Somebody mentioned the fact that Sesshomaru's group of assassins had a corny name. Well...I wasn't aware that they had a name at all, so I'm open for suggestions if you guys can think of anything.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.
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Lei non Deve Parlare
Chapter 7-Glass On the Lawn
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There was a storm over the lake. Tendrils of inky black clouds fanned out over the water, spreading ominously. The lake itself was disturbed by a chilling wind that was out of place in the warm climate. Little waves rippled over its surface.
No one realized the threatening weather was on the horizon, the hour was still far too early. In the small town it was not necessary to rise before a certain time. Usually that time was marked by the sunrise, but that morning there would be no sunrise. The sun had been masked by the frenzied clouds. Without its light, the town was covered in a dull blue haze.
Only two months had passed since Sesshomaru had come to Kagome, and already she was beginning to dismiss his existence entirely. She had seen something strange in his eyes that day by the water. It was an unmistakable sincerity, that he would do what she wanted, that he would obey her desires if they made her happy and safe.
And yet when he had embraced her...It had been so sweet, almost loving. But the way he had moved at the time, his overall actions, they had seemed to conveyed a different emotion. After she had touched his lips with hers in a small farewell kiss, how had he changed? When he had admitted that he would let her go, what had been different?
It was all in the way he had acted, she knew it. Every gesture he had made had a hidden meaning. Every word that he had said had another side. Kagome had detected in Sesshomaru in their last moments together, regret. Maybe even longing, and then, disappointment, in her. For her. When Kagome thought of him in later days, she wondered perhaps if he had come to her expecting her to say different things.
Then there was the doubt that accompanied Kagome everywhere. She always considered the possibility that nothing he had said was legitimate. She had to ask herself; would he really leave her alone? Kagome realized it was a not just a little to ask someone when you pleaded with them to never lay eyes on their own offspring.
But that was a thought that Kagome couldn't possibly bear. The faintest hint of it burned her up. She absolutely refused to let Sesshomaru ever touch her baby. His evil would never meet her child, not ever. He would never even see it.
The cold wind from the storm blew into her room through her open balcony window and kissed her cheek softly. Kagome stirred in her sleep, flinching in shock unconsciously. She wanted to hate him with the same passion as she had before, but the strength wasn't left in her. He had taken that too, her common sense. Kagome had every right to hate him, but remembering him that day would always silence her cries of rage.
It was like a knife in her back, betrayed by her own emotions. She would always keep that picture of him in the back of her mind, as he was walking away, so debonaire that it was sinful. He was the light of her life, the hell fire that attracted her like a moth. But memories of her baby always called her back home, and that was where her loyalty lied.
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A roll of distant thunder had urged Kagome's eyes open. The gasp of air that she had taken at her first moment of consciousness had been a deep, heavy, quick one. Her thoughts, like the drapes over her open window, had been greatly disturbed by the chilling breeze.
Nightmarish images had chased away any hope of a decent night's sleep, and so she had looked balefully at the balcony and stood up to close the window. She hardly ever kept it closed, because typically the nights were hotter, and so the rusty hinges were reluctant to yield to her efforts.
She then stood with her forehead leaning against the glass. It was a strange morning for Puerto Rico, particularly her town, which had been known to go into the 80's regularly in the morning.
Kagome noticed then that her back was uncommonly sore. Even with the burden of a baby, the pain seemed to be particularly frustrating. Realizing immediately that she would be unable to get any further sleep, she shuffled into the bathroom to take a long shower.
Hot water helped. It was soothing, and Kagome would have drifted off had it been about six and a half years ago. At that time she would have still been a relatively innocent, relatively happy, relatively good-natured girl. She also would have been fifteen years old. And she wouldn't have been pregnant. And in accordance with her situation in the shower, Kagome would have been sleepier most of the time.
But spending hours with Sesshomaru almost every day, waking up at dawn and feeling the sick bite of her injuries late into the midnight hours had made Kagome more immune to natural habits like sleeping. Sesshomaru had also given her a taste of true anger, and on top of that, he had been the one to get her pregnant in the first place. That was her innocence out the window. And as for being good-natured, Kagome had subconsciously hardened herself against that idea as well.
But happiness was hers, finally. She was happy now, very happy. To have her baby and a life without him to make her worry and bleed.
