Author's Notes: Okay! Chapter two…the dreaded first meeting ^^ Anywho, just a few notes to keep you informed on the minor characters I used in this chapter:
1-Nobunaga was the young boy from episode 8 that had the white monkey and was trying to help the princess from the frog-man
2-The "Frog-man" was called "Tsukumo no Gama" in the series itself
3-Nobunaga's white monkey's name was "Hiyashimaru
4-Kaguya (note, -ya ending, not –ra) is the female villain from the 2nd InuYasha Movie. She desires beauty, manipulates men into giving her rare gifts and desires to be immortal.
5-The "red thread" in Japanese, and especially Chinese mythology was used to represent a fated couple by the thread being tied between the two person's pinky fingers (or in Chinese, their feet) It was a symbol of destined love.
6-Like one Chapter 1, the part before the Chapter # and Title is a reflective part written from Kagura's point of view
Okay, I hope that helps out. As always, read, review and enjoy ^^
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There are certain things that teachers and parents ingrain into your head as a child- not talking to strangers being one of them. Well, what the hell are you supposed to do when your job is seducing strangers via telephone and then you get some asshole that thinks he knows everything about your life and manages to trick you into a date? I know, anyone sane wouldn't go anywhere near the café, but that bastard insulted me and seems to think I can't stand up for myself. If I don't show, it's going to piss me off the rest of my life.
Of course, if I can see that he's just some scumbag that's obviously just desperate to get laid, I'll smugly note to myself that people like that have no business trying to tell me how to live my life and just go on like the call never happened. But, like Yura noted- this particular one seemed different. Maybe it's because he was the first person to ever shove it in my face that I should be strong enough to handle my father. Or maybe it's because he's some stuck-up ass that thinks the world revolves around him and that mere peons like me aren't worth the trouble.
Well, whatever my muddled reasons were that afternoon…whether it was my attempt to prove him wrong or some subconscious hope that he was a half-decent man that might help me get away from my father, I found myself walking towards the café.
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Chapter 2: Ringing for a Rendezvous
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The afternoon sun created splotches of light through the leaves of the trees in the city park as the dark-haired female slowly made her way down the twisted path.
"Why am I doing this again? He's just some perverted asshole; I have nothing to prove to him."
Glancing to the string Yura had given her 'just in case' Kagura paused and looked up to the sky, "It's red. Very funny, a red thread." She spat to the gods above, "Well I'll show you how well your stupid fate shit works for me. I'll betcha that this guy's going to be no better than the rest. So there, take your immortal crap and shove it."
While still standing there, the wind shifted the trees causing a shaft of light to hit directly on Kagura. She frowned, "Hey now, don't you go and expect my soul or anything if you win this. You already know what's going to happen."
Just about to continue down the path, the ringing of her cell phone caught her attention. Pulling it out, she took one look at the number on the display and scowled.
"Oh fuck you Dad, I'm not coming home now," She muttered, "Damn it's only five and he's having a fit just because I went somewhere after work…. He's probably thinking I went and spent my paycheck shopping or something…"
Kicking a rock from in front of her foot, a nearby squirrel skittered away after giving her an odd look.
She glared after it, "What?!"
With a sigh, Kagura regarded herself, "I suppose I am making quite a scene. I mean, it's not everyday you see a young woman dressed in a short red dress and high heels kicking rocks, cussing and talking to herself."
Shrugging, she continued walking, "Maybe Yura's right. I'm too much like a guy to find one that doesn't piss me off. Then again, most males are possessive, perverted, two-timing, egotistic bastards so I'm not really missing out on anything."
Emerging from the other edge of the park, Kagura spotted the small café on the corner of Third Street.
Quirking an eyebrow, she noted the sign hanging above the small establishment.
"Hiyashimaru's Café and Deli."
Squinting, she discerned a small white monkey adorning the logo. "Oh that's a good omen," She thought to herself sarcastically, "Figures of all the animals that they'd use for a mascot it had to be a white monkey- Naraku's favorite."
Shaking her head, she was on the verge of turning around then and there, fed-up with the whole situation. It's then that a loud voice caught her ears. Squinting once again, she thanked her good vision and began to discern the situation on the other side of the narrow street.
"Hey, kid! Can't I get some service over here?!"
Frowning Kagura looked at the person behind the voice.
He was a large man, very chunky and for some reason his face reminded her of a frog. Next to him sat a pretty young girl, hanging from his arm and trying to keep him calm.
"Good. That's not him since no one would be stupid enough to challenge me out here then bring their date."
The young brown-haired boy who seemed to be the café's waiter quickly made his way over to the table, "I'm sorry Mr. Tsukumo, but we're out of smoked ham. We have some honey-baked ham left if you'd rather have that."
