Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own him or his buddies now and I won't ever...(sighs)
A/N: Ah! This story has become relatively popular! Wow! (grins) Last chapter was anyway...Inuyasha's obsession with the young miko he's only met in his dreams continues. And I've found a way to work in something most beloved to Inuyasha...(wink wink) you'll just have to wait and see...Also we get a look at the bad guy again. For those of you who haven't guessed him by now he shall be revealed to you now...does anyone remember the end of chapter 1? Before we'd met Inuyasha? There was a woman described there who interacts with the thing that at least looks like Inuyasha, NO ONE took a guess at who she was, though I left only teeny tiny clues, now she will be REVEALED...go back and cross reference them and you'll see it I think. She's yet again someone I haven't taken a crack at in my other fics, this is for a reader who requested her (though I also had it planned from the beginning except that by request I'm expnading her a bit)...things starting to take off...I'll leave a funny preview for you...see ya! Enjoy!
Introductions(April 30th: two days after the Reds murders)
He was drawn, inexplicably, to a set of apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city that he almost never visited. It was a fine neighborhood, it was true, but it was also a distinctly human neighborhood. Youkai frequently self-segregated, making neighborhoods that were fox, wolf, bear, weasel, dog, and cat demon almost entirely…but they also left areas almost devoid of demon presence. These neighborhoods frequently housed agents form the Agency—a type of human that most demons refused to mingle with if they could avoid it.
He should've gone immediately to his father's offices just outside of the big city, he knew—especially after having been accused of such horrendous crimes. The pictures, the blood, it all still lingered inside him, hauntingly. Inuyasha felt as if he might vomit, and, finally after the third pass by one particular set of apartments, he pulled into the parking lot and stopped his Ferrari.
Clawed fingers thumped against the dashboard.
He couldn't explain it but there was something about this building that comforted him, that called to him. He needed to leave, to report back to his father and older half-brother, but Inuyasha was kept undeniably in the parking lot, drumming his fingers restlessly. Thinking about the cell phone, about speaking to someone…but with a jolt he realized that the number he wanted to dial was not one he knew…
The miko from my dreams…Almost as if in answer to his thoughts, a little sedan pulled into the parking lot and slowed alongside the sidewalk. When he squinted his eyes Inuyasha saw two women in it, both dark haired and oriental in appearance. Though he was sure he hadn't seen them before, Inuyasha waited, still impatiently tapping his claws.
After a moment the woman on the passenger side opened her door and stepped out. As the small car, still with the woman who had driven her home, he assumed, sped away, the departed passenger paused and slowly lifted her hand to wave. Inuyasha blinked as he stared out his windshield, suddenly battling the urge to leap out at her, to respond to her goodbye as if it had been a hello aimed at him. He was aware of the way his palms were thick and sticky with sweat, the pounding of his own heartbeat inside his ears. Why the hell am I feeling like this just looking at her? I don't know who the hell she is yet!
The woman started to turn away and walk around the back of the apartment complex; apparently she was going to take the stairs. Inuyasha fidgeted restlessly for a moment and then growled to himself as temptation won over responsibility and caution. He threw them both straight to the wind.
In a flash of blue jeans, a red button up shirt and a bright white sleeveless undershirt, Inuyasha crossed the parking lot and sniffed quietly for the now vanished woman's scent. When it reached him the hanyou's eyes widened in shock. She's a miko from the Agency! He knew that to be fact simply because the woman's real scent was cloaked beneath a generic false one that the agents applied to confuse youkai noses…and yet through it he could still catch bits of her real scent, and it made him dizzy.
As he headed toward the stairs, still inhaling deeply to catch the lingering scent of the fleeting miko, Inuyasha realized with a jolt that although this miko had looked different from the one he'd seen at the Agency, she was, in fact, the same woman. This false scent was the same as the one the blue-eyed woman at the Agency had sported. He remembered it clearly tickling his nose and driving him insane while they'd been cooped up in the interrogation room. Then that means…
He'd dreamed of this woman.
