Author's Notes: Again, not a whole hell of a lot to say. In another
week or so, I'll be quiet for a while as I've been procrastinating my
Midnight Society application as I've written myself into a corner.
Thankfully, they're all very patient people who have been in my
situation more than once. Just thought I'd give you the heads up.
Anyway, moving on...
Lights, Camera, Action!
Chapter 6- Family Weekend, Part 1
Miroku sat alone at the Unofficial TV Club Table. Inuyasha was probably out with his father. And Shippo didn't even live on campus. He only came to the dining hall for the Saturday brunch meetings. Kagome was probably still catching up with her family, as was Sango.
You can only imagine his surprise then when he saw Sango walking toward the table smiling and talking with a man and a young boy whom he imagined to be the father and brother she had talked about. The thing of it was, Sango had always said her father was a little over-protective. So whereas some people tended to procrastinate bringing friends over to their house for a couple weeks or even months, Sango had been putting it off since high school. To make matters worse, Miroku was starting to regret his choice of outfit today. It wasn't that he was unkempt. It was just his shirt.
One thing Miroku loved to waste time on was online comics. One of his favorites was PvP. In one comic, the character Jade said that she found smart men sexy. When a co-worker made a sarcastic crack about her boyfriend Brent, the latter responded by shouting "Hey! My brain is hung like a horse." That quote was later put on a T-shirt. A T-shirt Miroku bought to tease Sango when he heard her saying she liked smart men. A shirt which he was now wearing. This would certainly hurt first impressions.
"Hi, Miroku!" Sango said cheerfully. "I'd like you to meet my dad and my brother Kohaku."
"Good to meet you," Miroku said with a polite smile. He held back a flinch at the considering look that Mr. Ishikawa was giving him. Just stay cool and don't fuck this up.
"You as well." He sat down beside Sango. "So Miroku, Sango has told me a lot about you. You're the producer for the TV club, eh?"
Miroku just shrugged modestly. "I'm just an outgoing guy. It's easy for me to talk to people." He was very careful to keep level eye contact. That man had a stare like a hawk.
"Useful job skill," Mr. Ishikawa said thoughtfully.
"You should see his show, Dad," Sango added. "I don't know where he finds some of these stories, but it's amazing."
-----------------------------------------------
Sango wouldn't admit it to anyone but herself, but after that night at the cafe, she had a really bad crush on Miroku. Okay, so maybe crush wasn't a strong enough word. As much of an idiot as he was, she really did like him. But if she ever hoped to go any further with him that just being friends, she had to get him past her father's inspection. That man was notoriously over-protective of his family. Ever since Sango's mother had been killed in that accident, her father seemed intent on making sure that he wouldn't lose anyone else in his family. And sometimes he took to that task with a little too much fervor.
Sango had never brought a boy home before because she didn't think anyone would pass inspection. But if anyone could do it, it would be Miroku. He just had to keep his head and continue schmoozing like he always did.
"That's an awesome shirt," Kohaku said. Oh, damn. Sango was hoping to avoid drawing attention to that. She knew Miroku only bought it to tease her.
"Thanks," Miroku said evenly. "I got it just for laughs." Well, that was sort of true. He might just pull this one out yet.
"You must have a very quirky sense of humor," Sango's father commented.
"I've been told that," Miroku said with a half-grin. "I just find a lot of humor in the absurd. Like Monty Python."
Smooth, Miroku. Sango knew her father loved Monty Python. This was slowly going well.
Miroku then glanced over at Kohaku and looked at his T-shirt. It had the logo for Dark Side of the Moon on it. "I love that album," he remarked pointing toward the shirt.
Kohaku smiled at that. "You listen to Pink Floyd, huh?"
"Mm-hmm," Miroku answered with a nod. "David Gilmour's galactic blues guitar. I've been listening to the blues since I was old enough to know what music was."
Sango coldn't help but smile at Miroku. He was such an idiot sometimes. But at this point she really didn't care.
-----------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Kagome watched with amusement as Inuyasha set up the equipment in the booth of the studio. His father and her family had been so eager to see the shows, that Mr. Takamura made a deal with Inuyasha that if they could see them now, he would treat them all to brunch at the restaurant of their choice. Inuyasha had agreed before Kagome or her family had a chance to be polite and attempt to turn down the offer. Of course, given how Mr. Takamura had behaved so far, he probably would have insisted.
