A/N: I have a lot to apologize for and I know this. Thus, I'M SORRY FOR TAKING SO BLEEPING LONG!! That done, I have a holiday in about three minutes so read and enjoy to the fullest! All "thank you's!!" are in the next installment. I have a ton more but, as this half of the chapter was 14 pages, I decided to just post this so I won't feel so bad about taking so long. Excuses next posting!
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Unveiling
"I am so excited!" mumbled Kyan as he pulled alongside the curb. Jumping out, he impatiently waited for Inuyasha to emerge from the SUV. "Come on! Let's go!"
Inuyasha stretched and Kyan watched with interest as the black t-shirt rode up a bit and Inuyasha's abdominal muscles flexed.
"So, uh, where do you work out?" Kyan asked too casually as they started up the steps.
"Work out?"
"You know, where do you keep in shape, move those muscles, shape that body?" Kyan asked again.
"Uh, the countryside...fighting demons...." Inuyasha answered, too befuddled to remember his cover story.
"The Countryside? Is that some prestigious club? Sounds fancy...and the Fighting Demons- is that some team you're part of? A club team, maybe?" Kyan speculated.
"Wha-I don't know!" Inuyasha snapped, getting annoyed by not knowing what was going on yet again.
"Come on. What is it? A personal trainer? Or,"Kyan's eyes lit up. "It's a total fitness class, isn't it? I take one of those at my gym! The best workout ever!"
"Workout?" Inuyasha looked at Kyan at the foot of the steps. "I don't know what your talking about and I don't care. Shut the hell up." Shaking his head and too frustrated to stand still, Inuyasha jogged up the two hundred steps to the shrine.
"Hey! Wait up!" Kyan called and began to jog up after Inuyasha.
The impatient hanyou easily trotted up the hundreds of stairs with no problem. Seeing the end in the sight, Inuyasha hopped up the last ten steps. He turned and glanced behind him. "Why are you out of breath?" Inuyasha asked Kyan with a curious tilt to his head. "I thought you went to this gym thing."
Kyan bent over and gasped for breath. He glared up at Inuyasha and panted, ignoring the smirking Inuyasha. Kyan grabbed his calves and massaged carefully. He couldn't remember another point in his life when his leg muscles had ached liked this.
Inuyasha smirked. "I guess that place doesn't teach you how to go up steps, huh?"
"Go to hell," Kyan enunciated slowly. Inuyasha settled into his favorite pose and waited for Kyan's lungs to readjust.
After about a minute, Inuyasha poked Kyan on the shoulder. "You ready? You were the one who was so excited."
"Shut up and yes, I'm coming." Kyan got up and stumbled over to the well house, an amused Inuyasha silently laughing behind him.
Outside of the well house, waiting not so patiently, were Jai, Ted, Thom and Carson.
As soon as Inuyasha came into sight, the squeals erupted.
"Oh. My. God! You look beyond fabulous!"
"I love it, I really do. I am so impressed."
"So much better. Look how sexy you are!"
"So pretty and what a style! Oooh and look-Kyan? Are you okay?" Jai scurried to go hover protectively near his friend.
"He's just out of breath," Inuyasha said with an added snort of 'pathetic human weakling.'
Jai went to take care of Kyan as Carson examined Inuyasha's new style for a moment.
"Why is it so long?" the blonde asked, holding up a piece of hair as evidence.
Kyan shot Carson a confused look. "It's just under his chin..."
"Um, it's almost to his shoulders," Carson said, showing the now interested group of gay men INuyasha's hair.
"What the...How's this possible?" Kyan asked, giving Inuyasha a sharp glance.
Inuyasha held up his hands in innocence. "Didn't do anything."
"Hmmm....." Kyan stalked up to Inuyasha and stared into golden eyes. "I don't believe you..." he said slowly.
"Kyan!" Jai gasped in horror. "That was so rude. Honestly, apologize! How is Inuyasha suppose to have control over his hair growth?" the smaller man demanded.
By not telling him that my body regenerates everything, including hair, Inuyasha thought with a inward smile. There had never been any point to cutting his hair; it just grew back and would continue to grow until it reached the length it wanted to. There's a reason most demons have long hair. He snorted to himself. Would I otherwise choose to look anything like Sesshomaru?