Agents, he was dimly aware, went to great lengths to keep their real identities a secret from the various youkai they policed. It was a necessary measure. He'd never really cared about their disguises until now. Now it was really confusing, and frustrating. His instincts screamed that he should know this woman as she really was. No, it wasn't a matter of wanting to—it was almost a need. Like a burning, twisting hunger, like a hot, dizzying thirst…
I think I really will murder someone unless I can find her and…And what?
A new fear swam through his body, making him shiver. He was still standing in the open doorway of the stairwell, but he was frozen there, as if unable to move. What would he do if he came upon this woman? The answer, as provided by a deeper, darker animalistic instinct that scared the hell out of him, made Inuyasha continue to hesitate. What had come over him? Why was he so attracted to the miko agent that he'd never even really met? Why did he have the silliest urge to race up to her and throw his arms about her? His hands itched to touch her, his lips quivered with the ceaseless possibility of their lips meeting one another…
Rational thought reestablished itself a second later when Inuyasha heard the steady thudding, clattering sound of shoes on the stairwell. For a moment he panicked, sure that anyone seeing him would know immediately that he was in the wrong, that he was fantasizing about some woman he'd never met, let alone exchanged so much as a greeting with. Then the hanyou reacted with instinct, turning quickly and rushing toward the sidewalk, trying to look as if he were about to cross the street, or was just out and about enjoying the spring daylight.
He listened to the footsteps of the person behind him, recognizing the tread of a man, and sighed with relief as the sounds passed him and faded as they proceeded along to the other side of the building and the large parking lot. In a moment Inuyasha heard a car engine rumbling to life and heading away sluggishly. A thought struck him suddenly that made his body stiffen; his slow walk cease.
Did I lock the doors on the Ferrari?
Panicked all over again, Inuyasha dashed toward the parking lot…until his hyper-sensitive hearing picked out a voice that was familiar, somehow managing to filter down from the apartment's upper levels… "Sango!" it shouted joyously, the exuberant answer to an annoying ringing of moments ago…the same name of the agent that'd been with the miko earlier.
This time Inuyasha was completely possessed. He followed the voice and the fading scent up the stairs at a gallop, only quieting his approach when the scent and the voice stopped—the third floor—and left the stairs to creep, investigating the apartments one by one. Hers was the one on the left closest to the stairs. He stopped there, still as Death stalking its prey. Though the spell hid them, Inuyasha's ears flicked in every direction with desperate nervousness, all his senses strained and on edge.
From the other side of the door the young miko's voice floated, to Inuyasha it was a beautiful fluting sound, almost like music, or the poetic rustle of the wind through the summer grasses… "Yeah, I know what you mean, it's about time we had some more free time. What movie do you want to go see?"
Inuyasha's clawed hands bit into his palms as he strained to hear everything that went on just beyond the sheet of wood that separated them…
"Oh no Sango! Not that one! Let's go see one of the kiddie ones or the romance movies. Whaddaya say?"
When her voice came next Inuyasha smirked, "No, I don't think that one's a 'chick flick.' It's just mushy and not gory or anything. At any rate after that interrogation today how could you even consider a horror movie!"
The hanyou's breathing ceased. Would she reveal what her opinions were on him? How had he done? Does she think I'm a killer? Does her friend—what's her name? Sango, that's it!—think I'm a murderer too?
The hanyou's breathing ceased. Would she reveal what her opinions were on him? How had he done?"Well I'm sorry but I—" she as apparently interrupted a moment by Sango saying something crude or outrageous, "What! That's not true! I wasn't looking at him that way! How could you say that Sango? You're going to get me into trouble!"
Inuyasha thought his lungs were going to explode. Were they talking about him? How much longer would he have to hold his breath before he'd know?
"Well, yeah, he was cute…" her voice grew quieter, Inuyasha moved unabashedly so that his right ear was smashed against the cool surface, but he kept one golden eye on the stairway, "…but I don't think he did it…"
Score one for the home team! Inuyasha pressed his ear closer to the door.
"Why? Well, firstly because he's an Aikenka. That family is too high and mighty to let something this horrific happen. And secondly…" there was a pause, apparently Sango disagreed. After a moment the miko's voice sighed, heavier now with something akin to defeat. "Yes, you're right Sango, he is a half-demon…"
Damn! Was she going to silently hate him for being a hanyou too? Demons saw him as weak and unpredictable, thanks to his human side, while humans saw him as conniving, a silent but very grave threat to their "purity." With one ear against the door, both clawed hands propping him there, Inuyasha scowled wordlessly, hating the Agency—and himself.
