Author's Notes: Well, I'm heading back to college. What a kick in the ass. Let's hope I can kick the bejeezus out of this semester instead of the other way around.
Anyway, this chapter will be a little short. I want to get to the Christmas segment sometime soon when the second act gets into swing and I don't want to drag this out too much...
Lights, Camera, Action!
Chapter 11- Shadows Out of the Past
Inuyasha sat alone in his dorm room. Finals were only a few weeks away and he needed to study almost relentlessly. At least Thanksgiving had provided a welcome reprieve. Rin had hugged him like a vice in thanks for the album. She had apparently developed a crush on Roy Khan, as well. Thinking about it lead Inuyasha to musing about his own sordid love life. He had never had a steady girlfriend for more than a couple months. Which was a little depressing when you thought about it. But he was about ready to declare himself a bachelor for life after what happened with Kikyo...
No! No thinking of that damn woman! He needed to study! Inuyasha felt his jaw tighten slightly in frustration. He tried to concentrate on his notes, but it was no use. That particular train of thought had left the station and was not about to be derailed no matter how hard he tried to knock it off the tracks. Damn, that kind of thing was annoying.
Heaving a sigh of frustration, Inuyasha got up and walked to the window, leaning against the frame lightly. The bitter December air had chilled the entire window, and the metallic frame was almost bitingly cold against the skin of Inuyasha's forearm. Winter always felt like his season. There was just something about the atmosphere that struck a chord with him. Well... except for Christmas. Nothing but commercialism and having joy and jolliness pumped up your ass by relentlessly cheerful and cheesy TV specials. He gave his father a gift every year out of a sense of duty. Even if he hadn't been there as much as he should have, Inuyasha still cared about and respected his father. He also gave Rin a gift last year for her first Christmas with the family because, well... she was Rin. Any feelings of animosity toward her were a hell-punishable trespass in Inuyasha's eyes.
Caught up in his fractured mental ramblings, Inuyasha almost didn't notice his cell phone going off to the tune of We're Not Gonna Take It. He briefly considered picking it up, but by the third ring, he just shrugged. Let them leave a message if it was important. He was busy being angsty right now. Of course, when he thought about it that way, he realized how pathetic it sounded and decided it was more in line with his tough guy act to simply figure that if they wanted to talk to him, they could do it when he gave a rat's ass.
Inuyasha continued to stare out the window for another few minutes. The sudden movement drew his attention in front of him however. There it was, drifting silently past the window. The first snowflake of the season. It was followed by another. And another. In only a matter of minutes, the snow fell down gracefully, but not too lightly either. In a couple of hours, the campus with its Victorian architecture and pine trees would look like your typical picturesque winter wonderland.
Inuyasha sighed once more. He wasn't getting anything done just standing here. He still needed to go over his notes on Clockwork Orange. On his way to the desk, though, he glanced down to see his cell phone once more, and figured he might as well look to see who had called him. He flipped it open to see what the number had been and nearly dropped the phone as if it had burst into flames when he saw the ten digits on the screen.
Checking to see if there was a message, Inuyasha quickly deleted it without listening to it. After a moment of thought, he went into his address book and deleted the number and the name that went with it, something he'd been putting off doing for far too long.
With that out of the way, Inuyasha flopped down into his seat for a moment to think. After a few minutes of cursing at his own brain for drawing a blank, he turned his cell phone off and gathered up his notes. He needed to get out of the dorm and study somewhere that had distractions if he ever hoped to be able to focus on his work, as bizarre as that sounded.
XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX
Miroku walked into the pub intent on getting a club sandwich. You can imagine his surprise when he walked in to find Inuyasha sitting alone at a table with a plate of curly fries and a coke trying to study. After his placing his order, Miroku walked over to his friend and sat down across from him. "And what, may I ask, has driven you out here?"
Inuyasha just looked up at Miroku with a very dark glare that spoke volumes.
