The Club
Christielea54
Chapter Nine
"I'm taking the night off Inuyasha," said Miroku as he grabbed his coat off the rack next to the door.
"Whatever," Inuyasha replied as he tried juggling three apples.
He pulled on his gloves. The first snowfall of the year had come this morning. "I'll see you two tomorrow."
"Bye!" echoed two voices, one cheerful, one bored.
"Hey Inuyasha?"
"Huh?" He dropped an apple. "Ugh! Look what you made me do!"
"Sorry, but do you know if this is Miroku's only job? I mean, it doesn't start until five in the afternoon…"
"He goes to the community college here in town." He picked up his apple. "He works here to pay for it. Well half of it. He's got some obscure cousin about a million times removed named Mushin that he stayed with when his parents died, who pays for the other half."
"Oh." She eyed the very bruised apples. "Hey, don't quit your day job or anything."
"Feh. Very funny," he replied dryly.
Miroku did not get nervous easily. He was always the one who kept the cool head during a crisis. He was always the suave one with the girls. He could always charm his way out of anything.
But right now… Right now he couldn't help but feel his hands get a little sweaty. What if she hadn't kept that promise? Death Miroku had had to deal with, but never suicide.
He got out of his car and walked into the orphanage. At least Inuyasha hadn't wanted to know where he was going. He wasn't quite sure if he could've explained this one away.
Making sure none of the grandmotherly child workers saw him, he went over to room 7A, pushed back the lock, and slipped inside.
She was staring lifelessly at the wall opposite her. No doubt she thought he was Mrs. Morimoto come to deliver her food again. But he felt relief wash through him. She was still alive. If only she could understand how much such a small word could mean: alive.
"Hello beautiful!" came his customary greeting. He'd startled her again, but not quite so badly as the first time.
"You're a few days early." She was as breath taking as before.
"Didn't want to risk being late," he told her somberly.
She looked away. He was making her feel guilty! That wasn't fair! He didn't know how much it hurt inside. How much it hurt trying to live everyday knowing that you'd wouldn't, couldn't see your family ever again. How much it hurt having them ripped away without so much as a goodbye. And no amount of explaining could make him understand.
He stepped forward and pulled his hand out from behind his back. In it were a few colorful carnations in varying shades of pink. Nothing big or obnoxious. He held them out to her.
She looked surprised. "For me?" she asked incredulously. No one had ever brought her flowers before.
"No," he said perfectly serious. "They're for that girl right over there," and he pointed to a spot over her shoulder. And she actually looked!
Oh God, I'm such an idiot! she thought. Blushing, she turned back to him. "Thanks."
He saw a flash of light heartedness skip across her features as she smelled them, but it was quickly drowned out by sorrow so quickly he had to wonder if he even saw it in the first place.
But as she looked at them in her hands she seemed to get angry. "Flowers?!?! You think bringing me god-damned flowers is going to make everything better?!?!"
"Of course not!" he scoffed. But at least she was feeling something other than the pain.
Now she was just confused. "What…?"
He pushed her into a seating position on her bed, pulled over her desk chair, and sat on it facing her. "Tell me about them." It was such a simple statement, and the way he said it made it seem as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. It was like he was asking her about the weather or some ridiculous thing.
She tightened her grip on the flowers in her hand, and screwed her eyes shut, but it didn't stop the tear that came leaking out, and with the tears, came the story.
She drew in a ragged breath. "I was on the girls basketball team…"
Kagome sat on a barstool staring listlessly at the wall. There hadn't been any customers for the past twenty minutes. Every now and then she would glance over at the clock. 9:33. 9:40. 9:51. Only ten more minutes!
"You can go home if you want, you know," Inuyasha offered.
"But it's not ten yet."
"Feh. You say that as if you want to stay here until it's ten."
She opened her mouth to protest, but realized he was right. "Are you sure?" she asked cautiously.
He rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't have said it if I weren't sure. Go on."
"Okay," she said hesitantly. "Thanks! Bye!" Inuyasha watched her grab her coat and run outside until she was safely on her bike and pedaling her way out of the parking lot like usual, before walking into the back room (which would be the manager's room if he were ever here). They mostly used it just for storage. Well, everyone but Inuyasha. He used it for something more. He walked over to the back corner and reached up to the ceiling. Even as tall as he was, he still needed to stand on his tip toes to reach the cleverly hidden latch in the ceiling. As he pulled down on it, a set of attic-like stair cases descended from the unknown about second story. He walked up it and into his small apartment. Grabbing his guitar he sat down on his very small but comfy couch.