As a hanyou he was difficult to control. He was emotional—thank you his human mother. He was powerful—thank you his youkai father. The two characteristics combined made him volatile and dangerous, to others as well as to himself.
He closed his eyes remembering the night he'd awoken, years ago at about the human age equivalent of puberty, and discovered that he'd attacked his mother and father as a mindless beast, a fully transformed, but brainless demon. Inutaisho had subdued him—using physical superiority to tackle his son and force him to emerge from his feral state. The shame that came with Inuyasha's loss of control was like a physical wound, it tore through him, robbed him of clear thought…a strange grief stole over him.
This woman I dreamed of is part of the Agency, a miko… he knew what the agents were told about hanyous and about demon-human relationships of any kind. They despised them. It was preached that demons and humans were of two separate scales of spiritual energy. Demons used one, humans the other. Their souls fought one another, struggled, and destroyed. They couldn't coexist well in close, intimate proximity—thus couples of mixed heritage frequently led to murder, assault and rape…or so it was said by the Agency.
Demons were to marry among demons, humans in their turn among humans. Half-demons weren't supposed to easily exist, though when they did it was a fluke of nature, and the hanyou was therefore the worst type of creature one could come across. Hanyous, they said, could work both spiritual spectrums…whatever that meant Inuyasha didn't know and didn't really care, but he knew one thing clearly: if the miko on the other side of that apartment door believed that BS she'd never give him a second look…
He prepared himself for whatever answer she might give her friend—her partner he was beginning to guess…his hands tightened into fists, curled up. The claws raked over the door: SCRAAAAPPP!
The sound seemed impossibly loud to the hanyou.
Inuyasha froze, he swore even his heartbeat ceased, all attention, all conscious awareness, was focused just beyond the slab of wood between himself and the miko. It was quiet—too quiet…and then he heard a quiet murmured whispering. When he strained to hear it Inuyasha realized that it was in Japanese…he felt a strange heat like drops of warm water around the back of his neck and blinked in confusion, looking down to see a strange, hazy light…
The miko's voice from the other side rose up then: "SIT!"
With a yelp Inuyasha plummeted into the hallway floor, his nose smashing into the bland, trampled carpeting. What the hell…! He pushed his hands to either side, palms down, and tried to get up—only to feel as if there was a sack of heavy bricks tied to his neck.
The door, just within his peripheral vision, swung open wide, and the hanyou caught sight of two white, sock-bundled feet, peering at him. He cursed inwardly, tried to push himself up again, and failed.
"Shit!"
The shrill chiming of a phone rent the air and the woman sitting on the plush, cream-colored couch flinched at it. Her hazel-green eyes swiveled about the room, a caged animal, a stifled beauty. Her red-streaked blondish hair rippled stiffly with every movement of her head. It was slowly but surely coming out of her chignon, short, spiky strands of it stuck out at every angle here and there, making her look like a disgruntled porcupine.
Jade earrings swung back and forth from her ears…
The phone continued to ring, and though the woman tensed at it, she didn't get up to retrieve the thing. Her eyes roved the room, waiting for the inevitable.
She didn't have to wait very long.
A man strode into the room; his irises were a crimson color, red like blood. The hair that he sported was long and blacker than the moonless night. He might've been incredibly handsome, even somewhere close to beautiful if he had been female. But the expression on his face—one of conniving cruelty—would leave no one that beheld it with anything short of fear.
Seeing the woman, still sitting stiffly on the luxurious couch, he grinned, though it was not a look of mirth, rather one of sadistic pleasure. The woman's jaw tightened, the muscles flicking, and she looked away, the disgust and outrage she felt evident. No words were necessary between them; the hatred was nearly tangible.
The man reached the place on the wall of the hallway between the living room and the kitchen and snatched up the phone from its cradle. His red eyes focused on the woman's form unceasingly, the same sadistic glint shining in them as he spoke.