"He's snorting," Kyan noticed suspiciously. "He snorts when he's hiding something...."
Jai rolled his eyes. "Honestly Kyan, stop being so untrusting. It shows lack of faith in Inuyasha and a lot of pseudo-Freudian mental issues in yourself."
Inuyasha decided it was time to redirect everyone's attention. Shrugging off Carson, Ted and Thom, he asked in a loud voice, "So, can I go in yet?"
"Oh!" Jai clapped his hands. Scurrying over, he flung his hands over Inuyasha's eyes. "Don't peek!" he said with an excited jump to his step.
Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow. "I won't," he said dryly.
Jai ignored this mild put down. The unveiling of all their hard work and seeing how happy The Project became was always his favorite part. Jai sighed happily in anticipation and 'helped' Inuyasha up the steps, apologizing profusely as the blindfolded Inuyasha tripped and stumbled up the stairs.
Thom threw open the doors to the well house and paused dramatically. "Ready?"
"Ready to get Jai's hands off my eyes," Inuyasha grumbled, annoyed by how clumsy he had been on the way up. The Fabe Five simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"Whatever, Oscar the Grouch," Ted said tiredly, already seeing Inuyasha's attempts at cooking playing in his mind.
""Ignore him," advised Kyan. "It's really the only way to deal."
"Always snippy," Carson sighed. "You really do need to f-"
"CARSON!"
"What?"
"Oh, never mind. On the count of three...." Jai demanded.
"ONE......." the men chanted. "........TWO...."
"Thom, the doors!" Ted hissed.
"Oh! Whoops!" Thom jerked the doors open.
"....THREE......" Jai threw his hand off and shouted, "Inuyasha, this is your new home!!"
INuyasha stared at the inside of the well house, stunned.
"Wha-?" he mumbled, cocking his head to the side, ears twitching in perplexity.
"I love it when they're all articulate nad everything. Telling me how much they love it..." Thom mumbled.
"That is very articulate for him," Ted admonished.
Inuyahsa ignored them and the continuing good-natured bickering. He was captivated by the change.
Formerly, the well house had been a dank, rather smelly and dark place, perfectly suited for a time traveling well. It had been dusty and creepy, spider webs adorning every nook and cranny. There were no useable windows and old lamps provided the only lighting. A ledge of about five feet in width had gone around the well house interior, existing solely as a way to provide easy access to the lamps mounted on the walls. The rickety stairs had led from the door and the ledge to the dirt floor and the well, itself decrepit and moldy.
All in all, it had always been a stop on the journey to Kagome's house, never a destination in itself.
Thom had changed all that.
The first thing that struck Inuyasha was how clean it was. Every inch of the well house was scoured of any dirt and the original deep brown of the wood shone in the sunlight. Sunlight? Inuyasha was amazed to see that now there were two large windows on either side of the doorway as well as two long rectangular windows on the eastern and western walls, illuminating the room. Dominating most the roof, four newly installed skylights gave the little room a larger appearance and brighter view, filtering in the afternoon sun.
The damn place is...cheerful, Inuyasha realized. He glanced to the side and was shocked to realize that the ledge was almost gone! No longer was the tint room bisected in half by a small landing that increased the cramped feeling of the room. Instead, Thom had ripped out the ledge from the room except for the section directly across from the entrance. Now there were RICE PAPER SCREENS dividing one portion of the house from the rest but beyond that, there were no barriers.
Inuyasha pleased to see that the hammock thing that he had purchased with Thom was swinging from the rafters. Directly across from the entrance, the hammocks dark blue threading was a sharp contrast to the fluffy white rug underneath it. Inuyasha grinned at the sight of the carpet that so reminded him of a certain brother of his. I'll be walking over him all the time, he thought with glee. A large circular window had been cut into wall next to the hammock. I'll be able to see the sunrise...Inuyasha thought quietly.
"He's smiling...That's good," whispered Jai.
"I think he also smiled before he threw that poor waxing lady against a wall adn almost slit her throat," Kyan whispered back.
"He did what?!?!?" hissed Jai in anxiety. "What about his meditation??" he wailed softly.
Kyan shot Jai a look. "Excuse me, but shouldn't you be concentrating on the fact that he almost killed someone and not that he broke his yoga position??"