"Alright," Inuyasha said at last, "where do we start?"
"I'd like to see the detective show," Mrs. Higurashi said first.
"Okay then. Episode 1 of Ace Spade: Private Eye, 'Something Fishy.'" With that, he popped the tape in and set the TV on. They all gathered around in chairs with Inuyasha and Kagome hanging back to give everyone else a better view. The first episode had Ace assigned to investigate the disappearance of a rich man's son at the docks district. It turned out the son was the culprit who faked his own disappearance so that he could leave the country after stealing the portion of the family fortune that his brother stood to inherit. Very cliche, but very pulp.
"That was cool!" Sota said first. Kagome couldn't help but smile a little. Sota had apparently been looking at Inuyasha as a hero ever since he heard about the elevator.
The second episode was called "The Lady in Black." It introduced Roxanne who was accused of murdering a young jazz musician. She helped Ace to eventually discover that the killer was actually one of the victim's bandmates whom the victim had been blackmailing. Kagome loved playing Roxanne, because she was absolutely nothing like her. Roxanne was sly, cool, and had Ace wrapped around her finger half the time. She still remembered being a little embarassed when they had to do that scene at the end where Roxanne gave Ace a kiss in thanks for helping her out of her situation. If Inuyasha had been, too, he was damn good at hiding it.
A couple more episodes and Mr. Takamura stood up. "Well, I'd love to continue, but it's a quarter to twelve, so I think we better get going if we want to eat."
Everyone agreed. "You guys go ahead to the parking lot. I'll be back in a minute." With that, Inuyasha dashed off to return the studio key to the library.
True to his word, he made it back in about a minute also with his headphones on and his CD player stuffed in his pocket. "So, where are we heading?"
Kagome thought for a minute. "I think there's a TGI Friday's not far from here."
"Oh yeah!" Inuyasha said a smirk. "I know the one. It's a few miles down West Main Street."
"We haven't been there in a while," Grandfather said thoughtfully.
"Anyone prefer anything different?" Inutaisho asked. At the silence he just smiled. "Alright then. Why don't we take my car? There's plenty of room." He pointed over to a white SUV a few spaces down.
Normally, Kagome didn't really like SUVs. They seemed far too huge, ate gas like nobody's business, and could crush anything in their path in an accident. But she decided to humor Inuyasha's father this once since he was being a nice guy.
Inuyasha got in the passenger's seat prompting Sota to immediately jump in first and take a seat in the middle row. Kagome let her grandfather and mother go in before her so she and the latter ended up sitting in the back together.
No sooner had they left the parking lot than Inuyasha pulled his CD player out and opened it up. He pulled out a CD labeled "Custom Mix 4" and looked back to the others in the car. "Anybody mind if I put this on?"
"It's okay with me," Mrs. Higurashi said pleasantly. "What's on it, by the way?"
"Oh, lots of stuff," Inuyasha said casually. Kagome knew they were in for a surprise as soon as the CD was pushed into the car stereo.
Inuyasha immediately began banging his head to another heavy metal song with a manic lead guitar and a singer with a raspy, evil-sounding voice.
"Out of curiosity," Grandfather said in obvious displeasure, "what is this?"
"Savatage!" Inuyasha answered. "Hall of the Mountain King!" With that he actually started lip-synching to the lyrics.
Kagome simply sighed. With Inuyasha it sometimes seemed he thought anything worth doing was worth overdoing. What's more, Sota was getting into it, trying to emulate his new hero.
The song ended only to start up another. It was a little wierd. The group seemed to have their own little quirks in their choice of entertainment. Inuyasha was a metalhead and a horror movie junkie. Miroku was a blues fan and all but worshipped Hitchcock and Christopher Guest. Sango liked fusion music and knew everything worth knowing about Adventure movies. Shippo loved ska and had an almost obscene level of knowledge in cinematic comedy from Charlie Chaplin to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Kagome herself wasn't really sure if she could be neatly categorized like that. Her tastes were so eclectic.
Inuyasha barely managed to get through the second song when they arrived at the restaurant. Kagome was trying to hide her laughter as he seemed to feel a little uncomfortable with the attention he was getting from Sota.
"So, what was that other song?" he asked eagerly.