"That bad, huh?" Miroku sighed softly and leaned back into his chair. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what it is?"
Inuyasha merely grumbled something under his breath and downed a swig of his coke.
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
Inuyasha fixed Miroku with another dark look before letting out one of his peculiar sigh/growls. "Kikyo called my cell," he drawled irritably.
"Oh. Oh!" Miroku leaned back again, eyebrows going straight up. "Oh, wow. Didn't see that one coming."
Inuyasha just changed his expression from dark to flat. "How the hell do you think I felt?"
"Did you talk to her?" Miroku asked curiously.
"No," Inuyasha drawled out. "She left a message. I deleted it without listening."
Miroku paused for a moment. Was there really a tactful way to respond to that? "I think it's safe to assume you're still pissed about that whole thing, huh?"
"Hey, she dumped me, okay?" Inuyasha snapped. "Now she fucking calls me six months later out of the blue. Not a whole hell of a lot of things she'd want, so I think I can guess." It looked like Inuyasha was about to go into a rant. On the rare occassions when that did happen, you just let him talk because there was no stopping him without suffering severe physical punishment.
"If she thinks for one second that I'm one of those guys that you can just put on the shelf for a rainy day, she can go to hell. I tried to apologize to her. I was willing to swallow my fucking pride for her and try to set things right. But she dumps me instead.
"Now she calls me out of the blue. What the hell do you think she wants? That bitch had her chance. So fuck that shit!" By now, a couple of people were staring at Inuyasha and he took notice.
He sneered, showing his fangs and stood up, glaring at those who were staring at him. "Do I have a sign over my head charging admission? What the fuck are you assholes staring at?!"
That was enough to convince most of them that Inuyasha was violently psychotic and they went back to their meals. Miroku just shook his head at the whole display. He made a mental note not to bring this up around Sango. She had been in such a good mood for the past month, that he just couldn't bring himself to tell her. Because whenever Kikyo was mentioned, that also brought about thoughts of Naraku for Sango. And there was nothing that could ruin your day faster than the guy who had antognized your family ever since you could remember. Miroku himself could sympathize. He hated the bastard with every fiber in his body. Naraku was one person whose passing the world would not mourn.
After a long pause, Miroku got up to get his sandwich before returning to the table. "What will you do if she calls again?" Miroku asked carefully.
"Ignore it," Inuyasha said flatly.
Miroku just nodded slowly. "And if she approaches you during break?"
Inuyasha remained silent for a moment, though it was clear the wheels in his head were going into overdrive. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," he said at last.
It figured that Inuyasha wouldn't have a plan. He enjoyed living on the edge far too much. If he didn't have Miroku for a roommate, he probably would never get anything outside of his schoolwork done. Of course, this issue was a little more personal and a little different from essays and cramming. In fact, it was something that affected the entire group in one way or another. And that was enough to spoil Miroku's good mood.
XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX
Sango was finishing up the editing on the newest episode of Ace Spade. Miroku played a recurring character, the barkeep Slim Solomon, in this scene. He looked kind of funny with that little fake mustache they had gotten at a Halloween shop. Speaking of whom, she glanced over at her boyfriend who was just sort of hovering around, leaning forward in his chair. He had seemed unusually solemn today. Like there was something gnawing on his mind. And right now, he seemed to be staring right past the monitor, lost in his own little world.
Sango decided to try a little experiment. She leaned back into her chair, and stretched her arms up over her head, causing her shirt to tighten around her chest. When she glanced over, sure enough, Miroku's eyes went from staring blankly ahead to watching her breasts. It took a little getting used to the first couple of days they were going out, his stares and wandering hands being welcomed instead of feared. But at least this proved that he was still feeling okay. Of course, he'd probably do the same if he were half-dead.
Switching tactics, Sango went back to the editing machine and put on her best thoughtful look. "Hmm... Miroku, does this shot look okay to you?"
Miroku's eyebrows went up a moment. "Huh? Oh, yeah, it's fine."