"But we worked so hard!" Jai exclaimed miserably.
"Oh, hush. Come on, he's going down the stairs."
Inuyasha continued to ignore his audience as he descended down onto the ground floor. Looking around, the realization of just how much effort had gone into the renovation hit Inuyasha like a physical blow. The changes were remarkable and Inuyasha turned to shoot Thom a look of amazement.
"How....how'd you do all this?!?" Inuyasha asked in disbelieve.
"You like?" Thom prompted anxiously.
"It's...never...I.....Feh...." Inuyasha said in the same incredulous tone. He wandered off to go look around, leaving Thom furious behind him.
"Gee, that was almost too much gratitude for me to handle," Thom said sarcastically, throwing his hands into the air. "No 'Its so gorgeous!' or 'Wow, you must have worked for several days straight in order to transform this place!' No....Inuyasha says 'feh.' How strange I am to expect a 'thank you' after turning a hovel into a palace!" Thom glared pointedly at Inuyasha's back.
"Don't be silly," Ted soothed. "For Inuyasha, that was remarkably articulate."
Jai walked up and shoved Thom next to Inuyasha. "Don't sulk. Explain everything! He has no idea what half this stuff is for!"
Thom, sighing the sigh of a martyr, pulled the meandering Inuyasha to the odd area to the left of the stairs. "Let's go in order," he suggested dryly. Holding open his arms, Thom proudly presented what he called the meditation area.
Inuyasha blinked. This was certianly not what he had expected to see. In this corner, Thom had put mini bushes and small trees next to the walls. Descending from the walls and the ceiling in hanging pots were a myriad of species of graceful flowers, bursting with color. Combined with the greenery, it all cloaked the wall and formed an elegant little garden in the house. In the corner, water tinkled merrily as it crept down the sides of a rock waterfall. Fully half the size of the wall, the waterfall was in a pot on the floor and was an impressive thing on its own. Along with the flowers and trees, the waterfall completed a space of pure peace and lent the air a feeling of tranquillity.
Thom spoke up softly, softening at the awed expression on Inuyasha's face. "Jai told us that you were going to try to control your temper by meditation-"
Kyan interrupted with a snort. Everyone ignored him.
"-and so we thought to encourage that by making you a place where you could come away from everyone else and just.....relax. We knew you were into the outdoors so it just made sense to use that theme in the meditation area."
"It's nice," Inuyasha said softly. Carson shot Thom a thumbs up behind Inuyasha's back. Thom rolled his eyes but agreeably led Inuyasha to the next portion of his new house.
"Now we all think that you're going to love this next area. You needed a living room, a place to entertain friends or, ah, maybe just a certain lady friend..?" Thom added with a smile.
"Yeah, we tested the couch. Just bouncy enough, if you know what I mean!" Carson smiled lasciviously.
Inuyasha stared at Carson like he had grown an extra head. "Uh, actually.....No. I have no idea what you're talking about. What the hells a couch?"
That was almost witty, Carson thought dryly. Almost there but just not quite...
Five annoyed expressions looked at Inuyasha. "This is a couch, idiot," Ted huffed, grabbing Inuyasha and shoving him onto a deep burgundy couch made of soft leather. It matched exactly the armchair Inuyasha himself had picked out earlier that week. Both were at an angle and facing away from the doorway. The small oak table served as a coffee table and was placed a bit in front of the two furniture pieces.
"NO WAY!!" Inuyasha shouted in excitment, completely distracted from the 'couch' concept. Facing the couches and taking up half on an entire side of the wellhouse was Inuyasha's new entertainment system.
Prominently displayed in the middle was a 52 inch plasma flat screen television. Connected to the TV was DVD/VCR/Tivo player with surround sound speakers and wireless digital cable access. Stacked alongside the entertainment zone were stacks of DVD's and CD's. Near the television was a huge stereo with am/fm/xm-radio with speakers almost as large as the TV. The stereo also had video game compatibility which was lucky for Inuyasha as sitting below the stereo was a Playstation Two and an X-Box. Under the gaming stations were plenty of games waiting to be opened and played. The entire system was in an oaken display unit that just missed matching the exact color of the small table in front of it.