"Hello?" from out of his lips a feminine voice emerged, and as the woman's head snapped up at it, her face marred by shock, the red-eyed man's leer at her grew a thousand times over.
"Hello? Miss Pezar? Cassie?" a man's voice demanded gruffly from the other end.
"This is Cassie." The leering man's sick smile grew, if that were possible, even larger. His voice was just as the woman's would've been had she been the one speaking—they were identical.
Hazel-green eyes flashed defiance, fists clenched furiously, but still she said and did nothing.
"Oh, good, Cassie…" the voice turned suddenly tense, shot straight into business, "This is Charlie. I need those pictures you took from the press release yesterday…where have you been? None of your articles that were due yesterday got in! Has your computer broken down?"
"I'm afraid," the man's female voice continued on, sounding sarcastic, "That I don't waste my time talking to lame little bastards like you, Charlie." His eyes glittered with satisfaction when the woman he was posing as suddenly shot to her feet and moved to stop him. He raised his free hand towards her, palm outward…
The woman managed only a tiny gasp before she fell to her knees, clutching at her throat, her heart, struggling to breathe.
"…Cassie…!" the voice on the phone was somewhere between wounded and outraged, "I'm your goddamn editor!" he spat out, too astonished to do anything but swear and point out the obvious, which was that she had to respect him to continue with her job…
"And you can kiss my pretty little ass, Charlie. I quit." He leisurely placed the phone back into its cradle, smirking evilly the whole time, staring down at the breathless woman at his feet.
"…You…bastard…" she choked out, her face still contorted in rage.
He chuckled, his voice now, abruptly, deep and masculine. "I suppose you're right—I was born of unwedded parents, wasn't I?" he knelt to be on her level, extending one hand toward her, offering her help that he knew she loathed and would never accept.
She slapped it away, "You prick—why are you doing this!"
His smile was cruel, "Oh, but Sister, I've missed you in Japan. Haven't you missed me as well?"
"Go to hell!" she sucked up a wad of saliva and spat it at him—only to leave her mouth hanging open in astonishment when his hand sprung up just in time to stop the disgusting wad from smacking him the face.
He scowled—but a small amount of his usual sadistic pleasure remained in his red eyes, glowering out at her. "Sister." He let out a small grunt of what might have been interest, "You've changed your name, buried your heritage…was life really so cruel to you in Japan?"
She didn't answer; her face was hidden from him as she struggled, seemingly, to breathe. Her chest heaved, she was fighting tears that held such rage and anguish in them…her body trembled. She felt mortal though she was far from it—even farther from it than the man in front of her could ever claim to be.
He rose to his feet, hesitated over her shuddering form and nearly whispered, with his deep voice, his next words: "It's all changed now, Sister. The life you've tried to hide from has caught up with you, and it'll use you however it pleases—whether you like it that way or not."
"I'll never serve you…" she breathed, still speaking to the floor, her head and face lowered from his disgusting view.
Her words elicited laughter from the red-eyed man. "You will do what I tell you to, when I tell you to do it, or…" he smirked down at her, though she didn't look up to see it, "…I will kill you, Sister."
The trembling of her body became uncontrollable. Despite it all she feared death, and she knew he wasn't lying…she said nothing in response to him but the man knew he had her under his control. She was his younger sister, and because of what he was—neither demon, nor human—he had the power to control her, to keep her locked up. It wouldn't be hard for him to simply end her life as well…
His footsteps started away from her crumpled form, slowly, confidently. At the doorway he stopped and turned back to her defeated body. "I have brought Little Sister with me as well. There is no stopping me now, Sister, and you know it. From this day forward the pathetic human life you have led as a façade to your real one will come to an end. You will do nothing without me knowing about it and approving it…Sister!"
The voice was a command, and, unable to do anything otherwise, she looked up, her hazel-green eyes wet and running with tears, her lips tight with rage and shame. "Damn you Naraku!"
The red-eyed man smiled smugly, his eyes narrowing with a sense of triumph. "Tell me your name, Sister." He half-whispered, knowing she could hear it.
She shook; bit her lips as if to keep the answer from coming…and then spat it out as if vomiting. "Kagura Onshuku!"
The man nodded once, satisfied with his torturing of her for now. "Good, Sister. I must go. There is a miko waiting for me across this wretched little city."
