoumaru had left him.
And then came Kagome.
"Funny," said Yoko, "for some reason I imagined you'd have a brother." Inu-yasha shook himself out of the memories and smiled.
"I did have a brother once," he said, "but I lost him."
"Oh." Yoko looked down, blushing. "I'm sorry." So different from Kagome, thought Inu-yasha with surprise. Kagome would ask what had happened – not bluntly, that wasn't Kagome at all, but carefully she would inquire why he had lost his brother – in a sensitive way of course. She could never stand when he had secrets from her, he thought, and smiled fondly.
But not so with Yoko.
"Don't be sorry," he said cheerfully. "It was a long time ago. ('About five hundred years to be exact,' he thought to himself with a grin.) Hey, do you want to dance? We can't let those two have the floor all to themselves."
"I'm a terrible dancer," grinned Yoko.
"Well, so am I," replied Inu-yasha. "...But I bet we can beat them in headbanging any day."
................................."So what do you think?" asked Fanny quietly.
"Perfect," replied Miroku, looking at Inu-yasha and Yoko who were now attracting a lot of attention by headbanging to I will always love you. "Same sense of humour, same boring notion that the day only has twenty-four hours, same hairstyle. If this doesn't help, nothing will make the poor bastard snap out of it. Go us."
"Match makers strike again. Speaking of which, is it time to get you a girlfriend?"
"You mean is it time for me to commit suicide?"
"A simple "no" would work just as well, you idiot."
"That would be so boring."
..................................................elsiey: Um... about Inu-yasha being gay – actually, when I wrote the chapter where Miroku takes care of Inu-yasha when he wakes up after having the nightmare... you know... I started to wonder seriously about which way this fic was going. For a while it seemed like it was turning into Miroku/Inu-yasha. (My mind comes up with the craziest stuff sometimes.)
Well, as Miroku would probably say, anything goes...
AngeloflLight: You and your sister sound scary. :) Go crazy siblings! Me and my sis can be pretty creepy together, too.
Harei Sky: ...that's a long name. Is the "kiba" part of the name? I get confused.
Kunomae24: Wow... thanks. :) That's about the best critic I couls get, you recommending the fic to others. (I'll be floating for the rest of the day now.) What's an Otaku, by the way? I am so clueless...
Yoko: Blondes have more fun. ;) But watch out for sisters.
Yoko: ???? What the hell is she on about now –
Fanny(In falsetto): Sometimes there's one with big blue eeeyyeees, cute as a bunny... with hair down her heel, and plenty of moooney... and just when you think she's that one in the world – your heart gets stolen by some mousy little girl... humdadummmdum... ooh, my favourite verse: sometimes you really dig a giiiiirl, the moment you kiss her – and then you get distracted, by her older –
Yoko: You're MEAN!!!