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Two months with Lilly as her only real acquaintance had made Kagome two other friends. Both were many years older than her, but her own experiences had brought her up to their level. Unbeknownst to them, Kagome was not mature because she was simply more advanced than other twenty-one-year-olds, she was mature because life had taught her that happy-go-lucky morons never lasted long.
Her friends were all happy-go-lucky, and two were morons. But Kagome was greatly entertained by them, and they even rubbed off on her once in a while. Lilly, along with Amelia and Laura, had put her at ease.
In the record store, Kagome was chewing a pen absent-mindedly by the register. Laura was standing next to her, filing records. All three of them constantly shooed her away from her duties in light of her pregnancy. Lilly was the worst though, because she was able to flaunt her past experience in her face and tell her to shut up fiendishly.
Laura, however, was easier to handle because she was a complete loon. Kagome had decided long ago that slightly bitter, middle-aged Puerto Rican women were a hoot.
"What if it's a boy?" She asked Kagome curiously, "What will you name it if it's a boy?"
She removed the pen from her mouth and thought aloud for a moment, "Umm...How about Adelio?" She finally said.
"Adelio?" Laura sniffed coldly, "Name it Dumb-Fuck and it will be a genius just to spite you," She said rapidly.
"My baby..." Kagome began as she carefully lifted herself onto the top of the counter, "My baby will not be a dumb fuck; nor will it be a genius. It will be perfect. And if it's a boy I think that I will name it Buyo."
"Buyo? What the hell kind of a name is that?" Laura snapped.
Kagome shrugged in response, "Cat I used to have."
Laura muttered under her breath and averted her eyes as Kagome kicked her lightly in the shoulder.
"And what if it's a girl?"
At this question she put her hands together and thought very hard. Kagome brushed over every female name she could remember, and strained to find an appropriate title.
"I know it sounds silly, but I just heard this name about a month ago and I think it's pretty."
"What is it?"
Kagome smiled deviously, "It's so strange. Clementine."
"Clementine? That's trashy. Don't ruin the poor kid's social life."
Again she shrugged, "I like the way it sounds. Just say it slowly, Cle-men-tine. Listen to all the syllables."
"Cle-men-tine," Laura mimicked, "Still sounds like shit to me."
Kagome frowned, "I think it's lovely. You're just bitter."
"Oh yeah?" She pulled out a cigarette, "Why?"
"I don't know...because I'm pregnant and you aren't."
Laura laughed thunderously. Her whole body shook when she laughed. When she had finally settled down enough to speak, she disregarded the subject. "You see the fat ass anywhere?"
Lilly didn't like it when Laura smoked inside the store, and although her backside wasn't particularly large for her age, Laura enjoyed pointing it out just to watch her squirm.
Kagome would have told her off, but she didn't have the energy. So instead she just told Laura that no, she didn't see Lilly in the near vicinity. Laura grinned darkly to herself and began puffing rapturously on her cigarette.
Kagome resumed chewing the end of the pen, but continued to talk to Laura as well. She was tired that day, very exhausted. For the first few days after Sesshomaru had left she had felt rejuvenated. One of her happier memories was jumping ecstatically on her bed, if not a bit cautiously for the sake of the baby. It had been a statement of just how overjoyed she had been to see him finally out of her life.
But now, either her condition or just day to day events were wearing her out. Kagome felt dead, mentally. Her thoughts were mellow and unfocused, her schedule was boring and had recently become a strain.
She sighed suddenly in the middle of one of Laura's speeches. Laura suddenly closed her mouth and leaned in very close to her, "You okay Meyumi?" she said around her cigarette.
Kagome nodded and closed her eyes. "I'm just sleepy."
"Go home."
"No...I can't do that," She said with new energy.
Laura took another drag before speaking again, "Why not?"
"Well first of all, I'm just sleepy! I'm not on the verge of death. And, more importantly, there's work to be done!" She chose not to dignify Kagome's words with a response. Unless her steady, belittling stare could be considered a response. "What?!"
"What work?"
Kagome waved her arms while she fumbled for an intelligent answer, "I don't know!" She finally concluded, "Surely there's something to sort or whatever!"
"Something to sort or whatever..." Laura echoed, "Go home or I'll get you fired."
Kagome folded her arms, "No."
"Scoot."
"I. Can't."
"There are ways to get you out of here bitch. I swear I'll tell Fat Ass that you threw up again if you don't get the hell out and go home."
She narrowed her eyes at Laura devilishly, "You wouldn't dare."
"Oh shut up. You're talking to me,you idiot. Go home." She jabbed her thumb towards the door.