"What…" her voice failed her and the woman, Cassie as friends and coworkers knew her, Kagura as she was known only by those from Japan and her dreaded, hated family, faced her older brother with a blank, defeated gaze.
Naraku heard her and smiled slightly, sadistically as always, just a little, as he turned toward the door of her apartment. "An old acquaintance, Sister, who I've had the pleasure of running into again. She, just like you, has been most pleased to see me."
"You bastard…"
"Goodbye Kagura." The door opened and closed, leaving the woman suddenly alone and shuddering in what had once been her sanctuary, her stronghold. Her home was invaded, her life destroyed…
It's not as if it should surprise me—Naraku has always found me, no matter what I do, no matter where I go. We are family, I'll never escape him, ever…I'll never be free.
Kagura lowered her face to the carpet and let the tears come—no matter how shameful—mourning the life she had thought for a time she had been blessed with.
America is no more "Land of the Free" than Japan was…I am a slave no matter where I go.
A gasp cut the air above him, and Inuyasha cringed, his eyes squeezing firmly shut. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Why the hell can't I get up! She's going to kill me…and I'll never get a kiss from her then…he cut the thoughts short, fearing the crimson heat that was stealing over his features, and cursing the strange compulsion that had gotten him into all this crap in the first place.
Palms out on either side of him again, Inuyasha started to push himself off the ground again when the miko's voice rang out above him: "Sit!"
The weight on his neck returned and Inuyasha slammed with a howl of pain into the floor again. She said sit the first time that this happened… he became aware of a fading heat at his neck, remembered the drops of warmth that had been about his neck the first time, the strange light…his mind reached the conclusion and he gaped stupidly into the floor.
"Sango—it's him." He heard her whisper above him, still on the phone apparently.
Damn her! He put his palms out for the third time, moving slowly this time, praying that the already hated word wouldn't issue from her lips again—and it was so demeaning too! Imagine himself—the son of the renowned and powerful inuyoukai leader Inutaisho—at the mercy of a word that mindless mongrels across all the U.S. ate dog treats for!
Inuyasha slowly regained his footing and moved a good distance from the gawking, astonished miko agent. He felt his ears firmly smashed against his head and knew that she could see them, knew she would know they indicated just how angry he was…a low warning growl issued from his cavernous chest and ended just as suddenly as the miko's face burned bright red.
"I-Inu-Inuyasha…" she half-gasped, half whispered, gaping at him, and then, blinking as some voice jabbered away on the phone, her blush grew tenfold. She shook, stammering, "Shut up Sango!" and pulled the cordless phone away from her ear. A beeping sound announced that it was off, whoever 'Sango' was had been silenced.
She faced him now with a sterner—though Inuyasha could clearly see, and scent, that it was a façade—colder expression. She was playing the agent now, though Inuyasha noticed with a start that although she had yet to shower the false scent off, she was brown eyes, Asian, and black haired, unlike before in the Agency's lobby area when he'd first seen her. She was without her alias image, she was exposed to him…
It was as good as being naked to an agent…Inuyasha fought the blush that tried to establish itself at such a thought, though no spell could stop the young miko from seeing the way his ears flicked forward once in uncertainty and nervousness.
"Mr. Aikenka." She began, stern and cold, "What are you doing here?"
He drew a blank, stared at her stupidly, and then scowled angrily. "What the hell is your problem, bitch?" he hissed, gesturing at his neck furiously, "I'm not going to hurt you, stupid!" a sound down the hall made one ear turn that way, but he ignored it, waiting, his golden gaze pinning her from underneath the masking spell.
The miko blinked and shifted uneasily, her arms crossed over her chest—pulling the casual tank top that she was wearing even tighter over her breasts. For a moment Inuyasha thought he might turn and run away from her, crash through a few walls and jump down the multi-story apartment building, just to escape the bizarre attraction he had to her, but somehow, he stayed where he was, staring her down.
"Inuyasha…" she stuttered, her lips and tongue forming the sound of his first name as if it were natural, a thing she'd said for uncountable years, though her brain screamed otherwise. Not only was young Inuyasha Aikenka a half-demon, the most feared type of creature that a miko of the Agency could ever possibly face, or so she'd been taught, but he was also the prime-suspect of an atrocious murder! That she wasn't calling for backup was close to a crime within itself—that she was trying to talk to him was worse still.