"Well why didn't you tell me that when I ordered?" The man fumed.
"So...sorry Sir, but he ordered the last one a few moments before you did." The waiter explained, pointing behind him to a strange looking man.
Blinking before it registered in her eyes, she took in his features. "Sure enough, that guy has white hair… but, he looks like he's only in his twenties." Frowning, she kept her eyes fixed on him, "I wonder if he's an albino like my little sister is…"
Glancing up due to the commotion between the waiter and the other customer, the man in question leveled a glare at the loud frog-man.
Kagura caught the man's deep golden gaze as it shifted back to his own meal, the other man laughing nervously.
"Sorry about that waiter. I had no idea Mr. Taiyoukai was dining here today. Please give him my apologies."
The young boy nodded, "I shall. Now what did you want for a replacement order?"
"So the weird one's a regular hmm?" Kagura pondered to herself.
The waiter turned, headed toward what appeared to be the kitchen when a very slight raise of the white-haired man's hand caused him to halt in his tracks and rush over.
"Yes Mr. Taiyoukai?"
He pointed to his coffee mug.
"Oh certainly, Sir. I'll get more right away!"
Lifting up the empty glass, he began to turn until the calm voice stopped him.
"Nobunaga. No sugar this time."
Nodding profusely, the brown-haired youth replied, "Yes Sir. Black…right? Black…um… not decaff right?"
With a slight nod in the positive from the man, Nobunaga rushed off into the kitchen to fulfill the request.
Looking at the clock on her cell phone, Kagura realized it was almost 5:15 and that if she was going to go through with this, she would have to muster the courage to go over there and find out which one was Sesshoumaru.
Balling her fist she muttered to herself, "Just remember. He thinks you aren't going to show, by just showing up you're already proving him wrong."
"Plus," Her mind reasoned, "It seems like everyone's a bit afraid of ticking off that Mr. Taiyoukai guy. So as long as he's there, my caller won't dare cause a scene."
Taking a deep breath, she casually walked across the street, mentally preparing herself for what came next.
"Okay, its simple- just get a table and sit down and have a drink. Since I'll be the only girl sitting by herself, it will let him know who I am and then he can approach me."
Walking in past the few tables outside, she couldn't help but notice that the white-haired man glanced up slightly from the paper work he was looking over as she passed. Distracted by his movement, she didn't notice that her path was on a one-way collision course with none other than the waiter and the cup of coffee.
The two forces hit, the coffee going one way, Nobunaga to one side, and Kagura straight backwards.
As she hit the ground, old habits kicked in, "Damnit! That fucking hurts!" She cursed; shaking her hand from where a bit of the hot coffee had splashed on it.
The strange man quirked an eyebrow and muttered, "I see you curse just as profusely in public."
Kagura's eyes widened, that voice, that tone…and that attitude giving him away completely. She whipped her head in his direction and shot a deadly gaze, "What did you say?"
"Then again," He paused to eat a small bite, then continued, "The fact you came is equally surprising."
Putting it all together and during the chaos forgetting that this was the same "Mr. Taiyoukai" that the rest of the customers seemed to fear, she stood and leveled an accusing finger, "You bastard- like hell I'm here to see you! I was just stopping in for a meal, thank you very much!"
A tiny hint of what could be a smirk lit itself on his features, "Are you trying to convince yourself that? Because I most certainly know better."
Yanking out the chair across the table from him, she sat with a 'hmph' and continued to glare, "You know a gentleman is supposed to help a lady up when she falls."
"And a lady isn't supposed to use profanity." He retorted.
"What do you want from me anyways?"
"You're the one that seemed to feel the need to speak with me. I just wasn't going to pay for you to do so," He remarked, frowning as he looked to where Nobunaga had just finished wiping up the spill.
"I'll get you another one in just a second Mr. Taiyoukai. I'm so sorry about that, Miss. I'm such an idiot sometimes and…"
"Nobunaga," Sesshoumaru cut off the boy's apologies, then looked to Kagura, "What do you want?"
"What do I want from what?!" She fumed.
"To drink," He said flatly.
"He's getting me a drink?" Her thoughts echoed, but she pushed it aside, trying to form an answer, "Cappuccino I suppose. Not sure if I'll have enough from my stupid job's paycheck to cover anything else." She retorted.
"Nobunaga. The coffee and add a Cappuccino to my bill."
"Yes Mr. Taiyoukai!" The boy replied, quickly going off to do as he was told.
"He's offering to pay…hold on a minute… is this really the same guy?" Kagura's mind thought, trying to process everything.
"Perhaps we should start with your name," Sesshoumaru said, just calm and dead pan as he'd been all along.