"It's.....beautiful......," Inuyasha gasped, completely overcome with emotion. He almost couldn't breathe, it was almost too much for him to handle.
"Best of all," Thom said with a knowing grin, "they all come with their own remote controls." He threw eight channel changers into Inuyasha's lap and rolled his eyes as Inuyasha's smile threatened to break the hanyou's face in half.
"Buttons!!!!!!" crowed Inuyasha, thrilled beyond imagination as he quickly looked through the button covered remote controls. He picked up some of the remotes and held them up to the sunlight in ecstasy.
"Yes, buttons. Many buttons to occupy your mind," Thom sighed.
"And what do you want to bet that he can never figure out how to even program the VCR?" Kyan mumbled snidely. Ted and Jai chuckled.
"But, what are those?" INuyasha asked, pointing to the DVDs and CDs.
"Oh, well you need something to watch and listen to so we got you some stuff," Carson explained. "For your oh-so-diverse musical tastes, we got death metal music, almost death metal music, pseudo wanna be death metal. Quite the range, you've got there," Carson said, still a little peeved Inuyasha didn't see Abba in quite the same light he did.
"And we got you some movies we thought you'd like," Ted added in. "Die Hard, Die Hard II, Die hard with a vengeance, the three American Pie movies, Dumb and Dumber, all the Arnold Schwartzenagger movies-"
"You'd never know it but one "the Govenator" was really buff once," quipped Kyan.
"True. Also, all the Jackie Chan movies, Bruce Lee videos, Jet Li movies, all the Monty Python movies plus a few chick flick movies to satisfy any females you may have over," Ted finished.
"Chick flick?" INuyasha asked curiously.
"A girls movies. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Pretty Woman, Roman Holiday, Say Anything, Titanic, Bridges of Madison County, Beaches, When Harry Met Sally- the usual stuff."
"But I'm a guy!"
"We noticed," joked Kyan. "But seriously, its for when you want some girl to think your sensitive and caring and love watching boring movies. Girls love that type of stuff."
"Oh...so what are those?" Inuyasha asked, now pointing at the speakers.
"Basically, those make things really really loud," explained Carson.
"How loud?"
"Well, people down the street will be able to hear your death metal."
INuyasha blinked. "........whoa......." he mumbled finally, his eyes shining.
"Glad you like it, Keanu Reeves," Ted said with a smile and the sentiment was echoed by the rest of the fab five. (A/N: love Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure. 'Most rad!" hehe...)
"It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen," Inuyahsa whispered. Obeying an impulse he didn't understand, he laid his head down on the top of one of the speakers and wrapped his arms around it. (A/N: I have actually seen grown men do this. Sad but true.)
"I've always wanted to see someone make love to a machine," Thom deadpanned.
"Uh, you can let go now," advised Kyan, slightly nervous.
Inuyasha let out a happy growl from the back of his throat and continued to snuggle with his new toys.
"Oh my..." Jai said, eyebrows raised and a little disturbed. "Um, Inuyasha, we have a lot of other things to show you...time to step away from the television monitor..."
Grabbing Inuyasha by the back of his t-shirt, Carson hauled Inuyasha to the right side of the wellhouse.
"But, but my buttons!!" Inuyasha protested as his remotes were plucked from his fingers.
"They'll still be there later. Stop being such a clingy baby," Jai admonished, tossing the controls onto the couch.
Shoji screens, delicately painted with a blossoming lotus trees, were pushed aside as Inuyasha was pushed into the next room in the house.
Glancing around, he was surprised to see a very elegant dining room. The space fully took up the right wall of the wellhouse. A low mahogany table large enough to seat ten was planted in the middle. A formal tatami mat was under the table and extended about half a foot past the table edges. Embroidered black cranes were the border of the hunter green colored GIZA and matched the cranes on the zabuton pillows. Placed four on each side and one on both heads of the table, the zaisu chairs were of dark mahogany and was a perfect complement to the dark green zabuton pillows.
In the middle of the dining room table was another sculpture. Much smaller then the tree but just as intricate, a small Japanese dragon was curled sinuously around a cloud and its scales shone in the sunlight from the skylight above. Throwing its head back in a silent scream, the dragon had one paw raised to claw at some invisible enemy and, in the other paw, held a golden ball. Realistic looking and well made, the small dragon was an obvious and elegant centerpiece.