He wanted so bad to be rid of high school, of this small town. He knew he'd miss the security of it once he was gone, but he also knew that he could be so much better at doing something else. Something different. Something better. He wanted to be able to play his music where it would be appreciated, and the school auditorium was most definitely not one of those places.
He strummed out a few chords. If he could just figure his damn life out!
Kagome was happily pedaling out of the parking lot and down the small town road when she realized that she'd forgotten her small school bag. With a sigh she turned around and rode back towards The Club. Hastily she propped her bike up against the brick wall and hurried inside.
"Inuyasha I forgot my…" she trailed off. He wasn't here. He couldn't have left already. She'd have seen him! Now that she thought about it, she'd always been the first to leave. Where did he go home to anyways? "Inuyasha?" she called. She grabbed her bag from behind the bar and walked towards the storage room. There seemed to be a light on back there. Why would he be back there?
She walked in there and found a staircase. In open-mouthed surprise she climbed up them. Was that guitar music she heard? At the top was a small door which had been left slightly ajar. Definitely guitar music. A voice started singing along with the melody line. Inuyasha's voice to be exact.
She stepped in as quietly as she could. It was a small apartment up here! And over there, sitting on a couch, eyes closed, head bobbing along in time with the music, strumming on his guitar, was Inuyasha.
It was a song about everyone, no matter who they were or where they came from, having the chance to do something amazing with their lives. She could see now why he never wanted to play in front of anyone. It was so personal. It was like all his very feelings were just pouring out of him as he sang that, and those weren't things to be exhibited. She'd always heard that performers who could make you feel emotion through their performance were the best kind, but now she realized that they had to be damn brave about it.
But still… Inuyasha was no coward, and it was getting in the way of dreams! She'd seen him watch that band on Saturday. He wanted this. He wanted to do big things in the world. She could tell just from the way he was singing this song. And now, there was no doubt in her mind that he'd be good at it.
"Did you write it yourself?" she asked softly, so softly he almost thought he'd imagined it. His eyes snapped open and he nearly jumped out of his skin. "What the hell? Kagome! What are you-? How did you-?"
"It was beautiful," she said with a small smile.
"I had practice late one day after school. When I came home…" She couldn't say it! She just couldn't! It would make all the hurt come back if she did! She couldn't go through that again!
"It hurts voicing it, doesn't it?"
Sango noticed that he seemed to have two primary moods. Either he was playful and funny and light hearted, or he was completely serious and calculating. She'd seen both quite frequently in the small time she'd known him. He seemed to switch between the two as the situation called for it.
"It's like it's pushing in on you until you can't breathe anymore. Right?"
Ever so slightly, she nodded. Now that he'd put words to it, that's exactly how she felt. He'd been through this before. He'd told her himself, and yet he seemed okay. Maybe, just maybe, she would be okay someday too? She squashed down the feeling. It made her feel guilty to be okay without them.
She sighed. "My father… hew was a general in the military. Some people… didn't always like what he was doing. There are always a few fanatical critics of the government." Her eyes welled up with tears again, remembering how her dad had always brushed away that fact like it was nothing to him. "Someone had set fire to our house while I was shooting hoops in the gym!" She threw the flowers to the ground and stood up angrily. "I should have been there!"
Miroku stood up just as angrily as she had. "Listen to yourself! Did you love your father?!"
She turned stormy eyes on him. "Of course!" she seethed.
"Did he love you!?"
"Yes!"
"Then would he have wanted you to die with him?! If you die then you're letting the man who killed your father win! You're a fighter Sango! An athlete, a competitor! Your father was in the frigging military! Any other girl would have melted away in this situation! You're still here! And not by coincidence either, you're strong Sango. Don't give up now." He had started out yelling at her for all he was worth, but ended just above a whisper.
Sango looked as if she were slowly deflating. She drew in a ragged breath, and then started sobbing. Just started crying her heart out. Her knees hit the floor with a thud, and the sobs continued to rack her lean body.
Miroku leant down next to her and pulled her shaking form into a tight hug. "It'll be okay beautiful. It'll all be okay."
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Finally huh?
I'm not really sure where I'm headed with the end for this. Kouga will probably be thrown into the mix soon.
Any ideas? Review review!