"That's right…he never did ask me my real name…" She noted.
"Unless you'd rather I call you by your business name."
Definitely not wanting that, she quickly replied, "It's Kagura."
"You sure that's not your fake name?"
She glared, "I resent that comment."
He sat in silence, so figuring that if this was going to get anywhere, Kagura spoke up, "So what about you?"
"You know my name."
"Well yes but… why did you randomly challenge me out here?"
"Would you be insulted if I said I didn't think you'd come?" He remarked casually.
Kagura frowned, "Oh I'm sorry, did I ruin your day by actually showing up to prove to you that I'm not some dime-store slut?"
Sesshoumaru paused and took a drink of the coffee that Nobunaga had just sat in front of him.
"I…I hope that it's satisfactory, Mr. Taiyoukai."
With a wave of his hand and nod that it was indeed to his liking, the waiter retreated, going off to attend to other tables after sitting the Cappuccino in front of Kagura.
"So what's it like?" He questioned, sitting down his mug.
"What's what like?" Kagura countered, not sure how to even begin to read into this cryptic man and his riddles of speech patterns.
"Your job."
"What do you think it's like!?" She snapped, angered that he dared bring it up when he
already knew her feelings towards it.
Taking the question as it was just to try her patience more, he replied, "The word 'pleasurable' comes to mind."
"Oh fuck you!" She spat, slamming her fist on the table, then instantly regretting it. The side of her hand that had been burnt by the coffee earlier was worse than it first seemed and the force of her movement shot pain up her arm.
Eyebrows creased in thought, Sesshoumaru noted the brief expression of discomfort that crossed the black-haired woman's face despite her attempt to mask it with anger.
Reaching into the pocket of his suit, he handed her a handkerchief, "I don't think the café wants you bleeding on their table."
Looking twice between the offered cloth and the man's face, Kagura's face softened despite herself, and she took it from him. "Say 'thank you' damnit!" Her thoughts berated her, but different words came out, "I thought I was supposed to do things for myself."
His eyebrow quirked up as he replied, "There is a difference between dependency and co-dependency."
"Well well, what do we have here?" A smug female voice intoned, interrupting the conversation, if you could call it that.
Sesshoumaru frowned.
"Aw, not gonna answer me? Come on Sess, we know each other better than that," She put her hands on her hips, her long black hair swaying back and forth as she did so.
Still not getting an answer from him, the dark-haired woman turned her attention to Kagura.
"And who might this be Sesshoumaru? It's certainly not your secretary since you just fired her."
Kagura frowned, she didn't like the haughty tone this woman was using and was subconsciously beginning to wonder if this woman was romantically involved with Sesshoumaru.
"See- he's a two-timer. They all have their faults and you just found his!" Her thoughts remarked.
"Well Miss, I do hate to intrude on whatever it is you two were involved in, but I have things to do and places to go and seeing Sesshoumaru has to fit into that schedule somehow."
Standing, Kagura shot the woman a glare, then carried it over to Sesshoumaru.
"Then I suppose I'll be going," She said firmly, thoroughly upset with the way things were turning out.
With that and not a word more, she stormed off down the street. Not realizing she still had his handkerchief around her hand and not hearing what Kaguya said the moment she was out of earshot.
"Now, we might actually get some good writing from you. You're finally trying to get in touch with your romantic side," The woman said, sitting down.
"Was that production really necessary?" He remarked, obviously a bit displeased by how she'd made her entrance.
"You know, if you were a more talkative person I wouldn't have to go to such lengths to try and get information out of you. It's hard on my beauty, the stress you put me through," Kaguya said, running a hand through her hair.
"I can always get another Editor."
"Sesshoumaru, no one is going to put up with you and your sad attempts to try and write a novel. It's irritating enough for me and I wouldn't even try to put up with it if you and your father weren't paying me so much."
The white-haired man just frowned looking back to the papers he held, a partial transcript with the words, "The Lord of the Western Lands" scrawled on the front.
"All right, hand it over and I'll see what we can do," Kaguya muttered as she took it from him, "But in return, you'd better start talking about that woman. I've never seen you look that way at someone before, and I'm hoping that that means somewhere inside your frozen body there's a heart."
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A few blocks away, Kagura fumed as she stormed towards home, "Just who does that Sesshoumaru Taiyoukai think he is anyway?" She remarked, not noticing the large business building she'd just passed with a sizable sign out front reading, "Taiyoukai Books and Publishing Inc."
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Preview for Chapter 3-
Kagura now faces the hardest challenge of all- going home to face her Father. But after a fight, help is only a phone call away. Too bad she doesn't have Sesshoumaru's number…