"How did you find me?" she blurted, frowning in confusion.
"I…" he stopped abruptly when a voice came from down the hall, where, moments before, a sound had attracted Inuyasha's attention but he had steadfastly ignored it in favor of talking more to the miko. Now he regretted such a lapse in attention.
An elderly man scowled out at the couple from his apartment a short distance down the hall. In his old, tired and crabby voice he rasped out, "Kagome! Is that bastard you're talking to bothering you?" he glared threateningly in Inuyasha's direction, radiating disapproval on multiple levels.
Inuyasha felt himself shrink, despite the arrogance that he used to keep his ego boosted. Fearfully he looked to the miko—who the old man had called "Kagome,"—and held his breath, some part of him daring to hope…and what he saw there made his heart take off as if it wanted to sprout wings and fly. She's thinking! If she were just going to throw me out she'd have done it by now…I think…
Her gorgeous, deep brown eyes flicked back to him, still undecided he sensed, but the miko shook her head, a movement so gentle it was barely perceptible. She didn't remove her gaze from Inuyasha when she answered the old man: "No, Mr. Hite, Inuyasha just has some explaining to do…"
Down the hall Mr. Hite seemed unconvinced. "I know you young women think you're invincible but…" he glared a little more for good measure at Inuyasha, "Just so you know, I'll be waiting at any second to call the cops on your scrawny little ass, punk!" he growled at the hanyou, who must've been at least 50 years younger, and far from scrawny.
Inuyasha bristled, "Whatever old man! You just mind your own business will you?"
Immediately the miko scolded him, "Inuyasha! Don't make me…punish you."
The hanyou glared at her, acutely aware of the seemingly insignificant weight of the beads about his neck, the rosary necklace that he already sensed would be a continuous source of torture… "Feh. Whatever."
Mr. Hite disappeared, grumblingly, into his apartment again, slamming the door like an unruly teenager behind him. As soon as he had vanished the miko looked at Inuyasha again and, biting her lower lip as if making a decision, she stepped back a little, pushing the door open wider with her backsides. "Would you like to…" her voice died, the ridiculousness of what she was asking seeming to settle in on her…maybe he'll murder you like old Mr. Hite said…
Inuyasha's golden eyes were turned away, hesitant, cautious. "Only if you'll take the damned beads off my neck." He grumbled.
"I can do that." She answered, but what she thought was: Not a chance…
"Fine then." The hanyou pushed past her rudely, arms crossed over the sculpted chest, white ears still pulled backward, facial expression still strained. The apartment reeked of her—though it was a different scent from the one she currently bore, Inuyasha could tell it was how she really smelled…and even in the false scent he could still pick out elements of the real one hidden within it. He tried to push this knowledge aside—her sweet, thick, heady scent was turning his insides into mush—and instead attempted to focus on the apartment and the room, the furniture…anything but the scent.
Behind him the miko cleared her throat, "So…" as he turned round to face her she thrust out one small, delicate hand in greeting, "My name is Kelly."
He scowled, remembering Mr. Hite from a few seconds ago calling her the Japanese name Kagome. Despite that he took her hand in his own, large, strong and masculine palm, pumping their clasped hands up and down a moment. It was only after he'd released his grip on her that he asked, "I thought the old fart called you Kagome…?"
The miko paled and then turned a bright red. Obviously she lied…he waited, still scowling, still unwilling, or unable, to either flee from her or to be comfortable…
With a deep sigh she gave up and faced him, squaring her shoulders bravely, "My name is Kagome, like Mr. Hite said." She eyed him harshly, "And because you know my real name I'm afraid I am going to have to refuse to remove the necklace."
"WHAT!"
She cringed at his outburst but refused to relent under his death glares; "It's for my protection, Inuyasha!" she blushed at her slip—which was becoming a steady habit they both noted—and stuttered as she struggled to amend it quickly, "Mr. Aikenka…" she played the oldest trick in the book: changing the subject. "How did you find me? What did you come here for?"