It was poorly expressed concern on Laura's part, and though Kagome would have preferred to bring the conversation down a few notches on the emotional rage scale, she was vaguely touched by her actions. And besides, she could never battle Laura's wickedness. So she gathered her things, and pouting, strode out the door.
Leaving work sick was a habit she would not like to pursue.
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She developed an inexplicable and throbbing headache on her way home. At first Kagome wrote it off as an effect of the heat, but by the time she reached her block it was clearly due to something else.
When she opened the door to her room it had intensified so much that she could barely see straight. The pain was clogging her senses, and seeping into her stomach with an acidic quality. Gradually it streaked all over her system. It was so foreign, yet vaguely familiar. The way it was getting to every part of her felt so much like something she had experienced before.
Kagome's world was spinning as she collapsed over her bed. Her upper body landed gently in a heap of pillows and down bedding, while her feet and legs still kept half of her kneeling on the ground. Her strength wouldn't allow her to drag the rest of herself up, and so she simply drifted off where she was, feebly unable to get rid of the surprise pain in her head.
Half-realized dreams terrorized her sleep. They were all nightmares, and always faded before she could decipher them. Kagome cried out softly every now and then, but before long, everything was dark, and she slept peacefully.
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Her eyes darted open sometime late at night. Kagome lay panicked where she was for half a second while she struggled to control her pounding heartbeat. It was rapid, very panicked, and very unlike anything she had felt recently. Her flesh was quaking with fear, and the fact that everything was pitch black was no comfort at all.
Kagome's schooling caught up with her quickly, and she took deep and steady breaths to quiet herself. Presently her shivering subsided, and even her intense fear began to ebb away. She found she was lying on her back, on a hard surface. After reaching outwards with her right hand she touched something wooden, a bedpost. Kagome discovered that she was on the floor, and moved her legs experimentally. Pain raced to her back. She was horribly sore.
She tried to remember what had happened, and gradually fuzzy memories crept back to her. Suddenly thinking of her position before she had fallen asleep, and her position now, Kagome realized that she must have fallen over and placed a hand immediately over her stomach.
The baby was safe, she could feel it.
Kagome moved again, ignoring her back, and used the bed as a support to pull herself up. Her head swam, she was dizzy. Pawing carefully across the night stand, she grasped her lamp and turned it on. The light stung her eyes, and Kagome draped a hand over her face to shield herself from it.
The clock read 3:03. Kagome looked around quietly and could hear the distant sound of waves in the lake. She tiptoed softly to her balcony and slipped outside to clear her head.
The air was uncomfortably chilly, and she rubbed her arms for warmth. Thunder rolled somewhere, and Kagome noticed that the storm that had been hanging around threateningly had never reached the town. In fact, the day had even started out with a foreboding cold wind, and then all of a sudden it had become stifling. Now it was cold again. She wondered about the strange weather briefly and supposed that the storm had simply passed while she was asleep before other thoughts crowded into her mind.
Her sleep had been very bad, she remembered that much. Kagome touched her temples lightly and tried to think of all the bad nightmare-things that she had dreamed about, but they wouldn't come to her. Her headache had also disappeared without a trace.
In its place there was a very odd feeling. It was as cold as the air she stood in, and it made her want to start shaking all over again. Kagome felt very weak, and to her surprise, even a little angry, at something she couldn't think of. Somehow she knew that something had happened...somewhere.
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"Hay un clavo en la puerta Y hay," Amelia sang enthusiastically, " Vidrio en las Tachuelas de césped," her voice was loud and enthusiastic.
Lilly looked up from her desk and shouted at her. She kept singing, and began to dance around. It was a slow dance, her eyes were focused on Lilly's angry face. "En el piso Y la televisión está en Y en yo."
"I said be quiet!" she insisted.
Amelia only sang louder and danced faster. "Siempre duermo con mis fusiles cuando usted es ido!" she finished dramatically.
Lilly stomped viciously on the ground, "Amelia, someday I will break a bottle over your head." Laura entered the room with a cigarette in one hand, "And I'll cut Laura's throat with the shards!" she exclaimed, pointing furiously at the smoking item.
Laura waved her off and put it out reluctantly.
"It's bad for the young mother!" Lilly protested, "You're so careless Laura!"
"Oh hush, it's not that bad." Laura snaked over the floor and around the counter to the said young mother as Lilly sat down irritably. Amelia followed Laura and pulled up a chair around Kagome.