Kyan whistled. "Wow, Thom, this is gorgeous! Nicer then any place you've ever had before, eh Inuyasha?" Kyan said, nudging Inuyasha in the ribs with his elbow.
The hanyou boy had a brief flashback of his childhood home. The silver inlaid chairs, the solid gold plates, the five foot tall jade GUARD DOG statues, silk pillows with handpainted scenes, painting scrolls hundreds of years old, the ancient suits of armor. He remembered the immense wealth and royal status that was almost visible presence in that castle and decided not to mention any of it.
I'll be nice...., he thought. Besides, who knew how'd these guys would react to know they had a half breed prince in their midst? They might get enthusiastic, Inuyasha imagined with horror and trepidation.
"It's great," Inuyasha said. "What's with the dragon?"
"Oh, Kagome told us there was some thing in your past that involved a dragon of some sort. Not that we actually think it was an actual dragon of course! But the idea...," Thom hastened to assure the amused Inuyasha.
Inuyasha smiled. "Oh, yeah, course its not an actual dragon..."
Thom shrugged carelessly. "Kagome said it was a real turning point in your life so I decided to represent that."
Inuyasha nodded in appreciation of the sentiment. He glanced around the room and noticed the oddest things. Protruding from the wall were two hooks made of dark wood.
Thom noticed Inuyasha's new direction of interest. "Oh, those are the holders."
"Holders?"
"For your sword," explained Thom. "You put your sword there when you come in. It's someplace to store the thing until you need it."
Inuyasha shook his head. "No, I need my sword all the time."
Carson opened his mouth to point out the rather obvious double entendre but Kyan clamped a hand over the blonde's mouth in time. "No Carson. Bad gay man bad!" he chastised.
Carson shrugged the hand off. "You sound like a New Jersey Republican."
Thom was holding out his hand for the Tetsuiga. "I'll show you."
Inuyasha ignored the outstretched hand and glared at Thom. "Why do I need one of these anyways?"
Thom looked at him in exasperation. "Because you don't need to carry around a weapon. You can hang the damn thing up and be at peace because nothing is going to happen here!"
"But-"
"It's totally safe. No need for the metal security blanket."
Inuyasha realized with shock that Thom was right. There had been the Noh mask but that was from a previous era...the dangerous metal boxes were not half as scary now that he had ridden in one...Beyond that, Inuyasha couldn't think of anything truly dangerous in Kagome's era.
Thom saw how thunderstruck Inuyahsa was and patted him on the shoulder. "Just think about it. Now, come on, look at the bookcase."
Inuyasha was led to the right of the stairs leading down. There, underneath the ledge above, was a bookcase. It was crammed with books of every size and purpose. Large textbooks were on one shelf and small paperback novels were on another. Stuffed and disorganized, it had the undeniable stamp of Kagome all over it. Inuyasha mentioned this to the fab five. Surprised by this uncharacteristic insight, they all nodded dumbstruck.
"Yeah, it looks like her bookcase in her room," Inuyahsa explained with a snort.
"She wanted it because she said you are always constantly stealing peeks at her school books and thought maybe you'd like this," Thom said.
Inuyasha blinked. "I didn't think she noticed."
"Well, she did. So you like?"
"I don't know. I mean, I-"
"Well, this is all interesting and stuff but I'm really bored," interrupted Carson. Five pairs of eyes were all rolled simultaneously.
"Carson, we're doing the bookshelves now," Ted said patiently.
Carson waved his hands in dismissal. "Bookshelves are so passé. Let's go somewhere fun!" the excited blonde said. He imperiously grabbed Inuyasha's hand and pulled the reluctant hanyou across the wellhouse and up a new set of stair. These stairs were directly across from the ones by the entrance and led upward.
"Wait- where are we going?" Inuyasha asked, pulling Carson to a stop.
"To the bedroom! Come on, sexy ass!" Carson shouted gleefully.
"Stop calling me that!"
"You really need to be less repressed, you know that?" Carson said in an earnest tone.
Why that bastard...! "You know what I do know?" Inuyasha snarled. "I know you need a stick shoved up your-!!"