"I…" he hesitated, suddenly nervous. Tell her the truth? That I felt drawn to this place and then when I saw her getting dropped off I followed her up here? She's going to think I'm lying and that I've just been stalking her from the very beginning! And if I told her I dreamed about her…then she'd turn me into the Agency and tell them I was insane for sure! What options did that leave him…? What was she waiting to hear? Or wanting to hear?
He took in the false scent, searching for the realness underneath the fading disguise, seeking her emotions…and he found her uncertainty, her tenseness and fear…but it wasn't the stink of blind, mindless fear, it was the nerve-tingling anticipatory reaction one feels when confronting another and trying to hide the importance of the matter. She was, just as he'd suspected, just as flustered and tangled up in his sudden, unexplainable appearance outside her door as he was.
Growling, the hanyou turned his face away from her, wrapped his crossed arms more tightly about himself, and muttered, "I just needed to follow one of you damned agents to make sure you know I didn't do anything wrong." He cringed inwardly at his feeble explanation. That was lame! Lamer than Sesshomaru on a Saturday night!
The miko, Kagome as she was called, had averted her gaze guiltily. "Yea, I know it is a really horrendous case…" she chewed her lower lip as Inuyasha looked up to watch her expressions change, "…and unless you have a really good alibi they'll pin it on you just to solve the case." She shook her head, sounding irritated or frustrated, Inuyasha wasn't sure which. But her words and her tone left him one answer very clearly: she thinks I'm innocent…
"Kagome…" he spoke her name as if tasting a rare and exquisite dessert, the syllables seemed to belong in his mouth he noticed, and a small shiver of satisfaction trailed down his spine.
At hearing her real name from the hanyou's lips the miko shifted uneasily, moving a step back, but her dark brown eyes remained focused on him, carefully observant.
"You know I didn't do it, don't you?" Inuyasha breathed, white ears for the first time turned and focusing directly on her in an open eagerness that made the young woman blink in bafflement.
Slowly she nodded, "I…" she looked away, one hand idly covering her mouth as if to keep a confession from leaping out. How am I supposed to tell him that I dreamed about us? This is crazy! I need to call Mom…her thoughts were derailed when Inuyasha's strong, clawed hands landed on her shoulders and stayed there, the warmth of those appendages making her jerk her eyes back toward him.
Their gazes met, focused, and lingered.
"Will you…" the hanyou paused, frowned in uncertainty, and then plunged on nonetheless, "Will you keep me in the loop with whatever those bastards are saying about me? You know I'd never hurt anyone—" he seemed to cut himself short and, as if regretting his words the hanyou looked away. Kagome stared at his averted face and thought: He's hiding something…but she didn't press, and though the chills were still racing wildly through her, Kagome realized that somehow, though it was a stupid move her rational thought reasoned logically, she trusted this hanyou…trusted him with her life though they had only just met…
Slowly she nodded and the movement made Inuyasha's head turn immediately toward her. The golden eyes seemed to gape at her in wild, but distinctly relieved, disbelief. The fangs were revealed in a small, almost smug smile. "Really?"
"Yes…" a sudden thought came to her, and she restrained the urge to grin at the cleverness of it, "Meet me tomorrow in the Pine Grove Park at about 9 AM." She couldn't stop the mischievously hopeful gleam from entering her eye, and Inuyasha noticed it though he gave no sign, "Can you do that for me?"
He nodded once, his face stern. "Yea…though I might be a little late."
"That's fine. Just…make sure you're there before 10." She cringed as the phone began ringing from the coffee table where she'd set it. Her eyes flew to Inuyasha and she thrust one finger at the door commandingly, "Go—I'm not supposed to talk to you."
Wordlessly Inuyasha obeyed, stomping out of the apartment and into the hall. He closed the door behind him as soundlessly as it was humanly—or half-humanly at any rate—possible and took a long, deep breath, letting his weight fall against the door as his muscles loosened. He could hear Kagome's voice answering the phone inside the room, a cheerful cry of "Mom! I was just about to call you!". He smirked at the sound of rushed, forced cheerfulness and paused to smell the lingering scents she exuded, both the real and the false one, committing them to memory…
A white ear flicked as the squeak of a door's hinges registered in the hanyou's mind. His disguised brown eyes swiveled that way, narrowed in annoyance. Sure enough old man Hite was glaring at him from a partially opened door a short distance down the way. Glaring right back just as fiercely, Inuyasha pushed off away from Kagome's apartment and walked confidently toward the stairwell, his head held high.