"Aside from the fact that I still haven't converted it to black and white, the microphone is in the shot, and it's the last few seconds of tape after Shippo told us to cut?" she responded dryly.
Miroku instantly realized he had been caught and sighed as he slouched into his chair, causing it to roll back until it hit the wall.
"Miroku," Sango started with a tinge of worry, "are you feeling okay?"
Miroku hesitated before just smiling gently. "I just have a lot on my mind right now. I'll tell you about it later if I don't get things sorted out."
Sango knew he was holding something back from her. But she decided it was probably better to trust him for now and let it slide. Guys didn't seem to react well to being cornered, at least the ones she knew. "Alright. We still up for Friday night?"
Miroku's smile widened slightly and he gazed at her in adoration. "Absolutely. I couldn't get reservations at The Lighthouse, though. Would Mexican or Italian be on okay substitute?"
"Italian would be great," Sango said sweetly. She still marvelled at his softer side. He always went to great lengths to make her happy. And with that thought, Sango began to wonder if his silence had more to do with trying to avoid upsetting her than any personal problem he was having. That ruined her good mood in a hurry.
XXXXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXXXX
Author's Notes: Okay, one or two more chapters and we get to Christmas break. I'm going to be hopping back and forth between this story and Dawn of a New Age while I have my free time. Expect most of my updates to come about once every other week and usually on Saturdays or Sundays from now on, depending on how much work I get done during the week.
I think I've finally figured out the key to writing good stuff fast: I just have to keep myself feeling up, if that makes any sense. No mood swings, fairly stable daily schedule, avoiding stress. If I can just keep myself up relatively well, then I shouldn't have much of a problem updating consistently.
While I'm on the subject of updating, I'm going to be screwing with the format for a while until the site's editor doesn't screw me over like it did in the opening of DoaNA.
By the time most of you will be reading these notes, I'll either be on my way back to college, or getting settled in. Fortunately, not much is going to be happening the first couple of days. At least, I don't think so. Which leaves me more time to goof off on my guitar and write. This should be interesting.
Now, my reviewers...
Father Malvado: I had hoped to make a Killer Shrew with my friends before going back to school, but that didn't happen. Anyway, don't be ashamed of your romantic side. It's a good selling point with women, or so I'm told. Since I plan on making that side of me public knowledge soon, we'll know for certain in a matter of time.
Izayoi: How could that ruin your breakfast? It would really ruin it if I had gone into graphic detail about just what they did with all that candy they had plundered.
Mimiko: I think I really hit upon a good point in Inuyasha's character when I wrote the dialog for that chapter. Maybe it's just me, but I can totally see a modern-day him getting loud and profane when he gets pissed off. He's already part-way there in the series.
Magellan-chan: I'll leave you all to judge whether the revenge is suitably embarassing. But there's still time, so just be patient and watch for the subtle hints.
bluefuzzyelf: What, only four paragraphs?
Gina: The restaurant at Disney is where I got the idea from. Rex is a character I play on City of Heroes (that's his secret identity at least), and his behavior is similar to one of the waiters there during one of our visits. Also, the movie you're thinking of is THEM! I love that movie. It was actually a lavish spectacle for Atomic Age film, and was the first and best of the "creature features."
Divine-Red-Crayon: If you're already screaming that at the monitor, that means I'm doing a good job. I'm succeeding if my readers are squirming as much as the characters.
inu-fanforever: The site is http:www. midnightsociety. us/ MSwebsite. html. There's not much to see at this point, as the group is undergoing some remodeling. I personally liked the old format to the site better, but whadda ya gonna do?
Cynical Chaos: I'll tell you this much. Read the last line of the chapter. You see, I'm baiting you guys to try and think here. I'm messing with your heads.
Araine: A couple years back, one of my brother's friends had his bike crash into a phone pole and he broke both of his wrists. Of course, he made good use of his "handicap" in a fight. And do you mean that you're trying to right full lyrics for the band's songs?