"Uh... Aces High by Iron Maiden." Inuyasha looked so tempted to just plug those headphones back in and drown out reality. It was cute.
"What other bands do you listen to?"
Inuyasha sighed and proceeded to count off his favorite bands on his fingers as they walked into the restaurant. "Let's see... Savatage and Iron Maiden, of course. There's also Blind Guardian, Michael Schenker Group, Scorpions, System of a Down, Iced Earth..."
And he just kept going. Kagome began to wonder just how big his CD collection was. Even after they were seated, he was still going.
"... Heart, UFO, and uh... anything with Ronnie James Dio or Ritchie Blackmore."
Sota looked like he was having an information overload. "Uh... yeah."
"That reminds me," Mr. Takamura said from beside his son, "A friend of mine works at Green Arena. He says Iced Earth is going to be playing there on December 20. If you want, he can pull some strings and get you tickets before they officially go on sale."
"Are you kidding?" Inuyasha asked with a huge grin splitting his face. "Who do you want me to kill?"
"No one, I should hope."
Kagome just chuckled a little. Inuyasha was always fun to be around. He really did have a softer side if you looked for it. She had to admit that she had maybe a little crush on him. But it was probably best to just bide her time a little longer.
-----------------------------------------------
Author's Notes: It's a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I think it's best I handled this one as a two-parter.
Here's to my reviewers...
Araine: Personally, I can't stand coffee. And that's nothing. I once tripped while carrying a piece of burning incense to another holder and ended up snuffing it out on my arm. Not long before that, my friend's dog bit me in the hollow of my knee. That hurt like all get out. I still have the scar, as a matter of fact.
Em Starcatcher: It's just you. But Sesshoumaru will appear eventually. There are plans for him.
Mimiko: I never liked soap operas, but whatever floats your boat.
bluefuzzyelf: Just wait until the chapter where we see Shippo's TV show.
Divine-Red-Crayon: My dad plucked that song off the net a couple years back.
Annie: I have been knocked out once. It's not an experience I'd care to repeat. And don't worry about rambling. I take it as a compliment when something I wrote makes people talk.
Cynical Chaos: You're damn right you don't want me pissed. I think I'd make a good supervillain if I just totally disposed of any and all sympathetic emotions. But I don't have the heart.
Anyway, moving on...
Lights, Camera, Action!
Chapter 6- Family Weekend, Part 1
Miroku sat alone at the Unofficial TV Club Table. Inuyasha was probably out with his father. And Shippo didn't even live on campus. He only came to the dining hall for the Saturday brunch meetings. Kagome was probably still catching up with her family, as was Sango.
You can only imagine his surprise then when he saw Sango walking toward the table smiling and talking with a man and a young boy whom he imagined to be the father and brother she had talked about. The thing of it was, Sango had always said her father was a little over-protective. So whereas some people tended to procrastinate bringing friends over to their house for a couple weeks or even months, Sango had been putting it off since high school. To make matters worse, Miroku was starting to regret his choice of outfit today. It wasn't that he was unkempt. It was just his shirt.
One thing Miroku loved to waste time on was online comics. One of his favorites was PvP. In one comic, the character Jade said that she found smart men sexy. When a co-worker made a sarcastic crack about her boyfriend Brent, the latter responded by shouting "Hey! My brain is hung like a horse." That quote was later put on a T-shirt. A T-shirt Miroku bought to tease Sango when he heard her saying she liked smart men. A shirt which he was now wearing. This would certainly hurt first impressions.
"Hi, Miroku!" Sango said cheerfully. "I'd like you to meet my dad and my brother Kohaku."
"Good to meet you," Miroku said with a polite smile. He held back a flinch at the considering look that Mr. Ishikawa was giving him. Just stay cool and don't fuck this up.
"You as well." He sat down beside Sango. "So Miroku, Sango has told me a lot about you. You're the producer for the TV club, eh?"
Miroku just shrugged modestly. "I'm just an outgoing guy. It's easy for me to talk to people." He was very careful to keep level eye contact. That man had a stare like a hawk.
"Useful job skill," Mr. Ishikawa said thoughtfully.
"You should see his show, Dad," Sango added. "I don't know where he finds some of these stories, but it's amazing."