A short time later Inuyasha found himself in the Ferrari, the engine revved and purring, ready to lope easily away under his command like a savannah antelope over tall grass. His fingers shook when he reached to crank up the music on the stereo. Almost unbidden the young miko's name reemerged from his lips, slowly, as if it tasted good and he was going to savor every delicious moment, "Ka-go-me…"
He felt the stirring of that dangerous, seemingly mindless animalistic side of his mind, and shivered with a mixture of delight and fear. If he concentrated just hard enough he could make out what it was saying too: She's mine. Mine. She's all mine. Mine.
The cell phone was lying on the passenger seat, seemingly leering at him. With a snarl he reached over she snatched it up, swiftly dialing his father's work number…it was busy. Angrily he chucked the cell phone away and clutched the steering wheel with new fervor. Dad, I'm going to kill you if you don't tell me what that dream meant this time…
The Ferrari squealed as it zoomed out of the quiet apartment complex and into the relatively quiet mid-evening traffic.
Endnote: THANK YOU ALL! YAYS! Sorry thins didn't get put up sooner...but thanks for being there for me!
Thank you: InuAndMiroku'sGirl Sango Elric ((snickers) I'm glad that you enjoyed their slip-ups...it's probably going to become an inside joke with this story...a little mind boggling...and the crime scene, I just had to put a reaction in there like that, b/c it's a reaction an innocent person would make to it...thank you!) toxiclollipop (hehe, you were right!) fanfiction1 (The dream was the alias and real images ontop of each other, b/c as this chapter shows, he has seen her in alias image and reality all in the same day...question is what does Daddy Inutaisho have to say about it...?) NefCanuck (definately the real bad guy...lol...) slummyreddragon (those are more romance fics, and this one is mystery but you know (grins) if I can keep you reading nonetheless...I've done my job b/c youmust be at least a little entertained, no? Don't worry, the other stories will keep coming too...) Mad-4-Manga (actually I HAVE missed you! You've been a regular and then you disappeared...but I understand what it's like to be busy, believe me...thank you, I'm glad this pleases you, you like the mystery, eh? (snickers) I'll keep it coming. You should love hearing that Sesshy and Rin make an appearance in my latest WOAWO chapters, and I'm planning on one-shots with them in it, like how Rin grew up and then, as soon as WOAWO is done I think I shall start on my Hanyou continuation of Sesshy and Rin...) fireofinuyashas (No problem, sorry to hear about your bronchitus, I don't know how to spell it either (winks) not without WORD's help anyway...You obsessed friend reminds me of another girl I know (hehe) who's obsessed with all anime and talks in a high pitch voice that on occasion drives me up the wall, even though I know she can't help it. I haven't heard from anyone who calls Kagome "kago" tho...hope you get better!) Hell Hound (thank you, but what's confusing? If you tell me I will try to explain it...if I've left anyone confused that's MY fault and I need to know as a writer...thank you!) Tiamath (Thank you! I Miss You will later have Naraku in it a bit I think, though that storyline has him mostly defeated already by the group b/c they have most of the Jewel in their possession...but otherwise, yes, you're right, it is, and I'm actually really liking it!) Hikaru1617 (one guess now who she ran into...hehe...an old acqauintance...) Well i think that's everybody...Preview time!
Looking up at her insult Inuyasha frowned, shook his head once, "Nope lady—you got the wrong brother. Talk to Sesshomaru if you want a son of a bitch." The intercom buzzed and fuzzed out for a second, reminding Inuyasha that he still had his finger over the button. He pulled back from it just in time to hear Sesshomaru's voice come over the line.
"I fail to find your crude jokes humorous, little brother." He muttered in a monotone, though Inuyasha smirked when he noticed that Inutaisho apparently did find it humorous: his laughter could be heard in the background, undermining Sesshomaru's seriousness.
Well, laters! R and R!