"How are ya sweetie?" she chided, ruffling her hair loosely. Amelia was like an affectionate grandmother, and she loved Kagome and the thought of Kagome having a baby dearly. "You aren't inhaling any secondhand smoke are you?" Laura snorted.
"No, not much, I don't think." Kagome looked up at her sweetly. Her eyes were a little sunken. "It's tough avoiding it here."
Amelia nodded with understanding and started shuffling absently through a box of records with no real purpose in mind. Laura hoisted herself unto the counter and sat there watching Kagome as she resumed reading her book. It was another slow day.
"How's the baby in there?" she asked.
"Oh fine, thanks..." Kagome said softly.
"My goodness your voice is small," Amelia began as she looked up, "I can barely hear you."
"Yeah, speak up," Laura said.
Kagome looked at them both kindly, "I don't think I can."
"What do you mean?" Lilly asked from across the room.
"Well..." Kagome pushed herself back from her book, "I guess I'm just a little tired. Aren't all pregnant women tired at this point?"
Without answering, she got up from her desk and paced over to Kagome determinedly. For a long time Lilly gazed at her face critically, and Kagome just smiled. She was used to inspections from them.
"I was never so pale," she muttered, "And my voice didn't bother me."
"What's your doctor say?" Amelia asked.
Kagome went rigid, the subject of doctors disturbed her greatly. She didn't see any doctors at all, but there were mountains of books in her apartment on the subject of pregnancy. Kagome couldn't possibly see a doctor...not in her case. She was starting to grow afraid of the day of the birth, and what her friends would say if the baby turned out to have physical characteristics like Inuyasha'd had.
"Oh, he says it's normal. I'm so young...you see." They all looked dissatisfied with her response, but none of them said a word. Kagome was glad for that, even though the tension in their group was heavy. She decided to break the uncomfortable silence, "She kicked yesterday."
Amelia lit up, "She did?"
"So it's a she now?" Laura asked.
They all started to chat pleasantly about Kagome's baby, and Kagome beamed in their attentions, pleased that they had so easily abandoned the previous subject. She despised lying to them, it was so similar to how she had lied to her old group of friends so many years ago. And that in turn reminded her of her past life, of Inuyasha, of her family.
She was almost due, and it was difficult persuading Amelia, Laura, and Lilly to allow her to continue to come to work. Kagome just enjoyed the setting, specifically the part that concerned the people. Ever since her unexplainable headache and nightmare-sleep a few months ago, Kagome had felt a strange urge to be around people. She had trouble falling asleep at night as she was always being attacked by a strong need to surround herself with others. She was terrified of being alone.
If she were alone, the pain would be more obvious. She was in pain so much now, and Kagome couldn't help but feel nervous. Always her stomach howled in agony, often she had to race into a bathroom to wait out the more violent moments. Sometimes she had to carry a tissue around to wipe away the perspiration that stood out on her forehead every so often from the strain.
Kagome had started feeling it a few weeks ago, and it had gone from occasional and mild to ever-present and unforgiving in no time at all. She couldn't be rid of it, and she was afraid to go to a doctor or to use medicine that might harm her baby. All Kagome could do was try her best to ignore it, and pray that her friends wouldn't notice enough to try and help her.
At that moment, as she was discussing possible names again, this time hearing Amelia's and Lilly's opinions on the subject, when she suddenly felt a very awful attack, worse than any other before. She doubled over, unable to control herself.
"Lilly..." she whispered.
The three ladies gathered over her instantly, and Kagome couldn't keep herself from moaning in misery. "What's wrong?" Amelia asked with a tight voice.
Kagome began to breathe quickly, and her vision became blurry at the edges, "This hurts...very badly."
"Oh my God..." Laura said sharply.
Lilly turned around to look at her, noticing her strange tone, "What is it?" She gasped at what Laura was speaking of and shouted, "She's going to have it now!" Kagome screamed in agony the next second and they all faced her again.
"Shit," Lilly blurted, "One of you call an ambulance or something!"
"Meyumi..." Amelia cooed, "You're having a baby!"
Kagome looked at her meekly out of the corner of her eye and smiled before she had to hide her head in pain again. As horrendous as she felt at that moment, no matter how much she believed that she might die if it got any worse, Kagome had never felt a greater happiness than when Amelia had said that. It was the only thought she could piece together; she was finally going to have her baby.
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