-----------------------------------------------
Sango wouldn't admit it to anyone but herself, but after that night at the cafe, she had a really bad crush on Miroku. Okay, so maybe crush wasn't a strong enough word. As much of an idiot as he was, she really did like him. But if she ever hoped to go any further with him that just being friends, she had to get him past her father's inspection. That man was notoriously over-protective of his family. Ever since Sango's mother had been killed in that accident, her father seemed intent on making sure that he wouldn't lose anyone else in his family. And sometimes he took to that task with a little too much fervor.
Sango had never brought a boy home before because she didn't think anyone would pass inspection. But if anyone could do it, it would be Miroku. He just had to keep his head and continue schmoozing like he always did.
"That's an awesome shirt," Kohaku said. Oh, damn. Sango was hoping to avoid drawing attention to that. She knew Miroku only bought it to tease her.
"Thanks," Miroku said evenly. "I got it just for laughs." Well, that was sort of true. He might just pull this one out yet.
"You must have a very quirky sense of humor," Sango's father commented.
"I've been told that," Miroku said with a half-grin. "I just find a lot of humor in the absurd. Like Monty Python."
Smooth, Miroku. Sango knew her father loved Monty Python. This was slowly going well.
Miroku then glanced over at Kohaku and looked at his T-shirt. It had the logo for Dark Side of the Moon on it. "I love that album," he remarked pointing toward the shirt.
Kohaku smiled at that. "You listen to Pink Floyd, huh?"
"Mm-hmm," Miroku answered with a nod. "David Gilmour's galactic blues guitar. I've been listening to the blues since I was old enough to know what music was."
Sango coldn't help but smile at Miroku. He was such an idiot sometimes. But at this point she really didn't care.
-----------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Kagome watched with amusement as Inuyasha set up the equipment in the booth of the studio. His father and her family had been so eager to see the shows, that Mr. Takamura made a deal with Inuyasha that if they could see them now, he would treat them all to brunch at the restaurant of their choice. Inuyasha had agreed before Kagome or her family had a chance to be polite and attempt to turn down the offer. Of course, given how Mr. Takamura had behaved so far, he probably would have insisted.
"Alright," Inuyasha said at last, "where do we start?"
"I'd like to see the detective show," Mrs. Higurashi said first.
"Okay then. Episode 1 of Ace Spade: Private Eye, 'Something Fishy.'" With that, he popped the tape in and set the TV on. They all gathered around in chairs with Inuyasha and Kagome hanging back to give everyone else a better view. The first episode had Ace assigned to investigate the disappearance of a rich man's son at the docks district. It turned out the son was the culprit who faked his own disappearance so that he could leave the country after stealing the portion of the family fortune that his brother stood to inherit. Very cliche, but very pulp.
"That was cool!" Sota said first. Kagome couldn't help but smile a little. Sota had apparently been looking at Inuyasha as a hero ever since he heard about the elevator.
The second episode was called "The Lady in Black." It introduced Roxanne who was accused of murdering a young jazz musician. She helped Ace to eventually discover that the killer was actually one of the victim's bandmates whom the victim had been blackmailing. Kagome loved playing Roxanne, because she was absolutely nothing like her. Roxanne was sly, cool, and had Ace wrapped around her finger half the time. She still remembered being a little embarassed when they had to do that scene at the end where Roxanne gave Ace a kiss in thanks for helping her out of her situation. If Inuyasha had been, too, he was damn good at hiding it.
A couple more episodes and Mr. Takamura stood up. "Well, I'd love to continue, but it's a quarter to twelve, so I think we better get going if we want to eat."
Everyone agreed. "You guys go ahead to the parking lot. I'll be back in a minute." With that, Inuyasha dashed off to return the studio key to the library.
True to his word, he made it back in about a minute also with his headphones on and his CD player stuffed in his pocket. "So, where are we heading?"
Kagome thought for a minute. "I think there's a TGI Friday's not far from here."
"Oh yeah!" Inuyasha said a smirk. "I know the one. It's a few miles down West Main Street."
"We haven't been there in a while," Grandfather said thoughtfully.
"Anyone prefer anything different?" Inutaisho asked. At the silence he just smiled. "Alright then. Why don't we take my car? There's plenty of room." He pointed over to a white SUV a few spaces down.