"Now, now!" Jai interrupted. "Let's be nice and go see the upstairs."
The stairs ended onto a little platform. Hanging from the rafters above the empty space was the blue hammock. Inuyasha was a little surprised (and disappointed) to see that this was his whole bedroom. Just an empty open room with a hanging bed, rug and a tall box next to the wall.
"It's not as nice as the other rooms," Inuyasha pointed out in his usual tactless fashion.
"Well, excuse me but I got the impression that you don't plan on doing anything here anyways!" snapped Thom.
Inuyasha blinked. "Well, its true I don't sleep a lot but that's no reason to slack off with your job."
Thom made a strangled noise and looked like he was going to jump off the ledge, dragging Inuyaha down with him.
Jai turned and whispered to Carson, "Inuyasha totally didn't catch that insult, did he?"
"Nope."
"His obtuseness is almost impressive."
"Almost."
Thom massaged his temples and grinned a strained smile. "I thought you'd appreciate the simplicity in the design."
"Well, if you were going for simple, why throw in that box?" Inuyasha pointed out smugly.
Thom took another deep breath. "It's your closet, you moron."
"Closet?" Inuyasha repeated in amusement. "What for?"
Carson snapped to attention and his eyes narrowed. He was definitely sensing a disturbance in The Force. "Why would you say that? You have all that new beautiful clothing to wear. You have to put it somewhere."
"It all came with bags. I'll just store them there," Inuyasha answered practically.
Carson's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, what!??"He shook his head in negation. "You are doing no such thing!!"
"Who cares where the shit stays? No one's gonna see."
"Because because,"Carson sputtered, "you don't keep clothing in the bags! You take it out, put it on hangers, then you wear it and when your done, you put it back on the hangers!!"
Wait one god damn minute! "Wear it? I'm not wearing that shit!" Inuyahsa shouted.
"You're wearing it right now!!" Carson shouted back, flinging an accusatory finger at Inuyasha's t shirt and jeans.
"That's because you stole my clothes and poured that kerosene stuff all over it!" That reminded Inuyasha of a question he was having. "By the way, where the hell are my clothes?"
Suddenly, no one was able to meet his golden eyes.
Oh no....."What did you do?" Inuyasha asked, sure he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Well," Carson began, "we tried to burn it again and that didn't work so we tried to cut it up and that didn't work-"
"Where'd you put my clothes?" Inuyasha growled. Did they put it into a volcano? Tie it with a rock and throw it into the ocean?
"Hold on! So we thought and thought about where we could be almost perfectly positive you'd never get to those nasty wrap around tops in that horrible fire engine red-which suits no one by the way-and will never be able to find those horrible balloon pants-"
Inuyasha groaned. A volcano, they threw my wonderful fire rat hakama into a damn volcano! Damn but that's gonna be a pain in the ass to get back!
"Stop making those sounds! We," Carson gulped before remembering that he was Carson Kressley! He would shrink before no fashion impaired moron! Raising his head proudly, hands clenched at his sides, Carson practically yelled out, "We threw them into the well!!"
"The well?" Inuyasha repeated stupidly. The fab five, who felt that their communal demise was in the next five seconds, were amazed to see Inuyasha smile and shrug.
"That's okay then," Inuyasha said. "As long as it wasn't a volcano."
The group of Americans looked at each other and were clearly befuddled as to why Inuyasha was being so easy going about this. Glancing at the Inuyasha, they silently decided to ignore the issue and take advantage of his good mood.
"Well, how about we try on some clothes for the guys?" Carson suggested.
"I don't want to," came the obstinate reply.
Carson smiled evilly and whispered, "If you don't start changing now, I'm going to tell everyone about your little love tryst in the stall in Banana Republic with that girl..."
"My what!?!?" Inuyasha almost screeched. "I never did!"
"Yeah but will Kagome believe you?" Carson said suggestively.
Inuyasha gasped. Of course Kagome would believe me....but can I take that chance?
Glaring, Inuyasha mutely pointed to the stairs and, amid much cheers from the boys, began to try on clothing.
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Hoped you liked it! Reviewing makes me write faster!! Next chapter is the Fab Five's last minute advice and maybe Inu-chan getting ready to see kagome.