Normally, Kagome didn't really like SUVs. They seemed far too huge, ate gas like nobody's business, and could crush anything in their path in an accident. But she decided to humor Inuyasha's father this once since he was being a nice guy.
Inuyasha got in the passenger's seat prompting Sota to immediately jump in first and take a seat in the middle row. Kagome let her grandfather and mother go in before her so she and the latter ended up sitting in the back together.
No sooner had they left the parking lot than Inuyasha pulled his CD player out and opened it up. He pulled out a CD labeled "Custom Mix 4" and looked back to the others in the car. "Anybody mind if I put this on?"
"It's okay with me," Mrs. Higurashi said pleasantly. "What's on it, by the way?"
"Oh, lots of stuff," Inuyasha said casually. Kagome knew they were in for a surprise as soon as the CD was pushed into the car stereo.
Inuyasha immediately began banging his head to another heavy metal song with a manic lead guitar and a singer with a raspy, evil-sounding voice.
"Out of curiosity," Grandfather said in obvious displeasure, "what is this?"
"Savatage!" Inuyasha answered. "Hall of the Mountain King!" With that he actually started lip-synching to the lyrics.
Kagome simply sighed. With Inuyasha it sometimes seemed he thought anything worth doing was worth overdoing. What's more, Sota was getting into it, trying to emulate his new hero.
The song ended only to start up another. It was a little wierd. The group seemed to have their own little quirks in their choice of entertainment. Inuyasha was a metalhead and a horror movie junkie. Miroku was a blues fan and all but worshipped Hitchcock and Christopher Guest. Sango liked fusion music and knew everything worth knowing about Adventure movies. Shippo loved ska and had an almost obscene level of knowledge in cinematic comedy from Charlie Chaplin to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Kagome herself wasn't really sure if she could be neatly categorized like that. Her tastes were so eclectic.
Inuyasha barely managed to get through the second song when they arrived at the restaurant. Kagome was trying to hide her laughter as he seemed to feel a little uncomfortable with the attention he was getting from Sota.
"So, what was that other song?" he asked eagerly.
"Uh... Aces High by Iron Maiden." Inuyasha looked so tempted to just plug those headphones back in and drown out reality. It was cute.
"What other bands do you listen to?"
Inuyasha sighed and proceeded to count off his favorite bands on his fingers as they walked into the restaurant. "Let's see... Savatage and Iron Maiden, of course. There's also Blind Guardian, Michael Schenker Group, Scorpions, System of a Down, Iced Earth..."
And he just kept going. Kagome began to wonder just how big his CD collection was. Even after they were seated, he was still going.
"... Heart, UFO, and uh... anything with Ronnie James Dio or Ritchie Blackmore."
Sota looked like he was having an information overload. "Uh... yeah."
"That reminds me," Mr. Takamura said from beside his son, "A friend of mine works at Green Arena. He says Iced Earth is going to be playing there on December 20. If you want, he can pull some strings and get you tickets before they officially go on sale."
"Are you kidding?" Inuyasha asked with a huge grin splitting his face. "Who do you want me to kill?"
"No one, I should hope."
Kagome just chuckled a little. Inuyasha was always fun to be around. He really did have a softer side if you looked for it. She had to admit that she had maybe a little crush on him. But it was probably best to just bide her time a little longer.
-----------------------------------------------
Author's Notes: It's a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I think it's best I handled this one as a two-parter.
Here's to my reviewers...
Araine: Personally, I can't stand coffee. And that's nothing. I once tripped while carrying a piece of burning incense to another holder and ended up snuffing it out on my arm. Not long before that, my friend's dog bit me in the hollow of my knee. That hurt like all get out. I still have the scar, as a matter of fact.
Em Starcatcher: It's just you. But Sesshoumaru will appear eventually. There are plans for him.
Mimiko: I never liked soap operas, but whatever floats your boat.
bluefuzzyelf: Just wait until the chapter where we see Shippo's TV show.
Divine-Red-Crayon: My dad plucked that song off the net a couple years back.
Annie: I have been knocked out once. It's not an experience I'd care to repeat. And don't worry about rambling. I take it as a compliment when something I wrote makes people talk.
Cynical Chaos: You're damn right you don't want me pissed. I think I'd make a good supervillain if I just totally disposed of any and all sympathetic emotions. But I don't have the heart.